Blogs from North West, South Africa, Africa

After a terrible, spooky night in our awful accomodation in the Magaliesberg near Rustenburg we got up very early, did not even bother about breakfast but just left this place. At least the peacock greeted us in the morning nicely. The house was really kind of spooky at night. Do not get us wrong, we love remote places to stay. But this house was cracking the whole night. The thunderstorm did not help. The house was huge and we had the feeling that some other souls are walking around at night. So, not much sleep for us. Anyway, the drive out of the beautiful landscape in this area in the early morning hours was wonderful. We were heading further north, Pilanesberg National Park it was. After a fantastic time in South Africa so far we did ... read more

!Xaus Lodge is remote, 30 km from the main road through the park and 360km from the nearest town where they get their supplies. It's a community owned lodge by the San bushmen and the Mere and run by a South African company who get a management fee. The profits are split between the National Parks, the San and the Mere and all of the staff are from the Mere and San tribes. The water comes from a bore hole and is salt water so showering and washing is different. They have a purification plant for drinking water, and you have a bottle of this in the room that you can use for washing and cleaning your teeth. We get electricity twice a day when they run the generator, and it's lights out at 10:30 pm ... read more

Manyane Caravan Camp, Pilanesberg to Johannesburg to the RV Depot. (196 km (122 miles) Thursday, March 27th. Rained in the night. As we left camp at 7:15, the baboons were raiding the garbage cans of the food stuffed inside from everyone cleaning out their units. We drove to the Center again to have breakfast, since we had given our food away and to see what was going on there in the morning. A troop of vervet monkeys was all over the building roof-tops, both mothers and babies. Not many other animals out this morning but, we did see a Crimson-breasted Shrike, which is a beautiful bird. One of our group said that when they drove up in their RV, we had monkeys all over the top of our RV and they were trying to get into ... read more

So after our long long week of theatre lists, 26hr on calls and various illnesses and ailments we were done...finally a couple of days off to explore South Africa. On Alan's recommendation we were going to head to the Pilanesberg National Park rather than Kruger (a 2.5 hour drive rather than 9!) which was the 3rd largest game park in South Africa and around 50,000sq.km and still had the spread of a Big 5 animals we were hoping to see. On a budget and hoping to catch a glimpse of bear-grills-esque living we packed tent, chairs, sleeping bags and monopoly deal into our premier game ranging vehicle (the Atos!!) and set off for the Pilanesberg. We managed to avoid taking a table, lighting system, BBQ grill and kitchen sink (!) despite Alan's best efforts to set ... read more

In the morning, very early morning, Dad and I went on the elephant ride. Me and Dad had to get up really early to make it to the safari. We thought we were going to miss it because it took a long time for the bus to show up. But the group was waiting for us so it was ok. We were in a open truck on the way there we saw some antelope, Kudu and elephant. We had a man film us along the way through out the tour/ride. We were served coffee, tea and muffins upon arrival. The guide explained to us how to act with the elephants and told us not to be afraid of them. Me and Dad got on first. We were the Guinea pigs. The elephants had saddles because there ... read more