After a 5 month “sabbatical” from updating the blog, I am ready to begin again.

Last I wrote, Mike and I had taken the month of August off of workaways and traveled to Bali and South Africa. My last entry was about our vacation in Bali. Here is an update on our trip to South Africa,  the biggest item on my bucket list.

After we left Bali we flew back to Cairns Australia and did some shopping for clothing we would need for our 2 week South African safari.

On August 14th we flew from Cairns to Sydney and the next morning we flew to Johannesburg South Africa. We spent the night at a hotel in Johannesburg, which felt like being in Vegas. This was a kind of let down for me.

The next day we flew out to Hoedspruit and were met by our guide who was to take us to the game reserve. The first thing we saw while we were waiting for our bags was a giraffe walking around next to the airport. So THIS was Africa (little squeal).

We were driven to the Makutsi Safari Springs game reserve, about one hour west of Kruger National Park.
Upon our arrival we met with the guest coordinator. He told us we were not allowed to leave our thatched Rondavels (see pic) between 5:30 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. Dinner was served at 7:00 pm and if we were not at the common thatched bar area they would come and get us by van and bring us back to our Rondavel after dinner. Mike and I just stared at each other – WHAT? we can’t leave our Rondavel? Well the coordinator must have been used to the look on people’s faces and quickly explained. The reserve is 40,000 acres and there are no fences to separate us from the animals. They do not interfere with the natural life of the animals. This means they don’t feed them, medically attend to them, or stop them from tasting the tourists once in a while. (lol). They live naturally and that means they can walk through the guests area at will. We were told we could stay out on our porch during these “vulnerable” hours and if we heard something at night just head into the Rondavel and enjoy the animal from safety. When they came to picked us up or drop us off for dinner, the driver walks you to and from the door while carrying a tranquilizer gun.

  

We did see some animals in the day walking through the “human” area such as monkeys, impalas, Kudus, etc.  The funniest was this crazy bird that keep standing at our glass door looking in.

When we walked around the guest areas in the day, we were told the safe area was marked off by these signs with different animals on it. We were not to pass the signs. The more dangerous animals usually did not come any closer then the signs in the day time.

Was I scared? NO WAY! This was the African safari I had dreamed off and I was not disappointed.

We ate breakfast outside each morning and went on several driving safaris each day in an open land rover. At night we would sit by the watering hole and sip wine and see any wildlife that wanted to show itself before dinner. The beating of the drums signaled the start of dinner.

 

The safari rides where wonderful. We saw so many animals. We were chased by a dominant male elephant who decided he had enough of us. Those land rovers can go pretty fast in reverse (LOL).


The most fascinating animal was the male lion. He had not been seen for several months and everyone was very excited when Mike said, “I see him”. He just stopped in the middle of the road for about 3 minutes and truly looked like he knew he is considered the “king of the jungle”. A few minutes later we were lucky enough to see 2 lionesses and their cubs come running by. THIS was South Africa.

We saw so many animals on the reserve.

Here a some of them….

impalas, kudus, wilderbeasts, etc.

Hippos..

Giraffes…

Rhinos…

water buffalos. The little birds eat bugs off of them – even up their nose.

Baboons and Monkeys…

Zebras…

Wart hogs It was not easy to get a picture of this mom and baby.

 

Birds and other animals…

         

And beautiful scenery…

Ok maybe this bit of “scenery” isn’t so nice.  But this is a typical electrical pole.

 

We traveled one day to a place called the Blyde River Canyon to see the Bourke’s Luck Pot holes in Ehlanzeni. Here at the mouth of the Blyde River Canyon, the two rivers formed swirling eddies of water. Over time, this formed huge cylindrical potholes in the sandstone bedrock. The effect, seen from the crags above, is now a fascinating network of tunnels and tubes and interconnected whirling pools. The different soil levels in each hole give them each a unique color and makes for a striking and colorful landscape.

We also visited the second largest canyon in Africa, Blyde River Canyon. It is one of the largest canyons on Earth and has lush subtropical foliage.

We had decided to include a walking safari in our adventures at Makutsi Safari Springs. So for 2 nights we moved to a separate part of the reserve to a tented camp. The tents are high up on stilts and had a bathroom in each one. Not to shabby. It was only Mike, myself, a nice young girl, and our guide. On the first morning we got up very early, drove out to the drop off point and had coffee and muffins, etc. out on the reserve, all the while watching for wildlife.

 
We started our walk and our guide taught us all about the vegetation and poop analysis. That’s right “poop analysis”. We all picked it up and had to determine what animal had deposited the little (or large) brown gifts for us to see. We looked at what was in the poop such as grass, grain… how the poop had scattered or not, how far apart the gift piles are, etc. How fascinating! We did not however pick up any poop that was steaming. LOL

At one point the guide stuck a piece of straw in a small hole in the ground and pulled out this scorpion.

As we continued our walk our guide told us not speak because it would scare off the wildlife. If we had something to say we were to slap our leg and we would all stop. We were tracking rhinos and had to be careful to approach them quietly and downwind so they would not run away. It took us the entire day but we did find the crash (a group of rhinos) and learned a lot along the way.

 

When we returned at night we had wine and a nice dinner waiting for us.


The next morning we had breakfast, took another walk around the reserve and returned back to our tents to have some leisure time before dinner. We had a watering hole that we could see from our porch. While Mike napped, I watched as all the wildlife came to get a drink. I was fascinated by the sight of these animals all drinking together such as baboons, zebra, impala, wart hogs, and Kudus. It was wonderful.

 

The next morning we returned to the main reserve and continued to go on more driving safaris. This reserve is run by a very lovely and happy German family who truly love the animals and wanted to let the guests experience all the wildlife. They have some large areas of the reserve that the land rovers where not allowed to go so the animals were not disturbed. They did not conducted safaris at certain times so the animals also were able to roam with no human interruptions.
We went on one sunset safari, where we stopped at the four corners in the road and had champagne, cheese and crackers, soda, etc. The sunset and the company was wonderful.

   

On the way back to our Rondavel we got to see this BIG guy right outside our door…

As you can tell, we had a WONDERFUL time at the reserve. These little birds kept looking into our window, and there were monkeys, impalas, and kudos around our Rondavel all the time. Everything was well run, the food was good, and the wildlife was “real”.

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After our time was up at the reserve, we flew to Cape Town. We stayed at a hotel downtown and learned that Cape Town is a financial hub, has the second busiest container port in the country and has a stable business environment. It felt like being in San Diego. It was clean and bustling.

We went to the top of Table Top Mountain. This is a flat top mountain that overlooks Cape Town. You take a cable car to the top where you can see all of Cape Town and some surrounding areas. There are walkways, plants, look outs, and even this little guy living up there. It was beautiful and worth the 1 + hour wait to get up the mountain.

 

Whenever available we alway take the “hop on – hop off” buses. We’ve found that these are the best way to see a city. We took the city loop bus where you get to see the smaller towns outside of Cape Town. We stopped at a coastal town and saw a gentlemen doing sand sculpting. It was pretty impressive.  The last pic of the tree is a wind blow tree, notice the trunk is on the left.

    

We took a quick boat ride around the harbor where we saw a few sea lion relaxing wherever they could.

Since Mike and I both like wine, we decided to hire a driver for the day and go visit some of the many world renowned wineries in the region. We told the driver we liked a particular kind of wine called Pinotage. He said he knew exactly the award winning wineries to take us to for that particular type of wine. The wineries are absolutely gorgeous. Some were surrounded by beautiful mountain ranges, some lakes, some both.

We ended up at a particular winery called Kanonkop. We did a wine tasting of the 3 grades of Pinotage wine. We started with the least expensive. It was very good. The mid-level was really good. But the top level was amazing. It was by far the best wine we had ever tasted. We purchased a bottle for $100. In the US that bottle is $250, so I don’t think it will be on our shopping list any time soon.

 

 

We also visited a local park.  The flowers were so nice and it was very peaceful even though it was in the city…

We had a great time in Cape Town but it was time to go. We flew to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and stayed in a small hotel right near the falls.

The morning after we checked in we were schedule to go on a river safari at the Chobe National Park in Botswana. This means you have to cross the border bridge and have your passport available. We all handed our passports to our driver and watched as he disappeared into a small hut. What was that rule about not letting your passports out of sight? He eventually returned with our stamped passports and I have to admit gave a sigh of relief. (LOL).

It was so worth the long process of crossing the border. Chobe National Park has the Chobe River running through it. This is the gathering spot for so many herds of animals to drink and cool off. It was breathtaking. This is where you see the herds of wildlife such as hippos, buffalo, impalas, elephants, giraffes, lots of birds, etc. The river obviously attracts the animals and we were so lucky to be able to see this first hand.

Monkeys…

Impalas, wildebeests, etc…

Crocodiles…

Hippos cooling in the water and mud…

 

scenery…

    

Mongoose…

Jackal…

Birds…

                       

Giraffes They stand funny when they drink.

 

      

 

The elephants were playing and cooling off in the mud. Even the little baby elephants were enjoying themselves.


The following and last day of our visit to South Africa, we visited Victoria Falls. Now we decided to go to South Africa in the dry season because that is when you see the most animals since they frequent the rivers and the grass is low. So this means the falls are not at full capacity, as you can see by the pictures. But we think this is a good time to see the falls. When the falls are in full flow there would be so much mist that you would not be able to see anything. You will however get very wet.

Like Niagara Falls, Victoria Falls spans over two countries – Zambia to the north and Zimbabwe to the south.  The baboons cross under the bridge so they do not have to get a passport.  As I was taking a picture of the bridge I heard a noise 3 to 4 feet away from me.  I looked up to see this LARGE baboon hunting in the garbage can.  I just picked up my camera bag and slowly backed up.  He decided the garbage was more important then me and soon left. That is when I started to breath again.

The next morning we had to go to Zambia to the Livingston airport to begin our 28 hour flights home. We flew from Livingston to Doha, the capital city of the State of Qatar on the coast of the Persian Gulf. From there we flew to Miami. Mike swears we entered a time warp. He thinks this flight really lasted days not just 15 hours. From there we flew to Greensboro NC and drove to our sons place and slept for a whole day.

Well as you can tell I loved South Africa. Mike asked me if it was as good as I anticipated. I said, “No, it was 100% better than I could have ever imagined”. I can’t wait to go back.

Goodbye for now South Africa…

Till next time – this quote fits this trip to South Africa for me.
“I wish travel therapy was covered by my health insurance”