We arrived in Durban, and it was an adventure. The wind picked up the day before, so the waves were quite choppy. The Silver Dawn entered the harbor with the help of a tugboat (which is not usually needed), and when we were next to the pier the ship starting listing (“leaning”) more than 5 degrees due to the wind blowing on the side. I was in the shower at the time, and all the water suddenly ran away from the drain. “Get back over there,” I encouraged. I few minutes later everything was fine, but tuck that thought away for the future.

I was only in Durban to jump on an airplane, for this is my last field trip this cruise. I was doing another safari! On my 2019 cruise I spent three nights in Sabi Sabi, which is in South Africa next to Kruger National Park. I didn’t want to repeat the same area of South Africa, so I chose Shamwari private reserve. It’s a 90-minute flight south-south-west of Durban near the city of Port Elizabeth (name recently changed to Gqeberha). The cool thing is that our ship is slowly making its way to Elizabeth in a few days, so I will not need to fly back. A 90-minute bus ride and we were there.

Boy, were we there. I am now a huge fan of this facility.

There are many separate guest sites in Shamwari – we stayed at “Long Lee Manor“, which is named after the English farm the original farmers left years ago. And it’s fabulous. In the picture below from left to right: Dining (indoor and outdoor), reception, heated pool, pool “bar”, and numerous cabins.

Shamwari is over 25,000 hectares (about 100 square miles) in size. It is privately owned, and has animal hospitals, sanctuaries, veterinarian, ecologist and many staff.

Here is the view from my patio.

And here’s my patio.

Walking inside is the bedroom, followed by the bath. Showers and toilet to the right of the tub.

Last week I was in a “luxury tent”. If you choose to do some kind of safari, you should try it. I think Bushtops from last week was the best of the three I’ve slept in. However, I’m so done with tents – they flap when the wind gets too fast, you hear all the birds, bugs and animals all night. The first time you are so “oh my gosh – lions” that you don’t even remember about the tent. After that, I just find it annoying. Give me a building with HVAC, please. And this place is great.

Each morning and afternoon we meet at the pool bar before our game drive.

I was too busy to take pictures of the other public areas, please look at the above linked website. However, they have something that I’ve never seen before: 4×4 vehicle entry piers. The seating area of the Land Cruisers do not have doors, so these piers make it easier to enter. Luxury.

There are electric fences surrounding all the building sites. Monkeys don’t care, but less-nimble animals will stay away.

Animals next time.