Older adventurous travellers - OATs

Older adventurous travellers - OATs We regard ourselves as Older Adventurous Travellers (OATs). We haven’t retired yet but you are never too old to travel.

We will review attractions, places to stay and things to do

And so our birthday mini-roadtrip ends at Bakubang in the Pilanesberg where we had a lovely stay with excellent food, so...
02/06/2026

And so our birthday mini-roadtrip ends at Bakubang in the Pilanesberg where we had a lovely stay with excellent food, some really friendly and helpful staff and some less so (some of the Reception staff). A beautiful spa, an excellent boma bush braai and game drives which were very chilly in the evenings. We also saw most of the animals when we drove ourselves around in the park during the day.

Itaga Private Game Reserve. What an amazing place! So quiet, beautiful views, lots of game, starry skies, fantastic food...
26/05/2026

Itaga Private Game Reserve. What an amazing place! So quiet, beautiful views, lots of game, starry skies, fantastic food, peace and quiet. They spoilt me on my birthday and we had a lovely couple's massage with a view of the garden accompanied by bird song.

Sondela Country Hotel and Spa (22-24 May). This is our fourth stay here and I don't think we'll be back. It is a lovely ...
23/05/2026

Sondela Country Hotel and Spa (22-24 May). This is our fourth stay here and I don't think we'll be back. It is a lovely place but the food we were served at supper last night was terrible and you pay extra for it as dinner is no longer included in the rate. We had butternut ravioli for starters - the ravioli was way undercooked, crunchy in places and the sauce was so over-salted so that it was unpalatable. The chicken skin was burnt on the mains served with couscous but no gravy or sauce and the vegetables were barely cooked. The milktart bruleé dessert was not a bruleé (no crunchie top) but a thin layer of milky dessert with a thick, hard biscuit base served with a chocolate that was too hard to eat. We ate the rest of our meals, other breakfast which was included, at the Picinini Restaurant next door.
One of the bedside lights in our room didn't work and we switched out the bulb with another light in our room so that we could read in bed and found that no one had cleaned behind the bedside tables for some time. The big bath, which comfortably fits two, is cracked which could result in a cut if you slip.
I can't recommend staying at the Country House anymore, it is not worth the price but the rest of the resort and game reserve is lovely.
On a positive note, the massage at the spa was lovely, so relaxing and the heated pools were so welcome on a chilly day.
We saw so many animals when we drove around the reserve: nyalas, warthogs, impala, giraffe, zebra, kudu cows and a wildebeest.

18/05/2026

Birthday mini-roadtrip loading.......... starts 22 May

Hot air ballooning at Bill Harrop's was an amazing experience! We had a lovely flight followed by a generous breakfast. ...
10/05/2026

Hot air ballooning at Bill Harrop's was an amazing experience! We had a lovely flight followed by a generous breakfast. All of the staff and pilots are so friendly.

We had a lovely weekend at Little Swift Chalets in Skeerpoort, very close to Bill Harrop's. So quiet and peaceful. We ha...
10/05/2026

We had a lovely weekend at Little Swift Chalets in Skeerpoort, very close to Bill Harrop's. So quiet and peaceful. We had a fireplace in the chalet which we used as it was quite chilly, a fully equipped little kitchen and a braai on the stoep. But the bath is amazing! You can see the stars through the trees when you bath at night. There is a heated pool above the main pool which is cold at the communal braai area. There are zebra and sheep that wander around outside the chalets.

01/05/2026

Part 5: New Year’s Cruise 27 Dec 2025 – 10 January 2026 on MSC Opera
Likes:
The food in the buffet was surprisingly and consistently good.
Mostly the international waiters were very efficient and friendly, the South African female waiters less so.
The service in the spa was stunning and a welcome respite from the noise on the pool deck. The spa and the gym have some of the best views on the ship.
Service was very slow at times at the coffee shop and in some of the bars.
Dislikes:
The only place to get tea and coffee for free is in the buffet restaurant. At times, this was the only place you could get rooibos tea but they eventually served it in the restaurant for breakfast.
There is a long wait for tea and coffee at breakfast. The room service breakfast was probably the best breakfasts we had on board.
The buffet restaurant doesn’t open early enough some mornings for the long excursions which depart by 08h00.
Most parents seemed to abdicate all responsibility for their children as soon as they boarded. There were groups of children roaming the ship at all hours making a nuisance of themselves and a lot of noise especially at night (running up and down passages and banging on doors), security personnel were eventually posted on the accommodation decks. I really think that there should be child-free cruises. There were several near drownings when children jumped into the main swimming pools which were quite deep and had to be rescued by the lifesavers – once again the parents were absent.
At times, we found food strewn all over the steps and not just in one place as though someone had fallen but chips on all of the steps and the landings up several flights of stairs.
The disembarkation process was a nightmare, there were three emigration counters open on re-entry. We were driving back to Gauteng that day and were one of the last groups to leave the ship but still had to wait in the emigration queue for ages. I know I am expecting too much to think that any pre-planning would be done to consider the number of passengers disembarking and embarking and opening enough counters to manage the process efficiently.

Part 4: New Year’s Cruise 27 Dec 2025 – 10 January 2026 on MSC OperaExcursions - ReunionThe excursion in Reunion was abs...
01/05/2026

Part 4: New Year’s Cruise 27 Dec 2025 – 10 January 2026 on MSC Opera
Excursions - Reunion
The excursion in Reunion was absolutely amazing and we really think that the cruise should spend at least two or three days in Reunion. We went up to the top of the volcano which was misty but cleared beautifully while we were there. We had a lovely lunch in a local restaurant. We had an excellent guide, David and thoroughly enjoyed this excursion. It is a beautiful, clean, well-run island and I can’t wait to visit again.

Part 3: New Year’s Cruise 27 Dec 2025 – 10 January 2026 on MSC OperaExcursions – Mauritius:On the first day in Mauritius...
01/05/2026

Part 3: New Year’s Cruise 27 Dec 2025 – 10 January 2026 on MSC Opera
Excursions – Mauritius:
On the first day in Mauritius, we visited the Botanical Gardens and a local public beach. We were rushed through the Botanical Gardens which were stunning and then went to a very crowded public beach where people were camping for the extended multi-day public holiday. We eventually found a food truck where we could buy something to eat – samosas and chips as lunch was not included in the tour. The queues outside the toilets were too long to consider wasting time waiting to go to the toilet.
On our second day in Mauritius we did the Mauritius Panaromic Sightseeing and Beach break – we visited multiple places but were very rushed everywhere we stopped. If you stood in the queue to go the bathroom, you risked missing the sightseeing at that stop. We visited Ganga Talao temple and the statues of various Hindu gods which was beautiful in the misty rain. Next stops were in the Black Gorges National Park and the seven coloured earths at La Chamarel and ended up at a local public beach with no facilities. It was much quieter than the previous day.

Part 2: New Year’s Cruise 27 Dec 2025 – 10 January 2026 on MSC OperaExcursions - Madagascar:The first stop Madagascar wa...
01/05/2026

Part 2: New Year’s Cruise 27 Dec 2025 – 10 January 2026 on MSC Opera
Excursions - Madagascar:
The first stop Madagascar was quite disappointing (Nosy Kombe and Tany Hely tour at Nosy Be), the animals in the nature park were not well looked after and were being terrorised by guides and visitors alike who would climb into the cages to catch them: the small tortoises were trying to hide but were being manhandled by guides, a chameleon was grabbed and swung around by some idiotic female tourist on our cruise. Lunch at a beach-side restaurant was included in this excursion.
The excursion in Diego Saurez (2nd stop in Madagascar) was much better (Landscapes on 3 Bays tour) and we had a lovely time visiting different places and parts of the island in 4x4s although our driver did not speak English and our group’s guide was in a different vehicle so we couldn’t ask questions or get any additional information. Lunch was included in this excursion and we swam at one of the beaches we visited although there were no toilets or change rooms. It was a lovely beach and we thoroughly enjoyed the swim in the warm water.

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