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Monday (14/6/2010)
6.30am…. time to get up, pack up our tent and catch a taxi back to Nomads for our Baz bus pickup on route to St. Lucia. Exhausted we crashed on the bus for a couple hours arriving at St. Lucia for lunch. We had lunch and set to hiring a car for self drive through Umfolozi national park the next morning.
Tuesday
Up at 4.30am we grabbed our breaky and lunch supplies, and the Sat nav and set off for the Umfolozi. There was just one problem we couldn’t find reverse! Our ancient Citi golf just wouldn’t go into reverse after ten or more minutes sitting in the dark we agreed we could take the car forward over the nature strip and work reverse out later. Under the guidance of the Sat Nav we arrived at the gate just before 6am first in line. Fortunately whilst waiting for the gates to open we worked out reverse!! Just push down! Idiots! We paid our entry, collected a map and set off on our self drive safari trip. Not exactly sure where to head we cruised along the bitchaman coming to a halt to find a lion chilling by the
side of the road. Whilst Carly fumbled with the camera and winding down the window, the lion jumped into some tall grass, thinking she had gone Jez went into the newly located reverse only to have her jump up at us and roar of ‘get back’. Excited and nervous she might next jump through the open window, we turned around to see her mate cross from the other side of the road and she retreated into the bush. By this stage a small group of cars had gathered and we were unable to get off a good shot but hearts were still thumping just the same. We carried on, passing antelop, warthogs(pumba’s) through the main camp grounds and onto the dirt paths. Things were a little quite, until Jez spotted a lone male lion lying in the sun on a small side road. We creep along the side road desperate not to scar him off. We crept as close as we dared precariously leaning out the window to take a photo of this stunning creature. He sat up and turned eying off a giraffe lurking nearby. Suddenly he took off and so did we! The chase was on unfortunately the
giraffe took off too so we weren’t to witness a kill today but the chase was amazing. The king roamed about a bit more, knowing he was on a photo shoot before cruising off into the bush land. Adrenalin pumping, for the second time that day, we continued back on the official track. It wasn’t long before we came across a female rhino and her pup, more photo shy then the lion they took off into the scrub quickly. We passed by another family of rhino deeper into the scrub and couple giraffes. We stopped for lunch but the crisp wind we kept it short retreating back to the warmth of the car. Conscious of time we began to make our way back, cruising along we stopped stunned as a small pride of lions (definitely from Scar’s family as they all looked a little battle scarred) they proceeded to cross the road in front of us carry on up the road for a few meters before continuing on their well worn track. Seven in total male and female lions, some even turning for a brief pose as we sat back slightly stunned. Stoked having seen ten lions close up on
one day we called it a day to return our rental car. On exiting the park the gate controller asked if we could do him a favour and take his sister back to Mtoubatouba on our way back. Shocked we reluctantly agreed, she happily pointed out all the local sights. We dropped her at Mtoubatouba a very traditional slightly dodgy looking African town keen to get back to St. Lucia. Back at our hostel we watched the afternoon match. That evening we had some fish from the local fish and chip shop and an early night.
Wednesday
After a great sleep we set out for the local estuary, spotting some local hippo’s and croc’s baking in the morning sun. We continued along the windswept beach with some impressive waves, looping right round to the other end of St.Lucia, past the croc farm and eventually making it back to our backpackers two hours later. A quick bite to eat and the Baz bus had returned to take us to Swaziland. Five hours on the bus along some terrible roads, in and out of immigration we arrived to Lidwala Backpackers set within beautiful gardens. That evening we enjoyed a traditional Swazi dinner
including ugali (aka Pap or maise),chicken satay and cabbage. After tucking in we watched the first half of the Bafana Bafana (South Africa) verses Uraguay. Despite been the sentimental favourite’s Bafana just couldn’t get up.
Thursday
Up and at em again for our early pickup and a whole day on the Baz bus. After passing through immigration and customs again and, regretfully got some reheated pies for breaky. We passed time catching up on blogs and reviewing our photo’s from the previous day’s game drive. A brief stop for lunch in Nelspruit and we finally made it to Jo’burg where we had another wait for our shuttle to Pretoria. We arrived at Khayalethu Guesthouse, to a friendly reception, a bright and clean four bed dorm and ensuite to ourselves. (Making the extortionate World cup price a little more palatable).We met up with Angie and Pablo, Aussies from the Baz bus for dinner, Carly deciding the African Bar and Grill sounded good. But typically like all the restaurants Carly picks out from the Lonely Planet it had changed both names and owners, now Springbok bar. Fortunately we still found it and they still served up awesome steaks, we tucked into
a Springbok steak and T-bone and some more castle lager.
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