Take a Walk on the Wild Side

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After three months in Africa we're back to playing catch up again. On Sept. 10th we landed in Johannesburg, South Africa where we met up with our friends Craig and Kimmy who had come to visit us. After checking out the suburbs of Joberg on the morning of our first day we picked up a rental car and headed out to the town of Nelspruit, just south of Kruger National Park.
We entered the park the next day at the Melelane gate at the southern end of the park and checked into our roundhouse accommodations at the Melelane Camp and then headed out for our first game drive. We drove around both the paved and gravel streets of the southern part of the park and saw tons of animals including crocs, elephants, impala, klipspringers, warthogs, springboks, giraffe, kudu, white rhinos, and several different types of birds.
We had a long drive up to the Olifants camp in the center of the park on our second day so we got an early start. We spent the whole day driving north and east through the park stopping at some watering holes and checking out all the wildlife along the way. We saw more elephants, giraffes, rhinos, and the other animals we had seen on the first day as well as wildebeests, hippos, zebras, buffalo, Vervet monkeys, hyenas, baboons, mongoose, a couple of lions, and a leopard feeding on a springbok in a tree. Many of the animals were close to the road and some we even had to wait on to get off the road. We had a hard time seeing the leopard in the tree but we could hear him eating the animal. At the end of the day we reached the campsite with just 10 minutes to spare before they closed the gates. That night in the restaurant at the camp we sampled some game meat (Kudu I believe) which was rather tasty.
Our third day was more game driving as we drove southwest towards the Satara camp. We saw more of the same animals as well as a couple of lions who were sitting on their kill of a wildebeest or buffalo. They were surrounded by vultures looking to get a taste.
On the 15th we headed out of the park via the Orpen gate. Our only new sightings as we headed out were a few ostriches. After exiting the park we drove back to Johannesburg and dropped Kimmy off at the airport for her flight back to the States.
After spending a day around Johannesburg, Craig, Brittany, and I headed down to the small country of Swaziland which sits surrounded by South Africa. After driving into and around the country some we drove into the Ezulwini Valley area and the Milwane Wildlife Sancturary where we stayed for the night at the Sondzela Backpackers. We were able to go on another short game drive where we saw Gemsboks, Blesboks, and some crocs before heading back to the hostel for a great local dinner outside by the fire.
After another short game drive and checking out some of the local artwork we drove our of Swaziland and down to the coast of SA. We drove along the northeast coastal area of SA and down to the city of Durban.
The next day we headed about 40 minutes outside of Durban into the surrounding sugarcane fields for a 3 hour quad bike ride. It was the first time on these things for all three of us so it took a little getting used to. After a lesson on how not to kill ourselves and a little getting familiar ride we headed out onto the dirt trails running through the sugarcane fields and surrounding creeks. There were a few times I thought Craig was going to run himself into a tree but we all seemed to make it out alive. On the way back to Durban we checked out the coastal area of Ballito and then enjoyed the rest of the day in Durban.
We dropped Craig off at the airport the next day for his flight back to the states and Britt and I stayed another 3 days in Durban. I bought a used surfboard and headed down to the local beaches in the mornings where I was able to catch some fun waist to chest high semi-clean surf in the warm water. In the afternoons we checked out the city and some of the sights such as the Durban Art Gallery and National Science Museum. In the evenings we sampled more game meat at the local restaurants.
On the 23rd we drove down the coast (southwest) to the little town of Coffee Bay. The surf was not too good here so we instead did a tour of the surrounding villages to see how the locals lived. We talked to a local family about how their mud roundhouse was made, how the village had changed (the had just gotten pumped water in the last 5 years), how the villages were structured, and some of their local customs. From here we walked to a sacred pool that the locals believed held the spirits of their ancestors and then up to the local spiritual healer who talked to us about his role in the community and his beliefs. We ended the tour with a great local meal of umuqusho which is made from mashed maze and sugar beats and mixed with beef stock.
From Coffee Bay we headed further down the coast to the town of East London. We had more wet and windy weather while we were there so I didn't get a chance to surf until the last morning. We spent our time getting into the World Rugby Championship games which was a huge deal to the locals and checking out more of the sites. We visited the East London Museum which has some interesting exhibits on the Boer War, the war between the Dutch settlers and the British, and their famous discovery of the Coelancanth fish which was believed to be extinct for 50 million years until being found by a fisherman off shore.
On the 27th we finally got some good weather and so we headed up into the inland hills to the town of Hogsback. The town is supposedly where a young J. R. R. Tolkien once spent his summers and is supposed to be the model for Middle Earth, but it turns out that this is just a good myth that the locals have most likely cooked up. The mountainous, wooded area around the town is a far cry from what we pictured when we thought of Africa and ended up being one of the highlights of our time in SA. We enjoyed checking out the great cafes, pottery, and craft stores of the quite little town, hanging out with the great staff at our hostel, Away with the Fairies, and hiking around the forest areas checking out the water falls. We were sad to finally have to leave the area.
From Hogsback we headed back to the coast and down to one of the destinations I had been looking forward to for years, Jeffery's Bay. J-Bay is one of the biggest surf spots in the world and home to one of the best right handers on the planet. I couldn't wait to get out in the water and try out the waves. We stayed in J-Bay for 5 days and, although the weather was a bit rough in the middle, I was able to get some great surf at the beginning and end of our stay. I surfed Supertubes at around head high 3 of the 6 days there was surf and had a blast.
Saying goodbye to the surf we drove across the southern most point of South Africa and over to the town of Hermanus for a little different type of fun in the ocean. Our first day in Hermanus we hopped on a boat tour to go see some of the resident Southern Right Whales. We had a great couple of hours on the water where we saw several Right Whales, some as close as 10 ft. from the boat. In the afternoon we wandered around the town checking out the markets and watching more whales from shore.
On our second day in the area we drove a short way to neighboring Gansbaai (Gans Bay) to get up close and personal with a not quite as lovable animal of the ocean, the Great White Shark. We joined the great people from Great White Shark Tours on a rather gray and windy day for our shark experience. We had a rather bumpy and wet ride out to the area where they anchored and started chumming. It wasn't long after they started chumming the water that several sharks showed up and started chasing after the big tuna heads they were taunting them with. We ended up having about 7-9 sharks around the boat ranging in size from 9-14 feet which meant it was time for the real fun to begin. We squeezed into our wetsuits and hopped into the shark cage tied along side the boat for our face to face encounters with the sharks. The operators used both fish heads and a foam seal cut out to lure the sharks towards and in some cases almost onto the cage so that we were an arms-length from the sharks. The power and speed of these animals was truly amazing and it is experience that we will never forget.
We headed out of Hermanus and over to Cape Town on the 7th of October via the coastal route, stopping at Betty's Bay to check out a South African Penguin colony. Over the next couple of days in Cape Town we checked out several of the sights including the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, the Castle of Good Hope, and the District Six Museum which discussed the forced removal of the inhabitants of the area during the Apartheid era.
On the 10th we drove up to South Africa's wine region and the town of Stellenbosch. We joined a wine tour which ended up being just the two of us and our guide and headed out to four of the local wineries. We spent the day learning about the local wine and the region while enjoying some great wines, cheeses, food, and chocolate.
We were back in Cape Town on the 11th where we headed up to famous Table Mountain which sits above the city. We rode the gondola up to the top of the mountain and spent the afternoon enjoying the view of Cape Town and the surrounding cape area. In the evening we went back down to the V&A Waterfront and checked out the Robben Island Museum. We were unable to get tickets to Robben Island which is where Nelson Mandela and other Africans were imprisoned during Apartheid so we wandered around the museum to get a little bit of an idea of what it was like during Apartheid.
On the 12th we headed out to check out the cape region. Our first stop was Long Beach for a horse ride on the beach. The scenery of the area was amazing and it was a great way to start the day. From there we drove to Simons Town for a bit of lunch overlooking the ocean where whales were breaching and then down to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. We drove through the reserve and down to the southern tip of the cape. Here we rode the funicular railway up to the old lighthouse where we were able to see the meeting place of Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
Our last day in Cape Town was spent doing a little shopping and getting our things together for our 6 week overland trip from Cape Town up to Nairobi, Kenya. We checked into the hostel where the trip would be leaving from, met our overland group, and watched more World Cup Rugby. Within the next two days we'd be saying goodbye to South Africa as we headed up north.

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Photos

A bird with eyelashes, now I've seen everything!
African Ground Hornbill

Take me to your leader!
Craig demonstrating proper helmet safety.