Lowveld, Kruger & Eswatini

The Big Five, mountain passes and a kingdom in the hills.

After you land in Johannesburg we drive east onto the highveld. The country opens up and the air cools. In the afternoon you reach Dullstroom, a quiet town among trout lakes and grassland, where the journey truly begins.

Today you follow the edge of the Drakensberg escarpment. At God's Window you look hundreds of metres down into the Lowveld; at Bourke's Luck Potholes the river has carved the rock into bowls. You spend the night in Graskop, high above the valley.

You enter the park through the Paul Kruger Gate and from the first minute you watch for movement among the mopane. You reach the lodge late in the afternoon, just in time for the first evening drive.

Today belongs to the rhythm of the wild. At first light you climb into an open safari vehicle for a game drive through the Kruger National Park. As the bush wakes, with a little luck you will see elephants, lions, giraffes and zebras. After a relaxed lunch at the lodge the afternoon is yours to rest, swim or explore. In the late afternoon the drive continues, when the light softens and the animals come out again. A day full of impressions, calm and space.

You leave the Lowveld and cross into Eswatini, a small kingdom of green hills. The pace slows, the villages grow smaller and the roads wind through the valleys.

In the Mlilwane sanctuary you can walk and cycle among zebras, impalas and warthogs. Without a vehicle around you, you hear the bush in a completely different way.

A day for Eswatini's culture: a traditional village, the Malkerns market and the candle makers and weavers the country is known for. In the evening you dine together at one long table.

In the east lies Hlane Royal National Park, the largest in the country. Elephants and rhinos come to drink at the waterhole by the camp, often only a few metres away.

A full day in Hlane, with a morning drive to the lions in the enclosed part of the park and an afternoon by the waterhole. The last evening light in the bush.

After a last breakfast you drive to King Mswati III International Airport for your flight home via Johannesburg.