Blogs from Mpumalanga , South Africa, Africa - page 22

After a long day of travel from Cape Town, we arrived in Nelspruit around 9 oclock at night, all of us completely drained from the busy week that preceded and not fully recovered from the mix of beer and colored rice powders ingested at the HoliOne Festival the night before our departure. I’m convinced this rice powder (though advertised as completely organic and harmless) gave us all colds as we spent the next several days sneezing and coughing as a quartet. Despite this, we were all excited to be back in the bush and to spend some more time observing the African wildlife. Though the safaris in the Okavango and the Chobe were incredible, there’s still more to see… a lot more to see. The owner of the homely hostel we stayed at in Nelspruit would ... read more

Panorama Rest Camp near Graskop, Mpumalanga Province--Sunday, March 23rd. Pretty, clear day today. Got out our local map of the area and decided which of the attractions we wanted to see along the Blyde River Canyon. It was easier to eliminate those we didn’t wish to see or do, like river rafting, bungee jumping, and something called, the “swing” that seems to go out between two canyon walls. We decided that we would start at the site the guide books said, “not to miss,” which was located the greatest distance away, and then work our way back to camp. That way, if time and/or energy ran out, we would have seen the best view. The Canyon was formed by the Blyde River cutting through the northern part of the Drakensberg Escarpment. Here the inner South African ... read more

Skukuza Rest Camp, Kruger National Park. Friday, March 21st. Started out this morning with big plans to drive a big loop staying mostly, we thought, on the H1-2, which is the paved road. As it went along the river, we stopped at each pull-off spot to look down at the sides of the river banks. At the first one, I spotted the Goliath Heron in the reeds. We then looked at a funny looking tree with small green/grey fruit hanging off the limbs and trunk. We continued up the road, and then turned off on an open dirt road to look at some water holes noted on the park map. We kept going and spotted many animals and birds ON OUR OWN along this route. We began to get a bit uneasy at the fact we ... read more

Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary in the Kingdom of Swaziland to Berg-en-Dal Rest Camp, Kruger National Park. 185 km (115 miles) Wednesday, March 19th. We left camp fairly early, as it will be a hard drive today. Headed out of camp on a different road to the front gate. This road was in slightly better condition. At the highway, we turned left, and continued toward Mbabane towards the MR-3. Soon we were on a newish highway with overhead crossing walkways. Wonder if they can show the cows and goats how to use them?? Crossed through the outskirts of the City of Mbabane, which is the Capitol of the country. Started our climb up into the mountains and although directional signs pointed off to the Royal Residence, we never saw anything from the road that looked like a Royal ... read more

Next stop was Tsendze bush camp. This was about as different as it was possible to get from Crocodile Bridge. The camp is away from the main Mopani Camp and is only for campers. There is no electricity, shop, pool or restaurant but there is lovely individual sites hidden in the bush, peace and quiet, lovely ablutions complete with an outdoor shower which was much nicer than trying to shower in the dark with all the spiders and mozzies as we normally do. There was a decent kitchen with hot water and solar lighting. And to top it all the game ranger in charge came round to chat to us, show us where the paradise flycatcher has her nest and to show us his photos of a nightjar he had just taken and chat in general ... read more