Day 10 South Africa - AM & PM Game Drives

Wake up call was at 5:30 AM. It was hard to leave the bed, not because I was tired (which I was of course) but because it was freezing out. When I went to bed last night, I only covered myself with a sheet for much of the night. By morning, I was using the duvet. Man, it was cold!

We dressed, then headed over to the restaurant for tea and rusks. These ones were better, sweeter and not as hard as before. Yesterday, I took the middle far right seat. This morning I sat in the middle of the front row. We saw some zebras up close and I was a bit surprised they didn’t run away while we were parked nearby.

We pulled over at another stop and were told we could come out of the vehicle. Now what? I wondered. Another wild animal? But no, we examined a termite hill up close and personal. South Africa has 6 different types of termites. There was steam coming out of the top of this one and we each climbed up to feel the heat emanating from the top.

Matthew, our tracker, spotted fresh elephant dung so we set off to find the animals. We found a big male and watched in fascination while he ripped trees apart like nobody’s business. After that, we criss-crossed the area looking for the rest of the herd. The roads cover the game reserve quite well. Lawrence, the driver, stopped the vehicle and shut it off, waiting for the herd to come by. We could hear them cracking the branches of the trees long before we saw them. About 10 of them crossed the road in between us and another vehicle. It was quite a  thrill watching them go by.

When we returned to the lodge at 9 AM, it was breakfast time and we headed straight there. After breakfast, I got ready to go for a nature walk at 10:30. Our guide was someone new and he carried a big gun with him. Just before we headed out, he loaded the ammunition and read us the rules: no running, and follow behind him single file.

I was a bit nervous but I needn’t have been. Instead of seeing animals, he showed us lots of different plants and told us what they were used for and how animals used them. Many plants were various herbal remedies or teas and our guide wove a strong piece of ‘rope’. He peeled the outer bark away from the softer part, then twisted and uniformly wove 3 pieces together.

We basically stayed on the road and didn’t go all that far but it was most interesting and it felt exciting to be walking out and about like that!

When I returned, Donna and I walked down to the water hole where we saw the tiniest bit of a hippopotamus. We watched for quite awhile but he was not interested in coming out very much. The property is nicely laid out and there are fancier units past ours. I am quite content with what we have!

Bucks and does of some kind wander all around and we saw some lovely warthogs again. 1 PM was lunch, kudo stew was on the menu and it was wonderful! The meat was tender, the gravy was tasty and there was fresh homemade bread as well. I am going to have to do a lot of walking in the next few days to burn some calories!!

After typing this, I had a little lie down before the 3:30 PM game drive began. We knew what to expect and so we began to search for something interesting. Impala are a given and you are guaranteed to see them every time you go out. Our Kruger guide told us they are the MacDonald’s of Africa because everyone eats them! They even have the rounded M on their backsides, haha!

We hadn’t seen any lions yet on this trip and our guides knew we would love to do that. Eagle-eyed Matthew, out in front on his special tracker seat did find some lioness tracks. We circled round and round an area and I thought i was a lost cause. How could anyone spot a lion in so dense an area? It seemed akin to looking for a needle in a haystack. But on our third pass we saw the lioness trotting purposefully along, ignoring us thankfully.

After she disappeared into the bush, we could hear her gentle roaring – what a thrilling sound it was! Lawrence figured she had made a kill and was either calling to another lioness in the area, or else calling for her cubs to come. He was right. As we were on the move we saw some cubs on the road right in front of us! I was so stunned and delighted that I completely forgot to pick up my camera and start shooting! Believe it, that is a first for me! As we watched, a bird flew up and away from the area and one cub jumped up as if he could get it. How priceless, just what my kitty cats back home would do!! Yes, I know I overuse exclamation marks!!!

The sun had set by then and Lawrence stopped the vehicle in front of a gorgeous tree for a photo op. When it got dark, we could see two glowing red patches on the mountains across. These were fires that had gotten out of control. Because of all the grass in the underbrush, much of it gets burned on purpose once every four years, otherwise a sudden fire could do some serious damage. In this reserve, they try to burn once every 5 years. Because of the burning and the dusty roads, the sky is often hazy in a lot of areas. This game reserve had wonderful blue skies though, for the most part.

Supper tonight was a braai barbeque and we sat outside around a large fire. The evening was quite cool and we were given blankets, just like in the jeep. I had lamb and a piece of chicken and they were very delicious! I am done journaling early tonight so I just might get to bed early too!

Day 9 South Africa - School & Game Drive

We had a late departure today, 9 AM, but I got up at 7 in order to explore the grounds before we left. After brekie I found some lovely (just kidding!) warthogs. They are really, really ugly. But it is so interesting to watch them eat. Most of the time they eat like a normal pig, but occasionally they kneel down on both front legs in order to tug at some particularly delicious morsel. Tres cool!

We headed out on the highway, then turned off onto a rough gravel road, then onto some really poor pavement. In all, it took us about 45 minutes to get to the G Adventures Planterra sponsored school. It is a preschool for ages 1-5 and we were invited into the class of 3-4 year olds. It was a large class, easily over 30 kids. They sat in rows on little colorful plastic chairs and most of them stared at us in wonder, although there were a few shy ones.

Their teachers are volunteers and are supervised by someone with training. The children get breakfast and lunch as well. If the parents can’t afford the nominal fee, they can volunteer to help out instead. The classroom wasn’t all that big, and the walls had a few posters and charts with colors, numbers, etc. to help the children learn.

The teacher asked the kids to recite various things for us like numbers, colors, months of the year, nursery rhymes and songs. They actually shouted their responses and they were quite loud at times! I was surprised that they were learning the same songs that preschoolers learn back home, like “The Wheels on the Bus”.

After a bit, they children got a recess break and went outside to play and interact with us. Like kids everywhere, they loved to see their picture on the back of the camera after you took their photo.

When it was time to go, we headed back the way we came and covered some of the same road we had taken yesterday. We went past orange groves and packing plants, most of which had just completed the orange growing season. We also passed some tremendously large termite hills! I had no idea they could get that big.

We arrived at where we are spending the next 2 nights. Hurray! It is a beautiful private game reserve called Chisomo Safari Camp. We were greeted with wet washcloths and a welcome drink then given the key to our tents. Talk about luxury camping! I could certainly do this style of ‘roughing it’ more often! We have our own bathroom, shower and again, there is mosquito netting around the beds.

We were served lunch in the dining tent then we had about 30 minutes to get ready for our first safari drive. We are in 11 passenger jeeps again, but these ones are open – no roof. There is a seat at the front of the vehicle, outside in front of the bumper for the ‘tracker’ to sit. He watches the tracks and tries to figure out where the animals are.

Unlike yesterday, we drove on trails, and at a much slower speed. There are many, many roads criss-crossing the game park and we wandered up and down with our eyes peeled. We also went where I thought we couldn’t go, off-road, into bushes, water, and sand. I was sure we were going to get stuck. Many times we couldn’t even make a turn properly without going back and forth until we made it! Another big difference from yesterday was that the foliage was so close, we literally had to duck and lean in to avoid getting hit by tree branches. Some of the branches were quite thorny and we were told that others were poisonous!

We saw giraffe, white rhinos, yellow billed hornbill, tree squirrel, civet, waterbuck, and nyala. After awhile, we got to a spot and were told to climb out! I couldn’t believe my ears! Nor could I believe my eyes when we walked past a male cheetah resting in the grass! (and another one we couldn’t see very well). Our guide said we were too big to be prey so we didn’t bother them. It was an amazing and rather scary experience.

We did some more driving then stopped in the middle of a clearing for a refreshment break. They set up a table with a table cloth, some snackie type foods, and the water or pop we had ordered previously. The sun was setting and the water went down nicely after driving on those dusty roads.

Shortly after that as we were headed back we saw a leopard. Apparently it was a male and he was huge. We drove where there was no road to try and keep up with him but we lost him. The light was poor and I didn’t get any clear photos, but it was quite an experience.

We came back in the dark and the spotter shone a big searchlight from side to side to see if he could find any night animals. A civet cat crossed the road in front of us and wandered off into the night.

We arrived back at about 6:30, had a delicious supper at 7:30 and it is now after 10 PM. For some reason I am beat!

Day 8 South Africa - Scenic Drive & Kruger Park

We left the hotel at 8:30 today and headed on a scenic drive towards our destination. We stopped at several photo stops. The first one was an unnamed little river with some lovely boulders scattered throughout the water. The road leading up to the spot was red dirt. Piet said it was due to the red iron oxide in the soil.

Bourke’s Luck Potholes was our next stop. We walked on a trail for about half an hour and saw some fascinating rock formations. The canyon was quite deep. Several bridges had been built in order to traverse the area.

The next viewpoint was a stunning one by the name of Three Rondavels. They are 3 distinctly shaped mountains in the background. The foreground was spectacular, with a river encircling a large pointy smaller mountain.

Lastly, we pulled over by the side of the road to see a waterfall. We went through a lot of different terrain today and changed altitude considerably.

Just after noon, we arrived at our lodging for the night and what lodging it was! It is called the Timbavati Safari Lodge. I think it gets it’s name from the nearby Timbavati River. There is a Timbavati Game Reserve but our lodge is not in that area. We are in a delightful little, round, private cabin. What luxury!

We had a few minutes to unpack and freshen up before beginning our Kruger Park game drive. Our guide, Briton, picked us up in a 10 passenger jeep. Besides the front 2 seats, there were 3 rows of seats, 3 to a row, and each row was higher than the one in front. It was early to be going out to look for animals but we started seeing them right away – what a thrill!

Some of the animals were quite far away and I was soooo glad I brought my 100-300 zoom lens. It worked as well as my binoculars did and I needn’t have even brought those along. Oh well, I needed a new pair anyway. Then we started seeing animals up close.

The rule on safari if you want the driver to stop is to yell “Stop!”, not say the name of the animal you think you see. Briton said that false alarms were all right. He even stopped when he thought he saw something and it turned out to be nothing. He sure was good at spotting though, and found some rhinoceroses way, way off in the distance.

It was a great afternoon! Altogether we saw elephants, impalas, rhinos, giraffes, several types of birds, baboons, ostriches, warthogs, a leopard, kudos, eland, jackals and hippos! Not bad for our first trip into the wilds of Africa I’d say J

The guides have radios and let each other know what’s happening where they are. Apparently earlier today, an elephant overturned a car but no one was hurt.

The sunset was gorgeous and the giraffes, impalas and elephants seemed to line the road to say goodbye as we were leaving the park. The sun set just after 5 PM and it was spectacular. It got quite cool after that and I had to put my hoody on. We travelled about 120 kilometers in all including the15 minutes from our lodge to the park gate. All visitors must be out by 6 PM.

Supper was served in the area by the pool and it was wonderful. A leopard came into came the camp last night and we were told that impalas, giraffes, and monkeys wander around as well. We didn’t see anything of the sort on the way back to our cabin.

We will see what the morning brings!

Day 7 South Africa - Joburg, Pilgrim's Rest & Graskop

Wake up time was 6 am so we could get an early start at 7. Breakfast was tea and rusks. I had seen them on the trip description and wondered what they were. They are not really all that impressive. They are large chunks of dried bread, they aren’t sweet, and they are hard to bite because they are big and, well... hard!

 We had a long drive ahead of us and the guesthouse owner had packed us a wonderful breakfast in a fancy bag that looked like a gift bag. Our first rest stop was at a place beside the highway. There were washrooms, well actually they are called toilets here. Our guide said they are not for washing (washrooms), nor for resting (restrooms). So there!

In back of the facility there was a large enclosure with RHINOCEROUSES if you can believe that!

There were also a couple of ostriches, a type of deer or impala (there are so many kinds), and several types of birds gathered around a small pond.

Woohoo! Our first sighting of the Big Five! Granted, they were in a zoo-type of enclosure, but it still counts.

Our guide, Piet, is from Pretoria and is very knowledgeable. He gave us a lot of information as he drove along the freeway. I learned that Johannesburg has the most lightning of any city in the world. South Africa gets half of the world’s average rainfall. The further west you go, the drier it gets. There are no significantly sized lakes in South Africa.

After a while, we turned off the freeway and drove on a much narrower highway with less traffic. We went through an area that is very well-known for trout fly-fishing. The roads weren’t very good in spots and Piet told us that infrastructure funding is non-existant and that many municipalities are broke. Six million of South Africa’s 52 million pay taxes. 25-35 million are unemployed. Municipalities find it cheaper to put up stop signs than put up traffic lights.

Gold was first discovered in South Africa in 1886 but they are no longer number one in the world for production. The easy gold has already been taken out and it is very costly to dig any deeper. They are presently going through the tailings and finding more gold that way.

Their main crop is maize or corn which is South Africans’ staple food. Potatoes are also grown along with soya, wheat, citrus, sugar and sunflowers, to name a few. South Africa has been self sufficient but it is under threat. 80% of the people here are black, 8% are white and 12% are colored and Indian (Piet’s words, not mine). Black farmers have been subsistence farmers, while white farmers have had large commercial operations.

Most trees in this country are planted and introduction of non-native species has caused problems. Eucalyptus trees have become weeds. People have been allowed to cut the trees, especially near rivers. Because of that, rivers are flowing again and helping to provide much needed water. Burning occurs every 4 years to clear dead branches and undergrowth. It was quite hazy all day and Piet said that was from burning as well as dust. There is less than 5% humidity in the air.

There is a lot of coal produced and electricity comes from coal generated stations. Power outages are happening more and more.

We arrived in the town of Pilgrim’s Rest by noon and stopped at the cemetery as well as a few other picture stops.

Pilgrim’s Rest came into being during the gold rush and there were many colorful characters whose stories had been handed down. The road to Pilgrim’s Rest got quite windy and hilly and the views were quite spectacular. 
Our lunch was at a little pub and we sat outdoors in the shade. The cool of the morning had given way to toasty heat.  I had a delicious South African dish called vetkoek. It is a delicious pastry with various fillings and I choose the chicken and mayo. Yum! But not low cal I’m sure.

Pilgrim’s Rest is quite a touristy town with lots of neat shops and I found a beautiful traditional beaded necklace and bracelet hand made by some women sitting out in front of the shop. They might have been Zulu? I don’t know. I should have asked but I did ask to take their photo.

 

After a good stop there, we headed onto the town of Graskop then did a scenic loop 20 minutes beyond that. We had three picture stops. The first one was Lisbon Falls, a beautiful pair of waterfalls cascading 50-70 meters below.

Then we visited Wonder View which was a great lookout on the lowveld below. South Africa is like an upside-down saucer and we were on the highveld. It was still quite hazy.

Our last stop was called the Pinnacle and we saw it from 2 points of view. The rocks are very interesting and a bit like at the top of Cape Town’s Table Mountain.

We headed back to Graskop and checked into our hotel. We had a few hours before supper so I set off to investigate some of the local art and crafts in the nearby shops. I love the beaded wire animal sculptures! There were some huge ones in Pilgrim’s Rest, but I settled on some nice little keychains.

Supper was at a nearby restaurant where I had a burger for a change.