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Published: August 12th 2008
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Game Drive Dinks
Oliver, Doris, Carl, Ranger Dylan and tracker at Lukimbi In February, we took my car (an old Honda CVR) on an adventure. Doris and Oliver (who we met in Bolivia) joined us on the adventure.
We started in Johannesburg (our home town) and drove to the Kruger Park. We spent a couple of days in the Kruger at Lukimbi and in the Sabie Sands at Idube. (These 2 lodges belong to Carl's parents). We had the most wonderful game viewing and Doris and Oliver got to see lots of amazing South African wildlife.
We then headed through the Kruger Park staying overnight in Letaba, to the Mozambique border post and through the Limpopo Peace Park. There were far fewer animals on the Mozambiquan side. The roads were dirt and gravelly, until we decided to take a road off the beaten track. Then my poor car got beaten on the underbelly by lots of loose rocks. When the rocks finally came to an end we ended up in what could have been a dry river bed full of loose sand. The "road" went through a couple of villages and we got to see rural Mozambiquan life close up. The point of our detour was to view the lake Messinger,
Swarm of Storks
Kruger between Satara and Letaba but the road did not get there. Eventually we crossed out of the park and drove along the massive Messinger dam wall.
This was a day for a lot of driving... After stopping for lunch at Xai-Xai, we headed North... The road from Xai-Xai is full of potholes!! As we neared the town of Quisico a torrential downpour ensued and thwarted our efforts to get to the camp sit on the beach. The water was washing down the dirt road and if we had continued, it might have been a long stay at the campsite on the beach as the Honda might be 4x4 but it is a soft roader with now diff lock and a steep muddy slope could prove to be its downfall.
We investigated a small guest house in town at the back of the bar. As much as I tried to be hardcore it was too terrible, the rooms were dark and smelly and the bathrooms were shared with Truck drivers. I phoned a hostel in Inhambane and asked if they could accommodate us for the night. We were lucky, Dennis the owner said he would keep a room for us. We eventually got
Elephants
Fighting right next to our Landrover at Lukimbi there (the rain had subsided) and he got his staff to make us a meal of the chicken we had defrosted for dinner. There were many noises in the street that night but it was miles better then a the truck stop!
After a wonderful breakfast with Dennis and good coffee, we headed to the market. Carl Managed to get some new shoes (slops) as his old ones were super smelly!
We decided to drive up to Vilankulos later that day. We took a short cut to avoid the very deep potholes on the road that leads to Inhambane from the main road. It was a dirt road, but we were able to travel faster due to the lack of potholes and made it to the main road safely. But the worst was yet to come.... After many glorious kms travelled on the perfect tar road, it stopped and gave way to a mosaic of potholes and tar! The road had potholes the size of cars and it was easier to drive on side of the road than on the patchwork of tar.
after almost 100 km of patchy road, the perfect glorious tar road appeared again.
Elephant
At Idube Leading up to the perfect road in sections fo the road where there were only a couple of potholes (though these were often very deep!) were groups of kids who were acting at filling up the potholes with sand. In return for their public service, they expected tips. But we could see through their ploy, they ran out of the bushes as soon as they heard a car coming and left as soon as the car was out of sight!
We eventually found Vilankulos, but finding the place we had decided to stay was a another story! The GPS had us driving in the sea and we felt like we were on a boat gliding through the beach sand. It was quite nerve racking as we were not sure how capable our little Honda was.
Eventually we had to resort to the phone and Oliver phoned the lodge, turned out they were German, They gave us directions, but when we got there we saw the lodge was not on the beach and decided not to go there and headed instead to the lodge in front.
We were the only people there and the pool looked over onto
Zebra
At Lukimbi the sea. It seemed like a nice place to chill. We stayed a couple of days, went Scuba diving on 5 miles reef, swam in the pool and went horse riding. The Scuba diving was not so great the boat ride was so long and rough and the vis was not great. Oliver got Sea sick and my little finger lost all its skin trying to hold onto the zodiac. We decided that instead of going on a dhow as we had planned we were going to head to Tofu to see Whale sharks...
And we saw whale sharks ...
We spent a very relaxing couple of days in Tofu at Casa Barry (wonderful place), the beach and the water was great for swimming and there were many restaurants when we did not feel like cooking.
I was reluctant to leave, but we had to get home and we wanted to see Swaziland on the way.
Swaziland is the home of cheap curios, Swazi candles and loads of small national parks. We shopped and walked and road more horses in Milwane.
Sadly we had to go home and Doris and Oliver headed to Cape Town. But
Giraffe
At Lukimbi as always we were welcomed by our happy dogs.
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