Inertia: The Only Way to Travel!

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Sometimes inertia is the best way to travel, especially when you're traveling long term, and especially when you're traveling with young children. As any parent knows, the toddler crowd likes routines. Even though we moved around several different accommodations within two main camps in Kruger, we had a routine that we stuck to. This made it easier to adapt to life on the road, even when that routine involved waking up at 4am, getting ready in the dark, then getting the kids out of bed at 4:20 to go game driving in the dark!



After two months in Kruger, it was a little daunting to pack up and leave for several days of travel and errands. The first day was easy as most of the driving was in the park so it seemed like a normal day. We even managed to squeeze in a final stop at the playground. We then just had an hour drive in the "real world" to get to Nelspruit. It's always strange to be back in the outside world after being in the park, as we had found out on our Superspa supermarket runs. Everyone seems to drive so fast after the laid back pace in the park and it's downright scary! We were glad to pull into the familiar Auberge Guesthouse.



The next day was an errand day. We booked our bus ticket to Johannesburg, Scott got a haircut and some new shorts to replace some that had ripped, I got a new dress (just because!) and Kyla got some new socks as I realized I'd not brought enough and was tired of hand washing them every day! Jake might have got a new T-shirt, had he cooperated and tried them on! The kids were excited to find a small playground in the mall and Christmas trees. Later in Spa supermarket, they found a cut-out Santa. Unfortunately, when Jake tried to hug him, he got a bit over zealous and knocked over the whole display! Oops! Luckily it was all just cardboard, so no harm done.



The final errand of the day was to return the hire car. When they'd dropped it off to us in Kruger, there'd been a hub cap missing. We were told it was obvious and not to worry about it. Unfortunately, we stupidly didn't ensure he'd written it down. Of course, when we dropped it off, we were told we'd lost the hub cap. Gah! Later, however, I remembered I'd taken some photos of Kyla hugging the old car. I pulled them up on the iPad and found what I was looking for - a picture of the new car being dropped off to us minus the hub cap. Yay! At least we have proof if they try to charge us. They then helped to arrange for a taxi to drive us back to Auberge Guesthouse. When it arrived we were pretty surprised. It was a total beater with huge cracks all across the windscreen, all the door panels hanging off, and wires coming out from all over the stereo. As we were driven home it made Lou's grating sounds as if it'd conk out at any moment. Of course it didn't and we were finally back home.



The next day we checked out of our guest house and caught the 10am CityBug Minibus for the four hour trip to Johannesburg. On about the two hour mark, Jake started to close his eyes as it was past his nap time. I checked with the driver and he said it was only ten more minutes until we stopped for a small break. Not wanting him to fall asleep only to be awoken ten minutes later, I had to do everything in my power to keep him awake such as singing to him, shaking his arms, pointing to things out of the window. The other passengers found this quite funny, but it worked. The break stop was unexpectedly fun as it was a service station and restaurant that overlooked a game reserve. We could see buffalo, ostrich, elands... I wish we could have stayed longer but we had to be back on the bus in ten minutes. By this time, Jake was wide awake but cranky. After a few tough minutes of the terrible twos, he settled down and soon fell asleep. Phew! The locals all looked back at him sleeping against me, saying "Oh shame", which is their word for "Oh bless" in British. Not really sure of the American equivalent! As we approached Johannesburg we could see where all the crime comes from as the disparity between rich and poor couldn't be wider. One moment we were speeding past a shanty town made up of corrugated iron lean-to shacks. The next, we drove by a swanky shopping mall on the river, complete with a fake-paddle-steam-boat facade. Two very different worlds just minutes apart.



We'd decided to play it safe and spend the big bucks, pre-booking a room at the Protea hotel, which is part of the Marriot chain. It was way over our usual budget, but Johannesburg has one of the highest violent crime rates of any city so we figured it was worth it. Of course, when we arrived we found that they'd accidentally booked us on for the next night, and they were fully booked for that night. After helping us phone a few other options without luck, they suddenly said they'd had a cancellation on a deluxe room and we could have that for the same price as the standard room we thought we'd booked. Hooray! While they got the room ready, they had us sit in the coffee lounge. Having stayed up all night the night before to take advantage of in-room wifi, a coffee sounded great. Great, that was, until I poured in the milk and it came out in giant congealed lumps. Yuck! Oh well, it was a nice thought!



When our room was ready we were taken up the elevator and shown the way. We all stepped into the room and were told to enjoy our stay just as I spotted some pink shoes on the floor and a pink suitcase. Someone was staying in this room. Oopsy! The hotel worker used the phone in the room to call reception to bring up another key before we all shuffled out! We were actually supposed to be in the room next door! Given the price tag, the room was nothing spectacular, but it worked. Jake appreciated the huge building site right outside the window, and we appreciated that there was a trendy cafe to eat dinner at right across the street! Kyla appreciated the Mac 'n' cheese there, so it was a win all around.



The next morning we were off to the airport in a taxi for our final day of travel to Port Elizabeth. We realized that we were somehow down to the final diaper, so had to have the taxi drop me at Superspa for a quick purchase! The traffic was terrible but we still arrived in plenty of time. There was no one in line at the check in desks so we stopped short to tighten the straps on our backpacks before checking them in. Unfortunately, as we did so, we didn't notice a huge tour group descending on the check-in desks like a pack of vultures until it was too late. In a moment, our place at the front of the non-existent line had changed to an hour or more wait. Sometimes you just have to hate tour groups! The kids hadn't had anything to eat yet, so it was a recipe for disaster. We appealed to the first class check-in desk, which was still empty, and they thankfully let us check in. Unfortunately it didn't include an upgrade!



The flight went well. Jake and Kyla loved the take off, exclaiming in delight! One and a half calm hours later we touched down in Port Elizabeth and picked up our new hire car. It was exactly the same as our first rental car, Cindy, that we'd loved, and it was brand new with only 68 km on the clock. Yikes, the pressure! Kyla named it Popie (pronounced like pope with the ee sound at the end, like an affectionate name for the Pope in Rome! Not sure where she got this one from!)



As we drove through Port Elizabeth I saw that my friend Ashley had been right. It was seriously an industrial ugly monstrosity. As we got to the outskirts of the city we had to pass by the massive townships we'd read about in the guidebook. They consisted of row upon row of tiny breeze block houses, some brightly painted, and all topped with a solar panel. Everywhere you looked there was a piece of garbage clinging to the grasses and shrubs, and there were cows and pigs sniffing through it all. It obviously wasn't a great place to live, but it was still a huge improvement on the massive slums surrounding Johannesburg. Jake was asleep but we pointed out the houses to Kyla, trying to tell her how lucky she was compared to how most children in the world live. It didn't really register!



An hour or so of stressful driving later, we arrived at Addo Elephant Park. It was time to start the final leg of the Africa part of our trip...

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Comments

[anonymous]

Got it. Great photos kids and other animals look terrific.
Glad to catch up on everything papa