Flying with Kulula will give you a good laught, thats for sure! This is our diary from the trip to South Africa in Januari 2010.
You can hoover the pictures to view larger images.
If you have a small screen you migth not see the enlarged pictures as good.
Hi, I am Madeleine and this is the story from my first trip to South Africa. I have to admit that I do NOT like spiders, snakes and other little bugs so my sister wondered how I would survive this adventure. What I do love is the big animals especially the elephants.
I was so looking forward to see my first wild elephant, you can't imagine.
After we came back from Africa I found out about this David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust so now we are foster parents to a little baby elephant named Naipoki.
I took thousands of pictures and I think it is fun to share them. What joy will they be sitting on my computor. Someone that can't travel for any reason....take the trip with me , here and now.
Next time I will have a better camera and I will know more about taking good photos....love it!
Notes:
* 2012-01-23 I just started to upload videos in the diary so in time it will be a lot more of that :)
CAPE TOWN
Finally, we arrived to Cape Town. This orange little house
is where we will stay for a week now.
It was late and dark on the way into town from the airport but I could see all those little shacks along the road were people actually lived.
This second picture is typical for how the landscape in general looks in South Africa. Stunning and beautiful!
Back at the airport in Amsterdam a man started to talk to me while Jeff was at the toilet. He was an "immigrant-helper" (I don´t remember what he called it), however, he helped people from Dubai, Egypt and the Middle East.
He was a big talker so when Jeff came back he was still talking, telling me about child support and all kinds of support for immigrants. Now Jeff was beside me and I introduced him and we kept talking.....but, I did´nt tell him that Jeff wasn´t an immigrant like me.
I saw that Jeff´s face went more and more black because this guy was of course using the Canadian system . He taught people how to get the most out of the Canadian social and wellfare system, also how to declare their income to stay under the amount allowed for having all those kinds of welfare.
Looking at Jeff´s face I saw that it was better to end this conversaition. :) So we did....and headed for the gate. It was time for departure!
We woke up to a wonderful sunny day, 27 degrees and windy. That was perfect for us. We started with a nice breakfast
at this cosy little placed called Orange On Rose runned by Bruce, he was always there to help if you needed anything.
After breakfast we took a walk to see the city and to buy some things that we needed. I found some clothes for the coming-up bush-life
The first thing you notice in Cape Town is the huge Table Mountain rising behind the city. It is a beautiful sight to watch the clouds roll over the top of the mountain. Here is a little clip of that.
We were at a marketplace and walked around for a long time. There was so much to see and cute things to buy but knowing we had three more months in Africa we had to be careful buying anything. That had to wait until the end of the trip.
At the market there was this blind man playing his guitar on the street. He sang so beautiful into the guitar and played the chords with his thumb, amazing! I should have video taped that!
Back home we had a drink on the veranda, and what happens! Someone was hurt on the other side of the street. His arm is bleeding severely and his mum or sister or femle friend is shouting and arguing for at least half an hour at the guy who did this to him. Hmm....suddenly, just being some meters away from it felt safe......
In the afternoon we went down to the W&A Waterfront
a nice little harbour in the city. Some of the signs there told you to stay away from the seals because they bite. The seals jump up and lay on the floating docks. No need to worry....they stay there, it is not where people walk.
There were hundreds of restaurants and we had a lovely meal at an African one. Jeff had lamb and I had grilled ostrich, it was delicious.....so was the dessert, Malva pudding with ice cream ....omg it was so tasty...yum!!!
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We woke up at 12.00 so half of the day was already gone :( I figure it was the jet lag. We just had to change our plans a little. Was thinking of taking a bustour around Cape Town where you can jump off and on wherever you want because new buses arrives every 20 minutes. Now we will do that tomorrow instead.
We strolled around today and found some nice shops where we will go back and shop before we leave for Canada.
Jeff took his chance to show me all the nice shoe stores while it was Saturday afternoon and......oooops they were all closed! That means he think I have enouogh shoes.
On the TV news they say that it is more activities in water than usual regarding sharks!
One day before we arrived a lady was killed by a shark. Yet they had told her it was dangerous now, but she said she´d been swimming there all her life and didn´t listen to them. Don´t worry, we are not going to swim in that water ( not without a cage around us :))
Oh, we won´t swim in that water even WITH a cage because we wen´t to that very samebeach and the water was 12 degrees warm/cold!
We took that bustour today and saw the sites around Cape Town. One of those sites was the
, such a beautiful place. This is a nice picture from there.
We saw something funny on our way down to the V&A Waterfront this efternoon. A white older couple came walking, and a black little fellow ran beside them reading the news. They looked a little uncomfortable with the situation, but he looked very proud to be able to run and read at the same time, wiching for some coins in the end I guess. I suppose this wasn´t very common because a guy that was out jogging came up behind us and said -Did you see that? and smiled. Yes, that looked really funny, but it was a nice new way for a poor kid to try to earn some money.
This evening we went sailing outside the coast of Cape Town with a wooden sailboat named Maharani, built in 1965.
It was very windy when we came out of the harbour, and the skipper said it´s pretty common here. He asked me if I wanted to stear the ship for a little while, wich was fun but she was heavy to hold in this wind. In the background of the picture you can see the Tablemountain.
Some other couples from the Netherlands was also on the ship, and the ladies there managed to balance their little glasses with white wine through the whole ride. Waves was splashing in over us, bet that wine tasted salt in the end. That was pretty funny to see :)
We also had a little incident this evening coming back with a cab from the harbour. When I was paying the guy I first held the keys in my hand, then probably put them in my knees paying him. Then we left the cab, the cab went away, and we had no keys. It´s not nice to be standing in the dark in Cape Town, and not be able to get in. Huhhh! So we were lucky that our neighbours called a cab again, so we could go back where we first took this cab. We heard earlier that the drivers name was George (thank God for that, because there were hundreds of them), so we asked the guy that stod around all those cabs if he knew and could phone this George?
This whole thing was a big circus....the guy in the cab back to find the keys was funny and laughed all the time. While Jeff went out to ask about finding George and his cab I said to the taxidriver -"Now I really hope I DID left the keys in that cab...or my husband will go crazy", and he had another big good laugh.
Well, this guy Jeff talked to did know who Goerge was and he did have his phonenumber so in a minute or two George was back with the keys. Ah, I guess we were very lucky there! Then someone was shouting -Go and tip the guy!!! I ran out and tipped George. Came back.....then Jeff shouts -NO, not him, the other guy......ahhh......to late :)
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Today we are heading for Cape of Good Hope, I´m just writing on the website a little while Jeff went to get the car. It´s a little cloudy today so it will be nice. I´m prepared to face the baboons. Some guy at the market the other day told me that the baboons just comes up to you and say "- Boo", and then you will get scared and drop everything and run away. So I will have everything in my backpack, no bags in my hands that I can drop if I get scared :).
On the way there we stopped at the Boulders Beach where those small cute penguins
lives. They were nesting so you weren´t allowed to walk down to them, but we were pretty close anyway .Of course some guided tour with people was all over the place, and Jeff had to tell them what he thought about that! That's kind of Jeff's personality......to always express what you think! My personality is minding my own business more. I guess we are a good mix :)
It was many steps before we came to the top of Cape Point. The Cape of Good Hope is one of the most popular tourist attraction in Cape Town.
This is were the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet and the view is stunning.
Looking down from there we saw this! Amazing!
Guess what we met on the way back! Baboons.....they were all over the road and jumped up and down on the cars. You better had your windows up, because they jumped right at the window, trying to get in. And you don´t want a baboon in your car.....holy Molly!!
In the evening we went to see some of Jeff´s friends Sharmaine and Dale. There was an car accident on the road so it took us some time to get there. They made us a nice dinner and we had a lovely evening together with them. Hopefully they will be able to join us in the Kalahari next month. I would love to meet them again!
Spent the day driving around and visit some winelands. At Fairview we found those goats representing that they also made goatcheese on this farm. It was a beautiful, well taken care of place with a little restaurant and "vinprovning".
We stopped for lunch at Frechnook. Walked around and checked out the stores and found so much nice potteries, clothes and shoes.
Since I love shoes we or hmm I ended up with a new pair of shoes. And of course not ANY shoes. Those where Tsonga-shoes....handmade by people from a tribe (the first one in Africa that made shoes). Well, nowadays it is a brand and they make them in a factory......although handmade. They fitted my feet wonderfully and felt like when you put a smoth fine leather glove on your hand. I just couldn´t resist them :)
Tsonga Shoes USA a good introduction to the factory and the shoes they make.
Leaving Capetown
We are now packing and getting ready to leave Cape Town. Two days ago we booked tickets to Pretoria with the aircompany Mango, where we are going to meet with some other friends to Jeff, Sarie and Gerhard. They offered us to lend their bakkie (camping-jeep) to travel around South Africa. An amazing offer that made us so happy. It made everything so much easier. Jeff has been on the computor for months (back home) to check out cars to rent or cars to buy. We decided to buy a car and try to sell it before we goes back to Canada. Many on those websites did that and it seemed to be a market for those camping equipped cars. However, we changed our minds after Gerhard and Saries offer, so maybe next time we buy a car instead. And then we will know much better what we want, since we then already been out camping that way.
We arrived at the airport in Pretoria at 16.00 and Sarie and Gerhard was so kind to pick us up and let us stay with them.
After having a drink in their beautiful yard and been introduced to three dogs and two cats (real cuties) we headed for an Italian Restaurant and had a lovely meal. The owner there had a good sence of humor, talked a lot, presented the meny for us and sang a little in between. It was so very nice and brings a smile on my face just thinking of it.
Back at the house we fell asleep quite quick and had a real good nights sleep.
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PRETORIA
Today we are going camping at Serendipiti Game Lodge with Sarie, Gerhald and some of their friends over the weekend, so now we are packing againg :). Will be fun. Sari already bought all the food and we just have to come along. What a luxury for us, and how very kind of them to prepare all this.
We arrived later in the afternoon on a ocrared road full of impalas. That color is so beautiful! It was a "game-park" wich means it is a lot of wild animals (but not the big five) behind a fence.
Soon most of the people where gathered. A fire was lightened in the fireplace and it smelled so good of the wood they used.
The land is a huge area that you can go for hours off-road to try and spot the animals.
We unpacked our stuff and saw that a gecko already had made himself comfortable in our waterkettle. Sorry.... but he had to go.
Everyone brought their food to the tables around the fireplaces and started to barbeque. It was a cosy evening with so many new nice people to meet and talk to.
We could hear some animals now and then, and someone said -That´s a baboon, someone else said - Listen.... a cheeta! Even jaquals was heard. And on the way back to our place...pitchdark, only Jeff´s headlamp led the way, we could see at least 30 eyes glimmering in the dark. A herd of impalas was partying on the grass in front of our little ched. What a nice day this was!
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Seven o´clock we where already up again to go for a 2-hours hike. That early because it will be to hot later in the day. We put our hats on and off we went. Good that no-one told me about all the tics before.....because I might have stayed home then and missed this beautiful place up on a big hill with a beautiful waterfall. Allmost on top of the hill Susan sais -Madeleine look here! When I look at her and where she is pointing I see a huge thick thread ending up in a big cobweb, and I understand right away that this belongs to a BIG spider. And it was big! Luckily in my imagination it was 5 times bigger so when I finally dared to face the spider.....it was pretty ok (but still uhuuh the biggest I´ve seen in the wild). I think only my children know how "little" I like spiders (and snakes). It was a swetty but beautiful walk and it was so nice with a cold pop and a shower when we came back.
Jeff was unlucky and was stunged by a bee on his arm, so we better keep an eye on that so it doesn´t get infected.
After lunch we planned to go for a four-wheel off road trip that was supposed to take four hours. It was really rough roads in the bush and through the watercreeks, some places it was extremely steep up/down (at least for a newbee like me). But I enjoyed it very much, it was so fun, I found out that if you snatch the seatbelt so it locked and then "hang in it" that made it really comfortable to go steep downhill. On those pictures we had ran into a deserted jeep, that we had to go around. And as you see the "roads" was very rough.
Time just flew and soon we where back at the camp again.
Euforia golf club is one of the newest in South Africa. Since we were so close we took a drive to have a look at it. Annica Sörensson has been designing the courts here and a big painting of her is hanging in the reception.
A lot of houses are planned to be buildt around this corse and also on the montain above, overlooking the whole golf corse. A cable car will take those houseowners right down to the club-house. Pretty convenient!
Here is a nice picture of the group visiting the golfclub.
Now we have been shopping camping equipment and food for several days.
It is a lot to think of when you are packing for 9 weeks and thanks to Sarie and Gerard who took us under their wings, we will probably not miss out on anything! Thank you!! They borrowed us a lot of things and they gave us maps and all sorts of things we could have use for. I´m so overwhelmed over the hospitality they have shown us. Amazing people.
In the evening we had a nice dinner with Geritt, who is another friend of Jeff and also to Sarie and Gerard. Sarie had made an Afrikaan meal called Bebotie. It was delicious!! So was the wine Gerard! :)
Here is a picture on Sarie and her sweet maiden Betty. We decided to go and see Alida (Geritts wife) tomorrow. She couldn´t join us tonight because of illness, and of course we want to see her as well.
Last day of shopping and getting everything together. Tomorrow we are on our way to Kruger National Park. One of the things we havent found yet is a potty. The women here keep telling me I´ll need one because "you don´t want to go out to the toilett in the middle of the night among lions, hyenas and scorpions". So I have been looking for one with a lid on......or anything suitable with a lid on. Just impossible to find. There was a lot of plastic buckets or bowls with lids, but then the lid was colored and the bowl transparent. It´s not very appropriate I guess.
Today we acctually found a baby-potty but there was only pink ones. I don´t think I will enjoy walking to the public toilets with my pink potty :). So we had to find something else! Ended up with an ice-bucket. I don´t have to say more............. :)
Jeff´s arm has been very svollen for some days so he wen´t to a doctor yesterday to see that it wasn´t anything serious. Today it looks much better.
After leaving Pretorias shops for the last time we went back home with everything and then we took off to see Garitt and Alida. It was very nice to meet her, but sad to see that she was in so much pain. Hope she soon gets better.
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KRUGER NATIONAL PARK
This rainy day we took off for Kruger National Park. On the way we stopped at an Internetcafe´ for 30 minutes to check the e-mail. Thank you all for writing to us, it´s so nice to hear what happens back in Canada/Sweden as well. Didn´t have time to finish my site for uploading now, so it has to wait until next time we can get access to Internet. We also went in to a foodstore to by some drinks, when I spotted this guy and whisper to Jeff -"Look a masai!!" It was something else, and yes I thought a masai should look a little more elegant maybe :) Anyway, of course Jeff walks up to him and shake his hand and ask about this and that and also if he can take a picture of him and me. Yea rigth...how do I look!
Hm..ok, but when we stood there he started to do something on my back, so I was gone in a minute :)
By the way ....running around outside the stores I managed to step on the edge of the pavement, and "fell like an evergreen" (sort of swedish saying, means fell very straight down, like when you cut the tree down). And I did, and my handbag with the camera in it made a 360 in the air but some how I was aware of my precious camera and saved it in the last second from hitting the ground to hard.....pheeew. My knee was badly hurt though, so I have to open box nr.6 in the bukkie for the first time because that is the medical box. We have this box-system with black boxes in a big drawer, that seem to be common in camping-jeeps here. I´m very thankful that Sarie told me to write a list over what I put in those boxes or we would have gone crazy in one day. Now it took 3 days.....:) !
I think it is a "marriage-test" :), and Jeff keeps saying -Why don´t they come with transparent lids so you can see what´s in them? Yes, that´s a good question.
When we arrived to Kruger the first animal we saw after entering the park was my favourite, the
elephants (except for the worthogs that was puttering around already outside the gates). This first day we also saw wild dogs, approximately 20 or more, and they are pretty rare to spot, so I think we were very lucky :)
Ok..... first night in the camp. Of course I saw a big spider on my way to the public toilets (in the dark). In the washrom the ceiling was covered of cobweb so....no shower for me, just a quick pee and out! I was called chicken of someone I know, but think I need some days to adjust to this bushlife.
It rained through the night as well, and the tent had a "skylight" that made the night a wet night. That zipper was not made for keeping the rain out. However, we were very tired and after some adjustments we fell asleep.
Now Jeff and I have two different medications for malaria. I use Malanil, it´s more expensive (and safer) and I payed ca R 500 for 15 pills. You take 1 tablet before you enter the malaria area, and 7 after you left the area (and 1 each day your in the area). The two first days I got some headace and my tummy was a little upset.
Jeff use Mefliam and he payed about R 100 for them. He take one each week, and have to take them for 6 weeks. Those tablets can change your personality , especially if you are/have been depressed. Jeff has been using them two times before so he can feel safe taking them.
Packed our rooftent and headed north to the camp Lower Sabi. From the rooftent is a kind of drop-down-tent to the ground. When we lifted that up this morning this little bugger was under it
Worst of all, I was passing this thing at least twice without seeing it. Ahhh!! First I thought it was a little frog, it looked a little damp or wet, but looking closer it was more than a little frog. Jeff couldn´t save me, he was on the roof of the car packing the tent so I did the only thing I could do. I shot him........with my camera :) Here he is!
It was a cloudy day and very pleasant to drive and to spot animals. Was looking for the lions, but it didn´t seem to be the right day for that. But we saw a lot of elephants.....big ones.....they felt a little to big when Jeff backs up and park right in the way where this huge thing planned to pass the road.
Geeze my heart was beating fast when he was close, they are pretty impressive big when they are wild and that close to you! Birds, crocs, hippos, gnu´s and buffalos were also to see. If you go really slow, and with open window to listen and smell you are more likely to find them.
At the camp we met a Swedish girl (Hanna was her name, if I remember right) that was traveling with her Canadian friend. They were volontairs working in Strand outside Cape Town at a rescuing-center for cheetas, and had taken some time off to go to Kruger for some days. They also had a wet tent and decided to sleep in their car instead.
Jeff and I had a nice dinner at the restaurant in the camp because we came a little late and it was already dark before we got the tent up, and we thought we needed a little treat.
Oh...yes, by the way......manage to cut my finger today. I´m so glad I have my medicalbox :)
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Continued north today, to the camp Satara. It´s a very nice camp, the best so far in Kruger (= almost no bugs on the toilets). This day was an amazing day mostly for Jeff (because he has never seen it on any of his trips here), but also for me. Many of those we have talked to here in the camps has never ever seen the leopard in a tree.
We did today !! Such a beautiful sight. We wached him for 10-15 minutes then he took off, guess because it started to be crowded with cars .
First we spotted some leopard tracks in the riverbank sand, so we thought we knew wich side of the road the leopard would be. Then we went very slow with the car along the site where people saw him yesterday, and THERE HE WAS, hanging very relaxed in the tree. Beautiful! In the evening we made some stirfried chicken and veggies, it was really delicious. While cooking I had to get something from the fridge and to reach to see what´s in it, you need a little stand to get up on. Standing there digging in the fridge I happened to drop the pretty heavy lid in my head, and Jeff was just coming up to me and saw that I became a little dizzy, so he put his arm around my back. -" Darling.....are you nocking yourself out with the fridge-lid? Couldn´t do anything else than laugh....! Camping is not my natural environment ;)
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This day was also totaly amazing. We saw two more leopards, just a little pitty that both days when we saw the leopard it was cloudy weather (thinking of the photographs).
We where caught in a herd of elephants, but that wasn´t too funny. I have to admit I was scared for a while.
When we sat and watched the females with their babies eating and slowly moving from one side of the road to the other. I thought we had them all to the right, when I hear something in the bushes from the left, but I can´t see anything. I hear it several times....Jeff tells me to keep an eye one that that side....and guess if I did keep an eye!!! And there HE comes.....the big male! Ahh my heart almost stopped! Seconds after, another big elephant shows up in front of us, so now we are surrounded of elephants and I said to Jeff -Can we please, please go? - Nope, can´t go now.....relax!
This little clip is from that experience and I got pretty nervous there for a while haha. You can hear that I'm constantly whispering and the camera goes all around the place trying to figure out how "trapped" we were :) The last thing you hear is Jeff saying -They are behind us too!
Another amazing experience was when we were watching hyenas by the road. Jeff notice that they actually have the den right there, under the road. So he keeps an eye on the opening and for a minute a black little hyena baby crawls out to her mother (laying right outside the den) and licks her lips and crawl back in. I don´t have Jeffs pictures on my computer, but will try to get this picture, don´t have time right now.
Here is some of the animals we have seen.
Tomorrow it´s time to start the trip to the Kalahari. We will first go back to Sarie and Gerhard in Prettoria because some updates with the track-system of the car we borrowed, had to be done. The security-thinking here is way beyond what I am used to.
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THE GREAT DRAKENSBERG ESCARPMENT
We left Kruger Park through the Orpen gate and headed for The Great Drakensberg Escarpment. On the way out of the park I suddenly "finally" needed a toilet. Jeff who had been so careful driving around the animals on the road, even stopped and put the car sideways so no one could run over a cameleont while he was crossing, now had to go a little faster. A big hen/chicken with a red head (a kind of bird that use to stay to long in front on the road, and Jeff use to slow down for it) tried to "chicken" Jeff, but I bet she won´t do it again. She ended up featherless on her bum. I thought (looking in the sideview mirror to see if the chicken made it) it was a pile of dry leaves flying up in the air when we passed, but Jeff said -No my love, that´s her feathers. Omg...poor poor little hen! At least she survived :)
It was a magnificent view up on those mountains and one of the most beautiful areas I´ve ever travelled in.
When we were that high up we actually drove through the clouds. The side of the roads up there were covered with white lillies,
and since today is the anniversary of my grandfather´s death, and tomorrow my mother´s, it felt like it was for a reason we travelled those roads right there and then. Wanted to call my grandmother as soon as we come down to the civilization and tell her about this experience.
We had planned to find a camp or an inn at Dullstroom. When we arrived we parked outside a little shoppingplaza, and stepped out of the car. Here comes three people walking against us and Jeff ask them if they know a campingsite nearby. We start to chat a little and we end up staying with them in Sally´s cottage.
It was a very nice place and a real treat for us now used to damp sheets and pillows, spiders and you name it in the washrooms.
It became such a nice evening with Sally and her two friends Ann and Ron. Sally lived between Pretoria and Johannesburg and Ann and Ron outside Cape Town. We had lots to talk about and time just flew as it does when you have fun. Lovely, lovely people and we will try to visit them again (and also meet Sally´s husband who wasn´t there) at the end of our trip.
Not much to write about this day. Was driving from Prettoria to Upington. It was almost eleven hours of driving. We stopped a few times, and I found some phoneboxes, so now I wanted to phone grandma. Took out my phonecard that I bought in Pretoria and headed towards the phones.......but inside the box.....no phone!
In Upington every guesthouse was booked, beacause the river flooded and people came to take pictures of it, there was also a lot of Germans from BMW testing cars in the Kalahari. We found a room and we managed to go online for 15 minutes.....so we could at least read some e-mails. I couldn´t update my website here because they payed for Mb per month, and the owner was afraid I would have used up to much by uploading pictures.
We took a walk to find a phone so we could call home. Grandma was home and happy to hear from us. Bobbi & Tiny, dad, sister and my kids....none was home, guess Friday evening wasn´t a good day to phone :) Will try again tomorrow!
KALAHARI, Nossob camp
We left Upington at 7.00 am and arrived at 4.00 pm at Nossob camp in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (Kalahari), so it was a long drive. Charmaine and Dale was already there since yesterday,
It was so nice to meet them again. We also met Helmut and Eva on the road coming here. They where also staying at Nossob .....what a coincident!
Not as much games as in Kruger so far, though the first we saw on our way to the camp was three cheetas (gepard in Swedish) under a tree.
Peaceful, beautiful sight. Wild animals seem to have a special peace and calmness in them that you can feel whatching them, although most of them are always watching out for preditors, they are yet peaceful.
Nossob was the best camp so far for me, because the washroom had real cielings, no spiders or bugs. BUT.....first evening a Puff adder (deadly poison snake) was crawling between Charmain´s feet under the table. After that it felt creepy to walk to the pool because you had to go through snakebush, I walked close behind Jeff ready to jump on his back if a snake would show up ;), and Dale walked close behind Charmaine :)!
This night we have been woken up many times by the lions roaming and growling. It sounds so close, like they were inside the camp so first night it happened it was a little scary. Actually they can be as far as up to 12 km away. Now it is just amazing to hear this laying in your tent. You have to experience this to understand how loud it sounds, and how small you feel. When you drive around in Kalahari you are not allowed to leave your vehicle. There is a few toilets (far, far apart) and they are lion-proof.
They have built like a cage you step into before you enter the toilet. You drive your car as close as possible, and inside you have to check for snakes. In my toilet there was a gecko.....I wondered why Jeff ran in to my toliet ahead of me, it was to check for snakes (but he didn´t tell me). Learned that later from Charmaine.....that those toilets can host snakes. However..I´m not afraid of geckos, so he didn´t bothered me......Jeff looked pretty surpriced!
Oh, I have to tell that yesterday we saw totaly ten lion, among them a big male lion that had killed a gemsbok on his own. It was 45 degrees celsius and he was so full and so warm.
People that we met (you stop and talk to many of the cars you meet to check if they have seen anything of interest) had spotted him and warned us that he was a little aggressive if you came to close to his food. But when we saw him he was lying in the sand breathing heavily, watching his carcass. Some jackals were trottering around in the background but didn't dare to steel anything from this guy!
At least they considered to do it, I wouldn´t :) We also saw one very special lioness, it looked like she had japanese eyes and she had a very confident appearence. We named her Poki after Pocahontas with the same eyes. If I see her again I will sertainly know it is her. When she came walking she looked like she was the queen of Kalahari. Beautiful!
Right now we are on our way to Mata Mata camp in Kalahari together with Charmaine and Dale. Feels good to leave "Puff adder -camp" for now, but I will probably come back one day. They all seem to do. Even Dale who also is a chicken when it comes to snakes ;) I´m glad I wasn't the only one ......
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KALAHARI (Mata Mata camp)
Early this morning we took some beautiful pictures of the sunrise in Kalahari, such amazing colors!
Today we saw a cheetakill! A mother and her almost grown up cubs killed a springbok in just about 20 seconds. Jeff and I managed to film he whole thing and geeeze it was exiting! We spotted those three cheetas walking south and we could see they were in a hunt mode.
8.55 this springbok days was over. It felt sad when they brought him down, but the "mother-cheeta" had a hold of his throuth and strangeled him quickly, so it was over in no time.
Charmaine told us that when a springbok feels threatend/hunted it open up his fur at the back and it is totaly white, as you can see on this picture very clearly. It also gives out a smell of sweet honey.
Two evenings in a row a lioness has come down to the waterhole right outside Mata Mata camp. We could watch her from our camp! That was an amazing feeling to be "in a cage in the wilderness" looking at the real life outside.
One hyena was also walking up and down the fence, and they are not nice to have that close. A lady told Dale that she had thrown some bones over the fence, which is totaly forbidden. The day before she borrowed Jeff´s card-reader for her photos and guess if she could borrow it the day after Jeff found out she had fed the hyena? Nope. In every camp you can read signs "Don´t feed the hyenas! By doing that you are signing their death certificate. Hyenas to close to the camps has to be destroyed, because they become dangerous for people."
We saw this lady at one of the waterholes taking photos of three lions. She was as Jeff called it "All over the place". She climbed up through her sunroof (also totally forbidden :))on the car, piled up sandbags and camera equipment. Dropped the sandbags outside the car, went down and OUT of the car to get it. As a visitor you are supposed to not even hang an arm outside your window!
Jeff, I and people in four other cars forgot all about the lions and just stared at this "all over the place-woman".
I can tell it has been so hot at Mata mata, 46 degress the hotest day. But they had the best pool, the nicest in Kalahari because they have a creepy crawler that constantly clean the pool. We spent many hours in it after the gamedrive in the mornings.
Yesterday Charmaine and Dale left for Cape Town and today we also left Mata Mata camp. We went to stay one night at the main camp Twee Rivieren. On the way back we saw some sad things. First we saw a wounded lion at Craig Lockhard´s waterhole.
lip was hanging and he missed many teeth, some were broken of. We think he was either in a fight or kicked in his mouth by an animal he may have been attacking. He was lying under a tree close to the water and when some wilderbeast´s where trying to get a drink he raised his head and they started to blow their noses telling the others ....danger ahead! They backed of, the lion strolled down to the waterhole to have a zip, went back to his tree and back to sleep again.
A whole heard of wilderbeast´s (gnu in Swedish) had to walk a long long way to the next waterhole. I felt so sorry for them !
Next thing we saw was only 4 km before Twee Rivieren,
two springbock´s had been figthing this morning (Helmut and Eva told us because they where filming this when we came) and now one of them was dead, laying on the ground. The other one was standing up with his head down, their horns where stucked together. So sad to see without being able to help.
We took a little gamedrive before we left for the westcoast because we wanted to see how the stucked springbok was doing. On the way there we saw a wilderbeast killed, and a little later the calf running around alone and confused! Arriving to the springbok´s we can see one is still standing there but now the jackals are eating on the dead one.......uhhuh poor guy (if he gets weak enough the jackals can start eat him to, and they won´t care to kill him first). He can move his head a little ....guess the carcass is a little lighter. But at the same time he look weeak and tired, so maybe there is no hope. Another team is there filming this sad scene. We had to leave but we will try to find out if he made it or not.
We packed our tent and picked up Dale and Charmaines bumper that someone found on the road, and headed west.
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PORT NOLLOTH
Now we are at Port Nolloth picking diamonds :) Such a nice place, with a beautiful view over the sea. 25 degrees and windy......ahh it´s exactly what we needed now after those burning hot weeks in the parks. Yesterday it was 52 degrees
and I wasn´t much of a human being. I was sitting still and it dripped from my fingers. I was moody, gasping for air and didn´t wan´t to talk to anyone. When I´m like that it means it is toooo hot :) Sorry but we didn´t take a picture of me with dripping fingers :)
So it was wonderful to come to Port Nolloth.
Fresh cool air and cold water in the tap when it should be cold. In the parks you almost burned your fingers when you opened the tap for "cold" water.
The boats in the harbour here are not fishingboats, they are diamond-diving boats.
We met one of the divers when we arrived. He came walking down to the harbour and shouted at us - Hey, what is Team Cival? It sais Team Cival on the bukkie (the truck), and we had to tell the story about this man named Cival and that he had a terrible accident and about Sarie that now work together with him. He told us his name was George Moyses and his family way back came from Norway. He also told us he dived for diamonds.....but unfortunately he couldn´t sell us any :).
The divers go down with a big hause and suck the diamondgravel from the seabed up on to the boat. Everything is strictly controlled and you can not sell or buy diamonds here. If someone offers to sell you a diamond on the street it is highly illegeal and most likely a fake. We have been told that the guards at the camp we are staying at have found diamonds in the sand, so guess if we keep our eyes open ;)
It´s very windy here now, and we have a hard time cooking with our gas burner. Tonight I burned two fingers and every little hair on that hand, trying to increase the flame just a little. It´s tricky to adjust it and Jeff have been cursing and svearing every time it backflames. His hand is also without hair now :)
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MALARIA
We have been talking to many people about malaria pills during our stay in Africa. Only one person told us she would take the tablets, because if you once got the malaria, you´ll have it for life. Unless you get the worst kind, then you are in for a quick death. But most of the local people doesn´t seem to use them. First of all, the pills are really not good for your body. Second is that if you get malaria, the meds you need to get better might not work if you had the malaria tablets.
They all have their own secrets for what to use instead. One is drinking tonic that has the substance quinine in it, and just drink it when you´re in malaria-areas (it´s ok to add some gin to it ). Another method is to take 10 drops of 3% hydroperoxide in a glass of water every morning your in malaria-areas. We found it at a health store but they had never heard about using it for malaria. So I asked for what purpose did they sell it? Answer was cancer! Hmm.....ok!
However, the conclusion now is........The malaria pills do more harm than good if you listen to the locals, they never use them.
I also have to add that we met an Irish guy that got Malaria even though he took Malanil tablets, and we heard that is common. They need to come up with a new sort of tablets before it´s any use buying and using them.
Today Pieter and Petra, our new neighbours at the camp, took us to Port Alexander. We took a quick turn into Namibia as well over the Orange river and had ad a coffe in Port Alexander and bought some big
garlicbread for tonight. On the way back we stopped at the harbour in port Nolloth and bought a fresh snouk (a fish) to barbeque later in the evening.
Pieter and Petra is from Bela bela. We happen to have a picture from that town because this funny sign was there and I had to jump out and take a photo of course.
In Africaan when they really mean something they say it twice.....like "We have to go now now.", and I guess this sign means that you REALLY have to stop!
They have been coming back here for vacation one month every year, for 20 years.
Petra prepared this fish with only aromat and mayonaisse, a reciepe she got from another lady at this camp years ago. The snouk is a dry fish and the mayo keeps it from drying out when you barbeque it.
It was so delicious and we had a really nice evening .......oops Jeff just came in, we have to empty the tent. The wind is getting stronger and we have to move it to a better place.
Back again.....we decided to not move anyway, just hope it doesn´t get worse than this.
HONDEKLIPBAI/STRANDFONTEIN
On the road again..........said goodbye to Pieter and Petra and thank you for everything, I really hope we meet you again!!!
Oh, almost forgot! I was taking a picture on the light over the sea (like a bow) and we where just about to leave. In the same moment as
I click to take this photo Jeff falls of the truck....he was climbing up on the roof to do something. Since he is like 25, slim and muscular he didn´t hurt himself, so lets take a look at how an atlethic guy falls of a truck :)
I really wanted to see Hondeklipbai, but it was like they all have told us, not much there, although there was a beautiful view over the sea. At the "city"-sign it seems like people stopped to write their autograf on it. It is not a place you wan´t to camp in! It smelled rotten kelp and the campsite was terrible. We went out on the cliffs and took some nice photos.
On our way out of town we saw this exhibition with paintings in a little "garden". We stopped and looked and the artist told us his life story while he showed us his paintings.
I ended up with a cute little painting of the flower-season in that area.
At 5.30 pm we arrived to Strandfontein. I guess this will be one of the most beautiful places we camped at in South Africa.
Woke up and it is not sunny??? A thick mist was staying over the beach almost all day, but it was nice anyway.
After our dinner someone came knocking on our table and presented himself as Theuns Duvenhage. He was curious of where we came from, what "Team Cival" was and of the cars canopy because hes was made by the same company. We had a nice little chat and he invited us to come and stay with them on their farm (he was a butcher). He lived in Malmesbury not far from Strandfontein, so we might drive past there in a day or two.
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Today we have been travelling down the coast through many small places, and my favourit was Paternoster.
On the way we saw this funny sign.
Can you guess what it means?
We stayed at Yzerfontain (also a very nice place) camping and Jeff called the manager here Mr. Happy.......he wasn´t happy at all of course. Maybe the sign belonged to him ;)
However, it was a very nice camp.
Today we visited Johan and Dawn in Moorreesburg, parents to Lana (another friend of Jeff from SA) who we will visit a little later. They where so sweet and it was a real pleasure to meet them.
We decided to go and see Theuns and Sophia from Malmesbury that we met in Strandfontein.
Theuns was kind and came and met us in town so we could follow him to their farm. First we did some shopping, met his brother who gave us wonderful meat from his meatstore, and then we headed back to the farm. It was a nice place and they had a braii-house that was very cosy with all kind of memories on the walls and in the ceiling. Sophia made us a lovely meal and again we had a lovely evening with new-found friends.
Woke up early because the rooster on this farm is a little to early with his "kuckeliku" (they told us he use to start at 3.00 am) ......but after a while both me and Jeff got used to his sound and fell asleep again.
The roads are full of vehicles with grapes so it is for sure harvest-season now.
We stopped at a winery named Saronberg and I tasted some wine there and looked at beautiful art on the second floor. Ended up with 2 bottles of this nice wine.
Then we went to a winery owned by a swedish couple, Lindes Winery. It looked very private when we drove up to the house, but we were told they where very friendly people so we kept going. No one was at the house. Jeff went to the back and found an open door at the basement. He heard someone coughing and shouted -Hallo! Soon a man came down the stairs and and Jeff came out and waved at me to come in. The gentlemans name was Greg (in Sweden he was called Olle) and he was from Härjedalen in Sweden,84 years old. He and his wife started with a wineyard in California US, and in the last 12 years they been living 6 months there and 6 months in South Africa. We would have loved to met his wife as well, but she wasn´t home at the moment. He pored some wine for me to taste ( tasted very good) and we had a nice little chat. Once a year he goes back to Sweden for moose hunting.
I spotted a lot of Swedish things in the little room we sat in. First thing I saw was the "midsommarstång", on the top of the shelf.
I bought a bottle of Linde´s wine and we took some pictures. Greg told us this beautiful farm is for sale. It is to much work for them at their age, and they have plans to move back to California. He told us they pick the grapes between 9.00 pm and 5.00 am. But we have seen a lot of black people picking grapes all day here. That must be really hot...phuuu!!
This night we ended up way up in the montain at the Klondyke camp in the middle of no where (almost). We payed 70 Rand for the campsite but when we came to the site the sky was dark and it started to rain. So insted we rented one of the three cottage that was on the camp. This one was called the Cherry Cottage
because we was on a cherry farm. To bad the season for cherrys is in Nov-Dec ( we both love cherrys).
It felt so good to come inside a house when it was wet and rainy outside and there was a fireplace that we lit up immediately. When I was in the washroom Jeff spotted a little intruder running on the kitchen floor, he grabbed the newspaper and hit him hard. But not hard enough to kill him. I came back and saw this little mouse laying on the newspaper and Jeff is taking him outside. His legs where moving slowly and Jeff felt so sorry for him. We both hoped that he would make it and feel better the next day. However, when I went out the next day to check on him, I couldn´t find him outside. It turned out that upon the big bang in his head he also got a flight over the tree tops into the bushes.....so I never found out this little guys destiny. Ah..shame, as Charmaine use to say!
I have to admit it was a little spokey to be alone out there....no one else was camping and just 50 meter from the cottage was a little graveyard. The cottage had burgaler bars on the windows but not everywhere, so I prepared for the night with a little kitchen knife beside my bed and
I gave Jeff the fireplace poker. Now I noticed that the little mouse had been visiting my bedside table.....ummm.
Jeff fell asleep right away, but soon after I heard footsteps outside. I pulled Jeff´s arm and whispered to him "-Someone is walking around the house". He said he couldn´t hear it and kept sleeping. ).
I heard it several times during the night and was ready for a fight. Finally I drifted off into a peaceful sleep and I did wake up the next day alive :)
After breakfast we headed for Tableview where Charmaine and Dale live. Finally they will get their bumper back :).
They live in a gated community and you have to give your name and the number on the licensplate at the gate and they call to check if we are expected!
Dale had made a nice chicken curry and we had a lovely meal with good wine.
Next day Dales sweet daughter Ashleigh came to stay over night (If you think my english suddenly improved it´s because Ashleigh is helping me at the moment :). Here is a picture from our "braii" in their garden that evening.
Today Dale and Charmaine took us around Tableview. It is a suburb to Cape Town and such a beautful place.
Cape Town with Tableview mountain in the background.We walked along the beach and there was many nice shops. They had everything there, so we spent half the day checking out the stores and had some lunch.
In the evening we went to a Sushi restaurant and ahhh that was good !! Then we went back to the beach to visit a new bar/restaurant called Moyo that was built last year.
By the entrance you could sit with your feet in the water, it looked really tempting.The interior was of an African design, very cosy and when you ordered your food or drinks they painted your face. Charmaine and I think she did a good job!
The facepaint was cool!
Jeff said -No way they paint my face! Look how cute he became ;)
It was something out of the norm for sure. Every corner was decorated with care and a lot of thought. You felt happy being in that enviroment.
If anyone is going to Tableview you have to visit this place! Thank you Charmaine and Dale for a wonderful and fun weekend!
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OUDTSHOORN
Arrived to Lana, Etienne and their two little girls Anke and Karla the 28 of Feb. Etienne and Lana are Jeffs oldest South African friends that he met in 1995 on a bus from Istanbul, Turkey to Athens, Greece. When we stopped at their gate we heard a strange nocking sound from the engine. Etienne said -No problem, we bring it in to the shop Monday morning! Etienne and Lana own the GM car dealership in Oudtshoorn.....so it was a good place to break down :)
It turned out to be the fan that was broken and they had to order a new original fan from George.
When the car was getting fixed, we took a walk in town. First we needed money, so we headed for the bank. This bank will never have Jeff as a customer again because the maschine ate his card and we had to wait for hours to get it back. It just suddenly got a blue screen and that was it!!! Jeff didn´t want to leave the mashine in case it would start to spit out his money and as a bonus his card ;) So I had to bring out people to the mashine to talk to Jeff.
After an hour the mashine decided to reboot.......and the bankmanager tried with her bank card to see if it worked and to be sure that no one could get Jeff´s card by using the machine. Now we decided that she should phone us when the guy arrived (travelling from another city) to get Jeffs card out. So at least we could go for a coffe while waiting. An hour later Jeff got his card back.
This was a hot day and when we came back home to Etienne and Lana the pool was tempting.
Here is Anke, Jeff and Karla inte their pool.
I know Jeff was happy to see the girls again because he has talked alot
about them, and I think they were happy to see him too.
Next day the car was fixed and they had also washed and vacuumed it, both we and the bukkie was very happy with that! Thank you so much!!
One of the days in Outdshoorn Jeff and I went to an elephant park called Buffelsdrift. First we had a ranger that took us around the park and told us about plants and animals, and he knew a lot so it was very interesting.
After that we went to see and feed the elephants and I´m so glad they were only 7 years old because I felt pretty tiny between them. However it was extremely nice to be this close to them.
I was surprised over how nice the toilets were at Buffeldrift, so I had to take a picture in there as well.
STORMSRIVIER
Time to say farewell again! Hope we see you soon! And thank you Karla for the lovely earings you made for me!
This night we spent in Plettenberg in a very nice camping called Keurbooms, and early next morning we kept heading for the Baviaanskloof. On the way we went down to see the
Stormsrivier and decided to spend a night there because it was so beautiful with the turquoise sea.
Huge waves were rolling all the time and splashed over the cliffs, an endless theatre of the sea. We took a little hike to see a waterfall but Jeff was walking in flip-flops so we had to turn when it become more rocky. That made us be back in time to watch this fantastic sunset.
BAVIAANSKLOOF
This was a beautiful drive in between the mountains. We stayed at the Doringskloof Bush Camp. A very nice little place with a little pond in the middle.
After chatting a little with the owner Chris, he asked us to come and see his new buildings done in a traditional local peoples way. So next morning we went to his farm and he took us around to show what he was doing.
It was a huge farm that has been in the family for a long time and it is Chris and his brother who runs it now. Those new buildings was jet another way for people to come and stay in the Bavianskloof. The wiev from here was more than fantastic.
While we were at this camping a little "African wildcat" (but very tame) stayed with us. He was blind on his left eye, and we wished we could have taken him with us home. Such a sweetie. We named him Tiny because he was pretty small and very cute ;)
The second half of Baviaanskloof was now and then pretty rough. Signs along the road warned for "DANGEROUS MOUNTAIN ROADS AHEAD".
We were climbing mountains up and down and up on the top where you certainly don´t want to meet other cars we met a caravan of 4x4 ´s and had to stop at the worst place out on the edge of the mountain. My first thought which also slipped out of my mouth was.....-Wait, I want to get out of the car first! ...and Jeff just looked at me -Now?
Ehh, no it was just to sit and wait for the cars to pass. I did stick my camera out of the window to take a photo of the steep mountain we were standing on. Else it was ok to drive there as long as we were alone on the road.
ADDO ELEPHANT PARK
Arrived to Addo Elephant Park late, and the camp at the park was full so we stayed in Orange Elephants Backpackers in Addo village instead. Here we met an Irish man that told us Lesotho was so beautiful and worth a visit, so we decided to go there after the Elephant park.
It wasn´t called elephant park for nothing. There was a lot of them and since it was hot days while we were visiting we could always find them at the waterholes. Groups of elephant were coming and others were leaving. We could sit there for hours. It is so entertaining to watch them socialise and play. And how patience they are waiting for the "biggest bull" to leave and give room for the others (if it´s a small hole), hours of waiting!
We managed to come pretty close to those little worthog-creatures. They were also funny to study, have some awsome movies of one of them sliding down in the mud into a small waterhole occupied of two big male elephants.
This is also a nice picture..... I think she use Lancome's new facemask!
We saw some lions and their victims as well. Big surprice when we were watching two elephants at a waterhole and suddenly four lions just walked in from behind our car and tried to get some water. They had to wait until the elephants left and then it was only mud left....poor guys, look at their lips after drinking here.
We spent three days in this park. Then we headed for Lesotho. Had to stay over night in Queenstown......nothing to recommend. It was overpriced and low standard. It is a stopover for buissnespeople travelling between Johannesberg/Pretoria to Durban, therefore the prices.
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LESOTHO
At the border to Lesotho everything went smoth except when we were leaving. Suddenly a guy shows up behind the car and ask how I am? I tell him that I´m fine and ask him if he works there ( because he looked like those who comes up and want money from you)? I probably smiled at the same time.......not good!
He now stare me in the eyes and ask if I find something funny? And I say- No, there is nothing funny here at all (Uuups)!
He turnes to Jeff and ask if we have anything to declare ( he´s the customsofficer in a t-shirt ) and then he wonder whats in those blue jerry cans on the roof. Jeff explain that we had water in them for the Kalahari desert and that they are empty now. Soon he gets a little friendlier and we end up sitting in his office watching him draw two maps of where we should go in Lesotho (took 45 minutes). Very kind of him, but it is almost 2.30 pm and we want to be at Malealea before it gets dark ( it´s not safe to drive around here in the dark ). So when he was finished, we felt stressed to get going.
Finally on the road again we understood that this will take time.
It´s not him on the picture, those are the police officers where we left South Africa.The gravel roads was terrible and there was a lot of animals on the roads.
They have had a lot of rain and no one cares to fix the roads until the rainy season is over. When it rains here the soil get washed away, leaving the rocks on the road, and sometimes a deep rut.
However this country is beautiful with stunning views wherever you go.
Was just reading through some parts of this site because my oldest son Marcus said -Mom, your english isn´t to good, but it is nice reading it. What does Jeff´s relatives say?
They say keep up the good work (thanks for that :)).
I´m always in a hurry writing this, so it is what it is. Takes a lot of time to handle all the pictures and find out what to use or not. So far we have taken approximately 5000 photos (and a lot of videos) and travelled 11 000 km. BUT......I found that I wrote that the Swedish man Greg went to Sweden for mouse hunt! Sorry for that! Of course it should be moose hunt. Some may have had a good laugh there :).....it´s on the house!
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Malealea Lodge
When we finally arrived to Malealea Lodge
it was getting dark and we rented a little roundavel because we were tired and hungry and didn´t want to start all the hassle with putting up the tent now. It was a treat! Really nice and clean and so nice to have our own shower. We stayed there for three nights.
Next day we took a walk with Victor around the little village. The lodge arrange so the older kids take tourists for walks for a small amount of money, and some of the money goes to a trustfond where they collect money for the Malealea village. When we visited the school it turned out that one of those two buildings was built by money donated from visiting tourists.
The teatcher showed us their books and told us a little about their work with the kids. Today most kids were at home because yesterday they celebrated Moschoeschoe´s Day and thats why we saw hundreds if not thousands of people walking along the roads when we were driving to Malealea. So the children were tired from walking for many hours yesterday.
Another interesting meeting was at the Musi family farm, where we met with the wife to the man who started to do something about the erosion in Malealea.
Heavy rain created deep "dongas" (ravines), so people had to walk long long distances to get to the other side of it. For the Musi family the donga appeared just between the house and their fields, and because of that they had to walk 3 km instead of 25 meters to get there. She took us around her properties and showed all the work he did to keep the soil on their land. Incredible one man´s work!
Every evening at 6.00 pm a choir and a band came from the village and played at the lodge. They played on homemade instruments and have performed in the UK and Australia.
The choir had beautiful strong and clear voices, so it was a pleasure to listen to them all. Funny though when the big peacock´s flew up on the roof just behind where they performed and started to sing along.
I did a little visit with the sangoma (witchdoctor/healer) in the village, because I find that a little funny. First he threw some bones and shells in a circle on the floor and after him I did the same. Then he told me about my lucky future.
Here is the roads we went (green) in Lesotho for those who are interested!
We had planned to take a ponyhike this morning to a waterfall but it was heavy clouds on the sky so we decided to leave Malealea and spend the rainy hours in the car instead of on a horse back.
It wouldn´t for sure had been on this horse, it was to skinny! The boy in this picture is wearing a Lesotho-blanket. It´s very common in Lesotho, especially used by the herd-boys that walks with the animals high up in the mountains. In winter they get snow up there and those blankets are thick and warm, so I guess it´s a good thing to bring. Else they seem to live up there with almost nothing.
We could see those tiny little cottages on the hills where they also could gather their animals for the night.
It was a long and rough road through Lesotho. We stayed over night in Marakabei where we had the best chicken-curry ever.....made by Steve!
We were on the road early as usual to try to get to the Sani Pass in time. We thought the border closed at 16.00 but it turned out being at 18.00 nowadays. Our map was from 2007.
Wherever we came there was children along the road that wanted sweets or money. They could see us coming with the car from far away along the mountain hills (wasn´t many cars on those roads in a day). So they ran and ran and when we passed they wanted something from us......especially sweets.
If they didn´t get it they turned angry and screamed ....GO...or throwed rocks after us! I found it very unpleasant. We had brought some lollipops that we gave them in the beginning, but along our trip it was thousands of kids that wanted something and I also realised that it is wrong to give them anything, because the tourist that comes here and don´t give.....will be treated bad. It is better to donate a little amount of money at the lodges you stay at (if possible).
Just before we arrived to the Lesotho border at Sani Pass we saw this whole rainbow.
Beautiful....but it also ment rain all the way down the Sani Pass, and we couldn´t see more than 15 meters ahead. This was supposed to be the most stunning wiev you could imagine and it is the Southern Africas highest point. Going down/up the Sani Pass is called "riding the dragon". It is very steep with hairpin corners.
For us it was rainy, misty and slippery so Jeff had to go really slow, afraid of loosing the grip and start sliding down with our top heavy vehicle. It took almost 1,5 hour to get down that mountain, and we had to stop at a backpackers place (the first place we found), because it was again getting late.
Our plan is to go to Hluhluwe Umfolosi Game Park tomorrow......now it´s nice to go to bed after a rough, wet and pretty adventurous day´s drive.
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Hluhluwe Umfolosi
Now we have been in this beautiful big-5 park a few days. It is 96 000 hectares and is worldrenowned for saving the white rhino (about 200 in the park) from possible extinction and also home to the largest black rhino population in Africa.
So we have seen a lot of rhinos here.
But we also managed to get chased by a huge bull elephant three days ago. That was the second scariest happening in my life so far.
The signs at the entrance gate says to stay at least 50 meters from the elephants because here they are a little aggressive.
We came to close to him because he was just around the corner on the road. Jeff stopped, picked up his camera (of course) because he was big and pretty close, and took some pictures.
The bull started to walk towards us and Jeff started to back up the narrow road. As soon as he started to back up the bull started to run and I started to have a hard time breathing. It felt like I was thrown into a movie. Jeff tried to back up
with the sidemirrors while keeping an eye on the bull charging us. He drove off the road a little and had to stop because we hit some small trees. When the bull was a few meters in front of the car he stopped and trumpeted with his trunk......I was prepared to die!
Now Jeff had to make a three point turn in front of the bull. Time stood still and all kinds of terrifying pictures ran through my head. It felt like forever before we had the bull behind us instead of in front of us. The blood slowly came back into my veins and I couldn´t help crying of relife.
Back at
Hluhluwe backpackers, David´s Place place where we are staying now, Allan told us that it was a mock charge. If the bull had ment serious business he had lowered his head, rolled up his trunk, and then we had been in real trouble. Good to know next time it happens, I bet I will feel much safer :) However...... it will be a good story to tell my grandchildren one day ;)
David´s place is 1,5 km from the parks Memorial gate, and the only place to camp close to the park. Inside the park it is only cottages to rent.
Jeff stayed here four years ago and remembered David as a very nice guy. We have had a nice time here, cooking and eating together with the backpackers. Another new experience for me. Tonight we will have "potjie". Allan is cooking for us. It is a African meat and vegetable dish made in a big black iron pot on a braii (barbeque).
That was it for this update......talk to you soon. Cheers!
Thembe Park.
We have decided to go back to Kruger ( this time without expensive malariatablets), and have a last nice week there. After that it is time to go back to Pretoria to
leave the truck and then to Cape Town to fly home.
On our way north we will pass Thembe Park and they have the biggest tuskers in South Africa, so of course Jeff wanted to go there. I was a little skeptic and not to
keen on seeing more elephants for a while. However, we ended up in Ndomo Park camping (Thembe only had lodges), but it was pretty close to Thembe.
This campsite was the first we stayed at without fences around, and the signs warned us for hippos, crocodiles and .....you can see
what more here on the picture. Guess if I had big ears inside the tent in the mornings. You could hear the hippos, and just wish they were down by the riverside.
Thembe was a nice park BUT the roads was just as narrow as in Hluhluwe which made me feel scared. I felt every corner was hiding a big elephant so we stayed at
the first hide we found.
It turned out to be a good choice because a guy who seemed to be a professional photographer told us to stay there if we wanted to see the
big tuskers. It was a big waterhole, very open so we could see a vast area.
Here is the
Theme webcam on
that waterhole, you can see amazing pictures if you stay for a while, must be during the right time of the day though. The hide was high above the ground and in
safe distance. Unless I visited the toilet!
Then you went down on the ground, walked along those high wooden fences almost back to the car. Just before the parking
you turned left and there is the toilet. No door, just behind a little fence, and sitting there you had a BIG 2 x 1,5 meter opening in the fence out to the bush were
the animals are. I don´t know why? For the elephants to see me sitting there? I certainly don´t want to see any elephants while I´m in that position. I´ve so far never
seen a hide with a toilet so we were lucky it was one, since we stayed here many many hours.
The biggest tuskers did not come though, but we saw some nice elephants and a little crocodile that they almost stepped on passing the waterhole. At first we didn´t see
the croc either, but after an hour in the hide a group of ten people came up and the ranger that was taking them around the park spotted the crocodile right away
(without binoculars).
Kruger Park, Mars 2010.
It has been a lovely stay in Kruger this time as well. Nine days ago the field rangers discovered a human skull of what was believed to be the remains of a suspected poacher who was devoured by lions. Here is an article about the poaching. This morning was amazing. We saw lions first thing, then a cheeta. When the cheeta after a while layed down in the grass (so you couldn´t see her) a hyena came walking and smelled her.
He walked with his nose in the air and just a few meters from the cheeta, he turned and walked away. Then as "whipped cream on the mashed potatoes" (swedish saying) we saw a leopard. Not in a tree this time. It was to far away to take any pictures, but it was still a leopard and it is rare to see them.
Jeff is reading a book about the rangers (those who work in the parks patrulling the bush),
and a ranger told he had seen leopards three times in 30 year. Then I understood how rare it is, and even more rare to see them in a tree. Same with the wilddogs, and we saw about 15 of them the first day we visited Kruger in Januari 2010.
In Hluhluwe park we saw them two days in a row. I have to thank Jeff for that because he is always going slow and we stop and listen, watch other animals behavoiur, look for tracks and ask people we meet in other cars. It makes the whole thing more exiting and I believe you see more animals that way.
Today we were supposed to leave Kruger but after this morning we decided to stay another night.
It started out good.......we spotted a heard of at least 200 buffaloes, if not 300, passing the road ahead. We sat there in the car watching them walk over the road together with four or five other cars.
I glanced quickly in the side mirror and out from the bush came a big young male lion and stood on the road about 20 meters behind the car. - Jeff it´s a lion here!! -WHERE? - Behind the car......
Now guess if everything got very exiting.
He just stod there watching the heards movement. When the last one had passed he started to follow them slow and in a safe distance. But they must have been aware of his presence, he didn´t exactly hide from them.He just watched them, looking for a week, sick or young lost one.
We followed this heard for a long time and when they arrived to the waterhole this lion attacked them, but of course he didn´t succe`d because he was alone. It takes more than one lion to take down a buffalo.
However, we thought this was such an exiting morning so we went back to Crocodile Bridge and booked another night at the camp.
We had a nice day at the park. Saw a lot of animals
and later in the evening we went back to the buffaloes. They had started to move again. During the hot sunny midday they stay pretty much in one spot eating. Jeff was sure the lion was still following them. We followed them as well, back to the waterhole and got a good spot at the "parkingplace" to take photos from, just above the whole scene.
The one and only hippo in this waterhole showed his unhappines with all those creatures disturbing him.
He came up from the water with wide open jaws and throwed his head backwards and splashed back into the water, time after time. The one and only crocodile was just checking everything from a distance, slowly floating around.
And weren´t we lucky......when the buffaloes had had their mudbaths and drinks and slowly started to move away from the water, he struck again. You can´t belive what a caos. Not only in the herd of buffaloes, the herd of people watching them as well because no one else knew there was a lion lurking in the buches.
Yes, one guy knew......the one that left his car and walked over to get some nice photos of buffaloes. Jeff saw him and told him he better get back in his car quick because a lion is around and it could be just behind us watching him taking pictures right now. Guess if he disappeared fast!!
But the lion didn´t succed this time either. He didn´t have many seconds of hunting before the big buffalo-boys were after him. We almost felt sorry for him not catching anything.
BACK TO THE TOP
Warmbath (also called Bela Bela)
After Kruger we went to see our friends Pieter and Petra that we met in Port Nolloth. They live in Bela Bela and there they have the biggest crocodilefarm in Africa. 22 000 crocodiles are living there and you can buy all kinds of things made of crocodileskin at the farm. After the guided tour around the crocodile farm, we bought crocodilepie and it tasted pretty much as chicken.......but still I couldn´t eat it all (think my tummy told me to be careful eating reptiles).
It was so nice to see our friends from Port Nolloth again and now we also met all their lovely pets, among them a little parrot that shouted (in Afrikaan) "lakker pap" which means "nice porrige" in english and "god gröt" in swedish. It was an African grey
and as soon as I came with my camera he started to swing. My conclusion is that it is easier to take photos of wild birds than tame ones :)
But it was lovely to be close to a little parrot again.
I once had a amazon parrot named Mickey that I loved very much. I trained him to do a lot of things and he talked a lot. He sang beatifully as soon as I started to sing. He screamed terribly as soon as my baby Marcus screamed. He welcomed me every morning with a hearty " Goodmorning! How are you? ", and he always kissed me goodnight " Goodnigth, give me a kiss!"
He was a lot of fun, he was smart! He understood way more than people belive parrots do.
We cleaned the truck inside out at a carwasher. Pieter had a friend at their place that helped Jeff with some scratches ( after the elephant). We also cleaned ourself a little extra at the Mineral Hot Springs. A few hours in the pool and then a full body massage at the spa was a really really nice treat.
We had some lovely days with Pieter and Petra and then we headed for Pretoria to leave the truck with Sarie and Gerhard.
As usual we got lost trying to find the right way through Pretoria to S & G. Jeff was like a thundercloud and I promised him to never travel in Pretoria with him again. But it almost becomes fun......why is it so impossible to find the right way there.
Well, one thing we learned from this journey is that we don´t use signs the same way in Canada and Africa. In Africa you´ll have to know the small cities coming up because that´s what the sign will say, not the next big city on this road as we are used to. So I had to sit and read up on all possible names that could appear on a sign for the road we ´d like to find. I can´t tell you how often we had to go back and find the right way. Many times the sign was down on the ground and then of course we missed it!
In Pretoria it´s not about that, it´s just a big, big place. If I remember right it was a place called Rustenburg. Everytime we were lost we seemed to be heading to this Rustenburg. However, finally we arrived to dear Sarie and Gerhard.
The day after we got to Pretoria we went back to Bela Bela to visit Ian and Elna (good friends to Sarie and Gerhard), and stay over night at their place. They live in a gamefarm and it was pretty amazing to have a walk and suddenly you are eye to eye with zebras and kudus. It had been raining for days so the roads were flooded.
It was thunder and lightning and the rain was pooring down. Sweet Elna had made so much food and was feeding us from that we arrived until we left, and it was all delicious.
Next day we went back to Pretoria and had everything cleared out of the truck. Jeff had to replace the return signal lens that was destroyed when we met Mr. Elephant. Sarie and Gerhard love to go to the movies so we went there twice during our stay. It felt so good to be back in the civilization, and watching a good movie was really cosy. We haven´t watched TV for almost 3 months
We also went to see Alida and Gerrit Pitout again. Alida had made Jeff a beautiful painting of a leopard. They both make beautiful art. Visit their website and enjoy! This is a leopard from the Kalahari park and Garrit (her husband) took the photo. It will be an honor to have that painting on our wall at home.
We found out with Pieter and Petra that you could fly from
Lanseria Airport, which is a smaller airport in Johannesburg. We had booked tickets with Kulula this time.....really cool/fun aircrafts and the staff was also funny. They made a lot of jokes about everything in the announcements, so it was for sure different from ALL the other aircompanies. I enjoyed it because flying is really boring :( , but of course it´s not for everyone to like!
You can read on the Kulula-link how they make fun of everything.
So after another lovely time with Sarie and Gerhard and saying goodbye to the "bukkie" it was time to leave again. It is something special with that truck when you have more or less lived in it for three months. The best trip I´ve done in my life so far :)
Gerhard was so kind and took us to the airport and we landed in Cape Town in the afternoon, rented a car and headed for Dale & Charmain ( Camilla :P). Charmaine imitates Camilla Parker-Bowles so good, Jeff laughs so he almost fall off his chair.
We had in our thoughts to go and visit some more friends from here but think we ran out of battery. We were just finished travelling so to say, and couldn´t wait to get home by now. Just enjoyed those last days in South Africa with Dale & Charmaine :)
One of the days there was an Harley Davidsson "exhibition" at the beach ,
with lots of nice bikes to look at. It was just outside the MOYO-place where we got our face painted last time we we´re here. Charmaine bought herself a little surfer when we we´re strolling along the beach....maybe difficult to see it on this picture.
The view from the beach over to Cape Town and Table Mountain is really something. I love this place!
In a few days we will be back home. I thought we would come home to a lot of snow, but now we heard that it is warm and nice in Canada, so that will be fantastic.
How fast those three month passed! But oh what a fantastic trip. The animals....being in the parks. Was a little tough at the start in 45 + degrees in Kalahari, but I survived :) The people we met.....the food we ate! The TV we didn´t see :) The freezing night´s in the tent at the beaches and the swetty ones in the parks. The spiders I got used to shower with :) All the photos we have taken!
The people we met in South Africa are amazing people. They are so hospitable, caring, helpful and friendly that you feel like you´ve known them your whole life.
Thank you so much for your hospitality and your friendship! We already miss you!
That was it for this trip......hope you enjoyed!
Thanks to all of you that followed us online.
Finally a picture of the guys I really enjoyed taking photos of. Not a dull moment watching them play, climb and run around. Scratching, picking, arguing, feeding, tempting, peeing, hunting, sleeping ahh you name it.....they were just so entertaining and gorgeous little creatures.
Thanks and bye for now little friends :)
We´ll be back, someday!
