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Published: December 9th 2009
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So we have arrived back into civilisation! We hit South Africa and the difference was noticeable within 1km of the border from Maputo, Mozambique. Immediately the roads were perfect tar, all the land was agricultural and mass farmed, rather than one woman with a pick axe there were tractors and rows upon rows of lush green crops, everything that you would expect from organised commercial farming. No more buying veggies from the side of the road or picking through mouldy veg and fat with a little bit of meat on in the supermarkets, there was now everything that you could wish to buy. Whoever would have thought you could be so excited about a well stocked supermarket!
First stop was Kruger National Park. We stayed there 5 nights. South Africa is the land of the campers. The campsites are really well maintained they even have baths! Camping seems to be the main way that South Africans holiday so they bring everything, including satellite dishes, their campsites look like a mini village by the time they have set their gear up.
We had heard mixed reports about Kruger but were pleasantly surprised. It is very developed in terms of there
are tar roads throughout the park and the campsites all have swimming pools, restaurants and shops which is a positive and negative at the same time. When out on drives the animal sightings rivalled anything that we had seen in other game reserves. We saw the big 5 within being in the park for the first day. We had lots of lion sightings including a close up of cubs which was very special. We also saw lots more rhino here than anywhere else. After 100’s of miles searching for them we finally saw wild dogs. So with all the animals checked off we headed through the Blyde river canyon into Nelspruit.
The scenery driving through the Blyde river canyon was quite spectacular. After staying a couple of nights in the area we headed to Nelspruit. Nelspruit was the first big town that we had hit in South Africa. At any other point in time we probably would not have enjoyed Nelspruit, but after the last 3 months walking around a mall, going to the cinema and having a KFC was actually quite nice and felt like a novelty.
On the way to Swaziland we stopped at Chimp Eden
just outside of Nelspruit. It is a chimp sanctuary run by Jane Goodall. Not quite like seeing them in the wild in Uganda but it was still a great experience. We headed into Swaziland as it was the most direct route to the coast. Swaziland is a nice country with great landscape but there wasn’t really much there so we only stayed one night before hitting the coast
Our first stop was the world heritage sight of the St Lucia Wetlands. The wetlands incorporates five different terrains. There are rivers and estuarys that run straight into sea, on one side of the beach there is the Indian ocean and vegetated sand dunes on the other. Due to these different habitats there is a lot of wildlife around. We stayed at Sodwana Bay for a couple nights. Main activities here were sunbathing and diving. The diving was good lots of coral, different types of fish, some small rays and turtles and dolphins on the boat ride out there.
St Lucia was our next stop. It is a small town surrounded on one side by the estuary and the ocean on the other. It was a very picturesque place, and
quite unique that you would pass crocodiles and hippos in the estuary on your walk down to the beach. Apparently it is not unusual to come across a hippo walking down one of the quiet streets in the evening! It was a busy little town with a few bars which we made use of. After a deep sea fishing trip, we ate as much fish as we possible could with our fellow fishermen, Flash and Tony, then headed to a club and drank as much jeagermieister as we could, which resulted in a dance off with the locals! The Tuna and rock cod that we caught was pretty tasty and more than enough to go around for a couple of meals each. The fishing trip was lot of fun and we had the added bonus of seeing humpback whales, one was breaching quite close to the boat with her calf so we got a pretty good look at them.
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Rob
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Picture 43
That fish has been clearly photoshopped Adam... shockingly badly as well. Shame on you.