Part 3: Kruger National Park - Mopani, Satara and Pretoriuskop

 

Tuesday 16 – Sunday 21 September

Kruger National Park

Tuesday 16 September - Madi a Thava to Mopani Camp

We drove from Madi a Thava to the Punda Maria gate of the Kruger, it took us about 2 hours which was great as I was expecting it to take us A LOT longer. We drove from there down to our first camp, Mopani, which took us to 3.30pm ish (about 6 hours driving).

On our first drive through we saw:

Baboon, Elephants, Water Buffalo, Zebra, Giraffe, Water-buck, Harte-beast, Impala (hundreds), Tsessebe, Blue Wildebeest, Nyala, Warthog, Yellow Billed horn-bill and Cape Glossy starling. Not bad for a first game drive.

For dinner we popped to the local café and I had deep friend Camembert in filo pastry and a cheeseburger. Four people each having a starter and main plus two bottles of wine - £35.

Wednesday 17 September

Today we got up at 6am for a game drive. Yesterdays temperature peaked at 39c so 14c this morning seemed chilly – but so nice. The drive wasn't hugely successful – LOTS of elephant – which oddly enough camouflage very well into the bush. However we did see: Hippo, male Kudu, which are very rare, Springbok, which are very cute, Klipspringer, Crocodile, Africa fish eagle and a few other birds.

We're off out again this evening so lets see what we get.

Lunch was pizza & a chicken pancake thingy. The views were spectacular though and we seen massive 10ft crocs.

Tonight Jamie is cooking on the braai – our first one since we arrived – the meat looks AMAZING.

Tomorrow we drive to Satara camp with a few stops on the way. Hopefully we see a lion. Would LOVE to see a wildcat but doubtful.

So our evening drive got pretty exciting! We got a little surrounded by elephants and had to wait for them to make their way up. Once we drove down Jamie's mum spotted something moving and it was lion!! We had heard there were three in the area. I think I MAY have spotted two in the morning but I hadn't realised how camouflaged they could be so just thought it was nothing.

The one we did see was purposely strolling up to a heard of zebra, not set to attack but spooking them into running into some nearby bushes. We think the others may have been waiting there but we couldn't see. Hopefully tomorrow is ever more/just as exciting.

Thursday 18 September

“Where were you when the vote for Scottish Independence took place?”

Well we were driving from Mopani to Satara through the Kruger National Park with a stop off at Olifants.

We left Mopani at 6am and drove South to Lataba. Once we reached here we started some game viewing. We seen mostly 'everyday stuff' (elephant, zebra etc). We stopped off at Olifants Park which has the most amazing views of the river. There are literally no words to describe it and even pictures haven't done it justice. We saw hippos, baboons, and elephants. Including baby ellies playing in the water, so cute. It was just super.

We left Olifants to drive 52km to Satara and view some antelope and buffalo on the way. We were almost at the camp when we noticed folk had stopped and that's when we saw a cheetah just chilling under a tree. It was pretty far away so pictures were out of the question but we could see with binoculars.

We arrived at Satara camp around lunch time. This time we had a separate hut each, 2 beds and a bathroom. Plus a fridge outside and communal cooking facilities, although one hot plate, an urn and a sink between 30 huts was a bit insane.

We went to their 'restaurant' for lunch – which was basically a 'spoons. So we opted for a braai for dinner. The place had no cutlery, plates or utensils so it was paper plates and plastic cutlery. Not ideal but it did the job and the braai was brilliant.

Jamie & I were booked to go out on a Sunset Drive with one of the park guides and I'm so glad we did.

Firstly we saw:

Black-backed Jackal, Side-Stripped Jackal, Genet (which looked a bit like Rudi cat), a HUGE heard of buffalo – about a hundred plus baby buffalo which didn't look as angry as the adults.

And the biggie – two lions stalking a buffalo then one chasing it down (it got away), it was amazing to watch.

We also seen a whole pride of lion, they couldn't have been closer, we could have literally reached out and touched them. I got to hold the back search light which was pretty cool.

I'm sure there's loads more but it's 10.10pm and after being up at 5.30am I'm a bit tired.

Gutted we didn't see wild cat after they were spotted two days in a row but never mind – there's still 3-4 days viewing left.

Friday 19 September

We were out about 6.30am today, and by 7.30am we were tracking leopard! Exciting! On our way out we were overtaken by some guy doing well above the 40kpm speed limit, only to come across him a bit further up the road almost crashing into a heard of elephant. Main thing I learned was never split a heard, this was what we had done, and I think he had separated a baby and mother – dangerous!!

Jamie then spotted some leopard tracks and we followed them along the road. It HAD been up a tree with its breakfast but some folk were hanging out their vehicle, spoiling the skyline and scared it off. We sat for a while and went back later but no luck. On our evening drive we saw some monkeys playing, hyena, crocs, two different lizards and sadly a tortoise which had died. We had another braai and tried wildebeest, it was fab.

Jamie and I sat up till 10.20 playing cards and having a few beers, scandal!!

Saturday 20 September

Today we traveled from Satara to Pretoriuskop (140km), we stopped off at Skukuza on the way which was very much a 'tourist' camp and very busy.

On our drive this morning we were very lucky to see another pride of lion just at the side of the road , a baby hyena and my first white rhino. Each camp has a map you can mark where you've seen certain animals, because of poaching Rhino aren't marked. So 4 out of 5 of the 'Big 5' with just leopard to go.

We're in little huts again here but each one has an outdoor kitchen, kettles, toasters, cutlery, crockery and a massive bedroom, decent bathroom and huge bay doors. Really cute and nice.

Totally missing Rudi cat now and looking forward to getting home to seeing him. Not wishing our holiday away.

Our evening drive was good, we saw a family of Rhino, mum, dad and baby, very nice to see that in the wild. We tried to track a lion but no luck. We had another braai tonight, besbok skewers, some kind of sausage and Impala steak. Jamies mum made some stirfry veggies which made a difference to just BBQ'd veg.

Sunday 21 September

Unfortunately we haven't seen any bush babies yet – gutted.

Up at 5.30am and out by 6.30am.

Our morning drive was pretty good, some hyena, rhino and Sable antelope. Beautiful creatures.

Tomorrow we head home, one last drive on the way down then 426km to the airport.

Tonight we have an evening drive with a guide. Still leopard left to complete the Big 5, and I'm holding out for wild cat but I doubt it. Our drive left at 6pm and it was already getting dark.

In all honesty I didn't like our guide, he went speeding about, almost crashing into Rhino, shinning lights into elephants eyes (which unless an animal is member of the cat family you should never do), scaring Rhino, wakening them up – he just wasn't great and I felt a bit uneasy when he parked beside an elephant which was clearly pissed off.

However we did manage to see, white mongoose, scrubhare, duiker, Genet, baby rhino, reedbuck, more hyena and lastly, we saw leopard! Just casually strolling down the side of the road as you do!

Big 5 - African lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, African leopard, and White rhinoceros

Tomorrow we leave at 6am and drive to Berg-en-Dal for breakfast. From there it's 393km to Pretora and then onto Johannesburg. Our flight isn't until 9.50pm and we arrive in London at 7am and from there it's back to Edinburgh. So we should be back to Rudi cat about 1pm, if he's still speaking to us that is.

Our journey back was an interesting one. Jamie did a lot of the driving down and boy are they crazy!!! It was a little ropey at times. We stopped half way at a Wimpy to have some lunch, kind of miss Wimpy here it was the first that I remember here.

Once we reached Johannesburg airport we dropped off the car and our luggage and headed to the Inter Contiental where Jamie's dad treated us to lunch. It was nice to have fresh fruit and veg, plus two bottles of prosecco went down well. After that we went back to the airport to spend the rest of our spending money. Jamie got himself a Springbok t-shirt and I picked up the standard tea towel.

Home time

Our flight back was pretty decent, it was almost empty so we moved and had a row of 4 seats between the two of us. Both being short had it's advantage here and we were able to lay down for a bit and get a few hours sleep. I watched 'The Other Woman' with Cameron Diaz which was quite good.

Getting back into London took AGES. We'd just come off a flight into security but still had to go through three different check points and it took about an hour. Where as on the way down we didn't have to go through anything between Edinburgh and Johannesburg. Anyway, we got back into London to learn Alex Salmon had resigned and then got our flight to Edinburgh. I felt terrible for the business man sitting next to us, after a 10 hour flight at about 8 hours driving I'm sure we weren't the nicest folk to sit next too. I was glad to get back to Jamie's' parents and pick up the car though, it was worth it but it was a lot of traveling too.

I would absolutely love to go back at some point, and for future I would love to take our kids when their old enough to appreciate it. I think personally I'd go back to Cape Town first as there was so much we didn't get to see and do. Plus to have some more of their mussels in garlic & white wine sauce, yum!

Now how on earth do we top a holiday like that next year??

If you'd like to see more pictures from our holiday you can check them out on Flickr

South Aftica Part 2: Madi A Thavha Mountain Lodge, Limpopo

Friday 12 September – Tuesday 16 September

Madi a Thavha Mountain Lodge

We arrived in Johannesburg airport to meet Jamie's folks around 11am, whilst we were waiting I had my first Wimpy, remember we used to have those?! I was pretty delicious, although having table service at a fast food restaurant was odd. Yesterday had been the verdict of the Oscar Pistorius trial. Newspaper headlines 'Oscar May Walk', 'Could Oscar Walk?' Headlines we'd never get away with in the UK. 

 

From Johannesburg airport we drove 450km to Madi a Thavha, which is 5km out of Louis Trichardt. We arrived around 6pm, just as the sun was setting, it's pretty spectacular. 

Dinner was prepared at 7pm and it was delicious. Our starter was smoked chicken orange segments, although the orange was a little bitter, almost like a grapefruit but not quite. Our main was beef in a sauce (don't ask me what), roasted veg and potatoes individually roasted with cream and garlic. Pudding was baobab cheesecake, which I may have nicked the recipe too.

There was also rye bread, red wine, rosé wine and it was all amazing. 

Saturday 13 September

We went up for breakfast 8.30. 

Breakfast was 3 courses, yogurt, muesli and fruit followed by pancakes with creme cheese (not like ours) and cinnamon, rye bread & muffins, THEN eggs, bacon, sausage, tomato and toast. Also tea, coffee and orange juice. Just unbelievable.  

Jamie's mum and I are going to a craft day out tomorrow so we had a look around the little shop. Madi a Thavha stocks items from local crafts-folk, everything is fair-trade with 100% going back to the people. Some lovely place mats etc but a bit wasted on us when we don't have a dining table yet.  

After breakfast we headed to Louis Trichardt to the local shops and picked up some wine, lunch and we managed to get some Fairview cranberry cheese. I am definitely going to look on line to see if there is anyway we can get it here.  

Jamie and I went for a walk around the reserve after lunch. We seen some turtles, frogs, a erupting spiders nest and Jamie almost stood on a Rock Python – not scary at all. There was lots of animal poo but sadly/thankfully not any animals. 

Afterwards we had some 'sundowners', sparkling rosé, olives and cranberry cheese, and we had a look at each others photos from earlier in the trip. Dinner was butternut squash soup, Thai chicken curry, and pear panna cotta. Again, it was superb. 

Sunday 14 September  

Today was our craft day out and we were taken to see 5 different people by our guide Musa.

• David – Wood Carver (traditional) 
• Thomas – Wood Carver (abstract)
• Hlamarisa - bead work 
• Mukondeni Pottery
• Elisah – Bead work & Textiles

We started in Louis Trechanrdt where he drove us around one of their typical town-ships. There were a real mix of 'rich' houses and what the refer to as 'Mandela Huts', what we would refer to as Social Housing. The difference being that people in the local community help build these huts for each other. People pay for their electricity, water and sewage only. The good thing about these is if the owner then gets a job or they earn more money, they can expand on their huts and make them bigger.  

There is still a lot to be done here but it's getting there. Jamie's folks have been going for 20 years so it must be interesting to see the changes. 

Next we went to one of the local markets, most people were selling fruit & veg. A bag of avocado would be about R20 – about £1.30, we pay that for two at home. I hope the profits go back to the seller but knowing large supermarkets probably not. We were taken to a small take-away which was selling cooked cows head (teeth and all) and a full chicken carcass. Thankfully (without offense) we weren't asked to try anything.  

Our first visit was to a chap called David who is a wood carver, all his work is traditional. Jamie's mum picked up some salad servers which were lovely (R90 each) but a lot of it, whilst nice, wasn't to my taste. His work looks great in the lodge where we were staying, and is Jamie's mum & dads house but ours just doesn't have the right look. 

Next we went to see an old lady named Hlamarisa. I'd say at a guess Hlamarisa is about 70 years old. She was born with what I think was a curved spin which over time has worsened. These days something like this would probably be treatable but that long ago there would have been no chance. She does traditional bead work, which was very detailed and very nice. However, personally I felt her family were just wheeling her out to make money. Her daughter-in-law came out with a suitcase filled with items to buy, we watched her do some bead work for about 5 minutes, were shown some pictures then it was awkward silence as they waited for us to buy something. 

Jamie's mum bought me this lovely wood & beaded basket which they asked R500 for, which works out about £30. In itself it isn't much but it would have been interesting to see prices on her items in the lodge. She did give me a little red beaded bracelet as a gift which was nice. After we stopped at a maize mill where woman meet to clean, grind and packet up their maize. All the ladies were working as a team to help each other out and that was lovely to see. We then stopped for our (HUGE) packed lunch at Musa's grandma's house.

After lunch we had three more stops, first was Mukondeni Pottery. This is a cooperative set up for women in the area which I believe was part funded by the Scottish Government (I will need to check my facts on that though). This was built to give the woman somewhere cool to work as working outside, temperatures can sometimes reach 40c+ in the Summer. We were given a pottery demonstration by the lady who happened to be there. It was a Sunday so many people were at Church. It was interesting to watch her make the pot, it probably took her less than 5 minutes, no turntable, just her hands and some pieces of plastic to smooth it down. 
We then went to see the second wood carver Thomas. His work is more abstract. He will look at a piece of wood and decide what it should be. He had some massive pieces carved from one piece of wood, just spectacular. This man has a very special mind. 

Lastly we went to see a lady who does embroidery and bead work. This was definitely 'saving the best till last'. Her work was superb. We met her daughter who was sticking and stitching the panels of material to make the main part of a cushion. Later her mother would add in contrast colour stitching, beads and embroidery to each panel. The colours were brilliant, so vibrant. Jamie's mum picked up a bright green cushion which she'll probably have framed. She bought Jamie and I a tapestry which we'll have framed for our new house and I bought us a cushion cover.

One of the cushion covers in the lodge shop

The work that goes into these, proper hand, hard work, I don't think I'll look at mass-produced things back home the same way again. (Not that I won't buy them but it will make me think)

Dinner tonight was feta, mushroom and leek tartlet, main was fish which a sauce, roast potatoes and spinach. It was a beautiful piece of fish. Pudding was chocolate mousse. Three course dinners and breakfasts, I'll be going home the size of a house. 

 

Monday 15 September

We're now officially a week through our holiday, scary how quickly it's going. Today is our last day in Madi a Thavah, tomorrow we drive to the Kruger for game viewing – exciting!!

We were going to go to a local game reserve today but the lady who runs the lodge explained that the place we were going to go to was very run down these days so she gave us directions to two other places.

The first was to a farm in run by a man named Otis, so we went to see him first and he was lovely. We even had to force him to take some rand for us to take a walk around his land. It was suppose to be R30 each, he said R60 in total, we settled on R25 each.

We took quite a bumpy walk around his grounds, the temperature was about 30c so very warm. Only when we got to the end of the walk did we see a sign warning us that leopard were roaming. Thankfully we didn't see any. Ooops. 

 

We sat with Otis for a while afterwards and he gave us some home-made lemonade, it was delicious. He told us about how he built his house himself, and a bit about his life. He was a fascinating man and genuinely a nice guy. 

 

We then drove and stopped for our packed lunch, again it was HUGE. Sandwiches, wraps, fruit, nuts, juice.We tried to find the second place our host had mentioned but without any luck. So we headed back to the lodge hoping for some red meat for dinner (it wasn't!). Tomorrow we head to the Kruger National Park. Odd to think that this time next week we'll be sitting in Jo'Burg airport waiting on a 10.5hr flight to London.

Part 1: Cape Town, SA

So I thought I should do a little blog post on our time in South Africa. We were very lucky enough to visit three areas during our trip, this part is about Cape Town. 

Saturday 6 September

8.30am and we were on out way to Jamie's mum and dad's out at Edgehead. The first part of our journey was Edinburgh – London. We had a little wait in Edinburgh airport so we had some beers and some pizza at The Gathering. It wasn't bad but boy was it busy. Scotland were playing Germany the next day so the airport was full of kilts, (we only lost 2-0, not to shabby!)

Our flight was British Airways, I like flying British Airways, a little cuppa goes a long way.

Once we landed in Heathrow we had around a 3 hour wait. Jamie's mum had packed some salmon sandwiches and treated us to two bottles of Moet champagne – well, start as you mean to go on I guess.

Our plane was a giant double decker jumbo jet and I'd reserved us a two seater upstairs. We had a little cubby-hole on the side, lovely big seats, entertainment system. It was pretty good, it would have been better if our arm rest could have gone all the way back and we could have snuggled properly to get some sleep but never mind. For dinner I went with the veggie curry, it smelt so good and to be honest it wasn't bad. They did run out of Heineken which was a little bit annoying. We didn't get much sleep on the flight, two hours maybe, just couldn't get comfortable. Maybe it's one of those things that come if you travel more.

At 7am Sunday we arrived in Johannesburg OR Tambo airport, said good bye to Jamie's folks (they were off to game view at Impodimo in Madikwe)

Sunday 7 September

We arrived in Cape Town at 1.30pm, 28 hours after we left the house – yikes! We had reserved a room at the Cape Town Lodge, mainly because we could use up some of our Avios points. Five nights B&B cost us £240 which wasn't bad at all.

As it was our first time we had arranged a pick-up from the hotel. Our driver was so nice in his suit with a framed sign 'Mr Simpson'. Our holiday had began. We got to our hotel about 2pm, showered and had a wander around. Almost all shops were close as it was a Sunday but we found a place called NomNoms and had some food. Jamie had ribs & chips, I had a pasta dish and a pint of Castle lager each.....it came to about £8. I think this was when we realised just how cheap it was.

I was asleep by 6pm, Jamie not much later.

Monday 8 & Tuesday 9 September

Today we're going to visit the V&AWaterfront, Aquarium and the Springbok (Rugby) museum

The V&A Waterfront has a lot of shops, restaurants etc, a bit like putting Ocean Terminal, The Gyle and Omni together. But with amazing views of the ocean and Table Mountain. 

Firstly we went to Two Oceans Aquarium, it cost us R150 each (about £7) but it crapped all over Deep Sea World. It was really good, very interactive. And we got to see penguins being fed. This happens twice a day and so worth it. The penguins were literally 2ft from us.

Afterwards we went to the Springbok Experience. Jamie is a massive rugby fan and plays so it made perfect sense. The cost for this was R50 each (£4). It was more for Jamie but I had fun too. Again this had lots of interactive things to take part in, videos to watch etc. Worth it for any rugby fan or even just to pass a few hours.

During these we had stopped at the local 'Scottish' bar, Mitchelle's Ale House, this and their neighboring bar, The Ferryman, became regular 'to-go-to' places. I tried their 'Milk and Honey' beer which was lovely. I can't see this appearing at home any time soon as it only has a 7 day shelf life.

We then had a 'posh' lunch before returning for drinks & dinner. Our posh lunch was at Tasca I have never had such nice mussels before, they came in a creamy garlic and white wine sauce with a side of fries which quick swifty got dipped in the left over sauce. Jamie had the lobster, which I have to say was overpriced compared to other places in the area. Our two dishes and a bottle of wine was about £70. But you'd probably pay that in some places just for the lobster. Our view was amazing too.

On Tuesday I had pre-booked us a days wine tour with Luhambo Tours we were picked up by our guide Cedric at 9.00am and we didn't return till 5.30pm. Usually the maximum people on these guides is 7, we got very lucky and it was just the two of us. Cedric was brilliant too, we spoke about everything and anything, and I even got an email from him a week later about the Scottish Referendum. 

We visited five vineyards and had around 36 wines and 14 cheeses. It was brilliant.

We went to:

Simonsig in Stellenbosch
Fairview in Paarl
Kanonkop also in Stellenbosch
Boekenhoutskloof in Franschhoek
and one other in Franschhoek which I didn't catch the name of.

All the people in the vineyards were lovely, we weren't forced into buying anything or looked upon for not buying anything.

Before our last two vineyard we stopped for lunch at Roco - we had no idea what to expect but we were blown away. The view was stunning. 

Jamie had ostrich and I had a chicken & pasta dish, along with a few glasses off wine (you'd think we would have had enough by now!!)

The total for our tour was R850 each (£53). It was so very much worth it.

We nipped out for some 'fast food', ribs & chips for Jamie, pizza for me and two cokes. Cape Town is strange place at night, lots of security around but also lots of beggars (even though they are polite about it). I wouldn't recommend walking about alone, even having a 70kg weight-lifting, rugby playing boyfriend in-toe it was still a little unpleasant.

Wednesday 10 September

We decided to go to Robben Island as Table Mountain was extremely cloudy. If, like me, you aren't schooled up on Robben Island 'Since the end of the 17th century, Robben Island has been used for the isolation of mainly political prisoners' – most notable would of course be Nelson Mandela.

We booked our time slot for 1pm (advisable on busy days) and it was R250 each (£14). The boat journey across took around 50 minutes. Once of the boat we were taken around most of the island by mini bus – it's pretty big and you only have 2 hours.

Our first stops were things such as the church, the leper cemetery, the shop that the guards who lived on the island could use. Our first proper stop was Robert Sobukwe's cell. Sobukwe was kept in solitary confinement but permitted certain privileges including books, newspapers, civilian clothes, bread etc. He lived in a separate area on the Island where he had no contact with other prisoners. The only contacts were his secret hand signals whilst outside for exercise. Despite this he succeeded in giving his approval to the external PAC to adopt a Maoist political program. He studied during this time and received (among others) a degree in economics from the University of London.

It is speculated that the South African administration had profiled Robert Sobukwe as a more radical and difficult opponent than the regular ANC prisoners. Sobukwe was released in 1969. He was allowed to live in Kimberley with his family but remained under house arrest. Kimberley was suggested as an area where he could not easily foster subversive activities and also a place where he could live and work, while being easily monitored by the state. He was also restricted through a banning order, which disallowed political activities.

Sobukwe died in 1978 from lung cancer.

Next we stopped at the limestone quarry where the prisoners would work for 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. The prisoners with an education, some lawyers, some teachers, would also teach those in a small 'self-made' cave. The prisoners had a saying during this time 'each one, teach one'

At the top of the limestone quarry there is a pile of rocks – you may not think of this as sentimental unless told. This pile of rocks was started by Mandela, he wandered off during a reunion around 1200 ex detainees and placed a rock, the rest followed. 

We stopped on at the Lighthouse after this for some photo ops, amazing views of Cape Town from the Island – I can't imagine what it must have been like seeing land so far from reach. Some prisoners never had visits from family members, some didn't know how to visit, others just didn't know where their loved ones were.

We were then taken to the main prison and given a talk by a guide. Our guide had actually spent time in the prison himself as a youth. He wanted to make it VERY clear that not all the guards were brutal and that there were some nice ones.

Lastly we got to see Nelson Mandela's cell. He spent 11 years on Robben Island and in this cell. The cell couldn't have measured more than 6x4. It felt a little wrong being there but they are trying to promote it as a place of peace, courage, determination, strength and good.

Our journey back was choppy and we got soaked!!

We headed back to our hotel, showered and went back down to the Waterfront. Dinner was flatbread, a prawn and chicken basket, loaded potato skins & chips at Ferrymans. Yum.

That evening there was live music and the guy was was great. Lots of covers, lots of classics. I had a few mojitos in jam jars, beer, Sky vodka. A good night.

Thursday 11 September

Today was our last day so we took the chance and headed to Table Mountain......the cableway was closed!! We still had amazing views but it would have been great to get to the top. Always next time.

Afterwards we headed to the V&A and went to a restaurant called Belthazar's (the best Steak restaurant in Cape Town) Jamie made the right choice and went for a 450g steak, I went for mussels again. These weren't as good and almost made me throw up at one point. The sauce was good as were the fries for dipping.

We went back to our hotel and had a nap before our last dinner at Ferrymans. Burger & fries, ribs, wings & fries, 5 beers, mojito and a sky vodka - £34! Insane.

We headed back to pack the rest of things for our 9.00am flight the next day and  watched Despicable Me for the 3^rd time. Next stop – Madi a Thavha, Limpopo.