Vineyards, Spray & Dugout Channels
South Africa to Mozambique
Oak-shaded estates fold into the mountain above Constantia, and the vines stand bare and ribbed in the cool of July. Then the land drops away to the Zambezi, where the river pours into a gorge so deep that mist drifts up from the bottom like smoke.
Further on, the Okavango reaches across the Kalahari in channels of clear water, papyrus walls and reed islands. In July its floods are at their height while the ground around them cracks, and the animals come to the water. Then the Indian Ocean at Vilanculos, where the tide goes out a long way across pale sand and dhows lean on their keels until it returns.
Constantia (Cape Town), South Africa
In Constantia the old oak avenues run below Table Mountain's long range, and vineyard rows comb straight up the slopes, pruned back for winter. After the long flight the light comes low and soft across the estates. Rain clouds come and go over the peaks, and between the showers the slopes are a deep winter green.
The old estates pour chenin and sauvignon blanc grown in sea breezes, Cape Dutch gables glow white under the mountain, and lunch runs long beside a fire in the tasting room.
Evenings cool fast, so bring a jersey. Follow a vineyard path as far as you like, and the kids will wander ahead. Behind it all, the mountain turns bronze, then violet, then dark.
Victoria Falls (Livingstone), Zambia
From the plane window the spray of Victoria Falls stands over the Zambezi's gorge like a white column, long before the river comes into view. The four of you press toward the glass to find it.
Upstream from the drop the Zambezi runs wide and slow, brown-green between reeds, the far bank low and wooded. Two nights is enough to sit beside that calm water and know it is heading somewhere enormous.
Then the falls. The roar reaches you before the rim does, a thunder felt in your chest and the soles of your feet. Mist beads on hair and sleeves, and rainbows bend and vanish in it at midday as the wind shifts. Wear something that dries.
By evening the spray glows gold, and the thunder carries on over the river through the dark.
Okavango Delta (Moremi), Botswana
The Okavango Delta spreads below the small plane's wing in reed-green channels, bright water and dark islands, with Moremi still ahead. In July the floodwater is high and the grass between the channels has turned gold.
Botswana-Experience takes you through Moremi Game Reserve, Xakanaxa and Third Bridge first, then Khwai, in custom 4x4s with an English-speaking guide. Your camp is mobile tents with a cook and crew, and meals come from the fire.
Acacia and mopane cast lacy shade, and water lilies float pale on the channels. Elephants wade across at midday, trunks raised, and red lechwe splash away through the shallows. Dust coats your sleeves by midmorning.
At dark the fire cracks and the sky over camp fills with stars. Lions call from across the floodplain, low and long.
Vilanculos (Bazaruto Archipelago), Mozambique
At low tide Vilanculos is a wide, flat shine of sand and shallow water, with the Bazaruto islands low across the bay, dune-backed and hazy. You fly in, and the air is warm the moment you step off the plane.
The tide draws the sea far out and brings it back, and the sand ripples underfoot as it goes. Dhows with patched, sun-bleached sails cross toward the islands, and the shallows turn from milky turquoise to deep blue as the afternoon moves on.
After the canvas and dust of the delta, wade the sandbars when the water leaves and swim when it returns. The kids will find the sea first, and you will hear them before you see them.
At night the surf murmurs along the shore, and the islands show as a darker line beneath a thick scatter of stars.