African Safari on to Cape Town

Well ... a lot has happened this past week. Luckily (in a way) we have a flight
delay which will enable us to finally finish our update for this period of our
trip. If you don't feel like reading it all though, make sure you at least scroll
through the photos/videos!

At about 3pm on the day after our initial bush walk, we all gathered together again
in preparation for our open top safari ride. The vehicle used for the safari was
jeep like and had a seat on the front bumper where the local guide (Joe) sat to
direct the driver. There were three bench seats behind the driver, in what would
have been the tray of the vehicle. It had a canvas roof and no sides. We got the
back seat which was great because we were slightly higher than the people in front
and could easily turn and look out the back too.

The roads we safaried on where quite rough. Sharlene had to keep her foot on the
back pack to make sure it wouldn't bounce out of the jeep. We tried to sit in the
middle of the seat, we had a three seater bench for the two of us, this helped in
avoiding tree branches that would stick through every now and then as we drove
along the dirt tracks. Looking for animals is a very intense and tiring job. It
is amazing how a tree or a rock can look like something and be nothing. We drove
around for ages without seeing anything ... Sharlene was thinking that Ryan would
have to take her to a zoo to see the animals ... we then drove along a railway line
and Ryan spotted something on the other side of the track. He wasn't exactly sure
what it was. Riaan, our guide, stopped the jeep and reversed back. We were all
hanging outside the jeep trying to look for whatever it was. Then its head bobbed
up, it was a giraffe!!!!! Sharlene was so excited she nearly bounced out of the
seat. We could just see his (Riaan told us it was a male) head as it was eating
the leaves off the tree. He then started to walk away and Riaan reversed the jeep
more, the terrain was slopping upwards, meaning we could see more of the giraffe as
he walked. He was so cool. The giraffe then crossed the railway line and headed
away from us. We probably spent about 20 minutes watching him. It was very
exciting. We truly felt we were on safari then and Ryan was happy he didn't have
to take Sharlene to a zoo!

After the giraffe sighting we explored more of the property (we were on a private
game reserve) and Riaan got word of a lion sighting over the CB radio not far from
us so we traveled to the area. We couldn't see anything. We were at the other
Drifters campsite so had a toilet stop while Joe took the jeep to see if he could
make the lions come out of the bush while we were up on the deck of the campsite.
No such luck.

The sun was starting to set and it looked magnificent. The colours were amazing.
We stopped somewhere in the middle of the bush for sunset drinks. We'd packed a
can of coke to share. Riaan provided us with cheese and crackers and some raisins
and peanuts.

Once the sun dropped so did the temperature. It was time to rug up and see what
night animals would come out to play. Once again we drove around and saw some grey
dykers (a deer like animal) and some Impala (another deer). They were quite
prominent in the area. Joe had a spot light where he was sitting and shined it
into the bush. We now know what a deer in headlights looks like. There were other
lights we could see around the place from other people on safari jeeps, not
associated with our tour.

We turned this bend and Lindsay said "elephant!" and we stopped. We could just see
the shapes of a group of elephants, there were adults and young elephants too.
They were walking towards a watering hole. We watched them cross through the bush
to the watering hole. The mother elephants standing between us and the baby. They
are very protective. We then got to see them drink and splash in the water.
Another group of elephants came over too. There would have been about nine of them
in this watering hole. Riaan radioed in our sighting and not too long after we
were joined by another group of people watching the elephants. The elephants then
wandered off and so too did we to see what else there was out there.

There really wasn't much else, other than the various deer, which while good to
see, don't really compare to an elephant or a giraffe. We did stop to see an ant
colony move home. There was a huge line of them at least 10 metres long and each
ant was about 1cm long. It was interesting to watch.

We then headed back to camp and we could feel the temperature change as we went in
and out of the valleys. The lower ground was very cold the wind was icy. Then
we'd come out of the valley and be greeted by the warmth of the warm air rising.
Back at camp we feasted on beef stroganoff prepared for us by Isaac, our bush guide
earlier in the day. It was warm and filling. Just what you needed after a day of
safariing.

Riaan showed us some constellation in the sky and we watched falling stars. It is
amazing how many stars and planets are out there that you can see once you take
away the city lights. Exhausted we went to bed where the frog ornament, which
wasn't an ornament, was back in our bathroom. We had yet another early start the
next day. Another 5:30am start!

We left the campsite around 6:30am to be on our way to Kruger National Park in
search of "the Big 5" (elephant, lion, buffalo, rhino and leopard) and any other
wildlife or great scenery that we may come across. We had already encountered
elephants the night before, but we were hopeful that our trip to Kruger would allow
us to tick some of the other animals off on our list. However, the 20 minute dirt
track leading from the property to the road took us almost an hour due to what we
were lucky enough to encounter along the way before we even got on the road to the
national park.

Only about two or three minutes out from the campsite we encountered a few giraffes
browsing together along with some zebras. This was the first time we had
encountered zebras, so it was quite exciting, as well as there being more giraffes
to see in addition to the one we had seen yesterday (Sharlene was very happy again!)

Then, as we travelled further down the road, Lindsay, one of our tour group,
spotted lions off to the left. She was very excited, as she had especially been
wanting to see lions. Riaan shut down the truck's engine and told us to be very
quiet and still. We then sat there in awe as a family of lions proceeded to walk
out of the bushes and across the road just metres behind our truck - lion cubs
included. To give an idea of just how lucky we were to witness this event, Riaan
himself had not seen lion cubs for four years, and he calls Kruger National Park
his second home and is an avid wildlife photographer.

As we were watching the family slowly progressing across the road behind us, one of
the open top safari vehicles from one of the other campsites came up behind us on
the dirt track and didn't quite realise how close they were to the action, and
ended up stopping on the road about 3 car lengths behind us as they noticed that
lions were in the area and that they were crossing just in front of them. They then
sat dead quiet and motionless while the male lion of the family crossed
majestically right in front of their vehicle. It was quite a sight to behold, and
quite an experience for all of us - especially those on the other vehicle!

We continued on, not stopping for the many impala (antelope) along the way, as
Riaan explained that we will see so many of them in Kruger Park that if we stopped
all the time just for them, we'd have no time for anything else! (And he was
right.) As we were approaching the gate out of the Kruger property, we stopped yet
again as we encountered yet another member of the Big 5 ... buffalo! We had not
even made our way out of the tour company's own property and we had seen three of
the Big 5 already ... some of us were questioning whether we actually needed to go
to Kruger Park at all! We took many pictures of the buffalo before they moved on
and then eventually got out of the gate and made our way on towards the national
park.

We arrived at the big gates of Kruger National Park around mid-morning. After a bit
of a stop to stretch our legs and have a break, we entered the park and went
driving along the road in search of wildlife. We saw many impala as we expected,
but we also saw some kudu (another type of antelope). Impala have dark markings on
them much like a big "M" on their rear end (leading them to be called
the "McDonalds deer") whereas kudu have white markings down their sides around
their rib area. In both cases, these help their young to distinguish between them
and other species of antelope and from other animals.

Riaan would also stop every now and then to show us different wildlife or plant
life and explain various things about the bush environment. His knowledge was very
extensive, which made for a very interesting trip even when there was nothing much
happening. We saw some more new wildlife though, including warthogs, wilderbeast
and baboons, along with an interesting selection of different types of birds. We
also came upon a herd of elephants drinking out of a water tower, and spent some
time at a lake where we saw a hippopotamus, a "water monitor", crocodiles and sea
turtles, among other birds and wildlife.

We then arrived at our lunchtime destination, which was an open picnic spot in the
park ("open", as in, "no fences" ... anything could potentially wander into the
camp). We prepared and ate our food among the nice surroundings, being careful of
the various birds and also the squirrel who were eager to try and find or steal
whatever crumbs they could. Continuing then on our journey, we spent the rest of
the day driving further into and through the park towards our nighttime
destination. Along the way we saw still more wildlife, including some more
elephants, giraffes, antelope and birds.

We settled in that evening to our lodging within Kruger Park itself - nice little
one room bungalows (2 to a bungalow) with a fridge and a wash basin. Bathrooms and
kitchens were shared for this part of the trip with other families and groups in
surrounding bungalows. After having showers and relaxing for a bit, we ate dinner
outside next to a small fire - a great meal that Riaan prepared for us. Our sleep
that night was very restful and comfortable.

Another early morning start. We were woken by Riaan asking us if we were awake,
which we were, at about 5:45am. We've seen quite a few sunrises on this trip so
far. Time to pack the truck and have some breakfast before we head off to Hazy
View. We were in a closed in campsite, which means it is totally fenced and
designed to keep the animals out at night for our safety, though some of them were
inside the gates. Sharlene encountered Impala as she walked back from the
bathroom. She was within a metre of it but it didn't seem to mind, it kept grazing
on the grass.

At breakfast there were monkeys everywhere, just waiting to pounce on your food.
Some of them found the bins and started to scavenge in them, only to be shooed away
by other campers. Though they kept coming back. Riaan was smart, he got a chair
and put over the bin lid. The monkey was very disappointed when it came back to
try again. One of the monkeys did have some success, it managed to steal a bag of
raisins and nuts out of another campers bag. One also ran into our truck, causing
Riaan to bolt to the truck at least 50 metres from where we were breakfasting, the
monkey had managed to steal an egg. Sharlene was a bit worried that it had stolen
her "Chomp" bars, she'd just left them on her seat on the truck.

Once we were cleaned off it was time to head back into the park to see if we could
find and see the last two of the Big Five - the rhino and the leopard. There were
many impala and grey duiker along the road, as well as some birds. We say an
eagle, not a brown snake one which we saw several of the day before, a different
one whose name we can't remember at this point in time. We saw some more giraffes
which made Sharlene very happy. She never tires of seeing them. A bit further up
and Riaan spotted it, a white rhino and her baby. The rhino was hard to see at
first, it really did look like a boulder. The mother and baby were grazing on the
grass. The baby rhino was frolicking around, investigating its surroundings. Only
one more of the Big Five left to find.

We drove for quite a bit more and we then came to a river crossing. Riaan and
Linsay both spotted a leopard in the bushes. He stopped the truck and reversed.
It was hard to work out where the leopard was. Sharlene had her binocculars and
was scanning the bushes. Eventually she could see it and the leopard was
sufficiently far enough out of the bushes to be seen. Its tail was very long and
the last bit of it curled up like a hook and was white in colour. The leopard went
down to the water and we got to watch it drink. It knew we were there but didn't
care. It then wandered up the bank, marking its territory along the way. We then
lost sight of it and couldn't follow it because the truck was only allowed on
sealled roads. We were sitting in the truck looking at our pictures and telling
others who drove by about the leopard and then Sharlene saw the leopard coming back
down the embarkment. It went to the water and drank some more. It then walked
towards the truck and crossed about 5 metres in front of it and walked to the other
side of the road and marked its territory. We watched it walk into the bushes
until it disappeared. It was an amazing and exciting feeling. In one and half
days we'd managed to see all of the Big Five. Some people could spend a week in
Kruger and not see them all. We were truly blessed.

After seeing the leopard we headed off towards our next destination, Hazyview. We
exited Kruger Park by the Paul Kruger gate. There are 10 gates that give access to
the park. We made a short stop at the gate and Ryan was able to purchase a map of
the park. Riaan drew the route for us on the map. The map also has a lot of
pictures of the wildlife that you can see in the park. We saw quite a bit of it
and are looking forward to marking which ones we actually saw when we get home.

We arrived at the river lodge at Hazyview later that afternoon. It is truly a
beautiful place ... a log cabin set among the trees and overlooking the Sabie
river, a 400-mile river that continues right through to Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

After settling in to our rooms, we went on a 3-hour trek along the banks of the river. Care was needed, especially during the initial stages of the trek, as the paths were narrow and muddy (i.e. slippery) in some areas, with sometimes a 10-20 metre steep slope down to the river we'd have been falling down if we lost our footing too much. The walk was very enjoyable though. The purpose of this walk was not to see wildlife so much, but to enjoy the scenery and to learn a bit more about some of the vegetation and landscape of the area. We did also get to see some interesting birds, however, as well as evidence (tracks and/or droppings) of various animals such as ostriches, crocodiles and hippos. We were told as he was showing us a hippo footprint on a narrow trail that if a hippo were to come charging down that trail, you'd just have to do everything you could to get right out of its way - i.e. dive into the bushes either side of the track. The scenery was very nice along many parts of the river, especially nearing sunset as we were getting close to arriving back at camp.

That night for our last dinner of the tour Riaan cooked us a wonderful pot roast that was very tender. They like using cast iron pots a lot in South Africa, as they say it gives a particular richness and tenderness to the flavour. We certainly wouldn't be in a position to argue with that... It was a very tasty meal. After staying up a little playing cards and chatting with our fellow tour-mates, we went to bed - slightly later than some other nights, as we knew that we could have a bit of a sleep-in the next morning!

We were up packed and ready to go by 8am which was when breakfast was served. Caroline, the caretaker of the inn, cooked us a wonderful breakfast which included bacon, scrambled eggs, sausages and waffles with their traditional syrup (a syrup which we had already become quite attached to from various meals earlier in the week!) and then we set out on our way back to Johannesburg.

Our first stop was at a place which sold souveniers, and cheaper than most places we had encountered so far. Our main purchase to mark the occasion was a wooden giraffe ... Sharlene hand-picked him out herself, as he was standing all alone and reminded her of that first giraffe we saw near the train line. We are doubtful that Australia's quarantine will let him back in, but we think the wood has been treated so you never know. We bought some "backup" stone giraffes just in case! The wooden giraffe is on his way back home already via post.

A bit further along on our journey, we dropped off the Belgian couple at one of the airports where they were hiring a car and doing their own continuation of the tour going through Swaziland (did you know Swaziland's current king has three wives and that the previous one had seventy? They get to add a new one each year, apparently!) and then on to some of the south eastern coastal parts of South Africa. So after farewelling them, we continued on our way, taking a more direct route back than which we'd come as we'd done our other sightseeing on the way up. We stopped at a "Wimpy's" for lunch (a burger chain in South Africa) and then, other than a few stretch/toilet stops along the way, it was straight back to the inn, where we arrived just before 6pm.

That night we shared an enjoyable dinner at the inn's restaurant along with our guide and the four other remaining tour members from Holland. Ryan, along with some of the others, tried a "springbok" shooter - so called because of it's green and gold layers, which match their national "Springboks" rugby team's colours (the green was peppermint liquer and the gold was their famous Amarula cream). It got the thumbs up.

After farewelling our guide, we had a restful night's sleep and then packed up the following morning to head out to Cape Town. We had breakfast, fairwelled the Dutch teenagers and then headed off to the airport for the short two hour-ish flight to meet the only one of Sharlene's aunts whom she had not yet met.

Cape Town

After touching down in Cape Town and collecting our baggage, we came out into the greeting area to be met by Sharlene's aunt Margaret and one of her daughters Alison. We were welcomed with open arms, and we were looked after and treated very well the entire time that we were there. We then got back to the car and met Andrew (Margaret's husband) who had been staying with the car, and then they took us back to their place to settle in and rest for a while in the house where we'd be staying for the next two nights. They are in a great location... You literally drive around the corner from their place to see a fantastic view of Table Mountain (Cape Town's famous mountain).

That night we went and had a fantastic homecooked dinner at Alison's place and got to meet her children, Leanne (11) and Connor (6 and a half!) Her husband Marcus works a month at a time overseas, and this was one such time, so we weren't able to meet him. However another one of Aunt Margaret's daughters, Cathy, also joined us for dinner with her husband Adam. It was a great start to our time in Cape Town, and a good change of relaxing and having family time to balance with the early starts and long drives of the safari!

We then woke up Saturday morning to have a quick breakfast before going with Aunt Margaret to the shops to post our giraffe and buy some food for lunch. Then, at around 10 o'clock, we went to the Waterfront which is a nice area with quite a bit of activity and nice shops and buskers and monuments, etc.

Then it was off to have a "brie" at Janine and Mark's place (Janine is another of Aunt Margaret's daughters). We also met their kids, Claire, Emily and Hayley, as well as an old school friend of Janine's and her two kids. This was the last of their children we'd meet on this trip, as their eldest, Drew, lived in Johannesburg (due to our short time there we were not able to make a time to catch up) and their youngest of their five children, Beverley, had passed away almost 10 years earlier in her early thirties.

After trying some dried pieces of springbok (hmm... so-so!) we enjoyed a wonderful late lunch of steak, sausages and marinated chicken done on the brie. A brie is done by burning a wood fire (preferably hardwood) right down until it's just the coals and mostly burnt wood left, then suspending a wire mesh just above the smouldering coals and cooking the meat on that. The result is a slightly more smoked and lot less charcoaled taste than we get with our traditional barbeques. We must try one ourselves when we get back home!

We didn't end up having dinner that evening as we had had such a good feed at lunch. We just sat around chatting with Aunt Margaret and Uncle Andrew and showed them some photos and video from our wedding before going to bed.

We were up early the next morning to join our hosts for mass at their local parish. We visited the place at the church where Beverley's ashes were scattered, and then we joined them for their mass. We got caught out at some of the responses and prayers being slightly different, as apparently they have recently implemented some new wording changes which may indeed flow through to us as well sometime over the next couple of years.

After mass had finished, Adam and Cathy (who were there also) offered to take us on the cable car ride up to the top of Table Mountain. Unfortunately, we discovered when we got there that the recent maintenance wasn't quite complete and that it wasn't until the next day that it would be open again (after we had left!), but we were content with the magnificent views we got from part way up the mountain. They then took us to breakfast at a nice place on the coast before taking us back to their place for another brie.

We met their daughter Ashley and had yet another wonderful meal along with Alison and her kids as well before farewelling that part of the family and returning back to Andrew and Margaret's to pack and leave for the airport.

We farewelled Uncle Andrew and Aunt Margaret as they dropped us off at Cape Town International, thanking them greatly for their wonderful hospitality and organisation of our time there.

Upon arrival at the checkin counters for our 8.15pm flight though, we noticed a "+03:00" and "Delayed" next to our flight. Our annoyance turned to surprise and resignation when we found out that it didn't mean a 3 hour delay, but rather a 03:00 departure. So, almost 7 hours later than planned, we boarded the plane to London. Thankfully, we had access to the British Airways lounge and were able to grab around 4 hours of rest (even if interrupted) in the lounge before boarding the flight. Unfortunately the in-flight entertainment wasn't as good (or as reliable) as our Perth to Johannesburg flight, and there was quite a bit of turbulence along the way. Sharlene at least managed to get a little sleep after watching the latest Star Trek movie, while Ryan rested before helping finish off this blog entry!