South Africa: Day 13

Some of the valleys that you can find through the garden route

We left Port Elisabeth early in the morning and headed towards The Crags, on our way there we were going to pass by Tsitsikamma, a massive nature park which is often called “The garden of the garden route” (The garden route was the route we were following from Port Elisabeth to Wilderness and even further).

We decided to take a little stop in the Stormsriver village, a little town at one of the entrances to the Tsitsikamma forest.

We knew that there was a canopy tour through the forest and we wanted to join one of these tours; 600 metres longs (all together that is) 10 platforms and up to 30 metres high.

 In the queue to book the tour we got informed that there was no availability today or tomorrow (other than at 5 in the morning) so we wandered around the town for a bit. We eventually went back to the canopy tour to see if they knew any other canopy tours around the area, one of the desk workers was about to give us a number when another one excitedly told us that a family of 6 hadn't shown up to the tour, meaning that we could go on the tour that was about to leave.

We rushed ourselves to get ready and hopped on the van towards the starting point. 

We had two awesome guides who encouraged us to do crazy things while on the canopy tour, he told me to jump of a few platforms instead of the regular sit and go down. It was amazing!

The BnB's lake

After the canopy tour we continued our way to the BnB, once there we got a little tour around the house, it was massive and had an incredible infinity pool, looking over an impressive lake.

The BnB was a bit in the middle of nowhere though and they didn't do dinner nor lunch, so for dinner she suggested a BnB/Guesthouse no too far from where we were. So we went to this BnB for dinner and it looked amazing, one of the nicest places to stay that I had sen during the trip, but the manager there told us that they had been completely full booked since a few months ago, anyhow we proceeded to the restaurant part and had a menu with "steenbok" meat or hake as a main course.

Back at our own BnB we didn't really do much more, so we had a look at some flyers about things we could do the following day.

South Africa: Update to day 12

For the 9^th and 10^th day we stayed in a little private park, but being so little they didn't do any game drives in the park itself. You did have a little trail that you could follow but not much more.

With our dinner on Christmas day we got some Christmas crackers with very, very lame jokes, nevertheless I thought that it was a lovely detail. 

The 10^th day we went to Sodwana bay, a protected area where you can see beautiful coral reefs, if the ocean decides not to be as wild as it was the we were there.

Sofie and Shadow *.*

The morning of the 11^th   we had to say goodbye to the lodge, and Sofie was devastated because of it, the reason being: she would never see the two friends she had made ever again: Shadow and Cooper (the two dogs of the lodge's owner) 

Once everyone said goodbye to the doggies we left in direction of Durban, one of the biggest cities of the country, and it is situated at the east side. We were staying in a little BnB and it was very close to the northern part of the city: Umhlanga.

It was obviously the tourist area: Lots of places to have dinner, a few sports bars, massive buildings Benidorm style, loads of beautiful cars: Porches, Maserati, Lamborghini, you name it and they probably drove it there and last but not least an incredible long beach with soft white sand. 

We went for dinner in a place called Havana: It specialized in, you guessed it: steaks. It was wonderful.

So we where at the morning of the 12^th , our last morning on the east side as we where leaving by plane from Durban to Port Elisabeth.

Once we started boarding we saw the plane we had: a CRJ 701,  a little plane which looked super cool, and by the way, was very spacious inside, Ryanair could learn something of these guys.

When we arrived in Port Elisabeth, we where a bit shocked, everything changed, the houses where big and modern, and the town's streets wide. It looked like the typical florida or california town you see in the movies. No chance that you'll see any wildlife around here. At the guest house, the manager gave us a few tips about things we could do in town, so we decided to go walk through town to find some of these things, we went to a little restaurant at the beach and eventually found this big shopping centre which the manager told us about. Sofie got her first English book there, I wonder if she will finish it.

That night we went to a restaurant, which was also recommended by the lodge's manager, the special thing about it was the design, it was first line and it looked like you where sitting in a cruise ship, on top of that, the girls serving you where dressed up in a Greek style, resembling the Greek mythology I'd say. 

South Africa: Day 8 and Christmas morning

With the little disappointment from the last lodge we ended up booking a different stay half way to our next booking. To get there we had to go through the border again, we where staying at a game lodge close to the Pongola game reserve (The first game reserve we visited to have a big lake nearby).

Mantenga''s craft's centre 

On our way there we stopped at a local craftsman's town in Swazieland called Mantenga craft's centre, where locals make different kinds of woodcuttings to sell them as souvenirs.

Tent lodges

As we arrived we got greeted very kindly and guided to our rooms; the rooms where a curious combination of tents and buildings: the roof, doors and windows where part of a tent, but the walls and the floor where built.

After lunch we decided to go on a game drive, because my mum heard that it was one of the best parks to see black Rhinos.

This boy named Joel joined us during the game ride, he was the son of the lodge's manager. He was 19 years old and already running his own business, amazing in my opinion, and it made me think about what to do in the short future myself, once I'm done with my first bit of travelling of course.

During the game we where suffering, the temperatures were probably around the 40º and the wind that was blowing felt like an hot fan on your face. We did see lots of warthogs which are so cute! And after a while we even encountered black rhinos!! They are really a lot more aggressive than their relatives the white rhinos, as well as a bit smaller.

For dinner all the guests were supposed to be gathered around a very nice camp fire for a drink before heading to the table, but it was so windy that everyone just went inside; once we got guided to the tables we saw that Joel was going to be sitting on his own, which we found sad and invited him over to our table to have dinner! It ended up being a very interesting night, we learnt a lot about growing up in the local area and as a main course we had kudu!! which was surprisingly tender for a wild animal.

If you look closely you can see a crocodile

On Christmas day's morning we left our beds quite early because we had planned something, something different than the by now usual game drives. We were heading to the lake, to do a sort of lake safari.
The first animal that we spotted on the lake was a crocodile, but not too much later we saw a big group of hippopotamus, at first we only managed to catch a few glimpses of their noses and ears going up and down but later on we saw the almost completely out of the water. At the coast of the lake you could observe a big variety of wildlife as well, from rhinos and zebras to more warthogs and of course impalas.
When the weather started changing the ranger decided that we could go back to get some breakfast. And so we did, after breakfast we started packing to head to our next destination.

South Africa: Days 6 & 7

Day 6:

With the end of a relaxed morning at the pool in Nelspruit we look for things to do around: My dad suggested going to visit some gold mines, but after seeing how they ignored our phone calls (and how my mum didn't really agree) we ended up visiting the Sudwala caves, which where only an hour drive away.

The cave at the end of the tours

The caves were a very old formation where the old Swahili people used to live in, we saw stalagmites, stalactites and flowstone formations, which are hollow and where used by the Swahili as alarm system. The tour ended at a little cave 80 metres below the surface and was only accessible through a 0.5 metre high and 40 metres long access cave, but it was absolutely worth it, the cave was lit up with various colours and was the start of a longer tour (which only happens on Sundays) that lasts 5 hours and goes all the way into the deeper caves that have no lights at all. 

Afterwards we went to visit a sort of dinosaur museum, which Sofie obviously loved. For dinner we checked out a suggestion of the guest house, it was supposed to be a local restaurant but we ended up being a little bit disappointed, because on the menu we mainly saw steaks and chicken (not that I'm complaining, the steak was lovely).

To start of the 7^th day I have to mention that we had a special breakfast: eggs, but instead of sunny side u or a regular scrambled egg, it was served in a wrap with some vegetables and some bacon. Once finished the extensive breakfast we left heading to Swaziland.

After a long drive we got at the border controls, which were especially annoying at the South African part of the border, but once we got to our lodge in Mbabane we thought it was worth the wait: The rooms had a beautiful sight over the river that was coming down. 

After lunch we decided to go for a hike upwards the river, we had a stunning view over the valley and my dad was feeling extra adventurous, so he decided to climb up a little mountain that there was next to the top of the river.

Now the lodge was amazing but it felt a little awkward to be there, we got told that they were short on staff, and later on we even heard that the dinner room was full (luckily we had already booked) I have to add that the full dinner room meant 7 persons. The dinner we had was nice but we all agreed that it would be a shame to spend Christmas eve here, even more after we heard that there would be no service at all during Christmas eve nor Christmas day. 

View from the top of the little mountain

South Africa: Days 4 & 5

The 4rth day: 

We told the rangers not to wake us up for the morning game because it started very early again and we decided that we could still do the one tomorrow.

Even though my sisters and I slept without any issues, my parents got woken up at 4, 4:30 and 5, my mum was already complaining about the rangers not listening to her request when we saw the real troublemakers, a bunch of monkeys jumping on the roof of her room.

We took the day with ease, relaxed at the infinity pool, showed Sofie how to play pool and few more things, at 4:15 pm we started getting ready for the evening game:

We encountered more elephants and at this point we even started wondering how it came that we saw so many: apparently there is an over population of about 7000 elephants in the area. 

Then we found some baboons, different kinds of birds of which we got a lot of information, inyalas and we got very close to a group of zebras. After sunset we spotted an owl and a few rabbits.

The crazy ostrich 

The next morning we did get up for the game and it wasn't in vain, after a good while of tracking and driving, we stop for coffee, and here is where the good part comes. As soon as we stop the car this we saw 500 metres further starter running like crazy towards the car, she walked around us as we were having our coffee and seemed to really enjoy the company. We got told that she got lost and wandered very far off from her original group, and she probably lost her mind because of the loneliness.

From left to right:
Morgan (my sister), Bradley, me and Sofie (my other sister)

After breakfast it was time to say goodbye to Bradley and continue to our next destination. He told us that on our way there we could drive by a panorama route with very nice viewing points, like god’s window and the three rondavels.

After visiting the viewing points sure looked incredible. On the last bit of trip we had before reaching out guest house in Nelspruit, we got surprised by a hailstorm, massive stones of hail hit the car, and the rain looked like it was going to make new rivers. Luckily it was all over in about 15 minutes.

After getting installed in the guest house we decided to head towards the city centre and have some dinner there, eventually choosing a Greek restaurant, in South Africa, because that sounded like something we had to do while being here. 

South Africa: Day 3

We got woken up at 5 am, 15 minutes to get ready and get to the meeting point, at 5:15/5:30 am. The sun had already started raising so we jumped on the truck to leave.

Lioness enjoying her meal

As soon as we left the proximity of the lodges we encountered zebras, two different kinds together (or that’s what Hamilton said)  one with just black and white stripes and one with black and white stripes but with some brown stripes on the white ones. We found some giraffes; one which was having trouble while drinking as his front legs appear to be very unstable, then we found the same lion group as yesterday, but this time, they were having breakfast, Lucky told us how they probably captured the Kudu during the early hours, and they were now enjoying the feast that they deserved. 

We stopped for some coffee not much after that,

 and as we continued, we found a single but massive elephant, taking a mud shower, quite something to watch. Shortly after that we encountered a group of Rhinos. That’s  4/5!!!

We got back to the lodge at around 9 and breakfast was waiting for us, a variety of fruit and eggs prepared however we wanted. Sofie then thought that it would be a great idea to try something like syrup marmalade, in the process of trying it she succeeds in spilling it all over the table, who would have guessed?

After breakfast we got ready to leave in direction of the next lodges, in the Sabi sands park. A 4 hour trip awaited us, with an hour of gravel road, awesome!

We got to the lodges without to many issues this time, as we followed the main road until we found the sign, and got greeted by 2 rangers, Maurice and Bradley; the last would be our ranger and driver for the upcoming days. We got a tour around the lodges and saw our own, the lodge I was going to share with my sisters was huge, and the shower was outside, with a wonderful view of the stars.

After the tour we grabbed a cup of coffee and got ready for the evening game:

Young female elephant

Just as we left we found elephants, a whole group of female elephants which we spent half an hour with, they got very close to the vehicle and we got a lot of information about them by Bradley. We continued with more impalas, apparently there are so much of these because everything eats impala; lions, leopards, even eagles!

During the sunset we had a drink with some snacks on the front of the car, gin and tonic as a drink and chips, nuts and ; which is dried and spiced meat, a local snack. We had a little chat with our game partners, as they were Dutch, with almost the same trip planned as us, just a lot more compact, with stays of just 1 night and more km between every lodge. We continued with a short night safari where Bradley spotted a chameleon, from the car, I still wonder how he did it.

Back at the lodges there was a camp fire waiting for us with the dinner buffet, a choice between lamb pie or beef bolognese lasagne, being a buffet I obviously had to try them both, and I have to say, the pie was lovely. 

South Africa. Day 2

After a nice breakfast in the resort we pack and leave, on our way out we encounter some ostriches, but as soon as I get out of the car to take a picture of them they decide to run off, awesome -.-

Before heading to the next lodges, which are a 3h drive away we decide to visit the Blyde river canyon and once there we find a bunch of locals having their weekend barbecue, the smell was amazing. 
But it wasn't just barbecue and locals, we followed the track for a bit to find an incredible view over the valley. 

 So we get to the gates of the park, the Balule nature reserve, in which the lodges are. The guard tells us to continue straight for about 7 km and turn left whenever we reach a sign of the lodges, but of course no one listened to him, because we all knew our ways, no way we would get lost, right? Well we couldn't have been more off.

Just before getting to the lodges, literally 100 metres off, my dad says: We are way over 7km, we should go back to look for some signs, and so we did, we headed back, followed some random sign saying “Danrock” which wasn't the name of our resort, but it was the only sign we found, and as far as we knew danrock could be Afrikaans for lodges. Anyway, after more or less 45 minutes of driving around (keep in mind this is all on a gravel road) we see a game truck; the lodges had sent someone to save us, how shameful.

Luckily we got back just in time to go on the evening game safari:

Our driver introduced himself, Hamilton was his name, and we later found out that it was a very appropriate name, as he wasn't afraid of stepping on the gas pedal. Lucky was our tracker, which also happened to be very fitting, if you keep in mind all the animals we got to see.

Hyenas relaxing a bit 

We saw some hyenas taking a nap in the water, impalas, some gnu’s, and buffaloes! That’s 1 of the big 5 scrapped of the list, some giraffes who seemed to love the camera (it looked like they were posing for the pictures), some impalas (again, we saw so many of these) and an elephant hiding behind a bush, but our driver, as brave as he was, decided to get closer and he drove between the bushes, which gave us a very nice sight of him. That’s number 2 scrapped of the list. 

Buffalo with his loyal oxpecker 

Then Hamilton got a call on the radio and started racing through the bushes and trees, there was no stopping him. The reason was good though, we arrived at a group of lions!! Amazing! We found 3 young lions and 3 lionesses. Big 5 list: 3 out of 5!

Before dinner we grouped around a camp fire and we got surprised with a little show with African dancing.

The little intruder 

And to end the day, just before we went to sleep, we found a scorpion! Awesome you’d say, yes, generally I’d agree, but we found it in on the curtains, in our room, just next to our bed! And then they even told us that it was a very dangerous type, as it had small claws and a big tail, which apparently means, venomous. 

South Africa: Day 1

Airbus A-380, the double decker of the planes. 

So we have a total of 11 hours of flying awaiting us. We arrive at the airport to see that we are flying with an impressive Airbus A-380, during night time, so even thought I don't really expect it, I hope to catch some sleep.
After an hour and a bit I notice that it's an useless attempt and end up watching Mad Max, a few chapters of the big bang theory and a few more shows and movies.

The first giraffes we found! 

We arrive at the airport at around 11 in the morning, but by the time we get out of there with the car and everything sorted it's 1:30 pm. We leave to the first lodges, where we have a little surprise waiting for us: Giraffes, 2 giraffes of 4-5 metres, incredible to view. We where super excited, only to find out later that they are quite common.





And to finish the day we get to the little resort, which was incredible, we found the people working there to be very lovely and kind, and even for a 4 star resort, the prices where more than reasonable, a fine dining restaurant (in the resort) with dinner and lots of drinks for not more than 25€ a head.

The swimming pool of our first resort-lodges