We had now reached South Africa and decided to stop for a
couple of days at a huge campsite at Tshipise in Limpopo region before heading
into Kruger National Park for some pre-booked time. The campsite was very
different form any we had stopped in before on this trip, 3 pools (two were
adult), bar, restaurant, shops, laundry and even a nightclub. The best part for
us was it was almost empty but it did give us some time to relax as the
temperatures had soared and the pools came in useful as we spent a lot of the
time in them.
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| A Mob of Banded Mongoose came to say hello in the camp |
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| The pool was great to cool of in |
As mentioned Kruger had been pre-booked some months before
and a good job it was as we had not known it was the South African school
holidays and everywhere was packed. Our first camp for 2 nights was a small “rustic”
one called Tendze. No facilities except water and ablutions but the camp was in
trees and provided great bird watching in the camp including twp of Africa’s
smallest owls. The game outside was not the best we had ever had but close to
the camp we did discover 4 large male lions at a kill. The sighting was a
distance but it was OK. The next camp was right in the centre of Kruger at
Satara. This was one of the main camps and was almost a town with fast food
outlets, bank and petrol station plus lots and lots of people. The game
viewings did get a little better but the best always comes to those who wait.
Our final camp was in the mountains in the far south. This one, called Berg en
Dal provided great close sightings of Wild Dog, Lion, and Rhino. Again the camp
was more of a town with all the facilities and was extremely busy the area
around did not seem so busy. All in all Kruger was good but way too many people
for us and we still prefer other National Parks in Africa.
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| Barred Owlet |
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| Scops Owl |
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| Hyena chasing |
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| Young Lions playing |
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| White Rhino |
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| Dwarf Mongoose |
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| Why we do not like places that are busy. |
After Kruger it was a short drive into another country, this
time the Kingdom of Swaziland. This hilly country was very green and enjoyable.
We had two nights here and as the weather had turned form sun to rain and the
temperatures had dropped we decided to stay in lodges with traditional
“Beehive” huts. The first place had set them up for tourists and adapted the
design to be bigger, taller doors and best of all an extended ensuite while the
second place we stayed used the original design with a entrance door no more
than 900mm high and a very small round room with no ensuite. They were fun
though and we didn’t get wet. It also meant we ate in the restaurants so did
not cook here at all.
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| Inside a "commercial" Beehive hut |
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| Beehive Hut for tourists |
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| Traditional Beehive hut at our next place, bit of a difference in size |
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| Glass works in Swaziland |
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| Swaziland produces tonnes of timber |
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| Vervet Monkey and male Nyala robbing the bird table |
After Swaziland it was back into South Africa and to the
Indian Ocean at a place north of Durban called Salt Rock. Here we stayed for 3
nights and managed to get the car checked and serviced in the local town. The
camp next to the beach was great and we had a spot sheltered from the gales
that were blowing.
We did not know it at that time but this was the pre-curser to a big storm that was about to hit this area causing widespread damage, flooding and several deaths. This storm hit the coast after we had left to go inland and the Drakensburg Mountains.
Here again we had 3 nights and managed some great walks into an area called “The Ampitheatre. We managed to walk in the mornings and the afternoons it rained. The day we left for the drive high into the mountains of Lesotho it poured. Packing the tents down and loading the car was not fun as the rain was cold. We camped at 1600 metres up so the rain was very cold but more was to come.
As we left and drove round the Drakensburg mountains the sun cam out for a while and showed us that Lesotho had received quite a lot of snow. The mountains we had to drive into were all covered and looked beautiful. The borders between South Africa and Lesotho (as well as SA and Swaziland) are how borders should be. 10-15 minutes and you are through, no hassles, so easy. The weather changed again and the clouds came down as we climbed and with the clouds came snow. We drove up to a surreal place called “Afriski” at over 3200. We had driven over a pass at 3300. This is a small ski resort with chalets and a lodge for a couple of months a year and a mountain biking and hiking place for the rest but it was empty. Not enough snow to ski but very cold and snowy. We did a bit of walking but we did not have cold weather gear or boots. Walking in snow with shorts, Teeshirt and flip-flops is not really the ideal. We were not going to camp so we booked into the lodge for the night and had a warm dry bed and some ladies took all our washing including loads of wet clothes and brought them all back clean and dry. The next day was bright sunshine and we heard on the news that big parts of South Africa including Durban area had suffered in the storm. Ships had run aground, several people killed and lots of flooding but we had missed most of it. We drove across the “Roof of Africa”, a road around the 2800-3000 metre mark crossing Lesotho to a place called Sani Pass and the highest pub in Africa. The scenery was amazing in the sun and we even encountered snow drifts on one of the passes. A car was being dug out but we got through. The white snow, ice and blue skies made this a really memorable drive then to finish it of we took the Sani Pass down from 3200 metres back down to around 1600 via a steep rocky hairpin road, starting in the snow and ice with the snow line around 2400 metres and down to the green of South Africa again. This is probably one of the best drives we have ever done, wonderful scenery, driving on snow and ice in the mountains then taking the track down. A really memorable drive.
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| Stormy skies and the Indian Ocean |
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| Waves over the tidal pool |
We did not know it at that time but this was the pre-curser to a big storm that was about to hit this area causing widespread damage, flooding and several deaths. This storm hit the coast after we had left to go inland and the Drakensburg Mountains.
Here again we had 3 nights and managed some great walks into an area called “The Ampitheatre. We managed to walk in the mornings and the afternoons it rained. The day we left for the drive high into the mountains of Lesotho it poured. Packing the tents down and loading the car was not fun as the rain was cold. We camped at 1600 metres up so the rain was very cold but more was to come.
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| The "Amphitheatre" in the Drakensberg |
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| Moonset over the Drakensberg Mountains |
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| Amazing shapes and rock formations |
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| Add caption |
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| Spionkop Battlefield |
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| Graves on the Boer War Battlefields |
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| Walking in the mountains |
As we left and drove round the Drakensburg mountains the sun cam out for a while and showed us that Lesotho had received quite a lot of snow. The mountains we had to drive into were all covered and looked beautiful. The borders between South Africa and Lesotho (as well as SA and Swaziland) are how borders should be. 10-15 minutes and you are through, no hassles, so easy. The weather changed again and the clouds came down as we climbed and with the clouds came snow. We drove up to a surreal place called “Afriski” at over 3200. We had driven over a pass at 3300. This is a small ski resort with chalets and a lodge for a couple of months a year and a mountain biking and hiking place for the rest but it was empty. Not enough snow to ski but very cold and snowy. We did a bit of walking but we did not have cold weather gear or boots. Walking in snow with shorts, Teeshirt and flip-flops is not really the ideal. We were not going to camp so we booked into the lodge for the night and had a warm dry bed and some ladies took all our washing including loads of wet clothes and brought them all back clean and dry. The next day was bright sunshine and we heard on the news that big parts of South Africa including Durban area had suffered in the storm. Ships had run aground, several people killed and lots of flooding but we had missed most of it. We drove across the “Roof of Africa”, a road around the 2800-3000 metre mark crossing Lesotho to a place called Sani Pass and the highest pub in Africa. The scenery was amazing in the sun and we even encountered snow drifts on one of the passes. A car was being dug out but we got through. The white snow, ice and blue skies made this a really memorable drive then to finish it of we took the Sani Pass down from 3200 metres back down to around 1600 via a steep rocky hairpin road, starting in the snow and ice with the snow line around 2400 metres and down to the green of South Africa again. This is probably one of the best drives we have ever done, wonderful scenery, driving on snow and ice in the mountains then taking the track down. A really memorable drive.
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| Lesotho in the distance with snow falling |
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| Getting higher into the mountains |
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| Afriski ski resort in Lesotho |
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| Warmer inside with hot chocolate and rum |
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| Not kitted out for snow |
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| Jan found lots of clothes |
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| Next morning in the sun |
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| The roof of Africa, High over Lesotho in the snow fields |
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| Our sat nav told us we drove over 3300 metres but this is the "official highest point |
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| Snow drifts and a couple of cars had been stuck |
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| Icicles on the local homes |
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| Got to stop here |
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| A drink before heading down |
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| The rocky and icy route down |
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| This says it all |
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| The hairpin bends on the rock track is the way down |
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