For the next section of the tour, Barbara and I had to fly from Port Elizabeth to Durban. It's Sunday and we don't have to start the tour and meet our driver/guide until Tuesday morning. The flight wasn't till about 12:30pm so I could have a bit of a lay in since rain is still in the forecast. It's a very rough flight due to the high winds and rain but we land safely in Durban and are transferred to the highrise Southern Sun North Beach Hotel. All the rooms look out onto the ocean and I have a wonderful view from the 21st floor. At check-in I'm warned not to walk along the beach with a purse or camera. Durban is a large city and I has a problem with theft along the beachfront. It's still raining heavily so I watch the surfers from my room but manage to brave the rain to go to a pub/restaurant for dinner around the corner.
Today, was a free day in Durban to enjoy by yourself or take one of the optional tours. Both Barbara and I were interested in a full day tour that headed into Lesotho, to a mountainous area called Sani Pass. Since the forcast was very grim (snow at higher elevations) and some of the mountain roads are only accessable by 4x4 in good weather we both passed on spending about $200 for the day trip. Good thing we did pass on that day trip. The newspaper the next morning showed snow blanketing the northern park of Lesotho and the southern & central Drakensberg mountain range leaving adventure racers stranded and lots of road collisions. Durban didn't get any snow however at some times the rain did look like snowflakes from the 21st floor. I spent most of day watching movies or reading in my room but the rain finally looked like it was clearing late in the day so I did about an hour's walk along the beach path.
Tuesday morning it finally looked like nice weather was back. Linda our new driver/guide showed up in a new Toyota Corolla. Since there is only 2 of us the company uses a car instead of a mini-coach. It's nice to be able to sit up a bit higher in a coach but I understand the reasoning for using a car. Leaving Durban on the N2 we head east along the coast before turning to the north to Shakaland overlooking Lake Phobane. Shakaland is what a typical Zululand village would have looked like many years ago. It was built many years ago for a mini-series and is used as a museum today. A guided tour takes you through the time of the great warrior Shaka the King of the Zulus. You see small bits from the movie and then are shown around many of the huts to see weaving, making zulu beer. Workers are in traditional style clothes and then in the King's hut they put on a dance demonstration. Protea Hotels as even converted some of the huts into hotel rooms for people who want to experience that type of accommodation.
After a buffet lunch we continue driving through the the rolling countryside with orange groves and sugar cane fields to our hotel, the Protea Umfolozi River. It's an early start in the morning for a 6am game drive through Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park in an open 4x4 vehicle. Blankets keep us warm until the sun gets up a bit higher. The park is set in pretty countryside but it's quite thick with vegetation so it's difficult to see the animals. We spot warthogs, zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, cape buffalo and impala. Two near animals for my records, we see nyala a deer like animal and 4 white rhinos. I only saw black rhino in Tanzania. White rhinos are the same color as black ones, they are both grey in colour. Many years ago, english settlers misunderstood white for wide when asking about these rhinos. They really are wide mouth rhinos. White rhinos have squared wide mouths since they are grazers along the grass, where black rhino have a more pointed curved lip since they need to grasp and eat tree branches. The picnic stop for breakfast had lots of baboons on the cliff across the river and a plenty of birds flying and singing about.
Linda, met up with us at Memorial Gate at the end of the tour and we headed north passing many sugar fields or other game parks before entering Swaziland at the southeast corner. We have to get our passports stamped out of S.A. and into Swaziland at the border but it doesn't take long. Swaziland, like S.A. is still very poor but as younger people become more educated and start yearning money they seem to help their parents build modern cement homes. In the south part of the country you can still see a few of the traditional small round mud thatched huts left but Linda tells us she has really started to see a difference in her years as guiding tours in the area. Swaziland grows a lot of sugar cane and pinapple. The mountains get higher as you drive north and I'm surprised that the roads are in very good condition like the roads in S.A.
We drive by the old King's burial park and stop to see a candle factory that helps support some local workers. Many of the candles are hand made and sculpted into animal shapes. Nearby we spend the night at the Ezulwini Sun Hotel which is part of a large 3 hotel, casino, spa, golf resort. The next morning, the weather is great once again and we stop by a glass factory to see hand glass-blowing artistans at work. The Pigs Peak area is also know as Little Switzerland for it's beautiful mountain scenery.
Even though I could only stay 1 night in Swaziland, I was glad to be able to see a country that my Great Aunt Grace lived in for many years. She left England probably around 1915-1920 and was a missionary. At that time she taught some of the King's many children and definitely lived very basic surroundings since even the king lived in mud and grass huts back then. Not like today where the current kings spends his money on his private jets and seems more interested in buying mutiple Rolls Royces and picking out another 14yr old virgin every couple of years to add to his collection of wives. I always enjoyed the old family photos of Aunt Grace in Swaziland and especially enjoyed exploring the shoebox full of old beaded jewellry that mum has keep in her closet. I'll now have to have another look at all that family history.
Leaving the northwest corner of Swaziland, we drive into Mpumalanga and have only a short distance to go to the southern edge of Kruger National Park, one of the largest game and nature reserves. The Pestana Kruger Lodge is right along the river and I enjoyed watching the sunset and seeing crocs and hippos from the balcony.
Up at 5am for an early morning game drive at 6am. Once again it's cold in the morning so blankets need to keep us warm for a while. There was a beautiful sunrise but I was disappointed in the lack of animals that we saw in the early morning hours but lots of birds about. A picnic lunch stop showed photos that sometimes elephant or even leopards will wander into the picnic area but all we saw was birds. I was happy to finally get a good close up pic of the hornbills. After breakfast, back on the road and not far to go before we see a white rhino along the roadside and a herd of elephants. The other usual animals like zebra, giraffe were seem, but where are all the lions and leopards. Kruger is suppose to have lots of them but they were all a bit camera shy I guess. Back to the lodge by 2pm and time for a nap and quick dinner out on the balcony before going on a night drive. I enjoyed the night drive and was able to see a fair number of animals but still no big cats even with someone stopping us and telling us that a pride of lions had just crossed the road a few km's up. Around that spot, we only saw a spotted hyena running down the road towards us with a look of fright on his face and a constant check behind him. I guess he saw the lions that we missed and was frightened away since he wasn't with his pack. I was able to get a very quick glimpse of a bushbaby in a tree by the road and did see a few owls on the hunt.
On Sat. morning we needed to drive through one area of Kruger in order to head to our next destination. Linda did give us a nice scenic drive on some of the smaller dirt roads throughout the park hoping we would find the elusive lion or leopard to round out our Big 5 but saw just about everything else. We left Kruger seeing only 3 out of the Big 5, the buffalo, rhino and elephant. The weather continued to be beautiful as we traveled via a scenic panorama route to God's Window lookout and the Blyde River Canyon. As beautiful as this area is, much of the mountain scenery is taken up with clear cut areas for the logging industry. The logging industry plants rows upon rows of non-native Cdn Pine and Gum Trees so the natural thick native forests are almost gone. There's also been many recent forest fires blackening some of slopes. We stopped at a beautiful waterfall as the sun was setting which meant the last hour of the scenic drive was in the dark but we arrived safely at the very fancy Emnotweni Sun Resort in Nelspruit. There was a large casino and shopping mall across the road so I took a quick peek before picking up a pizza and heading back to my room.
Sunday morning, I overslept my alarm but luckily we didn't have to leave until 930 this morning. Heading west through farmland of mainly orchards like oranges, mango, nut trees and sugar cane but still very hilly area. The road climbs up to the top of a flat plateau to fields of corn and soyabeans. Looks a bit like Kent Country I think. We arrive into Jo'burg around 3pm. I was told by the tour company that the tour ended around 5pm so I didn't try to fly out tonight. If I knew I'd be in town by that time I could have easily flown out tonight and saved the money for room, dinner and airport transfer that I booked. Linda gave us a quick look at some of the Jo'burg suburbs and we passed by Nelson Mandela's current home before being dropped off at the Twickenham B&B in Auckland Park. It's in a nice area but still advised not to walk around at night. Jo'burg is a very crime ridden city, even in good neighbourhoods. I spend the next morning wandering the neighbourhood before heading off to the airport.
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