Luxury Africa Safari Review: South Africa, Camp Jabulani Elephant Experience, Sabi Sands, Cape Town, Kirstenbosch Gardens

There are just too many to list! As far as Cape Town, it seems a lot of people go with guides, but we were glad we opted to rent a car. It gave us freedom to do things on our own timeline and work around any bad weather. We loved the Kirstenbosch Gardens, the beautiful Cape Point drive and the vineyards. We had amazing food and wine and witnessed some incredible sunsets and landscapes. As far as the safari portion, we lucked out at Camp Jabulani. Our guide was fantastic, and due to it being slow there, we had her and the truck all to ourselves. So we were able to ask a ton of questions and she was also able to be super patient with my photography, and even took us out to photograph the stars at night. We went to Camp Jabulani specifically for the elephant interaction, which was truly amazing, and we were able to do 3 elephant backed safaris in our time there. They are fascinating animals! The lodge is beautiful and the food was excellent, with the lunch and dinner menus planned by the day, so no two meals were ever the same. I had no idea it was a Relais & Chateaux property, but that explains the food and all the beautiful details in the rooms. We felt like one of the family and didn't want to leave! But Dulini lodge in Sabi Sands ended up being our favorite location. Our room was more of a house. And we got lucky to have a herd of elephants playing in the dry river bed being the lodge, so they were so enjoyable to watch. We also got lucky with the overall game sightings and we saw SO MUCH! Elephants, lions, buffalo, cheetah, leopard, rhino, hippo, giraffe, zebra, hyena, warthog, wildebeest, all kinds of antelopes like nyala, waterbuck, kudu, and of course, impala...to name a few. We were in the truck with a really fun couple, so we had a lot of laughs. Our guides were an impressive duo as our ranger and tracker and they got us so close to the animals and somehow found these animals that you never knew would be there. We had more of an off-roading adventure at Dulini which was a lot of fun! I loved the group dinners (at Camp J we were on our own since there was only one other couple there) and we had a lot of laughs. The scheduled game drives allowed us time during the day to relax. But the thing I won't forget, and I'm still dreaming about, is hearing the sound of lions roaring all night, mixed in with elephants trumpeting and leopards growling.