Blogs from Dundee, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Africa

The safari outings are very much like in Krueger, early morning and late afternoon. After a 5:30 AM wake up we set out for our animal sightseeing and photo sessions. And yes during the time here we saw all the animals we missed out in the Krueger Park; among many other species a Rhino mom with her baby, and a lonely Cheetah gracefully walking the savannah road. Also, a male lion and hippos yawning, we sighted, something which eluded us so far. Nenad far more liked the Krueger atmosphere of the Hoyo Hoyo huts out in the wild nature and the safaris with more unpredictability. Nambiti’s savannah and canyon landscapes were very attractive and completely different to the flat bush of Krueger. Nambiti lies on a high plateau of about 1’500m, whereby the part of Krueger ... read more

The heavy storm still did not pass over night. It rained buckets in the morning, making it impossible to stroll around the area, before our scheduled departure. St Lucia was deserted. It was the off season, but what as more detrimental was the Covid related impact, which completely devastated the tourism business here. Many restaurants and shops were closed, some even shut down permanently. Also, in South Africa the economic impact of the pandemic on the tourism is running deep. We still were remembering yesterday's moment when the territorial and aggressive nature of a hippo surfaced, because our skipper of the river boat approached a male too closely. The big animal looked at us with his fiery eyes, puffed loudly and started chasing us. Hippos can overturn smaller vessels or seriously damage bigger ones easily. Lucky ... read more

The next section of our tour of South Africa found us centred on the now peaceful rolling grassland hills of KwaZulu-Natal in and around Dundee to follow the 'Battlefield Tour'. Initially we had a fairly long drive to Ladysmith to find out about the siege of the town, when 12000 British troops were besieged for 118 days by the Boers in 1899. The small museum was informative and presented the history very well. We travelled on to Spioenkop, a 4810ft high hill, covered with tussocky grass and large boulders, where the British forces suffered a decisive defeat to the Boers. We could easily see how the British soldiers had dug poorly positioned trenches in the dreadful terrain, which partly led to their downfall. Many monuments and graves were scattered over the summit as a grim reminder. ... read more

As I am told I often start these blogs with the with the word well I thought I should stick with tradition and start; Well we have had another amazing day, and as it often is with our holidays this has been a day when we have gone off the traditional route and avoided guides and gone by word of mouth. After another fantastic breakfast this morning we went off to the local trading store. This is a very local shop designed and stocked as it should be to serve the local community, but whilst there we met the owner who explained the services they provide other than that of just a shop. They provide money transfer services where transient workers can transfer cash to their families, they operate as a post office paying pensions and ... read more

I left Ermelo the next morning and drove down to Dundee a town in the middle of the Battlefields region. It took much longer than I expected due to road work all along the N11 -apparently its been going on for years and was supposed to be completed before the World Cup commenced. I am staying at the Royal City Inn a beautiful rambling old inn built in the late 1800's and my hostess whose daughter lives in Stirling in Adelaide has moved me to a much better room. I visited an interesting museum just outside town before returning to the hotel for a great meal. The morning of the 28th I set out for Isandlwana where the Zulu Impi's deceived a British force leading most of the troops on a wild goose chase, before wiping ... read more