Today, we went driving through the Tuli Block. This is a farming area of Botswana where most of the fruit and vegetables grown in Botswana are produced. Oranges seem to be the primary fruit. We didn't get right to the top of the Tuli Block where the large irrugated farms are located, perhaps this is a trip for another time. The "main road" we were following was gravel that deteriorated into a two wheel track at each creek crossing. This was the standard type of road up until fifteen or so years ago. It took most of the morning to reach the halfway point of the trip, at which point we decided to seek smoother roads and head home.

The countryside is typical of Botswana, flat with scrubby bush. Still, we drove through areas of game reserve where Impala had decided the road offered better grazing. There are Lion and King Cheetah around the Tuli Block reserves with several game parks in the area. This alone will ensure I get back there at some point.

We stopped at the Zanzibar border post which is on the Limpopo river. We were allowed to enter no-man's land between Botswana and South Africa without passports to have a look at the Limpopo river and the couple of weirs built into it to allow foot traffic. No crocs were seen, but they no doubt saw us.

We stopped at Bobonong on the way back to Maunatlala to pick up something to eat, not a lot to choose from at the moment. As oranges are produced in Bots. we picked up a bag. Must have been a poor season this year.

Big meal, early night, back to Gaborone tomorrow some time. No hurry to go back to the big smoke, Maunatlala is a nice quite place with friendly people.

Tags: travel

Part of today was spent roving around the Dam site. The day was opressively hot for the most part but only if you stood in the sun. The Lotsane Dam has progressed quite a bit since I last saw it. Six months ago it was only a newly cleared space through the Mopani trees. Now there is some obvious signs of construction, with concrete batching plant, workshop and offices springing up around the place.

This afternoon we went to see Moremi Gorge, a local and international attraction just up the road a bit. Quite a spectacular place and well hidden from general view. The gorge is part of the Tswapong Hills which shaddow the Lotsane river. The landlady, Masego, along with a few others joined us on this afternoon trip. There are three waterfalls, but only the first small one is accessible without a scramble. I was not wearing appropriate footwear so decided against the climb to the next two falls. I'll go see them next time I'm in Botswana, and wearing appropriate shoes. I received a few scratches from the acacia trees, the thorns being so sharp I didn't even notice until tonight. Shorts are not the ideal clothing for this environment, regardless of the heat.

Dinner was once again a huge meal, and the wine was a very sweet rose. The Batswana love their sugar, and Coke is doing a roaring trade here.

Tomorrow we go driving through the Tuli block farms.

Tags: travel

We got up early this morning and did a loop around the camp before breakfast. Normally this is the perfect time of day to be game spotting, but because of the abundance of water, the game had mostly gone off to the more remote areas of the park. There was Waterbuck in the river along with crocs and Maraboo storks, and further along lots of hippos were wallowing in the deeper water. Lots of Impala as usual and I'm getting rather tired of seeing them.

As well as the morning in the park, we also need to get back to Maunatlala in Botswana today so we checked out after breakfast at 8am. We headed south from Shingwedzi toward the Phalaborwa gate where we left the park. No lions this time, or Leopard. It's always dissapointing not seeing cats of some type, but trying to find them is more than half the fun. And after looking through the photos of what I did see, I'm more than happy with this short trip to Kruger.

Here is a list of animals we did see in the park. P = photographed, N = saw at night.

Elephant (P)
Waterbuck (P)
Nyala (P)
Impala (P)
Wildebeest (P)
Buffelo (P)
Kudu (P)
African Eagle (P)
Fish Eagle (P)
Marabou Stork (P)
White Stork (P)
Lilac breasted Roller
Baboons (P)
Vervet Monkeys (P)
Steenbok
Giraffe (P)
Zebra (P)
Hippos (P)
Crocodiles (P)
Leopard Tortoise (P)
Warthogs (P)
Kingfishers (P)
Hiyena (N)
Duiker (N)

We left the park at midday, it's always sad to leave it. After a bite of carrot cake and a coffee at the Phalaborwa gate we headed through Phalaborwa and the home of Amarula toward Polokwane the capital of Limpopo province. This area has some very interesting weathered granite formations, in the shape of large piles of marbles.

Once again we were driving through some very scenic country before getting close to Polokwane, where it started looking very much like Botswana.. flat and featureless for the most part.
Driving through Polokwane was like driving in Malaysia, but perhaps not quite that bad. Maps are all but useless and blind luck got us to the other side. Around Savanna was the first time I've seen white south africans walking around doing their shopping with side-arms.

After passing through the Martin's Drift boarder crossing we finally arived at Maunatlala around 8:30pm, to find a huge dinner waiting for us thanks to the landlady of the house we were staying in. She also bought a bottle of wine for my arrival, but it was just a bit too late so we arranged to have it tomorrow night.

Tags: travel

Didn't get up too early this morning after the long day yesterday.

We headed off into the park around 8am after booking a night drive for this evening. Today is our only full day in the park and I'm hoping to see lions. The sighting board indicated they were just north of the camp.
We drove up to the north of Kruger to the Pafuri border crossing into Mozambique and to see "Crooks Corner" at the very top of the park where you can see the borders of Mozambique and Zimbabwe just across the river full of crocs. This part of the park is fantastic to drive through and has a very different terrain than the rest of Kruger. This is the area the Nyala like and we got to see a lot of them, which was in contrast to my last visit.

Again there were lots of Elephant, Zebra, Giraffe, Impala etc. We haven't seen a lot of Kudu or buffelo this time which is interesting.

We arrived back at camp right on closing time rather tired. Driving at 20-50kph is tiring.

The night drive was absolutely uneventful, with the exception of seeing Hiyeena and cubs. It was still nice to be driving around the african bush at night though. Once again, they made the mistake of giving the spotlights to kids!!! I know it's fun for them, but REALLY we're trying to find animals not look at the sides of the effing road.

Tomorrow there must be lions..surely.

Tags: travel

Got up hellishly early for holidays, and headed to "God's Window" to try and catch the early light. The chain was up, but this didn't stop me the last time I was here (2002), but the security guard did. He was adamant that I couldn't get in until 7am when the place opened. It seems they are now charging for access when it used to be free. I thought about asking what the entry price was and offering it to the guard, but decided against this. Instead we drove 500m down the road and walked out to the edge of the escarpment and got the same view for FREE.

Back to the Summit Lodge for breakfast and then hit the road for Hazyview, where we grabbed a few eats in case we needed them in the park.

We entered Kruger National Park through the Kruger Gate and our intention was to scoot over to Skukuza, the main camp in the park, and see if there was any available accommodation there, and if so, switch one of our nights from Shingwedzi. There wasn't, nor was there any available in Satara. So we had a long drive from the south to the central north Shingwedzi camp.

For those who've never visited Kruger, this is a self-drive park with a number of camps in which you can over-night. The speed limit is restricted to 50kph but the best speed is around 20 or 30kph. This time of year the place is a very lush green which makes spotting game rather challenging, plus there is an abundance of water so the game don't need to rely on the man-made watering holes. All-in-all, not the best time of year to visit the park for game viewing. But, the South Africans seem to love spending Christmas here.

Today, we saw lots of Giraffe, Elephant, Zebra, Maraboo storks, Hippos etc etc. I'll make a list once we leave the park with what we saw.

Arrived at Shingwedzi within 15mins of the gate closing, the place hasn't changed much from when I was last here. They've added a pool.

A couple of beers, dinner and time to recharge the cameras for tomorrow.

Tags: travel

Merry Christmas!

Up reasonably early today to leave Gabs at 7am-ish. The drive from Gabs into South Africa via Lobatse was scenic but uneventful. We did get a little lost through Lobatse for a short time. As usual the road signs are all but non-existent, unless you approach the town from a certain direction, then there are one or two. Most smaller regional towns have no street signs, and presumably the streets have no names. The locals know exactly where they're going so why would they need them?

The roads are immediately better the moment we got to the SA side of the boarder and away we go at 120 km/ph. Of course we don't travel at exactly that speed.. somewhat faster. The destination for today is Graskop which is about 750km away. This is a lovely place much like Montville in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, and is situated along the Drakensburg Range. "God's Window" is just down the road and I'll visit it tomorrow morning.

We got into Graskop just on dark after driving through some magnificient mountain scenery. We also got caught in a storm which had us pulled over on the side of the road for 5mins or so. Everyone else just kept on barreling along... crazy!! Travelling through the mountainous region around Hendriksdal was brilliant, and the roads are perfect for biking.

Being Christmas Day, not many restaurants were open this evening, we were recommended two and found a much nicer one which was fully booked. However, after settling on a Portugese/Mozambique place settled in with a few beers and wine. Food was excellent as usual, wine was exceptional.... as usual.

Heading for Kruger Park tomorrow, should get there around 10am-ish.

Tags: travel

I have arrived!

Actually I arrived at 9:30am this morning Botswana time and have hit the ground running. I managed to get a bit of sleep on the flight over so I've only felt like a zombie rather than comatose. I managed to get caught in the customs queue again. I had nothing to declair but it seems I look like an untrustworthy sort, they nabbed me and went through the bags. They're really just after currency, and after not finding huge wads of undeclared cash, threw me back.

However, I have just finished my first of many St. Louis' (local beer) and have managed to get a USB dongle working on my macbook which I hope will give me almost unrestricted access to the Internet for at least a little while.

While I wait for the newly purchased air-time to take effect I'm watching my first Botswana sunset in around six months.

...time for another beer!

Does this day have to end? I guess I should be thankful, I'm driving into South Africa tomorrow - Christmas Day - on my way to Kruger National Park. Which reminds me, I had to clear customs to pick up my bags having forgot to check them all the way to Gaborone. This meant having to get a visa for South Africa. I got one for ten days then promptly turned around and left the country. On my way through immigration again, the friendly passport control guy asks me as he picks up my passport "So how did you like your stay in South Afri...." it was at this point that he realises my visa and entry stamps are for today. An eye brow is raised before I respond with "just had to pick up my bags.. but I'll be back tomorrow". Thump, thump, a bit of a chuckle and a friendly Merry Christmas and I'm on my way again.

Tags: travel

Day 0.75

I'm now sitting in the Johannesburg International Airport haveing a cup of 5 Roses tea looking out over the internationally flavoured planes that have docked.

It's just gone 6:00am in the morning, the sky through the large plate glass windows has that distinctive African dustiness to it and I feel like I'm home again.

I'm wearing the "I had Friends on that Death Star" t-shirt give to me by Ethan and Aleksia for Christmas, and it has raised countless smiles throughout my trip thus far. Just goes to show Star Wars transcends time and spa.. generations.

One flight to go to get to Gaborone and here's hoping everything doesn't fall into a heap at the final stage.

Tags: travel

Day 0.5

Another adventure is beginning. Albeit a shorter one this time but overseas, nonetheless.
I'm sitting in Perth International airport, having just updated my facebook page courtesy of free Optus broadband kiosks, waiting for my 11:45pm connection to South Africa.
Unfortunately I've had to fly Qantas, which is taking me via Perth. I prefer the Singapore route, but my plans this time left me with little choice. I'll make do I'm sure.

Having flown domestic from Brisbane I forgot to check my bags all the way to Gaborone so I'll need to clear immigration and collect them in Jo'burg. I have a 3 hour transit window so this should be fine, and it also gets me away from that international joke of a transit desk at the Jo'burg airport.

I was really really hoping to be able to do all my checkin-ing online this time, but because of code-sharing between Qantas and SAA, it seems this isn't possible. Hopefully they and the world will catch up.

It's late, I'm tired, so I'm going to lie down over several seats and get some rest before the flight leaves.

Tags: travel