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Photoalbum South Africa Swaziland

 

Tuesday October 13, 2009: Departure from Belgium

We have been working on Friday still and we went to a restaurant in the evening and then slept long on Tuesday. Not Timo, because he was already awake at about five. It will be a long day then and it actually will surely be a long one. We pack our last stuff and wait until Maurits is picking us up at about twelve. He is right on time and we leave for Zaventem. We have no problems on the way there. That is very nice start. Check-in procedure at British Airways is very nice: we can choose our seats on the second flight ourselves and we hope nobody will come and sit next to us. We pass customs and hand luggage control and everything goes nice and smooth, better than ever. Only two rows are open at customs and even then we don’t need to a long time. In general it is not busy at all at the airport, maybe this is because it’s the thirteenth.

We arrive quickly at the gates, but we don’t know yet which one to take, so we have a Leffe and eat a sandwich and check out the airport. Then we order another Leffe (50cl now) and notice we need to be at gate B1. That’s easy, then we don’t need to walk very far. Once past gate B7 or B8 there really is nothing to do anymore, it’s that calm in Bru

Photoalbum Island Rock  & Aliwal Shoal

ssels Airport. Also with boarding there are no problems, everyone is right one time and we get airborne on time. We fly over Cat Grimbergen and the ‘burnt bridge’. Then we fly to the coast and cross the North Sea; after an hour we see Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, London Eye and the Tower Bridge. You can clearly see this from above, because the airplane has started the landing already. The landing in London is quite good too and here we need to follow the signs to “connections international flights”, no problem either. We arrive on time and we need to have our hand luggage checked again.

But again here no problem, everything goes well. To e honest, without complaining, a bit too well, because we are here for over 1.5 hours, before we know which gate to go to and then to Johannesburg, South Africa. It has taken a long preparation and we really look forward to it. We need to go to gate B38 and wait there for another thirty minutes. Then it’s time to board and we notice we don’t have an extra free seat next to ours. It will be tight during the flight. This is one of the biggest airplanes we’ve been in, but there is not a lot of legroom. Everyone is on time and we can also leave on time.

First we have the notification of the usual procedures, then they get us a drink and pretty soon after that an early dinner follows. Not really tasty, but we can eat something. After they have done the cleanup it’s time to watch a film, because everyone has their own little screen, which is nice, only the one of Eef is not working properly. There are constantly moving, flickering strips on the screen. Eef asks the stewardess to have this sorted, but she can only reset the screen and that does not help. Timo is able to fix it and watches with Eef to “A play of state”, each one his own screen of course. Eef then tries to get some sleep with the sleeping pill from her dad, but that is not really helping. Timo watches the movie to the end and then goes to sleep: also with a little pill.

 

Wednesday October 14, 2009: Arrival in and departure from Johannesburg

Both in an attempt to sleep we fly into Wednesday morning and we move over the African continent to the most southern state: South Africa. At about 5, after a short sleep for Timo and almost no sleep for Eef, they serve our breakfast. We need this, because we will be driving for over 4 hours, so some food is nice to have. Especially important is to drink a lot, so we do this certainly. We take enough fluids and when everyone is ready with the breakfast, the landing is there. In the end the 11 hours flying is OK, a bit tiring, but still OK. Everyone leaves the plane and walks to customs. Here they enter some stuff in our passport and stamp it. This is very fast, because in 10 minutes we’re done.

Then anther difficult part: the luggage. But not this time. We are just waiting at the correct spot, Eef has not yet returned from the toilet and our two bags are already there. That’s been done very well by British Airways, opposite to what some people say about that. We need to apps by customs a last time, “nothing to declare” and we walk to the car rentals. We immediately spot where Hertz is and everything is immediately arranged. They did not have keys ready at first, but we had a reservation only at nine, so that’s normal. Because the flight was right on time and the luggage was quick, we already can leave early.

We get the keys, need to collect the Chevrolet at the garage down the road at A9 and then can quickly check everything and leave. We load the bags, take a map of Johannesburg that we just asked for and Timo takes the wheel at the right side and leaves at the left side of the road. Damn, directly on a busy road like this, not so good. We were a bit scared for this, but once you’re gone, solve the first few issues, you’re ready to go. In the beginning it is difficult to assess a curve and Eef does not like it because the first curves are at her side.

So we are on the road now, Johannesburg, then direction Pretoria, a highway of two times 4 or 3 lanes, really wide. It would be good traffic, if there were no road works everywhere. On a lot of stretches you’re only allowed 80 or 60 and we plan on keeping us to that limit then. To Pretoria is not a problem, always just follow, but then it becomes a bit trickier. We follow Pretoria Oos and arrive on the highway to Nelspruit. We are correct on the A4 and drive past Silverton, Broekhorstspruit (very melodious names) and then to Middelburg. Here we need to choose again and we take Machadodorp. From this point on the journey is starting to get less. We stop at the first toll Diamond Toll Plaza and there they refuse Dollars and Euros. We had thought of exchanging money at the airport from Euro or Dollar to Rand, but we were told everyone would always accept Euro and Dollar; which is clearly incorrect. Timo already makes an offense after the first hour, because he crosses the highway and returns from where we came from and takes the first exit. There is a gas station and a shop where they are very nice and exchange 50 Euro into Rand. We now have 544 (10.88 ZAR for 1 EUR) for things like toll and to buy small stuff.

Then we move on and after another hour driving we need a moment to rest. A flight that long, bad sleep and then immediately race through South Africa by car. Here they do accept Euros and we drink some water and cola. Then the trip goes in one time to Pilgrim’s Rest.  At least that’s the idea. On the road Timo already spots an ibis and a bird that can hang still like a kestrel, but this one is white and black. Once we’re on the smaller roads between Machadodorp, Lydenburg and finally Pilgrim’s rest we encounter two to three times a bunch of meerkats. At least we think they’re meerkats, but it could be something else too.

At 13:15 we arrive in Pilgrim’s Rest in the part Downtown, there is not much to see here, so we drive Uptown and there is the information center, a few restaurants and only a few places where you can eat and drink. At the Royal Hotel we ask if they have a room available, we receive after some stress and yelling a room and pay about 1280 Rand for it; room with breakfast. It’s a bit more expensive than we planned, but we don’t like to drive any further and check out other villages. We’ll stay here. We park the car in front of our house under a carport, get some refreshment and then go for a drink in a bar. Our first terrace of this vacation: twice Windhoek lager, a nice, cool beer.

We walk downtown and back uptown; both are located at the right side of the road, coming from Lydenburg and there is even a third part: New Town and that is located completely at the other side. A small road connects downtown and uptown. In downtown there is a shop, but the most part of the fun and tourism takes place in the upper part. Timo wants to buy a beer, but there is none here and the post office is not willing to change money, so after 15 minutes he comes back to the room without success. Eef is sleeping, because she needed some rest. Timo starts the first reports, otherwise it will become difficult. Later one we need some food and then we’ll be sleeping like roses. When Eef wakes up she’s not really feeling well.

One solution we think: eat something and go to sleep as early as possible. We try that, but Scott’s Café no longer servers food and next to the hotel the restaurant is not open yet/ we will eat and drink something at the hotel itself. It is buffet and looks good, but we don’t eat a lot, because Eef is not hungry and Timo does not want to stay too long. First a small salad, then hot food with vegetables, it’s nice and we don’t make it late and are already sleeping at 20:00 in our room.

Our first impression of South Africa: beautiful landscapes, many of black people, good roads and huge distances. The highway to Pilgrim’s Rest is long and good and when you cross a hill, you see the road cleave through the landscape. Today the day is over and tomorrow is a new adventure.

 

Thursday October 15, 2009: Exploration of the Panorama route

At about six we had enough of rest. Timo already does a short morning walk and sees a few monkeys running over the roofs of the hotel. They chase each other and race through the premises. A bit further in some trees a few ibises are making noise over the silent village. When he returns Eef is also awake and we prepare for a day out. First breakfast buffet with vegetables, fruits, cheese and two eggs. The coffee here is very good. After breakfast we return to our room, prepare our bag and take the car. We leave direction Lydenburg, buy some water in downtown Pilgrim’s rest and when we reached the big road direction Hoedspruit, we turn right to Ohrigstad. When we arrive there we immediately withdraw money, just normal with our Belgian Bankcard and we need some fuel. We never had the opportunity to change the Euros or Dollars until now, so that’s a good way then. For 220 Rand he actually completely fills up the tank, and when I say it’s full I really mean full.

Here we follow direction Hoedspruit; tomorrow we’ll also need this direction. It is really a big distance; we’re in the car more than one hour, without counting the fueling. When we see the indication to the three rondawels we quickly forget about that. We follow that and from here we drive from one “uitsig” to the next. We stop here on the big parking lot and see a bus just arriving, so really a tourist thing here. We walk the path and see the beautiful view over the canyon. Right in front of us we see what is called the three rondawels (African huts) and they go down all the way to the small river almost to 800 meters. At the bottom there is a small river, really amazing that such a small stream has worn out all of the rocks. Way down deep there is a lake with a smaller hill next to it. The lake with the hill and beyond that an even bigger lake is really an amazing sight. Also the colors are playing part in this: green, red, orange, yellow, all colors of the rainbow are represented I here. We enjoy the view and walk to a second point of view at the other end of the parking. Now you see it a bit more from the right side and again this is marvelous. On the parking itself some women are selling stuff: statues, bowls, pans, towels, hats, name it. If a tourist would buy it, they have it and even more.

From the Three Rondawels we drive about 100 meters to the next view point, where also South African women are selling stuff, but also here the view is beautiful, but can’t beat the one we just saw. Then we drive on to Bourcke’s Luck Potholes. We find the location rather easily, because there are indications all the way along the R532. Here we need to pay 55 Rand for two people and one car. That is about 5.05 Euro, almost for free. We park the car in the shadow and walk directly to the place we need to see. The potholes are holes in a deep narrow canyon, worn by the small river, the Blyde. Via some bridges you can walk around and you can look at the complete reserve. At this pint two rivers meet, the Blyde and the Treur and because of the current and whirls the rocks are being worn and that causes round holes in the rock itself. The walls are very smooth and very deep and straight down, which really is spectacular. We stay here a while to admire and enjoy the roughness and at the same time the beauty of nature and then walk back to the car. Eef buys ice cream, no problem, because on vacation you do whatever you like.

From the Potholes our way moves on to God’s Window. That offers a marvelous view over the whole canyon. On the top of the mountain there is a rainforest; not like the ones in Costa Rica, but we find it surprising South Africa has rainforest here. Maybe everything was planted, who will tell? This rainforest contains cactuses and lobelias and plenty of trees and flowers. It’s very nice, because there are some more views over the canyon and the plain. After this visit we turn around, because we left the R32 to God’s Window (all very nice indicated) and we stop quickly at “Wondersig”, another spot along the side of the road with a view. These viewpoints are all some distance from each other, so it’s quite a long drive. When we’re on the right track again we take direction Graskop and then we see a sign to Lisbon Falls. According to Trotter this is the most beautiful of the waterfalls here, so also the only one we visit. We need to pay 10 Rand, not much so we don’t care. Outside the traditional saleswomen, there is only the waterfall, because after 100 meters the road stops. The fall is 90 meters high, so quite an altitude. It’s beautiful how we see the light forms a rainbow at the bottom of the waterfall. Here the Blyde runs through the landscape to start the canyon a few miles ahead.

We already see nature here is magnificent, overwhelming, the falls are high, the mountain ranges are huge and everything is big, nothing small. We then take the road to Graskop and drive on a fast descending mountain road to Pilgrim’s rest, so back home. We quickly stop at the hotel, change clothes and eat something in Scott’s Café. We have a Castle, nice beer and eat a cheeseburger with some veggies and fries. We like it a lot. Then it’s already 15:00 and we bathe, also nice, when you only have a shower at home. Timo writes the report and then we have a drink. We drink something in the bar of the hotel. This is a church that has been transformed into a bar and we drink some beers. Two Castle draughts, we talk to two locals, who explain us stuff about South Africa. It’s very busy, because four Americans arrive here and two buses with tourists arrive. It looks like little tourismo-buses with even a small trailer behind it.

We sit outside with two South-Africans and can already understand their language, the Afrikaans. We have another two Castles and then a small one, not a half-liter. We then start looking for something to eat, but the restaurant right across is already closing although they’re only open from 18:00. It’s now 18:30, so apart from the 4 persons that are here now, they don’t seem to be willing to earn money today. So this means hotel food today. It is again buffet, but better than yesterday, because we feel better today, a bit sunburnt, but we already saw some beautiful things today, great. We eat well and then return to our room after dinner. The tourist of the organized bus trips can see an original South-African dance and go. We fall asleep immediately and enjoy our well-deserved sleep.

 

Friday October 16, 2009: Departure from Pilgrim’s rest to Mohlabetsi

Dawn is coming at about five or five thirty in the morning. We did not close the curtains yesterday, so we wake up with the morning light. We don’t mind, because we don’t want to leave too late from this village to our next stop. We prepare everything before we have breakfast and put everything in the car, ready to go. The breakfast is a buffet again; we have some bread with ham and cheese and drink coffee with it. Even the second day we notice the coffee is very good. We take some fruit with us: an apple, a banana in case we get hungry on the road. We have enough water, so we don’t need to buy that yet. We also should have enough gas, so we check out and then we can go. We don’t have any open bills, so we can move on. We leave over the Robber’s Pass to Graskop. We also followed this road yesterday, but now in the opposite direction. In Graskop we see a bank and check if it’s open. Not, but we can already use the ATM. Yesterday we could only withdraw 1000,00 ZAR, today 2000,00 and that is an amount you can already do something with, especially if you need gas and stuff. Changing appears not to be possible, because it’s not open. We take the same way to God’s Window, pass by the Pinnacle and especially Timo is happy he has seen that. We drive past the same things as yesterday and follow always the direction of Hoedspruit. We pass the Abel Erasmus-Pass and then to the J.G. Strydomtunnel. There we stop for a moment to see the stunning landscape. A saleswoman of some gifts is a little bit too direct, so we don’t stay too long. It is very impressive how high and steep the mountains rise from the earth to unbelievable heights. All the time we see behind us and to the right of us the high mountains, while we see the changing of the landscape. The rocks move away for grass and we see more bush and more trees: this is called the lowveld.

In Hoedspruit it’s only ten kilometer along a national road, the R40 to Tanzeen and then we need to see a sign to the lodge Mohlabetsi. We already see the warning signs that wild animals can cross the road and especially elephants and we think yeah right! We find the turn without problems and there is a guard who asks us to fill out a form and pay 50 ZAR – the entrance fee to the park. We drive off and the sandy road is located next to a high fence with electricity. We just left and we already see a kudu and a few moments later we spot two giraffes, which are eating leaves from a high tree. Very nice; we’re just in the park and we already saw wild animals. On this road we encounter a few cars and Timo was already driving at the right (wrong) side of the road. But no problem; this is fixed quite easily. We arrive at the lodge and immediately receive a drink and a small piece of fruit. We also get the full explanation of how a day at Mohlabetsi will look like.

We have a drink and get the room at about 12:00, number 2 right next to the reception. We unpack, charge a few batteries and already start to relax. We feel comfortable here, because it all looks very promising. A big room with clean beautiful beds and a shower outside. This means it needs to be good weather all the time. Have a rest, check out the garden and watch some impala’s and waterbucks that come for a drink at the pool in front of the lodge. We are here right in the Greater Kruger Park; the animals can freely come and eat from the green grass at the lodge without us knowing. For the elephants there is a little wire about half a meter from the ground. They don’t lift up their feet, so they can’t cross this electric wire.

At 14:00 we get a light lunch, salad with quiche and some water and a beer of course. Then we rest a bit, take a shower and check more of the garden. A warthog is curious and comes to check what is going on and the hornbills are constantly here, making noise and flying around. A plus for this lodge is that it has a swimming pool, but that will be for tomorrow. At about 4 o’clock we prepare for our game drive; we’re curious what it will be like. We leave with three jeeps, we are with Hamilton. We just are a few meters away and he already stops, because he has spotted a crocodile. We get out, but some guineafowl disturb the croc. We’ll meet the guineafowl later on. Back to our first real sighting. After five minutes we already stop for our first wild rhino. Really a marvelous animal in the wilderness.  We can get pretty close to it, to about ten meters. Then we drive to a hippo in a small pool, but we only see the nose and ears above the water.

Further in the jeep we see about thirty impalas, waterbucks, the small steenboks, an owl-eagle, a real eagle and a couple of bee-eaters. Along the way we spot a few giraffes, really great those large animals; there even is a little one with the group. In that way we drive through the lowveld. Suddenly Hamilton receives a warning by a sound from a distance down below. He thinks that there are elephants, but he’s distracted by two cheetahs that are doing an afternoon nap. What a sight! They are that relaxed that one of them lies down quietly and starts enjoying the sun. We constantly hear noises from the bushes below and see a herd of elephants. There are about twenty animals, with calves and everything. We drive off the road in reverse towards the elephants; the rangers know what they are doing, we hope. Here we stay about ten minutes just like with the cheetahs and then we drive on. Along the river we see some gnus and a jackal that is running away when he spots the jeep.

On the radio we get a call that there is a pack of lions on the run, about 17 or 18. We drive off in full speed and we are just in time to see a big male lion, a few females and a bunch of minors. A very old male closes the pack and we spotted about ten lions here. Then we quietly drive through the park and suddenly see a herd of buffaloes, so in a short period we saw the big 4, a cheetah does not count; we need a leopard. Then it’s time to see the sunset, but the sun has already set when the guide Hamilton stops. We drink something, beer and water and then drive on with the lights and the spot on. The ranger drives, uses the spot, changes gears, but then has a little bit of problems answering the radio.

Suddenly he stops and he spotted a gnu in the bushes. We drive further to the lodge, but make a small detour for hyena. That is also quite an animal. And while we are watching the hyena, we see a shooting star. Not a small one, but one of one, two, three, four, even five second, very bright and goes from far right to all the opposite side in our vision. If you now look up to the sky you only see starts, without any light pollution. Then we drive back to the lodge, take a quick shower, drink an aperitif and then eat with the whole group.

Around a campfire they have place tables and prepared food on the fire. First we have soup and then we ordered a bottle of wine: Zevenwacht. Then the main course, pork with mushrooms and spirelli. That is served with beans and corn, which is very nice. As a dessert we get tiramisu and we drink our water and wine. We enjoyed it and talk to the Scottish man next to us, but then it’s time to go to bed: we already are awake until 22:00. It is a bit late actually, because they will wake us at 05:15 tomorrow morning. That will be unpleasant, but who knows, what will we see tomorrow. At this moment: Mohlabetsi rules!

 

Saturday October 17, 2009: Mohlabetsi lodge and safaris

We get an early wake up call, at 05:15 someone is knocking on our door, but apparently this is the best time to have a game drive. First a cup of coffee and a hard biscuit and when everyone is there, we are ready we can get in the jeeps. This morning there are only two large jeeps and we have a bit less space, because we are seated now with three people next to each other. In itself we don’t mind, but it’s much easier with two persons. We leave and immediately see a bunch of guineafowl. They live here in quite big numbers and are constantly with the water drinking and doing nothing. Our first sighting of the day is a stork: white and black feathers with a red, black and yellow beak. Two geese also wobble along the water. In the pool we see the same hippo as yesterday, but again only shows his upper half.

The rangers point us to the lion tracks and are really desperate to spot them today. Instead we first see a kudu; rather three kudus and then we again see the two cheetah-brothers from yesterday. We follow them, between the bushes and over the ditches and stuff; this is really a wild ride. We regularly need to see cover from the branches and the driver needs to turn back because he can’t continue anymore. Normally they drive over and through all kinds of bushes. We see the cheetahs mark trees with their scent to notify everyone around that this is their spot. They like it a lot under a small tree, lie down, clean their eyes and paws and we can watch this all perfectly from the jeep. These animals are great, unbelievably beautiful. We spotted already two days in a row the two cheetahs, we had never hoped for this. The other jeep arrives a few minutes later too. At the other side of the creek we see some impalas with oxspeckers on their backs. These birds with brown feathers and red beak ride on the back of other animals and removes tics and other bugs (giraffes, impalas, rhinos and others).

We stop a moment for a nest of a Wahlberg’s eagle, the male stays close to the nest and the female is flying away. A very beautiful bird and in the jeep you can come very close to them. Then we move on and suddenly the jeep stops for e rhino. He is also spreading his scent, also to let the others know where he is. We watch the animals; move forward and backward to spot the rhino the best way. Our two rangers are still looking for the pack of lions, but they can’t find them. They are here somewhere, but they don’t show. We are on the road for about two hours already; it is a bit after eight now and we have a short break to stretch our legs. It’s about time, because it is not really comfortable sitting still that long in the jeep. Eef takes over the task of the rangers, even now we have a break, you never know.

One of the rangers stays with us; the other one walks further and is looking for the lions without protection, crazy isn’t it? They can’t find them. We even race half an hour looking for the pack, but we’re not lucky today. We see a little church close to a waterhole and a kiosk looking over the plain. We ask ourselves what this is doing here. Now we’re on a plain without trees, but we can’t spot anything. We pick up the other ranger and head back. On the way there we see three giraffes, a group of impalas, two kudus and three zebras. We had not seen those earlier, but now we do, great. We soon arrive back at the lodge and have breakfast, toast with salad, tomato and Timo has an egg. We drink coffee with it and like it a lot, because we’re already pretty hungry.

We then lie down in the sun beds with a view over the bushes hoping to spot some more wild animals. Partridges are the only ones we see and they really come to the grass of the lodge.  We stay here a while and then some more animals appear, coming to the water or the grass: a warthog, a giraffe comes to drink and that’s a funny sight, some impalas and a few kudus too. We eat a little bit of the light lunch and in the afternoon we sit and wait until we leave for the second safari of the day. Who knows what the rest of the day will bring. We have a shower, because there is a lot of dust here and at three thirty we drink another beer and then are ready for the game drive. We leave again with Hamilton and he now has a tracker with him: Lucky. Hopefully her process his own name.

Let’ go! Next to the pools there are some waterbucks and via the same road as yesterday we enter the park. We also pass by the pool where the hippo is bathing and he comes out of the water a bit more now. The geese are also here and also a plover. Then we see some kudus and a herd of buffaloes, they say there are 30. The sun is starting to set, but there still is some movement. A jackal is crossing our path, but we can’t capture it. They are a bit too shy to be able to do that, unless you have plenty of time and patience. Suddenly Hamilton receives a call that there are two lions close to a path. He starts the race with the Land Rover and it takes about fifteen minutes to arrive there. And then it’s very difficult to spot where the lion with his lioness are, because they are hidden between the vegetation. If you look very well you can see them; we stay here a bit and then we will do the stop for the drinks. Just before our stop we get another call that the lions are in the open. We race there again.

This time we see the lion and lioness quietly close to each other, a nice picture. We stare at the beauty of the lions and then stop in the end for our drinks. Everyone has something, we have two beers and talk about what we already saw and how we like South Africa. Very much that is! Suddenly a train rides full speed through the park. Now all animals will be gone. After half an hour we leave again and pass by the lions in the dark now; they are still around. Another lioness joined the couple, but the male lion is not appreciating our company. He stays down, but tries to scare us with three very loud and deep growls. The tension mounts a little in the jeep. No worries, just stay seated.

Then we head back to the camp, we encounter a few more waterbucks and hear some owls flying away from the trees. The tracker Lucky is on the front of the car and uses the searchlight to see if there is something to look at. Not a lot. Until we see a family of hyenas. There are about five of them and we drive into the bushes, over dead branches and over bushes with big thorns. We nee to take cover sometimes, because the branches are getting too close. Wow, this really is an off-road trip. We spot the hyenas and call in the other jeep. When they come closer through the bushes we see very clearly the animals in the lights of the approaching car. We can’t take any pictures now, but the sight is great and we love it. The two jeeps have trouble getting out of the bush again, because trees, trunks, big branches are blocking the way to the path. Eventually with good driving Hamilton and Lucky bring us out.

Then we drive directly back to the lodge and we have a shower, drink an aperitif (gin-tonic and Bacardi-cola) and then go for supper. First we have a hot tomato with some spinach on a toast. Then lamb with plenty of vegetables cooked on the fire and rice. We drink a bottle of Goede Hoop and enjoy the food and drinks. It’s already 21:30 when we return to bungalow 2, we read a bit and look at the pictures of the day and write the diary. Another great day in the Greater Kruger National Park. On to the next sightings.

 

Sunday October 18, 2009: Safari at Mohlabetsi Lodge

Timo is up rather early and already hears the jeeps arriving and he hears too when someone knocks the door to wake us at 05:15. We drink a cup of coffee and are ready for the morning safari. Ready to go: happy wildlife hunting and an "hakuna matata” and we can go. Again the same rangers: Hamilton and Lucky. They have parked the car next to concrete stairs, so we can enter the jeep easily and we leave first. Just outside the lodge we see three warthogs running and from here we drive to the pool. There we see many guineafowl and two storks, the same as yesterday. We have big clouds and it’s very difficult to zoom in with the camera. Pictures are not really sharp. Further we see kudus, three giraffes and then we follow two rhinos for a couple of minutes. We see everything a bit higher now, because we sit in the back of the jeep. It’s a bit bumpier when we drive, but that’s nice. The rhinos are really marvelous.

Eef spots a flying bird with many different colors and Timo asks Hamilton to stop. The bird has stopped a distance away, but you can clearly see the blue, green and orange, also the long tail is beautiful, a lilac breasted roller. Then a little bit of rain comes down, but not enough to make us wet. The rangers are not only our guides, but they often also free the roads of trees and branches. When elephants pass they can often cause a lot of damage. Broken branches, overthrown trees, exactly like we were driving through the bushes with the Land Rover yesterday. We see some skeletons, one of a giraffe and the other one of a kudu. A couple of impalas we see every time and also a steenbok. Between the shrubs we also see waterbucks, but we always spot these.

Then they have spotted a pack of lions. We need to wait a few moments for them, because they are walking to our position from the north. We have no idea how these rangers know where north is or south, especially with this cloudy weather. They seem to have a built-in-compass. After a short coffee break we wait a bit longer for the lions and we see two males, about three females and about six half-grown lions. Especially the old male is beautiful. After about fifteen minutes of being paparazzi we start returning to the lodge. We see a small ratite, the korhaan and another strange bird: he flies very high and then falls down like a kamikaze, but we don’t know the name. Later we learn this was the same lilac breasted roller.

Over our heads a vulture circles and still it is the moment to get out and do the last distance on foot. Hamilton takes his gun and explains us about trees and plants. There is one tree we can make beer from, the amarula, the other one is poisonous and with a third he demonstrates how you can make a cord of the bark. He also talks about elephantshit and about termite mounds. We arrive at the waterhole close to the lodge and now and eagle is circling over us. The crocodile is invisible; we do see a couple of plovers and masked weavers. Yellow with black and a bit of red, really beautiful birds. We safely reach the lodge and can have breakfast. In the meantime we’re hungry, the fruit salad the hot tomato and the bacon are good and we drink coffee and orange juice. After breakfast we rest at the swimming pool. Eef swims, Timo sleeps, we read a bit and write the diary and then we move to the other side of the lodge to see what is happening close to the waterhole.

We see two giraffes that come for a drink; a jackal comes by and disappears swiftly. A warthog eats on the lodge’s grass and at the same time we have a cold pita with salad and a beer. After the lunch we rest a little bit, but we realize we can’t loose too much time tomorrow, so we start preparing the bags already. We finish this in about half an hour and we wait a few moments at the bar until we leave for another safari. Hamilton is not here and we leave with Ian and Rogers. We drive slowly and carefully and we receive loads of explanations. Timo spots the head of a green snake; Eef also saw one like this earlier this morning. A few giraffes pass by and also some impalas and we see these impalas often. From a distance Ian sees two rhinos, all the way on the other side of the plain. A Wahlberg's eagle flies by and also a hawk eagle. We see a few kudus every time so also today. Then we receive a message that there are elephants in the neighborhood, the same group as before. We need to drive to the dry riverbed and wait there until they show up.

During this short break we don’t see a lot, only now Timo can take good pictures of the bee-eater, yippee! Now we should not loose time, because the elephants are on the move. We can already see one single elephant and then another one and then on the other side of the bushes another one; in total there are 17 or even more. We follow them the whole time to their drinking pool that is dry now, so they walk somewhere else. We stay right behind them, even though the matriarch is not happy with it. They walk through the riverbed to the other side and Ian hopes to see them further in the river. We only see a mother with calf and another young female. They search for water here and find it in the end. They dig a hole in the dry river about a meter deep and then drink and can throw mud on their back. The calf also drinks and eventually also the other young female.

It is almost getting dark, because we’ve spent about an hour here with the elephants. We drive a bit further and drink a bit and do a stroll. We talk a while to Ian and the others and after thirty minutes we head for the lodge. We see a nyala, which is rare, a genet and again some impalas. Back in the lodge we don’t have a lot of time to get refreshed, because the food is prepared quickly. We’ll do that tomorrow then. We have zucchini a la Milanese and then chicken with cabbage and mushroom sauce. We enjoy our last diner here with a good bottle of wine. We watch the pictures and the short movies we made and then we go to bed.

 

Monday October 19, 2009: Trip from Hoedspruit to Swaziland

The last three days we have the same ritual: Ian wakes us for the morning safari, more a night safari. Again it’s 05:15 and the sun is rising. Timo is already up for 15 minutes and waits for Eef and they drink a coffee at the bar with the same biscuits as the previous days. We have the choice today between a short game ride and a game walk or the usual long game ride. We prefer the ride and walk together with the Swiss Vivian and a German guy. We leave with Ian and Rogers spots the animals; at least that is how it’s intended. A few minutes before six we leave and just outside the lodge we spot three zebra’s, a kudu and a giraffe, all very close to each other.  We stop a few minutes later to check if lions have passed by. Ian shows us the tracks and explains stuff. He says tonight two lionesses were on the run during the short shower. It has rained a bit indeed and the weather has not changed yet. It’s very cloudy and even a bit chilly this morning.

Rogers walks through the bushes and calls us to come to his position, with the jeep of course. The two lionesses are here with two cubs, a marvelous sight. In a ditch we see the kill of the lions in the night; a gnu did not survive. The little cubs are very cute; we follow them for about ten minutes and see how the little one come to the lioness with e cute growl. This is really a magical moment, unbelievable. A jackal is running here too, but because it’s still dark under the grey clouds it’s undoable to picture it. Also the German with a 400 mm lens can’t fixate the jackal. We don’t follow the lions any longer and then start the game walk. They drop us at a waterhole with a lot of guineafowl and elephant tracks. In total we walk one and a half hour back to the lodge. We get some explanation from Ian on pointy branches, about droppings of different kind of animals and on other things as well. We try to get close to s giraffes, but he does not want it. We see a zebra, a kudu and a second giraffe. He is walking in the waterhole where we saw him previously and where now another safari group is drinking coffee.

From here we walk to a second kill that the lions made during the night, again a gnu. Here we can come close very easily; there are no big predators today. It is a bit scary, because the lions have eaten the hind-buttocks of the animal. Ian then shows us, which droppings are from which animals. On the pictures from top to bottom: steenbok, impala, gnu, zebra and giraffe. For such a big animal the droppings of the giraffe are pretty small. Back at the lodge we load everything in the car, only pay 400 Rand and have our last breakfast here. We say goodbye to everyone and wish them a nice journey.

Then it’s time to leave; it is only 09:30 and need about 30 minutes to get to the main road. We follow again the high fence to the guardhouse and there we take direction Hoedspruit. On that road we saw another five giraffes nearby and two storks, the ones with the beautiful beaks. In Hoedspruit it goes all the way south on the R40, over Hazyview, to Witrivier and Nelspruit. In Nelspruit we fill up the car and choose to follow Barberton and the border with Swaziland in Josefsdal. It sounds like the Austrian Alps and according to the landscape that could be perfectly true. From Barberton the road goes up and we ride through big pine-forests; people here harvest wood. On the parts where there is no forest, we see nice green grass, really like an Alpine pasture should be. We also see cows here. It really looks like the Alps. The situation even gets better when we come closer to the border with Swaziland; traffic goes down and down, the roads are good, but we are so high that we need to use the screen wiper, because we’re driving inside the clouds.

Then after 43 kilometer from Barberton we arrive in at the border post. We can enter without problems; we receive a stamp and drive to the next check. This was exit South Africa the next one is entry for Swaziland. Also here everything is OK and we get a stamp, pay 50 Rand for the car. Here we are, in the Alps, but 11.000 kilometer from home instead of 1.000. We take the road to the first village in Swaziland, Bulumbu and from there to Piggs Peak. Suddenly the road disappears and that was something we did not need today. Pigs Peak is 30 kilometer and on these sandy roads and up and down in the mountains without 4x4 that could become stressful. And indeed, it takes a long time before we arrive in Piggs Peak. It only took us four hours before we reached the border and then it takes a long time before we reach Piggs Peak and Forbes reef. We wanted to cover a big distance already today in Swaziland, but that won’t work this way. We need to stop in Mbabane, the capital. At a little bit before four o’clock we arrive there and look for something to sleep; we’ll see tomorrow what will be next. We find Veki’s Guest House on a big road close to the centre, exit 11. Normally 11 would be a lucky number for us and especially for Eef. The place costs 340 for two people, is pretty basic, but everything is clean and we even have TV. We don’t know if we would even understand.

We ask where we can have something to eat and they say we could try the mall. Timo does not feel really comfortable. It is of course a mega-shock; this morning we saw lions with their cubs and now we’re in a busy city.  We quickly have fast food at Steers/Debonairs, normal fast food with anything special. We don’t stay too long here, because the car is parked illegally and we would not want to see the car being towed away because of that. After that we go back, park the car securely and go and walk to the supermarket to buy some beer. No alcohol is being sold in the supermarket, so we look for a liquor store. There we buy six Castle and take them to our guesthouse. There we check what is the best thing to do to be on time on Rocktail Bay the day after tomorrow. We also check some pictures and movies and write the diary.

We feel pretty tired, because we’re already awake from five and we have been in the car for over six hours today. That is quite a lot. At about eight or nine thirty we go to sleep, because we want to be on the road very early tomorrow. That won’t be a problem because there are no curtains that will keep the light outside. We’ll see.

 

Tuesday October 20, 2009: Departure to Nsoko Swaziland

Neighbor noises wake us up early in the morning in the guesthouse. Everyone is awake and busy doing many things and they don’t do it in silence, there is much noise. As a consequence it is only 05:30 when we get up and get ready to leave. We brush our teeth and get refreshed. We want to get out of the busy city and back to a quieter place. We hope to find it in Nsoko at the Nisela Safari Lodge. This should only be about two hours from Mbabane, but you never now here. We leave at six thirty; pay 350 ZAR without breakfast for the two of us. Then we follow the MR8 to Manzani; this is a highway with four lanes, two in each direction and we reach Manzani in about half an hour, this is going good. Then we take the direction of Big Bend and that way back direction South Africa.

In Siphofaneni we stop for a moment, because we still have not had any breakfast. We ask coffee without sugar and one with milk. That seems to be something they have never heard before: coffee without sugar. The woman in the kitchen asks three times and then another time if we’re really sure. Yes, we are. We get the coffee in a cup with a foil over it and the coffee in unbelievably hot, but that’s nice.  At the other side of the road there is a market and we check that out. After half an hour of break we drive on to Nsoko. We already saw a lot of children who walk along the highway to school. You can’t imagine things like this happening in Belgium.

At 09:00 we arrive already in Nisela private game reserve, we ask if they still have places and in the guesthouse they have room 11 for us. We need to wait still for five hours, because we can only check in at 14:00. This is too long to just wait and hang around, so we go for a game walk. First we pass a colony of masked weavers and then we head into the park. We see about 11 giraffes: that’s a pretty large group. We also see warthogs that cross the small roads and we spot a nyala, we think. Ian at Mohlabetsi had told us they have become rare, so we’re happy. There are zebra’s too, gnus and ostriches walk away from us, impalas can be spotted here to of course and they just walk around. We are not scared to get lost, because we always see the mountains straight in front of us. When we turn back we only need to make sure they are behind us.

When we arrive back at the reception they tell us we can already have our room. The guesthouse is about 5 kilometer away on the same road and there we will find the place. No problem: we drive off and put everything inside. We make some coffee, drink it in the garden and enjoy the peace. The birds buzz here, so it’s nice to be here. It is already noon and we are a bit hungry, so we order something to eat: spicy chicken salad, if you add some Tabasco to it and a sandwich with tuna with salad and fries. We drink Castle with it and feel the alcohol. We are at the terrace with view on the pool where we see a 4.5 meter-long crocodile and enjoy every minute. The mountains look great from a distance: they form the border with Mozambique and here already with South Africa. We should be able to just cross here, but that’s not possible without 4x4.

We are a bit tired and lie down for about an hours; we are that tired we immediately sleep for about 1.5 hours, but no problem, we’re on vacation. At about three we drive back to the reception at the main building and want to have a game drive. We had reserved that earlier. We leave with a rather big woman after the steering wheel and a lazy (almost falling asleep) guide next to us into the park. We spot: zebra, gnu, waterbuck, kudu, impala, giraffe, steenbok, reedbuck (not the ones like in Belgium, these are much bigger). We find especially the nyala very nice, and more specifically the males. They have beautiful signs on their head. Many warthogs run through the grass and between the green bushes. In comparison to Kruger this is a green oasis. Ostriches here have nests of 54 eggs. A korhaan runs away from us when we slowly drive past. Our guide does not tell a lot, but notices the most important animals.

At the end Timo sees a secretary bird, a marvelous sight, a bit too late to take a picture, but seeing the bird is already something magical. A big, grey bird with long, yellow legs a grey tuft. We did not even know the bird lived here. After the game drive we have a Castle at the bar, and another one, but then it’s getting cold, because the sun sets and the wind is picking up. We order a spicy pizza and a chicken filet with salad and enjoy our dinner at a high table on a crutch, nice to eat at the bar like that. We like it, we signs the bill to pay tomorrow, have another Windhoek Lager and drive home when it’s already dark. The normal entrance has already been closed off, but the gate at the farm is still open. The night is dark and the moon is lit from the bottom. Above in the black night millions of starts are blinking; these are things we never see in Belgium. At 20:30 we go to bed. We’ll need the rest, because tomorrow we have a long ride in front of us, to Rocktail Bay.

 

Wednesday October 21, 2009: Away from Swaziland and departure to Rocktail Beach

Timo is already awake at 4:30, because they have set an alarm twice next doors, no idea what this is, but next to our guesthouse there is a farm and there Timo sees a lot of people walking, probably the alarm was to warn everyone that work needs to start. Also the toilet makes a lot of noises and it looks like the complete building is collapsing. It takes until the reservoir is full and then it stops, strange. One hour later Timo can’t sleep anymore and he walks around the building and the garden. He sees a wagtail on a nest in one of the trees and a variety of bird sounds flies through the morning sky. It’s not really clear which birds sing. Eef is still sleeping, because she was tired.

Three people are working in the garden and one woman comes closer to check out on Timo. It seems she has not yet seen a lot of handsome white men like Timo.  Time comes to get up and Timo takes a shower quietly; he does not want to wake up Eef.  That’s not very easy, because he does wake her up and so she starts making herself ready and packing. It does not take long, because there almost was no unpacking done. We take the car, just cleaned by one of the gardeners and drive to the main building 5 kilometer (5 K, they say here) away to have breakfast. The breakfast is included, so we need to take it. We have eggs, yes both of us, Timo asks for a well-done and Eef wants sunny side up, then she can split up the yellow and the white. We enjoy the food and the last moments here. After breakfast we pay with our best friend (MasterCard) and then move on to the border.

It takes half an hour to get there. This border post is a bit bigger than the one we used for our entry in Swaziland. That route was not the normal one. The views there were marvelous; the quality of the roads was less. We first need to arrange our exit from Swaziland, then the entry back to South Africa. It’s very easy and they have enough people to arrange it all. One writes a paper for the car (brand, license, …), the next ones stamp it and the third one takes it when you cross the border. Even better: you need to go and hand it to her. And with all these three persons there are a couple of others doing nothing. There even is someone else to stamp the passports. He has the worst job of all. We can cross the border perfectly and the direction we need to follow is also easily found. Jozini is not yet indicated on the road signs, but there is a village a bit further n the N2. After half an hour on the mountain and half an hour back down the mountain we arrive in Jozini and stop for a while.

We tank for 192.03 ZAR, we check things out, because it’s market time today. We will again not be able to exchange our Dollars, because in the only bank here there are more than 50 people queuing and in the other one they can’t exchange Dollars. What a pity, then we need to ATM. We walk past the stands; now we see it’s colorful, the red of the tomato, the green of the cabbage, the orange of the orange and the yellow of the banana. The rest of South Africa was less colorful then we expected, but this is nice. The shops are old, but still OK. At the side of the road some people are baking meat, a so-called braai, but we don’t take the risk of buying something. The remains of yesterday, the day before and who knows how many other days are still hanging from the spit. After about an hour we leave: we buy some stuff in a Spar (supermarket) and then drive off to Rocktail Bay. The detailed road description is very good; first follow about 40 kilometer a small road where people, cattle cross the road ad random, then at a T-junction to the right; move on over a pothole-road to a big roundabout in the middle of nowhere and then further to a small untarred road.

We have police control already for the second time today: once in Swaziland and now here, just to show the driving license. We reach on time, even 1.5 hours too early the coastal cashews, but we can wait here until they come to get us. They arrive about 20 minutes early, but that’s OK. We need about 45 minutes to reach Rocktail beach Camp. Apparently the lodge is closed. We drive through a very large plantation of gum trees that are being cut and we ask ourselves when we will reach the coastal forest, because there we need to be. Just a mile before we reach the camp we see a change in vegetation and a fence around the coastal forest reserve. When we get there we get a drink and a complete explanation what there is to do and how everything work here. All clear, so we’re ready for diving and for bird watching.

We have out room, actually a tent on wooden piles, splendid for the luxury, a king-size bed, a large bathroom and we nice shower with rain shower. We unpack, have a shower and enjoy the view. From our room we can seethe coastal forest and the Indian Ocean. This is really luxurious, just marvelous. When we’re ready, it’s time to explore the surroundings and we walk via a small path to the beach. We see a red duiker, a little antelope, hear many birds and after 15 minutes we reach the beach and the ocean. High waves, great beach without any form of building or pollution. There are only a few parasols, but they have camouflage that good, it’s not disturbing. The rest is just great and unspoilt.

We walk back to the bar and drink a Castle. The South African beer is very good, but the Castle is the best, better than Windhoek from Namibia and of course the wine is very nice too. We have a drink, write the diary and read a bit and especially enjoy everything around us. At about 18:30 they come by to arrange the diving tomorrow and whether we will join: of course that’s why we’re here and if the weather stays that way, it’ll be great. We’ll have two dives tomorrow. They already saw some humpback whales and some whale sharks. One diver already shows the pictures: this is really something to look forward to. We watch some pictures, but then want to eat something, because we’re hungry. First a toast with asparagus in a cream sauce with leek, then we choose the cutlet and a steak from the dishes served with vegetables and rice: very nice. As dessert we have light yoghurt with banana. Normally dessert is not our thing, but we really like it in this instance.

 

Thursday October 22, 2009: Dive-day 1: Pineapple and aerial reef

We sleep very well in the king-size bed, but we wake up due to the hard rain on the roof. And that happens the night before we need to dive: we already feel wetness, literally and figuratively. Timo is down; he fears that this will be like Costa Rica. He sleeps for a few hours and then waits outside until the weather will get better, but it does not look good. We go to check if we’re diving or not and we’ll see then. We arrive a bit too early and Clive the skipper is there and boils water for the coffee. We are diving today with two Germans, 1 Frenchman and one guy from Namibia and then there are the two instructors: Michelle and Ondyne. We try our wetsuits, BCD and they are already putting the tanks in the boat and pulling it away with the tractor and only we need to go there and race to the beach to go diving.

It all takes a bit longer, because the tractor is having problems, but we don’t mind: we just wait till everything is OK. The sun has not yet been able to break through the thick clouds, but it already stopped raining. Eventually they manage to get to boat to us. We need to enter here, because on other places along the coast the waves are too high. Here is a little bit of protection thanks to some rocks about 100 meters in the sea. With a delay of 20 minutes we enter the boat. Clive checks the waves to estimate the right moment to cross them. The sand changes places regularly here, so he needs to watch out for banks. In less than 5 minutes we’re through. Everyone gets ready and then on the One … Two … Three … GO we’re in the water.

We immediately look for the buoy line and follow that to go down, Michelle is already at the bottom, but we do it slowly, go down without forcing. That way we’ll get there too. We really see plenty of stuff during this dive. Not the coral gardens like in Egypt, but there is a big variety in the number if species of fish. We see a loggerhead turtle on the Pineapple-reef, see some nudibranches, but because of the surge down here it’s not easy to take good pictures. Boris, the potato-bass is also here today, together with a female that is accompanied by pilot fish. In total we see three different species of slugs, an anemone crab and many anemone fish with eggs. If you look good you can see the small dots in the eggs; they say these are the eyes of the little ones. We have fun, because there is a lot to see, some leaf fish, a special species of scorpion fish, a moray eel and a very big jellyfish. We enjoy the dive, even though we need to adapt, because we’re getting swept from left to right. When you want to look at something closely you need to grab something very firmly, preferably a rock and no poisonous or stinging things and then you can stay put. When the surge is too much, you need to let go anyway.

We dive until all other are already up and we really enjoy it. We see an electric ray and a few emperor fish. This is really a great dive and after 50 minutes we do our safety stop and come out of the water after 56 minutes, nice diving, because the other were already up: we were the last ones in the water with Michelle and a French guy. From the water we climb into the boat, then we have to wear the safety jackets again and then through the surf to the beach. The boat is anchored in a shallow bit and they bring us back to the dive base, Mokarran Dive Charters is the name. We have a light breakfast on the base itself. Normally they do this on the beach, but rain has started again and the wind blows and we’re getting cold. Eef is very cold, but we still decide to have the next dive, looking for more beautiful stuff.

We’re the only two divers for the second dive, se we leave with Clive and Ondyne. Again the same story, all out of the boat at the same time and then descend following the buoy line. The instructor is pulling the buoy constantly after her. Sometimes the cord is not stretched and it is a bit annoying, but it is easy to follow. Now we do two small reefs: aerial consists out of two little pieces. On the one we mainly spot fish: emperor fish, parrotfish, lionfish, no groupers this time, but a nice dive too. It is a bit more relaxed, because there are only the three of us. Eef spots some nudibranches and a big school of humpback snappers is swimming towards us. A very big boxfish is hiding below a cave, but we do spot it. We see a few kauris and some more parrotfish and a school of bannerfish, which is very nice.

When Timo reaches 50 bar, he signals to the instructor and then we quickly pass by the skeleton of a baby humpback whale. It looks a bit sad, because the animal was alive and kicking a few weeks before and now the skeleton is there for the scavengers. Although this was only a baby the bones are very big. We slowly ascend, have the safety stop and head for the surface. When everyone is on board, Clive asks if we want to see some humpback. Of course we do. We approach them to about 10 meters and we see a baby and a mother whale surface with the flipper, once also with the head and a few times just the dorsal fin. This is the best end of a dive you can imagine. Pictures are impossible, because the weather does not permit this and we can’t take the camera out of the housing. Eef did not bring her camera, because there was a small leakage. Timo has filled up his memory card, so we need to stop now anyway. So we do that and Clive beaches the boat: he uses the fastest speed that the boat is about ten meters out of the sea.

They bring us back, we clean our gear and then we have a shower. A hot rain shower is really great now, especially after a cold morning like today. We can immediately go for lunch, have a hamburger and drink a beer. Then we fill out our logbooks, the travel report is done too and we hope the weather will change, but that does not look that good today. The weather stays bad, so we just go for a rest and relaxation in our tent, because in the end it is a tent. We have a bit more luxury than an ordinary tent, because the tent fabric is supported with several poles from the gum trees. We rest till about six and then walk to the bar. We want to drink something else than a Castle so we order a red wine: Noble Hill: a tasty Merlot. We talk to Ondyne, the instructor and pay here a drink as we promised. We talk about diving and about Rocktail Bay and other stuff.

At about eight two waitresses start to roll the drum and that means dinnertime for everyone. We first get mussels with a good creamy sauce, and then we serve ourselves some vegetables and some pork. It’s very good, but we don’t eat so much, because the hamburgers were still taking up too much place. As dessert we have chocolate-pancakes and even that is good. We drink some more wine in the seats of the bar and then head to bed. We light our candles and then go to sleep.

 

Friday October 23, 2009: Dive day 2: Yellowfin Drop

Everything is happening a bit later than yesterday. We have our breakfast and then we go to the base, only 50 meters away from the Back camp. We need to take the tides into account, because they use jeeps and tractors, which create racks in the sand. That disturbs the turtles, so we need and want to take that into account. It is prohibit anyway being on the beach with low tide, so there are not so many options. We get our gear again: fins, our masks are clean and we get our suits too. We think it’s cool and want to do another dive. We drive with the jeep to the place where Clive is waiting with the boat and the tractor. We will only have one dive today, because they need to drive to Richard’s Bay for a part of the tractor. The tractor was having engine-trouble, they could repair the second one, but he gives in today too. Bad luck this is.

The zodiac is ready in the water when we arrive and it already made water, so we must hurry. Into the boat, the cameras, fins, masks and then back out, because we’re stuck and need to push. First the women enter, a French girl and Eef, then the men and then the instructor: Clive was already in the boat and another black guy was also helping out. Then we can go, jackets on, keep an eye on the waves and then away over the high waves. We’re already having an adventure, even before we reach the dive sites. We see a few more humpback whales, so that makes it again very special. Another lodge is on the reef we were aiming for, so we move a bit further, not Gogo’s, but Yellowfin Drop will be our site: the most favorite dive site of Ondyne. When we get there, we quickly get everything ready, quick buddy-check from a distance and then one, two, three, GO and everyone is in the water.

Damn! Shit, hell! Eef has fallen in the water and another person has fallen on her with the consequence that her mask and snorkel are leaving to the depth. Timo has jumped of the boat from the other side and when he reaches Eef and understands what is going one, the mask is already gone for a distance. Timo sees something red descend and dives towards it. The tip of the snorkel is visible from far away and when he swims deeper he clearly sees the mask too. At 9.4 meters he grabs it and then slowly ascends again: in fact he already should to a safety stop, but he does not. He gives the mask to Eef and now our dive can start too. Descend slowly, because Timo needs to recover a bit. No worries, when we reach 6 meters, the French girl is still equalizing and we’re not that far behind the group.

The view is great, not too deep and now the sun appears from time to time, which was also the case the whole morning. The corals are more abundant here: different species of coral, small table coral and many, many fish: groupers, snappers, hawkfish, Moorish idol; this is what we see here. The al of a sudden a big loggerhead turtle swims away and right next to it a large octopus too. Timo hunts the octopus and takes a few good shots. Timo thinks he saw a blade fish, but is not sure. Butterfly fish are present too and we see different species and then suddenly Ondyne indicates there is a huge lobster. If you think you’ve seen in Grevelingen or Oosterschelde, eat this then. This one has antennas of about one meter: probably a bit less, because under water everything seems larger, but it is huge.

Timo focuses on a small slug, because the pictures from yesterday are not that good, now we hope they are. Then there is another lobster and many small bass and damselfish. We find them very pretty. This is a very nice diving spot, no wonder this is the favorite place of Ondyne. We see more than five anemones with the colorful fish, a lionfish under a rock and right below that two pepper moray eels. Emperor fish, groupers, boxfish, everything is swimming by us. We see a scorpion fish on a rock and then swim to a hole where a big moray is sheltering: a honeycomb moral eel, an animal that measures two meters, unbelievable. Timo of course spots the chromodoris that is sitting next to the eel, because they want their picture taken: small and big, everything is beautiful under water.

We do our safety stop, the other three are already up; Timo has used a lot of air with the mask-thing, so we stop three minutes and then we ascend slowly. Hand in camera, mask and snorkel, then the led, the BCD and then climb on the boat. It almost looks like we’re catching whales. We receive a lollypop and sail back to the beach and again beach the boat, because as mentioned earlier, there is no second dive today. We get back to the base of Mokarran Dive Charters, take our wetsuits off and take a shower. The warm water does us good; we also arrange that the cameras are OK, write the report and look at the first pictures. Eef has the bad luck that the housing was damped and her pictures are not all that good. When we’re back we might consider taking this to the shop for maintenance. We have a beer at the bar and see a green snake in the tree nearby: a ‘boowemslang” in Afrikaans. The sun has appeared to the full force now, the sky is blue and we enjoy the sun, it’s a pity we don’t have a second dive today. The circumstances look very nice. At 13:30 it’s time for our lunch.

We take some vegetables, a wrap with meat and some calamari the South-African way. It tastes good with a beer and some water. Then it’s time for a siesta and we love the sun. It’s hot, even in the shadow, but that’s fun! Especially after the colder days without sun and many clouds. We read, fill out the logbooks and then swim in the pool. Now quietness has returned, but a few moments ago there were a couple of families with 7 children, so no peace, but now everyone is gone and it’s calm. Let’s enjoy! After about two hours we’ve had it at the pool and we go for a short hike. We follow the trails but don’t see many birds; we do see mongoose (15 animals), a couple of crested guineafowl and about three red duikers – the small antelopes that hide in the bushes. We walk back to the beach and that is still marvelous. A couple sunbirds are sitting in the sun in the palm tree next to the swimming pool.

There is hard wind and it’s getting colder, because the sun is setting and time is about five thirty. We have a beer and some red wine at the bar and confirm the two dives for tomorrow. Then they’ll be diving twice again. At 19:30 we hear drumbeats again for dinner: first red cabbage with a spinach snack, then we have fish, dorado they say, but we can doubt it. After the dinner we need to make sure we will have something to do for about two hours. We play cards; drink some coffee, because we go for turtle-watch. At 22:00 we leave with Simba, the same guy who picked us up and we drive to the beach and from here we go to the actual Rocktail Bay and to Mabibi a couple of miles north and south of the camp. We’re looking for loggerheads and leatherbacks coming to shore to lay their eggs.

We love the ride in the dark under a clear starry sky; we see flying fish in the lights of the jeep, many jellyfish are on the beach and very big ones too. The small crabs are hiding and running for their lives, when the big jeep-monster arrives, but unfortunately we don’t spot nay turtles. On our trip we see two men on foot too and the second time we see them they again say they did not spot any turtles either. It still is early on the season and there have no sightings yet, so that was a wild guess. After about one hour and a half we’re back and we return to our room six and go to bed. Tomorrow our last dives, so we need to be quite awake and ready to dive. We fall asleep directly after a long and tiring day.

 

Saturday October 24, 2009: Our last two dives at Rocktail Bay

We get up late. Timo is awake at 07:30 and sits down on the balcony to write and correct the travel reports, while Eef sleeps for another half hour. He needs to chase away a snake here first, because he does not feel comfortable with the snake on the porch. At about eight we go and have breakfast, eat something light, because we should never eat too much before a dive, so we don’t. Timo is not really feeling well today, but that will get better later on. We are at the dive center a bit too early, but we have fun checking out the books there. Ondyne is taking the lead of the dive again today; Clive is the skipper as always. A French couple comes with a guy from Botswana and us. When everyone is there, we receive our gear and everything is OK to leave, so they take us to the boat. It is a trip through the sandy beach and through the heavy winds, not really pleasant.

Climbing in the boat is not easy either, but that works. We put on our safety jackets and then through the waves of the Indian Ocean. The sea is never flat here, there are always waves and wind and it’s always a bumpy ride to the dive site. We go to Elusive and descend rather easily. Timo is always a bit slower, but always fine. It was about time we were in the water, because we all were getting sick on the boat. The weather was not very good to get out. We find it good they always go out for diving. On the bottom there is immediately waiting a ribbontail ray for us and two turtles also, really cool. An immense school snappers hangs above the reef. They are used to divers and you can swim through it even without the school being disturbed. That is a great feeling. The dive site has an oval shape and in the middle there is another ray waiting for us.

All pictures will need to come from Eef this time, because when Timo jumped in the water the clip of the memory card has fallen open. Timo can’t take 1 single picture. He more enjoys the sight then. And believe me, that’s beautiful. The site is full of jellyfish, bigger than a football, it almost seems that you’re on another planet. We see a few nudibranches, a lionfish, three morays, emperor angelfish and more things like it. This really is a beautiful dive spot, not a lot of coral, but many fish. Two big scorpion fish are hidden on the rocks and are difficult to spot. Parrotfish are here too and we see them every time, and then of course the small reef fish, barbells that feel with their feelers over the sand seeking food and their way around the reef. Moorish idol, butterfly fish, very colorful, as we don’t see every day.

We reach 50 bar the last, so also ascend the last; the others are already on the boat. Ondyne has lost here buoy a long time ago. Clive the skipper has detached it, because it became way too difficult for her. So we do the safety stop without reference, after a honeycomb ray says goodbye to us as the last fish on the dive. When we’re on the surface we really intend to doing a second dive, but once we’re on the beach and have had something to eat, they tell us we will have the choice between the same dive sites as the first day and the visibility will be bad. So we want to stop here with this beautiful last dive in Island Rock: a good way of stopping here.

They take us back to the dive centre; we leave our things there and have a shower. With this rain shower this is always nice and we’re surprised how fast you have hot water here. After that we sit at the bar, eat something small, because otherwise it will be tough to wait for 20:00 this evening. We have a wrap that we create ourselves. Then we write some more on the laptop, in the logbooks and we rest. Especially these last moments we need to take it easy, because Timo is still not feeling that well. We’ll see what this afternoon will be like.

We are lying on the sun beds in the shadow and rest some more; traveling is tiring. We discuss where we will go tomorrow, because our plans said neighborhood of Hluhluwe. When we consider everything, we think we can better go to Saint Lucia. There we’re close to a national park en we can also check on the local and traditional things, because close to Saint Lucia there are the Zulu-villages. Saint Lucia it will be: let’s see what that will be like, but that’s only for tomorrow. Now we rest and enjoy the sun. It’s getting dark, we start the aperitif with a mojito and we play Scrabble. In the lounge there are some games that everyone can play. We discover some new words, because we had made the rules for ourselves that we can have loads if imagination.

We walk to the dive centre and see Michelle there. We arrange the rent of the extra three times for the chicken vest for 150 Rand, buy two T-shirts of Mokarran dive centre, talk to Clive and Michelle and then have something to eat. With a bottle of Noble Hill we enjoy the dinner and don’t go to bed too late. Immediately afterwards we return to our ten, light the candles, talk about Rocktail and then go to sleep. Tomorrow we pack for Saint Lucia.

 

Sunday October 25, 2009: Transfer to Saint Lucia

We wake up with the sun shining very good this morning. As usual it is about five thirty when Timo wakes up. He looks at the terrace and again sees the snake. The snake comes into the shower, but Timo chases it away into the trees. The birds are singing like hell this morning, it would have been a good day to go bird watching, but we need to go today, so that will be for the next visit. We pack our stuff, get ready and then to for breakfast. We still have that at about eight and at 09:30 they will bring us back to the car. We need the breakfast because we need a few hours to get where we need to be. It’s not very far, but still 200 kilometer. After breakfast we take the bags to the reception and then everything is loaded in the jeep. We pay and then wait for about another thirty minutes and we’re very jealous of the people who can stay here and then we go to Coastal Cashews.

We drive over the untarred road for about an hour, that is about 15 minutes longer than the first time. We take the car, load everything in it and then leave. First we stop to buy some water in the Coastal shop here, because we forgot that in the camp. Then we drive to Hluhluwe along the R22. We first need to pass there because Saint Lucia is more southern and that will make our trip to Umkomaas easier and faster. We can use good roads, next to that there are large fields of pineapples. We thought we had seen big plantations in Costa Rica, but this beats everything. Twenty, thirty kilometers we see nothing but plantations. Then there are no more pineapples, but gum trees like the road to Rocktail.

We arrive in Hluhluwe in about two hours and then take the N2 highway to Saint Lucia. We can find it rather easily and at about 13:00 we arrive there. The Trotter guide had one good address, but that is way out of the centre, so we don’t take that. We park the car and go looking for a nice address where we can stay. We’re in McKenziestreet, the main street and check at Flamboyant Apartments to see is they have something available. We are welcomed immediately by a friendly Neels and he shows an apartment. There is a two-person bed, a kitchen, a bathroom wit bath and shower and then another room with four beds, a small living room with TV? For the price of 330 ZAR this is OK. We take it and we can even park the car in a secured spot. We have been sent by someone above us; most people are catholic here. A lot of people have religious proverbs in their houses. For example: Grace and Peace to you from Him, who is and who was and who is to come, Rec 1 v 4. Next doors there is a Spar and we go out to buy some stuff, because breakfast is not included; we need to arrange that ourselves. After two weeks we finally buy a three prong round plug to load the batteries and the laptop. We buy mainly food en drinks, but no beer, because that is only available in a liquor store and not in a normal supermarket.

After the groceries we look for a liquor store, but it’s Sunday and not one from all three is open. So we look for something else: we want to do a cultural tour to a Zulu village. That works out perfectly at FAFA Tours and we go there to buy tickets. After that we make some hotdogs in out apartment and eat them tastefully. We drink something different from beer now: ice tea and cola, because earlier we only had water, beer or wine. It’s nice to taste something else now.

At Lizzard Internet we surf a while and send an e-mail to make sure everyone is OK. Maurits is online at that moment and we can send a few mails back and forth. We’re happy we heard something from them. Then we go for a drink, because it’s Sunday and on Sunday we have a beer. We drink a few Castles at St Pizza and have two small pizzas too: vegetariana and seafood. One is better than the other. We adapt very well to the South-African way of living: they don’t use a normal ‘Ja’ or ‘Yes’ when they confirm something, but rather ‘Yes Jaw’. We start using this too already. On the question “Are you still all right, Timo answers immediately ‘Yes Jaw’. The funny thing is that everyone uses it, even the English people who migrated here.

We drink in total about ten beers and then go home at about 20:00. There we read some more and write the reports and go to sleep one hour later. Tomorrow before noon we’re having the visit to the Zulu-village and a medicine man and then in the afternoon we have some general info about a national park in Saint Lucia. We’ll see what happen in the afternoon. That will be arranged. We are in bed on time and sleep early.

 

Monday October 26, 2009: Saint Lucia and surroundings: culture and nature

A rainy morning to wake up in a bed that is too small. That is South Africa; the beds are all too short, even for Timo. Even the king-size in Rocktail was a little short, but the width was making it up. It rained the whole night and now it’s also raining, sometimes hard sometimes not that hard. It all looks a little bit dark and grey, but there’s nothing a person can do about it. Timo enjoys a bit the pictures we’ve made and also finishes the reports. At 07:30 also Eef wakes up and we can have breakfast. We still have the sandwiches of yesterday and we eat them with regular cheese and Brie. A bit coffee with it and that fine. We’re ready one time and first go to the postal office to buy stamps for the cards we bought yesterday. Maybe they will then arrive on time still.

We need to be at the side of the road at nine sharp in front of the apartment and there they will pick us up. They already said it could be later. That does not predict a lot of good things. And indeed it is already 15 minutes later when they pick us up. A Dutch couple is already in the jeep and we need to get another couple from Germany. All set. Then we drive to the real South African life, the village Khula. We follow the same road as when we arrived here and between the stands and the taxi-vans there is a small muddy road and there our visit starts. We drive on the small rods where people are using shovel and axe to fill up the potholes. Everyone is there, men, women, young and old with or without children on their backs.

Our first stop is the day nursery: a troop of little black children who are learning. They have to show the tourists what they can: to count, the days of the week, the months of the year and all in English. Then they perform a dance and we have to write something in the guestbook. Of course they ask for a small tip for the children and then school because they did so well. In this nursery they stay from their first year until about five and then they can go to primary school.

There is also a postal box in the village: that is only a pack of small blue lockers with a number, looking like a PO BOX. Everyone comes here to collect the mail. Hen we see the primary school and we pass by some rental houses on our way: small old wooden sheds almost for 100 ZAR each month. We would not even have our dog live there. The children in the public primary school wear a uniform, mostly yellow and black or blue and white. Our guide tells us many things about the normal life here and some things about plants and trees: the real and the fake banana tree. Then we drive to the high school, because they have that here too. For the few thousand of inhabitants it is necessary that they have everything available. Everything is fenced with barbed wire: the schools, the hospital, almost everything. Then we drive further to the house of an official traditional healer: a quack, who is being called by the spirits and is being trained by other traditional healers. This woman is a healer since 1985 and she has a certificate for that. In the house she has lots of pots and jars with herbs and extract of plants and regrettably also whale oil. Right in front of her house is the cemetery. If you don’t survive at the healer then you know immediately where they bring you.

Then they take us to a place where some unemployed people live together and they make placemats. Eef can’t resist and buys one. It costs 30 Rand, so we won’t need to bother about that. That is the end of our visit and the guide takes us back to where everyone needs to be. We stop to buy some beer in the liquor store; that’s the only place where we can buy alcohol. Six Castle and then we go home to eat sandwiches with cheese and mustard. We want to do some stuff this afternoon and the weather is getting better, so we can go to the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. We take the car, because you need to drive there with or without a guide. The entrance fee for two people and the car is 85 Rand. That is something we need to say, it’s not expansive here when we talk about entrance fees and that’s nice. We immediately see a waterbuck, a kudu, a herd of gnus, some warthogs and few zebras. Timo likes birds a lot and see a black and white bird with a red beak, similar to a finch and with a tail of 15 centimeter. A beautiful animal. We drive and walk to a point of view and there it is fantastic: from the one side you can see the plain of the wetlands and on the other side there is the Indian Ocean.

Monkeys hang in the trees and also baboons. Birds of prey skim over the road and Timo likes that a lot. A reedbuck is in the bushes grazing and the small red duikers also hide in there. It’s difficult to take good pictures of them. After one and a half hours over 32 kilometers we arrive on Cape Vidal, where we see the ocean again. It’s fantastic to see the waves breaking and the clear sky here. Far away over the water sometimes you can spot a hose of water coming up; these are whales swimming back to Antarctic. We also see mongoose here: they will be cleaning up what people leave here, even is everyone is warned not to do so. We drink a Castle here and then head back home. Underway there is plenty to see: a big pile of hippo-shit with many dung beetles on it, unbelievable the size of the beetles. They are about three to four centimeter. A red duiker is not prepared to pose, a kingfisher is waiting to be photographed on an electric wire.

A bit down the road we see two black rhinos. In Kruger Park we only saw white ones and these are now two black ones. We choose a small dirt road; see a few birds in a tree and Timo knows they are hoopoes. Guineafowl are seen here too and a big stork is walking from the road into the bushes. We are now enjoying the landscape and it really looks great. We then go back to the house we have, drink something, and take a shower so we are ready to eat. According to the Trotter guide there is something Greek here and Timo saw a Greek flag a bit down McKenziestreet, so that will be the restaurant we need.

Ocean Sizzlers is the name of the restaurant. We doubt a little bit whether we will have Greek, but decide not to actually eat Greek food in South Africa. That would be ridiculous. We think it’s strange to hear Greek music in South Africa. We have a Castle draught and have line fish of the day (bream) and “klingbill”, also fish, but not freshly caught. We love it and Timo even has a dessert. That’s new, an ice cream with a little bit of chocolate sauce. Ice with beer is really lovely. At eight thirty we’re back home and we immediately go to bed. Tomorrow we have again a ride ahead, so we need to rest well.

 

Tuesday October 27, 2009: Umkomaas here we come. Damn, wrong count

We get up rather early again today; we’re both awake at six thirty, although this is rather late on this vacation. We pack a little bit, not really much, because we did not unpack completely here. For only two days that is not necessary. We have a sandwich cheese and drink coffee and at about eight we’re ready. So we leave to Umkomaas at 08:30. It will be a pretty long drive, so we’ll need to ensure we won’t arrive there too late. Quickly fill up the tank, clean the windows and everything looks OK. Except for the weather; that is not particularly nice today: dark clouds and seldom a ray of sunlight. The first few kilometers from Saint Lucia to Mtubatuba it even rains very hard. It’s only eight thirty and we need to put on the lights to be seen.

A bit later we take the N2 to the south, in the south the weather is always better. We drive in the direction of Empagmeni; that is going well, because we can drive at 110 per hour. There the highway is getting better and wider until past Durban. This trip we need to stop three times for toll: one time 27 ZAR, the second 8 ZAR and the last time 6.5 ZAR. That is 41.50 ZAR all-together, hardly four Euro. If they can maintain the whole route with that, very nice. We encounter road works twice; works is a bit too much though. One person is doing something and four or five people are watching how he’s working. Sometimes there is even not one guy working, but they just stand there and talk and do nothing. We ask ourselves how on earth the highway got constructed, but that was probably don over hundred years. Everything here is going so unbelievably slow, but we’ve dropped the pace ourselves, so there’s no problem. After two hours we approach Durban, it’s getting busies, there are more houses and more factories and stuff like that. We usually don’t see a lot, but this is really a busy stretch.

We just pass by Durban and drive to Scottsburgh; Umkomaas is a few kilometers further. We find the exit without problems and wit the road description of the website it’s not an issue to find the B&B: Agulhas House is ours the next few days. The gate is closed, so we call with our mobile phone to let them know we’re here. One minute the landlord is surprised, because he had expected us only tomorrow. How’s that possible? Let’s check. Indeed we had to stay in Saint Lucia or Hluhluwe for three days instead of only two like we did now. That’s something new. We already were surprised that the guy was not expecting us, but we thought he was wrong, apparently not. It seems like we’re too relaxed, so we even forgot about our own planning. It’s not an issue for him, so we can stay a day longer here.

He calls Blue Vision to check if they’re diving tomorrow and it’s possible even with the bad forecasts, because they have had a lot of rain here lately. In Cape Town they had waves of ten meters high, so not really comfortable for diving. Tomorrow they dive and we need to be here at 07:00 and we dive at 08:00. Cool. It could be that tomorrow the weather does not permit diving and if that will work for the extra day, we’ll just pay the extras. We sit down and then check out the village. There is very hard wind, the sun is shining on rare occasions and the temperature has dropped. It’s not the best weather you would expect in Africa. We walk to Blue Vision, but no one is there; the rest of the city is completely ruled by diving; there are more than 5 diving centers. We find two restaurants we can try and already drink something at Sabastians, close to the diving club The Shoal. Two Castles and a tuna salad and a hamburger. When it comes to fast food, that’s realty South African. It’s not really healthy, but it’s nice.

After the light lunch we walk to the sea, but we can’t stay there, because the sea is too rough and the weather is unpredictable and it’s cold too. We don’t stay here and return to our B&B and drink something on our terrace. We have a nice room with the best view on the pool. We stay one day longer than intended, but we also need to find stuff to do, in order not to be bored. Just sitting here is not really a good vacation. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. We certainly already go diving, so that’s OK. We watch some TV, rest, watch some more TV and rest some more. This will be a day of driving and do nothing the rest of the day. And that is not so bad after all. We don’t go out anymore for dinner, because we’re not hungry anymore. For lunch we had a huge hamburger and a tuna salad, so that’s enough for the whole day. Timo quickly needs to cross the street to buy some Castles in the liquor store. For a couple of Rand he buys two six-packs, so we’ll have enough for a few days. We drink some and watch some more TV. They broadcast the movie Chuck. We still see about 30 minutes of it and then watch CSI Miami, nice to close for today. At 21:30 we’re in bed and sleep.

 

Wednesday October 28, 2009: Diving on Aliwal Shoal

The alarm calls us at 06:00, but we’re already awake and prepare everything to go diving. The waves are gone this morning and then surf at the beach is less too, even a lot less than on Island Rock. It all looks very promising. We have breakfast close to the pool: a beautiful table with three kinds of cornflakes and stuff, a whole bowl of fresh fruit, some small (already expired for ten days) yoghurts, coffee, a croissant and a muffin. It is very good and not too heavy, so we will be able to dive later today. At 06:45 we leave to the dive center Blue Vision a bit down the road from where we stay. It’s not far, so very nice.

We arrive and we introduce ourselves, we say that we had arranged diving for tomorrow, but for them this is no problem. We are the only divers today with a divemaster (a young guy) and an assistant-instructor (a girl a bit older); they’re a couple. We receive little information about what we’re going to do. When we ask for it, we get the answers, but we need to ask things in order to know more. This is completely different than the Mokarran Dive Charters in Rocktail beach Camp; they gave enough information. We get our suits: the wetsuit for Timo is old and was torn; the kneepads were torn, so there will be little of isolation. Eef has a better one, but that is also overstretched in a lot of places. Timo also has two different colors of fins, bright pink and green; he needs to exceed the upper-gay from Lesvos, Jurgen in one way or another. We drive to the mouth of the Umkomaas. That is nice; they can prepare the boat, load all the equipment, then pick up the divers and depart from an easy accessible spot. That is very nice. We put our vests on and then go ten minutes to our first dive spot.

Stop! Put your fins and masks on! Be ready! We just listen without knowing what is going on. The assistant instructor, who is just diving with us without a reason, says they have spotted a whale shark. A bit further we see a tail and dorsal fin above the surface and can see it’s a big fish of about 6 meters, not very big for a whale shark. They drop us into the water, just in front of the sharks nose and Timo sees him swimming right o him, can only just take a picture, but then more enjoys the sight of the animal itself. The fish swims next to us; we can hardly see him, because the water is green and full of particles. You need to swim fast to follow him and he has no trouble at all of the waves, but we do. This is a great moment; he turns a little bit and then comes back towards us, but then he has enough and swims away. As a normal mortal person you need to swim hard and have a good endurance to follow a whale shark for a while, but the experience is just magnificent. We’ve been waiting for this already a long time.

After about ten minutes everyone climbs back on the boat and then we stop again for a group of dolphins, also beautiful, but now don’t snorkel with them. Now we go straight to the dive spot and we prepare to get out a big zodiac; they call it a duck-something. We get our vests, put them on, put our masks on, then the fins and then we’re ready. We’re not really OK yet when we jump, so tae it easy. Timo has problems with the inflator that was not connected well anymore. We have checked it before we left and then everything was OK. We think it’s strange that then suddenly the connection is not good anymore. Timo is OK, but Eef is not feeling well; she has trouble to be calm and at ease. We surface again. In the meantime we’ve drifted a bit and the skipper with his stupid head wanted to drag us there. That does not work, of course not, we could have guessed that.

So we get back on the boat and wait a bit for the other two; they should ascend quickly now, but it takes about fifteen minute before they are there. That is good leadership and guidance under water, ironically of course. He did not even see we were staying up. We need to stay calm en then going to try again at Raggies Cave. It’s a small cave with on both sides grooves, entrances sort of speak and we stay right in front of it there and watch the raggies. This time everything works out fine, we get down rather easily, don’t feel comfortable because of the surge, but it going OK now. We both of us are being hit against the rocks, but the best thing is to just let you float with the surge and the current. We spot the raggies fast and there are about five or six animals inside the cave, magnificent animals. They don’t really mind the divers and they just pass us by. Eef gets out of the way and then one of them is swimming right at Timo, but no problem, he stays calm and leaves the animals be. Even though this one was a big one, of about 4 meters, that’s an unbelievable experience. We dive some more over the reef without corals, but with many rocks.

A lot of other things grow here, many anemones, they hang to the rock and a long piece that can be moved is wiggling in the surge; this looks different and is beautiful. The rocks are covered very beautifully in several places and three or four nudibranches live here. In the current it is not easy to keep in control over things and on some narrow passages there is quite some current. From time to time a raggie swims by and we also see some schools of snappers. A little boxfish and angelfish. The visibility is not really good, the water is a bit green and that depends on the direction of the wind apparently. It’s also cold: Eef feels chilly after 15 minutes; Timo feels the cold only the last couple of minutes. The temperature is only 18°.

After 40 minutes the divemaster Glenn is starting to ascend and we do our safety stop. Everything is OK after 3 minutes and then we go calmly to the surface. Hand in lead, camera, mask, BCD and then climb on board. On the boat we decide to not have a second dive, because it’s too cold. Timo can go diving with the divemaster alone, but he does not want that. The skipper says he saw a big manta ray, but he can’t relocate it, not even after a search of a few minutes. So we head home. We get out at the beach and then get into the pickup and they bring us back to the dive centre. Again we have to ask everything to them and they don’t ask anything about the dive. They are clearly not interested in their divers, but that was the general impression we have. They were not interested whether we were diving or not and whether we thought it was good or not, a general lack of service. We had a good dive and that’s the most important.

We walk back to our B&B, take a shower, drink a beer and then have another one at Sabastians. We also eat a small snack there: pasta with cream, bacon, paprika and onions (Timo), a toastie with tomato and cheese, fries and salad, all with a half liter Castle. We ask the way to Rocky Bay, because we want to visit the dive centre Blue Wilderness that we will be joining for a dive on Friday. We first want to have a chat with the guys. We find our way around very quickly; it’s about 20 minutes driving and we talk to the two guys there. One is giving a lot of information, shows some pictures of dives and animals. They even gave the fish a name. That’s cool! Wee feel a bit more comfortable now and drive back, park the car behind the fence at Agulhas House and then go to an Internet café. The only person who replied to the previous mail was Jurgen, so we write something back to him.

Then it’s almost five and time for a beer. We’re close to Sabastians, so we drink something there, about two each and then decide that we will stay here and have dinner too. We have line fish with a few shrimps (Timo) and a piece of fish hake with fresh calamari-steak (Eef). Timo has had it with the beer and has a Bacardi cola and in the end we get a bill of 350 ZAR, about 32 Euro. At 19:30 a guy comes here to sing and play the guitar, we stay then for one more drink and then head to bed. We’ve experienced a lot of thins today and are pretty tired. At eight thirty we already are in bed and sleep immediately.

 

Thursday October 29, 2009: Fill our day with a game drive and do nothing

Today we have breakfast a little bit later, because we don’t need to get out of bed specifically for a dive or for something else, so at about eight we go to the breakfast table. It’s the same as yesterday, so simple but good. Our first mission of the day is to find out what we will be doing today, because we don’t dive and need something else to spend our time. Our landlord proposes to have a look in a private game park Tala a little bit further than Umbumbulu; we need to reach it via the N2 and then take the second exit to the R603. We need to follow it for about three quarters of an hour and then we should see indications to the park. Everything he tells us is true. We depart and think we’ve already passed the park, but then suddenly after a bit over an hour we see a road marking to Tala Game Park.

We drive on to the sand/mud road and need to pay 100 ZAR. Their policy is no cash, only with bankcards. They accept all of them, but we only have the card of Eef with us. So we use the card, and are very curious what extra costs we will need to pay on these 10 Euro. We enter and notice there is a road to the hippo hide and to the bird hide: small houses to spy on hippos and birds. On a few roads we’re not able to drive with the little Spark, so we don’t take the risk. Coots are building their nests, just like the swallows, the cormorants and the darters. We don’t see a hippo, but we spot Egyptian geese and a few ibises. We drive through the landscape, encounter a few zebras, a couple of giraffes eat in the distance from the tree leaves.

We only follow the thick lines on the map, because even there sometimes it’s slippery, but with the driving skills of Timo we’ll manage. Suddenly a gnu walks over the path, crosses the road and moves on through the landscape. Four adult ostriches are here too and they have a big nest of chicks and even they are already bigger than an average chicken. We see the park for about an hour and then stop at the restaurant for a coffee. The weather is still not better, the wind picks up and it even started to rain a bit. The clouds are grey; nowhere we see the sun or even a piece of the blue sky. Just south of Durban the weather is bad. We can’t pay the coffee in cash, so we need to use the card again; The MasterCard would have been better here to use.

We see another herd of gnus, a smaller pack of zebras, an antelope that we haven’t seen before with a white stripe on its forehead, a nyala and a couple of beautiful birds. An eagle sits in a tree, but we can’t come close enough. We follow the signs to the exit and drive back home. When we’re just on the R603 we see we leave a very big trail of mud and the mud is splashing on the front windows of the cars behind us. Hertz is going to like this. We again drive one hour back to Umkomaas and look at he beautiful landscape on our way back.

We laugh with what we see here along the side of the road and later on the highway, because in the end that is not normal. The N2 has four lanes with a diving tree zone in between and here we see people walking and crossing; they even have small containers with them to sell fruits. In the meantime we’re already used of seeing this, but it remains amazing what is possible here. At a certain moment there is even someone on his belly with his head on the side lane. He will have enough of exhaust gases for the day today. When we arrive in Umkomaas we have a beer at Sabastians and have a salad with tuna and toasty with chicken. It’s a little bit chilly so we don’t stay too long, but return to the room and decide what we’ll do the day after tomorrow. The weather is bad, so we can do something useful: drink beer, make plans, backup the pictures and write the reports.

We watch some TV and discuss where we will go to in Drakensberg and already look forward to our shark dive tomorrow. Eef is a nervous and Timo also a little bit, but he won’t admit it to Eef. We stay in bed and decide at about six we still need some food. Dusk starts when we leave and we walk directly to Sabastians, order cola, Bacardi cola and two small dishes: scampi and a vegetarian dish. Then another Bacardi, which actually is J&B, but that’s OK for Timo. Also after dinner we have a glass of red wine and a gin tonic and then go home. There is nobody on the streets and it’s dark. It is so quiet that we find it a bit creepy, but we reach the B&B in a couple of minutes, so we don’t worry. We watch a movie: There’s something about Mary with a lot of commercials in between, but we’re watching E-TV, the South African commercial television. At about ten thirty it is bedtime, the movie has ended and we can dream about sharks and stuff for tomorrow.

 

Friday October 30, 2009: Shark Dive in Rocky Bay

We both have restless night and awake at a bit before five in the morning; that is a bit early because we only need to be in Rocky Bay at 07:30. We sleep a little longer and sometimes are awake and in the end it’s 06:30 when we start packing all our gear and are ready for breakfast. Just a light breakfast; a croissant, a bit of fruit and some coffee and a yogurt (dates are already two weeks expired). We put everything in the car and leave on time to Blue Wilderness, where we went also the day before yesterday. We already know the road very well and arrive on time. We arrive first after our divemaster James of course, but apparently there is someone else joining, a Swedish guy, Fred. They picked him up at Umkomaas and arrive a bit after us. This guy has a big camera and housing and sells pictures to magazines and websites. We need to get a lot better before we can do that.

We try our wetsuit and vests and within 30 minutes we’re ready to leave, but we take everything slowly and we drink another cup of coffee and have a biscuit. Then we go to the boat; all our gear is there already and we can go. We think that at least. It takes more than ten minutes before the skipper can break over the waves, because it’s low tide and he does not want to get stuck on a sandbank. Wave one is OK, wave two is OK, but then we see a wave coming to us and think: not OK. And indeed not OK, the wave comes to us and breaks completely in the boat. The wave even takes the anchor out of the boat. What should we do now, because we really need an anchor. We turn back and James enters the water and tries to retrieve the anchor from the current when he’s snorkeling. It is really stupid what he’s doing, because we see that he’s being hit against the rocks. Fifteen minutes later he comes back on board without the anchor, so we’ll have to improvise.

We have just left the surf and see a group of bottlenose dolphins pass y; they don’t seem to mind the surf or the waves. It’s difficult to take pictures, so we leave them and go to our first dives pot: Cathedral, the one we were not able to do last time. First they leave the washing drum with bait for the blacktips and the tiger sharks with an improvised anchor. They put some lead to a rope of 30 meters and then lower it down with a buoy and the drum with fish waste to a depth of about 6 meters. Then for the real first dive. Now everything is OK, no problem to descend and already at four meters depth we see a blacktip and then go to the bottom at 27. We see a big arch where the raggies swim in and out. We ensure negative buoyancy and lower ourselves to the rock on the bottom and watch the raggies. In total there are twelve raggies at Cathedral, a potato bass that we just miss and a school of small fish. Also seaweeds grow here and they are pretty how they move with the current, which is not really strong here. We can just lie still. There is nothing more to it and after 20 minutes James ends the dive. We’re close to our limit; another two minutes at 27 meters, so we ascend and stop the dive.

We knew upfront that the first dive would not be a long one, so no problem. Otherwise it would be too late when we were back at the dive center. We have our safety stop and go on board. The same blacktip says goodbye now and after half an hour our first dive of the day has ended. And we thought it was really nice: those raggies look frightening, but they leave the divers alone. Then we set sail to the ‘bait’. On our way there we see dolphins again: a group of about thirty animals. A bit further a turtle surfaces to breathe for a few minutes; that is also always a pretty sight. After ten minutes we arrive to where the buoy is and we prepare for our second dive of the day. We are out of the water for about forty minutes, so that’s perfect for the second dive.

They throw some sardines in the water and we immediately see about fifteen fins out of the water, swarming with sharks by now: blacktip reef sharks, and dusky sharks. In total there are about 30 sharks here. If they start to fight for the food we think: damn, what’s this going to be, but they ensure us that it’s all safe. Yeah right, is what Eef is thinking, I’m not jumping into this, not for the money of the whole world. We put our gear on and prepare for the dive. Then suddenly Timo is pale and blue and other colors and needs to hang over the edge of the boat. A bit seasick of the waves and the surge: in the end we’re already in this boat for over three hours or in the water. James and Frederick are already in the water and don’t wait for us. The skipper lets us in and then James also helps Eef until Timo is in the water. Everyone is ready to go. We conquer our fear of sharks and now we’re between a swarm of blacktips. We descend to 5 meters and only then we see how elegant these animals are: graceful and beautiful. We go down to the level of the drum and stay there, Eef with here right arm hooked in the left arm of Timo and that way we’re watching sharks.

They really come very close, sometimes to half a meter. From that close distance you look at them completely different. We try to have control over our buoyancy, but that’s not easy, because the sharks are close to us and a person is distracted by it. Sometimes a shark even collides with us or with our fins, but after a few times you’re not surprised anymore. Eef even starts to enjoy the sharks around her after a few minutes, but a bit later it’s too much for her, especially because the number of sharks increases and it’s confusing. Before she reaches panic mode she wants to get out and maybe that’s a wise decision. James snorkels with us and guides Eef to the boat and then watches over the safety of Timo and Frederick. All OK? Yes, perfect. Timo only needs a few words and then goes towards the dark adventure all by himself. It is very courageous that Eef went in, because she dreamt of it the last two days and never thought she would jump. She said of herself that she was stupid when she jumped in… But yet again we’ve pushed some limits.

At five meters Timo hangs next to the drum and Frederick is nearby and also James comes to check if all is OK. The guiding is very good and not like we earlier experienced with Blue Vision, that divemaster only asked once if everything was OK and James already did this at the first dive and now again a few times. Timo loves the sharks and the dive on itself and tries to stay at 5-6 meters and takes some picture of the sharks surrounding him. A marvelous feeling, between these fierce animals and in the end they don’t do anything. A few times a shark with a fishhook in the side of his mouth closes down on Timo and that is not nice. That shark’s mouth is really distorted by the hook and you can see the teeth constantly and the visibility is not really good. So after half an hour Timo has seen enough, but we’ve gained an unbelievable experience.

Back on the boat we wait until the other to come up and then we’re ready to sail home. Within half an hour we’re there and now it’s easy to beach the boat, because it’s high tide. The rocks from both sides are no longer visible and we get to land without a problem. Two winches are installed and that way the boat is brought to the beach. We take our cameras with us and already can have a shower. The hot water is very good, because we saw only a few blue spots between the grey clouds, but that’s better than non. The rain has started and comes and goes. After the shower we receive a certificate of the dive center and then we drive to Umkomaas. We first need something, because Timo’s stomach is empty. A hamburger and two Castle for only 66 ZAR. Then we return to Agulhas House and write our logbooks and the travel reports and watch the first pictures. There are a lot of bad pictures there caused by the bad visibility, but also a few amazing shots. At Cathedral the visibility was ten meters and during the shark dive only about five.

We rest, sit on our terrace and enjoy just the fact of still being on holiday. That will end as of next week, so let’s enjoy. Then Eef starts to pack like crazy. Timo rests on the bed, but does not sleep. We don’t want to get to bed too late, so we have an early dinner. At about six we are not really hungry yet, but we already have an aperitif and an hour later we order our dinner: chicken schnitzel and fettuccini.  Everything almost tastes the same and after over two weeks of hotel food and restaurant food a person is yearns for something normal. We drink Bacardi cola and Gin tonic and after we have eaten we head for our bed. We watch a while some bad TV: ‘Noot vir noot’, a typical Friday evening program, then Rocky V, but we don’t watch to the end and sleep at about nine thirty after a whole day of emotions.

 

Saturday October 31, 2009: Travel to and walk in Drakensberg

We are woken up by a beautiful morning sun, sleep a bit longer until past six and then start to pack the hand luggage and the big bag pack. The hand luggage is already a normal thing, everything has it’s own place and it’s very easy. The big bag pack takes a bit longer, but after seven we’re finished. We sit on the terrace for some tea and coffee and enjoy the sun; it’s a beautiful day. Of course the weather is nice the day we are traveling, but that’s better than darkness and rain. The see does not benefit from that, because there is a lot of wind and diving would not have been possible. We have breakfast, pay the extra day we arrived too early (740 ZAR) and say goodbye to Umkomaas. Yesterday was a perfect closure and we like it a lot here.

Quickly we stop at the Spar for water, cola and deodorant for Timo and then we take the N2 direction Durban. The first stop is to fill up the tank, because we had passed the last fuel stripe. The first time we fueled up we bought 220 ZAR, so we ask for 200 and the guy can only fill it to 150; a little bit of a bungler, because after that we drove for half an hour and the tank was again half. That is not a full tank, is it? After 30 minutes we arrive in Durban and see the Indian Ocean for the last time: goodbye, see you next time. We then take in Durban the N3 to Pietermaritzburg and here Johannesburg is indicated for 558 kilometers; that’s quite a distance, so that’s why we want to stop in Drakensberg, so we don’t have to drive too far the last day.

We drive and drive and the sun is shining, very hard even and that makes it hot at certain moments, but we refuse to use the airco; we need some more sun and warmth to be able to go through the Belgian winter. After a few hours we stop in the neighborhood of Estcourt, and then it’s not actually that far anymore, but hell yeah a coffee break is always welcome. The exit to Bergville is indicated, the R74 and it’s that one we need, because we prefer to sleep close to Winterton. From that town we can easily visit Central and Northern Drakensberg. We follow the N74 for about 20 kilometer and arrive in Winterton. We ask at Swallows B&B, at Lilac House B&B and at the local hotel for available rooms, but nowhere there are rooms available for two nights: apparently there is plenty of things to do today and tomorrow, so there is no room available. Cathedral Peak is one of the places we wanted to see, so we decide to go that direction.

The forty kilometers from Winterton to Cathedral Peak take us about 45 minutes, but we have a great view the whole ride. What we currently see of the Drakensberg is a marvelous, beautiful landscape. We ascend and descend and follow small paths and cross small rivers. At a very narrow bridge we should have stopped, because there was an African community doing their laundry. Two younger girls stand next to the river and have a rope around their neck to hang the clothes to dry. Luckily the weather is nice – still – because otherwise it would take too long. Everyone is running around with dirty and clean laundry. Then we arrive at the gate of the nature park of the Northern Drakensberg and should pay an entrance fee. We say we want to stay in one of the hotels, but that we don’t have a reservation. They let us in and say we can have a look if there are rooms available and that we need to return and pay the entrance if we don’t find anything. Cool.

We go to Didima and ask if there is a room available for the next two nights. It seems as if they have never done this, two people without a reservation, but who still check the camp. They have a room for s with a kitchen, number 39A and that looks good. It is a little bit more expensive than we would have wanted, but to hell with that; the surroundings between the mountains is splendid and that is invaluable. We quickly put everything in our room and have a snack for lunch: toast with tomato and cheese and calamari basket with Castle: nice and not to heavy.

Then we immediately start a walk. There are maps here with the most beautiful walks and viewpoint and we follow Rainbow Gorge: a short walk of about the three hours that we shorten to 2.5. We have our walking boots with us and walk up; there the path splits into two and we go left, the least steep part. We walk up and down through the high grasses and then the landscape changes to bushes and suddenly it gets wetter and the trees get bigger; it almost seems like a tropical rainforest, so green, so high trees and lianas and stuff. Temperature has dropped significantly, but that’s OK, because at the beginning of the climb it was steep and we were sweating. We reach a small waterfall and there we decide to turn back and go back to our room. We want to avoid that we need to return in the dark, because that could be not so funny. Also we did not register our names that we were on a hike, so they will not be looking for us when we get lost. The way back takes us about the same amount of time and we are back in about two hours and a half. Then it’s time to write more reports and rest a bit; the efforts for today are enough.

The baboons run on the premises and time and time again we’re surprised when we encounter one. Also surprising is the view, when we look around. We see high peaks that sometimes have snow on them. The landscape is very green, but very beautiful thanks to the rock formations and certainly when then sun lets her rays shine on them. After our return the weather is not so sunny anymore, but we see clouds coming over the high peaks and they will cause some rain. Not at this moment though. Dusk starts and we watch some TV before we are ready for dinner.

We have a salad first and then wok, chicken with vegetables and we drink a nice bottle of wine with it. The last stop should be one to remember, so we don’t want any restrictions here. We drink the wine and go back to our room with a full moon that disappears sometimes between the clouds, then we watch some TV and go to sleep. We’ve done quite some things today and we’re happy we can go to sleep.

 

Sunday November 1, 2009: Hike to the Bushmen’s paintings

A clear sky with a lot of blue and a lot of sun welcomes us at about five. We stay in bed, but when we get up at seven the weather is less. We see clouds appearing from over the mountains and there is not that many sunshine anymore. We arrange a hike to the paintings without having breakfast. For the price of 200 ZAR this works out fine and we are brought to Cathedral Peak Hotel at 08:20 and there the hike tarts with a guide. First part is over a concrete road and we think this is going well, if it continues like this. Of course this road stops when we’re out of the hotel domain.

From here the path winds along and over a river and we see the beautiful rock formations of Drakensberg. It is unbelievably beautiful: behind us we see Cathedral Peak and The Bell, a rock in the shape of a clock. We walk through the green landscape of small trees and ferns and cycads and reach Doreen Falls after one hour. The rocks are very hard here on the top and over these rocks the water flows. The rocks are softer underneath and there the paintings are drawn at a higher altitude. From the falls it is only one more kilometer steep uphill; we have one break on a hanging rock and can enjoy the marvelous mountain landscape. A bit further there is another fall and on the top of the mountains you can see the water running down. That looks like shining rivers that come down from the edge. A bit later we reach the cave we need to see. The cave is not big, but just a hanging rock and underneath that the paintings have been made.

The Bushmen created these paintings with fat, oil and clay or blood depending on the colors they need. They pictured things from daily life. We see children playing, a shaman who thinks he’s an impala or something and also men running away from a leopard. It’s not really very big, because the bigger paintings are not open to the public; those are under conservation of Didima and are only accessible for scientists. The ones we visit are damaged by wind and rain and that is what they want to avoid for the others. Our guide Khudu explains different things about the paintings and also what can be seen in the mountains. It’s really fun. The walk to the cave is very steep the last moments; we can catch some breath and then start our way back. To descend takes a little bit less effort, but it is a bit tougher for the knees. We see a few people come up with another guide and they look really small from our altitude. When we’re down there, they have reached the top and we see small spots, but can just see that they’re humans.

Without hesitation, but with enjoyment we return to the hotel and there we are brought back with the jeep to our own hotel. We can check the model of Drakensberg and nose about in the curio shop. A few minutes later we back in our room, put some shorts on, because the sun has started shining and her done that the complete morning. Then we go to the restaurant. This morning we did not take breakfast, so we are not going to skip lunch today. We have a toast with chicken and a salad with chicken and drink Castle. Then it’s time for a siesta in our room with a view on Drakensberg itself. This location is just marvelous, unbelievably beautiful.

We want to enjoy our last moments in South Africa and the rest and peace and quietness here. We reserve dinner at the reception for tonight and then we take the car to Didima Rock Centre; of course; it’s a 15-minute walk. There we can study the history of the SAN-people; they are the original inhabitants of this region, but the museum is not really interesting. For us it was surprising that the SAN also made rock paintings about big birds, fish and bee-attacks. Thanks to the clear characteristics in the paintings scientists were even capable of identifying which species of birds and fish were drawn. Then we use the Internet to see is our flight times have changed or not and quickly check our mails and our site. Actually it was slowly because the connection was not that fast.

After 15 minutes we return to our room and watch some TV and take a bath. The bath is small, so we need to take turns to have a bath. First Timo, then we need to make the water hotter again and then Eef. Timo can’t find his T-shirt of Mokarran and Eef thinks: yeah right, he’s just not looking good enough, but then Eef comes out of the bath and sees that also her T-shirt has also disappeared. That’s something else. Two pairs of socks and a short are also gone, but that’s not that bad. The T-shirts were from the dive center and that has a deeper memory and we think it a pity they’re gone. We check everything again and unload our bags. No luck. But Timo does not leave it at this and goes to the reception to complain. The guy at the counter is really friendly and calls in the cleaning supervisor. Timo joins here and checks what has all been brought of dirty wash from this afternoon. At the moment we returned from the hike they were still cleaning the room, so maybe they took it by accident. Not! Stolen rather! We return to our room and prepare for diner and tell the guy at the reception they could not find anything. He suggests to cal his supervisor and he calls her. By accident this is the same woman who brought us to Cathedral Peak Hotel; she takes notes and tries to go for a solution. Appointment tomorrow at the reception or at the curio shop.

We order a bottle of red wine: Hartenberg from Stellenbosch, have a Greek salad and trout. Despite the incident of the theft the trout with normal potatoes tastes nice. The sauce with it is not really good, but the fish is great, not normal trout but a pink one: rainbow trout, from Drakensberg itself. We have a second bottle of wine at the bar and talk and laugh and can already look back at a great vacation. We also send a text to Roel, who is diving the first time in Egypt this week and wish him a nice vacation.

 

Monday November 2, 2009: Departure from Drakensberg to Johannesburg and London

We sleep long, because we’re not in a hurry today. We need to drive about three to four hours and we only need to be in Johannesburg by 17:00, because the flight is at 20:15. We don’t rush, slowly prepare our bags, drink a coffee on the terrace and take a shower before our breakfast. We put everything in the car and drive the 50 meters from our parking spot to the reception. Breakfast is already completely prepared and we have an omelet with everything (onion, cheese, tomato, paprika and mushrooms) and some cornflakes with coffee and a juice. We make sure we have enough, because it will take some time before we will have something good to eat, probably until tomorrow when we’re home.

After breakfast we go to Vioni to make arrangements for our shirts. She calls the number of Mokarran we gave here, but needs to try again at 14:00, because Michelle or Clive are not at the dive shop; they’re probably at sea for diving. We’re not going to wait for it, but we give our information so she can contact us. She wants to buy the shirts from Mokarran and have them shipped to our home. This could just be her letting us think that we will get them. We don’t want to loose our faith in humanity, so we’ll need to think she really wants to help us. Vioni also offered to choose a T-shirt from her curio shop to replace the dive shorts. They are more expensive, so she probably thinks that we’ll accept, but it’s more important to us to get the ones from the dives as a good memory.

We already have loaded everything and then leave by car to Johannesburg. First again the mountain roads to Winterton and take a turn in Bernville, where we stop for fuel and then follow direction Ladysmith to reach the N3 to Johannesburg. Everything goes well and don’t need to rush, but only drive 100 or 110 per hour. We have taken enough water from the fridge, but that tastes funny, so we stop at the first road shop (Shell) to buy cola. We’re already driving two hours, so we stretch our legs and discuss what will be the best thing to do: eat now or wait. We decide to drive another 150 kilometer and then stop for lunch.

Everything is going well and there is not a lot of traffic, which is very nice. Along the highway we regularly see road works, that causes a bit slower traffic and we also see a lot of people hitchhiking. We drive over the Van Reenen Pass on a very high altitude and move on there. We regularly spot eagles and other birds of prey and also a typical species of finch with a very long black tail. Timo loves this. After about 1.5 hours driving we stop for lunch. We have at Wimpy a hamburger menu and a cheeseburger. The weather is good, so we eat outside. It’s a typical fast food dish, but like it, because we’re already hungry. Then in one go we drive to the airport. On the N3 the OR Tambo International Airport is clearly indicated, so we find it without any problems. Also the car rental drop off is clearly marked and also that does not pose any problems. At the end Timo is again driving on the right side of the road, but that’s OK, because as of tomorrow he needs to start doing that again anyway.

We deliver the car, when they check it, they have a weird gaze on their face, because it’s completely covered with mud, but the don’t mind: they have to clean it anyway. We started with 429 kilometers on the counter of this new car and by now we have done 3470, not bad for such a short period. We make sure we remove everything from the car and hand in the key. Everything is OK so we go to the departure hall, where we need to look for the check-in to London. There is nothing mentioned for London so Timo goes out and checks at the British Airways desk where he needs to be. We need to have terminal A and rather easily see we need to go to the check-in counter for flight BA55. That is a bit more difficult. Apparently with the change from the morning to the evening flight the ticket of Timo was rebooked, but Eef’s ticket wasn’t. It takes about 45 minutes to get it done, but there are other people who were before us, who are still making arrangements. No complaints from our side.

We check out some shops after the customs check and buy cigarettes for Patrik and Linda and some water and chewing gum. We drink a couple of Castle draught (the last ones here) and enjoy the sight of the departing and landing airplanes. There we spend our last Rands and the cigarettes can be paid with MasterCard, that’s easy. We change gates twice, from A30 to A7 and back to A30. Time flies, because we keep ourselves busy and we can start boarding at 19:30. If everything keeps on going this smooth, everything is done OK. But it can’t be all that smooth. We’re already on board and apparently the flight is overbooked and they have ‘seating issues’. This causes a delay of 50 minutes and we only have 1 hour and 40 minutes in London to catch our connecting flight. That won’t work, we fear. We’ll see about that tomorrow. Now we immediately receive food and drinks, we watch ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ and then try to get some sleep, but not as good as when we came here.

 

Tuesday November 3, 2009: Arrival in London and home

We sleep a bit and rest and then are awake and follow the progress of the flight. About two hours before we arrive in London Timo watches CSI New York on the small DVD screens and then we get breakfast just before landing. Another hour and we’re there and then can fly to Brussels. We land at 05:55 and need to have our flight at 06:55. We get out race to connecting flights and there someone is directing us to the correct gate. When we arrive at the connections control center we appear to be late to catch our flight. They have to put us on the next one at 08:55, so we need to wait for two hours. That’s not a lot, but too much if you’ve just been on a plane for 11 hours.

We can’t help it, so we just go to the next check, drink some coffee and wait until we can see which gate we need to choose. Eef checks out the airport, spends the last pence, except for 1 and Timo finishes the travel report completely. When he’s home he only needs to do the last flight and that’s it. In the end the last things from the vacation were the least pleasant, but the delay is not 24 hours as we’ve already had. In the end this travel will classify as one of the best we’ve ever had, sorry Costa Rica, but we think South Africa will be better. Nothing can be better than the dives at Aliwal Shoal and Island Rock and newt to the also Kruger Park rules. Together with everything else this is top. The plane leaves on time, it departs even a few minutes early. That’s good, because we’re home faster now. After a flight of an hour we’re back in Belgium; Maurits and Betty pick us up and we go home. We’re happy to see Cartouche again. Well, that’s it for this time. These three weeks were great, unbelievable.

 

On January 18th we received a package from South Africa. That were the T-shirts shipped from Michelle of Mokarran Dive Charters to Vioni of Didima at the Drakensberg and have arrived in good condition with us. Thanks a lot to Vioni and Michelle to arrange this. It was a pleasant surprise that they still got shipped in the end to Belgium.