Thirtyfootscrew’s Blog

I got up at around 9:30am and went through to the main house for breakfast, helping myself to cereal from the kitchen, James didn’t surface until 11am! We worked out that we’d like to go to Sterkfontein Caves, an archaeological site where evidence of early man has been found so I called them up to get directions and it turns out that they are closed on Mondays! We’d not had much luck so far with closed attractions starting with the Diamond Mine, the Cheetah Sanctuary and now this! We decided to go to the local Rhino & Lion Reserve instead and luckily I called them and they do indeed open on Mondays. James also called Dominic from Global Car Hire to arrange collection of the vehicle at 4pm.

We left for the reserve via a city route planned out for us by Bill, everything went smoothly and we got to see a bit more of Johannesburg as well. Since the end of Apartheid a great deal of the road names have been changed as they were previously named after former colonials or members of the government, this made navigation a little more awkward as Bill’s map was printed before 1994. We found the reserve with little trouble, though we did have to stop at the information hut to make sure we were going the right way. By the time we actually got into the game area it was lunchtime so we stopped at the picnic area where we were able to get toasties. As we were eating, a Springbok was wandering around and actually came up to make an attempt on our food, whilst I knew these were not dangerous animals I was a little worried that they might be similar to goats which will eat anything from clothing to fingers. A warden kept calling the Springbok away from us (it had a name too) and told us not to worry about him, it was quite amusing all the same. After eating we had a wander around the shop and a look at the Crocodiles (in a pool by The Croc Pub) and took a few photos of some Lion cubs in a small pen.

We had a drive around the Cheetah and Lion enclosures and didn’t manage to see either but we did manage to see some Wild Dogs (which looked like Hyenas) which James managed to spot hiding under a tree. On the lowlands (and out of the main game area) we also got to see herds of Wildebeest, Zebra, Eland and Kudu. We left the park in good time to arrive back at the house to hand the car over to Dominic at 4pm but he didn’t turn up until about 6pm, with a little crew of people – presumably for safety as he also carried a gun. He had a look around the car and noticed damage to the right-front headlight which James and I were almost certain we didn’t cause, there had been a previous impact on the car and he also tried to blame us for the bonnet being misaligned. Anne negotiated with him for us and got photocopies of the forms etc. and off he went with the car, he wasn’t particularly professional through the whole thing and was on his mobile for a while trying to sell a car. All we could do is wait until we got back to Cape Town and go to back to Global and speak to Shane.

We had drinks and dinner with Anne & Bill before being picked up by Anthony to go out for the evening, we went to a bar called Rhapsody where we met up with Michael and Jurgen. The bar was good, a nice atmosphere and there were waitresses to bring drinks to your table. We sat outside on the terrace until it began to rain (spotting at first), when we moved indoors. This was a very smart move (by Anthony) as a couple of minutes after we had gone inside the rain came hammering down, like nothing I’ve ever seen in Britain – this was HEAVY rain. The rain was pounding the roof of the bar so much that it was impossible to hear eachother talk, when it finally stopped we settled up and left for Cool Runnings in Melville, another bar in the same chain as the bar/restaurant we visited in Cape Town. The bar is situated near two universities and we went around the time when all the students were returning after the Christmas / New Year break, the place was absolutely rammed full and the atmosphere was great, I had a Rizla Sizzla cocktail as unfortunately they didn’t serve the Pan Galactic Gargleblaster. We left about 1am and Anthony took us on a drive-through tour of the city-centre and Hillbrow, two of the worst areas in Johannesburg. From what I could see there wasn’t much specific trouble but it looked rough as hell with fires burning on the streets and people sleeping rough everywhere. We got home at 2am and slept like a log.

written by thirtyfootscrew \\ tags: Africa, Johannesburg, Park, South Africa, Springbok, Travel, Wildlife

Got up around 9:30am and had breakfast outside on the patio cooked on the braai by Bill, Anthony, Gail and Christopher had joined us. In keeping with the Johannesburg tradition of drinking whenever possible we had champagne with breakfast which was novel but also very satisfying. Anne had offered to do some washing for us so we sorted out a bunch of clothes to be cleaned.

For the afternoon Bill drove us all in Anne’s Jaguar, we went to Hartbeestport Dam (‘The Dam’) where there is an enormous curio market full of traders from the whole of Southern Africa hawking their wares. We then went to De Wildt Cheetah Sanctuary only to find that appointments are mandatory and the next tour was on Tuesday, we did however get to see one Cheetah in an isolated pen, along with a large bird of prey in the neighbouring pen. Whilst we were standing around in the car park working out what to do a guy turned up with a half-dead cow on the back of a trailer, went to talk to the gatekeeper’s office and then left (with the cow). We could only guess that the guy was trying to sell his half-dead cow as food to the Cheetah Sanctuary as food, a grim business indeed. After the sanctuary we went to a the Hoogenot restaurant near The Dam and had a nice lunch. On the way back home James and I both fell asleep, the trip was beginning to catch up with us.

By the time we got back home a thunderstorm was brewing, we had drinks and then I went swimming, with the dogs jumping in and out all the time. After realising that a thunder & lightning storm is probably not the best time to go swimming I went in, swimming in the rain was a very refreshing experience though. In the evening we had drinks and food in the lounge and were joined by Anthony, Gail and Christopher as well as Michael, Jurgen and Henry. We went on the Internet to check our email and then went to bed about midnight.

written by thirtyfootscrew \\ tags: Africa, Cheetah, Dam, Hartbeestport, Park, South Africa, Travel

Had a bit of lie-in and got up at 9:30am, had breakfast and went for a drive to into Port Elizabeth town centre. We ended up at King’s Beach where we parked and had a wander across the sand, it was a lovely day and the beach was fantastic although the age-old problem of putting your shoes back on without taking half the beach with you caused some trouble! After wandering down the beach we went for lunch in a little café called Tiffany’s – if we’d have known about this beforehand we’d have gotten up earlier! After lunch we drove around for a while down the main streets of P.E. including Govan Mbeki Avenue, we then went back to Ann’s and packed ready to leave.

From P.E. we headed to Addo Elephant Park through Uitenhage where we got a little lost but found our way eventually. On the way into Addo we came across a turtle just wandering across the road, he was big old chap as well, about half a metre long. By the time we got to Addo there was only about an hour of game-area time left but the guys on the main desk took our money and sent us on through. We stopped briefly at a specially designed viewing area where we managed to see two elephants at a watering-hole (an adult and a baby); we then headed for the main game area.

Despite the fact that the guards on the main gate had taken our money the guard at the game-area wasn’t going to let us in as there was only an hour left. In the end I managed to persuade him to let us through and promised that we wouldn’t mess him around by staying in for too long. Even though we only had an hour left in total we managed to see quite a few animals including Elephants, Ostrich, Rhino and a few antelope/gazelle type animals, it was worth every minute.

After leaving Addo we headed for Graaff-Reinet, a little town recommended to us by Ann in P.E. where Lou and her sister Gail had gone to school. Unfortunately during the journey we got caught up in a storm, not like the usual British storms, much bigger – in the end the rain was making it far too difficult for James to drive. After stopping to refuel at a BP garage in Cookhouse we headed for Somerset East, a town a couple of hundred kilometres short of Graaff-Reinet. Driving into the town during a storm probably doesn’t help a first impression but Somerset East seemed quite a dark and foreboding sort of town but we found a little restaurant/bar/B&B called Jacques which looked quite inviting. I went into the bar to enquire about the rooms whilst James stayed in the car, the price he gave me for the room was good so I accepted and we moved our stuff upstairs.

After freshening up and settling down we went back down to the bar where we had a few drinks and talked to two Afrikaaners at the bar who were asking where we were from and what we were doing in Somerset East. The two guys were fairly plastered but even so James and I had problems trying to work out what they were saying and they couldn’t always make out our accents either. Though still common I got the feeling that English isn’t as well-used out here as it is on the coast, after all we were staying in a little town hardly used to tourism. The meal was quite nice but a little unimaginative from a vegetarian perspective (the veggie option was a plate of cooked veg) but they server Windhoek so we were quite content. After eating and a few more Windhoek we settled-up for the meal, drinks and the room, the total came to just £17 for the two of us – quite remarkable by UK standards!

written by thirtyfootscrew \\ tags: Addo, Africa, Elephant, Graaf-Reinet, Park, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Travel