Tag: South Africa

We left Graskop very early in the morning as we had a 6 hour drive to Johannesburg and needed to be there for a 3PM flight.  Everything went very well and we arrived at the airport several hours before the flight to Cape Town.

In Cape Town, we rented a car and headed North the Frenschhoek, in the heart of the South African Wine Region – the drive took about 2 hours.  We had found (through the Lonely Planet) a guest house with ‘self catering’ chalets just outside of the city center and had reserved a three-bedroom bungalow.  This is the view from the front porch.

I think we got really lucky with our choice.  Since we arrived late, we just went to dinner and directly to sleep afterwards.

The next morning, and every one of the three mornings we were there, we were ‘blessed’ with the most incredible sight I have ever seen.  The clouds would build on the back side of the mountains and than cascade over the mountains and create curtains, or (even though this is the ‘the’ table top) table cloths that were constantly changing.

The combination of early morning lighting and spectacular backdrop was just too good to miss – so I took quite a few pictures

In the afternoon, the clouds would become smoother, almost like icing on a very, very large cake

We did manage to steal ourselves away from the spectacle, and on the first day we went to explore the wineries of Paarl and Frenschhoek.  We stopped at “Nederburg” which had an excellent wine tasting and a really good tour of the winery itself.  We had lunch at “Fairview” where there is a goat tower and an excellent restaurant.  Other than wine, they also make their own cheese, dried meats and olives.  For lunch, we had one cheese plate and two meat plates, and wine of course…

We drove back to our cottage and enjoyed the view, with more wine and more cheese.

That evening we had dinner at ‘the best’ restaurant in town, and we had an excellent meal, but probably 10 times more expensive than some of the other meals we had.  Once in a while, it is good to indulge …

There is a lot of concern, when going to South Africa, about security and personal safety.  Rajan, Julie and I had discussed this before departure and we had decided that the highest risk was when we were near Johannesburg.  We had discussed loosely ‘back-up’ plans in case we would be ‘car-jacked’ on the way out of town.

In reality, during the whole two weeks we spent in South Africa, I never had a feel of discomfort, or the slightest concern for our safety.  I have had such feelings before in New York, Chicago, London and Frankfurt, just to name a few.

However, in Frenschhoek, in the middle of the main street, there was a hired guard patrolling the street in front of the restaurant (and there were others in front of other restaurants) visibly there to ‘re-assure’ patrons and to keep an eye on the parked cars.  I was not quite sure if this was an overkill or if it was really necessary.

On the second day, we went to Hermanus, on the Indian Ocean coast East of Cape Town.  At this time of year, Hermanus offers the ‘best’ (so they say) whale watching from shore in Africa.  They even have a ‘whale crier’ who advises people where the whales are.

We saw the backs of two or three whales in the distance, but nothing to get really excited about.  We drove down the coast for lunch and than headed back to our cottage, the view, the wine and the cheeses.

The third day, we needed to head back to Cape Town but on the way stopped at the “Spier” winery, where we visited a ‘cheetah hospital’ with very good-looking guests.

We had lunch in Stellenbosch and visited the town which is the typical Dutch Cape town that most people would recognise immediately as “South Africa”

It is on to Cape Town for the last installment on this fabulous trip.

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Let’s go back to the beginning

I went to South Africa with Rajan, Julie and Georgia

It was not the first time that we traveled together.  And I do not think it will be the last time either.  It was the first time we did so outside of Australia.  We did not have a ‘usual’ answer when people asked us where we are from.  I would always answer “They are from Australia but live in the UK; I am from Belgium but I live in Singapore.”  That was usually worth a quizzical look, so I would add: “We met in the United States”, just to help out…

We rented a camperevan in Johannesburg and drove to the Kruger.  This gave us more flexibility on where to stay, but also on what to do for meals.  We made all breakfasts and most lunches ourselves and even had a few dinners.  The campervan was well equipped and therefore we did not have to bring too much along.

In the first two installments which preceeded this one, I did not list, or show pictures of all the animals we saw in the five days we spent in the Kruger.  Here are just a few more of the better ones…

Giraffe – the first is using natural light, right before sunset.  The second is actually taken with the flash as the light was fading fast.

Impalas – we saw a lot of impalas and towards dthe end, we would no longer stop unless they were doing something really special, or they were crossing the street right in front of us, leaving no choice….

or having a drink seemingly oblivious to the danger represented by the crocodile …

Cranes – we saw many different kinds of birds, not always easy to take photos though

National Park.  We saw a lot of Warthogs, and very few lions.  Just an observation … not sure there are any conclusions to be drawn.

Egyptians geese – this one taken early in the morning, just around sunrise at Skukuza

Vervet Monkeys, some right next to the car

Wildebeest – we did not see a lot of them, and not very large groups.

And even a squirrel looking for a safe place to eat his peanut.

But it was time to say goodbye to the Kruger and move on to other excursions.

Next – The Drakensberg Escarpment, Graskop and Sabie

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On the second day in Kruger, we had to go from Skuzuka to Lower Sabie – these are two of the major camps in the South of the National Park.  The road between the two is one of the ‘best’ in the park according to all the guides we have.  We had already done parts of it the previous day, and indeed had seen a lot of animals.  The advantage is that the road runs along a major river, the Sabie River and therefore a lot of animals are attracted to the waterholes along the way.

The distance between the two camps is only 43 km.  The guide book indicates that it should take 1h45 minutes to drive that distance.  This gives you an idea of the ‘expected’ average speed.  Looking at the map, we decided to make a detour as a little more than half way there was a place where we could actually get out of the car – something that we missed doing on the first day.  We therefore headed on gravel roads towards Mlondozi Dam.

We approached there around 10:30 and figured it would be a good chance to break before heading into Lower Sabie for lunch.  As we were driving up towards the view point, we knew we would be in for quite a sight, and this is what we discovered

In this view (and we found them) there are elephants, hippopotami (or is it hippopotamusses? – Webster confirms the former), a fish eagle, at least one crocodile, a rino in the distance, and several groups of impalas.  We were thrilled at the prospect of what else could happen.

First to entertain us were the hippos when one group decided to dance around

while another played “follow-the-leader”

Than I heard the word “Rino” – we had already seen two of the “Big Fives”: elephants and buffalos so here was a chance to see number three on only the second day in the park.  The rino had obviously already finished his bath and was heading home

Elephants came next, and created quite a spectacle as they were taking their mud bath

The group on the left side of the river decided to go across and visit with the group of the right side.  The is consider good behaviour between elephant groups.  I had often seen elephants marching in circus parades, one leading and all the others following, with the trunks holding the tail of the animal in front.  I always thougth that was  ‘trained’ behaviour.  However, we discovered that this is probably natural behaviour for them as can bee seen in this picture

In the distance we had been watching this black ‘dot’, believing it was a lone hippopotamus until we saw it coming out of the water. Another rino…

There was so much to see that we decided to stay for lunch and we continued to be entertained by what was happening.  We met others, also watching the animals – including one pair of locals who were only interested in birds.  They spotted these pelicans flying in in formation

They had landed not far from where a crocodile was still having its morning sun bath

The more we looked, the more we saw.  It was unbelievable.

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I guess, after that ‘teazer’, I have to deliver something really good.
I have extracted 100 photos from the more than 400 I took in Kruger National Park.  And I cannot possibly bore you with all 100 of these, so again I will have to make a selection of only the better ones.
We saw so many Impalas, Elephants, Zebras and other animals that after a while, we would not stop anymore except if there were special circumstances.  Here are some examples:
In the first days, I would slam on the breaks if any one in the car yelled ‘buffalo’ and we saw many small groups of buffalos resting near the road such as these.

However, we were lucky enough to whitness the massive afternoon bath of a large group of buffalos.  We stayed for probably 20 minutes just mesmerised by the sight and the sound.

Our first sight of hippopotamus was like many more later – backs and more backs and than a few hears and noses

But patience can be rewarded with two hippos frollicking in the shallows

and one really, really, really big yawn!

I already showed you a photo of this hyena, caught late in the evening of the first day

Two days later, we were staying in a safari tent right along the outside fence of our camp.  Our neighbours were kind enough to tell us that there was a hyena sunning itself in front of their tent, so we went to see.  The animal clearly was not at ease, but we only found out later why …

Day three, and we fianlly see our first ‘cats’ – three juvenile cheetahs spending the afternoon under a tree.  There were 6-8 other cars parked near them and we stayed for at least 20 nimutes, just watching them doing nothing.

 Day four and we finally cought a glimpse of a lion.  We were fortunate that a local guide told us about it, because by ourselves we would never have found them looking like this

We stayed for a while and were rewarded by the male who decided to change position

As we returned to our camp for tea (yes, some civilisation after all!) we learned all about what happened the night before.

The privious day, as we were getting ready to go to sleep, we had heard an awful sound, impossible to describe.  It had to be several different anumals making it.  There was also an echo coming from nearer the tent.  As it was totally dark, we were not quite sure what happened.  During the whole night, there were regular calls coming from the trees right in front of us.

The next moring we noticed a large group of baboons in the tree. 

They must have been the ones making all that noise the night before.  One by one, very carefully, they decended and left.  In a nearby tree there was a lone vulture, just wating – we were not sure what for…

The next day, after tea, Julie and Georgia went for a walk and casually asked our neighbours if they had seen any lions.  We had already noticed that the vultures had multiplied and there were now four.  That is when we heard the story of what happened the night before.  The noise we had heard was a pride of 8-9 lions killing a water buffalo about 100 m to our right.  The lions spent the rest of the night feasting and there was some of the carcass still left.  Later that evening, we saw four lions approaching for a piece of the action – it was late, so not much light for a decent photo.

 We also had ‘theme day’ – it seems that on day three all animals decided to cross the street in front of us.  I apologise in advance for this one, but I just have to do it …

Zebra Crossing – Kruger Style!

We also saw a lot of other animals, less interesting just by themselves like this large iguana or monitor lizard – not sure what it was.

But when you see it devouring a dung beetle right off its ball of dung, that is a spectacle worth seeing.

We saw intimate scenes of baboons grooming each other

and mother with child

We saw many birds of all sorts

but the scene I will remember is this one, wondering just when the crocodile was going to attack the geese who did not seem to be concerned…

With all the animals, you can almost forget that the scenery is spectacular too.  I am sure that there are elephants, giraffes, lions, impalas, zebras and many other animals hidden in here – but I have not found them yet…

We had heard a lot about Olifants Camp on the Olifants river.  The view is specatcular

but we were told the animals were too.  Unfortunately, we saw absolutely nothing!  As this was the end of our stay in Kruger, and considering what we had already seen, I cannot be too disappointed.

Next – One lunch stop at Mlondozi Dam

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This is what you would call a teazer!
We are half way through our trip in South Africa, and I just want to give you a taste of what is coming.

Here is a collection of pictures taken on the first day in Kruger National Park.  Most of these will not make the final selection.  They were taken from our truck (you are not allowed to get out) with a standard zoom (only 135 mm) and are unretouched… 

Our first animal sighting – a kudu amongst the trees

Next were elephants in the distance (we were really getting excited)

Than we saw water buffalos having a bath, with a fish eagle looking on

A giraffe

Zebras really close to the car

Monkeys in a tree

Baboons crossing the street right on front of the truck

Hippos in the Sabie River

and a hyena, unfortunately too late in the day to get a good shot as the light was fading very fast… 

Just wait for what is instore when I get back to Singapore and can pull out the rest of what we saw!

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