My Dinner With Leonardo Di Caprio On Safari

Journalist Nicola Kelly shares how she magically won a luxury safari trip to South Africa and ended up having dinner with Leonardo di Caprio while on safari.

We’ve all heard of them, those people who win spectacular prizes.  I don’t know about you but I’d never actually met one – until I became one myself.

There I was, on a rainy afternoon in Yorkshire, England, bemoaning the fact that with my 60th birthday looming, there was an assumption adventure and excitement were for younger folk.  

Next thing I know, I’m in Zimbabwe having dinner with Leonardo DiCaprio.

That wasn’t the prize by the way, just a little bonus.  But I digress.

My reaction when I won a luxury, £35,000 trip for two to South Africa and Zimbabwe, was to laugh.  Initially I thought it was a scam call.  But no.  the competition organisers apparently liked my ramblings about why I believed I was Yorkshire’s answer to Indiana Jones – intrepid, as long as there’s no spiders involved.

So my husband and I headed off to Heathrow for our flight to South Africa.  Sadly the competition budget didn’t stretch to Business Class, not even Premium Economy, so 12 hours later we emerged aching and tired.  But our driver was waiting with our air conditioned transport and the luxury began.

We took in the wine region where we had a villa with views to die for and a golf buggy to take us to dinner, the pink painted splendour of the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town, an exclusive safari resort near the Kruger National Park where we had our own butler – £12,000 for three nights if we’d been paying – and then on to our next resort near Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.

The rangers had to drive us to dinner – they didn’t want us inadvertently becoming a passing lion’s snack – and the sight before us was breathtaking.

Imagine if you will, a fine dining experience, set in the middle of the bush.  Candlelit chandeliers hanging from the trees, linen tablecloths and attentive waiters.

I spotted that the couple at the next table had eyes only for each other.  Smooching seemed to get in the way of their haute cuisine judging by how much they left uneaten, or maybe it’s a Hollywood diet thing?

Anyway, I’d noticed the bloke, who had his back to me, was wearing a baseball cap.  The candles didn’t shed much light on nearby tables the only thing I noticed was how young his companion was – no more than 25 – which was my first clue.  

The second was when she went to the ladies, long legs up to her armpits, meant she was clearly a model – Vittoria Ceretti, as it turned out.

My husband had wandered off to the bar so I was sitting alone when Mr Baseball Cap turned to me and said “Magical place isn’t it?  Just beautiful.’

‘It certainly is,’ I said, before asking, ‘ have you been here long?’.  ‘No, we got here today’.

Aaah, I replied, ‘Us too’.

I know, I know, not exactly scintillating script.  But I still wasn’t absolutely certain who I was speaking to.  He looked a bit jowly in real life and it was pretty dark and yes,  I should probably have eaten more carrots as a child.

My husband returned, totally oblivious to my potential starry moment.  I couldn’t stage whisper in case potential Leo heard me.  When they left I told him I think that was Leonardo DiCaprio.

I could tell he thought it was a case of mistaken identity – I do have form – I once started talking to Eric Clapton at Heathrow Airport, thinking he was a member of the Rolling Stones.

But next morning my husband bumped into Leo in the resort’s gift shop and confirmed my sighting.

Compared to all the wonderful animals and sights we saw on our trip, a movie star was an insignificant part but it did help me see how the other half lived and my envious friends are spending all their spare time entering competitions daily.

For me, it was a fantastic trip to mark a special birthday, and Leo, was an unexpected bonus.

So go on, give it a go.  It happened to me, it really could happen to you.