South Africa - Part II - Johannesburg / Kruger National Park


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December 17th 2011
Published: December 17th 2011
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Jo'burg to Kruger

Jo'burg - Kruger - Panorama Drive - Jo'burg

Johannesburg (4 June 2011 - 10 June 2011)

Next morning was the flight to Johannesburg so we woke up early, picked up a driver from the rental car showroom who dropped us off at the airport and we were off to Jo’burg.

Johannesburg was a bit of a let down after Cape Town with dry lifeless surroundings and a desert atmosphere. Baggage was delayed so we quickly rushed to the car rental showroom and picked up the car we had book – our dream – the luxurious Nissan Xtrail!! Brand new, shiny silver, it was waiting for us in the parking and we couldn’t wait get on the road. After a long struggle with fixing the GPS to locate our guest house we drove for an hour and half to reach the place and found it to be extremely far, creepy and in the middle of no where! The place - "Cradle Cove" had looked lovely on their booking website however it was not locatable on the GPS, it was off the main road down a muddy path and had just 2 rooms managed by a solitary man with 3 dogs! No one even in the vicinity of the property knew about its presence!! We had scenes from the movie “Vacancy” running in head and so we cancelled the booking even though the man offered an upgrade to the supposed honeymoon suite and headed off to Sun city which was another 200 Km there from – in all about 300 Km from the city.

Sun City also know as the Paradise of Jo’burg is a city of its own – a luxury casino and resort, situated in the North West Province of South Africa. It is located about three hours' drive from Johannesburg, near the city of Rustenburgwith. It houses 4 hotels ranging from affordable to ultra luxury man-made palace with accommodation.

By the time we reached Sun City it was about 5.30 PM, sun was setting and temperatures dropping to about 4 degrees.. So we got a room at the Cabanas, the cheapest available hotel there and crashed out for the day. Our room opened out to a gorgeous lake and the morning after sun rise from there was breath-taking.

The rice maker had officially conked – rice we kept the previous evening at 6 PM was ready next morning by 6 AM!! So packed some lunch on hand with that, trashed the rice maker and headed out to explore Sun City. We spent the morning, taking the within the resort shuttle - looking around the place, went horse-riding and took a lot of pictures.

By mid-day we left Sun City returned to Jo’burg. Stopped at gas station and much to our dismay international cards weren’t accepted! Spent the Rands that we had on hand, filled gas and got directions to the Lion Park.

We had our packed lunch at the Lion Park and entered the self drive Safari - saw a few lions, giraffe, antelopes and cheetahs. After the safari, we had a 5 minute encounter with lion cubs. Adorable white and gold lion cubs were kept in a small caged environment where we could play and click pictures with them. While Madhu felt Prince was more fun to play with, I thoroughly enjoyed!!

We stayed the night at Indaba Hotel, Fourways, Johannesburg, a four star business hotel. It was a very nice, lush green environment within the hotel and being a business it worked early hours. So our breakfast was done the next morning by 6.30 AM, a hearty meal of the usual baked beans, toast, omelets, cereal, juice and coffee. Thanks to Tomtom – our car GPS, we were then on our way to Mohlabetsi Safari Lodge, Greater Kruger.

Kruger National Park is one of the largest game reserves in Africa. The drive was totally a 450 KM drive. First half hour we were stuck in peak hour traffic within city limits following which the motor way was blocked due to a gruesome accident with a man badly injured and stuck in the car. Once we got past all that it was a nice 4 lane road, a comfortable drive. But the funny part was it took us 185 KM to find another person on the road thereafter!!! A few tiny deserted gas stations and truck stations but that apart no civilization! To top it up, we had only 50 Rands on hand, rest as dollars and our cards were unlikely to work at any place around! A bit of paranoia crept in as we started hunting for a gas station with the doubt that we may not find one in Kruger. At just that point we hit a toll and had to shell out 40 Rands!! We continued apprehensively for another 20 KM and thankfully hit a fully serviced, have it all, Total Gas station. Our cards worked, withdrew some cash from the ATM, freshened up and hit the road again.

Another 100 KM down we were close to our destination, many little towns passed and we stopped once again to grab a veggie burger at Steers. Munching on, we hit Hoedspruit, the town closest to our reserve, took a diversion from the highway and entered the York Private Game Reserve. Kruger is divided into the core and the greater Kruger region. While the core is still held by the government, greater Kruger, the circular belt on the outer edge of Kruger is held by private parties and game reserves are within. However, there is no actual partition between Kruger and Greater Kruger – in all there is only an electric fence border the outer edge of greater Kruger and the highway – so the animals are free to move around the entire reserve while humans are restricted to non fenced boundaries. Inside York, one of the properties was Mohlabetsi Safari Lodge, a bumpy 7 KM drive into the reserve.

As we got off the car we were greeted by Leena from the Lodge, with nice refreshing tropical drinks. She showed us around and lead us to our rooms. Our room was tiny little thatch roofed cottage with a cozy décor, a dark wood dresser with some lovely hand picked flowers and a personal hand-written welcome note from Tony & Alma Williamson, the owners of the property. Traditionally tiled, eco-friendly furnishings, charming open bath and the surreal silence made it a perfect place to relax!

Out in the gardens a wholesome lunch awaited us. All are packaged food from India was primarily for Kruger as some friends had warned us the food is mostly “catch” of the day which ranges from crocodile meat to any such catches!! Even though our stay included 3 meals a day we were prepared with our own food too. As they had made a vegetarian meal we decided to give a shot before opening our bags!!

Much to our surprise our lunch was a nice two course meal consisting of mushroom quiche and some lovely salad followed by desert. Though I developed allergies to the mushroom, the meal in all was great.

It was then time for our first safari into the reserve. A 10-seater land rover awaited us outside and we were joined by an old German couple and a French couple, other residents of the lodge for the safari. Safaris were part of our daily schedule during our stay there. They would wake us up at 6 AM. We would have a hot cup of coffee and some cookies and head out for the morning safari. We would be served another round of coffee and some snacks by a scenic spot within the reserve and come back by 9.30 AM for breakfast, eggs personally made by Tony according to each ones preference and some cereal and juice. 3.30 PM would be the after noon safaris with some tea and snack while we watch the Sunset and head back by 6.30 PM.

Lunch and dinner were fabulous all three days ranging from pastas, pizzas to flavored rice with chickpeas – cooked in the Indian style!! Each meal was also completed with some exquisite home-made deserts.

3 days in Kruger was definite a memorable, relaxing and exciting stay. We got to spot Giraffes, Antelopes, Water Bucks, Impalas, Wart Hogs, the endangered white rhinos and the best for the last – the cheetah! Apart from these we also got to see of native African birds, carcal from the cat family and the bush babies from the monkey family.

It was time to head back to Jo’burg and Tony recommended the scenic Panorama Drive for our journey back. It was 2 hour detour but was worth it.

The Blyde River Canyon is a significant natural feature of South Africa. Along the same is the Panorama drive. If there is really only one place to visit to really appreciate the awe-inspiring grand natural splendor of the Panorama drive, it is the God’s Window viewpoint. The fresh mountain air fills your lungs and opens your mind to the incredible panoramic views, infinite expanses and plunging cliff- sides of the lush Low-veld region lying below. The grandeur of the entire view point is the fact that amidst the dry and dull desert and savannas the God’s Window houses an amazing lush green rain forest! The altitude and climate change has caused the creation of a rain forest in the middle of a desert province! Absolutely gorgeous and breath taking is the view from the top of the rain forest and there within too!

Stepping out of God’s Window our camera ran out of battery and as we were walking back to the car we met the French couple who had stayed with us at Mohlabetsi. We drove along with them to the next view point on the Panorama Drive – the Pinnacle. The Pinnacle is a point from which the waterfalls of the Blyde river is seen. The wind was so strong that it was literally blowing me away!! Holding tight onto Madhu we got a few snaps with our French friends and headed towards a small little town, Graskop where there were some nice little local shops where we picked up some knick knacks for the home.

Drive back to Jo’burg then took us a good 5 hours. We reached a small bed and breakfast place just few minutes from O.R.Tambo International Airport, where we were to take our flight to Livingstone, Zambia, the next morning. Much to our pleasure the BnB had a microwave in the room so we cooked some rice for the night and the day after, finished dinner and crashed out.

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