Johannesburg, South Africa 5-6 September 2008

We’d previously decided to spend as little time in Jo’burg as possible which seemed a good idea at the time but, as it turned out, we could have done with at least a full day there. However, when a couple we’re travelling with had an incident in broad daylight at a cash machine, we were kind of glad we were flying out the next morning. We did note the increase in security – it seemed that bars on all windows and high fences just weren’t enough. There needed to be electric wires and video cameras on many of the properties we passed.



As it was, we were staying in a hostel that had a double gate system to prevent anyone dodgy getting through but it certainly brought home the security issue.

We basically had ½ a day to do something and we’d narrowed it down to either touring the Soweto township, visiting the apartheid museum or going to a game park outside Jo’burg where they had white lions. The animals won (surprisingly Euans call not mine!) so we headed off for the afternoon to look at these lions. The basic format was that you went into this park, did a ‘game drive’ through a few paddocks then headed in to drive through the lion enclosures. On the way into the park there was a male giraffe close to the road and he seemed kind of friendly and came wandering over to the car



Once we’d parked up, I headed back quick smart to talk to this giraffe. Most times if you manage to get close to a giraffe they’re behind a fence or you’re on a platform where you can feed them but this guy was just wandering in a paddock and my only thought was to get back to talk to him. I don’t know if giraffe can kick or whether they’re aggressive in any way but I didn’t even think about it and just bowled on up to him, perhaps a bit naive on hindsight. Giraffe are simply massive and it was rather unnerving to be standing right next to him. I was trying to take a few pics and didn’t realise Euan had followed me over and was busy snapping away.



I was trying to get some pictures with my camera and at the same time pay attention to what this giraffe was doing but he seemed quite happy to just nuzzle my backpack or face for most of the time that I was with him





When I realised Euan was there, I turned to talk to Euan and was standing under his neck when he started to walk. I guess I was out of his line of sight and I nearly copped it from his kneecap which was about the size of my head. I moved quickly enough not to get knocked over but am not sure what I was thinking when the below was taken - like I’m really going to be able to push a giraffe away?!



It might sound a bit corny but for me, being up close to such a huge animal was incredibly special and I was in 7th heaven. Its unusual to be able to pet an animal like that completely unsupervised with no one else (other than Euan) around and was, for me, undoubtedly one of the big highlights of this trip to Africa (along with seeing those lions chase the herd of zebra). It didn’t matter that he was in a safari park and was obviously tame, no other place I’ve been to has allowed (and maybe the park didn’t allow, they just didn’t know!) unmonitored access to what essentially is still a wild animal.



The lions were fantastic and we saw a huge difference between these captive lions and those in the wild. While most of them had scars from fighting, the male lions in particular were in great condition and their manes were virtually untouched



unlike their wild counterparts, most of whom we saw were completely beaten up, with ticks and scraggly manes from proper fighting (this is the guy we saw in the Serengeti)



The best thing about doing this park trip was that, having seen lions in the wild and mostly at a distance, we could watch these guys from a few meters away. Being that close gives you a real perspective on how huge they are



They were all sleeping in a group and looked very bored





but when they heard men in the next enclosure they perked up and moved very quickly. I didn’t even have time to wind up my window but he wasn’t interested in us.



Apparently someone had broken into the enclosure next door during the night a few weeks ago and had been eaten by the lions. These lions had had a taste of human flesh so were obviously interested to see if any more was coming their way! The guy who was driving us had had a lion come at him through the window in the past so he was a bit wary and kept his window up most of the time. He also said that a few years ago a Japanese chap had got out of the car thinking they were tame lions and had been nailed. There was nothing they could do and he was dragged off and killed. There are workers around but mostly you’re left to do y our own thing and nothing stopping anyone getting out of the car (great time to put kiddy lock into play if you’ve got kids I would have thought!).

We’d never seen white lions before and they were very beautiful. The male in particular seemed almost ethereal.



They all had blue eyes and I think that’s what made them look ghostly



There were also some gorgeous white lion cubs



and a few young females



We were able to spend some time in a pen with about seven lion cubs which I was really looking forward to but as it turned out, the cubs were just downright mischievous! We say them stalking another lady (a nun) who was also in the pen with us, who had a skirt that was waving in the breeze. The cub stalked then ran at her from behind when one of the staff from the park intercepted the charge. Had they not she wouldn’t have known what had hit her!



There were about four normal cubs that were four months old and three white lion cubs that were about three months old. The white cubs were younger, much nicer to deal with and were rather cute. What was cool was that we were allowed in with them and were free to handle them - I think their minders knew that they'd keep us in line, which they duly did!



What nearly stole the show was a couple of baby hyenas in the next pen and they really were cute, no question about it. The funny thing was that they were absolutely true to type. Originally they were in the same pen with the cubs but they’d had to separate them as the pups were harassing the cubs! I went to pat one of them through the wire but he was going to take a piece of my finger. Not in a nasty way but more in a curious way but I know their jaws are strong so didn’t risk it. They went up to the nursery shortly after we arrived and I noticed that the lady who went to get them kept her fingers tucked into her hands and well out of their way. They were so pleased to see her and were making the “yip yip yip” noise that hyena do and she ran super quick along the path to take them to their ‘nursery’ and the two of them were falling over themselves to follow her. So cute!



I thought the lion cubs would be a wee bit cuddly but they weren’t at all and were right little terrors. All coarse dirty hair, teeth and claws. I made the mistake of squatting down and was kind of ambushed and had one jump up on me and latch on to my chest and another go around and latch onto my trousers (and bum as it turned out). The lady is trying to get the other one to let go of my trousers (and bum).



This little terror that got me on the chest actually broke the skin and it really hurt! I was wary of the little b*stards after that



Euan sensibly stayed with the nice cute ones that had a wee bit of baby fluff on them and weren’t intent on chewing you



and I resorted to using sticks to play with the naughty ones



but when the chap to my left started paying closer attention I thought enough is enough! I’d had it with being chomped for the day but it really teaches you to respect them and gives you a wee idea of what a fully-grown lion would be capable of!



Sadly I didn’t see the giraffe on the way out but I’m now dead set on living somewhere where there is enough space to have some exotic pets. Not sure if you could have a giraffe in the UK and it would definitely be a no-no in NZ.

Drakensburg Mountains, Royal Natal National Park, South Africa 3-5 September 2008

It was strange going from tiny Lesotho back into SA, which at first appearances, is like any other western country. We drove around the border of Lesotho before passing back into SA (one of, or possibly the, easiest least bureaucratic border crossings we’ve done), through the Golden Gate National Park and into the Royal Natal National Park. If anyone is into climbing or hiking, either would be a brilliant place to come by the sounds. Our driver, Pat, a keen climber), was saying that the rock climbing in parts of Africa would equal some of the climbing he’d done in the States, like Yosemite or Yellowstone.

The entrance to the Golden Gate NP was impressive but I was too slow with the camera but managed to grab a sneaky picture of some rock further up the road which smaller, less like a gate but similar in shape and colour.



We climbed upwards into the mountain pass, past herds of zebra (they may have been mountain zebra but we weren’t sure), before dropping into the opening between the ranges




We didn’t arrive at the campsite in the Drakensburg Mountains until late and it was dark so we didn’t know that we were in the middle of some very impressive scenery. Again, it was quite cool to wake up and find you’re nestled in among these massive rock faces. The day was made even better by blue sky and no wind. The campsite was really well equipped and maintains, and was located on a vast grassy patch that was almost like a lawn it was that well kept



and is located in the middle of the pine trees in the picture below.



There is some serious hiking to do here and while we could only do a very small portion of what was available, we decided to do a short three-hour (it turned into five) hike to what was known as the ‘Policemans Helmet’.



The amphitheatre is the backdrop to many of the hikes in the area and is a stunning sight



and completely dominates the skyline



The policemans helmet is in the middle of this photo and you can see the scale of the amphitheatre. There is a race that is run every year, 50km from the camp, up one end of the amphitheatre, along the top then back down. Serious running over serious ground and the winner this year did it in about five and a half hours from memory.



The hiking tracks were quite rough and overgrown and there were some great shortcut opportunities if you weren’t worried about snakes (its possible), falling down holes (also very possible) or getting dirty (a given).



The hike turned into five hours as the estimated start time was from a different camp to the one we were staying at. What we didn’t know was that the path gets very overgrown in the low season and the turnoff to the ‘Policemans Helmet’ is easily missed and you carry on heading up the valley and that’s exactly what we did. At the far end of the valley, we realised that there was no loop-back to the helmet so turned back looking for the turnoff but didn’t find it. I really dislike heading out to achieve something specific and not accomplishing it so I was grumbling and carrying on all the way back down and consoled myself by persuading Euan to take a vaguely hairy shortcut that saw us jump ahead of the others who were motoring on ahead. The bank down was steeper than it looked and the long grass hid a small earth slide. Leaping over most of the holes and the slide, I was going great guns, shouting back at Euan to hurry up before going for a six down the bank. He didn’t see which was lucky as I was up again quick smart and belted it over the stream at the bottom and up the other side. Felt a bit better after that we diversion but not sure Euan was that convinced it had been worth it.

There are bearded vultures in the park and they are immense birds. From the ground they look like small gliders and apparently their wingspan ranges from 2.6-3.8m – just huge.

This is our second to last night in Africa. We hit Jo’burg tomorrow then its off to Japan. A world of difference I expect and I think we’re in for a bit of a shock.


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Jeffreys Bay, Addo National Park and Aliwal North, South Africa 28-31 August 2008

Next stop was Jeffreys Bay which is the surfing Mecca of SA and is overrun with surf shops (and not much else) such as Billabong, Ripcurl etc selling surf gear. Its winter there now so the place was pretty quiet but it seemed to be the kind of place where folk would get home from work and head straight out on the boards. The town centre is literally right on the beach and the beach looks lovely and it is but its showing wear and tear from the inhabitants with a lot of broken glass in the sand away from the shoreline. Having grown up running round barefoot on a glass-free beach, its awful to see. This is the view of the bay from where we were staying.



We didn’t see any spectacular waves unfortunately and it was kind of difficult to believe that the Billabong Pro tournament is held there every year. The surf spots are named and we headed down to the famous ‘Supertubes’ (cool name huh?) to see if there was any action. There wasn’t - the waves were clearly having some down time.



We were staying at a place perched high on one of the sand dunes and it was a perfect location. I looked up from reading a book one evening and there were dolphins cruising along in the waves really close to shore. The view from our veranda (no camping at this place!) was stunning



but the reality of the place was brought home when you walked along the beach and came across a sign that said ‘Danger. Mugging beyond this point’. Crazy. Its almost as if its condoned! We were in J’s Bay for two nights so had a chance to start booking accommodation in Japan (where we’re heading after Africa) and planning the trip through China. It was slightly crazy as it was a beautiful day and I was stuck making hostel bookings in China and sussing out airfares from China to Laos (pre-booked accommodation and outbound flights are a pre-requisite for a Chinese Visa).

We travelled from J’s Bay northwards to Addo where we arrived in time to fit in an afternoon of game driving in the truck (always good fun!) although we had to make sure there were no citrus fruit on board. Citrus fruits are banned from the park as the elephants are addicted to them after having been fed truckloads of fruit during a drought. The elephants started ambushing any vehicle that had any citrus fruit in it and there were quite a few accidents by all accounts.

Addo is about 165,000 ha and used to be solely an elephant park but has introduced other game over the past few decades. The park itself isn’t that great for viewing animals as it is entirely scrub and low trees with a few open grass spaces and is very exposed. The wind absolutely howled over the hills and my guess is that the animals stay in the scrub for shelter when its like that. Its amazing how an elephant can be disguised by a bush!



Addo is best known for its elephants and we weren’t disappointed – there are about 450 of them in the park. This chap was quite near the gate (the roads turn to dirt only a km or so away from the gate) and after a bit of ear flapping (the car should have reversed), passed by this car with no fuss.



There were plenty of warthog around who ran off with their tails stuck straight up in the air (they make us laugh every time we see them and seriously remind me of those troll dolls kids have).



The park staff claimed to have one leopard in there but they’d not seen it for a long long time. Once we saw the scrub, we reckoned that the leopard was either dead (killed by lions) or had shot the gap as there were no decent trees. What they did have though was loads of greater kudu, my favourite game animal so we saw plenty of those.

On the way out of the park the next day we were incredibly lucky and saw two of the seven lions that are in the park, along with one cub. We were on a downhill debating whether to ask Pat to stop for some zebra that were close to the road when all of a sudden the brakes went on and we all tumbled at least 3m forward, crash landing on each other (this is why game driving in the truck is great fun!). He’d seen the lions in front of the truck but unfortunately the weather was filthy so photos weren’t great.

We were heading up to Aliwal North, close to the Lesotho border, as a stopover before entering Lesotho the next day. The drive was a long, cold windy one. The truck was really buffeted by the winds and we felt it fishtail on the road a few times which was quite scary and when we stopped for a toilet break, we were amazed to find that it was snowing. Actually, we found out when our mischievous truck driver hurtled a snowball through the back door of the truck. That evening was one of those evenings where you just want to go to bed and get warm and comfy but everyone had to be fed. I had to cook that night and we had trouble finding our allocated chalets (the site was huge so we were driving round for a while which was comedy). Once there, I was stoked to find that they had proper kitchens and that we didn’t have to get a fire going, only to be disappointed when the hotplates didn’t work and turning on the oven tripped the fuses and plunged us into darkness. So, at 10pm, it was out with the single gas burner to cook a very hastily put together bowl of chilli and sour cream before hitting the sack. We couldn’t cook any rice as we only had one gas burner! Despite the cooking challenges, it was rather lovely to have electricity and beds and to balance it all out there was even a bath that we could use. So, all in all, the night ended on a good note but it was some of the coldest weather we’d experienced thus far in Africa.


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Knysna to Storms River, South Africa 25-28 August 2008

We stayed in Knysna for the night but didn’t spend time in the town instead opting to head to Plettenberg Bay where there were fab waves and even better carrot cake (with pecan nuts - YUM!).



We spent a few hours at a nearby sanctuary for wolves but it was a bit odd as they were Canadian Timber Wolves so hardly native, although there were wild dogs there also and it was interesting to see them up close. The wolves were much bigger than I expected them to be



and they weren’t tame by any stretch of the imagination and this alpha female was particularly nasty and on the odd occasion rushed the fence snarling if we got too close.



Apparently wolves are often crossed with dogs here in SA and they had a few crossbreeds at the sanctuary. The result is a tamer animal that looks like a white or cream coloured German Shepherd but much bigger. The sanctuary was well kitted out for kids (or any animal lover?) with a great array of animals from topi and jackals to pigs and donkeys. It was just my sort of place J and even more so when I came across an enclosure with about 20 rabbits in it.

We just continued to cruise along the coast line that afternoon and, at the moment, the pace is far more relaxed than down through Namibia and Botswana etc where serious kilometres needed to be covered. With only eight of us and two crew it’s a really nice sized group which means we can be a bit more flexible, call the shots on what happens and its more like a proper holiday. I’m almost ashamed to admit that we’ve not used the tents for over a week now as the hostels and backpackers are quite cheap.

From Plettenberg Bay we headed to Storms River in the Tsitsikamma National Park via Natures Reserve which is a small village in amongst yellow wood forest close to a stunning beach.



another reminder of home for me



It was heading out of Natures Valley on a very winding road that we connected with a tree branch. We were on the beach looking out and managed to duck the branch but the truck copped it with force. Immediately afterwards I popped my head up to look and had Euan not dragged me back down, I’d have copped another one. Poor Pat thought someone had been decapitated and the look on his face was classic when he stopped the truck and climbed up to see if we were OK. The road was pretty narrow and we had another near miss with another truck who gave us nowhere to go.

On the main drag to Port Elizabeth we passed over Bloukrans Bridge, a huge concrete structure on that traverses a deep ravine that runs down to the coast, and stopped to have a look at the bungee jump operation there.



The Bloukrans Bridge bungee is the highest in the world at 216m and while both of us questioned the rationale behind jumping in the first place, we decided we should do it at least once and this seemed as good a place as any to do it.



We had already opted out of the bungee jump at Victoria Falls, partly because I wasn’t well but more so because it didn’t seem very professionally run so this was the next option. I’m not sure how many of you have done a bungee jump before but no one had actually talked me through what happens and I’d have liked to know beforehand! So, here goes. Obviously its no big deal, we’re hardly making history but if you’re never done one before or watched it, you might be interested to see what happens and it might help the decision to jump/not jump.

I don’t mind heights at all but Euan maintains that he is scared of heights (although he can’t pull that one on me anymore) and both of us sweated in sympathy (me from my feet, Euan from his hands) from just watching the others jump at Vic Falls which is only ½ the height. You have to fork out a silly amount of cash (US$90) before signing your life away, then they send you off to get harnessed up. Bungee jumpers are now given a harness (I don’t recall a full harness being used when I watched years ago) similar to an abseil harness presumably so there is a backup line to the bungee in the event it falls off the ankles(?). The bungee platform is in the middle of the Bloukrans bridge and there is a 260m walkway underneath the bridge before you reach the jumping spot. The walkway is metal mesh that you can see through and as the ground drops away quickly you don’t exactly get any more comfortable the further you walk, plus the fact that every time a vehicle goes over the bridge it seems to flex.



Once on the platform (which is really just the concrete arch of the bridge), you wait until you’re called up and in the meantime, watch other people get kitted out and get more and more nervous before they jump. The guys there are brilliant with quips, jokes and assessing who was chilled and who was freaking right out and needed their mind taking off the jump. It’s a really tightly run outfit that puts your mind at ease (unlike Vic Falls which was a far more ad hoc operation!).

Once called, you sit and they wrap these pads around your shins and then another chap comes along with the straps that actually connect you to the bungee cable. There was a primary (that was only connected to the bungee) and a secondary (that was connected to the bungee and my harness)



and both were looped tightly around the red straps that bound my legs together.

They don’t actually connect you to the bungee until you’re close to the edge, albeit behind a strap but I was paying close attention to what they were doing, no matter how many times they’ve done it before!! I wanted to see



and was fine up until I reached the edge of the bridge and saw what was below.



Oddly enough, I wasn’t shaking, had no butterflies in my stomach but was genuinely terrified of jumping - it goes without saying that jumping off the edge of anything high enough to kill you is, quite simply, bloody unnatural.



The guys push you but only enough to make sure you go off the edge (or they’d go too!)



and once you’ve jumped all you can hear is the whistling of the wind as you’re falling and seeing the ground coming up to meet you – it’s a good 5-6 seconds of freefall and it seems like forever

and ever….

and once the bungee kicked in, it felt like my brain was coming out my ears (on the video footage I end up holding my head). I kept my eyes open and was genuinely terrified the whole way down only to be bounced up and to go through it again. Once the bouncing stops and my brain had decided to stay put, I was left dangling upside down until someone came down to get me before being winched back up to the bridge. Being suspended about 100m above the ground feeling like the rope is going to slip off your ankles is also quite a terrifying feeling.

Once I got winched back up, I really had to restrain myself from grabbing the platform to drag myself back onto semi-solid ground but once there, I wasn’t letting go in a hurry!



Euan was the last to go and was unsurprisingly a bit jittery –being last to jump can’t have been pleasant and I held back on telling him how terrified I was until after he’d jumped. He looked almost happy before he jumped

and surprised us by executing what was one of, perhaps the, best jump of the group





Some peoples legs just collapsed on the edge and they kind of fell off with a bit of a push from the guys. You really have to FORCE yourself push out for a straight dive or fall all floppy and bent like a rag doll.

I was so glad to see Euan hauled back to safety (its quite traumatic watching the one you love jump off a ledge!)



and we both agreed that once was enough but on the walk back I was still in the “no way, never again” space but and Mr Closet-Adrenalin-Junkie Macfarlane seemed to change his mind!



I didn’t get the same adrenaline rush that I got when I watched the lion chase in the Serengeti but if I feel like being truly scared out of my wits then I’ll go bungee jumping again. Euan likened it to living the nightmare where you are falling, falling, falling then you wake up. He said, unlike in the nightmare, it didn’t seem to have an end so he shut his eyes half way down. It does give you a buzz – I don’t think you’ll find many pictures where everyone in it is smiling so broadly (Pat at the back didn’t jump but he always looks like that)



Just down the road from the Bridge we stayed at Storms River which is a small place just outside the Tsitsikamma National Park. We were at a great backpackers outfit called “Tube ‘n Axe” (surfie terms perhaps??) and, with two nights there, we managed to do some hiking along part of the 42km Otter Trail, one of the most acclaimed hikes in SA. The trail we followed wasn’t really a trail but was more rock-hopping than anything else. I LOVE that sort of stuff! The coastline is pretty wild and if you fell in the sea you’d be hammered on the rocks for sure (I’m giving the pic scale at the end of the point)



Our destination was a waterfall about a 30min scramble along the coast and, looking at the photo, you would never know that about 10m away the surf was raging and battering these huge ragged rocks



The clawless otters that live in these parts are elusive so we got a fright when this chap popped up in the water below us



He was very cute and not scared of us at all, coming right up to the edge of the rock I was on, peering up at me out of the bubbles then rolling on his back to get a better look



The swell was pretty violent from the waves just on the other side of the rocks and a couple of times he had to dive quickly to avoid getting slammed into the rock face and then he must have had enough as he disappeared. I kept my eyes peeled looking for him to no avail



I think we were super lucky to have seen him as one guy had worked there for nine months and only seen two otters during that time.

It was in this lagoon-type pool thing that we saw the otter and the swell was so unpredictable with one massive wave churning the water up to the level of where I was standing looking for the otter.