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| On safari in Addo Elephant Park |
We've all written something for this blog, Jackie, Pauline and Brian. We all wrote our thoughts on South Africa separately, without reading each others, so there's some overlap, but hopefully you get an idea of our overall trip. Jackie's words are in purple type, Pauline's in red and Brian's in black:
So not a lot of excitement has happened though it’s taken lots of time, I’ve remembered how to cook after nearly two months off, we’ve reverted to fruit and cereal for breakfast and the thought of a fry up still makes us quail. I’ve been to the dental hygienist and had new lenses put in my glasses and he’s been for a skin check up. Life maintenance, boring but necessary.
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| NYE fireworks from the housesit balcony in Johannesburg |
We’ve both been to the gym and he’s doing his second day of couch to 5km running in an attempt to make him take it slowly.
Looking at the calendar we have been very social, Monday Club beer and curry, I’ve seen Sarah twice and Alex once and we’ve had lunch with Denise and Paul, while spending a couple of hours beforehand with niece and great niece Steph and Ivy.
So a final round up of our time in South Africa:
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| Feeling safe in Soweto outside Nelson Mandelas house |
Jackie: despite our slight misgivings before we went we felt completely safe, perhaps we didn’t go to any ‘dodgy’ areas, but that’s what sensible living is about. The people that we met were all very friendly and helpful, from parking boys, to waiters and hotel staff, to other holiday makers and it was a joy being able to converse with everyone in English. It still wasn’t everyone’s first language, but at least it’s the common language there rather than in Europe where many people do speak to us in English, which is great but slightly embarrassing as we are so hopeless at languages.
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| A very poor part of the Soweto township |
For the tourist it’s a modern, first world country, you can drink the water pretty much everywhere, and the supermarkets are more British than a French or Spanish supermarket are. This was particularly highlighted on our short forays into Eswatini and Lesotho which are so much poorer. Under the surface however things don’t run as smoothly as they might, load shedding, the turning off of all electricity for a couple of hours up to three times a day is inconvenient and potentially damaging to businesses and is predicted for two years at least. There is still a great divide between the haves and the have nots, with a township of corrugated iron houses still being found on the outskirts of most towns.
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| The majestic Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe |
Eating out was good, easy, reasonably priced and very Western, though meals could take a while to come this is probably because more actual cooking was going on! Our accommodation both on the Exodus trip and booked by ourselves was of a higher standard than I expected (though to be fair we had placed ourselves at a slightly higher level than when we backpack) with some lovely places and some lovely people.
The scenery was varied and mostly beautiful and much greener than I expected despite the huge drought that has plagued much of the south for the last few years. If I
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| One foot in Zimbabwe, one in Zambia |
come to your house and don’t flush after a wee, I apologise, but this is why, we’ve been trying so hard to preserve water! The animal viewing was closer to than I expected, in open vehicles, which was great though on one occasion it did feel like a trip to West Midlands Safari Park. The rest of the drives were wonderful though the interactions we got to see among the animals was better and more natural in Addo Elephant park and at Amakhala than in the Kruger surprisingly. Penguin viewing was a must though I hated it at Boulders bay viewing where the board walk was rammed so seeing anything was difficult
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| Vulture feeding in Victoria Falls |
History was varied from the Cradle of Mankind (which we didn’t actually visit) to Apartheid and the Anglo-Boer war.
My personal highlights were watching the vultures being fed at the Falls Safari Lodge in Victoria Falls (I know this isn’t actually South Africa)
Lions in the turning circle in Kruger National Park (I didn’t think we’d get better than that, but what did I know?)
Our cottage in the Drakensberg mountains, our little bit of heaven, the first relaxation on the Exodus trip with real comfort and a fabulous view.
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| Lions sleeping in the turning circle in Kruger National Park |
Coming upon a hippo on a street corner in St. Lucia
Two completely different trips on the seal boat out of Houts Bay, different weather, different seals, and a very quizzical interaction with some South Koreans who couldn’t get over how similar mum and I looked.
Being the only ones on the Exodus trip to hear the jackass/South African penguin bray.
Chantel our Exodus tour guide, funny, knowledgeable, organised and very helpful with adding to our final phase. Mum got quite fed up of "Chantel this..., and Chantel that..."
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| Our cottage in heaven in the Drakensberg |
Tom and Magda, the completely mad couple running the Tops Guesthouse in Wilderness and the Knysna Touracos coming for breakfast.
A kilo of prawns shared between Brian and I with a chilled bottle of Sauvignon Blanc after a good walk, including the most ridiculous river crossing, also in Wilderness.
Watching mum sitting in her kayak being pulled up the beach by our
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| A hippo roams the street in St Lucia |
guide and PJ, a lovely lady who had joined us at the last moment and done all the hard work padding mum about.
The whole three days at Leeuwenbosch Country house, being completely spoiled, the food, the lovely staff, the fantastic game drives watching the lionesses and the jackal interact on two separate days and watching the lion and the lionesses meet up. Rounded off with coffee and muffins with giraffes before al fresco breakfast in the bush.
As soon as I read what the others write I’ll think “oh yes, how could I have forgotten that” there were so many high points.
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| Penguins at Boulders Beach |
Pauline:
Write your overriding thoughts she said Where do you begin? There was finding woodland walks when the sun was punishing, the magical night drive with the lion family meeting up, there was the sea (I hadn’t worn a swimming costume in years), the evening we looked for the big 5 sea creatures but saw nothing but I was taken under the wing of one of the crew who kept my wine glass filled and of course there was an unforgettable birthday.
But my overriding memory is of the wonderful people and the kindness of strangers. The wonderful Tom and Magda in Wilderness
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| The lovely Tom and Magda at The Tops, Wilderness |
who offered so much more than bed and board (not to mention the birds that shared breakfast with us), Rocher, the driver in Addo who was so kind when the heat nearly got the better of me, all the staff in Amakhala, especially our fun loving driver racing his vehicle along the airstrip with outstretched arms. But there were other people we met for five minutes in shops etc.
And then there was a group largely of girls who took photos because they were amazed by how alike Jackie and I looked. That probably pleased me more than it did J!
I said it was going to be my last big trip. If that is so it could not be bettered.
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| Touracos join us for breakfast at The Tops, Wilderness |
Brian's roundup of our South Africa & Zimbabwe Trip:
It was a trip of four parts covering 62 days from UK to UK or 60 days South Africa to South Africa and it was one we had almost fully planned beforehand, unusual for us. The four parts were:
1. Johannesburg from 23rd December 2019 to 7th January 2020 including a housesit in the Northcliff area of the city for 10 days over Christmas and the New Year (click on the yellow markers on the South Africa map)
2. Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe for 4 days, taking a return flight from Johannesburg (marker on the map)
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| Next to the Indian Ocean at Plettenberg Bay |
3. An organised overland trip for 21 days that started in Johannesburg, ended in Cape Town and passed through 7 of the 9 South African provinces, plus the two independent countries of Eswatini (Swaziland) and Lesotho. We booked it with Exodus, who sub contracted it to Jenman African Safaris. (The blue markers on the map)
4. A three week self drive trip from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth taking in the wine area of Franschhoek, the coast road to the southernmost point of Africa, the mountain Route 62, the Garden Route and a couple of game reserves (the black markers on the map)
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| Watching 50+ elephants in a waterhole at Addo |
The Flights!
The worst part of any long distance trip is the flights, assuming you go economy class as we do (we can't comment on how comfortable business or first class options are as we've never experienced them!). Both the outward and return journeys took the best part of a day, our outward going via Istanbul (it was with Turkish Airlines) took a total of 16 hours 45 minutes, including a stopover in Istanbul of 2 hours 15 minutes and the return from Port Elizabeth had two connections and took a total of 21 hours 35 minutes, with stopovers in Johannesburg for 4 hours 15 minutes (first leg with South African Airways) and in Dubai for 2 hours 20 minutes (Emirates Airlines). Add to that the
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| Roadblock!! |
2 to 3 hours you need to be at the airport before and the best part of an hour at the end to collect bags and pass through immigration and, you can see, we were in for long days! Several people have asked us why we did two sides of a triangle in our route out and back rather than going direct and the answer was mainly as we wanted to fly from and to Birmingham rather than a London airport. Whether, in retrospect it would have been better to fly direct from and to London and got a bus back to the Midlands is debateable but Jackies mum joined us for the last, part 4, of our trip, so it was easier for all to start and finish at our 'local' airport. Anyway, the flights were typical for a long haul economy class flight, more leg room
than I remember, but still difficult to sleep and get comfy for that length of time. We got fed quite
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| Hippos! |
well, the food onboard being not too bad at all and with a glass of beer and coffee with breakfast (it didn't feel like morning!). I had to watch the same films as Jackie so we're both up to date with the films we've seen and that passes some of the time but we still felt in a bit of a daze towards the end.
Part 1 - Johannesburg:
After a night in a local guesthouse in Jo'burg we were straight into the housesit and Christmas day, but thoroughly enjoyed Willow cat and the excellent view of the North West of the city from Cat's balcony while taking in the South African summer and the Jo'burg afternoon thunderstorms at that
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| Meeting Martin, Brian's cousin and Michele in Franschhoek |
time of year. All the horror stories we'd heard about Johannesburg proved unfounded for us, but we were very careful where we went. Virtually all houses had big walls and security gates with signs on them saying things like 'Armed Response', but in reality we didn't come across anything that alarmed us. Security was in evidence, often with a man in a car park who'd look after our car while we went shopping, or was in a secure area with a barrier and man on duty. They all liked a tip of a couple of Rand (about £0.10) and did it with such friendliness and good humour. They always saw us out of a parking spot and would offer to help with shopping bags for an extra few Rand (maybe R5, £0.25 in total) which was totally worth it for
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| At the southern most point of Africa |
peace of mind. We went on the open top bus tour of the city, which included a minibus tour into Soweto and a walk round to Nelson Mandela's house and we still felt very safe. Our minibus driver in Soweto reckoned we would be safe to walk round some parts of Soweto on our own as he said they know how important tourism is to the local economy so locals make sure their visits are as safe as possible. We didn't want to put it to the test though! We got off the open top bus a few times on our tour without problems, but we did ask the bus driver if we could get off at one of the stops and go to find something to eat and he advised us to stay on to the next stop where he could point us to a place. We got the impression he was doing this for our own safety rather than getting any kick-back from the place he recommended, so care is needed and we could see the areas that would be totally unsafe. Its just common sense like we would do in any city or place.
Part 2 - Zimbabwe:
The little bit of Zimbabwe we saw at Victoria Falls was fabulous, but we recognise we were in a very insulated and protected place and can't judge the whole country from the little bit we saw. From
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| The meerkats at Oudtshoorn |
the time we arrived at Victoria Falls airport to the time we left we had a great time. Even the security guards at the airport had a smile and a chat and seemed to really appreciate everyone who comes. Tourism is really the main industy here and employs a lot of people so they cannot afford any interruption to that so security is very tight, but again in a friendly non-obtrusive way. From the time we walked out of the airport we really felt that now we are in Africa with a group of locals in traditional dress playing music and the drive through forest with wild animals in the trees, by the roadside and just wandering through the town. We were made to feel valued by everyone and, yes, we know they were doing it in order to persuade us to spend money, but it was done in such a friendly
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| Cango caves, Oudtshoorn |
way and if we declined to purchase it wasn't a problem. The exception to that were the street traders, they weren't menacing, but they were persistent.
They would approach as we walked round offering their hand made articles (that probably came from China) or a billion Zimbabwean dollar bill and would not take no for an answer, walking alongside us for seemingly miles. The final tactic was, if we didn't want to buy, then just give them some money as they and their family haven't eaten for days. That might be true but if you gave to one, word gets around and many more swoop in and you can't give to them all. The only tactic was not to engage with them at all, which seems wrong, but as soon as you say anything they have a conversation going at there's no end to it. Other than that the falls were fantastic and we stayed in a very posh hotel and felt very spoiled. We did an evening cruise on the Zambeze River, a game drive, a guided tour of the falls (you don't need a guide, but we didn't know at the time) and a walk across the bridge connecting Zimbabwe to Zambia. It is possible to do loads of adrenalin packed adventures and helicopter rides, but with prices for everything about on par with UK prices
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| The crazy river crossing in Wilderness |
you could spend a fortune. We decided we'd seen photos of Victoria Falls from above, so no to the US$125 11 minute helicopter ride and no to bungee jumping, white water rafting and abseiling all about the same price. We enjoyed it but 4 days was plenty. We did buy the visa on arrival at the airport for both Zimbabwe and Zambia, which at US$50 each was cheaper than the Zimbabwe only visa and allowed entry to Zambia across the bridge and to do any activities on the Zambian side of the falls (of which there were plenty - we didn't do them, but we might have wanted to).
Part 3 - Exodus/Jenman African Safari overland tour:
We booked this before we went through Trailfinders and, although we did enjoy it very much, there
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| Hiking Table Mountain with Chantel |
was a lot of travelling in the tour bus. In the 21 days of the trip we covered 4680km. We knew this beforehand and it did allow us to see a lot of things, so we've no complaints, but it was nevertheless very hectic. We're not used to having things organised for us, so it took a bit of getting used to being told what time to get up, how long we'd got to look round somewhere before we were off and what we were doing, but we did get into the groove after a while. The tightness of the schedule was very much in evidence and I was a little dissapointed with the time we had in Rorkes Drift, the site of the Zulu war with the British, which was one of the main reasons for me booking on the trip. The problem we had of the trailer breaking free of the bus and careering into a ditch, so delaying our journey there by a number of hours didn't
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| Rorkes Drift battle site |
help and prevented us going to Isandlwana (another major site in the battle), but that wasn't anyones fault. I could have spent several days on my own touring round the battle sites and, in the end, we had about 2 hours at Rorkes Drift with less than an hour on our own to look round. We didn't actually go to the drift in the river, only the museum.
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| The Drakensberg mountains |
It was the tightness of the schedule that was to blame but on the positive side we saw a huge amount and I'm glad we did it. Chantel, our local tour guide was superb, her knowledge was amazing and we learnt a lot from her, making our experience very good. We got on OK with our other tour members, but none of them were particularly fit, so it meant that any group walks were very moderate ambles. The advertised 'hike in the Drakensburg mountains', for example, was a walk along a path to a waterfall. Chantel was very apologetic to us, it wasnt her fault,
she's not in control of who books, but it wasn't a problem. She did take us on a longer hike in
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| A hike in Tsitsikama National Park |
Tsitsikama and took us on a great hike up Table Mountain while the others went on an aborted trip to Robben Island, so we've no complaints. Overall, the meals provided were good, the accommodation better than we expected and the many games drives we did in Kruger National Park, Eswatini and St Lucia were very good. We learnt a lot, had good company and a thoroughly good time. I wouldn't have liked to have come to South Africa and only done this trip, but as part of a bigger trip it certainly gave us a great insight into the three countries we visited and was a great addition to the overall trip.
Part 4 - Our three week self drive trip from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth
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| Leeuwenbosch Lodge, Amakhala Game Reserve |
We planned this and booked all the accommodation before we left the UK. It actually took several weeks of planning by talking to different tour agencies and reading books and online, but it all worked out very well and we had a great time. The Exodus tour finished on the day Jackies mum flew out to Cape Town, so we picked up a hire car (booked through Trailfinders), had a couple of days in Cape Town and then headed off.
We passed through Franschhoek wine area, meeting up with a cousin of mine who I had never met, along the coast road to the southernmost point of Africa, inland
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| Mum and baby Rhinos, Amakhala |
into the mountains to drive the scenic and famous Route 62, stopping off to see meerkats and ostriches, then back to the coast to drive the Garden Route. On the way we booked on to a game drive, recommended by Chantel, headed down to Mossel Bay and went through Wilderness, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, then finished with some amazing game drives at Addo and Amakhala Game Reserves before heading to Port Elizabeth for the long flights home.
What were the highlights of this part of the trip? There were many, relief on my part that all the accommodation I'd booked turned out OK, but over riding everything was the friendliness of everyone we met, even locals who had nothing
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| A well-fed cheetah, Amakhala |
to gain by being nice. We just met some really nice people, even down to the garage attendant who danced in front of us as we pulled in, filled the car with fuel while cracking jokes, cleaned the windows even though we were taking it back to the rental dealer 'I want you to be able to see clearly while you're driving' he said. We always felt safe, but always kept the car doors locked while in it and never left anything visible inside the car whether we were in it or not. There was only one instance, when driving to Addo and following the sat-nav that we were slightly worried. Nothing definite, just a feeling. The road took us through a township (an area where
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| A lioness on the prowl, Amakhala |
black people were herded by the old apartheid government) which was pretty run down. The houses were corrugated sheets and in the previous days we could see the road had been barricaded and things burnt to stop traffic. We could still see debris at the side of the road and scorch marks in the tarmac, not once but many every 100m or so. The sign that said 'Beware of Car Jacking' was an added worry. We just felt we wouldn't want to stop here, keeping moving was definitely what we wanted to do and, indeed that's what we did. Had there been a barricade of burning tyres blocking our way, it could have been very different. We were OK, but it did make us stop and think of what could be.
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| Morning coffee with giraffes, Amakhala |
I haven't read Jackie's or Pauline's round up yet and I imagine they may write similar things, but highlights for me were:
- Meeting my cousin Martin and his wife Michele for the first time over Sunday lunch in Franschhoek after I called at the last known address I had for him and got his phone number (tragically, I have to report that since meeting him I have heard he's died, 17 days after I met him! Michele apparently is devastated, we are all in shock)
- Seeing the meerkats pop up out of the holes at Oudtshoorn was a great experience and well worth getting up before dawn for. A definite 'must do' if in that area.
- The Tops guesthouse at Wilderness. Tom and Magda who run it are fabulous hosts, completely barking, but great fun and made our stay so good. The Touraco's and other birds coming to breakfast with us on the balcony there was also amazing. Wilderness is a great place, so glad we went
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| Breakfast in the bush, Amakhala |
- Plettenberg Bay and our accommodation virtually on the beach, allowing us a morning swim before breakfast and a great kayak one day for all three of us another.
- Addo Elephant Park was another highlight. We chose an incredibly hot day to do it, a wind blowing from inland from the NW was literally like a hot hair dryer blowing at us in a furnace, somewhere in the 40's C. That, however was an advantage, as all the animals, mainly elephants were in the waterholes to cool off and, as the road was arranged to pass by the waterholes we had great views of them all. We saw in excess of 50 elephants in one waterhole and the rivalry between
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| Night meeting of lion and lioness, Amakhala |
elephants, zebra and warthogs at another, which made it a great drive. Driving through on our own the next day, when it was much cooler was very different, no one was in the waterholes and it was over 2 hours before we even saw an elephant. It was nevertheless good in other ways.
- The final highlight and by far the best highlight is our three night stay at Amakhala private game reseve. This was an absolute gem. Fabulous location, accommodation, food and some of the best game drives we did. It was without doubt the best end to a trip we could have done.
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| Baby zebra, Amakhala |
So, dear reader, I've gone on a bit, as I always do, but we can thoroughly recommend a trip to South Africa (and Victoria Falls, Eswatini and Lesotho). Prices are generally a bit cheaper than the UK, a litre of petrol is £0.75 to £0.80, against about £1.20 to £1.30 in the UK, a main meal is cheaper than the UK, probaly around £5 to £6 for a main course in an average restaurant, cheap and very good local wine of course. The mid-range accommodation that we booked is probably somewhere about the same as the UK, maybe a bit cheaper but, of course, its the activities that cost the money. Actually a game drive, once you're there and in a park range between £25 to maybe £50 per person, which isn't that expensive and you might as well do as many as you can while you're there. We saw a
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| Playing aeroplanes on the drive back, Amakhala |
lot of what we wanted to see (but not a leopard!), but that's probably down to the number of games drives we did. Some of them were dissapointing as there's no guarantee wild animals with come out to let us see them. Elephants and giraffes are big, but they can disappear behind trees very, very easily. So a trip like this won't be cheap and there's no point in going all that way unless you are prepared to do these things, but the rewards are certainly worth it.
Would we do it again? Definitely!
Click any icon on this map to see where we stayed, photos and links to blog entries
Click this link for a full description of our trip with a full list of places we visited with links to each blog entry:
http://brianandjackiecross.blogspot.com/p/trip-10-south-africa-zimbabwe.html
