Blogs from South Africa, Africa - page 4

8 February - 23 February We are at the check in desk for our Kulula flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town. The young man behind the counter says: "Do you have any valuables in your checked-in luggage?" "Well, not really. Just an old iPad and my Jawbone speakers. Would that be considered valuable?" "Yes," he says. "Please could you remove them and place them in your hand luggage." "Are you serious? How is anyone going to know that they are in there? The bag is locked." "It goes through a scanner and anything like that will be picked up. The lock is useless. It will be broken." We start redistributing our wealth on the floor in front of the counter. Welcome to South Africa!! Once ensconced safely in our seats on the lime green aircraft (we ... read more

Das war ne Zangengeburt mit meinem Auto... Warten bis das Auto endlich bereit ist und Papiere hier und dort und dann doch nicht und wieder anders. Hat mich fast wahnsinnig gemacht und es ist immer noch nicht alles erledigt! Am Mittwoch 6.2. bin ich dann endlich Richtung Krueger National Park gefahren. Der Plan war Sarah (sie hat im 2009 mit mir den Jahreskurs absolviert) im Norden des Krueger-Parks wo sie arbeitet zu besuchen, aber Mitte Januar ereignete sich dem Limpopo/Levuvu entlang (und etliche andere Fluesse) riesige Überschwemmungen mit etlichen Toten und der noerdliche Teil des Parks war offiziell geschlossen... Nun ich habe zuerst 2 Nächte in Letaba camp im Sueden verbracht und meine Morgen- und Spätnachmittagfahrten gemacht. Am 8.2. fuhr ich dann von Letaba über Phalaborwa (aus dem Park raus, da der Norden gesperrt war - ... read more

It is interesting, how often travel results in visiting unexpected places. Today I visited Hartsbeeport with the plan of going on the cable car. However, when I got there, there was a forty five to an hour queue, which didn’t sound pleasant in 33 degree heat. So I thought I would go back later and see what else is there in Hartsbeeport. While driving around, I saw a sign for Bush Babies Monkey Sanctuary . I’m never too sure of the standard of animal sanctuaries but this looked quite professional from the outside and I decided to go in. The sanctuary is a 7 hectare open cage home to 75 different monkeys. The only way to go round the tour is with a guide and tours start on the hour. Before we started our guide strongly ... read more

I don’t know if I’ve ever written the word tidbits before. (one of those words that after you write it, looks slightly foreign) Anyway, during school terms I doubt that I will be sitting down and writing much, so I thought of three random tidbits...shouldn’t most tidbits be random?...that I can share. And, if I sound a little spacy as I begin this, let me blame it on the heat. I blame everything on the heat. My cellphone not working, my irritation level, (we won’t go into that), the increasing number of insects flying around at night...talk about irritating..., and fatigue. It is amazing how much the heat takes it out on you. I am glad for a rotating period schedule which means I see classes at different periods of the day, because the personality of ... read more

We haven't been washed over the falls or eaten by lions, internet access has been a bit sparse only logging on from the phone (hence the spelling mistakes Barbara!). Idube - Update This was amazing, an experience of a lifetime. Thanks to Wessel our guide (& intrepid off roader) and Lonnet our tracker we saw: Male Lions Lionesses with at least 3 cubs (After a bit of off-road manouevering by Wessel) Elephants - herds and singly and some with little ones Cheetah mum with a baby (3 out of the 4 days we were there) Cape Buffalo - once being helpful and feeding the terrapin his tics Rhino & baby Zebra Kudu Impala (most spotted variety of animal!) Puff Adder Birds incuding vulture and eagles, kingfishers and owls plus the oxpickers and thickknee (no idea if ... read more

Quick update been too busy with the big 5 and the baby animals to spend time on the internet sorry for the lack of updates. Idube deserve is heavenlyand we are being looked after very well! Photos soon. L & D xx... read more

From the previous entry: “From Nasca the road went on to Lima, where we arrived fairly early in the afternoon but had to spend a good time looking for a decent priced hotel.” Lima proved to be the end-station for us in South America. At least as far as our traveling is concerned; not the end of our troubles though. After all the things I didn´t like about South America: the rain, the insects but above all the corruption, thieving and fault-finding, the pettiness and intolerance, topped by the sheer indifference and incompetence of forwarding personnel to get our car into a container and send it off to Durban. I´ll come back to that. But before I do, I must admit we saw interesting and beautiful things as well and we look back at fabulous experiences. ... read more