AndyandCaroline

15 January 2011 – Hlane Game Reserve, Swaziland Arrived at Hlane game reserve early afternoon to be met by very friendly staff, a charge of R60 per person per night which is pretty good value and the choice of the whole campsite, all equipped with picnic tables, built in braais and a very large and clean ablution block. A member of staff came round to empty the dustbin and clean the braai and asked if we needed wood, when I said we did he went off and cut us some from the store free of charge. There is no electricity or drinking water but they light oil lamps in the loos at night and sell drinking water at the shop. A well stoked fire under the donkey boiler ensures piping hot water at all times. A ... read more

Sightings in Kruger included a herd of about 60 elephant on the way to Satara and a herd of about 200 buffalo, I know how many because I counted them as they crossed the road in front of our car one by one! The highlight really though has to be our last 2 days in Skukuza when we first saw a Leopard in a tree, we had a really clear view and there were only a few cars there, not the normal traffic jam you get when a big cat is spotted. As the leopard left the tree we drove further up the road and found 8 wild dog just lounging and playing in the road. Again, we were the first car there and only a couple joined us to watch. They stayed for half an ... read more

I won't bore you with all the details of shopping and preparing the trailer for our holiday. although we did manage just one or two delicious lunches – had to have my chicken livers peri peri – and possibly the best seafood I have ever had served at Ocean Basket, a platter of mussels, prawns, calamari and fish all served in their unique sauce – absolutely delicious, all for the price of a burger and chips in the UK. Or maybe I've just been away from good food for so long that it all tastes wonderful. Family started arriving on the 23rd ready for a big Christmas together. Carrie's parents came from Durban en-route to the Cape, complete with their two dogs and Wendy and Barrie and Rory and Dean flew up from Durban, fortunately with ... read more

Trailer all repacked, restocked and washing nice and clean again we set off for the Yorke Peninsula. We had searched on the internet to find some good snorkelling spots and decided we would look at the campsites as we went to decide which one to stay at. The National Park has several campsites which are all bush sites. We eventually decided on Shell Beach as it was right on a lovely beach, it was one of the spots we thought we could snorkel at, there was a campsite we could fit on and the toilets - although the standard pit toilet - was at least new and very clean. After setting up camp we walked to the beach where Dave tried out the water first, of course it was very cold so we didn’t swim but ... read more

Off to our next stop which was planned to be the Otway National Park. We stopped off at Torquay for Kerry and Dave to do some shopping as it is known as a big surfer town with lots of good shops. We were now starting our drive along the Great Ocean Road. One of the big towns along the road, Lorne, has a music festival that starts on 30th December. It was just our bad luck that we were trying to get along that stretch of the road the day before - along with everyone else. We were nose to tail in traffic for 3 hours. There are no roads off the main one so once you have joined the traffic there is no way to go but forward or back. As this is the only ... read more