Thursday, Sept. 20th-21st. Somerset West to (and at) “The Retreat at Groenfontein”.

Posted in Port Elizabeth (our old home town) on Sept. 30th.

Moving Day! We were off on the next leg of our vacation. We traveled up the N2 from SW to Swellendam and then took the Tradouw Pass over to Barrydale. For those who were with us in 2005, this is the pass that was closed and caused a major diversion for us. This year it was open and was a spectacular drive. We stopped at a view point and Angela fell in love with a dassie. We stopped for lunch in Barrydale at “Clarke’s of the Karoo”. I detected an English accent from the proprietor and on enquiry, he revealed that he came out to South Africa “with McBride’s (19)75 lions and decided to stay”. I did not have the temerity to ask him if he was a player or a spectator! A very annoying “feature” of all the roads we are traveling in SA is how many of them are under repair. When they repair the road, they close down the side of the road they are repairing for miles and make the other side a one way road. Then they have a stop sign for one end of the section while they let the vehicles at the other end through and the line of vehicles gets longer and longer until all the vehicles have come through and then you get to go down the single lane. These “stops” have notices that say “Wait time 30 minutes” (people get out of their cars and chat to each other) – and some of these are so called National Roads – the equivalent of Interstates! We encountered one of these after leaving Barrydale, which, in fairness is not a National Road.

On to Calitzdorp and then 20K of dirt road and we arrived at “The Retreat at Groenfontein”, a little piece of heaven on earth! (http://www.groenfontein.com) We were met by our hostess, Marie Burton and after moving suitcases to our rooms, went for an evening stroll before dinner. The Retreat is a guest house (a converted farmhouse) in the middle of the “Karoo”. It is dominated by the close proximity of the Swartberg Mountains, while being surrounded be smaller hills/mountains as well. It is a place of utter peace and tranquility, with only the birds and running water in the streams to hear.

Our host, Grant Burton joined us on the veranda for sundowners and then, as is their custom, Marie & Grant joined us for dinner. The main course that evening was an ostrich casserole which was delicious. Fortunately, it was a beautiful evening and we were able to have dinner on the veranda. By chance, we were the only guests on this particular night, so we were able to catch up on all the news of The Retreat with Grant & Marie and enjoy some good wine with them. We slept well!

An excellent new feature of The Retreat is the fact that that Grant has gone out into the surrounding hills following the animal paths, marking them and clearing them where they may be a bit overgrown or dangerous. He has created linking paths from farm paths and created a map of all the trails around The Retreat. There is a Green Lizard Trail, a Yellow Lizard, Klipspringer, Baboon and others, each of different lengths and difficulty (don’t try the Baboon Trail unless you can climb like one!). The trails are also interlinked, so you can join one trail from another and make it a longer walk. By walking all the trails, you can actually walk a complete circle around the farm buildings and view it from all the high points on the surrounding hills. The next morning, this is what I set out to do.

Alison & Angela started out with me on the Blue Lizard Trail, which was a good walk for them just by itself. When we were at a point where I was sure they could find their way back to the house, I left them and continued on each of the trails mentioned above. I had been planning to get back by 1PM but not being a baboon (no comments please), took a little longer on that trail than I anticipated (I couldn’t find the way down!). Anyway, as I arrived back at the lodge, I saw Grant on the veranda with his binoculars, but he may have just been looking at the birds! We had a very nice lunch followed I think by a siesta.

Marie had been telling us about the Rock Pool Trail which we thought we had already completed the evening before and is an old trail that we have done before. However, having now seen a drawing of the trail in map form, we realized that what we thought was the rock pool was actually about 600 yards short of the real rock pool, which was across the stream we had stopped at, across yet another stream and then a scramble across more rocks, to find the “real” rock pool at the bottom of a small waterfall.
Marie told us this rock pool was deep enough to take a plunge in and we should give it a try, subtly inferring that we didn’t need to take any swimming gear. Alison and I set out once again on the Rock Pool Trail and this time we went all the way! We were trying to set up the camera so that we could take a picture of us together in the rock pool, but it proved impossible due to the downward slope of the rocks and if we put the camera any further away, I wouldn’t have made it back to the pool before the timer went off. All this palaver was going on while we were absolutely “kaalgat”, shivering with cold, and laughing hysterically. Eventually, we had to take pictures of each other in the pool individually, but I cheated a bit and took pictures of Alison before she actually immersed herself in the pool. I am going to sell them on eBay. It was great fun (who said we were old)?

Back to the house for sundowners and dinner again. Of course we had to show the pictures to prove we had been in the pool – from the look on Grant’s face I think I showed him the wrong picture!
This night there were other guests, a couple from Knysna who were there for the first time. They had only checked in 90 minutes before dinner but had already tried to extend their stay for a third night – to no avail as the guest house was full – such is the lure of The Retreat.

I have also almost totally neglected to inform everyone of the number of photographs of birds that Alison has taken on this trip so far. In Kruger, it was at least one bird for every animal and far too many to put on the blog. However, we will find space for the lovely Malachite Sunbird in the garden at The Retreat.

Grant and Marie have two pure bred Staffordshire Bull Terriers and of course Alison also fell in love with them. When they look at you with those sad eyes, they sure look a lot like Clare’s Meathead.

We left the next morning with promises of returning in 2009!

Wednesday, Sept. 19th. Vic & Carol’s last day with us for a while.

(Posted on Sept. 27th at Sedgefield) Having set the alarm, Vic & I were up early and were at the “Helderburg” gates just after 7am. We got to the parking lot and then started up one of the trails that led up from the parking lot, not paying too much attention to which trail we were on – bad idea! There was very thick mist and low cloud this particular morning so it was difficult to know exactly where we were, but we knew we had to go up. We finally found what we assume now was the right path and 75 minutes later we were at the highest point we could attain given our time restraint. The whole of the Somerset West and Strand area was completely covered, with only the mountains showing majestically through the clouds. I have included a second photograph, taken at a later time, showing approximately the same view and the same mountains without the clouds.

The ladies were waiting for us when we returned and after a quick shower and packing Vic & Carol’s luggage into the SUV, we headed out for Hout Bay where we had decided to have lunch. For Nostalgia’s sake, we drove the route of the “Two Oceans marathon”, which Vic and I had run many times (only 35 miles!). Our plan was thwarted when we got to one of the most difficult parts of the course, but also one of the most beautiful, Chapman’s Peak was closed because of rock falls – gives you some idea of the terrain in that area. We diverted and found another route to Hout Bay where we had a lovely lunch at the Mariners Wharf. By the time we finished lunch it was time for us to make haste once more to Cape Town International where Vic & Carol would leave us to fly back to Port Elizabeth. We will see them in eight or nine days when we return to PE by road (making some stops along the way).

When we were at the Helderberg Nature Reserve, Vic & I saw what must be one of the most beautiful Proteas in bloom that we have seen and I wanted Alison to see it, so after dropping off V&C we went straight to the reserve and Alison took a photo of the Protea. She and Angela liked the reserve very much and would have liked to have spent more time there but it closed at 5.30 and the next morning we would be on our way.

Tuesday, Sept.18th. Once more up Table Mountain

(Posted on Sept. 27th at Sedgefield) Angela visited us in South Africa in 1978 and Alison brought her to Cape Town from Port Elizabeth, but the weather was never good enough to go up Table Mountain. Fortunately, she had better luck this time. We dropped Vic & Carol at the Waterfront and made arrangements to meet them for lunch, then headed up the mountain. Because every day had been clear since we went up with Chris & Linda, the lines were normal and we were soon in a cable car on our way to the top. This time, Alison and I wanted to make a hike of it so after walking for a while with Angela, we set out to walk to Maclear’s Beacon at the back of the mountain, overlooking False Bay and back over Somerset West and Gordon’s Bay. It turned out to be much further than we thought so it took us longer than we intended to be away.

We then joined Vic & Carol at Quay Four, the name of a fish restaurant. Alison was particularly impressed with the fish that she had – Dorado. Back to Somerset West and Vic & I investigated how we might be able to walk up part of the mountain (subsequently determined to be named “Helderberg”) that we could see from our residence. After walking and asking, we found that the gates to the “Helderberg Nature Reserve” were within driving distance of our house and that they open at 7 AM. We were determined to rise early and make an attempt to take a good walk up Helderberg mountain.

Monday, Sept 17th, Wine tasting and lunch at Franschhoek

(Posted on Sept. 26th at Sedgefield) On this day, Vic had arranged for the five of us to have a private wine tasting at a winery called Boekenhoutskloof in the Franschhoek Valley. Vic’s company distributes their wine in the Eastern Cape area so we were well looked after and the wine tasting was conducted by the winemaker himself, Rudiger Gretschel. Coincidentally, one of the red blends that they make is called The Wolftrap, which as you can imagine, is a popular table wine in the Wolff household. A bottle of The Wolftrap retails at about R32, or under $5 to those in the USA. One can easily buy a bottle of wine here to accompany a nice dinner at a price between R50-R100 ($7-$14). We also tasted some of Boekenhoutskloof premium wines, one of which was called “Chocolate Block” which was superb and cost R140 ($20). I bought four bottles, but don’t get excited, they won’t be coming back to the USA!

From Boekenhoutskloof, we drove a short distance round the Franschhoek Valley to have lunch at a restaurant called “La Petite Ferme”, which is situated in a most beautiful spot overlooking the whole valley. The photographs cannot do it justice. (http://www.lapetiteferme.co.za/). We had drinks on the lawn and lunch on the terrace.
After lunch, we stopped on our way home to Somerset West in Stellenbosch at the Lanzerac winery and I bought three bottles of Lanzerac rose, one of Alison’s old favorites from our early days in SA.
Back home to watch more 20/20 cricket and a light supper before bed!

Sunday, Sept 16th, Angela (Alison’s sister) arrives from England

(Posted Sept. 26th in Sedgefield).

Early morning Alison & I left for Cape Town International once more, this time to pick up Alison’s sister Angela, who had taken an overnight flight from Heathrow to Cape Town. We had a quiet day in Somerset West with the two sisters catching up on their latest news and me trying to write up a few days for the blog! Sunday evening was another showdown between England and South Africa, this time in the World cricket limited overs (20-20) championship (which SA also won). Interestingly, the USA has a side in the World Cup Rugby champs, but not in the cricket champs. Vic cooked two whole chickens on the Weber braai for supper.

Saturday, Sept. 15th, (Clare’s 30th birthday). Goodbye to Chris & Linda

(Posted Sept. 26th in Sedgefield) We were up early, but not as early as C&L, although they had done the majority of their packing on Friday night. We left the house just after 8.30 as we were also returning the VW microbus at the Cape Town International airport as well as putting Chris & Linda on their flight to Johannesburg. We replaced the VW with a smaller vehicle - a Toyota SUV (an Avanza – a model not available in the USA). We were sad to see C&L leave, but know that they considered their experience in SA the vacation of a lifetime. We certainly enjoyed their company and their enthusiasm for everything they saw.



We went out to lunch at the Oak Tree Restaurant on the Lourensford Wine Estate, one of many, many wineries in the Somerset West, Stellenbosch, Paarl and general Cape Region. From there we returned to watch the World Cup rugby match that all the SA fans had been waiting for – the Springboks v England. It was annihilation in SA’s favor.

Friday, Sept 14th, Table Mountain and “The Waterfront” (The Umbles’ last full day).

(Posted Sept. 25th, Sedgefield). The danger of only having one full day in Cape Town is that the weather could be bad and there would be no point or fun in going up Table Mountain. Fortunately, we woke up on Friday morning to glorious sunshine. Unfortunately, there had been bad weather all week in Cape Town so every tourist in town headed to the cableway on Friday morning, so there were long lines and quite a long wait. However, once we got in the cable car, we all forgot about the wait and enjoyed the moment and the views. Spectacular as always!

From the Cableway, we went to Cape Town’s second most popular attraction, “The Victoria & Alfred Waterfront” down at the harbor. We had lunch at a favorite pub & restaurant of Vic’s, “Ferrymans Tavern”, followed by shopping for those inclined. We got back to SW in time for sundowners and then Vic cooked the snoek to perfection on a Weber braai. Another great day.

Thursday, Sept. 13th, De Hoop to Cape Town (Somerset West).

(Posted Sept. 25th in Sedgefield)

We got an early start on our way to Somerset West as we had decided to take the scenic coast route instead of going back inland. We went through Bredasdorp, which is just 30K from Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of the African Continent. We stopped in Stanford at the Birkenhead Brewery and as it was only five minutes to opening time, waited until 10AM and then had a beer tasting as opposed to a wine tasting, although there was also a winery in the grounds. From there we went to Hermanus (another famous whale spotting town, but we didn’t see any whales that morning), Betty’s Bay, on to False Bay (a body of water) and into Gordon’s Bay where we had lunch at a pub in the little fishing harbor.
After lunch, we went to Strand where we picked up some snoek (a Cape Town specialty fish) for our next braai, and then on into SW, where we moved into Carol’s brother’s vacation home – a very, very nice vacation home!
After settling in, we went out for the evening to the Spier Winery to a restaurant called Moyo. The restaurant is in a large marquee and has an African theme with symbolic hand washing at the table, face painting, African style blankets on every chair to put around your shoulders and, of course, African music and dancing as entertainment. Naturally, the food was also (South) African, and was served buffet style from multiple stations serving different categories of dishes (fish, curry, braai, stew, etc.) along one side of the marquee. It was well done and a very fun evening. (See www.moyo.co.za)

Tuesday, Wednesday, Sept. 11th, 12th, Sundays River to De Hoop Nature Reserve

(Posted at Sedgefield on Sept. 24th). On Tuesday morning we drove to the airport in Port Elizabeth and picked up a VW microbus that we would use to transport the six of us with luggage to De Hoop and then on to Cape Town. We repacked and got on our way down the “Garden Route” en route to De Hoop, a journey of about 650K, of which the last 60-70K is on dirt roads. Our accommodation was in self-catering cottages and was very nice. We had two adjacent cottages and set up one as the main base where we would eat. The reserve contains the 15K long De Hoop Vlei: “A wetland of international importance for migratory birds. Of the 260 bird species recorded, 97 are waterbirds, etc." The vlei was formed by a river mouth being cut off by sand dunes.

In addition to the birds, there are many species of antelope in the reserve, including the bontebok which is indigenous to the area, but was almost hunted to extinction until the remaining 22 where protected by being placed in a reserve.

Although we were interested in both bird and game viewing, our main hope of coming to De Hoop was to see the whales! Quoting the tour guide: “The waters off De Hoop have the largest concentration of southern right whales along the South African coast and the reserve offers superb vantage points for viewing these majestic creatures”. We were not disappointed. On Wednesday morning when we got to the shoreline, we were able to see many, many whales in the shallow blue water along the coast. These whales have come into the bay to calf, so do not “jump” and thrash about, but they are quite clearly visible and “blow” huge spouts of water into the air. Unfortunately, they are also very difficult to photograph and I don’t think we have a “great” picture of the whales to show you. They are much easier to follow in the video.
It was another great day.

Monday, Sept. 10th, Sundays River and Port Elizabeth

(Posted in Sedgefield, Sept. 24th).

Monday morning I used Carol’s car to drive Chris, Linda, Alison and myself into Port Elizabeth to have morning coffee (elevenses) with Wout & Vilia Offerman, whom we have known since 1969 when we moved into the area where they then lived, Bluewater Bay, and became neighbors. On our way into town, we stopped in Bluewater Bay to show C&L where we used to live in a street called Maureen Circle, first at No.18 which we rented and where we lived when Melanie was born, then to No.7 which we bought, then to No. 4 which we rented from Wout and Vilia while we finished building No.9, where we had bought the plot next door to No.7 and decided to owner-build. It took us two years! All of our moving was done by carrying our furniture across or down the street! We also drove along Amsterdamhoek and into the village of Swartkops where we used to shop and where Clare went to primary school. Nostalgia!

We had a lovely visit with W&V and then went on to a local shopping center to make a few purchases (Chris already needed a new San Disk for his camera and would go on to need more!).

We returned to Sundays River and later took a boat trip up the river where we had “sundowners” and watched the birds. We saw a goliath heron which I was not aware could be found in this area – we had seen them in Kruger Park. Another lovely day.

Sunday, Sept. 9th, East London to Sundays River.

(Posted in Sedgefield, Sept 24th).

After a leisurely breakfast on Sunday morning, Barry drove Alison and I along the coast route from East London to Sundays River, Vic & Carol’s “weekend cottage” about 15 miles from Port Elizabeth.

We stopped at Port Alfred and bought some assorted pies for lunch for the whole group. We arrived at Sundays about 2pm. Meanwhile, Vic & Carol had taken Chris &Linda down to Sundays River Mouth in their boat (a big inflatable dingy with a big enough engine that they can go out to sea), and they all walked on the deserted beach and on the sand dunes. On the way back from the mouth they passed Bernie Hoffman who used to work with Vic and is now retired. Bernie was fishing and subsequently caught a nice sized spotted grunter and stopped by Vic’s jetty to display his catch. Vic told Bernie we were having a braai (barbecue) that evening and he was invited on the condition that he brought the fish – the deal was sealed.

We all had a pie lunch and then settled in to watch some serious sport. There was a Formula One Grand Prix followed by the Springboks playing Samoa in World Cup Rugby and following a great braai, we watched Federer win the US Open Tennis.

Saturday, Sept 8th, Shaun Murphy& Nikki Hare’s Wedding Day

(Posted in Sedgefield on Sept. 24th - Our 41st Anniversary).

On Saturday morning, having not yet had a chance to post anything about our trip to Kruger, we asked Barry to drop us at a local internet “shop” where I could hook up my laptop and get going on a post. There are no places here like Panera Bread or Starbucks where you can get a cup of coffee and then be wireless on the internet for as long as you like at no charge. Although they may call them internet cafés, there is no coffee and there is an hourly rate for using the internet. As I am writing this now at a lovely guest house in the mountains, there is only a “land line” and they have to use “dial up” to pick up their emails (during which their phone line for bookings is “busy”). I won’t be posting here! We were at the “café” until 1.30 and the wedding was at 3pm.

The wedding went off perfectly at 3pm and I am not going to attempt to go into great detail as most of you won’t know the people involved. This is a post that needs pictures rather than words. I can say that the bride giggled her way though her vows, which the priest took all in his stride. It was a nice service.

The reception was held on the beachfront at a swank restaurant, and undoubtedly, the bride’s father will be in debt for the rest of his life! Shaun’s groomsmen (there were three of them – his old school mates) made excellent speeches, with lines like “No one has ever questioned Shaun’s intelligence --- in fact, no one has ever mentioned it!” There were stories told of Shaun’s schoolboy escapades that had remained unknown to his parents, one of which involved Shaun returning and reinstalling street signs under police supervision! Other stories told where somewhat risqué and cannot be repeated here as this blog can be read by young children.

The reception was first class. It was early Sunday morning before we retired to bed.

Friday, Sept 7th (Posted Sept.20th!)

Our time in the Kruger National Park had come to an end, it was time to move on. As planned, the two groups split up and Vic, Carol, Chris & Linda left in the hired SUV to begin their journey to PE via a little town called Clarens in the (what used to be called) Free State. They had a 600K journey to make and would be skirting the Lesotho Mountains on their way.
Alison and I traveled in Ted Turner’s car with Diane and we drove back to Joburg, about a five hour journey arriving at Ted’s home at about 1.30 PM. There’s all sorts of construction going on around Joburg in preparation for the 2010 World Cup Soccer which SA is hosting. They are even building an underground “Metro” or “T” from Joburg to Pretoria and there is lots of blasting going on and they close sections of the freeways while they blast. It is a mess and nobody we met thought they would be ready!
I mention this because we had been held up on our journey into Joburg and there were big traffic jams around the airport. Consequently, we left the Turners in very good time to get back to the airport (where there is more construction going on). That evening we flew from Joburg to East London (150 miles east of Port Elizabeth) and were met by our long time friend Barry Murphy whose son Shaun (see earlier post) was getting married the next day. Barry took us straight to Miranda’s (his daughter) house where a “pre wedding braai” was in full swing and where we met the rest of the Murphy family, including the groom, whose first question was “Did I bring the fishing reels?” I should mention that that the World Cup Rugby championships are in process in Paris and the SA team (Springboks) are currently unbeaten and gave England (who won the championship four years ago) a real hiding. This Friday night was the opening game of the championship, so there was a crowd of guys gathered around the TV at 9PM. We retired to Barry & Anne’s house, joined by his other daughter Belinda who came in from Cape Town for the wedding. It was a lovely reunion with our very long time SA friends.

Wednesday, Sept 5th - Thursday Sept. 6th

When we arrived at Berg-en-Dal at 9am, we knew we would only be able to check into our lodge at 1pm so we got into the two SUVs and went for a drive. For those with a Kruger Park map, we took the H3 tarred road towards Skukuza and went up to the Renoster Pan where we had a great viewing of zebra and warthog. Also on the drive we saw wildebeast and yet more rhino. We stopped for drinks at the Afsaal picnic stop and then made our way back to Berg-en-Dal via dirt roads and the Gardenia Bird Hide. Unfortunately the pan/marsh that the hide overlooks was totally dry so there were no birds to see. As we came back along the Crocodile River, we saw hippos, but they were a long way away. We got back to the rest camp and moved into the Rhino Lodge where our accommodation was somewhat more luxurious than what we experienced at the Bushman Wilderness camp.

After lunch, three of the ladies went into Malelane to shop for groceries while Vic, Ted and I turned on the TV and watched cricket. Alison and Chris went to the camp laundromat to wash and dry clothes and peacefully read during the process. A couple of hours later, when the ladies had not returned, we called them and found out they had missed the Berg-en-Dal turn and had carried on merrily up the H3, past the Renoster Pan and Afsaal Picnic spot where we had been that morning, only realizing they were “lost” after a further 10K. Of course, being gentlemen, we made no comment when they finally found there way back to the lodge. The lodge had an expansive courtyard with a built in braai and so that evening, that’s what we did. It was a nice relaxing day.

There is a dam at Berg-en-Dal and the end of the lodge yard overlooked the dam, but dammit, it was completly dry! However, we did see a big elephant chasing baboons down the dry dam floor! The Park was so dry, only big rivers had flowing water in them, but all the tributaries that flow into them were dry, consequently, we decided we would have a better chance of seeing more game if we followed a big river and decided to go up to Skukuza and follow the Sabie River down to the Lower Sabie Rest Camp where we would have lunch. Due to time constraints, we agreed that the 80K from Berg- en-Dal to Skukuza would be a “non stop” journey unless we had a “cat” sighting. So we made good time and had a pit stop at Skukuza. Just outside Skukuza, as we were following the Sabie River, a wild dog came running across the road towards the river. I got him on video and Alison and Chris got photos. A few miles later, we saw a crowd of vehicles on one side of the road and the driver of a vehicle coming toward us stopped to tell us that there were six lions on the side of the road! This turned out to be true, but Chris who was in the other vehicle only saw the four females and didn’t see or was at the wrong angle to see the male and the additional female. They all just lay there and paid no mind to all the fuss and moving of cars, etc. that was going on all around them.

We went on to Lower Sabie and before we went into the camp we stopped off at the "Sunset Dam" that some of you will remember. As usual, there was a large pod of hippos (all submerged, with only their backs showing), crocodiles, maribu storks and more.

We finally tore ourselves away and went for lunch at Lower Sabie--what a lovely restaurant in such a great setting overlooking the dam--plenty of water in there and plenty of action, including an elephant crossing the Sabie River. Chris & Linda missed the elephant as they were in the gift shop buying two wooden giraffes. I will say no more about this for the rest of the blog as Chris is paying a sizeable sum to keep this story from being published on the WWW!

We have to be back to our home rest camp by 6pm and as we were going back the shortest route, but all dirt roads, we had to get going. We hadn't gone far when we saw another bunch of cars stopped on the road and this time there were at least four lioness right next to the road feeding on a big male kudu bull (note the horns).

We continued on our way and saw cars on a bridge going over the Sabie. We took a look and in the dry bed of the river in the distance we could see (with binoculars) two lioness. Apparently, the other vehicle also spotted the male resting near the bank. We continued on and remembered that we hadn't seen any Cape Buffalo herds. We went on to see three herds on our way home.

Just after we had left the dirt road and turned onto the tar, we saw another crowd of cars and this time we had a male lion who had obviously eaten himself absolutely full as his belly looked as though it was ready to burst. He was passed out and not worrying about all the people who were watching him. It was our fourth lion sighting of the day!

I also forgot to mention that we had a nice sighting of a Saddle billed stork on the Sabie river.

We were back in time to visit a water hole near the camp just to see what might be there and there was a rhino and calf. What an end to a fantastic day of viewing.

Thursday August 30 to Tuesday Sept 4.

Posted on Saturday Sept 8th (Shaun's wedding day) at an Internet cafe in East London (first time connectivity available to us) and on Friday Sept 14th in Somerset West near Cape Town.

I expect everyone is wondering whenever we’re going to post. Sorry to have kept you waiting so long but to some extent it has been beyond our control. As I start writing (MondaySept.3rd), we are in the Bushman Wilderness Trail camp having just returned from an evening drive and walk and we are having pre-dinner drinks. We have had a most unbelievable day today and even the resident South Africans who have been here on wilderness trails before are amazed at how much we have seen. But before I start on that, I must summarize the events since we left the Crown Club in Atlanta and got on our flight to Joburg..

After a long flight, we arrived in Joburg late at about 5.15 PM on Thursday. We were met by Ted & Marilyn Turner, who had graciously driven out to meet us and to guide us back to our hotel (Marilyn traveled in our rental car). As our rental car is a “manual” and of course SA drives on the left, the transition to driving in SA is not easy, especially on the busy roads of SA’s largest city. We slept well.
On Friday morning we did a little bit of shopping, after which Ted & Marilyn came and met us and once again Marilyn drove with me and this time Alison drove with Ted., back to the airport where we first picked up Vic & Carol from their flight from Port Elizabeth, and then later (their flight was late) all six of us met Chris & Linda from their flight from Washington. There was much excitement!

Back to the hotel again for a short while, then off to T&M’s home for a curry evening. We had a grand time and the food was great. We ate outside on the patio. Pictures were taken, but not enough.

I had to drive home so I was very conscious of that and restrained myself admirably. I was very nervous driving a stick shift on the “wrong” side of the road in Joburg , particularly at night!

Saturday morning we drove over to T&M’s and the “boys” left in one car to go shopping for beer, wine, etc. for Kruger, while the “girls” went to Sandton City to shop. Marilyn dropped A&L back at the hotel and Chris & I drove back from T&M’s house to meet them. By 5.30 we were back at T&M’s and en route to Montecasino, a giant casino and theatre complex in the style of Caesar’s Palace (where you are “outside”, inside). We had a great meal and then went to see the stage production of “The Lion King”. It was wonderful. It was 11.30 by the time we got home and then we finished re-packing for the trip to Kruger. Although the hotel had Wi-Fi, it did not reach the third floor and I had to go down to the lobby to pickup or send email. There was no time to sort out a blog posting.

On Sunday morning, we loaded up the SUV and drove once more to Ted and Marilyn’s and by 8.45 AM we were on our way to Kruger Park. Very unfortunately Marilyn had an accident while on vacation in Morocco about a month ago, and ended up having to have knee surgery after she and Ted got back to Joburg. Consequently she had to forego the Kruger Park trip, and Ted’s younger sister, Dianne, joined our party instead. We were at the Malalane Gate by 1PM. We had told Chris and Linda not to expect to see much on the short 10Km drive to the “Berg en Dal” main camp – but we saw quite a lot including ground hornbills, a poor lion sighting (low in the grass and not a good enough picture to post) a very good giraffe sighting – very close proximity, female kudus (still haven’t seen a male kudu), two warthogs and a couple of different elephants.

We checked in at the main camp (during which, the gentlemen checking us in told Vic: “Your wilderness walk was cancelled” – his idea a joke! – you should have seen the look on all of our faces!). As detailed in our second blog, we were picked up by the ranger & tracker in the bush wagon (photo) and were on our way to the Bushman Wilderness Camp. The ensuing experience has been fantastic and I don’t really know how to start to put it all into words, or if I have enough time to do so.
Our ranger (Kenneth) and tracker (Bentu) are from Shangaan Tribe, mainly from Mozambique or Eastern African Region and they converse with each other in the Shangaan language. Bentu can spot game really well, and Vic formed the opinion that Kenneth is one of the most knowledgeable rangers/guides he has had. (This is Vic’s sixth wilderness trail).

On the way to the camp we saw a rhino in the distance and then it came running down the hill at the sound of our vehicle. It was a long way away and stopped after a short burst of speed and looked in our direction (they have very poor eyesight, but very good hearing (just like me! – not). It was an inkling of the good sightings to come. We arrived at the camp and sorted ourselves out into the four huts available. They are all the same and the word “rustic” is apt! (pictures). We then adjourned to the lapa had a few sundowners before supper was served (a delicious stew).

On Monday morning we were awoken at 5.30 by the sound of water being poured into our enamel wash basin on a stand outside our hut (picture), followed by a knock on the door (and we’re supposed to be on vacation!). We dressed quickly and got to the lapa for coffee and rusks. For this particular walk we started from the camp at just after six, with the eight of us in single file behind Kenneth and Bentu. Within minutes we saw our first rhino and went on to have two separate rhino encounters and multiple rhino sightings. I say encounters rather than sightings because in each case, we were walking directly into the path of a rhino and Kenneth signaled urgently for us to move sideways as quickly and silently as possible. On one occasion we actually climbed an outcrop of rocks on a small hill to be in a safe position. Despite the close proximity of the rhino, we never felt in any danger.

We also had a terrific giraffe sighting, which thrilled Linda as she has a passion for giraffes. We saw three of them at quite a distance and took pictures before walking toward them. However, they didn’t move so we stopped and took more pictures because we were sure they would move if we got any closer. We walked even closer and took more pictures and then they just moved a few yards off our path and we went by them. It was a great sighting.

We returned from the walk by 11.30 and had a late brunch of scrambled eggs, bacon, etc. (we also had a snack while walking on the trail).. Our camp has a “man made” waterhole just outside the perimeter fence (which was only about 4 foot high and not particularly substantial – Kenneth suggested it was to keep us in, not the animals out). We heard loud sounds of drinking at the waterhole and there at the waterhole was a female rhino with her calf (picture).

After a siesta in the afternoon, we gathered together again for coffee/tea and then packed drinks into a cool box, loaded it and ourselves into the bush wagon and off we went for an evening drive/walk. This trip was less eventful in terms of sightings, but we ended on the banks of a river where we carried the cool box down to a large outcrop of rocks and we sat and watched the sun go down. It is extremely dry here at the moment, and the river is not flowing, there are only pools of water in various sections of the river bed. Although Sept 1st was the first day of spring, we are encountering temperatures in the 90’s F at midday. We did see another rhino and calf at the river at a long distance and we also had other rhino sightings on the drive. We returned to camp in the dark, had another lovely evening in the lapa and then to bed.
On Tuesday morning at 5.30 we started the process all over again!

Tuesday Sept 4th (posted Sept.14th!)

We left camp in the bush wagon at 6.00 AM and drove to the spot where we began our walk. We had another great rhino sighting on the drive. We saw san bushman paintings that were in the region of 15,000 years old! The walk was not as eventful as the Monday walk in terms of game seen, but was enjoyable.

We returned to the camp at late morning and while we were waiting for lunch I walked over to see if anything was happening at the water hole. There was nothing there, but I saw a rhino in the distance making his way through the bush towards the waterhole and began videoing. The rhino got to the hole and began to drink. I was not aware of any issues with the rhino and after a few minutes, I stopped videoing and returned to the lapa for coffee. Later, Diane who was also watching the rhino came to tell us that the rhino was now IN the waterhole! We went back and I began videoing again. We thought the rhino was just cooling off, but then when it tried to leave the waterhole it fell sideways and screamed in what we assumed was pain. The rhino then lay there on his side with it’s two legs pawing at the air and was unable to get up. It was awful to see. Kenneth came to look and said that the rhino was badly burned on his back legs and rump from a recent fire and he thought the rhino was dying. He said that they might have to shoot it and he would have to call the section ranger to discuss the situation. Kenneth was concerned that the rhino would die in the waterhole, which would make things very difficult. Meanwhile, the rhino was “moaning” so woefully that I could not continue to video. We heard that the section ranger was on his way. Meanwhile, the rhino had managed to right himself, and, after resting for a while, made a determined rush to get out of the waterhole. Unfortunately, he was facing the deep end and was unable to make it and ended up with his head resting on the side of the waterhole and his front legs
folded under him. He was exhausted and unable to move. We could hear his breathing quite clearly. We continued to watch and wait for the section ranger when suddenly, out the bush appeared two elephants approaching the waterhole to drink, one of which was massive. The massive elephant looked at the rhino in the waterhole but started to drink and spray himself down from the other end to where the rhino was resting his head. The rhino then managed to turn himself around and now stood in the deep end of the waterhole facing the elephant drinking from the other end. He was snorting weakly, but was obviously very wary. The elephants drank from the waterhole one at a time and we surmised that they couldn’t understand why the rhino was in the water. In the distance we saw the section ranger’s pickup truck racing down the road towards our camp. He duly arrived and introduced himself to us (Rob). After examining the rhino with binoculars he confirmed that rhino was suffering from burns and that they may have to shoot it. He asked us not to photograph or video if that turned out to be the case. We were wondering how they were going to go out and look at the rhino while the elephants were there, but Rob and Kenneth just walked out of the back gate and started waving their arms (at the two elephants, they turned and faced them momentarily, but then turned away and started to walk back into the bush. The two rangers followed them for a few meters to ensure they were well out of the way so that they could turn their attention to the rhino. We were all watching the rangers and the elephants and I was videoing this phase of the operation and when the rangers turned back to the waterhole and I swung back my video camera, the rhino was emerging from the shallow end of the waterhole! The rangers then started to walk toward the rhino and we all switched off our cameras fearing the worst. The rhino turned and looked at the two rangers as they walked toward him. Rob raised his big gun and lined up his shot when suddenly the rhino turned and actually started to trot back into the bush. The rangers followed and went out of sight, however, we heard no shots and 15 minutes later, Rob got into his pickup truck and left and Kenneth told us that as the rhino seemed mobile, they would see how things went over the next couple of weeks. Although it would normally be difficult to find a particular rhino, they expect him to return to the waterhole again as it is an easy source of water for him while he is injured. We all hope and like to think he will survive. It was a dramatic experience for us all.

As on Monday, we went out again at 4pm for an evening walk followed by “sundowners”. We were looking for the big cats but had no luck. We saw vultures in a tree and went to check if there was a kill nearby but didn’t find anything. We did disturb three elephants with three “baby” elephants with the bush wagon and the one elephant “trumpeted” at us, but that was all. Back to camp for another delicious “camp fire” cooked meal and then off to bed. On Wednesday morning we were once again up early, but this time our time in the bush camp came to an end and we were off back to the main camp of Berg en Dal.