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Published: March 23rd 2014
Did I title a blog T.I.A (This is Africa) already??? Yup I did and that my friends was a mistake......this last week is really about the Africa we all see and hear about!!!!
So I am naming this blog NOW it's T.I.A.
Friday and Saturday March 14 & 15 So today is the day we are leaving Cape Town. I can hardly believe we have been here 10 days already!! My how time flies when your having fun
We could have slept in today but we were all awake early. Probably because we are all quite excited about this next leg of our journey. We are on our way to Johannesburg today. Our bus leaves at 2:30 pm so we have the morning to do and see any last minute things we want to see and/or do! We got up and began the process of packing and cleaning up!
Rene and I saw a neat place we wanted to stop and have our last breaky in Cape Town so after we were packed and our luggage at the front door, the 4 of us made our way for our last foray on the downtown streets. We made our way
down Long Street and after a couple passes found RCappe. This quaint cafe just made the top 10 list for daytime dining. We had an amazing breakfast and after breakfast strolled one last time towards the Garden. We sat and watched people until it was time to go back to the flat, collect our luggage and head off to the bus station.
Our bus arrived, on we went and North to Jo'burg we headed
So the bus ride turned out much better than we thought. It was even quite interesting. Ok..interesting for the first 4 hours. The mountains and valleys were so beautiful. We started with a prayer from the hostess over an intercom system. A prayer for safety on the roads. A prayer for each of the travelers who were on the bus and a prayer for those who were waiting for each of us at home. So nice really and a great way to start a journey.
I have never been on a bus before with a hostess. Several times during our journey she brought around snacks like pop, chips, muffins, coffee and tea. All of these treats she served on a flat plastic tray! Balance of a
tight rope walker I'd say. At about 7 pm we stopped at a truck stop for a stretch and supper. The 4 of us queued up with many of the other hungry travelers at "Steers" a fast food burger place. With burgers and fries in hand, back on the luxury liner we went. Once the sun set and there was no more to see we reclined our seats and promptly fell asleep. We all slept on and off until the bus stopped again at 2:00 am. Another quick stop and on the road again until we arrived in Johannesburg at 10 am. The bus station at Jo'burg was a little more sketchy than the one in Cape Town. No lolly-gagging in this one. We found the adjacent Gautrain station and bought a city train ticket to Sandton station. The subway ride was about 10 minutes and then about a 15 minute walk to the Holiday Inn where we were booked for the next 2 nights.
We were all hungry when we arrived so Rene and I headed out and a couple blocks away we found a great little cafe and bakery called Vovo-Telo. Had an amazing lunch and the owner
Lynn came over to our table, introduced herself welcomed us to Jo'burg and also is now a blog follower. Welcome to our blog Lynn and thanks for such a great welcome to your city.
After lunch we went back to the hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon sitting at the pool reading and just taking in the warm sunshine.
We have been told by several people now that Botswana and Zimbabwe have had unusual amounts of rain, In fact some pretty severe flooding has occurred. We were a little worried about our tour. We hoped that the rain would stop.
Out for dinner and then an early night to bed.
Sunday March 16, back to Vovo-Telo again for breaky with Dick and Sue and just as we expected they enjoyed it just as much as we did. I wasn't feeling so well so I had a light breakfast and after, while Dick, Sue and Rene went to the pool again. I laid down in the room.
At 6 pm we met with our Intrepid travel group. There are 12 travelers, Timon, our guide, Ivan our cook and FitZ our driver. So 15 all together. Our group consists
of Melanna and Brendan a young couple from Australia, Teresa and Michelle also from Australia. Sisters, Amanda and Monica from the U.S. Paul from the UK, Mary-Ann from Switzerland and the 4 of us. Timon
went over the itinerary and some rules and expectations and we were free for the evening. Timon advised us that we were going to be camping in 2 man tents almost every night. Hmmmmm, that was not my understanding and not what I was told when we booked this trip. I was told that the tents were permanent structures with cots with a couple nights of basic camping. Help!!!! I do not enjoy camping as I struggle with claustrophobia so I'm not very impressed and worried about how this trip will go over. Oh well I'm here now and it appears there is nothing I can do. I guess this is one of those times where I have to figure out how to make lemon juice out of these lemons. Rene of course is thrilled as he LOVES tenting. The next thing Timon told us is that we were leaving at 5 am. Guess an early night was on the agenda. Before bed a
bunch of us went to Nelson Mendella Square for dinner. Had the biggest burger we have ever had!! They were HUGE!! Off to bed excited to start the next leg of this journey.
Monday March 17 Yup.... we were all up early and on the overlander vehicle by 5 sharp!! We all gave Timon 400 Rand (South African currency) about 40 of our dollars. Ivan the cook then took that money and bought groceries as he is cooking dinner most nights and supplying breakfast each morning. Cheap eaten for the next 5 days.
After driving about 5 hours we entered the Panoramic Corridor. So beautiful with huge sweeping vistas and deep massive gorges!
Our first stop was at the Blyde River Canyon which is the 2nd largest canyon in Africa. Jutting out of this canyon are The Three Rondavels. Enormous rocks rising out of the canyon. They loving call them the King and his 2 wives and at the bottom of this gorge is the Blyde River.
Our next stop was the Burkes Luck Potholes. This is a place where the Blyde River and the Treur River cross paths and over the years have made these potholes.
We walked around and even stopped for a while to put our hot feet into the cool pools of water.
After the potholes we stopped again at a look out called God's Window. Here, sheer cliffs plunge over 700 metres to the valley below. Beautiful even if it was a bit hazy.
Back into the overlander and onwards we went. We stopped in a town where we could grab a sleeping bag or blankets for camping. I brought one blanket from home but we decided we should maybe grab one more. Ivan bought all the groceries for the next 5 days and while we watched the guys unload the groceries onto the coolers I couldn't help but think we were going to enjoy some great eats this week!
Next stop.... Kruger National Park!!!!! We got to the park gates just as they were closing so just squeaked in. Drove to this beautiful campsite and proceeded to set up camp. After a yummy Dinner of Spagetti and veggies in the dark, we visited for a while learning more about each other, while we listened to the lions roar just beyond the fence. A quick visit to the really high fence
to see if we could see any night time animals. We saw some beady, shining eyes and when someone shone the light on the creature we could clearly see that it was a hyena. And so the animal search begins.
Off to bed we went. Soon the thunder started and all the flaps had to go up in the tent. As the thunder crashed and the rain started I could feel my panic and anxiety rising!! Needless to say I had a terrible night. Rene was thrilled as he enjoyed the rolling and crashing thunder!
Tuesday March 18 and Wednesday March 19. Morning finally came and while sharing night time stories we discovered that some of our group got quite wet in the night. Thankfully we stayed dry, but I hardly slept a wink!
The lack of sleep didn't seem to bother anyone because after breakfast we were off on a game drive through Kruger. At 7:30 we jumped into the overlander and off on safari we went!!!
And of course it didn't disappoint!!!
We saw so many animals. The first animal we saw was an old Lion just strolling on the side of the road. WOW!! We saw
Spring Bok, Water Bok. We saw Hyenas, monkeys, baboons and Hippos!!!
We saw a dazzle of Zebras, a tower of giraffes, a herd of Water Buffalo and a parade of Elephants. Ok really we didn't see a parade of Elephants but we saw single gigantic beautiful ones just hanging out eating and enjoying life. We, like everyone else on Safari are hopeful to see the BIG 5. This BIG 5 consists of the Lion, Leopard, Rhino, Elephant and the Water Buffalo. So far during these last 2 days in Kruger we have seen 4 out of 5. Well....I'm not sure seeing the Rhinos that we saw counts as they were quite far in the distance and we didn't get to stop and really check them out. Hopefully we will still get a chance next week when we will go on another couple game drives. We didn't even get a tiny glimpse of a leopard, but are we disappointed?? Not a chance! This has been such an AMAZING couple of days!! That night we all went for a night time game drive. At one point I looked around and all but 2 of us from our group, on this night tour
were fast asleep in our seats. So funny....those who slept didn't miss much as there were not many critters out. The second night of tenting for me was much better. No storms so the tent flaps could stay open and my dear sweet sister in law had these tiny little miracle pills to ease my anxiety. Thanks Sue!!!
On the morning of the 19th we left Kruger through a different gate and off to Mokopane. Now, Kruger National Park is 5 million acres so lots more wildlife to see on the way out of the park as well.
We stopped in Mokopane at the mall for a civilization break. An hour later back on the overlander and towards our wilderness camp. We pulled off the main road and very slowly and carefully made our way on a narrow, bumpy red sand road. One on side of the road was a very high electric fence with signs on it that read "WARNING Free Roamimg Lion. Trespassers will be eaten". No one in the group wanted to test to see if the sign read true so we continued on! We were told that this farmer is breeding the White Lion. We
didn't get to see any!! We arrived at our bush camp, quickly set up the tents and jumped back in the overlander just in time for a 10 minute downpour. We went to visit a local farmer who is breeding Ngumti cattle. These are 3 coloured cows. Black, white and brown, if you're wondering! We chatted with him, at his beautiful home and immaculate gardens which he allowed is to roam around in, for about 1/2 hour and off we went again to have dinner with a local family.
We drove up to the home of Moses and Joanna and their children. Twin young adult girls, Brigitte and Precious and Precious' 2 year old daughter. The neighborhood children came running and met us at the house. We all played and took pictures of the adorable kids until dinner was ready. Dinner consisted of Pap, rice, Chakalaka(a salsa like dish) a green bean salad, a pasta dish, pumpkin squash, some sort of boiled pumpkin leaves (tasted like very strong spinach) and some authentic African dried worms!!! Most of us tried all the dishes and some brave ones tries the worms. I took a bite of my worm, juice squished out in
my mouth and I promptly spit it out. YUCK!!! Rene and Dick ate one but Sue couldn't go there. Dinner and the visit was great. Moses is a carver so he had some beautiful pieces he showed us as well. Some of the group bought some carvings to take home to remember the quiet gracious family that hosted all of us for dinner in their simple home.
Back into the vehicle for the trip back to camp. Back on the rough red sand road, now some new and bigger ruts due to the rain and now in the dark. I quietly asked Timon to reassure us that someone else in the world, like the Intrepid office, knew where we all were! Felt like the middle of no where!!!
Timon built us a fire and we had another great visit around a campfire in Africa.
Thursday March 20 We were up early, about 5:00 am. Had our usual breaky of coffee and granola and toast and off we went. We arrived at the Zimbabwe boarder just before 11 am. We were told not to take any pictures in and around the boarder crossing. If we snapped a picture of any
of the guards etc., we could find ourselves in jail for about 5 years. I can't imagine what jail time in Zimbabwe would be like, so no picture taking for me!! We had to first go to the South African border control to present our passports and get them stamped, then back on the bus to the Zimbabwe side to receive our Visas for entering the country. The que of folks going into Zimbabwe was soooooo long, (at least a 100 people) but Timon talked to someone and straight to the front of the line we went. Actually we needed Visas and the others were looking for day entry permits ( or something like that!)
Getting the Visas was a slow process as each of the Visas and the receipt for the $70.00 American for us Canadians was all hand written by these 2 gentlemen who were certainly in no hurry. That's OK, we weren't in a hurry either except that it was very hot out and we were just standing around waiting. We thought we were doing so well and would be done and ready to go again within an hour, but another 2 hours later we were finally
on our way entering the country of Zimbabwe. I guess the process of the overlander (insurance and registration etc.) and then of course our driver, guide and cook need also to get their entry permissions. All done, of course, painstakingly slow and all at different ticket windows. A couple of times there were pushing matches as the people in the que jockeyed to keep their place in line as I'm sure patience was wearing thin in the heat and standing in line for hours!! Something to amuse us travelers while we also waited. Back on the overlander and north towards Victoria Falls we went. We stayed the night in the city of Bulowayo. Zimbabwe's 2nd largest city. Again we arrived in the dark and after setting up camp, Rene and I heard we could have an upgrade for the night and sleep in a 4 walled room with electricity and a real bed!! I was all over that idea and the upgrade was only $15 extra.
Shortly after our dinner of chicken stew and rice we were off to bed. Tucked nice and comfy in our real bed we fell blissfully asleep, after a really long day of mostly just
pounding the pavement in the overlander.
Friday March 21 Again up early and on the road by 6. Again because we had to be re-routed due to flooding, the trip to Victoria falls is taking a little longer than typical. Riding in the overlander is of course not the most exciting thing to do, but all part of the adventure. The countryside of Zimbabwe along this route is not exactly the most scenic, so most of us read, wrote, and or slept most of the way to Victoria Falls. We did have about 7 or 8 different check points along the way. A point where guards pull over the Overlander and then do random inspections. They are always looking for ways to impose fines and sometimes they do and Timon pulls out his wallet and sometimes they find nothing and we are free to go.
And now our Family and Friends
STAY WELL!!!
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Jennifer
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Wow.
That is all I have to say. Just Wow. Thank you so much for sharing and writing these terrific blogs. Makes my day when I find you have a new one posted!!