Living on the edge @ Kruger Park

Due to the upcoming local holiday season we didn’t manage to find much camping space (or any other accommodation types)in the amazing Kruger National Park.

We wanted to visit the camps in the south, as this is the area where you are more likely to see lions and leopards and if you are really lucky even some wild dogs. But naturally that is common knowledge and these are therefore also the most popular camps. But we managed to book two nights at Skukuza and will probably return when all the kids are back at school.

In Skukuza we found a camp spot right at the fence. The places near the fence are quite popular because hyena’s are said to patrol here at night. The only problem is that these spots are also quite steep. But after some trial and error we managed to park level enough to keep us from falling out at night. The ground is hard like rock here and prepared campers (all those with caravans and multiple tents, awnings etc) even bring their drill with a 25 cm drillhead to set up a tent. Therefore digging a hole was out of the question. We had to park smart and use some stones.

The only problem we had when setting up the tent was that our ladder was too short. It was hanging in the air approximately 10 cm above the ground. We solved this by propping some more stones underneath and at least had something to support the ladder now. This construction would probably raise the hair of any health and safety inspector but we decided to try it out. Getting in bed with a vertical ladder was not going to be a problem, getting out again in the morning might be a different story but we’ll solve that when the time comes… =)

In the evening we were lucky and the Hyena’s came by. Sandra was sitting right next to the fence reading a book and suddenly she sensed movement right next to her. A big Hyena just walked by at 50 cm distance! Lucky for Sandra there was a big electric fence between them. During the course of the evening 4 hyena’s made themselves comfortable right next to us. They really behaved like big dogs waiting at the table.

Probably because they were used to campers like the family next to us. These people had setup their braai right at the fence and set in a half circle around all the while hand feeding the Hyena’s leftovers and bones.

After spending two nights eating with the family next door the Hyena’s even showed up in the morning and laid around waiting for breakfast. Not really the most natural thing to do for them, but it sure enabled us to take some nice pictures….

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a 60 day recap

Amazing how fast time goes by…

Today is our 60^th day on the road. A full two month period so to say. Time for a recap.

We have

…visited 4 countries

…travelled 6.000+ km

…used 830 liters of diesel

…met many nice and interesting people

…not needed a gun at any time

…sprayed 2 cans of no-bite, 1 can of peaceful sleep and  1 can of doom (anti mosquito spray)

…received 5 marriage proposals (but accepted none)

…bought too many curios already

…not had one rainy day

…a million new scratches on dear Patsy

…solved 1 mechanical problem (with the help of a local mechanic)

…visited 9 national parks

…still not found any wild dogs

…set up the rooftop tent 40 times

…realized that we have way too many things with us

…still got 4.000 pictures to browse through

…identified 42+ birds and are getting better everyday

…got shit on by birds 5 times (the birds are getting better too)

…dug 15 toilets

…drank 150 liters of water

…realized that morning drives are not for us

…seen 3 snakes

…saw way too many scary spiders already (the one in the rooftop tent almost made Haitske jump out straight through the mosquito netting)

…sent 22 postcards

…worn our (fake)-wedding rings for exactly 3 days

…declined 500 hitchhikers (the only space left is on the roofrack)

…saved 2 chameleons and 8 baby spurfowls from being road-kill victims

 

and are definitely having the time of our life!

 

 

 

 

Mapungubwe NP

According to our lonely planet guidebook “Mapungubwe is a spectacular park that incorporates many of South Africa’s most significant Iron and Stone Age sites together with un-paralleled opportunities for wild-life spotting”. In reality it was the worst kept national park we have visited so far.

We arrived at the main gate late in the afternoon due to a shopping stop at a big mall on the way. Upon arrival at the main gate the Mapungubwe camp site was proclaimed full so we had to go look elsewhere for the night. Lucky for us there is a lovely holiday resort called Dongola Ranch approximately 30 km from the main gate towards Musina. The Dongola Ranch is owned by the local mine and offers a wide range of accommodation types. We rented a 2-bed safari tent including private kitchen, shower and toilet for 200 ZAR. Een koopje!

The camping area is set up real spacious with luscious grass surrounding the tents. The grass is kept short by the hundreds of dassies  (and some warthogs, impala and waterbuck) who all come by grazing during the afternoon and night. The Ranch offers a whole range of facilities (swimming pool, sports bar, restaurant, free wireless, laundry, etc) and the staff are all really friendly and helpful. We were especially happy finding the first coin operated washing machine! We have been cleaning our clothes with hand wash only and some of our white t-shirts could do with a 60°C machine wash.

The next morning we drove back to Mapungubwe to check out the park. The 28,000 hectares of Mapungubwe are separated in several small area’s often with private farms in between. The national Park area’s are therefore surrounded by huge razor wire fences and cattle grids. Sadly enough most of the fences have collapsed and are often lying more or less flat on the ground. Especially the fence next to the Limpopo river is almost completely destroyed. There is razor wire lying around everywhere and the various antelopes carefully find their way towards the water.

The central area of the park offers various nice viewpoints on the canyon like surroundings. There are many Baobabs and a lovely treetop walk near the Limpopo. There is also a nice hide where many animals come by for a drink  during the day. But in general there was no real abundance of wild-life.

The museum on the cultural heritage of the area is still under construction (estimated opening time end of 2008!) and if you want to learn anything about the history you can only book a heritage walk. (which we didn’t do as our whole impression of the park and organization was poor)

We had made a reservation for the camp site on arrival which was a bit of a mistake. The campsite is not at the main camp as described in the lonely planet, but in a remote part of the park that can only be reached by driving around the outside perimeter. After approximately 30 km you reach the camping area which is nice enough, but very basic. You can pick any free spot to stay the night. We didn’t find a reception area or a camp site manager and the area is freely accessible from the road. Therefore if you find yourself in the area without accommodation you could always go and check if there is a spot free for the night.

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The white lions of Mama Tau

The people from Malalatau campsite provided us with a some tourist information about the Waterberg surroundings and especially recommended the Mama Tau white lion breeding project nearby. Always interested in a opportunity to take close up pictures of wild animals we decided to drive over for a day visit. Spontaneously and last minute as most of our decisions are on this trip we did try to call ahead to ask what time the day visitors tour was going to be, but when nobody picked up the phone we decided to try our luck and drive over anyway.

Network coverage in Africa is not as widely spread as we are used to living in big city Vienna. We initially planned to call again from the road but as we left Lephalale behind, we also lost the network coverage so we had to show up at Mama Tau unannounced.

Mama Tau is a combination of a white lion breeding project and a scenic private game lodge set in 3.000 hectares of Waterberg bushveld. All is run by Dirk Strydom, a professional hunter and a passionate lion fan.

When we arrived at the reception we had just missed the day’s drive. Curious as we were what they were exactly doing at Mama Tau we asked a million questions (who needs white lions, apart from Siegfried and Roy) and in the end Dirk told us to jump in the open safari vehicle and he personally drove us around the reserve.

And WOW! What an experience that was!

The various white lions and also some brown colored ones are roaming freely in a large fenced-in area. As we visited during the hottest part of the day, the animals were all lying around in the shade and Dirk drove the car right next to them. We had never been this close to such magnificent animals. And they seemed totally relaxed with our presence.

We also drove into the area where Dirk keeps two spotted Hyena’s. After some serious searching (amazing how well these animals are camouflaged) we found one lying in the shade underneath some bushes and immediately fell in love with the hyena’s beautiful smile.

After the entertaining and educational drive Dirk also showed us the lovely tented camp he has set up near a small dam. The camp area is close enough to the lions to hear them roar at night but safely separated with sturdy electrical fencing. It is totally safe to walk around the area, or even to let your kids play around. Within the camping area there are numerous antelopes (even some rare Nyala’s) browsing and grazing around. It sure makes  a lovely setting!

The safari tents are huge with a 50 m2 floor plan all covered by a thatched roof and even have a fully equipped kitchen and private bathroom. And all that for an extremely affordable price. We immediately asked if he still had a free tent for us, but unfortunately for us all four were already booked by other lucky tourists.

If you ever come in this area you should definitely pay Dirk and his beautiful lions a visit! We sure will if we return to this neighbourhood again.

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First days in South Africa

Crossing the border between Botswana and South Africa was an easy and fast process. And also the cheapest border crossing yet as we didn’t need to buy anything. No road or carbon tax and also nobody was interested in the contents of our fridge or vegetable bag. We even didn’t need to put a shoe on a filthy “disinfection” rag or anything. Before we knew it we were ready to explore South Africa.

Right after crossing the border we made a spontaneous decision to drive towards the Waterberg region instead of driving towards Mapungubwe National Park as originally planned. The Waterberg area was also recommended to us by Mr Carl Richter from Rustenburg and as the Rhino sanctuary was such a good tip we decided to go check it out.

In Lephalale, the first bigger town en route, we made a refueling stop. In South Africa it is really easy to get cash as almost all ATM’s accept our cards. This is a real luxury compared to Zambia or Botswana where we sometimes had to use the Visa card even though Visa charges horrendous amount (20€ and more) for that service. So we got ourselves some rands from the ATM and stocked up our fridge. We also got ourselves a South-African sim card (for an amazing 9 cents = 1 €cent) so now we are back on the grid again!

A few kilometers after leaving Lephalale we came past a sign for a holiday resort called Malalatau and decided to check out their campsites. After signing in at the gate we drove up to a lovely green oasis. We saw the first green grassed campsites since arriving in southern Africa and immediately fell in love with the place. Malalatou offers lots of different accommodations (chalets with a view on the riverbed, a motel area with several rooms surrounding a lawn and several campsites with electricity are just some of the options offered) and numerous facilities. There are some beautiful lawns with braai area’s and metal table and chairs, several swimming pools, a trampoline and volleyball area and of course a restaurant and a cozy bar. The whole setting gave us a feeling like being in the movie set for Dirty Dancing.

And as we were the only women camping, we had a whole newly renovated ablution block to ourselves. Now that’s luxury living!

We liked the place so much that we decided to stay another night and just enjoy doing nothing for a day. In the morning the springboks game against Namibia was on in the bar so we went over there to watch our first rugby match. Sadly enough we were the only ones in front of the and we missed our dear friend Bruno very much. Nobody there to explain the rules, or the goal of scrumming. Rugby sure is an impressive sight, and it really hurts watching. We are looking forward to some more games and are naturally rooting for SA. Go bokkies!

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Khama Rhino sanctuary

During our trips through Chobe and Moremi we met several South Africans who were planning a stop at the Khama Rhino Sanctuary on their way home.

As it was not much of a detour from our planned route we decided to check it out as well. Lucky for us tracks4africa had the rhino sanctuary included in their points of interest because our Bradt guide only covers the south of Botswana.

The woman at reception was a bit surprised to find two people in her office who had never heard of Khama but still found their way over because the sanctuary is not really on a transit route.

But she gave us a camp site and some information and we drove off into the park.

After some confusion due to creative sign postings we found our designated spot. We were not the only ones to drive around looking for the right destination because an Australian couple kept coming back to our plot while looking for their cottage.

The campsites at Khama are really nice. They are nicely spaced with much trees and bushes between. Every site has a braai area, a fireplace, a shady tree and a water tap (including a bird bath) and we immediately felt “at home”.

And after a real peaceful night we decided to stick around for another one. And that was even before we drove around through the park.

The park itself is small but nice and they sure have a lot of game. We saw a couple of the white rhino’s but none of the two black ones and at the waterholes you find numerous springboks, wildebeest, hartebeest, zebra and some giraffes.

The only thing that especially Haitske didn’t like were the evil looking spider like creatures known as solifuges. These nocturnal hunters run at high speed in search of food around the camp site. If you shine a not too bright torch around you can spot their little eyes reflecting the light. The solituge is quite big and hideous with legs that rise up to above the body height.

We were surrounded by them. There were two big ones sharing our camp site and millions of little shiny eyes all the way to the ablution blocks. In the ablution blocks we also had some big other spiders but these we have seen everywhere. These other ones do grow big as well and are amazingly fast when disturbed but are kind of reluctant to move. Still scary, but as long as they don’t find their way inside our rooftop tent we are fine. =)

PS. the picture of the solifuge is downloaded. We are surely not touching them. AARRRGGGGHHHH!

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Makgadikgadi National Park

After reading some more on the Salt pans we decided to check out the Makgadikgadi National Park on our way south.

The large pans of the Makgadikgadi are the remnants of a lake that has been formed more than five million years ago. In September you’ll find the herds of zebra, springbok and wildebeest, as well as their predatory followers.

Life must be hard in this park because we saw so many dead animals as never before. We expect this to be due to effective predators (although we didn’t see any) as many carcasses where lying not too far from the river banks. But then again, we also saw, or rather smelled, two dead elephants.

Right after entering the park we suddenly disturbed some 45 vultures while feeding on a dead zebra. The zebra was lying real close to the road and when we drove around a bend we were suddenly surrounded by vultures taking off or just running, hopping a bit further away. We stopped and backed up a bit to see if the vultures would come back.

They did come back but didn’t dare to go close to the zebra. There was lots of shuffling and pushing between the vultures. It looked like they we nudging each other forward as if they were saying to each other “you go take a look if it’s safe”. “no, you go!”  Quite funny to watch for a while.

The park itself is not very frequented and there were almost no cars around. We felt like we were the first car to drive some of the tracks since a few days. It felt real good to have the safety of the satellite phone here because we first saw people when we arrived at the campsite. Also there are no signposts and the map we received at the entrance was an often copied A4 with basically nothing more than a sketch of the possible tracks.

There are two camp sites in the park, Khumaga and Njuca hills. But the Njuca hills camp is not really open for public anymore. We tried to book the camp in Maun but neither SKL, nor the BWD wanted to take responsibility for Njuca. They just refer tourists to one another and that’s it. We met some south-africans at Khumaga who were supposed to stay at Njuca but had fled the many flies.

So in the end it was very good we couldn’t book Njuca ourselves because we have already experienced the extremely persistent African flies. They are definitely not good camping companions!

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Maun – Enjoying city life

After spending 8 nights in the national parks Chobe and Moremi we were very happy to head back towards civilization again. Too much wildlife spotting and driving over bouncy roads gets quite exhausting. We had heard some good thing about the Audi Camp in Maun and decided to check it out.

We arrived in the early afternoon and immediately liked life at Audi camp. The facilities are nice, spacious and clean. They have lovely semi-outdoor showers and the cleaning ladies remove the spiders every morning. This made Haitske feel nice and safe. There are some huge spiders around in most of the bush ablution blocks and they sure offer that extra bit of adrenalin rush while brushing your teeth.

Audi camp is so popular that we met some fellow travelers every day. Some people we last saw in Kasane, in Savuti, in Kwhai and even a safari support crew we last saw in Livingstone (Zambia).

Talking to the people at reception made us aware of a local charity project called Bana Ba Letsatsi (Sunshine Children). This organization takes care of homeless and neglected children. They offer the kids a safe haven where they can hang out and play, but also shower and clean up. They feed the kids and try to get them back to school by giving them small responsibilities, like for example, taking care of the vegetable garden. Everything they do is  with the goal of getting the kids an education and thereby a chance for future development. They work closely together with some of the problem families and even try to prepare young children for school by giving them some pre-school education. We asked for the address and drove over for a look around.

When we first came over the coordinator, Charlotte Ellis, wasn’t in. We left a contact phone number (reception at Audi camp) and went grocery shopping. When we came back to Audi, which is approximately 10 km out of town, we already had a message waiting so we turned around again and drove back.

Charlotte (Charlie) showed us around the center and told us some more about the work they do. All in all we were pretty impressed with the load of activities and the general look of things and we decided to offer her some support. We agreed that we would spend 150€ for Bana Ba Letsatsi and Charlotte and her crew could tell us what to go and buy for that kind of money. After a short feedback round they agreed that they urgently need clothes. Underwear for boys and girls between 9 and 16, trousers for boys between 9 and 16 and clothes for kids between 4 and 9.

So off we were. Back to town for some shopping with a mission.

First we browsed around to get a look at the clothes on offer. Basically there were two shops that offered the right stuff. Pep, a local clothes discounter and Ackermanns, a store a bit more up market but also with a bit better quality. We found a small shopping center where these two stores were right next to each other. We started off by talking to the store managers in the hope of a discount. But sadly enough we couldn’t convince them.

So the next strategy was to find as many suitable clothes on sale instead. That proved a better way and we found some lovely cotton t-shirts reduced from 30€ way down to 2 €. After some 1,5 hours of browsing we had a huge bag full of clothes covering the whole range of sizes.

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Moremi – Third bridge

Since coming into the Moremi everybody told us “the game is at third bridge”. So you can imagine we were looking forward to spending our last night in Moremi in the third bridge campsite.

As the name shows you have to cross some bridges while travelling through the park. Coming from Xakanaxa the first bridge we needed to cross was fourth bridge. This is a structure that only has planks left and right underneath the wheels. In the middle of the road you look straight through to the water down below. This makes the bridge look much more scary than it really is.

The second river crossing on our route was the third bridge. This is a bumpy one made out of separate logs. The surface of the bridge was still 20 cm underneath the water level and the on and off ramp were in a bit deeper water. Again a bridge that looks quite spectacular but in reality is not much of a challenge. Although everything does squeak and squeal while you drive over to the other side.

The camp at third bridge again had trouble with their bookings. We had a confirmation for site 2, but there were already some Italians standing on our spot. The feedback at the reception was that the sites are made for groups of 8 people and that sharing is very normal.  In the end we stayed with 3 parties on one spot and shared the fire. A german couple, the three Italians and the two of us. Yes, the camp sites are big enough and made for up to 8 people. But this is because South Africans often travel in bigger groups. If you are three individual parties who all paid between some 30 USD per person sharing the braai it feels less nice.

In the afternoon we went on a game drive. We wanted to check out the area around second bridge as one of the rangers had seen a cheetah with cubs there around noon. But sadly enough we never made it that far. After driving for approximately 40 minutes we came into a clearing and just saw elephants coming from every direction. All walking towards the road and then following the road in exactly the direction we wanted to go. We were already wondering why we didn’t see any upcoming traffic…. Now we knew why. There were three or four different groups and all seemed to have the same goal. Quite funny to see, but we didn’t want to try and drive in between them. So we turned around and tried another route.

When the sun was already low on the horizon we made our way back to the camp. Again, we didn’t see lions or wild dogs. Then shortly before we reached the camp we met the Italians again. They waved us down and told us to drive on a small track for 8 km. There were lions lying next to the road there. Even though the light was starting to fade we decided to try and go for it. We drove all the way till the end of the track (~ 9 km) but didn’t see the lions. Better luck next time!

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It’s always good to have somebody to lean on