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Published: February 14th 2009
it doesn't realy get any better than a bottle of red and a sunset safari
11th Feb, Kwazulu Natal, Drakensburg mountains
Hello!!! How are you guys liking the snow? Ha!
So! Been on a safari since I last checked in, had a last few nights on Jo’B and have headed down into the Drakensburg mountains today. I’ll begin where I left you...
We spent that last night in Jo’B in the bar with Gavin, the guy we had met during our last stay. We were up until the early hours with him, his friend and a couple of other folks from the hostel. Managed to get a free upgrade from a dorm to a double room at about 2am. Result! Gavins friend happens to work for that Africa channel on sky, just before you get to the movies, it must be 280something? When she found out I had done tv production at uni she invited me down to the studio on the Tuesday we were back form Kruger. It never actually happened, she found us on the Monday night as we arrived back in Jo’B and we had missed the fun of the weekend and Tuesday was going
to be a dull day in the office. No thanks!
The bus picked us up at 5am, feeling a little worse for wear, or in Rebecca’s case, just god awful. It was a 15 hour drive to the park, through Mpumalanga on ‘the panoramic route.’ The bus took us up through the mountains to about 5 sights of interest. We were thousands of feet above sea level and as we drove the mountain roads we passed through the clouds and above the weather. The views were amazing. One of the stops was called Gods Window. I’m pretty sure I could see all the way into forever from up there, the sky just went on forever and ever. Unfortunately my camera was locked in the bus’ trailer for all of these stops, Becky took the photos you can see. The other stops were just as spectacular, and after countless hours on a mini bus, incredibly welcome! Bourke’s Luck potholes, where the Blyde and Treuer rivers meet and have created insane rock formations and waterfalls was beautiful too. We arrived late at the lodge where we would spend the first night, ate a great meal and headed to the tent for a
much needed kip!
The next day was another 4am start. We were in the park and on game drives by half 5, it’s not every day you see lions, giraffes, elephants and zebras before breakfast!!!!! The game drives continued all day, we managed 3 of the big 5, never did catch a rhino or a leopard. The park is about the size of wales i believe, so it was a huge area to drive through. Some of the animals were stood right by the road, we could have reached out and touched them. It was pretty amazing. The landscapes too, filled with rivers, indigenous trees and mountains were beautiful. Everywhere you turned your head looked like a postcard.
At sunset we headed into another drive with a new guide and plently of alcohol. Myself and 2 other English guys, Dylan and Allison proceeded to get ourselves pretty merry. We watched the sun go down and saw owls and monkeys. After the drives we headed to a camp in the national park, shared a fantastic braai sat sat around the fire until we headed to bed to the sounds of the lions roaring in the distance. It was quite
a day!
The next day we managed a lie-in, till half 5!!! Then it was back on the drives until four. Just before breakfast 3 lionesses crossed the road right in front of us, just as the sun peeked above the hills in the distance. To see them that close was amazing and pretty much the highlight of the whole safari. Again we spotted giraffe, elephant, hippo’s, alligators, wildebeest, monkeys and hundreds of impala!! There’s about 250 species of bird in the Kruger too, couldn’t tell you how many we saw but some were incredible. The drives took us east across the park, right up to the Mozambique border, high up in the mountains. The views were incredible, it was a little bizarre to think I’ll be just the other side of those mountains in about 6 months, if all goes to plan!
After the drives we went for a swim in a little pool in the park and headed back to the camp for supper. A hyena walked along the fence of the camp as we ate, which was a little cool and a little scary, the fence didn’t look up to much! We spent the night sat
around a fire again telling stories, the guy who worked at the camp was real lively and enthusiastic and full of funny stories. I sat up late into the night with a German girl who is travelling in the same direction as us, toasting marshmallows and drinking wine. She has relatives in Edinborough and it turned out we both had an affection for the bargains at TK Max, especially the kitchen knife sets. Ha! Another pretty awesome day!
The final day we took a short drive around the park in the morning before heading back on the loooooooooong drive to Jo’B. By chance we happened to be the last drop off so we were dragged through the city at rush hour in a bus that was a million degrees! The only highlight of the journey was managing to sneak off when the driver stopped for petrol and grab a pizza. It was probably the best pizza I ever ate!
Back in Jo’B Rebecca headed to bed and I was treated to a free night in the bar with Gavin. There were rum and ginger ales arriving just before I could finish the previous one and insist on going to
giraffe!
right on the side of the road!bed!
Tuesday was pretty much a day to recover from the safari, but we woke early and headed up to the mall to grab a mattress for the tent. Sleeping on the dirt in Soweto was a little rough! There was a southerner staying in the backpackers with us who must have been pushing 60 and was en route to his 100th country. He had a million stories to tell and was determined to tell them all! Real nice guy though and he had brought Tetley tea bags!!! Only the day before I had been saying how I missed Tetley, this man was like an angel, albeit a wrinkly, southern angel! I’d have given him my left leg for a cup of tea, fortunately he settled for a cup of the tea I had acquired and some of Rebecca’s Golden Virginia! I showed him the route I intended to take across the continent; he told me where i could catch busses and trains and had stories about little towns and places to check out.
Today we were up early again to catch the Baz Bus to the next spot, a couple of hundred kilometres south east, set in the
Northern Drakensberg Mountains. When a backpackers offers accommodation at £3 per night including a free sauna and Jacuzzi, you just can’t say no! On which note I think I will leave you to it and go sink myself in the Jacuzzi with a long island iced tea, the cocktail bar here look pretty awesome too. Might end up here a few days longer than I expected! As I’ve been sat in the bar writing this they’ve had Jack Johnson and the Thicker Than Water soundtrack on in the bar and they have just put some old John Bulter on. I might just move in! Bye!
i climbed a great big mountain!!!!!!!!!
14th Feb, Kwazulu Natal, North Drakensburg
Hello again! Still up in the mountains! The sun has finally made an appearance, it was a little overcast from arriving here until yesterday afternoon, but it’s about a million degrees again and beautiful. I’ll get you up to speed with the last few days, I think you’ll be rather proud of me!
After arriving Wednesday we spend the evening in the bar, but after the drive down here we retired for a pretty early night. The food in the
maybe a hornbill?
not much of a horny bill though! lodge here is incredible, steak and chips Wednesday night! It was so so good! Not very African I guess but it was fantastic, i could have eaten the whole thing 3 times over.
Thursday i spent the morning in the cafe and wrote the blog for the few days in Kruger, ate lunch then spent the afternoon between the sauna, jacuzzi and pool, never too far from a cold beer. I signed myself up to climb one of the peaks of the range on Friday.....
So Friday arrived and I woke to find the sun rising over the mountains and a blue sky. I had decided if it was going to rain I wasn’t going to climb the mountain, but it was shaping up to be a pretty good day so off I went!
A 4x4 took up a little way up the mountain, over the scariest roads I have ever seen in my life! It turned out this was to be no idle stroll along a slowly ascending path, but a scramble up the side of a ridiculously steep, great big mountain! The climb was great fun, but that high up it was still to cloudy to see anything
me and mozambique!
high up in kruger overlooking the mozambique border more than where you were putting your feet. There were plenty of ‘if you slip, you die’ moments of trying to navigate across rocks that were about 60 degrees and completely smoothed by the water running down them! The final climb was between two peaks, the guide called it ‘the gulley.’ It was 250m of waterfall to clamber up to 3121ft above sea level (I’m pretty sure that’s the highest i’ve ever been!) Again it was amazing fun and at the top was the amphitheatre wall, which was what we had come to see. It’s a sheer rock-face 1km tall and 8km long. We sat with our legs over the edge eating lunch. Fortunately it was too cloudy to see a single thing beyond your feet. Every now and then there was a gap in the clouds and you could see over the edge and every one of your internal organs jumped to the back of your mouth. Turns out a whole kilometre vertical drop is absolutely terrifying!
A little further along the amphitheatre was Tulega Falls, the second highest waterfall in the world! Again it was incredible but a little too high for me!
The descent brought with it
another treat, namely in the form of two steel chain rope ladders that disappeared over the edge of a cliff. I don’t really think words of pictures can describe just how terrifying it was. We’ve been travelling with a couple of Dutch girls since Kruger and this was the first time I had heard them swear. There seemed to be no mention of safety ropes, helmets or the inevitable death if you happened to slip, just a ‘hang on tight’, ‘Don’t look down’ and ‘off you go!’ the wind and water running down the rock inches from your nose didn’t make it any easier either! Everyone made it though and the rest was comparatively easy, the clouds cleared and for the first time we could see the views. It was breathtakingly beautiful and so green. I’ve never seen anything like it!
The way home I managed a last minute box of milk tray from a petrol station for valentines! What an awful cliché of a rubbish boyfriend! Ha!
Back at the lodge it was back in the Jacuzzi with a cocktail after a dinner of pitta bread stuffed with veg. Every bar should have a jacuzzi, it really is brilliant!
zebra!
always happy to see a zebra, they're kinda my favourite! Heading back to the tent a little later in the evening i could see every star in the sky for a million billion miles, I’ve never seen so many! It was rather pretty!
lots of love!
x
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lammergeier
non-member comment
lamccleland@yahoo.com
Somewhere between 500 and 550 bird species in Kruger, depending on who you talk to. - Not 250 (which is the number of the UK) Your picture is of a Marabou Stork. The ugliest of birds.