Hotels
Show summaries onlyStaying on Mauritius
I stayed at Grand Baie, the main town of Mauritius outside Port Louis. It is in the far north west of the island, with the town centred around, rather obviously, a big bay.
I had to walk along this section of the beach to get from my hotel to the town of Grand Baie.
Grand Baie itself is a busy mixture of tourists, locals, buses, taxis, hotels and shops.
Someone once advised me to photograph the view from every hotel room in which one stays. It’s an interesting experience. Sometimes the view is spectacular. Sometimes one sees only a brick wall a metre away.
In Grand Baie, I looked across a park, through trees to a glimpse of the water of the bay.
Grand Baie, Mauritius. 11 June 2001.
Mbabane, Swaziland
View from Mountain Inn, Mbabane, Swaziland.
Mbabane is the capital of Swaziland, a small land-locked country between South Africa and Mozambique. The Mountain Inn faces away from the city towards the Ezulwini Valley. This was the view from my hotel room.
Mountain Inn, Mbabane, Swaziland. 16 June 2001.
Victoria Falls Safari Lodge
Victoria Falls Safari Lodge restored my faith in grand hotels after a nasty experience a few years ago when vast sums of money resulted in awful food and poor service.
VFSL was so wonderful it was almost enough to let me forget the price!
The bar, deck, and upstairs the restaurant overlook a waterhole that attracts elephant, antelope of several kinds, and birds.
From the bar over a drink before dinner, I saw elephant and kudu. Later, during the day, I sipped a G&T watching kudu, impala and enormous storks and cranes.
My room was luxury itself. This deck looked out into bush to the horizon.
I could happily have spent a week here. But on this trip I only had one day, because the next day I was off to Zambia to see the solar eclipse.
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. 19 June 2001.
Taita Falcon Lodge at Victoria Falls
Victoria Falls are on the Zambezi River, and at that point the river forms the boundary between Zimbabwe and Zambia. The better-known Victoria Falls town is on the Zimbabwe side, but for my money the Zambian side is the more interesting.
The town of Livingstone is a few kilometres from the falls in Zambia. Livingstone was the capital of what was then Northern Rhodesia from 1911 to 1935, when the capital was moved to Lusaka.
Deck at Taita Falcon Lodge
I had stayed at Taita Falcon Lodge in December 1999. When I learned that I would have to go through Victoria Falls to get to the eclipse, I was keen to get back and to see AnMarie and Faan, who own and run the Lodge.
Taita Falcon Lodge is a small lodge about 10km from Livingstone on a rickety road that drives through the Songwe Village.
This retreat is at the end of the deck overlooking the gorge down into the Zambezi River.
Taita Falcon Lodge, Livingston, Zambia. 22 June 2001.
Hawk Eagle bungalow
The verandah outside my bungalow at Taita. These bungalows are built of natural materials to a local design, yet are fitted out all necessary modern conveniences.
When I visited Taita in December 1999 I was convinced I would be impossibly hot without air conditioning. This time I was convinced that I’d freeze to death without heating. Neither was the case, and I’m left wondering why we city-dwellers insist on building houses that are hot in summer and cold in winter.
Taita Falcon Lodge, Livingston, Zambia. 23 June 2001.
Grounds of Taita Falcon Lodge
The path leading to my bungalow within the grounds of Taita Falcon Lodge.
Taita Falcon Lodge, Livingston, Zambia. 23 June 2001.
AnMarie
Anmarie, who with her husband, Faan, is owner and manager of Taita Falcon Lodge.
This picture was taken at Victoria Falls Safari Lodge where AnMarie and I shared lunch on the way to Victoria Falls airport.
Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. 23 June 2001.
Okonjima lodge
The Lodge itself is like an oasis. A central green lawn is surrounded by guests’ rooms discreetly hidden by trees.
The main lodge building houses the dining room and an outside sitting area where a fire greets guests returning from evening visiting the cheetah or leopard.
Okonjima provides serious luxury with seriously good food.
Darrell, one of the rangers at Okonjima. Darrell is from South Africa and worked in Botswana before coming to Okonjima.
Grant, one of the rangers at Okonjima. Grant is from South Africa and formerly worked at Addo Elephant Park.
Tristan, one of the guides at Okonjima. Tristan is a Namibian from the Caprivi.
Allen and Viv were tourists from the UK, travelling with Sidney and Pat (below).
The two couples, and their South African guide, were coming to the end of a tour through Namibia. Their holiday had included sleeping in the open in the Namib desert, travelling on rough roads, and now visiting the luxury of Okonjima.
I met up with Allen and Viv, Sidney and Pat, their guide and Dana, a tourist from California, for dinner one evening. This became an hilarious time recounting our seeing the cheetah and leopard and telling silly stories. They had acquired a bottle of Namibian wine, which they generously shared after dinner as we sat around the fire.
This warthog lives wild, but pops in to the dining room at Okonjima for vegetable scraps for breakfast. I was told that he had been doing this for many years.
He was quite tame, and tolerated several children petting him, feeding him pieces of apple and taking photos. Nevertheless, rangers kept an eye on proceedings to ensure that the tusks and children did not collide.
After dinner, everyone troops off to a hide about 5 minutes’ walk from the Okonjima Lodge. These porcupine are nocturnal, and are encouraged to the hide by kitchen scraps. The rangers explained that this is not enough for the animals to live on, but is sufficient to ensure they turn up nightly for visitors.
Northern Namibia is covered with termite mounds like this one. Sometimes the termite mound is built around a tree. At other times, a seed can germinate in the hot interior of a mound and grow out of the termite mound.
They are regularly about 1.5m or 2m high. This one was photographed at Okonjima.
Okonjima Lodge, Namibia. July 2001
Going home
Getting ready to go home.
Foyer of the W Hotel, Times Square, New Nork, NY, USA. 21 October 2003.
Later Hotels entries
Show full text of these entries.W Hotel Times Square, New York, NY, USA. 22 October 2003.
Looking up from… … and looking down to Times Square from my hotel room. The W Hotel rises above the Half Tix booth and advertising hoardings of Times Square. This was a really great a...