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!
Last full day at the Elandela Game Lodge
After yesterday’s poor show by the wildlife due to inclement weather today was the day that everyone came out to play again
Photo wise the focus (no pun intended) was on things which hadn’t been seen before. So we saw all the lions, zebra, giraffes (Mike’s favourites since he saw Abraham when we first entered the game reserve) loads of impala, grey Dacre boks, nyala, kudu, rhinoceros and so on we also saw a goshawk Eagle and several mongoose which were too shy to be caught on film..
Every Friday there is the ritual African dance in which unexpectant tourists from all over the world get roped in to embarrassing themselves in front of strangers who, thankfully they will never meet again.
So, it’s almost time to say goodbye and THANK YOU Elandela…
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
Travel to and first game drive in the Elandela Lodge private game reserve
Elandela is a medium sized game reserve and it’s about 200 miles east of Middelburg where we stayed last night. It took 4 hours to drive here and within 2 minutes of entering the reserve, on the way to the lodge Mike saw his first giraffe and the sheer delight in his voice was palpable .
We saw more wildlife on the 3km drive to the lodge then we checked in, had some lunch then went out for our first game drive.
We saw more giraffes, zebra, lions (less than 2m away) rhinoceros, also less than 2m away, water buffalo, numerous birds, lizards hippopotami, antelope, rabbits, bat’s and all sorts.
Up tomorrow morning at 5:15 for a morning drive and no doubt plenty more pictures.
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
Boat trip in Knysna lagoon
Distant African fish eagle (about half a mile away)
Knysna heads
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.
