The Second Leg...

So it's up early for a trip to Bobo Campers in Joberg to get the paperwork all sorted  before our (new) fellow adventurers arrive, bleary-eyed off the Virgin flight from London Heathrow.

All processed and sorted...but wait....our motorhome-with-no-name is no more...he's now called Charles. Clearly this is a bit of a crisis in our life...but one we have to come to terms with. Just one of life's little challenges....

...Anyway, it's really good to meet up with friends as the rest arrive. Also good to meet new people, as ever. We all stock up at the local Pick and Pay supermarket before heading off to the first campsite where we start up our braai with our neighbours (from the last tour). 

Our new tour leaders hold their first meeting, which seems to go down quite well, while our braai readies itself for action, as friends old and new load it up with various cuts of meat. We set up our tables and eat and drink together, while the insects eat us.

Not a bad start. Not bad at all.

That's Charles, 3rd from left..

Durban

We fly by South African Airways to our hotel on the Golden Mile - Durban's holiday atmosphere beachfront. We're on holiday! The plan is to chill out here before the next leg of our adventure.

But this is Africa!... so there are plenty of surprises.

Durban's population has a large ex-Indian contingent so there are Hindus, Christians, Muslims and our hotel reflects the local population plus holidaymakers; just what we were looking for. We're on the 16th floor with a beach view...so all's great. Thank you, Booking.com.

On the first day we do the holidaying things as we walk the seafront, visiting snack bars with live music, browsing shopping malls, seeing brilliant Zulu street dancing, paddling in the Indian Ocean. The Sunday locals are having a fantastic time in the sea...it's clear that there are self-selecting areas on the beach as we walk along - some wholly black. Really great relaxing holiday type day but interesting nontheless.

On Monday we book a walking tour of the town....but we didn't know how good this was going to be.  Of course, there are areas where tourists shouldn't venture alone but with our Zulu guide, Kululawe, and two female back-packers we visit the Southern Hemishere's largest mosque... then we venture into back streets, walk into hairdressers, bridal shops, supermarkets, all the time learning about the traditional/western culture clash and development....absolutely fascinating. But  our cultural learning curve is challenged as we are led through a local market; we see stall after stall selling 'medicines' for all manner of things, including potions to ensure that husbands are faithful, DIY enema kits with which to take many of the potions, snake skins to protect against snake bites, skinned monkeys......I'll stop there I think. Another brilliant top 'learning day'...and we're supposed to be on holiday...

Our last day in Durban, ...we spend as holidaymakers again, dodging the showers and visiting the great aquarium on the golden mile. The collection of marine animals, found of the east coast is second to none, all viewed from the interiorof an old ship. Wonderful. Also see a dolphin show and a sea-lion show - but the less said about that the better.

Finish off with a Durban curry before catching our flight to Joberg the next morning. Then its, sadly, or our last night in our Melville guest house before the second leg begins...

Evening Beach

Kululawe and snake-skin shop

 Market medicines

I had a go at pounding this tree bark....goodness knows what it's for.

With apologies to those of a sensitive nature

The Jumma Mosque

Joberg

Well....some people couldn't understand why we wanted to go to Joberg...some people said Soweto was off limits and, while we get that, this has got to be very high on our list of  'we are SO glad we did that' ventures.  A bit k******ed though. We've been out for ten hours and just got back to our homely Melville guest house. I just need to drive 200km in a motorhome to wind down.

So, what's to say? After a chat with staff at the guest house we understand that 7.30pm is when we should be back safely behind the security doors of our temporary home. Observing our normal inner city no jewellery etc. routine (not really my thing anyway..) and being basically sensible we've felt fine. As has previously been pointed out, no-one would want my watch anyway.

Yesterday we ventured out around the arty Melville area; it's got a great vibe, so we treated ourselves to some well cooked local dishes and a craft beer at a local restaurant from Lonely Planet. Excellent! Still not sure about Ostrich though.

Today we got a taxi to the Hop On-Hop Off bus, sorting the number with the informatively chatty taxi  driver in order to SMS him to get us back. SMSing is what they do a lot here. Then we Hopped on and Hopped off. The great thing about this bus is that it only lets you out where it's safe or, if it's best done with a guide, that's what you get. You also get that great commentary while on the bus (and free pink plastic earphones...not my ideal colour choice but hey..)

SO...

We dropped off at Ghandi Square  and took in the atmosphere, went up the tallest building in Africa and also spent a long time at the Apartheid museum, which is certainly very moving and currently has a special Nelson Mandella exhibition which I wouldn't have missed for the world. The greatest leader of all time in my book...I spent my professional career stealing his brilliant quotations.

We also took the Soweto tour plus an optional walk, including a visit to Nelson Mandella's house and a look at the plaque identifying Archbishop Desmond Tutu's old place. It's sobering to see memorials in the street to the events occuring as the apartheid conflicts escalated. Also saw the written constitution set out in a circular building - which I should have photographed - but got too involved in discussing some of the issues with the guide. At one restaurant here, a pick up for tour buses, we saw more white faces than the rest of the day. It was interesting to see the new housing developments and high quality community centres. A fascinating and worthwhile visit.

Could do with another day here...although we return briefly next week.

Now we're writing up the day, emailing and getting our minds around the trip to Durban tomorrow....

Ghandi Square

View from the top

 In Soweto...Orlando Stadium

Soweto..the stones represent the only weapons the rebelling schoolchildren had against the white guns..

 In Soweto...no explanation needed

Disused Soweto power station as recreation centre...note bungee jump

Apartheid architecture of government buildings that represented harsh power, we are told.

Our brilliantly homely Ginnegaap Guest House

End of the First Leg

Well, all good things must come to an end...

....and the end is, somehow, here before we're ready for it.

Leaving Kruger, we head south again taking a great scenic route around the Blydeport canyon, said to be the third largest in the world. Sue drives up the canyon as we pass the awful sight of a lorry being recovered after driving over the edge.

We stay at a campsite with a great view of the three Rondavels..enormous rock outcrops with grassy tops...and we walk up to a great viewpoint on the opposite side of the canyon.

After an evening meal with some fellow adventurers we head off the next day for a spectacular drive, unfortunately in low cloud/thick fog which slightly takes the edge off it...
....anyway we do manage to see the famous Bourke's Luck Potholes....very lucky, I say, given the weather. We stop at Graskop where, at Harries Pankes, I find enormous Gluten Free Pankakes..ah, wonderful.

After more spectacular views, we camp and start the process of clearing the van and repacking for the next stage. The farewell dinner and large amounts of South African plonk go down well.

The next day, we drive over the Long Tom pass and stop at Dullstroom...a green street of tourist shops but with the saving grace of a micro brewery. We finish off the day with communal red wine and a bonfire/BBQ (braai in SA speak)....it's the 5th of November. Ring a bell?

Which brings us up to date. We drop off the motorhomes in Jo'berg, facilitated by the extremely pleasant Bobo Staff who confirm that we can take our motorhome-with-no-name on the next leg. That's Very Good News Indeed. After saying farewells to our wonderful travelling companions and  tour leaders, we're off by taxi to our guest house in the Melville area of Jo'berg...more on that in the next post.

The South African Art of Braaing...

Bourkes Luck Potholes..

The Three Rondavels..

Kruger

We're spending three nights here at two campsites. The park is vast. It's telling that, as we have close encounters with White Rhino, Blue Wilderbeast, loads of Impalas that we still really really want to see a big cat.

I'm writing this blog parked next to the Sabie river, where we had breakfast in the motorhome-with-no-name. We were up at 5.00am this morning and STILL NO BIG CATS! 

So, obviously only to pass the time, I'm.....

...following the practice for the US grand prix though. Let me say - if McLaren Honda let Jenson go after his efforts with the development of that awful car, I'll never buy a Honda. Never, Ever. Not that I would. Not now. So there.  I digress. ...oh and well done Lewis H. Great drive.  And now, back to the point of this blog..

Update:

.....and next day we see LIONS...and buffalo...and white rhino...and giraffes...and wilderbeast...and elephants and more. Kruger has been all that we hoped it might be. We'll be back here on our next tour in a couple of weeks before we head on up to Botswana. Just impossible to post all the images.

Here's a flavour of Kruger...

Journey to Swaziland

Firstly a quick catch-up

We expected our night in Shakaland, an ex movie set, now a sort of hotel come village, to be a totally artificial experience. To some extent it was, of course,  but the Zulu host and certainly the brilliant Zulu dancing were authentic and we did learn a lot from it.  Great night in our 'Zulu hut', too. Very interesting journey through KwaZulu-Natal, though.

Theatrical, yes, but brilliant authentic Zulu dance...

Travelling on to Hluhluwe we spent two nights in the area visiting St Lucia in the wetlands including a river safari to see many hippos, crocs and birds. We took a day safari in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park with a really amusing but skilled Zulu guide...encountering a bull elephant feet away....scary but good.

We'll be in touch, Thembi...

Onward into Swaziland....the only remaining true kingdom?? The country is certainly quite poor but also friendly. We stay in a wildlife park for just one night but we prefer to get out and meet people. We buy some locally made stuff at a craft market and, after the usual 'look who I bought this from' photo with one stall-holder, we sort out a 'whatsapp' contact to send her the photo. We visit a re-cycling glass works and stop at a little town before we head back across the border into South Africa. Into the Kruger Wildlife Park.....