Blogs from Free State, South Africa, Africa

After another early morning safari we were ready for a change of topic. The Drakenberg mountains were awaiting us with the town of Clarens as our destination for the day. The 200km drive will take us through the Golden Gate National Park. Before we had to drive over the Van Reenen Pass. Named after the little town of Van Reenen, standing guard at the top of this majestic pass, which winds its way through the Drakensberg mountains between Ladysmith and Harrismith along the N3, the main connection between Durban and Johannesburg. Unfortunately, the only record that the pass can lay claim on is, that it is the most dangerous pass in South Africa with the heaviest truck traffic density on any national road. (see the borrowed picture taken during the winter months). However it provides also ... read more

When we got on the plane in London the 31 of december we were really surprised how packed it was. Never before did we fly into the new year and we always had the idea that flights are empty at that date. How wrong we were. The A380 which brought us to Johannesburg was full, full, full. Not being big fans of huge airplanes and far too many people on a little space we had no other chance than keep going with the situation. The flight was pleasant enough, but we could really not sleep with non stop noise and little space throughout the night. We were really happy when we finally landed in Johannesburg. And here the next surprise: it was pouring down like crazy! Never ever have we experienced such a rainfall in South ... read more

Roadtrips in South Africa are very different to roadtrips in the UK. Driving to St Andrews in Scotland is one of the prettier routes, with snow-capped hills accompanying long stretches of the motorway, but long trips in my mind are still characterised by grey roads, rain (usually), and soulless service stations. South African motorways still have grey roads and soulless service stations, serving Spur or Wimpy instead of Little Chef. But they make up for it by having hours and hours of glorious straight empty stretches disappearing into endless mountains, devoid of signs of human life for miles and miles at a time. South Africa is really big, allowing it the luxury of much more natural space than the UK. Driving from Johannesburg, Gauteng, to the Maloti mountains in the Free State is like going into ... read more

Golden Gate Highlands National Park, Glen Reenen Rest Camp to Howick (266 km or 165 miles), Wednesday, March 12th. This clear blue morning we started out driving the Blesbok Loop where we encountered many long tailed Widowbirds and watched them fly around and then into the long grass. It is hard to see how they can possibly fly with so long a tail--almost twice the length of the bird. We saw two different kinds this day: the Long-tailed Widowbird and the Red-collared Widowbird. At the first junction, we turned towards the Langtoon Dam, but very shortly the water was crossing the road and we couldn’t tell how deep it was, so we backed up and continued up the hill to the Zuluhoak Lookout. Very pretty view of the red/cream mountains across the way. Finished driving the ... read more

What is it with the weather and Bush Babes outreaches? Waking up to the sound of rain in the middle of Thursday night reminded me of our last visit to the wolf sanctuary. Heavy rains, sorely needed by the Free State farmers after a long dry spell. This time seemed to be exactly the same, but there's no excuse when it's raining. The forecast was heavy rain for at least a week. We had already postponed this visit to the Husky Romi Rescue & Wolf sanctuary and couldn't put it off any longer. So we had to just suck it up, don our wellies and put on some lipstick, grab our spades and picks and hit the road. Besides a little bit of mud and rain never put off the Bush Babes and we were given ... read more