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Published: November 21st 2006
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Bye Bye!
Probably not the greatest departure the nation has seen for a while! Howzit Bro? Greetings from South Africa!
After a long flight it was excellent to sample the home comforts offered to us by the extended Isaacson family in Jo'Burg. So much so we were tempted to delay the first part of the trip and stay with Avril for longer!
After some good sleep (we were tired after all the organization it took to leave London - ahhh bless I here you say) we decided to change plans before we had even started. We looked at a map and thought it was foolish to travel past the Kruger Park without actually getting off the bus. So that we did, and we blew our budget straight away by hiring a small car to get us into the park - incidentally it was a Toyota Tazz, a rather appropriate name for taking on the big 5. Unfortunately as this was all last minute all cheap accommodation in the park was taken so we had to look outside for somewhere to sleep. In the end we hired a trailer round the back of a petrol station - it is pure class travelling with us!
The next day was a 5am start in order
to get into the park in time. We set off in our little Tazz to find some wildlife. Touring the park ourselves was fun, rather than being shlept around by an organised tour. However it did have one problem, that we were relying on 2 people both with corrected vision, to spot the wildlife. James was at the wheel, while Marissa wielded her camera. We set off cruising around the park, spotted several types of Antelope but that was about it. Every now and again Marissa would shout "Stop! Stop!" only for it to be followed by a quieter "rock, rock" as she realised the Lion she saw was in fact part of the landscape. Although it wasn't long before our eyes got tuned in and we started to find all sorts.
Now this big 5 business … I'm sure they include Buffalo in that so as to make people feel better about not seeing any cats, but anyway we got lucky with a Buffalo pretty quickly. (fna fna). It wasn't the best weather for Safari - in fact it chucked it down pretty much all day, much to the amusement of the locals who loved the fact we
Giraffe
Why the long neck? had come all that way for rain. Not to worry though, we had a great day out and saw a whole host of birds and animals some of which you can see on this very page. Unfortunately we saw no cats as they, like us humans, prefer to stay indoors watching TV when it rains. Oh well, there will be plenty more opportunities for us to see big cats when we get to Nambia. 😊
Making use of the car while we had it, we left the park by a different exit and stopped for a night in Hazyview - it really did have a hazy view of the park. We upgraded ourselves from a trailer to a backpackers lodge for little extra cost. By this time Marissa was getting well keen on the early starts so insisted we set off at the crack of dawn for Blyde River Canyon. We ended up driving up to 1800m in the hills to find ourselves in the middle of a cloud - not the best view of the canyon from there! The drive down the other side was well worth it and we got to see some truly magnificent natural potholes.
Zebras
Lucky it was us that spotted them and not the lions, or they would have been turned into lunch. We took the easy option and opted for sandwiches. Then it was back to Nelspruit to drop off the car and take a bus into Mozambique. More of that to come ...
This week's top 3 likes:
*Savannah Cider/Castle Milk Stout
*No more crap to sort out
*Endless Dried Meat products
This week's top 3 dislikes:
*The man at the Mozambique boarder wearing a Tshirt showing the old SA flag and the words 100% Boer
*Boarder crossings where you have no idea what is happening
*Endless Dried Meat products
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Jules
non-member comment
Hmmmm ...
I'm seriously considering unsubscribing from this pain - it's already too much! But anyway, I'll give you guys a couple more chances. I want more "cloudy mountain views" and early starts that turn out to be a waste of time - please! Love the warthog shot! Jxxx