Love Affair with Limpopo-Lipadi by Dan Sjolseth

Two weeks turns into a four week Love Affair with Limpopo-Lipadi.

Kathy and I anxiously anticipated the opening of Limpopo-Lipadi and our 2 week holiday there. Our plans were to spend 2 weeks at Limpopo-Lipadi and our other 2 week holiday time traveling in South Africa. After a couple of days in "heaven" (Limpopo-Lipadi) we decided to see if we could spend our entire holiday at Limpopo-Lipadi . Fortunately there was an opening and we took advantage of it. When it was time to return to the US, the joke between us was "who was going to return to the US to do the yard work, pay the bills and see the family while the other remained in “heaven" - that's how much we enjoyed our stay.

Our friends asked how we could spend 4 weeks at a remote camp in Botswana and our answer goes something like this....... We get up early in the morning and take a game drive, return for a tasty breakfast, do some reading or take a short walk, enjoy lunch while watching the lovely
Limpopo roll by, take a rest before an afternoon game drive, return to camp after the drive, clean up and sit at the boma in front of a crackling fire enjoying a bottle of champagne, having a wonderful meal prepared by Nancy (she's great!!) and capping off the evening viewing the amazing bounty of stars. Then they understand and ask us when we will return with them as guests.

We had a number of wonderful experiences at Limpopo-Lipadi but a few were especially memorable. The evening "bush braai" at Harry's Camp. Thank you Lucky, Nancy, Congo, Petros and Boima for organizing the romantic dinner by the river. Thanks especially to Lucky for making the fire, setting up the table and hauling stuff there and back. Thanks Nancy for your menu and cooking -- which was delicious!! We will always get a smile when we think of Nancy and Lucky roasting marshmallows over the fire and struggling to keep the sticky white goo off their face.

Our sundowners along the river, the herd of 40 elephant walking through the camp at night, seeing the hippos just downstream from the river camp, taking my driving test which included changing the tyre and Congo trying to get me lost (good luck next time), our first game drive alone after I passed the test we ran into a herd of giraffes and sat amongst them in the Cruiser for 45 minutes, while they walked all around us and provided us with some amazing photo opportunities. The dinner many of the staff and guest had at the pool area one night, our drives to Pikwe to do some shopping and tour the community, and so much more.

We must provide a special thanks to Belinda for ensuring that we got groceries. The service provided by Woolworths worked well and the food quality was very high. But without Belinda steering the process, and meeting us on Saturday morning for the grocery drop off, and sending up another couple orders, we would have not enjoyed our meals nearly so much.

Thanks again for the opportunity to enjoy this part of heaven.

Dan and Kathy Sjolseth
Seattle, USA