4-wheelin in South Africa!

 Monday, February 27, 2023

It's day 15 of our 33 day trip.  Hard to believe we're almost halfway through.  

The first 9 kilometers of our journey today was down a rough road--a really rough road!  It took 45 minutes to get through this stretch.  We were 4-wheeling, even though it wasn't planned!   I'm sure the recent rains didn't help, but we have to wonder if the road is like this all the time.  It was an opportunity to experience yet another adventure! Everyone made it through and lived to tell about it.  Here's a clip to show what it was like.  

On that crazy road we passed a closed wildlife reserve that houses a few lions who are in their final stages of life.  We saw the big guy snoozing in the sun. 

The scenery changed, as we passed huge fields of sunflowers.  The flowers seemed to be waving and welcoming us as we drove along.  The sunflowers filled the landscape, as far as you could see--quite impressive! 

As we moved farther north, the landscape transformed into rolling hills and sandstone cliffs.

We stopped at Clarens, a quaint small town centered around a park which made up the town square.  It boasts a thriving art scene, numerous restaurants, street cafes along the pavements, and boutiques and craft shops.  We stopped at a trendy cafe for lunch and shopping of course!  The big thing holding me back is having room in my suitcase to bring things home.

This sign made us smile.

It was a nice leisurely afternoon as we arrived at Golden Gate Highlands National Park.  We are at 6300 ft. and expected it to be a bit cooler, but temperatures are still warm. 

Just as we were going to bed, there was a huge unexpected thunderstorm with heavy rain and hail.  Jim captured the sound (pictures are of the vent in the camper)

We are here for two nights, so we will have time to explore the park tomorrow.

Sunday in South Africa

 Sunday, February 26, 2023

We woke up to another beautiful sunrise view from our campground.  It overlooks the lake created by Gariep Dam.  

Gariep Dam is the largest water reservoir in South Africa.   The dam is on the Orange river. which plays an important role in providing irrigation power generation and domestic and industrial use.  Recently there has been a lot of rain and flooding in the area, so water levels are very high.  In fact, half of the campground was underwater.   All of the gates on the dam were open.  You can see the water is almost to the top of the dam.

We have been in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, and now are in the Northern Cape as we head farther north.  The drive was much shorter today, but also much busier traffic wise.   There were so many trucks on the road...reminded me of I70 in Indiana!   Many of the trucks were hauling magnesium and iron ore for delivery to Port Elizabeth to be sent overseas to be processed.  It's a courtesy for slower vehicles to move left over the yellow line to allow faster cars to pass.  Here's a clip to illustrate what the traffic is like. (and you can see why I'm often holding onto my seat rather than taking pictures!) You can also see some of the landscape we've been travelling through.

Our stop tonight is in Maselspoort Resort and Conference Center in Bloemfontein.  It is close to the airport, and close to the South African air force base. (I was surprised to see that South Africa has an air force!)  Went by too quickly to get a good photo.

The campground is like a huge park, with a lot going on.  As we approached we realized they were having some type of event--it ended up being a Sprint triathalon.   I met one of the participants who said she finished 2nd in her age group--she's 65!!  

We are lucky to have "ensuite" accomodations again.  The little houses aren't updated like the last ones, but still, it's nice to have a private place.  Another interesting thing about all of the campgrounds we've been to is that they all have a bathtub in the shower house, and the en suites as well--something I've never seen before.  My Canadian friends who love their soak in a bathtub would love this!

There's also a pool at the campground, (the "resort" feature) and several from our group took advantage of the water to cool down...it was 91 degrees today.

We met for our travel briefing, and closed out the night with chicken on the braai.

PS.  We watched mass on line with our home parish St. Christopher.  I bet it's the first time Father Paul said mass in South Africa!

So remote, No remote

 

Saturday, February 25, 2023

Saturday was a loooong day of travel from Addo to Gariep Dam.  We left at 8am and didn’t get in until 5pm.  On the way we stopped at Mountain Zebra National Park. 

This park was established in 1937 by farmers in the area to conserve the Cape mountain zebra which was an endangered species at the time.  I didn’t know there were different kind of zebras, but you could really see the difference in their stripes.  

The belly of the Cape mountain zebra is white, and the backside has almost a braided look along the back and by the tail.  The park started with just 5 of these zebras and now has over 1000!  

The park and roads are very rugged and primitive.  We had quite drive (54 kilometers in 2 hours) traversing the bumps and holes.   

We were able to see wildebeests and hartebeests and eland and lots of springbok., and even an ostrich! (I’m starting to recognize the animals!)   

The ostrich ran across the road right in front of us.

We are struck by the remoteness of the area…large expanses of grassland and hills and mountains.  It can be 100 miles between exits for the towns.  Occasionally we would see cows in a field and wonder where they belong, as there was no visible farm or population close by.   

And, speaking of remote--can't believe we've survived with no remote-- haven't seen a tv in 2 weeks!

Upon leaving the park, we made a wrong turn, and ended up adding about an hour to our drive.   We were stopped by a group of goats on the road, and wondered if they made a wrong turn too!

We eventually made it to our destination. —Gariep Forever Resort.  This is an interesting place—a wedding venue (hey nieces and nephews—it would be a great spot for a destination wedding!) The facility is quite nice with a huge swimming pool, nice chalets, and hotel accommodations, with access to the lake for fishing and boating.  

We were excited to find that we had an “ensuite”.  It is a little private bathroom/kitchen facility in a little "house" next to the camping spot…what a treat!  It was so nice to be able to take a nice shower in a private bathroom....and a pretty nice bathroom!  

Too bad we're just staying one night...we could get used to this! ...if only we had a remote!

Animals and Addo

 Wednesday, Thursday, Friday   February 22-24, 2023

Warning--this is a long post--three days worth!

We left our beautiful campsite at Garden National Park and headed to another National Park—Addo Elephant National Park.  

Along the way, we went through Port Elizabeth, a shipping port for this area, and we could see the ships in the distance waiting to come in.  

We were also able to stop  at McDonald's and get the previous day's blog posted. (whew!) 

We found a school group also enjoying McDonalds.  Only one of the girls could speak English, and told us they had been on a field trip to VW!  They giggled the whole time.

Internet connectivity is becoming much more difficult and I'm a little concerned because I don't think there are very many McDonalds in South Africa!  

We arrived at Addo Elephant National Park in the eastern cape of South Africa.

It is the third largest national park of the 20 in South Africa, and has the densest concentration of elephants.  I think they said there were 400 elephants in the park.   It is part of the SANParks system (South African National Parks).  We got settled into our site, did a load of laundry and found we had company—vervet monkeys who are notorious for snatching belongings—especially food.   We were warned to keep our windows closed and screens up, as they can get into the tiniest holes!  This mom and her baby were in the camping spot right across from us.

That night we had a great dinner at the Cattle Baron Restaurant…right in the campground. The girls ordered one of every dessert—with 10 spoons!

The next morniing we were the first ones at the gate to the game area beforeit opened at 5:30 on Thursday morning! (FOMO).   The ranger checks for your park pass and scans the vehicle…probably wanting to make sure that everyone that goes in comes out.   

The fog hung like a curtain waiting to reveal what we were about to see.  It was a little eerie driving through the fog, but it was amazing how many animals were waking up to the sunrise. 

It's hard to capture and share all of the animals that we saw.  And, its hard to explain the experience of driving through a place like this.   We keep saying “Can you believe we’re really doing this?”  

A short part of the road is paved, but then it turns into dirt roads, which are rutted with holes ridges and dips.  Jim was keeping his eyes on the road while I was searching for animals.   He found this millipede in the middle of the road.

We kept looking for elephants and knew they were around because we saw the signs they left...elephant dung...and LOTS of it!

And, speaking of dung, we often had to stop or swerve to avoid flightless dung beetles.  These beetles are endangered, and have the right of way on the roads. The beetles capture elephant dung, and roll it into a ball and feed on it and use it for nests.  It helps clean up the roads, serves as fertilizer, and gives those bugs a place to live.  They certainly are interesting little creatures! 

There were zebras that stopped in the middle of the road.  They were really close to us, but didn't seem to mind.  We saw more zebras in the park than any other animal.  Each zebra's stripe pattern is different--kind of like a thumbprint (or a UPC bar code!)  And the stripes help to camoflage them from predators.

We saw jackals

and a Kudu

...and a Nyala...

Then, around 7am, we finally saw them...the most exciting find of the day--a herd of about 12 elephants, meandering in the morning sun.   We could have spent hours watching them, especially the baby elephants being protected by the bigger elephants.

Pretty pleased with our sighting, we stopped at a small lookout spot, opened the windows and cooked breakfast.  We were hoping to lure the lions with the smell of eggs, ham and hash browns, but no success.   It was a really fun thing to do; not very healthy and kinda crazy, but ended up being a great breakfast in the wild.  

These guinea fowl kept peeking out of the bushes (maybe they were looking for breakfast) and scurried out across the path and into the bushes on the other side.

It was really hard to keep track of everything we saw.   I started making a note of each animal, but sometimes we didn't know for sure what the animal was.  Finally, I just quit my list and kept taking pictures.

I did find this wild animal at one of the stops.  

After 5 hours on our “self drive” safari, we came back to the campground to shower and get ready for our afternoon adventure.  It was 94 degrees, and that sun is hot, hot, hot, and very intense.  Even a short exposure can mean a bad sunburn.  (We bought more sunscreen at our last grocery stop.)

For our afternoon activity, we traveled to Schotia Safaris (love their logo), a private reserve, the oldest in the area, considered small at 5,000 acres.  This started out as a dairy farm in the early 1800’s, and is still owned, managed and run by the same family, six generations later!

We loaded into safari vehicles for a drive through the reserve.  We were given instructions to keep our hands and arms inside the vehicle, and never make eye contact with a lion….(they see that as a challenge.)  There were multiple vehicles, and when there was a “sighting”, the guide would radio to the others, so we would all get an opportunity to see the exciting animals. 

Our guide Fontaine, explained they do not feed the animals or tag them—the objective is to create a space for the animals to live in their natural habitat.  

There were so many animals to see, I was glad not to be keeping my list!

We got to watch the elephant drink from the windmill's water spout--you can hear him sucking water like it's a straw and throwing it in his mouth! 

Our guide pointed to the top of the hill in the distance and a huge lion came lumbering down.  What a sight to see!  The lion didn't seem to mind us...I guess the animals are used to the vehicles coming through, so do not see them as threatening.   We watched for awhile as the lion got comfy in the grass. 

A short time later, we saw the son (about 3 yrs old) come out from the brush, making sounds as if to call for his father.  They quickly found each other.

Then, in late afternoon, there was a radio call to our guide that the lioness had been spotted with her two 4-month old cubs.   We got the opportunity to see them and watch the cubs play together.   What a unique and heart-warming experience.

Also very touching was the story of Bonnie and Clyde, the two white rhinos who lived at the reserve, but were killed just three weeks ago by poachers who cut off the tusks and left the animals dead.   The guide made a point to tell us the story to educate, and spread the word about the evils of poachers. 

There are only about 600 white rhinos left, and now two are gone. It's very sad. The tusks will probably bring almost $60 million to the poachers, who often sell to China or Korea.   The poachers have not been caught, and the incident was devastating for the reserve and its employees.

We noticed large dirt mounds all over the property.  The guide explained these are termite mounds.  The termites are quite different than our USA termites.  They consume decaying plant material and build these sturdy mounds to live in.  The mound is formed above and below the ground.  It is a system of tunnels,  and is hard and sturdy enough to stand on.  The guide cut out a segment of the mound to show what was inside.

 

He explained that termites are a great source of protein and picked one out and ate it!   The termites were wiggling around, and several in our group tried some--said it tastes kind of like lemongrass. (I wouldn't know!)

The guide said they often use the dirt from the mounds for filling holes in the road on the preserve...they break it up and add a little water and it becomes hard and firm!  Maybe we should try that on the roads in Indiana!

The termites were just the appetizer.   We were taken to a huge open air lapa (a South African “home”) --a large area with a high thatched roof supported by wooden poles, open on the sides.   In the center was a firepit, and a braai serving area, surrounded by torches along the walkway.  I felt like we were walking into Survivor tribal council! 

There was entertainment while we had drinks and then sat down for dinner, with our guide at the table, who also served as our waiter!  

What a unique experience, and another good meal of safari cuisine.

On Friday, our final day at Addo, we had a guided game tour.  Our wagonmasters Nick and Kay greeted us in their safari garb, looking quite official for the day!

Our guide for this tour gave us his name...we asked him to repeat it....here it is.  We decided to call him "Fish".

We learned a lot from him about the park and about the animals, even though we had seen some before, he was able to tell us what they were, and a little about them.  He seemed to know right where to go to find them.

He pointed out in the distance the elephants coming out of the brush to the watering hole, and then drove us closer to see them.  That's a lot of tonnage!

Fish also did an African rap for us!  

It's been a great three days at Addo Elephant Park.   We wrapped up with a travel briefing for a long trip tomorrow and will have dinner again at  the Cattle Baron restaurant with new friends we've already made on the trip.