Somewhere Between Safaris and Long Road Trips: Nalin Bhatia’s South Africa Trip with Thrillophilia

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PNR: BKDHXH5Q4ZX
Rating: ★★★★★
Traveller: Nalin Bhatia
Trip Duration: 9 Days | 8 Nights
Date of Travel: 05 Jun 2025 - 17 Jun 2025
Package Booked: Couple Special - South African Bliss

All the South Africa trip reviews usually make these journeys sound very polished. Like every game drive ends with a leopard sighting, and every sunset changes your life. Nalin Bhatia’s family trip was not exactly like that. It was better in a lot of ways because it felt real the whole time.

And when ten adults are travelling together, the chaos (and fun!) is bound to happen. 

Someone was always missing during hotel check-ins. Somebody’s luggage took forever near the airport belt in Victoria Falls. Surender Mohan ji, the eldest in the group at 67, kept joking that half the trip was just waiting for the others to gather near the bus.

Still, once they settled into the rhythm of the journey, things started falling into place.

The first evening in Victoria Falls was quieter than expected. They boarded the Zambezi sunset cruise feeling half-tired from travel. Nobody was talking much initially. Then the sky started changing colours very slowly, almost lazily, and people drifted toward the deck without saying anything.

One of the staff members pointed toward the riverbank where a few hippos were barely visible in the dark water. Someone dropped a spoon during dinner because the boat shifted suddenly. Everybody laughed harder than the joke deserved. Travel does that sometimes.

The next day at Chobe National Park felt completely different. Dusty roads, long silences, occasional excitement. The family had seen wildlife videos before, obviously, but seeing elephants move across open land without fences around them felt odd at first. Almost uncomfortable.

At one point, their jeep stopped because another safari vehicle ahead had spotted lions. Everybody immediately stood up, trying to see something. Half the group could not spot the lioness at all, even after the guide kept pointing. Later, they realised she had been sitting there the whole time, almost invisible in the dry grass. That became an inside joke for the rest of the trip.

Victoria Falls itself was louder than they imagined. Not emotionally loud. Literally loud. The sound of the water hit them before they properly reached the viewing areas. Phones got wet from the mist almost instantly. One family member got irritated because his glasses fogged up every two minutes.

Then came Kruger.

The safaris there changed the mood of the trip a bit because suddenly everyone became competitive about spotting animals first. It got ridiculous, honestly.

That story refused to die for the remaining days.

The long game drives were tiring, though. By afternoon, backs started hurting, especially for the older members of the family. Surender Mohan ji occasionally skipped climbing down at certain stops and preferred sitting quietly with tea instead. But nobody seemed bothered by the slower pace. Maybe because the surroundings forced people to slow down, too.

One thing Nalin appreciated was how the logistics were handled. Internal transfers, airport pickups, safari timings. Those details matter more on long trips than people admit. Especially with a group this size. If one thing starts going wrong, the whole mood collapses quickly.

Knysna came almost like a break from the wilderness.

After days of safaris, the Garden Route felt softer somehow. The roads were greener, cafés looked calmer, and people finally had time to sit without checking departure timings every hour. During the Tsitsikamma visit, a few members of the family got nervous crossing the suspension bridge because the wind had picked up badly. One aunt turned back halfway. No shame in that because the bridge shook more than expected.

The younger cousins kept teasing each other throughout the walk anyway, so fear quickly turned into noise and laughter.

Oddly enough, one of the most talked-about moments from Knysna had nothing to do with sightseeing. The family stopped at a tiny roadside place for coffee during a drive, and the owner started discussing cricket after noticing they were Indian tourists. That conversation lasted longer than the actual coffee break.

Cape Town arrived near the end, though by then, everyone had mixed feelings about the trip finishing.

There was less rushing now. People wandered more. At Boulders Beach, they spent almost an hour just watching penguins doing absolutely nothing interesting. Tiny creatures waddling around like confused office employees.

The whale-watching experience in Hermanus was quieter. No dramatic reactions. The whales surfaced for a few seconds at a time and disappeared again. But that silence on the boat stayed with the family afterwards. Nobody was trying too hard to capture videos anymore.

Looking back, Nalin felt the trip worked because it never felt overdesigned. There were delays, random jokes, tired afternoons, overeating during buffet breakfasts, and somebody always asking for a pharmacy stop. Real travel stuff.

And somewhere between Victoria Falls, safari roads, and cold Cape Town evenings, the family ended up collecting the kind of memories that return unexpectedly later. Usually during dinners. Or while arguing over who actually spotted the first elephant in Kruger.

Also Read: Thrillophilia South Africa Reviews