South Africa Part 1

Johannesburg
12-14 February

After a never-ending flight of 14 hours we arrived at the other side of the globe; South-Africa. This is to become Marcel's first encounter with Africa. We arrived at Johannesburg (Joburg for insiders) and had arranged for pick-up by a chauffeur to bring us to our first B&B, Tladi Lodge in Sandtown. B&B's in South Africa are like luxury hotels, most with your own private entrances and patios. They are often cheaper than a hotel of the same standard and excellent value for money. After a quick shower we went out for dinner in Sandton, at the Nelson Mandela Square (many streets and buildings have been (re)named after him) and we found a delicious African restaurant where we enjoyed a buffet with lots of local African dishes.

The next day we were off to learn about South-African history. We first went on a tour through the famous township Soweto, followed by a visit to the Apartheidsmuseum and a J'burg city tour. Lisette did the same tour in Soweto 10 years ago and things had changed significantly. For the better for the inhabitants, but it has lost its purity due to the busloads of tourists that arrive every day. The squatter camps were still there but all the rest was full of new houses, businessess, and even B&B and hotels, something unthinkable 10 years ago. Living conditions are a lot better and there is a lot less violence and crime. We did have a short walk through the “poorer” areas where we visited a children's daycare house. They were so happy to see us and we fell in love with those cute faces. Lisette immediately wanted to adopt them all!

We then went to the Apartheidsmuseum. There we got to experience the whole history of Apartheid through film and photos, some of which were pretty confronting. It was an emotional experience. The entrance is an example of how things were then; Blanke or Nie Blank, everything was separated according to skin colour. What a lengthy struggle it was to breakthrough this white power. Many have fought and given their lives but Nelson Mandela truly is almost a god for South-Africans. He actually worked together with the Government for years, even whilst in prison, to create the basis for a new constitution where everybody would be equal. One man, one vote! Marcel immediately bought the book Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom and could not put it down. He advises everybody to read this book.

After 2 days of J'burg we were off to explore the rest of South-Africa. First stop was the Lion Park, our first encounter with the South-African wildlife. You could cuddle young lions here. Again Lisette wanted to adopt them immediately. And we got to feed Giraffes; boy, do they have ugly long dark-grey tongues! After that we got to experience the cultures of South Africa. Lesedi village is a cultural village where you can see how each of the 11 different tribes live. We got to hear the stories about the Zulu, the people from Lesotho, the Xhosa (Nelson Mandela is one), Nbele and many others. Especially the traditional dances where impressive. Most interesting was the warrior dance by the Zulu, kicking their legs against their head as a sign of endurance. It was clear that Zulu are the most violent of them all, as Shaka Zulu has proven in the past.

Kruger Park
14-20 February

We spent the night in a modern B&B in Nelspruit before going to Kruger Park the next day. When we left early in the morning and stopped at a gas station to fuel, we noticed our car (a very ugly Ssangyong Kyron) was leaking diesel. We called the rental company and after a lot of negotiating we could pick up a replacement car at the airport; a gigantic Toyota Hilux double cab. Ideal for Kruger Park as this was a true 4x4, high enough to spot all the wildlife. This caused us to miss a whole morning in Kruger Park but in the end we were happy with this new car, but only for Kruger as our luggage was clearly visible in the back. After many days of phining back and forth, we negotiated a new car to be brought to us on the last day of Kruger. Anyways, off we went what was to be long hours and days in search for wildlife. Immediately at the entrance we spotted our first animals; hippos (the first of what was to many, many, many hippos). Soon after we saw elephants, impala's, zebra's, and also a rhino, 2 of the big 5 in 1 hour! But this was just the beginning and more was to come the following days.

This was the first safari for Marcel so he didn't know what to expect. For those that never did it, it comes down to driving around for hours and hours, at a pace of 20-30 km/hour, staring until your eyes go scew, and being totally excited once you see something, totally forgetting at once all the hours spent looking in vane.
All this staring turns you mad so you regularly think you found something, but then it often turns out to be a piece of wood or a rock. But boy they do look almost the same, as you can judge yourself from these pictures.

You have to be patient, perseverant, but if you then see what you are looking for it is so rewarding. We were lucky to see 4 of the big 5, three days in a row. We just didn't succeed to find a leopard. But man did we get unique shots of young lions, the king of the jungle crossing the road, rhinos right in front of us, hippos and waterbuffalo enjoying the water. It was just great. We even got to see some more rare animals like jackals and hyenas.

We must tell you about the crocs. Last time Lisette was in Kruger there were crocs everywhere and no hippos. This time: almost none. We figured out that the hippos ate all the crocs :-). Our encounter with our first croc was sort of pathetic. We crossed a small pool of water and saw in our rearview mirror something moving in this puddle. We reversed and the water moved even more, a little while later a bunch of turtles ran out of the water and towards our car, begging for food. Strange, because we were nowhere near where people come to feed them. All we had was a small bag of unsalted macademia nuts and we decided it was ok to feed them this. Then we spotted this poor animal approaching through the water, a tiny croc with big begging eyes. Our hearts broke. These poor animals were starving to death and were begging us for food. I think we are the first human beings seeing a croc eating macadamia's... the poor thing.

As it does happen that some Kruger animals get hunted (in oreer to keep the ecosystem in balance), the local shops offer game for BBQ-ing (“Braai”in SA). We had 2 Wildebeest (Gnoe in Dutch) braais, hmmm. Marcel has become a real braai master by now.


After Kruger we passed through the Blyde River Canyon towards the east coast. We must say that South-Africa does have an amazing countryside almost as beautiful as New Zealand. We did the whole lot: God's Window, Three Rondavels, The Pinnacle and Bourke's Luck Potholes. Especially impressive were the Bourke's Luck Potholes, deep circles in the canyon carved out by the Blyde river (Afrikaans for Happy river, they also have a sad river).