One of my favorite safari camps is Abu Camp by Wilderness Safari in Botswana’s Okavango Delta.

This area in Botswana promises one of the purest safari experiences you can have anywhere. And there are several grand safari camps to stay at.

Abu Camp is a luxurious and eco-minded camp running on solar power, with fabulous food, drink and service as you can see from my pictures. Spacious “tents” offer every creature comfort such as double vanity bathrooms, an indoor and outdoor shower and outdoor tub, and a private deck and plunge pool. Each tent also offers one of the most unique room amenities I have seen anywhere-an art easel and set of watercolors, to capture the brilliance all around you.

The staff really go the extra mile at Abu Camp for sundowners as well, laying out carpets and lanterns and a full bar and canape spread overlooking a watering hole, and we had the great fortune to then be visited by a pack of wild dogs as we sipped our gin and tonics. It’s truly magic hour out in the bush at sunset.

But ABU CAMP has something extra special that truly sets it apart, and that is The ABU HERD, a group of 8 orphaned elephants.   Each elephant has an incredible story.   

The elephants are free to roam daily, but do receive care from the camp staff.  As a guest here, you can have afternoon tea while the elephants roam free and you can walk alongside them as they ramble about in the grass.   Most camps cannot offer this level of closeness and observation, at it comes at no extra charge!

The matriarch of the Abu Herd is 60 year old Cathy, and she has a special relationship with Paseka, the now 10 year old “Easter Elephant”. After walking with these elephants one afternoon at the camp, we watched the documentary about Paseka (screened outside on the deck with lanterns around us) _and her story blew me away. And yes, I cried.

In short–Paseka was somehow separated from her own mother and herd when she was about 1 years old and still nursing. She was attacked by hyenas, and ran for cover to one of  Abu Camp’s vehicles that was out for a game drive. It was decided that they would not intervene but let nature take its course. The actual footage of the bleeding baby elephant running to catch up to the jeep that’s pulling away is heartbreaking! Get out your tissues!

The next day, camp staff found Paseka in the generator room! It was Easter Sunday. She had somehow escaped the hyenas and found her way back to the camp. But she was very young and needed milk, or she would not survive. Cathy the matriarch intervened and signaled the OK, so that one of the other nursing mother elephants actually adopted Paseka the little Easter Elephant and let her nurse. HIGHLY unusual elephant behavior. And so Paseka survived, and is now the mother to her own rambunctious little male calf.

The ABU HERD is out every day at ABU CAMP, and it is a rare privilege and pleasure to spend time in their presence.    It is an unforgettable and moving experience, and one I cannot recommend enough. 

And with two elephants in the herd pregnant with calves due in late Spring, 2020 promises to be a fine time to visit ABU CAMP!

The post ABU Camp in Botswana’s Okavango Delta appeared first on Luxury Travel Adventures.

Everyone’s got their own travel bucket list, right?  But some of my clients and I shared the same wish, to see the African mountain gorillas in their natural habitat.  So I took a small group of clients to Uganda to realize what was truly a dream trip for all of us, myself included.

We spent 3 nights at Bwindi Lodge to trek the famous and rare mountain gorillas.  The lodge is a 5-minute walk to the Buhoma gate of Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park.

The lodge has 8 “bandas” or cottages named after various mountain gorillas.  It has a gorgeous green view of the park, and is one of the Top 3 nicest places to stay in the area.   A stay here includes all meals and drinks (even alcohol) and laundry. The main lodge has a welcoming sitting area with fireplace and dining room, and internet is available in the main lodge.

The bandas have outdoor porches and have every creature comfort you need, including King beds, sitting area, desk are with USB plugs and electrical outlets.  There is a double-sink vanity in the large and airy bathroom, with a dressing area, safe, stone shower and water closet.  We all LOVED the fab-smelling Temple Spa toiletries, including muscle cream and foot balm.

Your wake-up call is a delivery of cappuccino or tea with delicious pound cake, and hot water bottles to tuck you in at night.

The food at Bwindi Lodge was easily the best food we had at any lodge or camp in Uganda.  My avocado and tomato bruschetta was one of the best things I ate the entire trip, as well as buttered tilapia that was a revelation and nothing like the nondescript bland tilapia we have here at home.  Lunches of chicken wraps with bacon and avocado and thick cut potatoes or chicken and pesto were very tasty.   On our last evening, we had 4-cheese samosas as a starter, and for the main we all choose the local specialty  of “matoki” or cooked, mashed green banana with peanut sauce, and white rice and a tomato-based chicken stew that was excellent.  Sharing dinner in the company of our wonderful guide Eric and Omax, one of Bwindi’s park rangers and member of the Uganda Wildlife Authority, made it our favorite dinner of the trip!

So what is it like to gorilla trek?

Whoever has permits to track that day is welcomed to the Ranger Station by a local women’s group who sing and dance before a general briefing by the Head Ranger, who goes over the rules.  No flash photography, keep distance from the gorillas and speak softly.  People trek in a group of up to 8 people max, so you will be grouped with other people if you are not your own group of 8.  After the general briefing, you are assigned to your own park ranger and group of 8, and are told which gorilla family you will be tracking that day.  People who have 2 treks in 2 consecutive days will have priority for the easiest trek if it is their second trekking day–fair enough.

You have to be prepared to trek single-file for  5 minutes or 4-5 hours to see one of the four habituated families in this section of the park.  It isn’t called the IMPENETRABLE forest for nothing!  There are no paths and your park team will include rangers with machetes who walk out in front and literally machete the dense brush so you can walk through.  I highly recommend hiring a porter, who will carry your daypack (must bring 2 liters of water per person with you plus packed lunch, camera equipment, etc) and help you over and around the hilly brush and vegetation.  I didn’t like having a walking stick and felt it more of a hindrance than a help, but that’s a personal thing.  Tight-fitting neoprene gloves came in very handy when grabbing on to various branches for balance.

 

An advance team goes out in the very early  morning to see where the gorilla families are located,  and then radios the specific location to your ranger, who will lead your group there.  There is an armed guard at the front of your group, and  also one at the back.  With 3 rangers, porters, guards and the guest group, it’s quite a scene.

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Once you arrive at the gorilla family location, you are allowed exactly 60 minutes to observe them.   Only one group of 8 people are allowed to see a family in one day, to limit gorilla exposure to human disease.

On our first day/first trek, we had to drive about 35 minutes away from the ranger station to where the H family of gorillas was located, and then we set about on foot.  The anticipation was incredible!

It took almost an hour of hiking to get to the Habinyanja family.  When you first spot those black figures in the green bushes, your heart almost jumps out of your chest.  And when one of them fully emerges from the bushes and walks right by you, it truly is quite a thrill.  You don’t know whether to snap away or just stand there and take it all in.

Unlike very loud-calling chimpanzees, these mountain gorillas are very mild-mannered and quiet….only once the silverback grunted his displeasure (at an armed guard standing too close to the gorillas, which included a baby) or made low noises that our ranger told us was just the silverback communicating with his members to see if all was ok.  The noise you hear all around you is branches bending and breaking as these magnificent herbivores go about finding their ideal breakfast.

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The members were a bit scattered in different areas, but we settled into a small area to watch a group of about 8 gorillas…..the silverback was lying on the ground  napping, having his fill of breakfast already.   He was being groomed by a very young gorilla, an orphan whose mother was killed and who now stays right next to the silverback all the time.   But the real attention-getter was a small two-year old, who was full of energy and very playful while all the adults around him, including mom, were in food comas and napping, or still munching away.  This little guy was so curious, he came right up to one of my client’s (who was at his level, sitting on the ground  taking pictures) and started POKING her camera lens with his finger.  Our ranger told my client to stand up, which made this toddler back off (remember, they do not want the gorillas that close to humans for a variety of reasons).  This little gorilla then ran around, climbed a branch and beat his chest, tried to wake his mother up, sat next to his mother for a bit and cradled her head with his arm, and then jumped over to another adult who groomed him.   You couldn’t take your eyes off of him.

His behavior was just like a human toddler!  I believe this is why people say gorilla trekking is such an amazing experience, becuase we see ourselves in these primates.

Our second day of trekking was laughable easy—we were going to see the Rushigura or R Family.  We started our hike right from the ranger station, and literally within 8 minutes we came upon at least 12 members of the R  family eating by the river.    But you just never know how long–or short–it will take to reach your family, I  cannot underestimate that you need to be prepared for anything.  We got lucky.   I joked that it didn’t feel right that we hadn’t had to trek through mud and  stinging nettles to be rewarded with the family find.

Once again, we were astounded by the quite serenity of these animals, very busy going about their business foraging and eating breakfast.  A mother emerged from the bushes with a baby on her back, and proceeded to walk right by me…she was so close I had to zoom my camera OUT, while backing up to give her room to pass, all while trying not to fall into the river  behind me.

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Some of this gorilla family ate their fill of forest fruit and then were thirsty so had to go take a drink at the stream (swooping their arm into the water and drinking from their hand), and then they  navigated the river rocks (even with a baby on back)  and passed to the other side.  Others stayed on our side of the stream, but at some point they decided to move on.  We watched as several gorillas came out of the bushes and walked right by us….and also under the watchful eye of their silverback.  The silverback acted like a crossing guard–he stood still in the path as all his family members safely passed by, and only then did he take up the rear and follow them into the bushes, to continue on with their daily life on the move.

 

I highly recommend a second day of trekking (yes, it’s another $600 for another permit but well worth it)  for a couple of reasons….you get to see a different gorilla family, but also because  you will give yourself more time to put the phone and camera down, and just observe.    If you only have that one 60-minute trek, you are juggling all your electronics trying to get the perfect shot, the perfect selfie, the perfect video.  60 minutes goes by pretty fast.  If you have another day,  you become more present, more  in the moment.  You get your shots, and then just relax and watch as nature reveals itself to you.

And Nature is pretty splendid!  

For people who want a more active and visceral wildlife encounter that goes beyond sitting in a safari vehicle, you cannot top this experience.    Yes,  the permits are costly but they are helping to provide the means necessary to ensure that these magnificent creatures survive in their natural habitat to be seen by future generations. 

The post Uganda: Gorilla Trekking appeared first on Luxury Travel Adventures.

MScott Photography  is based out of Seattle, WA, here’s a link to  FB page:

https://www.facebook.com/MScottPhotography

The post CLIENT SAFARI PICTURES from SINGITA EBONY LODGE & TANDA TULA appeared first on Luxury Travel Adventures.

Nothing beats a beautiful day driving out into the Tuscan countryside, and enjoying the beauty all around you while tasting wines, some of which never even leave Italy!

For my clients who stay in Florence, I like to plan a day out in Chianti  with a  private car and driver.  A wonderful stop not even 15 minutes out of central Florence is the gorgeous Villa Cora, a restored palazzo that is now an incredibly romantic hotel.   When I last visited, it was home base for Selena Gomez and the Weekend!    It’s such a beautiful property, I  usually arrange for my clients to eat breakfast there, or at least stop for a cappuccino, on their way out to their wine tastings.

Here are some pictures from the Villa Medicea Di Lilliano family-owned wine estate, which also produces very fine olive oil.  There are many properties to choose from, all depends on your preferences.  But you simply can’t  go wrong in surroundings like this!

The post WINE TASTING IN TUSCANY appeared first on Luxury Travel Adventures.

I have always wanted to go to the famed  Inn at Little Washington, and I finally made this past February.  I’ve always admired chef-owner Patrick O’Connell, he was sourcing locally and doing farm-to-table literally decades before it was even a thing.  But with The Inn about to enter its 40th year, I have to say I was a bit apprehensive if the Inn was still deserving of all the kudos, or resting on its laurels.

I am happy to report that the Inn is still  *KICKING IT*  in its 40th year and deserving of all the attention it has received, and continues to.   It was spectacular from the moment I stepped inside to the moment I left.    It’s a wonderful thing when something more than meets your long-held high expectations.  This is precisely why The Inn at Little Washington is still delighting people.  It totally understands itself and gets that it’s more than dinner, more than a hotel stay…..it’s an experience for everyone who travels to the wilds of Virginia.

The country simplicity of the outside of The Inn belies the sumptuousness of the inside!   Looking at the picture slideshow below, yes it’s a bit over the top and somewhat ornate, but the design work of London set designer Joyce Evans somehow makes it all work. I felt like I was in a jewel box, cossetted and very cared for.  The welcome was warm and friendly, and we had a bit of afternoon tea and savories in the lounge, to hold us over until dinner.  We were staying in the duplex Thomas Keller Suite (all the rooms are named for famous groundbreaking chefs) which has a large living room, outdoor private terrace, a mirrored bathroom like something from Versailles and a loft bedroom.

After a perfectly-made Blond Negroni in the Monkey Bar, we were ready to be escorted to our table in the kitchen for the real reason we came here:  the multi-course tasting menu.    There are only two tables in the kitchen, and it feels and looks like a (fancy) farmhouse in Provence.  If you are a cook, the immense made-to-order Vulcan range will leave you in awe.   We were free to walk around the kitchen and watch the various cooks at work in a kitchen that was cleaner than mine at home.

Once seated, the parade of special amuse bouches prepared especially for the kitchen table guests starting arriving, and one was better than the next.  The truffled popcorn, omg.  CHECK OUT THE PICTURE SLIDESHOW BELOW if you want the food pics!   If you appreciate detail, this place will make you swoon.  Multiple types of butter, bread and parmesan crisps hot from the ovens in the front of us, everything precise and perfectly timed.   Great wine recommendations to go with our dishes.  The service is always friendly, never stilted or weirdly formal as you might expect.  And if you are a serious wine lover, this cellar will knock you out.

A colleague of mine had told me that whatever was on the dessert menu, I must order the ice cream sandwich…..but it was not on the menu the night of my dinner.  I mentioned it to our server, and the pastry chef whipped one up for me,  in addition to my already-ordered pear dessert.  It’s that kind of place.  And while the ice cream sandwich was fabulous, the “Apparently a Pear” dessert was maybe the best dessert I have eaten, EVER.  I had to go over to the pastry chef and ask him how he put this together, and tell him how much I enjoyed it.  He told me it took him about two months of trial and error to get it to the place where it could debut on the menu.  I LOVE this kind of passion and pursuit of perfection!   And to me, that defines The Inn at Little Washington.  They are still, after all these years, constantly challenging themselves to raise the bar and provide an even more sumptuous and memorable experience for their guests.  I am happy that I finally made the trip out to Washington, VA because it was an experience I will always remember.   I can only wish that anyone reading this gets to experience it too.

The post THE INN at LITTLE WASHINGTON–Still Going Strong! appeared first on Luxury Travel Adventures.

I had the great fortune to get tickets to the very exclusive “Christmas Dinner in the Great Hall” at Hogwarts, on the Harry Potter movie set outside of London, and I can say without hesitation that it was worth the price of flying across the pond to attend!

For those of you who do not want to read my long post here, go directly to the bottom for the slideshow of pictures I took this enchanted evening.

The Harry Potter studio tour at Leavesden, outside of London, is already a pilgrimage for Harry Potter fans and is something you need advance tickets for because it sells out on a consistent basis.

Once a year, Warner Bros. offers a Christmas dinner on the actual Hogwarts Great Hall set, which is decorated exactly as the Yule Ball, featured in the fourth film “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”.

As the regular tour goers were leaving the studio, we were just arriving at 6pm for the champagne and canapes reception for the lucky 250 guests who were going to spend the evening at Leavesden.   All 250 of us Potterheads were as bubbly as the glasses of libation we were holding, excitedly telling each other how far we traveled to attend this special event.  Some people were dressed in black tie, some in character (a young woman dressed EXACTLY as Hermione at the Yule ball in the movie) and also in cocktail attire.

First we watched a short film narrated by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint,  welcoming us to Leavesden Studio and talking about how this was really home for them, as they literally grew up on the sets here.

Some of the movie scenes, particularly for the very first movie, were shot on location in London but when it was clear there would be a collection of movies spanning years of production, Warner Bros built a huge studio with multiple permanent sets at Leavesden, outside of London, which they meticulously maintained through all the movie productions  and now as a major tourist attraction.

After the short film, we were ushered into the Hogwarts Great Hall to find our dinner tables and seats, and it reminded me of the first time I  went to Versailles and entered the Hall of Mirrors, with everyone holding up cameras and phones to film.  The Great Hall wad decorated for the Yule Ball, it was brilliant.

Dinner in the Great Hall Menu

Chicken liver pate with apple, quince and toasted brioche or Wookey Hole cheddar souffle

Ballotine of roasted Norfolk turkey stuffed with cranberry, pistachio and pork,  with roasted potatoes and honey-roasted root vegetables

Dessert bowls served on Platform 9 3/4

Christmas pudding and brandy sauce and caramelized orange

Chocolate and clementine bavarois with Irish Crème Chantilly and praline tuile

Gingerbread and blueberry trifle with a stem ginger sable

After dinner, we were invited to make our own way through the entire studio tour;  with only 250 guests present, it was glorious to be able to look at sets of the boy’s dormitory room, Dumbledore’s office, Hagrid’s Hut, the Potions Classroom, walk through the Hogwarts Express where they filmed all the interior train scenes, and walk Diagon Alley and more,  without having a thousand people in front or pushing behind you.

We had stops at the green screen area for The Daily Prophet newspaper “Wanted” pictures, and for mounting Quidditch brooms to make our own videos of us soaring high over Hogwarts, great fun.

To see upclose the artistry that it took to make these books come to life on the big screen was truly amazing…..did you know that the memory cabinet in Dumbledore’s office contains nearly 900 real glass vials, each with a handwritten label?  Same with the over 950 glass jars of oddities in the Potions classroom, which include baked animal bones from a local butchers shop!

The Chamber of Secrets is a real, fully functional door…..artists cast snakes in resin molds and painted them before they were each individually mounted.  And all those talking portraits lining the moving staircases?  Some of them are portraits of the producers and various crew members!

Walking along Diagon Alley, whose design was influenced by the work of Charles Dickens, was truly special…..seeing Gringott’s Bank entrance up close and of course the Puking Pastilles outside of Weasley’s!  And Ollivander’s Wand Shop–the art department team actually made 17,000 individually-labelled wand boxes during filming.  There were boxes labeled for the over 4,000 production people who worked on the films, a beautiful and enduring gesture of appreciation.

It WAS scary walking into the Forbidden Forest and Aragon’s lair….Aragon has a leg span of over 18 feet and each hair, EACH HAIR, was individually inserted by hand using a special needle.  It took 15 people to operate the animatronic Aragon!  Time and again, I was amazed by the creativity and artistry on display, not to mention the sheer nostalgia of it all.

The costumes are all here, including Ron’s hilarious rug and lace tux-cape he wore to the Yule ball and the fancy BeauxBatons’ French Blue uniforms with their iconic pointed hats designed by famous milliner Philip Treacy, the Quidditch uniforms, even the “19 Years Later” real-clothes ‘costumes’ of the adult, married Harry and Ginny and Ron and Hermione and their children.

We could have spent hours reading and watching about all the special effects to make Dobbie come alive, the goblins, Professor Lupin’s werewolf self, the animatronic Hagrid head (there is such a thing), the glowing Patronus, etc etc but we had to get refreshed with some Butterbeer before heading outside, yes outside, to see the double-decker Knight Bus, some of the chess pieces,  and 4 Privet Drive, which is a real house!

One of the last features of the tour is the giant Hogwarts model that was used from the first film on, for shooting the exterior scenes.  It’s huge, fills a large room.  This was meticulously maintained by a group of 40 artists and crafts people  for the 10 years it took to make the films, and they used real gravel for the rockwork and boulders, and real plants for the landscaping and trees.   It’s magnificent.

Our self-guided tour ended in the big studio store, where we were each gifted with a wand we selected…..although I have been officially sorted into Gryffindor, I chose the wand of Professor Snape, such a complicated and endurably interesting character with the greatest enunciation EVER  (RIP Alan Rickman, you are still loved!).

If you are in London or planning to go, and are a Harry Potter fan, or have children who are fans, GO.

It is a fantastic immersive experience and truly a DO-NOT-MISS.

EXPECTO PATRONUM FOREVER!

The post DINNER IN THE GREAT HALL AT HOGWARTS appeared first on Luxury Travel Adventures.

I had the great fortune to get tickets to the very exclusive “Christmas Dinner in the Great Hall” at Hogwarts, on the Harry Potter movie set outside of London, and I can say without hesitation that it was worth the price of flying across the pond to attend, as well as taking my daughter out of school for a few days!

For those of you who do not want to read my long post here, go directly to the bottom for the slideshow of pictures I took this enchanted evening.

The Harry Potter studio tour at Leavesden, outside of London, is already a pilgrimage for Harry Potter fans and is something you need advance tickets for because it sells out on a consistent basis.

Once a year, Warner Bros. offers a Christmas dinner on the actual Hogwarts Great Hall set, which is decorated exactly as the Yule Ball, featured in the fourth film “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”.

As the regular tour goers were leaving the studio, we were just arriving at 6pm for the champagne and canapes reception for the lucky 250 guests who were going to spend the evening at Leavesden.   All 250 of us Potterheads were as bubbly as the glasses of libation we were holding, excitedly telling each other how far we traveled to attend this special event.  Some people were dressed in black tie, some in character (a young woman dressed EXACTLY as Hermione at the Yule ball in the movie) and also in cocktail attire.

First we watched a short film narrated by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, welcoming us to Leavesden Studio and talking about how this was really home for them, as they literally grew up on the sets here.

Some of the movie scenes, particularly for the very first movie, were shot on location in London but when it was clear there would be a collection of movies spanning years of production, Warner Bros built a huge studio with multiple permanent sets at Leavesden, outside of London, which they meticulously maintained through all the movie productions  and now as a major tourist attraction.

After the short film, we were ushered into the Hogwarts Great Hall to find our dinner tables and seats, and it reminded me of the first time I  went to Versailles and entered the Hall of Mirrors, with everyone holding up cameras and phones to film.  The Great Hall was decorated for the Yule Ball, it was brilliant.

Dinner in the Great Hall Menu

Chicken liver pate with apple, quince and toasted brioche or Wookey Hole cheddar souffle

Ballotine of roasted Norfolk turkey stuffed with cranberry, pistachio and pork,  with roasted potatoes and honey-roasted root vegetables

Dessert bowls served on Platform 9 3/4

Christmas pudding and brandy sauce and caramelized orange

Chocolate and clementine bavarois with Irish Crème Chantilly and praline tuile

Gingerbread and blueberry trifle with a stem ginger sable

After dinner, we were invited to make our own way through the entire studio tour;  with only 250 guests present, it was glorious to be able to look at sets of the boy’s dormitory room, Dumbledore’s office, Hagrid’s Hut, the Potions Classroom, walk through the Hogwarts Express where they filmed all the interior train scenes, and walk Diagon Alley and more,  without having a thousand people in front or pushing behind you.

We had stops at the green screen area for The Daily Prophet newspaper “Wanted” pictures, and for mounting Quidditch brooms to make our own videos of us soaring high over Hogwarts, great fun.

To see upclose the artistry that it took to make these books come to life on the big screen was truly amazing…..did you know that the memory cabinet in Dumbledore’s office contains nearly 900 real glass vials, each with a handwritten label?  Same with the over 950 glass jars of oddities in the Potions classroom, which include baked animal bones from a local butchers shop!

The Chamber of Secrets is a real, fully functional door…..artists cast snakes in resin molds and painted them before they were each individually mounted.  And all those talking portraits lining the moving staircases?  Some of them are portraits of the producers and various crew members!

Walking along Diagon Alley, whose design was influenced by the work of Charles Dickens, was truly special…..seeing Gringott’s Bank entrance up close and of course the Puking Pastilles outside of Weasley’s!  And Ollivander’s Wand Shop–the art department team actually made 17,000 individually-labelled wand boxes during filming.  There were boxes labeled for the over 4,000 production people who worked on the films, a beautiful and enduring gesture of appreciation.

It WAS scary walking into the Forbidden Forest and Aragon’s lair….Aragon has a leg span of over 18 feet and each hair, EACH HAIR, was individually inserted by hand using a special needle.  It took 15 people to operate the animatronic Aragon!  Time and again, I was amazed by the creativity and artistry on display, not to mention the sheer nostalgia of it all.

The costumes are all here, including Ron’s hilarious rug and lace tux-cape he wore to the Yule ball and the fancy Beaux Batons’ French Blue uniforms with their iconic pointed hats designed by famous milliner Philip Treacy, the Quidditch uniforms, even the “19 Years Later” real-clothes ‘costumes’ of the adult, married Harry and Ginny and Ron and Hermione and their children.

We could have spent hours reading and watching about all the special effects to make Dobbie come alive, the goblins, Professor Lupin’s werewolf self, the animatronic Hagrid head (there is such a thing), the glowing Patronus, etc etc but we had to get refreshed with some Butterbeer before heading outside, yes outside, to see the double-decker Knight Bus, some of the chess pieces,  and 4 Privet Drive, which is a real house!

One of the last features of the tour is the giant Hogwarts model that was used from the first film on, for shooting the exterior scenes.  It’s huge, fills a large room.  This was meticulously maintained by a group of 40 artists and crafts people for the 10 years it took to make the films, and they used real gravel for the rockwork and boulders, and real plants for the landscaping and trees.   It’s magnificent.

Our self-guided tour ended in the big studio store, where we were each gifted with a wand we selected…..although I have been officially sorted into Gryffindor, I chose the wand of Professor Snape, such a complicated and endurably interesting character with the greatest enunciation EVER  (RIP Alan Rickman, you are still loved!).

If you are a Harry Potter fan, or have children who are fans, GO.

All you have to do is score the dinner tickets;  I will handle your London hotel, cars and flights.

It is a fantastic immersive experience and truly a DO-NOT-MISS!!

The post London: Dinner at Hogwarts appeared first on Luxury Travel Adventures.

The lodge has 8 “bandas” or cottages named after various mountain gorillas.  It has a gorgeous green view of the park, and is one of the Top 3 nicest places to stay in the area.   A stay here includes all meals and drinks (even alcohol) and laundry. The main lodge has a welcoming sitting area with fireplace and dining room, and internet is available in the main lodge.

The bandas have outdoor porches and have every creature comfort you need, including King beds, sitting area, desk are with USB plugs and electrical outlets.  There is a double-sink vanity in the large and airy bathroom, with a dressing area, safe, stone shower and water closet.  We all LOVED the fab-smelling Temple Spa toiletries, including muscle cream and foot balm.

Your wake-up call is a delivery of cappuccino or tea with delicious pound cake, and hot water bottles to tuck you in at night.

The food at Bwindi Lodge was easily the best food we had at any lodge or camp in Uganda.  My avocado and tomato bruschetta was one of the best things I ate the entire trip, as well as buttered tilapia that was  a revelation and nothing like the nondescript bland tilapia we have here at home.  Lunches of chicken wraps with bacon and avocado and thick cut potatoes or chicken and pesto were very tasty.   On our last evening, we had 4-cheese samosas as a starter, and for the main we all choose the local specialty  of “matoki” or cooked, mashed green banana with peanut sauce, and white rice and a tomato-based chicken stew that was really good.  Sharing dinner in the company of our wonderful guide Eric and Omax, one of Bwindi’s park rangers and member of the Uganda Wildlfe Authority, made it our favorite dinner of the trip!

So what is it like to gorilla trek?

Whoever has permits to track that day is welcomed to the Ranger Station by a local women’s group who sing and dance before a  general briefing by the Head Ranger, who goes over the rules.  No flash photography, keep distance from the gorillas and speak softly.  People trek in a group of up to 8 people max, so you will be grouped with other people if you are not your own group of 8.  After the general briefing, you are assigned to your own park ranger and group of 8, and are told which gorilla family you will be tracking that day.  People who have 2 treks in 2 consecutive days will have priority for the easiest trek if it is their second trekking day–fair enough.

You have to be prepared to trek single-file  5 minutes or 4-5 hours to see one of the four habituated families in this section of the park.  It isn’t called the IMPENETRABLE forest for nothing!  There are no paths and your park team will include rangers with machetes who walk out in front and literally machete the dense brush so you can walk through.  I highly recommend hiring a porter, who will carry your daypack (must bring 2 liters of water per person with you plus packed lunch, camera equipment, etc) and help you over and around the hilly brush and vegetation.  I didn’t like having a walking stick and felt it more of a hindrance than a help, but that’s a personal thing.  Tight-fitting neoprene gloves came in very handy when grabbing on to various branches for balance.

An advance team goes out in the very early  morning to see where the gorilla families are located,  and then radios the specific location to your ranger, who will lead your group there.  There is an armed guard at the front of your group, and  also one at the back.  With 3 rangers, porters, guards and the guest group, it’s quite a scene.

Once you arrive at the gorilla family location, you are allowed exactly 60 minutes to observe them.   Only one group of 8 people are allowed to see a family in one day, to limit gorilla exposure to human disease.

On our first day/first trek, we had to drive about 35 minutes away from the ranger station to where the  H family of gorillas was located, and then we set about on foot.  The anticipation was incredible!

It took almost an hour of hiking to get to the Habinyanja family.  When you first spot those black figures in the green bushes, your heart almost jumps out of your chest.  And when one of them fully emerges from the bushes and walks right by you, it truly is quite a thrill.  You don’t know whether to snap away or just stand there and take it all in.

Unlike very loud-calling chimpanzees, these mountain gorillas are very mild-mannered and quiet….only once the silverback grunt his displeasure (at an armed guard standing too close to the gorillas, which included a baby) or made low noises that our ranger told us was just the silverback communicating with his members to see if all was ok.  The noise you hear all around you is branches bending and breaking as these magnificent herbivores go about finding their ideal breakfast.

The members were a bit scattered in different areas, but we settled into a small area to watch a group of about 8 gorillas…..the silverback was lying on the ground  napping, having his fill of breakfast already.   He was being groomed by a very young gorilla, an orphan whose mother was killed and who now stays right next to the silverback all the time.   But the real attention-getter was a small two-year old, who was full of energy and very playful while all the adults around him, including mom, were in food comas and napping, or still munching away.  This little guy was so curious, he came right up to one of my client’s (who was at his level, sitting on the ground  taking pictures) and started POKING her camera lens with his finger.  Our ranger told my client to stand up, which made this toddler back off (remember, they do not want the gorillas that close to humans for a variety of reasons).  This little gorilla then ran around, climbed a branch and beat his chest, tried to wake his mother up, sat next to his mother for a bit and cradled her head with his arm, and then jumped over to another adult who groomed him.   You couldn’t take your eyes off of him.

His behavior was just like a human toddler!  I believe this is why people say gorilla trekking is such an amazing experience, becuase we see ourselves in these primates.

Our second day of trekking was laughable easy—we were going to see the Rushigura or R Family.  We started our hike right from the ranger station, and literally within 8 minutes we came upon at least 12 members of the R  family eating by the river.    But you just never know how long–or short–it will take to reach your family, I  cannot underestimate that you need to be prepared for anything.  We got lucky.   I joked that it didn’t feel right that we hadn’t had to trek through mud and  stinging nettles to be rewarded with the family find.

Once again, we were astounded by the quite serenity of these animals, very busy going about their business foraging and eating breakfast.  A mother emerged from the bushes with a baby on her back, and proceeded to walk right by me…she was so close I had to zoom my camera OUT, while backing up to give her room to pass, all while trying not to fall into the river  behind me.

Some of this gorilla family ate their fill of forest fruit and then were thirsty so had to go take a drink at the stream (swooping their arm into the water and drinking from their hand), and then they  navigated the river rocks (even with a baby on back)  and passed to the other side.  Others stayed on our side of the stream, but at some point they decided to move on.  We watched as several gorillas came out of the bushes and walked right by us….and also under the watchful eye of their silverback.  The silverback acted like a crossing guard–he stood still in the path as all his family members safely passed by, and only then did he take up the rear and follow them into the bushes, to continue on with their daily life on the move.

I highly recommend a second day of trekking (yes, it’s another $600 for another permit but well worth it)  for a couple of reasons….you get to see a different gorilla family, but also because  you will give yourself more time to put the phone and camera down, and just observe.    If you only have that one 60-minute trek, you are juggling all your electronics trying to get the perfect shot, the perfect selfie, the perfect video.  60 minutes goes by pretty fast.  If you have another day,  you become more present, more  in the moment.  You get your shots, and then just relax and watch as nature reveals itself to you.

And Nature is pretty splendid! 

For people who want a more active and visceral wildlife encounter that goes beyond sitting in a safari vehicle, you cannot top this experience.    Yes,  the permits are costly but they are helping to provide the means necessary to ensure that these magnificent creatures survive in their natural habitat to be seen by future generations. 

For more information about gorilla trekking in Uganda OR Rwanda, please contact me at 301-217-0027 or denise@luxurytraveladventures.com

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