Friday
The boys (UP and Pete) finished work at 3pm (normal for a Friday) and we began the roadtrip east of Joburg to Sabie. Sabie is a small town in the Drakensburg escarpment. We arrived at our traditional Africaans hosted B&B (hideous arched brick house stuck in 70’s!) and ventured into town for dinner and drinks. For dinner we ate local delicacies of kudu (antelope family) casserole, springbok schnitzel and biltong (like beef jerky) pate. We have also discovered the obligatory finisher to any meal- a Dom Pedro- single or double shot of either whisky or kahlua, blended with icecream- yum! We then headed across the road to the local pub. It was fascinati
ng being the only tourists and watching the locals in action…
Saturday
We decided to visit Kruger National Park. Most of the National Parks in Africa are fenced to protect the animals from hunting. Kruger NP is enormous (apparently the size of Israel)- we drove around it all day and would have only seen a small portion of the park. The experience was awesome though- and we were starting to learn the names of all of the animals. We had a hair-raising experience with an old lone male elephant. We stopped to watch him on the side of the road. He was ENORMOUS…. Never seen such a large mammal. Slowly he started to cross the road…. I was just screaming to Pete to move the car away from him scared that we would get squashed, however eventually the elephant moved to the other side of the road and into the bush. Whilst scary, very exciting also!
We also saw masses of impala (the equivalent of sheep in Australia), kudu (beautiful looking antelopes- couldn’t believe I had eaten kudu casserole the night before), herds of elephants, families of giraffes with varying shades of mottled hair, cute chacma baboons, a pond full of hippopotamus, warthog grazing less than 1m from car (very ugly pig-like animals). Apparently there was a lion feasting on a prey- swarms of tourists were looking at it, however we could not see it. An excuse to return!
The whole safari experience is interesting. Definitely teaches you to be patient. We may not have seen any animals for ½ hour, but then you stumble across a herd of 20 elephants less than 20m away, and around the corner there is white rhinoceros’s feasting on the grass.
After a full and exhilarating day of animal spotting, we returned to Sabie for drinks and dinner. We ate in an old train carriage. Pretty much ate and drank a lot, and bill was only AUD20 each. Very cheap here!!
Sunday
The Pinnacle
Packed up and out of the wonderfully hosted B&B (they did make delicious breakfasts) and ventured along the Drakensburg Escarpment. It is a beautiful hilly region, abounded wi
th waterfalls and touristy towns. The 'Pinnacle' was an interesting rock formation jutting out of escarpment, and ‘God’s Window’ offered good views of the valley (evidence of man’s destruction of forests- lots of logging takes place in this region!). We stopped in Pilgrim’s Rest (a quaint touristy town) for a coffee and got conned into paying a black for a hand car wash which we didn’t even request!! The region is also smothered with blacks selling crafts and souvenirs….
Long drive back to Joburg was interesting- 160km on the freeways is quite tolerable (like Germany). Why go the speed limit of 120km/hr when you can go faster?? Peter got pulled over near Kruger NP for speeding- 19km/hr above speed limit in 60 zone. No issues at all getting out of it- and no bribe required to be paid either- even better!
The drive through Pretoria was pretty. Every street is lined with Jacaranda trees which were in purple bloom. Stunning having a town of purple!
The boys (UP and Pete) finished work at 3pm (normal for a Friday) and we began the roadtrip east of Joburg to Sabie. Sabie is a small town in the Drakensburg escarpment. We arrived at our traditional Africaans hosted B&B (hideous arched brick house stuck in 70’s!) and ventured into town for dinner and drinks. For dinner we ate local delicacies of kudu (antelope family) casserole, springbok schnitzel and biltong (like beef jerky) pate. We have also discovered the obligatory finisher to any meal- a Dom Pedro- single or double shot of either whisky or kahlua, blended with icecream- yum! We then headed across the road to the local pub. It was fascinati
ng being the only tourists and watching the locals in action…Saturday
We decided to visit Kruger National Park. Most of the National Parks in Africa are fenced to protect the animals from hunting. Kruger NP is enormous (apparently the size of Israel)- we drove around it all day and would have only seen a small portion of the park. The experience was awesome though- and we were starting to learn the names of all of the animals. We had a hair-raising experience with an old lone male elephant. We stopped to watch him on the side of the road. He was ENORMOUS…. Never seen such a large mammal. Slowly he started to cross the road…. I was just screaming to Pete to move the car away from him scared that we would get squashed, however eventually the elephant moved to the other side of the road and into the bush. Whilst scary, very exciting also!
We also saw masses of impala (the equivalent of sheep in Australia), kudu (beautiful looking antelopes- couldn’t believe I had eaten kudu casserole the night before), herds of elephants, families of giraffes with varying shades of mottled hair, cute chacma baboons, a pond full of hippopotamus, warthog grazing less than 1m from car (very ugly pig-like animals). Apparently there was a lion feasting on a prey- swarms of tourists were looking at it, however we could not see it. An excuse to return!
The whole safari experience is interesting. Definitely teaches you to be patient. We may not have seen any animals for ½ hour, but then you stumble across a herd of 20 elephants less than 20m away, and around the corner there is white rhinoceros’s feasting on the grass.After a full and exhilarating day of animal spotting, we returned to Sabie for drinks and dinner. We ate in an old train carriage. Pretty much ate and drank a lot, and bill was only AUD20 each. Very cheap here!!
Sunday
The Pinnacle
Packed up and out of the wonderfully hosted B&B (they did make delicious breakfasts) and ventured along the Drakensburg Escarpment. It is a beautiful hilly region, abounded wi
th waterfalls and touristy towns. The 'Pinnacle' was an interesting rock formation jutting out of escarpment, and ‘God’s Window’ offered good views of the valley (evidence of man’s destruction of forests- lots of logging takes place in this region!). We stopped in Pilgrim’s Rest (a quaint touristy town) for a coffee and got conned into paying a black for a hand car wash which we didn’t even request!! The region is also smothered with blacks selling crafts and souvenirs….Long drive back to Joburg was interesting- 160km on the freeways is quite tolerable (like Germany). Why go the speed limit of 120km/hr when you can go faster?? Peter got pulled over near Kruger NP for speeding- 19km/hr above speed limit in 60 zone. No issues at all getting out of it- and no bribe required to be paid either- even better!
The drive through Pretoria was pretty. Every street is lined with Jacaranda trees which were in purple bloom. Stunning having a town of purple!