Intrepidtoo journey onward - South Africa

A two week safari to South Africa and Swaziland


1. Friday 17th July 2009 Dubai - Capetown
Why do flights always leave at ungodly hours? Up at 5am to finish packing and off to the airport, busier than we’d seen for some time. Smooth check-in and good breakfast, uneventful but long flight – is South Africa really so far? Dusting of snow on the tops of the mountains as we approach Capetown with, for us, the unusual sight of extensive green fields in the late afternoon sun. Long wait for bags and into the car for a drive into the city, skirting round Table Mountain as we drive into the setting sun. Extensive shanty town of Khayelitsha with multitude of shacks lining the motorway but some evidence of new housing being constructed, mostly single storey two room dwellings but at least they are built of brick with tiled roofs. Glimpse of what look like zebra and wildebeest on the mountain slope then a view over the city and bay.

We arrive as night falls at the Tudor Hotel just off Long Street, the main bar and restaurant strip in the centre of the city. Well located hotel with decent sized rooms and friendly staff, opposite Greenmarket square where a daily craft market is just closing up. Dinner in the African Café with themed rooms and a tasting menu which includes zebra and kudu pate, written on to hornbill shaped jug. Periodically the staff break into song and drumming and processes around the various rooms of the restaurant.

2. Saturday 18th July 2009 Capetown
After a rather noisy night, with taxis outside the hotel with CDs playing all nights and guys setting up the nearby market stands, we leave the hotel on a walking tour of Capetown with Crusty who is to be our fearless and highly knowledgeable safari leader for the next two weeks, visiting the main shopping street, the castle (or fort), built by the Dutch in 1600s and the Company Gardens, a central spine of greenery established by the Dutch East Indies Co to provide victualling to ships voyaging between Europe and the spice islands.

Then we are head out of Capetown to the wine regions of the western cape for lunch at a delightful Noble Hill vineyard where a gourmet picnic awaited us. Sitting in the warm sun on the lawns in front of the cellar we are plied with so many samples of their range from crisp grassy semillion blancs to wonderfully robust shiraz and cab sauvignon that its too late to buy a bottle to go with lunch despite the almost give away prices. However we stock up for later on the trip. After eating and drinking our fill we reluctantly move on to Frankenhoek with its beautiful street full of cape dutch houses, craft shops, cafes and restaurants and then through Stellenboch before returning to Capetown with a quick detour on the side of Table Mountain to see the sunset view from the Rhodes monument. We ignore the sign which says the gates close at 6pm only to find we are locked in and have to wait for half an hour for the guard to let us out. Back into Capetown for another feast, this time at the Fork Restaurant close to the hotel where Kudu and other assorted wildlife are on the menu.

3. Sunday 19th July 2009 Capetown
Another beautiful day (is this supposed to be the rainy winter season?) which starts with an early drive up to Signal Hill with its magnificent views over Capetown and flocks of Guinea fowl, and then we head down the peninsula, much of which is national park. After visiting the African penguins at Boulders on the shore of False Bay, watching them being scattered by a cape fur seal we head into the Cape of Good Hope nature reserve where we spot an eland and are chased away from our picnic by a troop of Chacma baboons. We drive on down the peninsula to the southern most point in Africa (actually its not quite, that’s 300km further east but it will do), with a visit to the lookout at the Cape of Good Hope before returning to Capetown to sample dinner at the ultra smart restaurant at the new One and Only Hotel at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. Instead of the usual duff duff music the taxi driver is blasting out Capetown’s version of the 3 tenors and offers to get the cd for us.

4. Monday 20th July 2009 Johannesburg
Another early start and off to the airport for a flight to Johannesburg where we are met by TK who takes us on a tour of Soweto, including a visit to Nelson Mandela’s house and the Hector Pietersen Museum which chronicles the Soweto uprising in 1976 when police opened fire on schoolchildren protesting against the compulsory introduction of Afrikaans as the medium of education. Hector Pietersen, aged 9 was the first victim in a period of protest and insurrection which claimed over 1000 lives and became a turning point in galvanizing international opposition to apartheid. It’s interesting to see how Soweto has changed to become an established suburb with pockets of prosperity, new housing and a strong community atmosphere and sense of pride.

The night is spent at the Cottages near the observatory in Johannesburg. It’s a group of comfortable thatched cottages grouped around a homestead belong to a former mining magnate in a beautiful garden setting in a gated suburb in central J’burg. Dinner is round a very welcome roaring fire as the temperature drops to freezing overnight.

5. Tuesday 21st July 2009 Sabie
A long drive north from J’burg through undulating farming land interspersed with small towns and large coal mines. Gradually we get into wooded hilly country to arrive at the country town of Sabie, the centre for the local logging industry. Very like an Australian country town, with a wide main street lined with somewhat desolate looking shops. After checking into the Jocks Sabie Lodge (not recommended - a motel type set up just on the edge of the town) we explore the town in search of arty crafty shops and a pub. We find a totally kitsch souvenir shop selling everything but nothing you would want and then a pub with local beer.

6. Wednesday 22nd July 2009 Tshukudu
Early start from Sabie after battles with lack of power and hot water (and no water of any kind), then it’s on via the Mac Mac falls and Gods Window to Tsukoda, a private game reserve on the edge of Kruger National Park. Fortunately the guard on the gate of the Mac Mac falls was up early enough to turn the pump on, or so he claimed with typically laconic African humour. The mamas had been up early too setting out their stalls with hundreds of carved elephants and random assortments of wooden block cars, planes and animals, whilst God had cleaned his window so the view over the scarp to the low veldt is magnificent. Quite reminiscent of the Blue Mountains but with rather more pine plantations stretching to the horizon. On the way down to the low veldt the weather become noticeably warmer. We see Nyala (antelope) and a giraffe or two as well as vevert monkeys, hornbills by the thousand and numerous impala, warthogs and other assorted critters as we drive into the Tshukudu game reserve.

After lunch at the homestead we jump into an open sided jeep for a sunset game drive where we soon spot a family of rhinos, then are besieged by elephants and see a group of hippos heading for an evening bathe. Passing atop a dam in the evening light a large crocodile swims over to investigate. Then with aerial attuned we bush bash for a while in search of an elusive lion but only manage to find two bush babies and several impala. Back to the lodge for dinner around a roaring fire in a corral (or krall) a circular enclosure for guarding animals at night. After a splendid feast we board the jeep for a short trip to see the feeding of the porcupines which have taken to gathering on the porch of a nearby cottage. These animals are surprising large, about the size of a large dog and although usually quite solitary and elusive, some 8-10 gather in the lights of the jeep having trekked for up to 2 km for the nightly feast. They are joined by an equally elusive and equally ferocious bush pig, a coarse haired, ugly creature which in its fight to get at the food scraps endures the barbs and quills of the porcupines.

Accommodation tonight is in cottages grouped around the homestead. They are comfortable and warm with mosquito netted bedding.

7. Thursday 23rd July 2009, Letaba, Kruger National Park.
Awakened before dawn we wrap up warmly for the sunrise walk, accompanied by a ranger with a rifle and two bounding young lions, about 8 months old and already quite large and powerful. They were confiscated from a nearby land owner who didn’t have the requisite permits and are destined for Tshukudu’s breeding program. The lions rush on ahead and practice stalking impala while we spot giraffe and masses of birds.

Then after breakfast we head out to the lion enclosure (a fenced 6ha of bush) where a pride of breeding lions are kept. There are one male and two females each with 2 or 3 cubs a few weeks old who soon appear when they hear the meat truck which throws them half an elephant carcass. The ranger tells us they feed them once every five days so today they are quite hungry, although the magnificent male looks as sleek as satin and fat as butter. After the lions we move on a few kms to the leopard where a mother is raising a pair of cubs. Outside the enclosure (really a large field of several ha) one that has been returned to the ‘wild’ is prowling. It’s at this point that the second jeep gets a puncture and the ranger has to get down to fix it whilst keeping a wary eye on the nearby hungry leopard. (the jeep gets a second puncture shortly afterwards and the entire crew has to walk back 3 km to the lodge through the lions and the leopards). Fortunately our jeep still has four wheels so we visit the cheetah which also has several young cubs and is quite tame.

After lunch it’s on into Kruger park proper after stocking up on provisions in a nearby town. Almost as soon as we drive into the park which at 20,000 sq km is as a big as some of the countries in Europe we see animals everywhere, from antelopes and bucks to elephants, rhinos and giraffes. It’s amazing the profusion and we quickly become adept at distinguishing the greys and browns of a waterbuck or elephant from those of the termite mounds, scrub and rocks. We are also learning to spot eagles and are able to recognize the tailless outline of a bateleur (it means tightrope walker according to a French visitor) from the white underbelly of the martial eagle, and tell a grey backed vulture from a goliath heron at 2km.

Close on dusk we arrive at the Letaba rest camp, just in time as the gates are locked at 5.30pm as it gets dark. We head to the bar whilst the bags are conveyed to our boma, a round thatched cottage, which is fairly basic but adequate, with a heater and hot water.

8. Friday 24th July 2009 Letaba
The day starts with an early drive where we encounter a vast herd of buffalo heading to the river after a long nights foraging. The herd streams past us and across the road, with eventually three young bulls bringing up the rear escorting a lame calf who looks set to be a lion’s breakfast within the next few days. Moving on thru the scrub we are startled when a male impala darts across the road oblivious to a passing four wheel drive. Once across the road it turns and we follow its gaze to glimpse a leopard stalking through the undergrowth. Its camouflage is almost perfect in the shadows and we soon lose sight of it as it slinks away in pursuit of other less observant impala.

We return to the camp for breakfast and a well earned rest and spend the day lazing around, getting the laundry done and watching the bird life before venturing out with a stock of beers for a sundowner or two with the elephants and hippos along the river.

9. Saturday 25th July 2009 Skukuza
Today we journey south through the Park to Skukuza camp, stopping at several picnic stops en route. More amazing wildlife including all the usual suspects although elephants have become JABE (just another bloody elephant), and we yawn at ibex but still stop for giraffe and hippos. However lions are still proving elusive.

10. Sunday 26th July 2009 Skukuza
We have a late breakfast in the sun at Skukuza camp, one of the largest in the park, with a game drive in the afternoon with lots of JABE.

11. Monday 27th July 2009 Hlane Royal National Park, Swaziland
A very early and cold start with a game drive with the ranger leaving at 5.30am before dawn. Just after we leave the safety of the camp we encounter jackals, see elephants, rhino, buffalo and giraffe but the nearest we get to a lion is a footprint in the sand. Returning frozen by 9am we breakfast and leave the park via the Crocodile River after stopping at a waterhole filled with the most enormous crocodiles which seem to co-exist happily with hippos.

Crossing the Crocodile River we are suddenly back in civilization with sugar cane fields stretching up to the mountains on the Mozambique border. We pass through small prosperous towns, stopping to buy provisions at the supermarket before reaching the border with Swaziland. Formalities complete we drive through more sugar cane plantations, these owned by the King who according to the guidebook is the second of 67 sons – it doesn’t recount what happened to the first. King Mzwati III is one of Africas three absolute monarchs, and has some 11 wives, choosing a new one each year at the Reed Festival and allegedly more than 200 children/siblings. Although not as developed as South Africa, the country seems reasonable prosperous at least in the north. We reach the Hlane Game Reserve just at dusk but as this part of the reserve doesn’t have electricity, we decide to take cottages in the second camp 20km further south.

12. Tuesday 28th July 2009 Hlane Royal National Park, Swaziland
We spend the day in the Hlane Royal Game reserve, starting with a walk with a ranger after breakfast. Armed only with the ranger’s magic stick we set off in single file into the bush, quickly coming upon a family of rhinos who eye us off cautiously. Resisting the urge to run, probably the most inappropriate thing to do given that they can get up to 45km in about 3 seconds, we move on quietly after taking lots of photos. In all we encounter half a dozen rhinos on the walk as well as a family of giraffe but manage to stay well away from the elephants and hippos.

After a lazy lunch back at the cottages we return to the main camp for a drive to see the lions, which are in a separate part of the park. After the last lion was seen in Swaziland in the 1980s, the park has become the centre of conservation efforts to reestablish these animals to the country, under the King’s patronage. There are about 10 in the reserve and after a little searching we find a very sleepy male lion stretched out in an area which has recently been burned to encourage vegetation re-growth. We also meet up with elephants and various antelopes before returning to the lodge at sunset for dinner.

13. Wednesday 29th July 2009 Rileys Rock, Mlilwane, Swaziland
Leaving Hlane game reserve we journey westwards across central Swaziland, visiting several craft markets including a factory making skin care products from the fruit of the marula tree and a complex with candle manufacturing and local craft productions as well as an excellent coffee shop.

After collecting a speeding fine from a very jovial policemen, (all of $10) who must have the only speed camera in Swaziland and is treating it as a new toy, we pass through the main town of Manzini and call in at the House on Fire, a slightly surreal art gallery and craft complex cum restaurant which wouldn’t be out of place in Byron Bay. They are getting ready for the 3rd Bushfire festival with performers from across southern Africa at the weekend in a rural setting surrounded by pineapple plantations.

We journey on to the Mlilwane Game Reserve and up to the Riley’s Rock homestead, set in a commanding position with views out over the reserve and surrounding mountains. The reserve, which along with Hlane forms the basis of wildlife conservation in Swaziland has mostly herbivores including a number of species we hadn’t yet encountered including springbok, blesbok, hartebeest and klipspringer the mountain goats of the antelope world. The homestead where we are staying is a hundred year old colonial style large stone house apparently built for Riley who was the local famer and tin miner in return for an oxcart. The Riley family is still active in conservation work and operate the reserve.


14. Thursday 30th July 2009 Capetown
A day of travelling and sitting around, with a short drive to Mbabane airport for a flight to Johannesburg, where we connect with a flight to Capetown. We reach the city at dusk and check back into the Tudor Hotel. Dinner is at the Savoy Cabbage nearby, a delicious meal accompanied by excellent wine in a former slave market.

15. Friday 31st July 2009 Capetown – Dubai
It’s raining! – the first we have seen in South Africa or indeed anywhere since February. We have tickets on the nine am ferry to Robben Island, the former colonial outpost, leper colony and most famously the max security prison where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 24 years until his release in 1991. It lies 12km off shore and after a slightly uncomfortable voyage we reach the island and board buses for a tour which in addition to the prison buildings, includes visits to the penguin colony and various military relicts from its use as a defence post in WW2. As it is pouring down, we are pleased to be in the bus even though with steamed up windows it’s difficult to see much. However the guide is very informative as is the ex-inmate who takes us through the prison and describes from first hand experience, the conditions and regimes he and his fellow political prisoners were subject to in the 1980s and early 1990s before the prison’s closure in 1994.

Returning to Capetown the weather improves and it’s a beautiful sunny afternoon which we spend at the Waterfront before leaving for our evening flight back to Dubai.