The Mighty Kruger – 17/08/10

Named after Paul Kruger, an old president of the Transvaal Republic, Kruger National Park is the largest game park on the African continent. Stretching 360 kilometres down from Zimbabwe and along a large part of the border with Mozambique, Kruger has been a haven for African wildlife for well over a hundred years, and is arguably the most famous game park in the world.

We have about two and a half days in Kruger, time to get our final fill of game parking before we head home. After our twelve hour marathon game drive in Hluhluwe, I have insisted that we do things a little differently this time. To avoid my brain turning completely to mulch we have agreed to drive until mid-afternoon, take a break and then go out again for an hour before sunset. We make these plans with such misguided optimism. For our three days in and around Kruger we are staying in three different places. On paper the two hundred kilometre journey between camps doesn't seem like much of a challenge. What we both failed to take into account was the fact that the average speed you travel is about thirty kilometres an hour. With stops. And lots of reversing for glimpses of imaginary animals. And lots of detours along dirt roads as Nick is truly convinced that just around each and every corner will be that big male lion asleep in the road that every person we know that has visited Kruger has pictures of.

For our first day in the park we were staying at Lataba Camp, which is about halfway up the park. In the days before coming to Kruger we had been advised by lots of locals about the best areas for spotting game. Everybody had their favourite and 'guaranteed' place for lions and leopards, and we tried to fit as many of these into our drive north through the park. The day started well with a rare glimpse of an African wild dog crossing the road in the distance. Sadly, it was all too brief and a bit far for me to really make out. After that disappeared we saw nothing living for at least an hour.

Kruger is the seventh game park we have visited and after all the hype and 'guarantees' our first day was bound to be a bit of a let down. The temperature rocketed and with the windows down, the air-con off and little air movement, we roasted in our little hot-box of a car. The blazing sun also meant that any animal with sense was hiding in the shade and therefore invisible. After hours of searching in ever increasing heat, and a few frustratingly near misses of lions and leopards, we realized we had covered only about a third of our distance and would not make it to the camp before the gates were locked if we carried on at that pace. We changed our route and joined the busier tarmac road that our local advisers had told us to avoid as much as possible. Surprisingly we saw far more animals from the busy roads than on the dirt roads through the more remote areas. A well hidden leopard is far more likely to be spotted when twenty cars go past it instead of one. With all those eyes looking somebody is bound to spot it. As much as we tried to avoid those busy roads, preferring to spot our own animals than rely on others, we did eventually admit that our best chance of seeing something is to just look for the collection of parked cars. The lazy man's safari.

When we eventually rolled into camp, tired, dusty and hungry, we quickly got our braai going for our much anticipated BBQ. Annoyingly, when we went to the kitchen to collect the tools, we found that our provided 'full kitchen' only actually had a sink in it. We then had to run around the camp looking for somewhere we could buy paper plates and plastic knives and forks. While we enjoyed our food we were joined by a large hyena who, drawn by the smell, then paced up and down ten feet away from us on the other side of the fence. 

 

The next day we were up at 5.30 am and joined a 'bush walk' that took us on a game tracking expedition into the park. We were told there was little chance of seeing predators, but we did come across some fresh leopard and lion prints. The walk was more to teach us how to spot the small signs that help you track the animals. We followed a bull elephant quite closely for a while and then visited a pool where we were peered at by a semi-submerged hippo.

Following the bush walk we made our long, but slightly less baking way south to Skukuza Camp, one of the biggest camps in the park. The day was a lot more successful for spotting animals, we saw all of the big five in the space of a few hours. The day was long again, but we only have two more nights until we go home so the excitement is keeping any boredom in check. In about three days I will be home. I feel like a kid at Christmas.

Back to beautiful S. A

14/08/10

Sitting outside on a veranda with a private garden in the corner of a beautiful sprawling Italian style villa farmhouse. The sun is going down, the crickets are singing, and there's a lovely smokey smell coming from our freshly lit braai. Being back in South Africa is such a relief after the frustrations of Mozambique. The weather failed to changed and we didn't have the time or the patience to wait it out. It became depressing sitting around and not being able to go out. There was so much to see out there, the ocean was just too rough to go out.

After the slightly terrifying journey up to Tofu with our two French friends, who became our very entertaining campsite neighbours for 4 nights, we decided to catch the organized tourist shuttle that runs between Fatima's Tofu and Fatima's Maputo. We paid a lot more to go on this bus than the local chappas, but thought it worth it to have a little more space and comfort for the 8 hour journey. We had to get up at 3.30 am to catch the 4.00 bus. There were so many people waiting I thought they must have overbooked. Obviously not as everyone was squeezed on, some riding on top of the huge amount of tourist luggage. They had a person on every seat and each person had a big bag. Picture this and you'll work out this is not going to leave much space or comfort options. It was so disheartening to see how money grabbing the backpackers could be. Sadly it seems to be standard in Mozambique.

After our experience of Maputo Backpackers we decided to splash out and stay in the Ibis. At the backpackers we paid $40 for the both of us to stay in a dorm. At the Ibis we paid $65 for a double with bathroom and breakfast. Sounds like a deal right? Our room was on the eighth floor and soon after we arrived the lifts stopped working. Our key card wouldn't work and it took 4 requests to get a replacement. Our room was set up as a single. When we went down for breakfast the only thing there was cereal, without milk, ham and cheese, without bread, fruit juice but no coffee. We were then told to hike back up to our room and get our bags as no one was willing to go and get them without the lifts working. The ultimate annoyance was that the lift engineers were all taking their time waiting for the breakfast as it slowly emerged from the kitchen. Excluding the hotel, the food in Mozambique is amazing. It's just finding a stress free sleep that seems impossible.

…..............

Just crossing the border into S.A, what a relief. When we go back to Mozambique, as we must, we'll need to be a little more prepared for all the challenges.

Back in S.A we picked up a car from Nelspruit and drove through the Drakkensberg Escarpment to Graskop. We stayed in a beautiful backpackers called Valley View. This welcoming place is run by Andrew, a young guy with such constant frenetic energy he appears to bounce like Tigger. At Valley View we got a unit with bathroom, kitchen, double room, bunk bed room and our own sun deck all for the same price of the dorm in Maputo... not to keep bringing it up or anything. From Graskop we went on a day trip up to God's Window, Blyde River Canyon and the Three Rondhavels.

Tofu

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12/08/10

Tofu is as wild and windswept at everywhere else along this coastline. It is however unlike the other places we've been in that it is as yet not completely taken over by South Africans and their developments. It has a more African vibe, and the rustic huts perch on top of big sand dunes. Tofu is becoming a bit of a mecca for divers. The nutrient rich waters attract whale sharks and mantas nearly all year round, and humpbacks hammerheads at other times. Listening to people talk about their dives the morning we arrived, and you hear about 360 degrees humpback whales breaching around the boat, manta and whale shark feeding frenzies on the way back from dives, giant mantas on most dives, hammerheads etc. It isn't the real world out there, that just doesn't happen.

We had chance to do one afternoon dive before the weather turned and all boats were cancelled. As standard out here, even though we saw some cool stuff, I didn't enjoy the dive. The boat ride terrified me as usual and made me sick, our negative entry was choas, with my fin coming off and I was left bobbing on the surface unable to find it in the increasing swell. I felt dishearteningly like an open water student all over again. When I finally managed to sort myself out and get under the water my dodgy rental mask instantly fogged up and I couldn't clear it no matter how much water I swilled in it. It was at this point that I decided I better quit while I was ahead, and make this my last dive of the trip. Diving in conditions like these is beginning to make me hate diving.

Rip off Maputo

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11/08/10

Our easy option for leaving Ponta didn't quite work out. With the excessive amount of luggage (not just ours), and the fact that the family we were supposed to be squeezing in with were actually all adults, there was no way we were ever going to fit in the van. Instead we dropped back at the border to get one of the more frequent local chappas. Having wasted an extra day trying to avoid it, we were back at square on.

With the help of someone with better Portuguese skills than us, we secured the back row of the minibus. I was really grateful for this forward planning as when it came to boarding the bus, it was really little more than a scrum. With so many bags there's no way you can just push your way on like everyone else, and you would just find yourself at the back of the line for every bus. The cramped bus filled with 22 people, only 2 of them kids and many of them with big bags that then had to be balanced on laps or wedged in any available space. These then continually fell on people throughout the journey. Our bags filled more than half the back seat. Once you are wedged in you can't move an inch. Each part of your body slowly goes into cramp and there's no way of stopping it. Regardless of this people take it all in good humour, are friendly and considerate of each other. The guy in front of us made himself extra uncomfortable by holding some strangers child, twisting himself to stop the sleeping kid's head from bouncing on the window, he then used his arm to prop up another guy. People who have little experience of the many small luxuries in life, the things that we take for granted, have developed a nature that is often overly generous.

When we arrived in Maputo we had to take a ferry across a bay to get to the centre of the city. There we took a taxi to the backpackers. The taxi that was willing to take us without ripping us off was a rust bucket with a windscreen that was a jigsaw puzzle of cracks. We had to be push started to get us going, then trundled across the city in 5^th gear at 20 km an hour. Accommodation in Maputo is limited, and also at the time very full. Maputo Backpackers was our third choice, and there we were given the last 2 beds in a 10 bed dorm for $40. the dorm was so small that you had to turn sideways to fit between some of the bunks. There was no water half the time, the kitchen was chaos, and the lounge was taken over by the staff's children who sat around without shorts or underwear watching cartoons full blast. Take me back to Thailand, for the price of one bed in this place we would have got a night in a nice apartment in Bangkok.

The only good thing about Maputo Backpackers was the fact that we met lots of really nice people who also had the misfortune to be staying there, 2 of whom offered to drive us the 8 hours up the coast to Tofu. The other option was pay $30 to get a bus leaving at 5.00 am in the morning. The guys who drove us were really nice, both from Paris. The drive was a hair-raising one though, and it was a miracle that we arrived with only one speeding ticket and a dead chicken.

Homesick

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10/08/10

Our plan to stay in Ponta for 2 nights changed when we saw the campsite. It was as basic as the one in Sodwana, but we were paying double for it. The whole town was rapidly filling up with 4x4's full of large loud S.A's drinking, playing loud music and towing their boats or jet-skis around. It was the long weekend in S.A and the campsite was becoming full with teams of guys who constructed house size tents. It seems that being a S.A white male means at some point in your life you need to take a part share in a tent so huge and complex that it probably contains a separate dressing room with wardrobes. Camping like this appears to involve a disproportionate amount of standing around and drinking beer. These guys weren't as bad as the ones who thought it'd be fun to race jet-skis up and down the bay at 3.00 in the morning.

The only way in and out of Ponta without your own transport is on a local chappa. These dilapidated minibuses leave from the market as and when they get full. In typical African style 'full' means rammed. We were completely daunted by the task of getting our 70kg of luggage a kilometre along a deep sand track and somehow onto one of these buses that seem to swarm with over eager locals well practised in the art of elbowing their way to the front. The thought of this soon made us change our plans again. Instead we arrange a much more pricey lift with the colourful guy who gave us a lift from the border. He said it'd be no problem for us to squeeze in with some other guests for the 2 hour journey to Maputo, the capital city.

While in Ponta we had our biggest change of plans yet, and decided we wanted to fly home 3 weeks early. Trying to arrange this was impossible. No internet in the whole place and 3 phones from 3 countries failed to get us in contact with the outside world. This only added to my frustration and depression. In 8 years of travelling I’ve never been homesick. Now, when all the amazing sights are starting to blend into one and go unappreciated , all I want to do is go home early. Feel quite pathetic, but now for the first time I can empathise with those I’ve previously mocked for feeling homesick on holiday.

Mozambique...

09/08/10

Another busy few days where plans have changed too many times to count. First we were leaving the car in Durban and catching the bus to Sodwana via Nature's Way for a week, this we changed to Hluhluwe instead, then we changed back to going to Sodwana as well, then we added in a stop in St Lucia before heading north to Kosi Bay, just south of the Mozambican border. On the way to Kosi Bay we changed our minds again and went straight across the border 3 days early. We have edited and discarded plans written on scraps of paper and in the back of books all over the place.

Our last minute addition of St Lucia into the plan was a rewarding bonus. St Lucia is a protected wetland area on the east coast and is described as 'the place where hippos roam the streets at night and 90% of S.A's crocodiles live', many of them at the bottoms of people's gardens. Expecting a strip of true African wilderness, I was shocked by what a quaint little town it was. It is like an English seaside town only warmer and without the rain. After the last few dust bowl towns we've stayed in it was heaven. Nice restaurants, shops, cafés and quiet bungalow lined manicured streets. Having had the absolute basics of accommodation at the campsite for the previous week we had decided to treat ourselves to a bed in a dorm. Yet again we got lucky and were given a private room in an apartment with a lounge, kitchen and a movie channel. St Lucia is a lovely place to slow down, chill out, and enjoy some peace and quiet.

From St Lucia, with a 200 km detour to drop of the car, we were driven to the Mozambican border by a local guy who arranges twice weekly shuttles to link up with a backpackers just across the border in Ponta D óro. It was while talking to him that our plans changed landing us across the border 2 days early. The journey was pretty tame for what I have come to expect from Africa. Apparently the week before he'd been driving along with six guests when the car lurched and made a load noise and he glanced out his window to see his rear tire spinning of past him down the centre of the road. He said it was like watching something in a cartoon.

Once across the border the 20 minute drive to Ponta was more typical of what we have come to expect. We were picked up by a very friendly and very colourful local. Over the next few days whenever we saw him he was sporting a variety of day glow outfits with matching socks, hats, shoes and even watches. He drove us along tracks in deep sand up and over sand dunes at racing speed. In a country that was damaged by a terrible civil war in recent history, and still has many undiscovered land mines, people seem to drive wherever they want, and new tracks are being made all the time.

You call that warm...

03/08/10

Really disappointed to learn that 'warm' water is actually only 23 degrees, and that the 'nice tropical seas' are actually rougher and more uninviting than anywhere else we've been. You get up at 6.30am to go to the dive shop, climb into a cold damp wetsuit and catch a ride on a tractor down to a cold and windswept beach. There we had to make a few attempts to beat the waves on the way out and then crash our way through huge swell for the next 15 minutes. At the dive site we were greeted by a pod of dolphins that we would have been able to swim with if someone's o-ring hadn't burst the minute we were ready for the off. When we did get in, the water felt warmer, but still not warm enough. By the end of the second dive I was so cold I was clock watching every minute. It was at this point I decided we don't need to do this any more. We are not seeing anything new and I’m paying a fortune to sit in the water and desperately wait for time to pass. It I was watching schools of hammerheads I’d be ok with the cold, but I fail to get excited over a lion fish when I’m developing hypothermia. Call me dramatic but I’m a wimp. On the way back from the dive the skipper grounded the boat on a sandbar and we nearly got turned over when we were hit side on by a wave. I did not take up diving as an extreme sport, I’m done.

Talking of extreme sports, we met a guy yesterday who was on route to northern Kenya. What's special about his trip, is the fact that he is planning to make the 4000 km journey by kite surfing. He has minimal belongings in his waterproof backpack, he'll travel as far as the wind will take him each day and he'll sleep where he can. For water he's hoping to pass rivers or streams every few days. For food he'll fish, get fruit, and barter with locals. Mozambique has a wild and largely untouched coast. It is winter and there is little fruit, and he's going through some of the most shark infested waters in the world. The Mozambique channel has the highest concentration of bull sharks known anywhere. The aim of his journey is to highlight to local people and corporations the potential use of wind power along the East African coast. If you are curious about his journey he has a blog linked to www.surfstore.co.za. It is such an incredible undertaking, he is travelling alone and has no support of any time.

Sodwana Bay

02/08/10 

After the never ending game drive we yet again extended the car and drove to Sodwana Bay. This is the site of the southern most coral reef in the world and is supposedly the most popular dive location in S.A. It's in the guide books as 'warm tropical seas filled with colourful fish', and yet again our expectations were raised. Locals we'd met on a previous dive had recommended that we go to Coral Divers. This is a large dive shop based right in the centre of Sodwana Bay National Park. As with so many other places of beauty here it has been made into a national park and you have to pay to get anywhere near it. Every time you want to go to the beach you pay. We had been told by the dive shop that we couldn't camp there but they are based in the middle of a 400 plot campsite in the park. For $15 a night we get our very own secluded tree ringed private patch of sand. Not exactly budget, but cheap by local standards. After paying for 3 nights we were disappointed to learn that unlike backpacker campsites there are no cooking facilities, not only that, but there weren't even any braai spots. We had no way of making a meal for 3 days, and we also had nowhere to sit. Our first day we spent most of the afternoon sitting in the only comfy seats we had access to; those in the car. We sat there planning the next part of the trip while drinking wine out of an old ice cream pot and the cut off bottom of a bottle. We went to the dive shop to check about diving and asked if we could borrow the kitchen, they responded “only for residents”. We got the same response in regard to putting a small tuperware in their fridge, paying for laundry, and having a drink by the pool. At $20 a night per person for a tent like ours, I definitely can't afford to be a resident. Coral Divers is huge. They have 11 boats and each boat takes out about 10 people. They have 160 divers booked in for the long weekend starting in a few days. They must be raking it in. We have taken it upon ourselves to enjoy the 'only for residents' sun loungers, coffee and TV room.      

Death by safari

31/07/10

The only good thing to take a picture of at Nature's Way

Five weeks to go and counting... We have been away too long and miss having a home. The camping is getting harder and the lodges and backpackers more uncomfortable. Having traveled north from Durban, extending the car because the thought of public transport and our 70 kilos of luggage has become too scary to contemplate, we went to Nature's Way in Mtunzi. This backpackers and campsite was somewhere we thought would be perfect place to kill time and catch up with all the important stuff, namely washing our mound of stinky clothes and taking the time to enjoy the surroundings. We chose Nature's Way because it backed onto a natyre reserve, was 'chilled' and had 2 'tame' zebras that hang out around the camp fire each night. We arrived to find the camping area was in an empty field with falling down lights, broken showers, sinks full of trash and leaves, and no water. The main area had a filthy kitchen and blasted eighties hits at full volume. We went out for dinner and left the next morning.

From there we found ourselves with extra days, and we made a bonus trip to Hluhluwe/Imfolozi, the oldest game park in South Africa. We stayed at Insinkwe Backpackers where we were charged $30 a night for a piece of grass to put our tent on. For that price we then had to try 3 showers before finding hot water, hunt for a toilet with toilet paper, and our coffees from the machine were full of ants. It was raining, they were very few dry places to sit and it was quite a miserable first night. $30, what were they thinking??

One of the eighteen rhinos

We got up at 5.15 to make it to the park gates for opening at 6 am. Within 15 minutes we'd seen four hyenas, zebra, baby giraffes and two rhinos with calves. It gave us high expectations for the day. Unlike Nick, who can drive all day, I have a 3-4 hour limit on my game drive attention span. My eyes are no good for spotting. First I get frustrated from all the unproductive staring, then I get queezy, then slightly hypnotized from watching the landscape blur and I fall asleep. Nick is happy to look for stuff all day. I'm willing to compromise on about 7-8 hours to keep him happy. We spent nearly 12 hours in that park. It was painful. However, I do appreciate that it was our longevity that helped us to see 18 rhinos along with all the more common stuff. The other thing that kept me from completely losing it was that for the first time in four years I got to drive a car again. It's a miracle I managed this without mishap as the day before I'd been truly blond and forgotten which the clutch and break were.

Beach slamming

29/07/10

As well as enjoying a few days of doing nothing at the Ku-Boboyi Lodge, we have also managed to get off our butts and do a few more interesting things. We went diving twice and took a horse ride through a nature reserve where we rode past zebras and wildebeest. As for the diving, I was pretty unsure as to whether I'd actually go through with it. It is so far from my comfort zone, and I'm a wuss. The ocean is 10 degrees colder than I'm used to, the currents are ripping, and the seas are usually rough. All in all it's far more challenging diving than I'm used to. It was only the lifting of the head cold and relative calm of the ocean for a day or so that made me try. The first place we went to was Protea Banks. This is a sight that many locals won't dive due the dangerous currents. We were lucky and had very little. The shallowest part of the site is 34 metres. You go down, stay about 15 minutes, then take about 30 minutes coming up slowly and hanging around in the blue. The water was shockingly cold and when I rolled in I hyperventilated so much I couldn't get under the water. I was left bobbing around on the surface alone for a few minutes trying to catch my breath. It took me about 10 minutes once underwater to calm down enough to look around. We had about 10 ragged tooth sharks swimming around us and were then joined by 4 Zambezi bull sharks. These supposedly aggressive sharks were actually quite shy. It was the raggys and their spikey teeth bursting out of their mouths swimming head on at us before swerving away at the last minutes, that caused us a little more worry.

It was a short dive and after 20 minutes of hanging around in the blue and rising up and down in the swell, I was more than ready to get back on the boat. It took all my concentration not to throw up all the speedy but rough ride in. We were given life vests just before we reached the surf break, the owner of the dive shop then took over driving the boat and told us to hold on as he wasn't going to stop until he hit the beach. I didn't take him to mean this literally, and was convinced right up until the last minute that he would ease off the gas slightly, instead he slammed us full throttle into the sand. It was the most violent stopping of a boat I've ever felt or witnessed.

Our next dive was at Aliwel Shoal, one of the best dive sites in the world. I'd already decided I was going to skip this one as I'd been making myself queezy just at the thought of the boat ride. On the day we woke up and it was as flat as it gets in South Africa so I had no excuse. Sadly it was just as cold. You know it's cold when you get a collective curse when everyone surfaces from the back roll entry. The dive still didn't provide the wow factor we've been waiting for, but it did have more inquisitive raggy tooth sharks, and 2-3 black tip reef shark circling us while we ascended. We finished the dive trip with what I've come to assume is the standard South African way to stop the boat, by slamming full pelt into the beach.