Edgewater Travel Adventures, ETASAFARIS. COM, Edgewater, FL (2025)

03/27/2025

Brittany shared a few photos from her South African safari with us. Sounds like they had a fabulous time in the Kruger and Cape Town.

“Hey! We are having a great time! I meant to check in but I haven’t had any service or reliable wifi until we got to Ulusaba.

Notten’s was amazing. We really didn’t know how it could get any better and then we got to Ulusaba 😂”

Love to get positive feedback. So glad they had fun!!!!

03/08/2025

Our first group booking of 2025.

Brittany and her crew are on safari in South Africa. They should be on their first game drive in the greater Kuger National Park as I write this post.

Have a great time! Look forward to seeing pictures and hearing about their safari sightings.

02/16/2025

Half way through February already!

As usual my Facebook posts have fallen behind. The end of 2024 and beginning of 2025 have been a bit crazy. We started building our new home a couple days before Christmas and already have walls!

Meanwhile, we have booked 400 nights between 6 African countries for 2025. These trips include the Great Migration in Kenya and Tanzania, Giraffe Manor in Nairobi, Big 5, Cape Town, and Wine regions in South Africa, the Okavango delta of Botswana, Victoria Falls, and Lower Zambezi National Park in Zambia. All really nice itineraries, looking forward to the first report from Brittany in March.

If Africa is on your bucket list, we’d love to help you plan your safari.

Richard and Judy

12/25/2024

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy Holiday Season.

Hugs,
Richard and Judy

“All I want for Christmas is paper bags and plastic springs”

11/28/2024

We wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and want to thank you all for following and supporting ETA 🦃

10/31/2024

Have a safe, happy Halloween 🎃

10/18/2024

It’s rare that I make multiple posts about one lodge. Usually it means something special happened, or they have some really unique conservation initiatives that we feel should be shared.

Did I happen to mention Royal Zambezi Lodge already???🤔. Special it is!!!

Our last full day, Mainza wanted to show us wild dogs (yeah, sure) We left camp early, and headed west through the GMA (game management area). He told us if we left early we might catch them going to drink. Half hour drive, stop and look at the waterhole, no tracks. Maybe another kilometer, we stop, and Mainza says, “keep watching that path”. On que, maybe two minutes later, a group of 8-9 dogs pop over the ridge and walk right past us. We follow for a few minutes before they rocket into the woods in hot pursuit of impala!!!
Wild dogs, and home for breakfast by 0900😁. Not a bad start.

Judy, and I, love night drives. Not for the excitement of big critters but more the anticipation of seeing the unique nocturnal creatures. Mainza and Johnathan agreed to take us out for a couple hours after dinner.

In jest Judy told the guys, “if you can find one of these three, I will be very happy, an aardvark, pangolin, or bush pig”. She received a couple smiles a laughs in return.

Off we went. Down to the Chongwe river we find lions, around the bend, we see a civet, next up a couple porcupines.

We are looping towards home when we decide to stop and look at the stars. Patrick goofs around with camera, laser pointer, and phone to get a couple very cool pictures. Drive up and over the river bank when Johnathan yells, “AARDVARK!” He’s just walking down the road, chill as could be! (We’ve seen glimpses of 2 or 3 in 18 years)
Almost home and the boys make a pass close to the staff quarters. “Shine your torch that way” says Mainza. Three, super cute, Bush pigs are staring at us.

Minutes later, we’re getting out of the jeep, I see Judy is crying, “two of my three! THE BEST DAY EVER!” She smiles…

10/16/2024

Just when you think you have seen it all… We are fishing on the Zambezi river when suddenly, Judy is yelling, “look alive, look alive” her hands in the air, a hawk is hovering a couple feet above us. Our fishing Captain, Johnathan runs to the front of the boat. The kite appears to attack him. We never saw him put a piece of bait on his head until we looked back at the video. Just another amazing day. Royal Zambezi Lodge

10/13/2024

Royal Zambezi Lodge

Wild dogs were on our minds.

We made plans with our safari guide “Mainza”, for an all day trip, deep into Lower Zambezi NP. Our goal was to leave early and see if we might find the dogs when they left their den to get water.

Breakfast, and lunch snacks were loaded, and off we went. The plan was 1.5 hour drive east towards the last lodges in the park. Plans are great until animals change them for you 🤷‍♂️.

We didn’t even cross the Chongwe river before we ran into a pair of lions mating. Couple miles further along and we are stopped by elephants blocking the road.
Next stop is for a herd buffalo stampeding then blocking our path. It has already taken more than an hour and we’re a quarter of the way. Eventually we are in the right area. Mainza talks with a couple local guides, no one has seen the dogs today.

We’re about to stop for breakfast when Johnathan points out lions. Two females and two cubs, the cubs were sharing the remains of a small warthog (sorry Judy). Of course our breakfast is delayed.

Finally we stop for coffee, fruit and sandwiches. By the time we are loading up, the guys point across a small ravine. The lions have walked pretty close, pretty sure they smelled the bacon…

We venture off again. Great interaction with a bull elephant. Lots of life here, hippos, crocodiles, antelope, baboons everywhere.

Two hours later, still no dogs, decide to
park by a tributary, stretch, and have lunch. Judy and I walk back to water a bush, we stop in our tracks, look at each other, and point, definitely a Kudu “alarm calling”. Back to the truck, Mainza and Johnathan have heard it also. We all jump in, lunch coolers left sitting on the ground. 100 yards away, I see kudu, and impala, looking towards a bush. Mainza pulls around, we catch a glimpse of a leopard with an impala under her feet!!! She has killed in the last couple minutes. Seconds later she disappeared from view.

Back to our lunch spot, little wine, sandwiches, and sides. Morning has been pretty amazing.

We slowly start working towards home. Two more lion prides, a male leopard, and more. Make it back to camp in time for sundowners on the river. Who needs dogs?

Edgewater Travel Adventures

10/12/2024

Hopefully all of you made it through Hurricane Milton without any harm. We are waiting for power but, in the big picture that is nothing compared to people whose homes flooded or were seriously damaged.

As I sit here dwelling on “1st world problems” my mind drifts back to last month. The fabulous time we had visiting Lower Zambezi National park, Zambia. Another place that has been on my radar for a few years. Directly on the mighty Zambezi, hippos, crocodiles, and tiger fishing, the big cats are common, elephant come to visit, but lately the super pack of wild dogs is stealing the show!!!!

Home to several packs of Africa’s most endangered predator, the African wild dog, or “painted wolf” thrive here. One of the packs is a super pack of nearly 40 dogs. This pack has become famous for hunting full grown buffalo!!! Buffalo are 30 times the weight of a dog, the dogs normally hunt antelope that weigh a couple hundred pounds, not a couple thousand pound wrecking machine…

The Royal Zambezi Lodge would be our home for four nights. A beautiful place with stunning amenities, we all opted for “Royal suites”. Indoor and outdoor showers, bathtubs on the back deck, daybeds overlooking the Zambezi. The place is magical, texts started bouncing around almost immediately, “hippo in my yard” “elephant is on the side walk” “warthog coming your way”. This is one of those places that you truly have to make a decision to stay at your room, or go for a game drive, walk, fishing, boat cruise. None are bad choices.

09/28/2024

MalaMala safari lodge

One thing we always recommend is 3-4 nights at any safari lodge. Our rationale is that 3 nights gives you 2 full days of activities while 4 nights gives you 3 full days. Otherwise you are constantly moving and don’t have time to enjoy these beautiful places.

I did everything I could to get us three nights at MalaMala, just could not work out the connections. 🤷‍♂️

Our first afternoon was great. The next day would prove our theory correct.

0545 coffee and snacks. Nick had us first out of camp at 0600. I think his plan was to head way south, maybe find the wild dog pack…

We leave camp see elephant, Kudu, giraffe, even find a large pride of Lions relaxing near the road. Not a bad start, coffee by the river trying to thaw a bit, this morning is definitely chilly. Off we go again, make a stop for Bill to take a picture of an Impala (yes, true!).

Judy hear’s an alarm call, so does Nick, and we’re off through the bush!!! Off-roading at its finest. Over this ridge, then the next, quick stops to locate the direction of the sounds again. We see impala freaking out and snorting. Nick points, there is a leopard who looks disturbed, not hunting but, looking around. Nick says, “look there! another leopard is chasing her!!!!”

This leopard is slightly larger and very pi**ed off, obviously the smaller cat is a young female who has encroached upon the her territory. Foaming at the mouth and growling the dominant female is following the scent of the little girl. The younger cat makes a break for it by going in circle and leaves the older girl confused by the overlapping scents. Wow!

The little girl has disappeared. We finally decide to leave the the winner alone. Start to head south again, one of the anti poaching guys calls Nick on the radio. The big male lions from last night have attacked a young hippopotamus not far away from us. Off we go, close to his directions, no lion or hippo???? Nick looks at tracks, they went this way…

We get close to the river and find the lions. One is chilling in the grass, the other is staring into a little pond at a bend in the river. It looks like he has blood on his face but we don’t see a kill.

Suddenly, as we watch, a hippo launches up the bank and almost takes the lion’s head off!!!!! We saw the true meaning behind “cat like reflex’s”!!!!!
Hippo lives to graze another day!

This was just our second game drive.

In two days at MalaMala we would see 5 different leopards, more than 16 lion, buffalo, elephant and plenty more. Yes, we will be seeing Nick again.

09/25/2024

MalaMala game reserve, Kruger National Park

We said goodbye to Cory, Patty, and Michael in Joburg, picked up Bill and Sharon and we were off to Kruger National Park.

MalaMala is one of the original photo safari camps in the area. Nestled between the Sabi Sand game reserve and Kruger, MalaMala is true “Big 5” country.

We arrived in Skukuza to rain and a very dreary day. 45 minute drive into the reserve started off well, elephant, giraffe, antelope. Lunch at camp was scrumptious but we were forced under cover by a rain storm. Rain is a very uncommon this time of year. We met our guide, Nick, then went to our rooms to relax until the afternoon game drive.

High tea then out into the bush, not a mile out of camp Nick points out an Impala hanging from a tree. Below is big leopard he is called “the Flat rock male”. He’s laying on the ground grooming and panting, definitely fat and lazy. Not one, but two impala carcasses hanging above him in his tree. Sun is breaking through what a great start!

Edgewater Travel Adventures

03/27/2025

03/08/2025

02/16/2025

12/25/2024

11/28/2024

10/31/2024

10/18/2024

10/16/2024

10/13/2024

10/12/2024

09/28/2024

09/25/2024

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