Blogs from Mpumalanga , South Africa, Africa - page 4

We started off this morning, up at 5:00 a.m., in order to have an early breakfast and be on our way to Cape Town International at 7:15 a.m. We flew direct to Johannesburg via British Air and were surprised to be served another hot breakfast. After landing at Johannesburg and collecting our bags, we were met in the arrivals area by our new guide, Mary-Anne. She would be our driver and source of information for about the next four hours as we made our way to Mt. Sheba, a resort isolated in the hills of Mpumalanga. We stopped for lunch at a travel plaza that was also a nature preserve. It turns out Nando's (Peri-peri chicken) is actually a South African franchise. The Nando's in downtown Chicago, however, doesn't have views of emu, rhino, zebra, eland, ... read more

Our guide was determined to show us a big cat so at 2:00 am he heard two of them roaring. He dashed out in the Jeep with the camp manager and they tracked one down not too far from camp. They woke us up and we, along with the other couple here, jumped in the other Jeep and raced out of camp. It was quite exciting to race down the dark, dirt road in pursuit of a lion in the middle of the night. We got there and it was a young male who wasn’t too fussed by our being there. He was busy trying to find the other male that he’d been calling. He got curious about us and came right up to our Jeep - maybe 5 meters away. Then he got startled and ... read more

Our last day at Tydon Safari Camp and it was still an early start but this time we are off to Kruger National Park itself and we are not sure just how this will compare to driving around private game parks where we could go off road where as Kruger won’t let people do that. The Aussies and the Welsh couple will be on board so for the first time in the last 3 drives the land rover and the guide won’t be just for us. We headed off just after 6.30am and it was a half hour drive to get to the gate into Kruger. Neil was our guide this morning and he has the job to do to find us lions although we have told him that our leopard experiences to date in both ... read more

The wake up call at Tydon Safari Camp in Sabi Sands was a little later than at Gomo Gomo and we enjoyed the extra lie in albeit only another half hour. Again the routine was to rise, get dressed warmly and head down for a coffee before boarding the land rover for the morning game drive. For some reason here at Sabi Sands it seemed much lighter in the sky even though there was only a half hours difference to Gomo Gomo get up and about time. We again got to feel like royalty this morning as we are the only two staying at the safari camp although there will apparently be more people coming in later in the day. Drikus,a stocky South African guy, who told us he loved the outdoors, was to be our ... read more

There was the tap on the unit window at 5.15 am just as happened yesterday and we arose and quickly dressed warmly not to be caught out like yesterday morning when we really felt the cold. What would today bring? Would the elusive big cat be found for us to view before we finished out stay at Gomo Gomo Lodge? Only time will tell. We were to continue our game drive with Gert and Dominic along with the American family and we nabbed the front row of the three tiers on the back of the land rover again. Heading out it wasn’t long before we came across a group of zebras preparing to roam and graze for the day. It is amazing how every zebra in the world has its own distinctive coat and no two ... read more