Sharks!

We got up super early today for our shark trip. The boat leaves at 6:45 from the pier down te road, so we were up around 5:30, more than an hour before sunrise here.
It was raining lightly here in town, and of course cold at that hour, but at least there was no wind. From shore, the sea looked perfectly smooth. The tide was especially low, so getting into the boat was difficult, and I had a wet bum before we pushed off.

There was another couple there with their daughter. The daughter was wearing a top from Mountain Equipment Co-op, so we asked where they were from. Airdrie, about 20 minutes north of our house in Calgary.

On the way out to Seal Island, where the sharks hunt, we saw about a hundred dolphins, and perhaps 10 seals, swimming around in the open water. The seals were funny as they would stop every now and then and poke their heads up to look around.
Once we got close to the island, they threw a seal decoy into the water and dragged it behind the boat and circled the island for what felt like an hour, with nothing interesting happening. We were told if a shark bit, it would happen instantly, so if we wanted photos, we'd have to just watch with the camera pointed and ready. I put the camera in video mode and just kept it pointed at the decoy. So I have a whole lot of video of nothing.

Then they decided to drop ancor and let people get in the cage suspended off the side of the boat with scuba gear. As soon as the anchor dropped, a shark came up to see what was going on. It happened so quickly, nobody was ready, and all I saw was a flash of grey skin.

UG was the first volunteer to get in the cage, so he got into a wetsuit that was a little too small, and waited about another 20 minutes for more signs of a shark (he thought it was more like an hour). The sea out at the island wasn't nearly as calm as in town, with large swells causing the boat to sway quite a bit, so UG was not enjoying the wait. The rain had stopped, which was good for me, watching from the upper deck of the boat. Once another shark appeared, I got a photo of the fin, and UG got in the cage. Within seconds of getting in, the shark came up and bumped the cage. It swam between the cage and the boat, giving the cage a frightening shove (it scared me, watching from the boat). UG, in the water, turned around to see what had caused the bump, but the shark was already gone. He stayed in for about a half an hour, and the waves caused the cage to bang around a lot, so he assumed that's what had caused the first bump. He saw a lot of jelly fish, but nothing else. 2 other people who got into the cage saw the shark, but 4 of them saw nothing.

After getting out of the cage, UG started feeling seasick. He didn't take a second turn, and spent the rest of the trip just praying for it to end.
Overall it was very disappointing, especially for UG. This was the whole reason for our trip to South Africa in the first place. All he saw was the fin I managed to get a photo of. We were supposed to go out again tomorrow, but the forecast is calling for high winds. We have an opportunity to go out again on Sunday, but we'll have to wait for UG's stomach to settle for him to decide if he wants to try again.
After getting back to the apartment, I turned on the TV to catch the end of William and Kate's wedding, live on BBC. While UG slept, I watched the first half of the wedding from a recording.

Once had a good long nap, we went back to the Brass Bell for dinner. This time, we went upstairs, which was a little less sketchy. It had actual tables and chairs, instead of picnic tables downstairs, actual flooring instead of subfloor planks, and white painted walls and decoration instead of whatever colour the wood was before and beer advertisements. The food wasn't quite as awesome as before, UG had his fish sent back as the first one was a little overcooked. For an appetizer, we ordered a small wood fird pizza, with ham, pineapple and banana. Banana has been on several pizza menus here, and UG had been dying to try it. It works with pineapple, but on it's own, it would be very weird.

And driving home, we saw more penguins again, wandering the streets, hanging out in people's front gardens.

Cape Town

For dinner last night, we drove around the coast to Kalk Bay (I giggle every time I say that) looking for a restaurant that had been described by our host. We were told there was a building right on the water, with multiple levels and restaurants on each level. Apparently the restaurant on the bottom has to replace it's windows after every storm, it's that close to the water. We drove around, and happened to find a place that vaguely fit the description. It was 2 levels, with about 5 restaurants in the building, at least 3 of which shared the same menu and kitchen.

The building and decor were extremely sketchy. There is a commuter train from Cape Town that winds along the bay, right next to the water in most places. This building was on the water side, so that we had to cross under the tracks from the parking lot to get into the restaurant. We sat on the lower level, but I poked my head upstairs to look around. The restaurant upstairs closest to the water appeared to just be a glass box mounted on top of the restaurants below. There were 2 other restaurants in behind on the upper level, with a large gap in between so that everyone had a view. The roofs of the lower restaurants (where an upper restaurant didn't cover) were just sheets of corrugated cardboard that almost didn't appear to be fully attached to the structure. Our waiter pointed out the one end of our restaurant was curtained off and not used, because the rain was still coming and going, and the roof leaked at that end.

But damn, that place served the best seafood ever! I had the fish and chips with calamari combo (battered hake), UG had the line fish of the day, bluenose. He wolfed his down too quickly for me to taste. My hake was decent, no bones, good batter, tasty fish. But the calamari was to die for. Perfectly cooked so it wasn't the least bit rubbery. It was called the Brass Bell if you're ever in the area.

This morning, it was a little cloudy, so we decided to go into Cape Town and hit the markets and go up Table Mountain later if the clouds cleared.
The area of Cape Town where the markets are is a pretty little area with British colonial architecture, and lots of quirky, independent shops. Unfortunately a severe lack of parking makes it difficult to spend much time there. I guess most people must stay at a nearby hotel and take a taxi to the shopping districts. The market was disappointing, as the prices were very high. And bargaining was expected, but even then, the prices didn't move very far. I ended up only buying a small wooden hippo, only because I wanted a photo of the girl running the booth with her baby tied to her back.

After leaving the market, we found another building that seemed to be occupied by multiple independent vendors selling similar stuff as the market. Prices here were much better, and I bought a giraffe before UG hurried me out because our parking time was up.

By then, the clouds had mostly cleared at the top of Table Mountain, so we headed over to take the cable car to the top. The crowds were insane, likely because the cable car has been closed for the last 2 days due to weather. It took about an hour to purchase our tickets and get to the top.

Now, living in the moutainous area of Canada, I have ridden my share of lifts and gondolas. I am generally pretty comfortable with them. The Table Mountain cable car has the unique feature of a rotating floor so you get to see every angle as it goes up. The combnation of standing, and not being able to hold on while the floor moves makes this a terrifying ride. At least for me. UG was laughing all the way, making bad jokes like "should we be going down this quickly?"

We then drove home via the western coastal road. We stopped to watch the sunset at a pull out, where a makeshift market was just packing up. I bought a huge wooden hippo partially on impluse. I have been looking for a hippo, and they are everywhere, so I have been looking for a "perfect" one. I had basically decided to just buy one, because I get the feeling I am not going to find a perfect one, and UG is tired of me looking. So the purchase was somewhat impulsive, somewhat planned. I hadn't expected to get one so huge, but she was a great price (we'd rather sell 'em then pack 'em!) and she's unique to most of the ones around.
Once the sun dipped below the horizon, we kept going. To get home, we had to follow a brand new toll road, which hugs the side of the mountain above the shoreline. The road cuts through the mountain in a few spots, with ledges cantilevered out above the road. Again, I am used to mountain roads, but in Canada, we support the tunnel on both sides!

And just as we arrived home, I saw a few penguins wandering down the street. I saw a couple last night, too, on the way to dinner. Apparently they go for walks after the tourists leave for the evening.

The southern most point of Africa

The weather forecast was predicting some doomsday scenario for today. It was supposed to be colder, windier and rainier than yesterday, and worse than the storms yesterday morning and last night would pretty much have to be the end of the world, as far as I can imagine.

But when we woke up (at 8am!) the sky was clear, the sun was shining and there was almost no wind. Actually, I woke up to use the washroom around 6am, there were stars out.

(Sidenote: South Africa is about as wide as BC and Alberta combined -half as tall, but has only one time zone. So the sun rises and sets at much more civilised time here on the west coast than it does in the east, where the game parks are.)

So we decided to take advantage of the suprise nice weather and go south the Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. As was suggested by our host, we went in the morning as number 1, the winds generally get worse in the afternoon; and number 2, the tour buses from Cape Town arrive around 11am and the place becomes a mad house.

It's a pretty drive up to the point, with lots of nice views of the sea. We arrived at the Cape Point parking lot at about 9:30, but the funicular (tram) to the top of the point was having technical issues and wasn't scheduled to start until 10am anyway. So we decided to drive around to the Cape of Good Hope and then come back.

The parking lot for the Cape of Good Hope is at sea level, next to the Atlantic. Just as we parked, UG pointed out the 4 ostriches wandering around the end of the parking lot. I took a few photos from the car before getting out, as I was sure they would run off as soon as I did. But when I got out of the car, they stayed where they were, so I snapped some more pictures. UG decided to climb to the peak (about 60 feet of stairs followed by a scramble for another 100 feet or so), so I got back into the car to wait for him. As soon as I got into the car, the ostriches ran towards the car. I wanted to get more pictures, but I was afraid to open the window. They passed the car and started heading down the road, and I realized they had probably felt trapped by us, with the rock face behind them, the ocean to their left and us in front of them. So when they felt safe, they decided to make a break for it get get more out in the open. Goofy birds.

After UG got some great photos and came back down, we went back to the other point. By then, the parking lot had almost filled up, and we were feeling like we should have waited for the funicular to start because we had such a good parking spot before. But we were first in line for the next car once we bought our tickets, and didn't have to wait too long.

At the top of the tram, there's another set of stairs up to the old lighthouse. As were were climbing the stairs, I recognized one of the couples from our safari jeep at Elephant Plains. They have been doing a similar route to ours with their young adult son. They are headed back to Sweden tomorrow, so I doubt we'll see them again.

From the base of the lighthouse, we saw a couple of dolphin or seals playing in the waves. It's hard to tell them apart from almost 300m above. After we saw the ones surfing the waves, UG pointed out some dark patches a little further out. He said he wasn't moving until he saw the shark come by for a feeding. After quite a while when I didn't see any of them surfacing for air, I pulled out the binoculars, and realized we were watching seaweed.
I am really nervous about this shark tour if UG thinks sharks eat seaweed!

Combing back down from the tram, we encountered 4 full sized motorcoaches, as opposed to the mini-buses that were there when we arrived. And by then, another 100 or so cars were parked along the road, and disagreements were starting over parking spots and right-of-ways. I guess it's good advice to go in the morning. I also realize those ostriches we were the only ones to see right at that spot were probably thinking "Damn, the tourists aren't supposed to be here for another hour!"

Back in Simon's Town, it had obviously been raining. We came back to the apartment for some lunch, and the plan was to head back out for some more scenic drives to the other side of the penninsula. But UG has fallen asleep on the couch, so it looks like we're in for the rest of the afternoon. There are a whole bunch of sailboats out in the bay, but it seems like a terrible day for sailing, as the wind is almost non-existant, and it keeps raining off and on.

Heading to Cape Town

We packed up yesterday morning and headed out from Pietermaritzburg back down to the coast, back to the "beach" resort to pick up my bathing suit.

As we were leaving the resort last week, we saw a public beach about 2 minutes away from the resort, but we hadn't seen anyone swimming at it. And since we didn't realize that we'd be going back to the resort (because if we realized I'd left my bathing suit behind, we would have just turned around then and got it) , or how close we were to the airport, we didn't bother to investigate last week. But yesterday, on the way to the resort, we noticed there were people swimming. After picking up my suit, we had about an hour and a half before we had to be at the airport, which was about 20 minutes away, so I convince UG to stop and let me dip my toes in. He didn't think we had time to change into bathing suits, swim, dry off and get to the airport, so toes was all I could do. So I took off my shoes and socks, rolled my jeans up to my knees, and went down to the edge of the water. Within about a minute, a huge wave came, and soaked me almost to my crotch. But I was wearing my jeans because they were too heavy to pack in my suitcase, and that's when they are dry! So I laid on a bench for a few minutes to get them dry enough that they wouldn't drip on my shoes while UG sulked in the shade because he was so hot and HIS bathing suit was buried in his suitcase, not loose in the back seat of the car like mine. So after a few minutes, we got back in the car and took the long route to the airport.

After dropping off the rental car, we went inside the terminal. We stopped an employee to ask directions to the elevator (packing light is not one of my talents), and he happened to point us to the flight status board where our 1:15 flight was now scheduled to depart at 5:10. And we're there early!

Another 10 minutes later, we're done exploring the brand new Durban airport (King Shaka International, UG loves saying the name and is going to start a petition to change Calgary International to something better sounding, like Chief Chacka International Airport), and we realize there is not enough there to entertain us for 5 hours until we can check in. So we went back to the rental car desk and asked if our car was still there. No, they had already taken it for cleaning. How much for a different car for 4 hours? About $70. Hmm, well, there are 6 other companies, and I got time, so I walked to each one and compared prices. Only 2 actually had cars, so we got one for $60 for a 1 day rental. We considered a taxi, but we didn't know how to explain where we wanted to go, and we didn't know how to get back. $60 was a bargain compared to the resort, and this time I KNEW I'd get to play in some waves.
We were given a Hyundai i10. My theory is that the car isn't big enough to have a name, so they gave it a number. A Toyota Yaris would have been an upgrade, and it still had 4 doors. We folded the back seats down and filled the little jelly bean on wheels with our luggage, and hauled our butts back to the beach.

Back at the beach, UG pointed out that the only people swimming were kids. Was there a reason for that? Um, yes. It turns out the breaking waves were so strong, only 6 year olds have the energy to spend any time in them. In the process of getting past the breaks, I was knocked on my butt a couple of times and sent somersaulting back on shore. I was still dropping pebbles out of my pants when we eventually made it to Cape Town, and I probably should have still been wearing my rash shirt, because keeping the girls covered when you don't know which end is up is a challenge. But I made it past the rough parts and got to bob around in the deeper parts where the waves (mostly) weren't breaking, so weren't as tough to deal with.

We spent about 20 minutes in the water, and then 40 drying off, and then headed back to the airport.

Back at the airport, we got dinner, then went to check in. When we checked in, we were given meal vouchers because of the flight delay. Damn-it, we are so used to the "just be glad we're letting you fly with us" attitude of North American airlines that it never occurred to us there'd be meal vouchers for a 4 hour delay. So we took our vouchers, which were for one restaurant and went to see what they had for dessert. Nothing interesting, so we gave the vouchers to a family that was heading in.
When we finally got to board (at about 5:30), they were handing out 400 Rand airline vouchers to eat passenger (worth about $60 Cdn) as an apology for the delay. These flights only cost us about $90 Cdn to start with.

By the time we got to Cape Town, it was dark, so we didn't see anything from the air. And although the GPS took us on the scenic route to our accomodation, we still didn't get to see much there either.

We're staying in a suburb of Cape Town, on the coast of False Bay in the Indian Ocean. The town is called Simon's Town, and it's a pretty little seaside village. The shark tours leave from here, Cape Point is just down the road, there is a protected penguin colony living across the road, and the beaches are warmer than the Atlantic side (which is important when it's late fall here). We've rented an apartment, since we're staying put for 9 nights. It's an interesting apartment. It's the main floor and back of the second floor of a house. The owners have the front of the second floor and the 3rd floor. It's built onto a steep hill (UG doesn't like the driveway!), and there are spectacular views of the bay from 3 sides of the house. There's even a sweet old husky mix who comes by for a belly rub whenever we go outside (Lula, she belongs to the owners upstairs).

We woke up this morning at about 5am, thanks to a nasty wind and rain storm. I thought some patio furniture was going to come through a window. I guess there's a downside to living high up on the hill. Incidentally, I am shocked, (happily) at the lack of over-the-top security here. There's a front gate, and a door lock. There are large picture windows and sliding glass doors with no bars and only the usual little latch to lock the patio doors. The small windows have bars, I think it's impossible to buy windows without bars in South Africa. The big windows were obviously imported, but they cut costs on the little windows which weren't showing off a view anyway.
After staying in bed to about 8am, we headed out in search of breakfast. UG was starting to be unimpressed with the lack of restaurants in this little town, but we eventually found something, and after we ate, we realized there's a lot here, but nothing opens before 9am.

After breakfast, we went and loaded up on groceries. I spent a while in the wine aisle. I am very impressed at the huge selection of wines available at the grocery store. A full aisle of only South African wines. I bought 3 bottles to sample, at an average price of $5 each.

Back at the apartment, we were being lazy and looking through the brochures of things to do when the owner husband stopped by with a print out of the week's forecast to assure us it's not going to be so cold and windy the whole time we're here. After chatting for a while, we realized he's an avid cyclist. When he heard UG is also into mountain biking and hasn't been able to ride for the last 7 months, he invited him out riding tomorrow morning. (He later had to change plans, as the friends who were going are unavailable due to public holiday, but he still plans to take UG out one day).

He went out to run some errands, and came back 20 minutes later to tell us some whales had been spotted in the bay, close to shore, just 9km up the road. We had no expectations of seeing whales here, since they are only ever seen in the winter. It's extremely rare to see them in the bay in April. We drove up and watched them for about 10 minutes before they swam out too far to watch.

We then went to see the penguins. The owner of the house told us about the boardwalk we can use to see them without paying the fee to the national park, since there's no fences corralling them to a certain location. But we get in free anyway with our park pass, so we went to the main viewing boardwalk. There seemed to be 3 buses of Japanese tourists, plus a few hundred other random tourists, so I think we'll go investigate the free boardwalk another day. But the penguins are worth the trip anyway.

While we were out sightseeing along the waterfront, the wind was much calmer than up at the apartment, but still occasionally gusting. The thermometer read 17C, and the sun was shining and warm. Without the wind, it would have actually been a nice day. Much nicer than the 11C and raining that was predicted. Besides the rain this morning, we got some rain last night. And apparently that's the first rain this town had gotten for 4 months. It's also raining this evening. But at least we got a few hours of sunshine.

Pietermaritzburg

(Peter-Mariss-Burg for the linguistically challenged like UG!)

Friday turned out to be very nice weather. We ended up spending it by the pool at the hotel.

Our next stop is Pietermaritzburg, for a mountain bike world cup. I had to book stuff before the details of the race came out. I got lucky booking a hotel just 5 minutes from the venue, but I didn't book the right days. So UG was going to drive the hour from the coast up to the race to catch the downhill qualifying runs, and the 4-cross (4 guys riding downhill at the same time?). But he ended up being lazy like me and spent it at the pool instead.

We were going to go to the beach. But it turns out even the beach they will shuttle you to is not a "swimming beach". I still have no idea what makes a beach un-swimmable here, nobody will say. They just say "the swimming beach is that way." So frustrating to be so close to such a warm ocean and not be able to go in.

The breakfast buffet at the hotel was okay. Not spectacular, and the omelet was terrible, but there were enough options that I was finally able to eat. But by about 2pm I was starting to get hungry again. I know the pool burgers are awful, and the only other option on the pool menu is nachos with "cream cheese". Apparently if you want anything else, you aren't allowed to sit at the pool. So I walked to the "beach" bar (closer to the beach, but still not on the beach), and their menu was all Greek mezes. I do like Greek food, mezes not so much. The restaurant inside the hotel had fish and chips, so I walked up there and asked for take-out. They told me no, if I didn't want to eat in the restaurant, I had to go to my room and order room service. I finally snapped, and demanded fish and chips TO GO! For the cost of this place, if I want fish and chips, and I want to sit by the pool, and they HAVE fish and chips, I should be able to take it to the pool. I had had enough of this "if you want to sit in place X, you have a choice of these 3 items. If you want to sit in place Y, you can have a choice of these 2 items" from a resort that brags of all it's food selections. So they let me take it to the pool. Fortunately, it tasted decent, so I didn't have to have another temper tantrum.

And 3 hours later, I was hugging the toilet bowl. UG thinks it was sun stroke, but I've had sun stroke, and that was not it. I'm convinced it was food poisoning, but UG says it took too long to come on. It was not alcohol induced, as I'd only had 3 alcoholic drinks all day. I felt okay in the morning, but I started to feel nauseous part way through breakfast. It came and went throughout the day, but fortunately not as bad as Friday night.

Saturday, we spent another couple of hours by the pool and then drove up to P'burg. The hotel here is a 4 room guest house. We got a phone call from them at 4pm asking if we still planned to stay here, as the staff was planning to go home. It's a pretty little place, all rooms have a private bathroom, and the other 3 rooms were occupied by the Ukrainian cross-country mountain bike team. They checked out early this morning for their flight home, as their final race was yesterday. All the other places we've stayed at here have had some kind of security fence or wall, and 24h staff or security guards, so it was fairly unobtrusive. For example, in Jo'burg, the hotel was surrounded by a wall topped with electric fencing. The only way inside is through the front door, past the valet, bellman and front desk clerk. So individual rooms had the standard hotel key card. At the game reserves, there's an outer perimeter fence, open wilderness filled with vicious animals, then a camp perimeter, so we just had a key to our room. But here, there's an outer wall with a gate which we have a remote for, and then there's a gate on the building itself, and then the door has a lock (we have a key to the back door/gate, only the staff has keys to the front door/gate), and finally we have a key for our room. The weight f the key chain is pulling down UG's pants. (Come to think of it, the place in Graskop only had a wall and a key to our room, no security guard, so I guess that's the reason for the "don't leave your purse near a window" warnings.)

According to the tourist books, Durban has the highest concentration of Indian people outside of India, so the curries here are supposed to be great, so that's what UG wanted for dinner last night. We were told there was a good liitle curry place in a nearby mall, so we headed over there. The stores close at 6pm on Saturdays, but the restaurants in the mall stay open later. Arriving at the mall at 6:15 was a strange experience. The mall was closed, so almost all the lights were out in the parking lot. Yet there were hundreds (thousands?) of people around who had just gotten off work and were waiting for their rides. There were even a few large groups milling around the parking lot, like a bar had just closed. We parked, went in the closest door, and even the mall map was turned off. We managed to figure out that all the restaurants and the movie theatre were on the back side of the mall. So we got back in the car and tried to drive to the back side. But the back side had no entrance, just delivery doors. Finally, we found a door with lights on and cars in the parking lot and used that entrance. That turned out to be the closest entrance to the restaurants, and since they were still open, even the mall map was still on.

I dropped UG off at the race venue this morning and came back to the hotel. I had planned to do some exploring on my own, but because the driving is so bad here, I'll probably just hang by the pool some more. Although, I realized I left my bathing suit in the lobby of the hotel on the coast, just as we were arriving in P'burg. So I'll have to wear my snorkelling bathing suit if I want to swim in the pool, which consists of a surfer's "rash shirt" to protect me from sunburn. A little dorky for the pool, but better than nothing. MUCH better than nothing. The other hotel is really close to the airport, so I'll be able to pick it up on our way out tomorrow.

We are scheduled to fly out to Cape Town tomorrow. I got an email yesterday from the shark tour we have booked for Wednesday saying that high winds have been forecasted, so they will be cancelling Wednesday's tour, and can we book another day. Yes, we're in the area for 9 days, partially just for that reason. UG checked the Cape Town forecast this morning, and Tuesday is predicted to be 11C and raining. Ug. So I have spent part of my morning looking into whether it's feasible to just stay in Durban a few days longer. Flights are no big deal, but the rental car might be difficult. And finding a decent place to stay was hard enough before. With just a day's notice, it's pretty much imppossible. So now I gotta figure out what to do in Cape Town when the weather is 11C, raining with high winds.

Saint Lucia

We got up early this morning and hit the road. We were stopped by 2 roadblocks before getting to the border. One was in the same location as yesterday, the other just before the border to South Africa. Both times, UG was asked to show his driver's license. We provided his international driving permit along with his Alberta license. It wasn't asked for, but they were appreciative. I'm glad we had it rather than deal with the repercussions of not having it. Once they were satisfied we weren't doing anything illegal, we were sent on our way.
Crossing the border was even more chaotic than before. This border crossing was signifigantly more busy, with roads going in every which direction. SA has the number of lines condensed to one. Both for people arriving and for people leaving the country. The wait was about 45 minutes to get stamped back in by immigration. Then a quick stamp without a single question about our cameras, etc.
We're now in Saint Lucia. It has the feel of a Florida beach vacation town, with a short main street filled with motels, surf shops and tour agents. I took a drive around town while UG was resting in our room, looking for information about snorkelling. I also went looking for the ocean, which is just outside of town. I got as far as where the river meets the ocean, and the road ended at a campground which is not on the map. While turning around, I saw a hippo walking along the far side of the river. I parked the car, got out and watched, and there were 4 of them out of the water! This was my first sighting of a full hippo. Up to now, they've all been partially submerged in a pond or river. I left them after a few minutes, as I figured I had left UG alone for too long.
After a swim in the pool and dinner, we drove the other way to the beach. There were a few other people there, wearing bathing suits and wrapped up in towels. But the waves were huge, so we didn't get too close to the water. It was also late in the day, so the other people were leaving.

Swaziland

At breakfast, we could see that it was just catfish splashing. No hippos to be seen, just a croc way off at the far side of the pond.

It's still cold here. Well, about 16C, but the air has a damp chill to it. And it's overcast. So we decided to skip the game drive and head into town to experience Swaziland. The closest town is supposed to be the main tourist mecca, so pretty much all we saw was a couple of craft markets. At the first market, there was a silversmith shop on the premises, where I purchased a small silver pendant which is supposed to have giraffe hair in it.

The next market was a little less fancy, it contained about 120 stalls all selling the same wooden and stone animal carvings, beaded jewellery, baskets and paintings. We walked around each stall before making choices of what to buy. The whole time we were there, only a handful of other tourists stopped in, visited one or 2 stalls and left again. I think the few purchases we made were those vendors only sale of the day.

One vendor we have named "Crazy Eddie" invited us into his "crazy shop, with lots of crazy things, beware of the crazy prices!" UG bought some small wooden elephants from him. A few vendors were selling these cool shadow boxes with about 12 small elephants lined up in the box. UG wanted one, but didn't want to have to bring the whole frame home, so we bought a bunch of the elephants, and I'll have to build him a shadow box at home. There were also some giraffes in shadow boxes, so I purchased a couple of giraffes. I also purchased a pottery jar, nice and light!

We then drove on further, and saw a sign pointing the way to the "Summerfield Botanical Garden" and decided to stop and check it out. It turned out to be a fancy resort, with over the top, immaculately groomed gardens and fountains. There was a restaurant on the grounds as well, so we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner. When I get internet access again, I'll have to check out the room rates, because it seemed far too fancy to let bums like us in. Yet, in the restaurant, there were only a total of 3 other couples, in a very large restaurant.

Our camp was also very quiet last night, with maybe 20 guests at a camp that can hold a few hundred. Tonight, a couple of tour buses have pulled in, with some people camping and some staying in huts like ours. But otherwise, it almost feels like we're the only tourists here. Like Bali, but not as warm.

While driving around, we encountered a police road block twice (same roadblock, different directions). The first time, we were waved through. The second time, we were pulled aside, and our headlights and signal lights were checked. All was in working order, so we were sent on our way.

Tomorrow we head back into South Africa, to a small, out of the way town called Saint Lucia. It is near the coast in an area that is supposed to have good snorkelling, plus there's a river running through town which is supposed to be teaming with more hippos, and another park nearby is supposed to have more rhinos. But tomorrow will be mostly spent driving.

Getting to Swaziland

Last night at Kruger, we experienced a torrential downpour. We stayed dry in our canvas tent, and were happy to not have to go outside to use the bathroom.
This morning, it was cold and wet. By cold, I mean about 18C, which I guess means I am in serious trouble when I return to Calgary. On our drive out of the park, we saw some zebra, some wildebeast, more impala (including some sitting down, which we hadn't seen before), a hyena, and a rhino.

As soon as we exited the park via the southern gate, there was an immediate change in scenery. Wild bush, grassland and scrub became sugar cane, banana and tree farms. UG had some trouble adjusting back up to 100+ on the roads, after doing no more than 50km/h for the last several days. We also found ourselves slowing down behind every parked car looking to see what animal they had discovered.

After about a half hour or so, we came to the border crossing. Getting across took about 45 minutes, most of that just exiting South Africa. We were required to list the serial numbers of all of our electronics, so that we can import them again without paying duty. So we had to compile a list of all our cameras, GPS units, cell phones, laptop, and probably some stuff we forgot about. There are 2 things absurd about this, number 1 nobody asked about this stuff when we brought it IN to the country, and anything we'll have with us when we go back to South Africa will be leaving again a few weeks later. And number 2, where the heck in Swaziland are we going to buy a laptop?

Another interesting thing to note in the customs office was the big box of condoms free for the taking. It makes sense when you realize that Swaziland has over 30% HIV infection rate. South Africa wants to make sure everyone is wrapping it.

After creating a list of stuff to steal and getting it stamped, we got back in the car and drove about 15 feet and told to park again to visit passport control in the next building. We go in, and without even LOOKING at the ID pages of the passports, she finds a blank page and stamps it. Surely the woman stamping our list of valuables could have stamped a blank page in our passports, too?

Onto the Swaziland side. We pull up to a check point, and they asked if our passports had been checked. No. Okay, park here, go inside and get them stamped. Inside, the immigration officer made a joke about us trying to sneak into the country illegally. Apparently he could see us pull up to the checkpoint. We then paid our $7 "road toll" and were sent back outside. 2 things, one building, how efficient! SA, you should come check this out sometime.

We pull out of the parking spot and go back to the checkpoint and a new guy is there. We hand him our proof that we'd paid the toll and he's about to send us on our way, but he stops and asks us where we are going. I struggled with the name of the game park, Mlilwane. He laughed at me and asked if we have a good map. No, we have a GPS. So he runs into the building and gets us a tourist map!

The country is beautiful, despite being cloudy and wet today. The terrain is very hilly, with beautiful vistas around every curve in the road. We climbed quite a ways, at one point we were driving through the clouds, and the outside temperature dropped to 12C. We stopped for lunch at the top of Pigg's Peak, at a restaurant with awesome homemade bread, cookies and cakes, and a fabulous view. The restaurant was also located between some high end craft stores, where I purchased some jewellery.

The game resort turns out to not have much game. Mostly antelope and smaller animals, along with hippo and crocodile. I don't think we'll be doing any game drives here.
Our "room" is a traditional style "beehive" hut. It's cleaner than the tent in Kruger, but it smells like grass. I think I will probably have hay fever by the time we leave. It also has no windows, so we'll have to set an alarm to keep from sleeping until noon.

The restaurant is outdoors, overlooking a pond. There is a sign on the railing next to the water that warns of crocodiles, and not to stand too close to the railing. All through dinner, we could hear splashing in the water, but it was too dark to see what was splashing.

More Kruger

The Bush Braai (BBQ) was excellent. We were picked up by the same guy who brought us tools in the morning in a jeep similar to what was used at Elephant Plains. 2 other couples in their 20s (South Africans) came along, and we met a second ranger and 2 cooks at the dinner site. On the drive, we saw 2 lions off in the distance, walking along the road. Fortunately, we didn't see anything while we were there. On the way back, we saw a few jackals, a few antelope (either impala or bush buck) and a few birds. The food was typical South African fare: beef stew, chicken, potatoes, pap (a maize porridge, which I was surprised to discover UG liked, since it was white), awesome sausages, and a pudding and custard for dessert.

This morning, we slept in until the luxurious hour of 7:30am. UG saw a baboon on the deck when he got up, but it was gone before I got out of bed. After watching the hippos for a bit, we took an 8 hour drive to go get groceries.

We headed out to the next camp, which was supposed to have a better grocery store than our camp. We took the dirt roads to get there, along which we saw 3 giraffe, a turtle, and of course lots of antelope.

At the other camp, we had lunch, but the options were identical to our camp. We picked up some wildebeast sausages to grill on our bbq pit. The coals are going now. If it's terrible, we'll be getting bad cheese burgers from the camp restaurant. Or maybe pringles.

On the way back, we took the paved road, and encountered a traffic jam, which indicates a good animal sighting. Sure enough, a lion sleeping in the grass about 20m off the road. People in a couple of other vehicles told us there were more up the road, so we passed on and looked carefully. It's amazing how many rocks look like ears when you've been told there's something there to find. At one point, I thought I saw something, but UG had already passed it, so I said, "Backup!"
UG, still driving, replied, "What?"
"Back. Up!"
UG, stops, "Did you see something?"
"Of course I saw something, why else would I tell you to back up?"
UG: "Then why didn't you say 'stop'?"

It turned out to be a termite mound.

So we turned around and went back to see if the sleeping lion had moved. Nope, an even bigger jam waited for us on the return. This time, we waited out the other cars, found a good parking spot and waited until he woke up. Overall, we waited about 40 minutes, plus a half hour driving looking for others. But we were rewarded with some great shots, and only 2 other cars were still waiting by the time he got up, groomed himself, then walked across the road for another nap.
We weren't about to watch him sleep for another hour, so we moved on. At a bridge, we encountered a large troop of baboons. UG got some great pictures of tiny baby ones wrestling.

Further up the road, we came across a lone vervet monkey. As he walked along the road, I noticed he had blue balls. Literally, bright teal coloured testicles. Now, I knew nobody would believe me, so I tried to get a picture. At one point, he jumped up on the hood of out car and caused us to frantically roll up the windows. We drove on and got some distance between us, so I rolled my window down to try again, because he kept moving so all my shots were of his brown bum. UG handed me his camera and suggested I try that. While picking up UG's camera, the monkey jumped up on the open window and scared the pants off me. I screamed, which scared the monkey back, and scared UG even more. But I managed to get the window back up without the monkey actually getting in the car. But now we are looking for a car wash to get the monkey germs off.

Closer to camp, we stopped to look at a herd of buffalo, and found a pair of giraffe right in front of them, which offered a great photo op.
Instead of going right back to camp, we decided to check out a "hide" about 14km away. A hide is an enclosed structure which you are allowed to get out of your car, sit in and watch whatever animals walk by. This one was situated right over a narrow river, with as many as 10 hippos right in front. We also saw a crocodile swim by. We sat and waited for one or some of the hippos to get up and move around, and an elephant came along and took a drink, then climbed into the water and walked off up the stream. By this point, a tour bus had ignored the sign prohibitting their entrance, and the other sign requesting silence of the visitors. So we left. I think we put about 150km on the car in our 8 hours of driving today. And now I am watching my manly man cook over open flame.

Tomorrow we head out of Kruger, to Swaziland, and we'll be visiting another game park there for 2 nights.

Kruger National Park

With a few tears, we packed up the car and left Elephant Plains private game lodge and headed out for Kruger National Park. I had left Canada with high expectations of Kruger, but some of the guests at EP left us with a little trepidation. "You don't get to see as many animals, because you can't leave the road like the drivers in the private parks do." was a common comment.

But within minutes of entering the park at a northern gate, even before we had gotten to reception and were therefore "in" the park, we saw a herd of about 50 buffalo crossing the road. And I am 100% certain what is buffalo now. Then a bunch of zebra crossed the road, overall, lots of zebra sightings within the park, I can't even remember how many. At a waterhole next to the road, we saw a crocodile sleeping. And then we drove down a dirt road for a few minutes and found a giraffe munching on a tree right beside the road. This is probably my favourite sighting yet, besides the elephants surrounding our jeep, because I found him myself, (all by myself, even UG was saying "What? What?" in response to my "Ooh! Ooh!") and he didn't wander off right away like all the others we have gotten close to have. Even when another passing car spooked him off, he came back to pose for us.

As soon as we pulled back onto the main paved road, a rhino crossed right in front of us, allowing for more great pictures. And then a bunch of vultures and jackals picking at whatever was left on some elephant bones about 60m off the side of the road.


A little while later, we came across a very large male elephant just on the side of the road dusting himself in red dirt to cool off. We parked on the side of the road for a few minutes, and he calmly watched us and ate some leaves off a tree. Then decided to take a few steps towards us. UG backed up our little Hyundai SUV, and he took a couple more steps towards us. UG backed up a little more. He took a couple more steps. Eventually, Elmer was walking casually down the middle of a 2 lane road, while UG backed up and prayed for no traffic behind him. I'll have to check the video I took during the whole event, but it felt like it lasted about 20 minutes before the elephant decided he found a tree he liked on the right side of the road and gave us enough space to pass him. We didn't spend too much time watching elephants after that.

Then we followed what seemed like hours of boring, flat, uninhabited terrain with nothing to see, and no reason to be only doing 50km/h. But just as we were contemplating ways to end our suffering, we came upon a stopped car who was photographing a couple of giraffe. Then a couple of minutes later, 5 rhino, a ways back of the road to the left. And a few minutes after that, 3 more on the right, much closer to the road.

And then we arrived at the camp with just a half hour to spare before they close the gate for the night, and we get fined for late entry. It took us about 5 1/2 hours to travel 140km, with the cruise control set at 49km/h and only stopping to look at animals. The camp itself is very rustic, and kind of disappointing. Before even getting to our "tent", we opted to get dinner in the restaurant. We have cooking facilities in the "tent", but we hadn't passed a grocery store in a few days, and we were just too tired. But the restaurant only has a buffet option, which is the worst buffet I have ever seen. For about $25/person, they offer terrible, fatty roast beef, chicken thighs and legs, potatoes, rice, pumpkin and beans. Period. There were 4 other desperate enough people there when we were there, and the camp is full (we booked in October!) so I figure they get maybe 10 people per night, and put out what they can with a $250 budget.

This morning, we went on the Kruger Park version of a game drive. In contrast to the soft knock on the door at 5:30am at EP, and 6:00 the jeep leaves (assuming everyone who's coming is onboard), here, we had to get ourselves up and get to a meeting point for 5:15, where we wait for the rangers to organize themselves to get on the road for 5:30. And instead of a driver and a tracker, we got one guy just driving. Then we drive the same roads we can drive ourselves on for most of the time. At least we get to leave the camp 30 minutes before the masses, but it's dark anyway. And the weather was terrible. Thick fog that condences on you and makes you wet while the wind whips through the open vehicle. About 30 minutes before we're supposed to be back at camp, he finally turns down a restricted road, basically just as a shortcut to getting back to camp.

Part way down the untravelled road, we get a flat tire. Our guide (ranger? driver?) gets out and stares at the front left tire. Finds a tool in the front seat, tries using it for a few minutes, then wanders off to find a stick in the bush to help him. Someone on the bus suggests he radio for help. Oh, we don't take a radio on the "game drive". UG and I don't have cell service, so we assume nobody does. The guide tells us all to stay put, he's going to walk up the road to try and find cell service. One guy speaks up and says he has service and offers his phone. So help is called. Yay! While we wait, our guide wanders off every now and then looking for something, then comes back and plays around with the few tools he has. Finally, my UberGeek gets out of the jeep and offers his help changing the tire. He gets the nuts off, but the jack is too small for the truck, so until help arrives, they play around, trying to get the front end jacked up. I'm in the truck terrified that we're about to see our first carnivore in Kruger, while my husband is outside the vehicle staring at the ground, or under the truck while our ranger stares at him. Shouldn't someone be watching for lions? I mean, someone who knows what to watch for like the spotter at EP? Although, they don't carry weapons on the game drives here either, so maybe they'd rather not know what's coming?

Finally help arrives in the form of one guy in a pickup truck, who at least brought a jack and knows how to use it. Nobody to stand guard, no weapons for protection, no vehicle big enough to take us all back to camp, just a guy and a jack. Thanks to my super awesome husband, we had a spare tire on a few minutes after help arrived and were on our way. I guess I should be impressed the spare wasn't flat.

Our "tent", while a bit scary when we finally found it after dark, is actually pretty cute. It's a canvas tent permantently mounted on a wooden deck, with a full concrete and tile bathroom attached. There's a fridge, sink and hot plate on the deck, with the fridge enclosed in a locking cage to keep the baboons out of your food, and a small fire pit hanging off the front. The deck over looks a very pretty river, and it's taken me a while to type this as I keep getting distracted by the hippos splashing on the far bank. For the most part, they stay submerged, only coming up to yawn or poop every now and then and then splash back down. There are probably more on my side of the river, too, but the grasses on the bank are too tall to see. You can hear them, though, as they grunt and snort all night long. A sleepy UG walked out onto the deck this morning and was startled by a grunt.

We are booked for a bush BBQ tonight. Another "game drive" followed by dinner under the stars. It sounded awesome and exciting when I booked it, but I am quite nervous now. I think I will verify before we go: do we have radios? do we have guns? do we have enough people who look like they are trained to use them? And I am off to buy some alcohol.

Last morning at Elephant Plains

This morning was wet and cool. About an hour and a half into the drive, we had only seen impala and a vulture. We actually stopped at the impala, because of the weather, they weren't moving away from us, instead staying under a tree to try to keep dry.

But we eventually got to see rhino again! 3 of them. Because of the weather, they were laying down to keep warm rather than wandering around like the four the other night. So we stayed with them for about 10 minutes and got LOTS more pictures.

Then we saw a male kudu, with it's large, curly antlers. Some giraffe, and some zebra, all reasonably close with good picture opportunities.

We are packing up now to leave this camp and go to a more rustic one run by the national parks. UG is threatening to barracade us in the room and refuse to leave.

Wednesday, April 13

This morning's drive was pretty quiet. About 40 minutes in, when there'd been nothing to report, I commented that apparently we've been spoiled on our first 3 drives. In fact, we've been so lucky, our group has started making specific requests of the driver: baby elephant, leopard in a tree, cheetah making a kill, etc. A few seconds after my comment, we spotted a large male elephant in the distance. But apparently elephants are now mundane, because a few comments were made, but the driver didn't stop, and nobody complained. I asked later, and the driver just didn't see the elephant, and didn't hear the comments over his radio earpiece and the engine of the truck. We came across another jeep stopped, so we stopped to see what they saw. A leopard, in a tree. I'm personally a little bored with the leopards. I am not a cat person to start with, and we've seen 3 now (actually, this is apparently the same one we saw on Monday night). But this one was actually in a tree. Apparently leopards do climb trees for a vantage point when hunting, but they don't stay up there long (this one climbed down about 3 minutes after we arrived), so catching one is impressive. I am now so impressed with our driver's and spotter's ability to deliver on requests, I have asked for a rhino in a tree.

We then drove for about another hour without anymore sightings (except maybe impala, which are like groundhogs and gophers in Canada, so prevalent nobody stops to take pictures of them), and came upon another group watching the same cheetah from yesterday. Apparently cheetah are only seen every few months, and we've seen one twice in as many days, in a completely different location.

I was starting to get sad as we drove home, no great zebra or giraffe sightings, as the only ones we've seen on drives we were on our way to the cheetah, so we couldn't stop and watch them for long. Fortunately, we got to see some giraffe near the side of the road on the way back, before they wandered off where we couldn't see them.

A little further down, 5 male buffalo a few feet off the road. These were the same animals I saw on the way in, and the driver confirmed they are most definitely buffalo, cape buffalo, which are some of the rarest animals. UG asked if they are as tasty as bison, and apparently we are to try buffalo pie in Kruger, if we can get it. We almost lost our driver to his reverie at the memory of Kruger buffalo pie.

And then back for breakfast. A couple more elephants were working their way back into the ravine just after breakfast. Close enough to watch, but not close enough for good pictures.

Speaking of pictures, I have personally taken about 700 (as of the end of the morning drive) just in the safari park. UG has a few hundred more with his own camera.

The afternoon was also quiet in the field, as was the evening drive. Most of our group left this morning, so our jeep was filled with new arrivals. When the driver asked them what they most wanted to see, they said "leopard", and UG and I almost groaned out loud. We had seen leopard 3 times by then, and had started to consider it a standby animal. "Hmm, nothing much going on today, let's go see a leopard to keep the guests happy." Fortunately, we stopped to visit a hippo first. Then came upon some elephants (probably the same ones as yesterday) in a long open field formerly used as an airstrip. We saw there for a few minutes before some impala came running out of the bush. They were just playing, as we could tell by the fact they weren't making their funny "predator is coming" noises, and were running in circles rather than a straight line as fast as they could go. But they scared the bejeesus out of the elephants, who then stampeded into the bush in the other direction. It was interesting to see how quickly they can disappear, with the dust flying off their backs as they went. The driverr was pretty upset with the impalas for ruining the view for the new people, though.

Then we came upon the leopard. This was the first male we've seen and he's quite a bit larger. He walked right under the back end of the jeep (under our butts, as UG and I were seated in the back row) 3 times! So even a boring old leopard still has some surprises. And the "new" people were so extatic. It turns out they have been coming on safari every year for 8 years, and never seen a leopard. So for them, this was the rare, epic sighting of a lifetime, and they happiness at finally seeing one was great to see.

For tonight's sundown drink, we stopped next to a dam (the South African word for man-made hole that fills with water, not a dam as we know it in Canada) with a couple of hippos in it. As we watched, one of the hippos was trying to get out of the water with a great deal of difficulty, and he finally gave up. My ankles have been hurting, and the last step out of the pools at the camp are over a foot tall, so I find myself relating to the hippo's struggle to get out of the water.

Last night, we had been driving in the dark, came to a sudden stop, backed up about 3 feet, and our spotter pointed to a bush and said "cameleon". The driver got out, broke off the branch and brought the cameleon up for us all to see. We were all now convinced this guy had special powers to be able to see a 4" lizard in a bush, in the dark at 30km/hr. When we told the new people about it, they explained cameleon never move very far. Once you've seen one, you can be pretty much sure it will still be in the same tree or bush several days later. So much for the magic! The rest of tonight's drive back was uneventful.

For dinner, we had kudu, a type of antelope. We had almost finished the main course before it started to rain and we had to move inside, out of the boma. The rain was steady, but not too heavy, and there was no wind, but we saw a spectacular thunder and lighting show from the deck off the library above the bar. The lightening was way up, so rather than hitting the ground, they were bouncing back up to other clouds.

More safari!

Yawn! 5:30 comes early. I was actually up about a minute before the knock on our door. I woke up because our room had gotten too warm and I had to use the bathroom. I thought I had time to pee and get another hour's sleep. Fortunately, the coffee is very good here.

And it was well worth the early morning. A couple of minutes into the drive, still within walking distance of the camp, (as in I would still be able to find my way back) our spotter noticed some lion tracks. The spotter and driver both got out of the jeep and tried to follow the tracks. It was a bit frightening to know there was a lion nearby, and we lost sight of both our guides. But it turns out there were tracks going 3 directions from a crossroad, so we just randomly picked one and moved on. A few minutes later, the driver heard over the radio that another jeep had found the lions, so we headed over. A male and 2 females, all in their prime, with beautiful full coats. We were able to sit and watch them for quite a while before heading off again in search of more animals.

We found a warthog wandering down the road, and watched him for a minute or so before he wandered into the bush. A little more driving, and we saw a couple of giraffe a ways off in the trees. I took a couple of quick pictures before the driver told us someone about a half hour drive away had spotted and was tracking a cheetah. Cheetah are very rare. There are 12-15 of them in the Sabi Sands (the private reserve we are in now) and only 1 mating female within 65,000 hectares. Kruger National Park (next door) has about 150 over 30 million hectares. Apparently they are built for speed, not fighting, so they aren't very good at fighting off predators, so the numbers are dwindling. So the driver explained that we had a 30 minute drive, and a 50-50 chance of seeing a cheetah. This excited the others in the jeep, so we headed off and cut my visit with the giraffes short.

Along the way, we passed a small lake, and we stopped for a few minutes. I saw a couple of hippos in the water and was scanning the water for more, and waiting for a full head to come up above the water. UG called my name and pointed to the left of the jeep, zebras! Ah! Zebras on the left, hippos on the right, what do I do? What do I watch? And then there was a tree next to the water upon which was perched some bird that was exciting the people in the jeep. An African fish eater? Too much going on!

After a few minutes, the driver got word that the cheetah was still within sight, so we kept going. We got close to the other jeeps and then backed off. There's a rule about no more than 3 jeeps watching a specific animal, so waited around the corner for a few minutes until we heard that someone else had moved on. We got a few minutes of watching the cheetah laying in the grass. And she got up and started wandering around. For a few exciting minutes she tried to chase some impala. But as fast as cheetah are, impala can get away if they have enough of a head start, so they tend to keep their distance. We also got to hear the noises the impala make to warn others of a predator. Eventually, the cheetah wandered across a property border where we were not allowed to follow her.

On the way back to camp, we saw something called a water buck? This animal is recognized by the white circle on it's bum, like it sat in wet paint.
Back at the camp, the field was clear of impala. Apparently they were only there yesterday to welcome us. I sat by the pool and read my book while UGG went off on a bush walk. He was shown plants and things, but no exciting animals. After he came back, he pointed into the field and said, "hey, there are giraffe out there!" And sure enough, there were 3 giraffe at the back of the field. Later, the field was visited by 3 elephants, which I watched for a while before getting dressed for the evening game drive.

As we approached the jeep pick up area, we realized there was another half dozen elephants in the ravine that separates the front pool from the "viewing field". We watched them for a few minutes before getting into the jeeps for the third time.
The first thing we saw on this outing was a large male elephant. Someone asked why this male had no tusks. The driver wasn't sure, but said it's very rare for a male to not have tusks. I replied "then how do you know it's a male?" Stunned silence ensued as 5 faces turned and stared at me. Did I mention the 27kg penis?

We moved away from this elephant and found a large open field with about 20 elephants on the far side. We parked in the middle and eventually the elephants surrounded us. There were even a set of twin babies! That was amazing to see so many of them calming eating grass, watching us and moving on.

Once they moved past us and we were not longer surrounded, we left the field. A little while later, we encountered some wildebeast in another field. One of the other guests said they are known as "tourist buffalo" as apparently it's common for tourists to see them from a distance and think they are buffalo. Yesterday, the ones I saw while we driving were very close, and clearly NOT the same as what we saw in the field. The animals that were pointed out when we arrived were at a distance. So I believe what I originally thought was buffalo actually was buffalo, but they were not the same as what I saw in the field.

Then we found another leopard and followed it for a what seemed like a very long time. We finally left it alone when it went off to hunt. Then we went for our night cap and got to watch the sunset while standing still. There was a herd of impala playing on the far side of the field we stopped in.

Driving back, our spotter managed to find a cameleon on a branch in a bush in the dark. That man has amazing gifts. We then passed another herd of elephants (or maybe the same, it was dark!). We startled one who had been drinking some water, and got trumpetted at. But he was much smaller than the one last night so it wasn't as frightening. Or maybe we've become pros?

After dinner, a visiting scorpion expert showed us some specimens he's collected in the area. Apparently, they glow under UV light, so are very easy to find at night. I am kinda glad I don't have a UV light. I am especially glad UG doesn't have a UV light.

Monday, April 11

Last night was the coldest we've encountered, and our little cabin had no heat. We had to snuggle together like we did when we went camping back when we first started dating. This morning (at 7am) was more of the same, getting dressed in seconds flat in order to warm up.

We went for breakfast at another pancake house, and they actually served breakfast pancakes. Although they called them flapjacks. I now understand why pancakes are stuffed for lunch and dinner instead of drowned in maple syrup for breakfast. No maple syrup. They made a valiant attempt with a cane sugar syrup with maple-ish flavouring. I don't think I'll be having any more pancakes. At least not for breakfast.

The waitress asked where we were from, and when I told her Canada, she replied "Why would you vacation in Graskop? It's so cold here!" I replied that compared to home, this is summer time! Graskop is actually on the top of the Drakensburg escarpment, which passes for mountains around here at an elevation of 1396m. So it was cold at night, but by 7:30 am, it seemed like it was going to be a reasonable day.
So we headed out towards the game park, taking the scenic route. We caught a few more scenic over-looks with more crafts for sale. One of which had 2 foot bridges over a canyon and waterfall, with smoothly carved "potholes" from the flow of the water. UG enjoyed climbing out on the rocks to get the best picture, I suggested he let me hold his wallet and car keys. You know, just in case. He elected to keep them, figuring if he went over the edge, I'd need some incentive to have him rescued.

Along the road, we saw a few groups of baboons, but again, moving too fast to get any pictures.

At one point, we turned off on the road towards the game lodge at some little town only marked on the map as a point to turn off. We've passed dozens of small towns and seen no more than 10 people at any given time (not including tourists at the viewpoints, of course, we were following a bus) so we didn't expect to see anyone at this turn-off. Somehow, for at least 5km, there were thousands of people in the streets. There were a few shops and streetside vendors, but more people than we've seen since Amsterdam! And even a few goats wandering amongst the people as well.

As soon as we entered the game reserve, which is a large area shared by a dozen or so private lodges, we saw some impala. I also saw some large buffalo looking things just inside the fence before we got to the gate. I called them water buffalo. But once we arrived at the lodge, and you can see more from the deck of the main building, the staff called them wildebeast. Oops.

The lodge is gorgeous, I again may not want to leave. There are 2 pools, both of which over look a field where impala and some wildebeast graze all day long. Meals are included, and we arrived in time for lunch, which included a curry and rice dish followed by yummy chocolate cake.

After a swim, we headed out on our first game drive. 9 guests plus 2 guides (a driver and a spotter) climbed into an open top jeep and headed out for about 3 hours. Our first sighting, about 20 minutes out, was 4 white rhino!!!! I am so excited because these are rare, endangered and prime prey for poachers, so I wasn't sure we'd see any. But they were on my personal top 5 list, along with hippo, elephant, zebra and giraffe. Apparently this was a male and 3 females he's hoping to get lucky with. When we got near, the male started to charge our jeep, which freaked us out, but he didn't get too close, and the guide explained he does that in the presence of the ladies, but he's a bit of a wimp most of the time, and it's what's known as a "mock charge". After a couple of minutes, they all wandered off and we kept driving.

About 10 minutes later, we saw a couple of teenage male elephants. Once we arrived, they split off and we followed the one. I embarrased myself by being the only one to giggle when the guide explained that the elephant's erect penis weigh about 27kg, and he can use it to swipe flies off his belly.

Then we moved on and saw more impala. Then we crossed a dam and saw 3 hippos in the water, but didn't hang out for long there.

Then we found a leopard hanging out in the grass, and we sat in the jeep next to her for quite a while. Apparently she is 7 years old and is very used to the jeeps.

Then we stopped for a "sundowner", drinks in the dark in the bush before driving back to "camp". On the way home, we saw a couple of male elephants who didn't like the vehicle in the dark, so one of them trumpetted at us. They could possibly have been the same ones we saw earlier. Moving along before we could charged, we passed a field of zebra, but I just caught a glimpse of striped bums as the spotter moved the light across. It disturbs the animals, and possibly makes them go blind if you shine bright lights on them, so we didn't get more than just knowing they were there and kept going. So 4 of my top 5 on the first day! We also saw some rabbits briefly when the light passed over them. Watching the spotters light, you realize how he does his job. He passes it so quickly here and there, stopping so quickly that you barely have time to register what you are looking at, let alone if it's something unique.

Dinner is held in the "boma", an outdoor ring surrounding a fire pit, with fancy white table cloths and glasses of wine. Chicken skewers and beef stroganoff followed by ice cream sundaes. Finished off with marshmallows and skewers when the fire was just right. We came back to our room right after without hanging around to discuss the constellations. It was just after 9pm, and we have a 5:30am wake-up call for our next game drive. I did see a shooting star just as dinner started. And life is so good right now, I had no idea what to wish for!

The camp is not fully fenced, there's an opening by reception, so we're required to wait for an escort to walk us to our "rondavel". Yikes!