Morning at guinea feather, walking and discussing history with our host Francis
Great trip with many lovely memories. Mile reckons it’s his best holiday ever (but he probably always says that! )
Leaving south africa
Over the drakenbergs to grobelsdahl
Long day in the car but fabulous view point
Then we travelled to God’s window
Off for lunch in Pilgrims rest – the old gold rush town then a delightful lodge called Guinea Feather for the night
Best steak of trip for dinner!
Trip to Kruger
Kruger is about 360km x 60km and is a wildlife conservation area set up in 1926 by a British Major. It is named after a South African who first proposed the park in the late 1800’s we entered the park through the Orpen gate, about a 1 hour drive from our lodge.
Elandela Lodge does not have any elephants because they are so destructive of trees so we set of to Kruger ‘cos they have 16,000 of them, even though the park can only sustain 9,000…
This area is experiencing the worst drought that some can remember. Three and a half years without rain. This has resulted in the death of many animals and the migration of many more. The place is therefore fairly barren, rivers all dry and wildlife is scarce.
Today was cold about 13°, very windy and it rained but not enough to improve things. Any remaining animals went into hiding and after a 7 hour safari we eventually saw one elephant – thank goodness as it was the one thing Mike wanted to see. Not sure where the other 15,999 had gone!
THE Elephant…
Male Kudu
A rather dull and ordinary starling…
Yellow billed hornbill (aka the flying banana)
Dried up river bed
6am safari
Mike on the lookout for the big 5Daylight and giraffes and zebra down at the lake outside our rooms and a piebald kingfisher successfully fishing
Wind and cloud prevented any big cat sightings
Nearly on safari
Nothing of interest to share.
Hope next blog will have some wildlife!
Leaving Knysna
Russell and I kayaked in the lagoon for a couple of hours as it was the first hot day for a week. Hard work against the incoming tide but easy on the way home
We also saw the endangered Knysna sea horses in a tank
We are off in the morning to fly to johannesberg and to the next section of Mike’s great adventure.
Russell is busy BBQing ostrich as it’s a first for Mike – it’s not a whole ostrich although we could as the BBQ is huge. I am having a bit of R and R with a nice glass of cabernet
Day out from Knysna
On the way to monkey world in Plettenberg stopped at the Saturday market so Mike could shop. Tried to persuade monkey world to take on a couple of big british monkeys. They were not keen.
Waking up in Knysna
5am 40mph winds and driving rain. At least their severe drought is on the way out!
A wet view from the balcony
And then the day turned out like this….
This is where the Atlantic meets the lagoon at Knysna heads.
Driving to knysna
Long 9 hour day with stops. Snow on the tops of the mountains near Worcester then hot sun in the high desert.
Stellenbosch
No trip to cape town is complete without a trip to the wineries.
Visited Tokara for a tasting
