Blogs from Northern Cape, South Africa, Africa - page 5

DEUTSCHE VERSION 7.7.2010 - Mittwoch Habe seit dem 28.6. ein paar tage in nelspruit verbracht, zuerst ein tag im funky monkey backpacker und danach bei dee zu hause (da sie nach johannesburg freunde besuchen ging und uns ihre wohnung angeboten hat). Am Montag sind oli und ich dann nach pretoria gefahren und haben 2 nächte im pretoria backpacker übernachtet. Am Dienstag haben wir uns mit jan-marten in centurion (vorort von pretoria) getroffen um das spiel zwischen holland und uruguay zu schauen. Glücklicherweise hat holland gewonnen - juhuuui! Habe die zeit mit oli genossen, endlich konnte ich mich wieder mal mit jemandem unterhalten der mich kennt! Haben viel gelacht - über situationen im jahreskurs oder als wir als backup in makuleke gearbeitet haben oder über komische personen in den backpackers... haben die fussball spiele angeschaut und sind ... read more

Day 15 At the bottom of the Kalahari Dessert here where the mighty Orange River flows through and creates the Augrabies waterfall. Whilst it ain’t Niagara or Iguaçu, it has a certain majesty being in the middle of an arid and dramatic setting. And its almost deserted.. I also finally saw a springbok and the little dassie - apparently a cousin of an elephant!!!!! Then it was to what was advertised as white water rafting …..but as its the dry season, the Thames flows faster - but having said that it was very pleasant spending the warm afternoon paddling down the river. ... read more

After 4 hours sleep, time to pack and move on. We have a lot of road to cover for the next game. I force Hawkins to drive this stretch, his first drive further than the shops... We use the sat nav the whole way so it's a piece of cake, until I suggest we visit the Big Hole for some culture for the day, he fails that part so we need the sat nav again, not sure how he went so wrong the sign posts were pretty simple. The Big Hole is exactly that, a large man dug hole from the diamond mining era. The museum has recently been renovated so is a great experience. Outside it has been modelled on an old diamond mining village, 20s style shops and vehicles. Inside there is a 20min ... read more

Now this was REAL camping, not for sissies! We had to take all the water we would need for 5 days, that would be for drinking,cooking and cleaning.... We also made loo time easier by taking with a 'toilet'... but Zeedah wasn't convinced.. perhaps next time?? On this trip we were joined by Grant and Vouna, Zeedah, Nick and Wanda. This is Grant and Vouna's first camping trip with us and even rented a 4x4 to try out the fun...more about that later... Our first night we stopped over at pet friendly Beaverlac in the Cedarberg region, about 25km from Porterville. They do not book campsites, so first come first serve, and thankfully there weren't a lot of people there so we parked off under a few trees... After unpacking and setting up our tents we ... read more

The 800k detour! (having trouble loading photos as internet connection is too slow - will try again later) Again a local gave us good advice but this time it was ‘go west now to see the spring wildflowers - the rain has come early.’ We debated this over 2 rest days, again in a nice cabin at Upington doing the washing, and decided to head into the setting sun. The 400km journey west to Springbox had a South American feel (not that we’ve been to S Am!!) with huge sweeping semi-arid plains between various oddly shaped piles of rock - well mountains actually of all sorts of shapes (I could just imagine a gaucho galloping across). (Strangely) my navigating skills were tested that afternoon as we had difficulty finding the Namaqualand National Park - a whole ... read more