Part 2
5 June 2009
Travels in Africa 1
Hi Everybody,
Still alive and well after 6 weeks of travelling ....left Sydney in
18th April at 8pm,then Perth at
3am and arrived Mauritius 9am,,,Stayed at a small cheap hotel near the
airport with great water views, then proceeded to tour around the
island using local buses,.....really cheap Mauritius is a
honeymooners hotspot the people were really friendly and most spoke
some English...lots of curries and seafood
Then it was on to Joburg, South Africa On the 23rd and went to Pretoria
to get some visas for the forthcoming 60 day overland trip....well what
a waste of time that was!!! Visas issued on the day of
purchase start straight away and would have expired before we got
there...was advised to purchase the required one at the border on
arrival... I then signed up for a 4 day camping trip to Kruger National
Park and headed back to Joberg and arranged to visit the son of an old
English friend I'd met in the Falklands in 1980...then on to
Kruger...what a feast of animals we saw...zebras and impala finished up
being as common as sheep and cattle ...then buffalo cheetah
elephants rhinos crocs lions all from converted Landrovers with raised
seating. This was followed with another 2 days of the same but the
sighting of a leopard evaded us to make up the BIG 5,
I then bought a ticket on BAZ BUS , a hop on- hop off bus
service that drops you at the door of the backpackers you are staying
in all the way to Capetown ...unlimited stops, unlimited time
First stop was in Swaziland and then down the coast ...St Lucia (hippos
wander the streets at night,,windy beach)... Durban ( with a side trip
to the Drakensberg) Bululanga in the middle of the Xhosa Villages on
the Wild Coast ...Port Elizabeth ..Jeffreys Bay ,of
surfing fame and
where the perfect wave was supposed to be in the old surf movie called
" The Endless Summer"...then another side trip to Outdshoorn to see the
Ostrich farms...Stellenbosh which
is like the Barossa Valley and South Africas wine region...The old
Dutch Colonial buildings really beautufull ..All white with black
thatch or green galv roofs ...and finally Capetown
Was raining when I arrived so set out last Monday to locate the South
African Antarctic offices and spent most of the day there including
lunch on board their Antarctic Ship AGULHAS..I should have taken
the trip up Table Mountain as the sun came out and there wasn't a cloud
in the sky by lunch time ...since then it's rained everyday and
we haven't seen the mountain since...I have another week here before
the start of the big overland camping trip...so far have been to most
of the musuems, visited Robben Island where Nelson Mandella was
detained for all those years... spent time down at the waterfront which
has all been modernised .....Tomorrow, weather permitting, it's down to
Simonstown on the train to see all the Jackass Penguins which in
summer wander in and out amongst the sunbathers on the beach... and
then on the weekend will do the Cape of Good Hope Peninsular tour
Cheers for now
Part 2
Received 3 Sept 09
Hi everybody,
This is a continuation of a previous email of my African Trip,
which was from Joburg down to Capetown
The trip down to Cape of Good Hope took a full day ,around the
ritzy beach suburbs ,a trip on a launch out to an island to see a
sealion breeding colony, then it was down to the Cape..not the
most southern point in Africa but the most south westerly one...the
most southern is Cape Agulhas but there is no road to it and hardly
anyone goes there.
And the weather did improve before I left, which gave me a chance to
see Capetown in the open topped double decker tour bus and that
included the trip in the cable car up Table mountain.
Then on the 12th June it was into the Dragoman Camping
truck with 19 other persons of different ages and Nationalities heading
north through Western and Northern Cape Provences
to the border with Namibia at the Orange River. It was a camping
trip.. so we slept in tents at night, and most of our meals were
prepared by our on board chef .. we also had a driver /tour guide
and and driver/mechanic.
Namibia is a pretty dry desolate country but with some magnificent
scenery,the deep Fish River Canyon something like the Grand
Canyon, the highest sand hills in the world at Sossusvei which
means an early morning rise to climb up and see the sunrise. Then
it was on to Swakopmund which is on the Skeleton Coast where the cold
Agulhus Current along the coast causes thick fogs to travel inland.
Namibia was once German Southwest Africa until it reverted to South
Africa after WW 1, but there is still a lot of German Heritage
there. Then up the coast to Cape Cross where the Portugese landed in
1400 something and there is now a large breeding sealion colony..then
north though some magnificent granite mountains to the Etosha National
Park which is an enormous salt pan that tends to dry out in the
winter The animals then congregate around the waterholes In
the evening some of these are illuminated and it possible to see the
animals closeup from behind screens.Here we had a confrontation with a
large angry bull elephant in musk ( on heat) which caused a few anxious
moments when he came at the truck trumpeting and trunk raised.
Next stop was the Okavango Delta in
Botswana where the river terminates in a large pan, and after
summer rains fills up. It then dries out in winter bringing the
wildlife (mainly Elephants and Hippos) to a small
area, which you view whilst being paddled around in
dugout canoes . On then to Chobe National Park where animals are
viewed from tour boats and in the swamps
here,elephants,crocs hippos ,lions, buffalo are seen really
closeup.
Then to one of the most magnificent sight in Africa, Victoria Falls.
Seen from the Zambian side only (to Cross over to Zimbabwe
entailed the cost of about 100 USD in return visa fees)
but at least we could walk out onto the Bridge to no mans
land to see the Falls and watch the idiots Bungy jumping..there had
been very heavy summer rains so the Falls were in full flow.. very very
misty and a good place to get very wet from the viewing points.
Next stop was on the beaches along the shores
of Lake Malawi for a bit of a rest before heading into Tanzania to Dar
es Salaam and a visit to Zanzibar It was a few days at the Indian Ocean
beaches and a visit to the old Arab town called Stonetown where the
Arabs have been trading in all sorts of good (including humans) for
thousands of years.
Then back inland to Arusha and Moshi at the
foothills if Killimanjaro, which we didn't see because of rain and
cloud and to the Serengetti and Ngoro Ngoro Crater. Lots of animals
here and we at last saw 2 of the elusive leopards in one day ...so that
was the BIG 5.
Out in this area is the home of the Masai, who live a
nomadic life on the deserted plains with their cattle and wear
brilliant red blankets. Then on to Nairobi in Kenya.
A section of the tour finished here and most of the group
left, more people joined for the 2 week extension to see the
Gorillas...
First stop Lake Nakuru in the Rift Valley ,lots of
flamingos,buffalloes and rhino closeup, Kibale Forest for the Chimps in
Uganda.
Then into Rwanda to see the Gorillas...there are 7
Gorilla families in the Volcan National Park and they only
allow 8 people each day 1 hour to visit them. The cost is 500
USD each but seeing the family upclose with the big Silverback and the
other males , females and baby ones is worth every cent.
We then made our way back to Jinja in Uganda where the White Nile
flows out of Lake Victoria ,heading north to Egypt for a couple of days
and then back to Nairobi
I flew home from here via Mauritius again ...
made it home a few weeks ago and am nearly back to normal again...
Am now planning the next trip... to Madagascar and north though Kenya
to Ethiopa ,
Sudan and into Egypt
Cheers
Graeme
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