Blogs from Africa - page 3354

Yes, we have now seen some cats! Lions, a cheetah and a serval so far, but the leopard is proving elusive. We saw most of our lions and the serval in the Ngorongoro Crater (Tanzania), the cheetah between there and the Serengeti and more lions in the Serengeti NP. The Ngorongoro Crater was amazing. It was a horrible day when we got up, raining, low clouds and we weren't expecting to be able to see much as driving up to the rim of the crater we couldnt see much further than the front of the landrover. As we went over the crater rim and started going down inside, the clouds lifted and we had the most beautiful views. The crater is about 20km across with one large lake and loads of smaller lakes / waterholes. We ... read more

From St Lucia we took the Baz bus in preference to changing bus 5 times on the way to Sondzela backpackers in Mliwane Game Park, Swaziland. This was an amazing place to stay - right in the Park with a pool and lovely facilities. On the first day there we took a walk around the park and saw many Wart Hogs, Wildebeest, and bucks. We kept our eye out for Hippos once we got to the lake since we hadn't really seen any close up in St Lucia to our disappointment. We did see a group of 9 or 10 in the lake here, and sat about 15m from where they were in the water for an hour or two. It was great to see them so close and the anticipation of waiting to see if ... read more

From Cinsta we headed up to Durban. We considered staying around the Transkeii, but both of us were keen to get further north and into Swaziland and further north into tropical Africa. We had a great time in Durban where we were put up by Wayne and Crystal. We had met Wayne on Ko Chang in Thailand and he had wanted us to get in touch if and when we got to Durban. He has a lovely apartment backing onto a small private beach in Umslanga (that is how you say it not how it is spelt). Wayne and Crystal took us to the Indian Market by the waterfront and we hung out there, chatted and enjoyed Durban's beachfront on a Sunday afternoon. It was quite a treat for both of us to be the guests ... read more

From Hogsback we travelled to Cintsa to a huge hostel called Buccaneers of which we had heard great things. It was the gateway to the Wild Coast or Transkeii part of South Africa which was from what I understood pretty much an independant state during Aparteid and run by the non white native people - like Zululand. Upon arrival we promptly went on a tour to a local school where they put on one of their weekly concerts for the backpackers who by donating after the concerts pretty much fund the school with the help of volunteers from a German school. The kids from the school ranged from 4 to 15 by the looks of it and sang their hearts out for about 2 1/2 hours. It was amazing. They were all very enthusiatic and fun. ... read more

From Strormsriver we booked a bus to East London. We had to catch the bus at the shell station at 3 in the morning. It turned out that the shall station was pretty happening at the time - especially when a minivan - which are the minibus taxis over here and the cheapest form of transport - stopped and the entire contents jumped out and danced so some local beats for a while before jumping back in a driving off. A good way to stretch the legs on a long journey I think. This was practically the first time we had seen black people in South Africa having fun, although a few nights before we had heard some beautiful singing coming from a town near to Stormsriver. I think the town where to quote a local ... read more