31.07.2013 First Kruger safari, part 2: Phalaborwa and Tingala Lodge

(Read part 1 here. Click on photos to enlarge and view gallery)

During my planning for this week long trip to the Kruger I had completely failed to understand the sanparks.org website (the official website for booking accommodation inside the parks). The website has since been explained to me (you must register first to see availability, the link is very well hidden here). Alas when I first tried to book on the sanparks website, it seemed everything was booked and so I had settled for a lodge just outside the town of Phalaborwa instead.

The Tingala Lodge is a lovely laid back kind of place with a distinct make-yourself-at-home kind of vibe. It is about 20 minutes' drive from the gate to the Kruger (most of that distance on dirt roads) and set in its own conservancy which has all kinds of small wildlife such as wild pigs, guinea fowl, impala and duiker as well as a small gang of young male elephants who we could hear charging through the trees at night. The lodge is a 6 bedroomed house with an open kitchen, dining tables outside overlooking the bush and a big fire where everyone kicked back and relaxed at night - it felt like staying over at a friend's house and I can imagine this would be the perfect place to rent out with a group of friends and family. Tingala is run by a young couple who are both crazy about nature. The wife (a Brit expat) is an animal scientist by trade whilst the husband (South African) works as a safari guide in the park. They both know a lot about the area and were full of interesting facts about South African wildlife.

Tingala

We spent our nights at Tingala cooking up meat and veggies on the braai before settling in around the fire with marshmallows and possibly one too many glasses of wine. We scanned the night skies picking out the constellations and gazing at the milky way before the huge red moon would rise (apparently it is red because of the wood smoke pollution). Being up in Limpopo province the temperature was perfect to sit outside in a jumper and relax, whilst the days were noticeably warmer than down south or up on the Highveld. In summer the area gets incredibly hot though and mosquitoes can be a nuisance. The area is malarial so it's worth being careful not to get bitten too much if you can help it.

Safari top trumps

In the Phalaborwa area we saw many of the same animals which we had seen previously in the park, but with the luxury of time we were able to explore further and admire more of Kruger's physical beauty. There are two camps in this area: the Letaba Camp and the Olifants Camp. Both are inviting small camps located on spectacular river outcrops. I would recommend the Olifants camp in particular as the view of the river was incredible, the camp felt small and intimate and the area around it was teeming with game.

The Olifants river, or as I like to think of it Hippo river

We came frustratingly close to finally seeing a leopard shortly after entering the park. Spotting some bush 'action' we parked up for a while to sit and watch as a huge herd of buffalo arrived to drink at a waterhole. Then, according to someone we later met whilst having coffee at the rest camp (who goes down as probably one of the most annoying people you can ever meet on a safari), just 10 minutes after we left the most giant leopard appeared on the road right beside the parking space and just sat there posing for photos. And, that's how it goes with safari, it's all luck.

John's mum whilst browsing the pictures of the giant leopard, carried on the conversation with 'well, we saw some beautiful zebras crossing the road with a sweet baby zebra….'. No, sorry John's mum, sadly zebra does definitely not trump leopard.

very sweet baby zebra

Night safari

Myself and John were really desperately keen to go on a night safari and so on our last night we booked an official SAN Parks drive for 400Rand each at the gate. The night drive set off at 16:00 and was supposed to return at 19:30, although to our joy the tour went on all the way until 20:15 as we spotted more animals on the way back to the gate.

I cannot recommend a night drive highly enough. Enjoying the sunset out in the middle of the park is an amazing experience and whilst out by yourselves at night (there was only one other vehicle setting off from the gate that night) you really start to feel the bush come alive. Our charismatic driver David parked up by a dry river bed so we could enjoy the sunset and watch as a large herd of elephants trundled off into the bush in a cloud of dust. We had our sundowners and took photos whilst listening to the strange and unsettling nearby crunching, crashing and growling sounds. I would have been devastated if David had ever needed to use his gun to protect us, but boy, I would not have had the confidence to be sitting out there at night without it.

sundowner stop off and another amazing African sky

On our long drive with our eyes peeled for action, we spotted again many elephants, different kinds of hares, klipspringers, chameleons (how David could see them from so far off whilst driving is a miracle), buffalos, a porcupine (crossing the road it seemed as if it was on wheels, legs are not at all visible) and rarely for this part of the park a large herd of wildebeest going round in circles (wildebeest without a doubt are the stupidest animals in the bush).

The way to spot animals in the dark is to look for the light of your lamp reflecting off their eyes. The eyes of vegetarian animals like antelope and wildebeest will appear greenish- yellow or even blue, whereas carnivores' eyes are more usually red or orange. During our drive David spotted some red eyes crossing the road in his headlamps. We zoomed up to search for this lion/leopard/hyena/wild dog. After careful scanning of the bush with our lamps, hearts beating, all wondering who would be first to spot the tail, the spots, the teeth….we found it. The elusive and difficult to track African Wild Cat.

African wild cats look just like regular domesticated cats except meaner and leaner and are apparently quite unusual to spot on a safari. However, when all is said and done, wild cat also does not trump leopard.

We also learnt a bit about the history of the area on our drive. For example when the first fences were built tens of thousands of wildebeest died. Wildebeest are migratory animals and this particular grouping were trying to head for the mountains. They reached the fence and just stopped there not knowing what to do and eventually starved to death in their thousands.

It was also cool to hear about the people living in this area before it was decided to fence it off to create a nature preserve (these people were displaced into other parts of Limpopo around 150 years ago). One of the local tribes had their village based around a large rocky koppie (hill) just a few kilometres from the Phalaborwa gate. It is visible for miles and is now overrun with baboons whose sillouttes looked amazing against the dusky sky .It is said that the chief of the tribe would sit right up at the top of the koppie on a kind of natural rock chair with a big stick surveying the land. Looking at this rock and thinking of the chief with his big stick looking out over the animal kingdom…seems to me I know where they got the inspiration for the big rock in the Lion King.

Lion King rock

30.07.2013 First Kruger safari part 1: Phabeni gate and Skukuza

(click on photos to enlarge and view gallery)

After a day of driving round the mountains near Sabie, we were already hungering for our first safari experience and as the Phabeni gate to Kruger was just 40 minutes' drive away we decided to get up at the ungodly hour of 5am to head for a morning drive.

They say that the very first and very last hours of daylight are the best time to be out looking for animals, as most of them - especially predators, are most active around this time. From our own personal experience I can confirm it's all true. After already spotting a few giraffes and some elephants in the bushes, at around 7am we stopped as a herd of elephants slowly crossed the road right in front of our car. This made a good opportunity to sit and munch on our packed breakfast as we marveled at our first sighting of real big totally wild animals walking out right in front of us.

Wait for me!

From there on in the rest of the morning continued to be exhilarating as we passed more elephants, giraffes and zebras grazing by the side of the road or crossing out in front of our car. There were also tons of impalas and steenboks around, which we thought were amazing the first time we saw them, but with at least 150,000 of them in the Kruger, you quickly get blasé about yet another gang of deer type creatures.

Kudu

We stopped off for morning coffee at Skukuza which is by far the biggest rest camp in the Kruger. It is so big in fact that it has its own airport. Of all the rest camps we saw I would say this is probably the least exciting to stay in -it has a slightly package holiday feel to it and is lacking in the 'wild' elements, but does still have a nice river view and ample facilities. Skukuza's location is also ideal as you can easily travel up to the quieter middle part of the park or down into the busier lower sections where the largest proportion of animals are (although we saw about the same amount of animals in the lower and upper park).  

All caffeined up we then set off again as the sun began to burn down on us, meaning that we did indeed see fewer big animals. However, our spotters eyes were more than ready for other interesting things and we weren't disappointed. Following the river we spotted lots of hippos, crocodiles, vervet monkeys (cute!) and loads of baboons, as well as many beautiful birds. Then whilst taking a rest near a large waterhole we candidly watched as a huge crocodile slowly swam through the water before lumbering out onto a big nearby rock to show off his crocodile smile. Experiences like that definitely put you off stepping out of your car in the park!

One of the things to be careful of when entering the Kruger is that you do not have any booze in your vehicle. We had accidentally left a bottle of whisky in the boot which one of the guards kindly watched for us while we were out driving. Of course rather inconveniently it meant that we had to drive back to the gate at the end of the day rather than exiting elsewhere.

The drive back to the gate in the afternoon was quiet, even though we were always on the lookout for the ideal 'leopard tree' (- "if I were a leopard I would love to sit up that tree") and I enjoyed the landscape and great feeling of wilderness. The Kruger is a vast expanse of space about the size of a small European country, in fact it is the largest park of its kind in the world. It is heavily populated with a huge variety of incredible wild animals and the bushy landscape dotted with trees and long meandering rivers takes you back to how it must have been like in Africa long before the farms and the factories, mines and cities began to take over the land. Magical.

29.07.2013 The Drakensberg Escarpment - Mpumalanga

(click on photos to enlarge and view gallery)

After four months on the continent, this week we finally took our first long holiday in South Africa. My husband's parents were here from Europe to visit, so it was a family holiday. I was really determined to do something special, to see a wide variety of things and prove the 'South Africa has it all' claims, whilst also relaxing and staying in quality places. I made a lot of demands for myself for sure. Was it stressful to organise? You bet! Having not yet had any personal experience of safaris and long South African road trips, nor knowing much about the places I wanted to visit - I was putting my best hopes into tripadvisor and the blogosphere, generally working the internet to help make it the best possible holiday.

I've certainly learnt a lot already from organising this trip and seen a lot too. Venues aside, this trip really made me realize that, no matter where you are heading or what your budget is, it is the South African people themselves who really make the holiday. These are some of the friendliest, most cheerful, relaxed and helpful people you can meet anywhere in the world. After 6 plus years of living in Russia where the people are not generally described using those same adjectives above, I can wholeheartedly say that the people really can make the place.

So, back to the trip. Here was our itinerary for a week in North-Eastern South Africa:

 -- 3 nights in Sabie in Mpumalanga Province at the Drakensburg Escarpment

 -- 3 nights in Phalaborwa, Limpopo Province at the gate to central Kruger National Park

-- 1 night in Haenertsburg, Limpopo on the drive back to Johannesburg

Sabie and surrounds

We arrived after a 4 hour drive to Sabie in the early evening. My navigation skills unfortunately let me down whilst trying to leave Joburg and I accidentally took us through the Alexandra shanty town (instead of around it). Here the tiny narrow streets are thronged with people, goats, potholes, heavily laden telegraph poles, tightly packed shacks and no street signs whatsoever. It was an eye-opening experience and I really want to go back and have a guided tour. But, at the time, it was pre-etty stressful.

In Sabie we checked into the Sabie Townhouse guesthouse, which is a lovely relaxed place with a nice (but freezing) honesty bar and lovely spacious (but also chilly) rooms. Our hosts made us a huge breakfast spread each morning with homemade banana bread and muffins, fruit and the full cooked breakfast too. Plus they also prepared a packed breakfast for the days we got up early to drive to Kruger, which was much appreciated. We then set off the next day to see the sights.

Another epic game of Who Wants to be a Millionaire at the bar

Blyde River Canyon

The Blyde River Canyon is the area's biggest attraction. For the adventurous types there's white water rafting, hiking, mountain biking and canopy trails (where you zoom across gorges on those zipline thingies), while for the more sedate visitor there are the views.

First stop on the Escarpment tourist trail about 40 minutes before you reach the canyon proper is God's Window, where you can peer over the massive cliffs which marks the end of the Highveld and the beginning of the Lowveld some 900 metres below. They say that if you are here on a clear night you can see all the way to the lights of Maputo in Mozambique. Nearby there are also many waterfalls which you can stop at, we chose the Berlin Falls, for no reason other than it was recommended by our townhouse.

God's Window

Berlin Falls

Further on up towards the mouth of the canyon you reach Bourke's Luck Potholes, an area of fantastic rock formations carved by the Blyde river. The area is named after a local prospector who found gold here, but failed to get rich as the actual gold seam was located a short way south of his claim.

From here you drive on another half hour to reach the big canyon view at a point called Three Rondavels. The Three Rondavels are three round rock formations which were each named by the local Pedi tribe after one of the chief's wives (I don't remember the names now). The canyon itself is said to be the third largest in the world (after the Grand Canyon and Fish River Canyon in Namibia) - whether that statistic is based on depth, width or length I have no idea. Regardless, it is pretty spectacular.

Echo Caves

Another half an hour beyond the canyon we also stopped at the Echo Caves near to Ohrigstad. This was my favourite attraction in the whole area. Not really well marked on the tourist trail, the caves attract few visitors meaning it was just us and our guide wandering through this strange underground world.

These ancient caves were re-discovered in the 1920s by a local farmer who kept mysteriously losing his cattle. After much head-scratching he eventually found that the cows had wandered into this massive system of caves and perished. In recent years miners have been sent down to explore the area and find where the caves lead. So far they have reached 19kms (for lack of oxygen in their tanks they couldn't continue any further) although it is believed the caves may stretch for 40kms!

They were named echo caves by the local Pedi tribe who used to hide here in the 19^th Century while they warred with the Swazis. The Pedis lived out on the hot plains during the winter and retreated to the cooler mountain areas to escape the summer heat. At some point they started to find that thieving Swazis had been through their villages while they were away and destroyed their land and stolen crops. Thus the troubles began. During the worst times the Pedi tribe would hide in the caves from the marauding Swazis with their animals and belongings. A lookout man was sent to the entrance and if he saw trouble he would start beating one of the hollow stalactites near the entrance to the caves making a loud booming sound which would act as a warning message echoing for kilometres telling his people to hide.

The tour was not real potholing per say, but did require much more athleticism than we had first guessed. In the end we only did one half of the two kilometer tour as our guide warned us that in the second half of our journey we would be required to crawl and that in some areas there was very little air. Definitely not for claustrophobes.

Pilgrim's Rest

Pilgrim's Rest is a classic old fashioned mining town about 35 minutes from Sabie. The whole town is considered as a national heritage site and so feels more like a museum than a real 'living' community. That said the buildings are very pretty, there are plenty of cute craft shops and little tea rooms and you can also go down to the stream and try your hand at panning for gold. There are an unusually high number of people selling African crafts here which we felt were overpriced compared to what we had seen elsewhere. If you are looking to buy African crafts (and I recommend you do) you will find better prices at the waterfalls or up on the canyon view point.

11.07.2013 Walking the Joburg CBD - Marshalltown

I've started to develop a bit of an addiction - namely spending the day wondering aimlessly around the Johannesburg CBD (Central Business District). In a city which has some pretty soulless malls and anonymous suburbs and a shamefully large amount of informal housing and derelict buildings, the CBD shines out for me as a place filled with history, interesting architecture, people from all walks of life. It feels like somewhere which is certainly on the up and in a palpable state of revival. Downtown for me is real city life.

View of the CBD from a bridge crossing the railway tracks

In our first week here I ventured out on my lonesome to explore the CBD and I actually landed in Braamfontein, mistakenly thinking I was in the heart of downtown Joburg. I can't lie, I was feeling kinda nervous. Everything at that time made me nervous. For the first time in my life I truly stood out as a foreigner and quite frankly the whole new continent thing was giving me some serious culture shock. In reality Braamfontein, just over the railway tracks from the CBD, is a really fun student part of the city, which has all of the most happening bars, lots of street life and some seriously hipster cafes. Back then having landed from Europe in the sterile Sandton bubble, Braamfontein's graffiti, rubbish, chicken shops, busy pavements, high density housing and lack of white people were an amazement for me - it was literally another city.

While I love Braamfontein for its great bars, cafes and nightlife (which actually kicks off at the weekend before it has even passed 6pm!), the CBD is still the heart of this city for me. Rich in variety and architectural splendour it has so much to see.

One of the most tourist friendly and prosperous parts of the CBD to walk around is Marshalltown, an area where you can really glimpse the former and present wealth of the city.

Chancellor House

This is the building where Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo had their legal practice and I wrote about it in a previous post so I am not going to go into details again. It is just a few blocks away from Diagonal Street where they sell a lot of blankets, heaters (I presume there will be fans and hats here in summer?) and other household stuff and interestingly you can also find a couple of Muti shops selling freaky things for use in traditional medicine and other juju stuff.

A Muti shop

Main Street and the chamber of mines

A short walk from the courts is the pedestrianised Main Street which has the lavish headquarters of numerous major mining companies such as BHP Billiton and AngloAmerican Gold. Many of the grand buildings here have facades with beautiful carvings relating to the gold rush and statues inspired by South Africa's magnificent wildlife. There are also some particularly nice pieces of public art, such as this statue of leaping springboks.

Facade at BHP Billiton

Main street is also peppered with relics from the mining industry such as old trains, stamp mills and pumps. It was from literally right under these streets that the first gold was mined a mere 130 years ago, leading to the swift creation of one of Africa's biggest cities. Main Street has many nice cafes frequented by local office workers (hence they are often closed on weekends) and even has a Woolworths Food (the posh South African supermarket). In nearby Anderson Street you can also find some of the nicest hotels in the city centre such as the Reef Hotel and the Mapungbuwe.

Random mining stuff

Library Square Gardens

A few blocks north of Main Street this square is another example of the successful restoration of beautiful historic downtown buildings. This is an area which was one of the very first to be developed in the city during the early gold rush years. The beautiful library at the heart of the square has recently been restored and is well worth checking out. With a large high school nearby the square is often filled with kids hanging out on their lunch breaks or playing while waiting for the bus. Looking over it is the Guildhall Pub, the oldest in Johannesburg and a great (and yes, safe) boozer.

The Guildhall Pub

Corner Fox Street and Loveday Street

A large part of Fox Street (running parallel to Main) is also now pedestrianised and has some big offices on it. It also has some amazing old buildings kept in very nice condition such as the impressive Old Standard Bank of South Africa building. Nearby you can also find the Post Office building (victim of fire a few years ago, awaiting restoration) and some other elegant civic buildings.

This could easily be somewhere in Europe...

The old Post Office

There are two very nice cafes here worth looking out for. Ma Bertha's -a very friendly new cafe on Loveday where you can get a huge plate of steaming stew and pap for 40 Rand. They even have tables and chairs right on the pavement in true European cafe culture style (i.e not roped off, but literally right in the middle of the pavement). The other is the much older Pinos, an Italian cafe with genuine Italian coffee, a very faithful clientele and a toilet which you have to be escorted through the kitchens to reach. It gets really busy here and is a very authentic recreation of an atypical Italian coffee bar.

Pino's

Gandhi Square

My strolls downtown often tend to start or finish here as this is the terminus for the Metrobus. Minibus taxi are still much more popular than the Metrobus as they are more reliable and take more complex routes - with Metrobus you can be waiting a long time or getting dropped really far from your home. But, that said I still enjoy riding the Metrobus back up north as they are double decker so you get a great view as you ride home.

Gandhi Square is of course named after the great Indian leader who worked as a lawyer in Johannesburg for many years. He has a statue on the square, but it is pretty small, blink and you might miss it. It shows Gandhi in his youthful lawyer years in court robes with some important looking papers.

Gandhi's statue

Back in the early 1990s Gandhi Square was a bit of a no-go area, despite being the main bus terminus for the city. There was a lot of trouble with crime and drugs, the lighting and policing was poor and people were constantly getting robbed here. Not so today however. The square is a hub of activity surrounded by office, shops, cafes and bars. It is very safe and is well looked after. It is also sustainable offering affordable business, retail and rental opportunities to the people who visit downtown the most. Much of the credit has to go to local entrepreneur Gerald Olitzki who worked hard to redevelop the area when anyone else with money had given up and fled to Sandton. You can read about him in this great article from 2010 by the Globe and Mail.

Gandhi Square

I think this huge banner on Gandhi Square pretty much sums up my feelings about Joburg's revival.