Africa Diaries: The Moments That Stuck With Me
If you caught last week's newsletter, you already know part of this story. We spent thirteen days across three completely different worlds: Cape Town, &Beyond Phinda Zuka Lodge, and Victoria Falls. I promised you the moments that really stuck, so here they are.
CAPE TOWN: THE WARM-UP ACT
Before any of the safari magic, we had four days in Cape Town, and it turns out a city can leave just as strong an impression as a game reserve.
One afternoon, we headed out for a kayaking excursion to see penguins, and it turned into its own quiet adventure. We paddled between huge patches of kelp that looked like eerie trees reaching up out of the water, genuinely spooky in the foggy, dim light. At one point we'd round the corner of a sea wall and spot what looked like bright, colorful graffiti, only to realize we were looking at thousands of starfish clustered on the rocks. Then you'd catch a patch of water rippling toward you and realize it was a whole pod of penguins swimming past. My inner amateur adventurer was quietly on high alert for orcas the entire time. We made it back safely, cold and completely delighted.
Later that same day, we hiked up Lion's Head with a guide who felt like my outdoor soul sister, I genuinely wish I'd gotten her name. We climbed and scrambled our way up, hearts pounding through the steeper stretches, then kept finding these perfect little carved-out spots along the mountain, a bench here, a flat rock there, each one framing a different angle of Table Mountain and the coastline. The chef's kiss was the sunset on the way back down.
Our food tour turned out to be one of the most memorable parts of the whole city. We wound through Cape Town tasting our way through local specialties, and the day ended with a cooking class at Gamida's home, where we learned to make samoosas and chili bites. There's something about cooking in someone's actual kitchen, not a demo studio, that makes a place feel real in a way sightseeing never quite does.
We also spent a full day touring the Winelands, and it was hard not to fall in love. We visited Ernie Els' winery and Oldenburg, each with its own completely different personality and genuinely excellent wine (some of it, sadly, just a little too expensive to ship home so we’ll have to go back to enjoy them).
Cape Town also gave us some of the best views of the whole trip, and one of the things that struck me most is how much the same coastline can change depending on the light and the fog. One evening produced an almost-red sunset I don't think I'll ever forget. The next morning, thick fog rolled in like ribbons wrapped between the mountains, hovering low over the ocean, a completely different version of the same view.
By the time we boarded our flight to Phinda, we were already exhausted in the best way, and we hadn't even gotten to the safari yet.
PHINDA: THE LESSON
So many stories and memories came out of Phinda but our biggest lesson came on our last day at Phinda. We went back to check on a mother cheetah and her two cubs one more time.
The cubs were still learning to hunt. We'd already watched one of them spot a group of zebras in the distance, take off after them, and completely botch it, trotting back empty-handed while we cracked up from the truck, narrating the whole thing like it was our own nature documentary.
Then mom decided it was time for a real lesson.
She made eye contact with her cubs, almost like she was saying "watch me," crouched low into the tall yellow grass, and went completely still. A few seconds later, she spotted a group of Nyala in the distance. She watched. Waited. Then took off like a bullet.
If you blinked, you missed it. One second the Nyala were grazing, the next they were leaping in every direction as she closed the distance and pulled one down into the bush. Our guide didn't hesitate, he threw the truck into gear and took us off-road, circling around so the cubs could join her.
Even then, the lesson wasn't over. The cubs struggled to finish the kill quickly, and speed matters out there, a slow kill draws attention, and other predators will come looking for an easy meal. We sat there completely torn, heartbroken for the nyala and in awe of what we were witnessing, all at once. It felt like something out of a nature documentary, except we were the ones holding our breath in the front row.
THE ONE THAT TOOK THREE TRIES TO FIND
The cheetah wasn’t the only animal that made us work for the moment. Leopards are notoriously hard to track, and our guide Musa spent a good stretch of one drive studying tracks, narrowing a leopard's location down to a small area, and coming up empty. So we did what you do out there: we stopped for a sundowner. (I am going to sooo miss those sundowners!)
We packed up, climbed back in the truck, turned a corner, and there he was. Just casually walking across the road in front of us, seconds after we'd given up looking. We had a similar moment with a male lion, majestic in a way that photos genuinely do not capture. You can look at a hundred pictures beforehand and none of them prepare you for seeing one in person.
THE NIGHT WE SLEPT OUTSIDE
Not every unforgettable moment came from what we saw on a drive, though. Some of it happened after dark, back at camp.Zee, our activities director, mentioned it almost casually during one of our planning chats: would we want to try a sleepout under the stars? My daughter and I just about jumped out of our seats saying yes before he finished the sentence. Dan and Andres had a very different reaction, somewhere between "absolutely not" and "you two go ahead." I basically had to fight Dan to make sure Alejandra and I actually got to do this. We were not missing it.
andBeyond set it up properly: an armed guard walked the perimeter all night, and our guide Jenna stayed with us the entire time. These weren't tents in the way you're picturing, either. Three individual luxury beds, each wrapped in mosquito netting, open enough that you could see everything around you.
We stayed up late listening to the sounds of the bush, Jenna naming each one as it happened, lions, elephants, hyenas, all of it layered together in the dark. She shared about her training to become a guide, including one phase where she had to walk an entire mapped area completely alone, on foot, no vehicle to retreat to if something went wrong. Needless to say, my daughter and I were in awe of her.
I woke up in the middle of the night needing the bathroom and genuinely debated holding it in rather than getting up. I did eventually get up. I lived to tell the story, clearly, but I will never forget lying there listening to a lion roar somewhere out in the dark and thinking, this is the coolest thing I have ever done in my life and I get to share it with my girl.
THE CHAMELEON MUSA SAW AND WE DIDN’T
On our evening drives, Musa would work a powerful flashlight in these quick, sweeping motions, scanning for the reflection of animal eyes while keeping the beam off any actual prey animals, so he wasn't accidentally making their night harder. It moved so fast it was almost impossible to follow.
One night, in the middle of all that bouncing light, he suddenly stopped on a tiny chameleon perched on a branch. We genuinely doubted him. Even once we pulled up close, we could barely make it out. He'd spotted it from a moving vehicle, at night, in a sweep of light lasting maybe half a second. That's not luck. That's a lifetime of looking.
WHY &BEYOND Phinda FELT LIKE HOME
Beyond the wildlife itself, though, it was the little things that made this place feel different. That's a strange thing to say about the middle of a game reserve, but it's the most honest way I can describe it.
Musa and Jenna weren't just excellent guides, they felt like people we'd genuinely miss saying goodbye to. Our butler handled everything from favorite cocktails to walking us safely back to our suite at night, since animals move freely through camp after dark. Our chef walked us through what he was preparing each day, several incredible African dishes, and then adjusted based on our mood or cravings without missing a beat. Zee, our activities expert, coordinated everything so seamlessly that we never once had to think about logistics. Every single meal felt like a five-star occasion, and most of them happened right on our porch, overlooking the watering hole where giraffes, elephants, and impala wandered through like it was nothing.
Here's what I didn't fully appreciate until afterward: &Beyond doesn't fence animals in or out. There's real migration happening across that land, which is part of why seeing all of the Big Five on a single trip, something that's actually rare at many other reserves, felt possible there. They also limit sightings to no more than three vehicles at a time, and the rangers all stay in touch with each other throughout the day, so nobody's tour ever feels rushed or crowded out.
A typical day looked something like this:
6:00am: Wake-up call
6:30am: Coffee, tea, and snacks before heading out
6:45–10:30am: Morning game drive, with a stop for coffee, snacks, and my new favorite indulgence, a mocha-choco-rula
10:30am: Full gourmet breakfast
Midday: Open time, workouts, reading, naps, the pool, even chess
2:00pm: Gourmet lunch
3:30pm: Coffee and snacks before heading back out
4:00pm: Evening game drive
8:00pm: Dinner
9:00pm: Showers, a soak, and bed, before doing it all again
NOW AN HONEST NOTE ON VICTORIA FALLS
I'll be transparent: Victoria Falls wasn't my favorite leg of this trip, and it came down to one thing. I booked that portion of the trip later than the rest, and by the time I did, the properties and experiences I actually wanted were already gone. What we ended up with wasn't bad, and there were real highlights, our porch overlooking the Zambezi River and falling asleep to hippos every night chief among them, but the overall experience didn't match the rest of the trip.
Note to self, and to you: if Victoria Falls is on your list, that leg deserves just as much lead time as the safari portion. The good properties book up early.
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Thinking about your own trip? Here's what I'd recommend
Ideal trip length: 10 to 13 days, enough to experience a city, a safari, and one more destination without feeling rushed
Best time to go: dry season (roughly May through October) for the best wildlife viewing
Who it's great for: milestone trips, multigenerational family travel, first-time safari-goers and seasoned ones alike
Pair it with: Cape Town for food, wine, and hiking, or a beach extension afterward if you want to unwind post-safari
This trip took real planning, three countries, four people, charter flights, weight restrictions, and about a dozen moving pieces, and not one of us had to think about any of it while we were there. That's the whole point. If a trip like this has been sitting on your someday list, I'd love to help you build your own version of it.
