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- Dag 71
- maandag 3 februari 2020 om 08:35
- ☀️ 22 °C
- Hoogte: 2.323 ft
Zuid-AfrikaNama Khoi28°57’54” S 17°46’42” E
Journey to Cedarberg, South Africa

It was yet another early rise at 5am - it felt like I had been getting up before dawn for weeks. I was rewarded with a stunningly clear starry sky with the milky way and its billions of stars set clearly in the darkness like the facets of a great jewel. I showered and had breakfast with my fellow travellers, before we boarded the truck and headed to the nearby border with South Africa. We had a straightforward passage through the border and travelled through more flat desert terrain with large mounds of loose rocks that looked like they had been put there by giants on an abandoned building project.. It was another example of the incredibly strange and unearthly geology in this part of Africa. The sun shone intensely in a bright blue sky. We stopped at a supermarket to buy some lunch and then continued for mile after mile of mountain ranges rising out of hot desert sands covered with low bushes. As we approached our destination the famous South African vineyards began to appear. They were well irrigated to grow grapes in such a hot and dry climate and a large water network had been built to take water by gravity from the nearby rivers to irrigate the vines. We arrived at our campsite which had a nice grassy area for camping and nice bar and long pool. We put up our tents and then had one of our periodic truck cleans when we clean everything on the truck. It's a big task but many hands made for lighter work. After cleaning the truck contents in the hot sun, most of us jumped in the pool to cool off and spent some time resting. We then had a wine tasting session with some cheese and crackers. I hadn't eaten good cheese for many years and the blue cheese, especially, tasted like heaven. We also tasted some wonderful local wines including red, white and rose wines. I particularly liked the local Pinotage red wine and Brian and I ordered a bottle to drink with the barbecue meal that was made for us im the evening. Lauren and I made a drunken deal to go vegetarian one day and meat eating the next day for the rest of the trip. Today was our vegetarian day and we were both a bit disappointed to miss out on the barbecued chicken but were compensated with a lovely stuffed butternut squash instead. The drinking continued into the night - I started to feel low in mood for a particular reason and drank too much rum and coke to drown my sorrows. One of my fellow travellers, Ian, noticed I was out of sorts and came up to check in on me and we later had a chat by the pool after everyone had gone to bed which was very helpful and kind of him and much appreciated by me. It took me ages to locate my tent as I got lost in the dark heading back from the pool, but when i did eventually locate it, i quickly fell into a drunken sleep under a starry sky.Meer informatie
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- Dag 72
- dinsdag 4 februari 2020 om 09:28
- ☀️ 23 °C
- Hoogte: 197 ft
Zuid-AfrikaSeekoeivleirivier32°5’42” S 18°49’36” E
Journey to Stellenbosch

After quite a cool early morning, I woke up at 6am with an impending hangover brewing. I got a shower, packed up my tent, and forced down some breakfast. I was still feeling low from the previous night as I boarded the truck for the next leg of my journey.
We travelled through yet more miles of big mountain ranges and spectacular views. The countryside turned more rural with big wheat farms followed by grassy fields with livestock and then big vineyards as we approached Stellenbosch. There was a point in the.journey where we climbed over a big rise and were greeted with an amazing view of a huge yellow plain that looked like a vast dried up inland sea. All around the plain were large mountain ranges. As we approached Stellenbosch we could see the silhouette of the famous Table mountain by Cape Town. Stellenbosch itself is backed by large mountain scenery. We found our booked dorm rooms in the nice hostel and booked onto a wine tour for the following day. Lauren had the great idea to make a greek salad which was the perfect antidote to my hangover and I went to sleep off the hangover with a snooze afterwards. Later we all went to the Tiger's Milk restaurant for dinner. I sat with Oscar, Simon, Lauren and Annette. Annette seemed a little anxious and talked throughout the meal which was quite challenging at times. We had tacos wraps with two different fillings which were very nice but quite small, so I bought a starter of cheese and bacon fried in a round batter to help fill me up. We returned to the hostel and soon retired to my dorm bed to try and get some sleep in a very hot room with a small standing fan giving some cooling relief.Meer informatie
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- Dag 73
- woensdag 5 februari 2020 om 10:34
- ⛅ 24 °C
- Hoogte: 538 ft
Zuid-AfrikaIdasvallei33°56’18” S 18°53’36” E
Stellenbosch - Day 2 - Wine tour

It was a hot night and I slept fitfully in the dorm room with fellow travellers Phil, Bro, Brian and Lauren. I got up a 7.30am which felt like a lie in. We went to a nearby restaurant for some breakfast and I was served with one of the largest omelettes I've ever been served with and one of thr best with feta cheese, tomatoes and mushrooms.
We started our planned wine tour at 9am and drove with our guide, who was a nice enough but slightly strange character, to the first vineyard on the outskirts of Stellenbosch. The vineyard was founded in 1692 and had a large, thatched main building and a very plush restaurant for the wine tasting. This part of South Africa is very well developed and has a strong western, developed feel to it. We were given several very nice white wines to taste along with a very nice bread and cheese platter. The blue cheese on the platter tasted like heaven as I haven't eaten real blue cheese for many years. I had to be very careful though because both white wine and cheese are both asthma triggers for me, and after my cheesy omelette in the morning, I was only able to have small bits of cheese and small sips of the wine, which was a little frustrating. After this wine tasting, we moved on to another vineyard with beautiful views over the surrounding mountains. One of the best features of this wine tour was the chance to see the beautiful mountains and scenery in the wine growing regions around Stellenbosch. We tasted some Chardonnay white wines in the very modern and minimalist wine tasting bar, and also had some rose wine. All the wines were very nice indeed to drink, even though white and rose wines are not usually my favourite to drink. We then drove a bit further up the mountains to a restaurant for lunch. Again there were fine views of the surrounding mountains and I had a nice glass of red wine with my summer salad lunch. After lunch, we drove to another winery where we sat in a back room of the restaurant surrounded by bottles of wine, and were served some wonderful red wines, including two Pinotage wines and a Shiraz. The Pinotage wine matured in oak barrels was particularly wonderful and confirmed that red wines are by far my favourite wines to drink. We then drove to our final vineyard, just down the road from the previous vineyard, and sat outside where we were served more red wines and a red and a white port. Both the ports were very smooth and lovely to drink. This vineyard was originally owned by a rich dandy who used to take his many mistresses to a specially made room at the vineyard which was open to be viewed.
With the very good wine tour over, we drove back into Stellenbosch through the rush hour traffic, and back to our hostel.
After a quick rest at the hostel to let the tiring affects of the wine tasting pass, I went for a pizza meal with Irish Brian and Monica and then returned to get an early night at the hostel. I was exhausted and went off to sleep quickly despite the dorm room being very hot again.Meer informatie
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- Dag 74
- donderdag 6 februari 2020 om 13:40
- ☀️ 21 °C
- Hoogte: 243 ft
Zuid-AfrikaDevils Peak Forest Reserve33°55’48” S 18°24’24” E
Cape Town - Day 1

I got up at 7.30am after another hot night in the dorm room with mosquitoes around in the room. I slept quite well considering the heat but still felt very tired when I woke up. I got a shower and had some cereal before packing my things and boarding the truck for our departure time of 9am. We had a relatively short drive into the wealthy suburbs of Cape Town with the huge clouded silhouette of Table Mountain dominating the skyline above the city.
We arrived at the busy and bustling Ashanti Gardens Lodge hostel. It was a well furnished hostel with a big reception area, bar/restaurant, communal kitchen and small pool. Lots of young travellers were moving around the corridors and sitting in the large patio area outside. We had arrived early after only an hour's drive with unexpectedly light traffic in the city. This meant that we had to wait for our dorm room to be made ready. We used the time by looking through the leaflets of activities and English Brian, Lauren and I booked for two days on the 'hop on and hop off' open top buses which take you on different tours around the city. As we readied to depart for the bus stop where the tour started, our dorm room became available and Monica, Phil, Bro, Lauren, Kristin, English Brian and I all claimed our bunk beds.
Then English Brian, Lauren and I all headed down through a local park and through city streets until we eventually found the ticket office and bus stop for the 'red route' of the 'hop on and off' bus tour. I sat in the front and plugged in the headphones for the informative audio tour which picked out sites and histories of the city. We headed up towards Table Mountain with Lion's Head mountain behind (so named because it looks remotely like a lion's head with a mane). Black maned lions once lived around the Cape Town area. These are stunning looking mountains with wonderful views over the city and deep blue bay. The bus stopped by where the cable cars take people to the top of the mountain. We then headed through very expensive real estate which is shielded from the strong winds that blow through the mountain corridors. We drove down and along the coastal bay areas with azure blue seas and sandy beaches. The coastal road had lots of fresh fish restaurants. We drove back towards the city, past a stadium built for the football world cup in Soith Africa. We reached the harbour and waterfront area and decided to get off to see a large arts and crafts shopping area and then on into the V & A food market where we chose between the many world food options for lunch. I had an Indian chicken tikka wrap which tasted a bit strange and wasn't my best choice. We then tried to take a harbour tour on a boat which was included for free on our ticket, but was cancelled due to the high winds that day. While we were there we watched lots of cape fur seals on a wooden platform. Their calls and behaviour, where the males vied for space, amused us and Lauren and I started 'communicating' through seal calls to each other which was a bit craziness that kept us entertained until we got back on the bus. The bus then returned through the inner city streets. It was interesting to hear that most of that part of the city had been reclaimed from the sea by the Dutch. We arrived back at the starting point and walked back up to the hostel.
I was able to get a shower and a short rest before it was time to meet for our group meal at Mama Africas to mark the official end of the journey for many of our fellow travellers. Sadly, Ian didn't make the meal from his hotel which was a shame as I was therefore unable to say goodbye and thank him for his kind and supportive conversation several days earlier. The restaurant was busy with a wonderful band playing African 'fusion' music. I enjoyed it so much that I drunkenly bought their CD at a somewhat exorbitant price. I ate a very enjoyable "catch of the dau" 'Derado'? fish with chips which was very nice indeed. I washed this down with rum mojitos and got quite drunk as a result. After the meal, we headed over to a loud bar where I drank more rum and coke and danced to the music with fellow travellers Lauren, Kristin and Vincent. We decided to head back to the hostel after an hour or so and it was time to say our goodbyes to fellow traveller Vincent as he took his leave. Back at the hostel, I fell asleep quickly thanks the large amount of alcohol in my system.Meer informatie
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- Dag 75
- vrijdag 7 februari 2020 om 10:50
- ☁️ 17 °C
- Hoogte: 3.064 ft
Zuid-AfrikaBlinkwaterkloof33°57’24” S 18°24’12” E
Cape Town - Day 2

I slept reasonably well considering my late night and the amount of rum I drank during and after our meal. I did still wake up at the frustratingly early hour of 6am when I didn't need to, and got up at around 7.30am. After a shower and some light breakfast at the hostel, myself, Lauren and English Brian set off on our planned bus ride on the 'on and off' bus to the cable car which would take us up Table Mountain. We walked to the bus stop and caught the same red route bus we caught the previous day. I followed the audio tour on headphones again as we drove through the city and up to bus stop by the cable car. We joined the long queue for one of the two cable cars. We got on the cable car and I stood by the rotating window and took in the amazing views over the city and surrounding bays. We could also see over Lion's Head mountain. We arrived at the top of the mountain, departed the cable car and looked out over the amazing views from the top. The weather was ideal with light cloud protecting us from the sun and really good visibility over the surrounding landscape. The path around the mountain was well designed and easy to walk with good viewpoints along the way. We looked out over Lion's Head mountain, across the city, and out into the large bay areas. In the distance I could see large, dark violet mountian ranges topped with white clouds. We walked along the path which skirted the sheer edges of the mountain and took many photos along the way. The flowers and bushes which covered the interior of the mountain were beautiful and unique with strange and primitive looking red flowers. We slowly made our way around the edge of the mountain with changing views of the surrounding lanscape. We walked out towards one end of the mountain and were rewarded with views over the far side of it. We returned to the main path which moved around the other side of the mountain and looked out over a series of huge buttresses known as the 'Twelve Apostles'. The views again were wide and beautiful. We eventually returned to our starting point and got back on the cable car back to the bottom. We got back on the red route bus and continued on the same route as the previous day around to the V&A food market. English Brian decided to remain on the bus at this point to head back to meet his two sons who had just flown into Cape Town for a joint trip up the Garden Route. We said our sad goodbyes as Brian had been a wonderful travelling companion with an innate enthusiasm for life and a joyful clap of the hands when he was particularly pleased with something like the arrival of a good meal. Lauren and I then had some vietnamese fresh spring rolls and different flavoured samosas in the food market. I was not previously a purveyor of food markets, but discovered that these are great places to try out different foods from around the world. Lauren has been very good on this trip at encouraging me to try new things and this was another example.
We then headed over to do the harbour boat tour which had been cancelled the previous day. The boat did a leisurely tour around the harbour with an audio tour. It was amusing to see that seals had taken up residence in the large tyres that acted as buffers for incoming ships, but we agreed that the tour as a whole was pretty underwhelming.
We returned to the bus and had a long trip back through the rush hour traffic to our starting point. We walked to find a recommended hardware store only to find it was closed due to a recent fire. We returned to our hostel to rest and shower. I said goodbye to oir fellow traveller, Monica, who was now leaving our trip. Monica had been a singular and determined character who didn't take prisoners if she was challenged, but was also very kind and likeable. We went to eat some dinner in the hostel bar, but the menu was poor and we decided to get an Uber taxi into the city to Long Street to find a better option for dinner. We walked up and down Long Street looking at different menus in different restaurants including an Ethiopian and traditional African style food restaurant. After not really finding what we wanted we settled on a Kashmir food restaurant and ordered what the restaurant owner recommended. We had settled on the right place as the food was delicious, varied and some of the best Indian style food I have ever tasted. It went down all the better with a glass of Pinotage red wine. Fully satiated, we returned to the hostel. Lauren had moved into her own room, which meant that her and Monica's absence in our dorm room had left space for three French men and a woman to take to spare beds. This proved to be a nightmare as they proceeded to come in and out of the room noisily for most of the night, making any sleep very difficult.Meer informatie
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- Dag 76
- zaterdag 8 februari 2020 om 13:51
- ☀️ 23 °C
- Hoogte: 102 ft
Zuid-AfrikaSilwermynrivier34°7’54” S 18°26’30” E
Cape Town - Day 3

I got up at around 7.30am after a very disrupted night thanks to our inconsiderate and noisy French room 'mates'. I got a cold shower and the light breakfast offered in the communal kitchen. I then discussed the planned activity for the day with my fellow travellers Lauren, Phil and Bro. Phil and Bro wanted to go to a town called Simonstown and Lauren and I were interested to see the penguins at Boulder Beach nearby. We had thought about getting an Uber taxi there but this would be quite expensive. We therefore decided to all get the train to Simonstown and Lauren and I would then get an Uber taxi to Boulder beach. We all walked to the railway station and tried to buy a ticket to Simonstown. After a lot of confusion with the first person we spoke to, we managed to get a 1st class ticket and waited on the platform for a train that was delayed by half an hour. We boarded the old and worn local train and we set off for a long and slow journey to Simonstown involving stopping at 26 train stations along the way. I had become pessimistic about what time we would eventually arrive but was encouraged by Lauren to take on the role of an optimist while she, usually an optimist, took on the role of the pessimist. This allowed us some amusement on the journey as I made statements along the route that would be the opposite of what I might usually say and vice-versa. The final challenge to my new optimism was when we reached Fish Hoek station where the train terminated before reaching Simonstown. Apparently, the line was blocked to Simonstown by sand blown onto the tracks, but the staff who sold us the ticket neglected to tell us or didn't know. I managed to optimistically see it all as an adventure as we got off the train to unexpectedly explore Fish Hoek. We found a supermarket and fish and chip shop and ate wonderful fish and chips on a beautiful beach front right above the waves at high tide. Phil and Bro decided to get the return train back to Cape Town while Lairen and I ordered an Uber taxi to the Boulder Beach seal colony. We arrived at the beach area and walked along the back of the visitor centre (we decided not to pay to go in) and were still able to see penguins basking in the sun on the rocks and got close to a young tree hyrax and its mother. We continued walking to an area of more large grey boulders in a lovely azure blue sea. We found a spot to sit on the rock and then Lauren spotted a penguin lying under the shade of a boulder nearby. We got close to the penguin and watched it preen its feathers and look up towards us. After a while its male mate (these penguins pair for life) came out of the water to join the female. They then endearingly preened each other and clearly had a close bond. Later another pair of penguins came out of the water to join the first pair. They waddled around the rocks together and came within arms length of where we were sitting. It was a really special experience to spend nearly an hour watching these delightful birds in such a beautiful sunny spot. Their two footed leaps from rock to rock with their small wings flapping in the air was funny to see. As the evening approached, it was time to leave and walk back to the car park. We bought a well needed sorbet to counter the strong sun and heat. I tried to order an Uber taxi back to Cape Town but couldn't get any signal to do so. We walked up to the main road and sat in a bus shelter to try and get a signal but to no avail. We were starting to get concerned that we were stranded and would need to walk 3km back to Simonstown to see if we could get a signal there. Suddenly, a car stopped in front of us and a voice said 'Scott!'. Amazingly, it was our fellow travellers Oscar, Simon, and Annette who had left our trip a couple of days earlier and just coincidentally happened to be passing on their own day trip around Cape Point. They also had Oscar's girlfriend in their car so it was a challenge for them to help us out with a lift, but kindly Oscar sat with his girlfriend on his lap to give is enough room to get in. Annette kindly drove is back to the other side of Cape Town where she lives and works in a local prison. She stopped at a lovely viewing point over the mountains and invited us to join them for dinner at a local Sushi restaurant. We agreed but were concerned for Oscar's girlfriend having to sit on his lap for any longer. The solution was for me to sit in the back of the hatchback which caused some hilarity when Lauren took a photo of me pressed against the back window that made it look like I had been kidnapped by Annette. We drove through the bypasses and motorways of Cape Town to where the Sushi restaurant was. I tried several different kinds of sushi from the rotating sushi bar and enjoyed them all and we also ordered two plates of sushi. This proved to be too much to eat, but Oscar stepped in to finish off our sushi with his notoriously large appetite. Once we were all full with the sushi, Annette very kindly drove us back across the city to our hostel. We dropped off Simon, Oscar and his girlfriend at their hotel and said our final goodbyes. It had been a very adventurous day and I felt very tired when I got back to the hostel. We said our final goodbyes to Annette and I thanked her for saving us from our potential stranding earlier., I also said my sad goodbyes to Lauren ahead of her leaving the trip the following day as I would definitely miss her on the journey ahead. I then returned to my dorm room where I had the task of putting my remaining photos on Lauren's hard drive as a back up for my photos and to share our photos of the journey. This proved to be a long task as I had thousands of new photos to download since my previous download and it kept me up until 1am in the morning. I tried to then get some sleep, but to no avail as our inconsiderate dorm room mates kept coming in and out of the room for most of the night, slamming the door each time and keeping me awake. I got no more than two hours sleep and knew that I'd be exhausted the following day as a result. I got very frustrated and had some strong words with the French woman for slamming the door and she did then stop slamming it. This challenged my new optimism to its maximum, but it had been an adventurous and very enjoyable day, so the optimistic approach had worked very well there.Meer informatie
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- Dag 77
- zondag 9 februari 2020 om 09:41
- ☀️ 20 °C
- Hoogte: 43 ft
Zuid-AfrikaBoulders Beach34°11’48” S 18°27’0” E
Journey to Cape Point and Gansbaai

I got up early after a very disrupted night with little sleep. I had a light breakfast in the communal kitchen, packed away my things, complained at reception about our inconsiderate room mates, and boarded the truck for the next leg of our journey to Gansbaai. Lauren came onto the truck to say her final goodbyes to everyone ahead of her departure from Africa later that evening. It felt very strange on the truck with so many of our fellow travellers having now left the trip and only seven of us remaing: myself, Irish Brian, Kristin, Phil, Bro and Grant. There was also a new arrival for the South African section of our journey, Graham. We did now have lots more space on the truck to sit and move around but I preferred it when there were more fellow travellers. We headed out of Cape Town with the cloud covered Table Mountain slowly receding. We drove along a lovely coastal road with many sandy beaches and coastal resorts, through Fish Hoek where Phil, Bro, Lauren and I had had fish and chips the day before. We passed through Simonstown and on to the Boulders Beach Penguin visitor centre which Lauren and I had passed the previous day to view penguins. This time Oasis Overland paid for us to go in the visitors centre and we walked down a wooden walkway with information boards to the beach where there were a large number of penguins all carrying out their daily lives. You could see bonded pairs of Penguins preening each other, female penguins sat on eggs in their small, scraped out burrows, and male penguins delivering nest material that they had often stolen from nearby unattended nests. It was fascinating to see so many penguins carrying out their behaviours and I had a bit of a reverie reflecting on the immensity of life on this planet and how each small animal carries out its behaviour and life tasks to make its small contribution to the great web of life and very likely this same process is happening on countless other planets across the universe. I pondered what my next contribution to the life of this planet could be. At one point a seagull flew down to take an unattended penguin egg and dropped it on nearby rocks to smash the egg and make its contents available to eat. The sometimes seemingly cruel cycle of life was encapsulated in this moment. There were also young tree hyrax feeding on berries in a nearby tree. All too soon, after an hour viewing the penguins, it was time to return to the truck. We continued down the stunning coastline to our next destination at Cape Point. This is the most South Westerly point in Africa and we took photos by the large wooden sign there. Big rolling waves pounded the coast there as a few fur seals basked on the rocks. This is part of a national park and surprisingly there were several ostrich sat in the bushes with just their long thin necks and small heads sticking up. We also saw a few eland nearby. We next drove up into the mountain overlooking Cape Poimt which is topped with the second oldest lighthouse in Africa which was built to warn ships rounding the treacherous coastline of the Cape of Good Hope. We climbed up the well built path up to the lighthouse with spectacular views of the coastline, cliffs and white foaming seas way below. We walked back down to the cafe to buy rolls for lunch and were surprised by a marauding baboon intent on sending people running and stealing their lunch. He came towards Krustin and Bro who made a run for it. I and Phil stayed still and I put my roll behind my back. The baboon moved on to find another victim and got his roll which he then proceeded to eat nonchalantly on a wall.
We next drove along very beautiful coastline with bright blue seas, big rolling, white frothing waves, and mile after mile of sandy beaches. We drove inland for a while but then back to the coast and onto what is known as the 'Garden Route' which is a spectacularly beautiful coastline with large mountains rising up from the sea. This was some of the most impressive coastline I had ever seen. We then headed more inland over moonscape like mountains of loose grey rocks. We continued along a main road through more mountains until a large 'Gansbaai' sign posted across the bottom of a mountain announced our arrival at our campsite which was right by the sea adjoining a small industrial harbour that was also once an old fishing port from the 1i800s. We pitched our tents and walked up into the small provincial town where we had a nice Italian meal. I had a very tasty lasagne which I hadn't eaten in years washed down with a lovely bottle of Shiraz red wine which I shared with fellow traveller, Kristin. There was a strong offshore wind at Gansbai and the evening was quite cool. A short shower of light rain began to fall as we returned to our tents. I was feeling quite inebriated from the red wine and let the wonderful sound of the rolling waves lull me quickly into sleep.Meer informatie
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- Dag 78
- maandag 10 februari 2020 om 13:11
- ☀️ 24 °C
- Hoogte: 20 ft
Zuid-AfrikaStanford’s Cove34°33’54” S 19°21’12” E
Gansbaai - Day 2

I woke up during the night feeling dehydrated as I hadn't left enough water in my bottle and didn't want to disturb Often sleeping in the cab by getting more water from the truck. I therefore slept fitfully with regular trips to the toilet. I got up at around 7.30am, had a well needed hot shower and shave, and was treated to a lovely breakfast of fried potatoes and beans prepared for use by Jemma and her partner Grant. The combination of the hearty breakfast and plenty of water helped me to overcome my dehydration hangover. After a leisurely breakfast, we all walked up to the town to buy some lunch in the supermarket. We returned with the idea to eat our lunch and go for a walk along the coast, but the intense sun caused us to wait until later in the afternoon and spent the next few hours resting and writing in the shade overlooking the sea before having a short nap in my wimdblown, open tent.
At about 3.15pm I decided to take a walk along the coast now that the full intensity of the sun had passed. This stretch of coastline had a very varied ecology. I had only been walking for a few minutes when I ran into a beautifully patterned and very large puff adder already moving away into the carpet of bushes that grew on either side of the path. I think the adder heard my footsteps and moved away. I was fortunate I didn't encounter this highly venomous snake head on as I was within a few feet of it. I continued down the path a bit more wary of what was ahead of me on the path now. The coastline was very rugged and rocky with large rolling waves pounding the rocks and throwing up white spray. It reminded me of walking along the coastline at home in Devon and Cornwall and I felt connected with the surrounding nature and in my element. I passed a large tidal pool but sadly had not brought my swimming shorts with me. The path was well made with wooden bridges over sections of the coastline where the sea came underneath. I eventually reached a parking area with good information boards about the local ecology. Ob the rocks in front of the car park was the impressive sight of thousands of cormorants sitting in lines along the rocks and filling the surrounding sea with bobbing long necked forms. I continued on around this beautiful coastline. Over the large bay you could see the huge range of mountains that lime the garden route. I saw a fur seal frolicking and fishing in the kelp filled seas, before heading back the way i had come. On the way back, I walked out onto the jagged rocks so that the waves came in around me and I could see the through the cylindrical holes made by the large rolling waves as they rose onto the shore. I collected a couple of intact shells to take home with me as natural souvenirs of this beautiful place.
I returned to the camping area and chatted with my fellow travellers while Jemma and Often cooked us a very nice dinner of pork chops, potatoes and my favourite broccoli. We ate heartily as the sun slowly descended towards the sea. After dinner I walked down to the shore and out onto the rocks to watch the sunset. Around me were hundreds of small seagulls preparing to roost on the rocks for the night. Occasionally, they would fly up into the air silhouetted by the setting sun. It was a beautiful scene of nature and I felt deeply connected to all the life iaround me. I then had a moment of clarity where I knew that I wanted to commit myself to becoming a nature artist.
I returned to the camping area as the sky turned salmon pink. Venus glittered in the sky above the sea and the stars began to appear with the Orion constellation directly above. We all talked for a while before retiring to our tents. I looked through some of the photos of our journey and reminisced about all the natural wonders I had seen. I then fell to sleep with the rhythmic sound of the waves and the strong wind flapping my tent. It had seemed that all the elementals of nature had been with me that day.Meer informatie
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- Dag 79
- dinsdag 11 februari 2020 om 09:53
- ☀️ 22 °C
- Hoogte: 10 ft
Zuid-AfrikaCape Agulhas34°49’60” S 20°0’12” E
Journey to Outdshoorn - Cape L'agulhas

I arose at 6am after a quite a cool night which left me adding extra layers to my summer sleeping bag. I got a cold shower and ate a hearty breakfast of three 'egg baskets' which apparently is an overlander delicacy of an egg fried in the removed centre of a slice of bread. We also had last night's potatoes and green plums to enjoy. We headed off on the truck through mountain scenery and down to Cape L'agulhus, the most southerly point in Africa and therefore the most southerly point I have ever been to on this planet. The coastline was once again beautiful with copper coloured and grey rocky outcrops. I took a moment to feel how far south I had come and look over the sea towards Antarctica. We took photos by a sign pointing to the Atlantic ocean one way, and the Indian ocean the other way. There was also a large 3D relief of the African continent that you could walk on. We traced our journey on the map and contemplated how far we had come and how much we had seen. We then drove the truck to a nearby lighthouse and bought our lunch. We then travelled on throug more mountain ranges and I reflected that we had been constantly travelling under the gaze of mountains for over a week now. The countryside became greener with a high level of development and agriculture on the flat areas at the foot of the mountains. We then drove past an even more massive mountain range with many streams falling steeply off the sides of the mountain in countless waterfalls and down into a large river at the bottom. Eventually, we turned left and onto the T? pass through the mountain range. We climbed steeply up an enormous river gorge with huge mountains above the gorge. The gorge sides had vertical cliffs and great rocks balanced in stacks. The river far below consisted of very dark mineralised waters that tumbled down through the gorge. This was nature, once again, on an epic scale and took the breath away as every corner of the mountain road revealed a new mountain road. We reached a high plateau and continued on through yet more mountain scenery. The green and lush alpine country in the gorge gave way to a much drier, sandy ecology with spars bushes and cacti. There were also a few remote towns on thses heights.
As we continued, we drove towards another enormous mountain range with sheer, grey rocky peaks, shining silver in the sun. There was a mountain with a huge split in the rock area its peak. We drove along this range of mountains for mile after mile. At one point the range drew into almost a knife edge along its peak. Then we reached our hostel. ?, which was a lovely hostel with nice, clean dorm beds, a communal kitchen, bar with a great pool table, nice gardens, a small pool and a rustic artsy feel. We settled into our dorm room and then went to the bar where I enjoyed playing some pool. We were cooked a very nice barbecue meal where I tried ostrich meat which I really didn't enjoy much as it was chewy and tasted more like beef than chicken. After the meal I spent some more time in the bar and overheard the barman talking in racist terms to my fellow traveller, Kristim. We have noticed that there is still a lot of racist views in the white population in South Africa which is deeply unpleasant to our sensibilities, but clearly still an ingrained part of the troubled history and culture of this country.
I returned to our dorm room and managed to go to sleep quite quickly on the very comfy mattress, despite the night air being very hot again.Meer informatie
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- Dag 80
- woensdag 12 februari 2020 om 10:53
- ☀️ 29 °C
- Hoogte: 1.467 ft
Zuid-AfrikaSchoemanshoek33°28’48” S 22°14’54” E
Journey to Knysna

I slept quite well despite the heat of the night, and got up for a hot shower. As I came out to the sink to brush my teeth, one of the hostel's black and white cats was waiting on a stool by the sink and indicated with her head for me to turn the tap on. As I did so she lapped water from the tap - this was an endearing early morning encounter. We then had a very nice cooked breakfast prepared for us and boarded the truck for the next leg of our journey.
We drove for about 30 minutes and then arrived at Cango caves in the mountains. This is a very ancient set of large caves, the front caverns of which have been occupied by the very earliest hominids and human ancestors as well as many other animals through various climatic conditions. There was a fascinating and well put together exhibition with much information about the caves' living and geological history and I took photos of most of the information boards to read later. We then walked up to the top level of the building to where the entrance to the cave was. We had a humorous and informative guide that took us through the cave network. First there were life size models of an ancestral stone age tribe living and cooking in the cave. The guide showed us an ancient rock painting of an elephant and below a stylised man leaping. Then we moved up to a huge cave chamber and walked down a flight of stairs to reach the chamber floor. After describing some features of the cave with a torch, he flicked a switch and the whole cavern was lit up to reveal its geological treasures. There were curtains of stalactites reaching down from the ceiling and a very tall column where the stalactite had met the stalagmite reaching up. This was called the 'Leaning Tower of Pisa'. On the other side was a huge curtain of white mineralised columns known as the church organ. On another side there was an amazing area of large smoothed, twisted rock which looked like a sculpture with more stalactite curtains at the top. We passed more acropolis pillar sized mineral columns with stalactite curtains before entering the most astonishing chamber which defies description. There was a big concave recess with all manner of mineral formations at the back of the cavern. On the left side there was an enormous column with amazing rock twists and curves forming its sides and a curtain of stalactites around its top. Nearby was another enormous formation of mineral curtains that had combined in a tree canopy like shape which gave the formation its name of the 'Willow Tree'. The willow tree had taken over 1.5 million years to form. This truly was an awe inspiring sight. We moved on to another chamber with big rock formations reaching down to the original floor of the cave which had gaps in the rocks reaching down 15 metres below the floor level. We then entered the penultimate chamber of the tour known as the bridal chamber where smaller columns had formed the vague look of a four posted bridal bed. These were more delicate but equally beautiful formations. We then entered the final chamber of our tour where the adventurous cavers could enter more narrow cave chamber entrances. There was a thin mineral curtain here that was translucent to light and formed a circular shape known as the 'Drum'. The guide pounded his hand on this to create a resonant drumming sound. This cave system was stunning and gave one a sense of the enormous expanses of time taken to form the immense columns and mineral curtains. The stalactites and stalagmites only grow by a couple of millimetres a year in South Africa's dry climate and were therefore all at least hundreds of thousands, if not, millions of years old. It also gave you a sense of the long evolution and countless generations of our hominid ancestors who visited the caves and hunted and gathered in the surrounding valleys and mountains. The climatic changes also caused different animals to occupy the area over time including a now extinct giant zebra.
We left the caves and drove to a nearby ostrich farm with a visitor centre. The guide told us about how the ostrich provided feathers, meat and leather for the farm. We were shown an egg incubation room and I was actually able to film an ostrich chick hatching. Their large eggs hold the equivalent calories of 24 chicken eggs. We then went outside to view the ostrich on the farm. We met a 'human friendly' ostrich called Betsy. I, and others, were able to give Betsy a 'hug' while it fed as well as feed it from our hands, although I didn't hold my hand straight enough and got a sore beak nip on my fingers. A wild ostrich is not so friendly and can disembowel you with the long nail on one of it's two toes. You can't outrun its 70kph running speed and so have to either climb a tree or lie down on your stomach with your hands behind your neck to survive. The first long section of an ostrich leg is actually still its foot which I hadn't realised.
We then looked at some Australian emu for comparison and then at an ostrich family of an adult male, female and young ostrich. Finally we entered a seated section by a large pen of adult ostrich. I, and others, were then able to receive what is known as an ostrich 'neck massage' where we held a bucket of feed while a number of ostrich pecked over your neck and shoulders. This was quite a close up experience of these magnificent and unique birds.
We left the ostrich farm and drove to a nearby supermarket where we bought our lunch and bought in food for our cook group duties for the next two evening dinners and morning breakfasts.
After lunch we drove on through yet more mountain ranges and down through an impressive mountainous valley back onto flat lands heading towards the coast again. We came to a large lagoon inlet from the sea and turned off into our next campsite with a lovely grassy camping area surrounded by trees and with a view over the lagoon. I pitched my tent overlooking the lagoon where African sacred ibis were feeding Two brown Hadada Ibis also fed for insects on our campground. We then rested up playing football and frisbee until we cooked pesto pasta for dinner. I played 'keepy-upy' football with Grant, Graham and Often which was great fun then chatted with my fellow travellers as darkness descended and the stars came out. We saw a big owl on a nearby fence, shone our torches on it and watched it for several minutes, its large eyes reflecting the torchlight before it flew of with its large, fanned wings. We retired early to our tents as the mosquitoes started biting. I slowly fell asleep with the insect chorus calling all around the tent.Meer informatie
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- Dag 81
- donderdag 13 februari 2020 om 09:00
- ☀️ 27 °C
- Hoogte: 49 ft
Zuid-AfrikaInner Obelisk Point34°4’18” S 23°4’12” E
Knysna to Storms River

We got up for a leisurely breakfast at 8am. There were many African Savred Ibis sitting in a nearby tree. I slept quite well but still felt low in energy and wondered if I was sickening for something. Jemma and Grant were planning to take electric bikes up to a nice viewpoint over the coast, but i didn't feel up to it and decided to rest at the campsite with Phil, Bro and Brian. We chatted about travelling in different parts of the world and rested in the shade out of the very hot sun. I then went up to the very nice long pool for a swim and Phil, Bro and Brian followed later. After the swim I returned to pack away my tent and had lunch consisting of leftover pasta and bruschetta from the previous evening's meal. We saw an African hoopoe and speckled mouse bird feeding on the grass and tree respectively while we ate our lunch. This area by the lagoon is clearly very rich in bird life. We then rested and chatted until 2pm when we set off for our next campsite near Storms river. We travelled through more mountain scenery with deep river gorges in the Tsitsikamma Mointain range which is part of the Garden Route National Park. We returned to the stunning coastline of the Garden Route and stopped so that we could walk along a beautiful woodland boarded path to the mouth of the Storms river where there was a suspension bridge crossing the river mouth which swayed and bounced as we crossed its boards. Looking up the river you could see what a high and narrow gorge was formed by the river. This would be the gorge that we would be tubing down the following day and we saw some kayakers exiting the gorge. We returned via another suspension bridge back up to where the truck was parked. We then travelled on to our next campsite which is situated near the Storms river. The hostel had a big lounge with pool tables, a large circle for an open fire with chairs and sofas around, and a nice pool. We had a slightly confused debriefing about the tubing down the Storms river the following day, but the end result was that Grant, Jemma, Graham, and I decided to do the longer 6 hour tubing down the river.
We had a very nice dinner of rice, vegetable curry and dhaal cooked by the cook group. I had started to feel quite hot, dizzy and unwell when we arrived at the campsite. I decided to put up my tent to have my own space rather than join my fellow travellers in the dorm room provided. I got an early night in the hope of feeling better for tubing down the river the following day. The sky was clear and I could see the milky way sparkling overhead in a mist of millions of stars. The crickets began chirping and dogs could be heard barking in the distance as I went off to sleep.Meer informatie
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- Dag 82
- vrijdag 14 februari 2020 om 16:44
- ☀️ 23 °C
- Hoogte: 781 ft
Zuid-AfrikaGoesabos33°58’24” S 23°52’56” E
Storms River - Day 2

I slept quite well in the tent, but woke up with a headache and feeling tired and queasy. It seemed that had picked up the same mild virus that my fellow traveller Brian had been suffering with. However, I was determined to do the planned tubing on the Stroms river and so got up for some light breakfast. My fellow travellers, Grant, Jemma, Graham and I all headed for the reception of the hostel to meet our guides, Richard and Charlie for a debrief and signing the usual indemnity forms. We put on wet suits, helmets and life vests and boarded a old land rover to head out into the Garden Route National park. Two young German men and a chap, called James, who was Bristol born and bred and had the accent to go with it, joined our group. James, like many Bristolians, was an outgoing, gregarious and entertaining character who was very well travelled. The forest on the way to the river gorge was pristine and beautiful with hills and mountains covered in forests as far as the eye could see. After about half an hour of driving we parked up at the top of the Storms river gorge. The guides inflated our inflatable yellow tubes and gave us some brief tuition on how to sit on them and paddle with our hands. We then made the long, steep walk down thr sides of the gorge through the ancient forest. At the bottom we put our tubes in water, sat through the hole and paddled out into the dark. tannin stained waters which reminded of the copper coloured waters of Dartmoor in Devon. The views of the high tree covered gorge with red lilies and other flowers growing in the rock clefts, were immediately beautiful and impressive. The river flowed from nearby mountains and was only 22 kilometres to the sea and so its level fluctuated very quickly. The level was lower today as it hadn't rained for a fee days. This meant that we needed to take out the tunes more often to clamber over rocks to put the tines back in the river for the next navigable section of deeper water. I was still feeling a bit dizzy due to my virus and so found balancing on the rocks with my tube over one shoulder quite a challenge and I slipped a few times on the wet rocks under the water. We continued down the gorge and I loved the longer sections of water where I could float, spin, paddle and look up at the wonderful vertical sided gorge. At a certain point we could climb up the side.of the gorge and jump out into a deep pool in the water. I have a fear of falling in this way but I was able to challenge myself by jumping off the side of the gorge and into the water. As we continued down the gorge, it got narrower with vertical sides of grey sandstone rock with beautifully smoothed and polished layers. The rocks overhung the river at the top in jagged, pointed formations. It was an awe inspiring sight and I was in my element in this wonder of nature. As we were climbing over some rocks we came across a beautiful small green 'boomslang' snake basking on a rock. After some time it leapt into the river waters. We reached a rock where we could leap into the water with the tube held to our backs to bounce back up out of the water still floating in our tube. You had to get the angle of entry just right to avoid being thrown out of the tube. The first time I tried it, i got the angle right and landed in my tube so I could paddle away. Others were not so lucky and either landed too flat with a big slap on the water or were turned out of their tube altogether. We did a second higher jump with our tubes further down the river and this time it was my turn to get the angle slightly wrong and get turfed out of my tube. My fellow traveller, Grant, also climbed about 15 metres up the gorge and jumped off into the river with his legs kicking in the air on the way down - I decided not to try jumping from such a height. Paddling through the river with our hands was quite tiring and we took a break on a large rock to eat a Mars bar and drink some water. M As we continued the gorge got still narrower with caves containing bats and even more impressive polished rocks. Wedged logs high up in the gorge revealed how high the water level gets when the river is in full flood. We saw a few small fish, but apparently only two fish are adapted to live in the tannin rich waters which have a very low ph as a result. Recent research has discovered that these special river networks have many unique aquatic insect species that are found nowhere else and have been evolving there for 140 million years when the continents were still joined as the super continent. Gondwanaland. You could feel how ancient and special this river gorge is. The stretched of water increased as the gorge narrowed and I really enjoyed floating and paddling down them. After four and a half hours of this wonderful experience we were reaching the tidal mouth of the river and we linked up our tubes by holding the feet of the person behind under our arms to form a long chain. We saw a cormorant catch and eat a fish in the glinting sunshine, and later fly low over our heads. We paddled over to a rock in the river mouth, got out of the water and deflated our tubes. We then had a long walk back over two suspension bridges which wobbled and swayed, trekking back through the woodland that we had walked through the previous day. We waited for our transport in blazing sunshine watching huge rolling waves crash into the rocky coast and send huge plumes of white spray into the air. The transport arrived and took us to a nearby shower block for a welcome hot shower. We then returned to the hostel where we were treated to a nice cooked meal of chicken kebabs, potato salad, salad, feta cheese and olives. It had been a very physically challenging activity, but I enjoyed every minute of being on that special river.
I then rested in my tent and went for a drink and chat with my fellow travellers in the hostel bar when my tent got too hot. The evening slowly darkened and we went and sat by the fire pit where a bonfire was lit and helped to keep away the annoying small flies. I had some rum and coke as 'medicine' for my continuing virus symptoms and ate a light evening snack of butternut soup and bread. I eventually returned to my tent and spent some time looking up at the clear starry sky with the milky way stretching overhead and down to the Southern cross constellation that is so indicative of the Southern hemisphere. I slowly went off to sleep with dogs barking in the distance. The night became very cool and I needed all my layers during the night to keep from getting cold.Meer informatie
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- Dag 83
- zaterdag 15 februari 2020 om 14:42
- ⛅ 26 °C
- Hoogte: 46 ft
Zuid-AfrikaFoulkes Point34°3’36” S 24°55’36” E
Journey to Jeffries Bay

It was very cold during the night and I struggled to keep warm even with all my sleeping layers on. I therefore slept fitfully but reasonably well and got up at 6am for a shower and some light breakfast from the truck with my fellow travellers. We left the hostel at 8am for a short and uneventful journey to our next destination at Jeffries beach, Surf Vibe Hostel, which was a surfer's hostel with a nice view over the long beach which is apparently one of the best places to surf in the world although there wasn't much sign of that big surf on the morning we arrived - apparently, the big surf happens in the winter season rather than the current summer season. We arrived early and had to wait for our dorm rooms to become available, so we rested in the hostel bar and had some lunch. I had a very nice greek salad and a bowl of chips.
I went for a walk along the beach with my fellow travellers Phil, Bro, Graham and Kristin in the mid-afternoon when the intensity of the sun had lessened. The beach was long and wide with bright white sands. There were quite a lot of local families on the beach, but there was still a lot of space on such a large beach. I went for my first swim in the Indian ocean and found that the waves were bigger than they looked from a distance as I rode up into the breaking waves or dived under them. It was good fun and the water was cool but not too cold. I returned to dry off and chatted with Kristin and Phil and Bro who had joined us from the local town. I went for another fun swim, with the big waves rolling in before we walked back along the beach to the hostel.
We rested in the hostel through the late afternoon and early evening and then walked past a local township and into the town to find a restaurant called 'Broohaha' that we had earlier identified as a place where we could eat dinner and watch Liverpool play against Norwich in the Premier League. One of the limiting factors in South Africa is that the electric power regularly goes off as part of a 'load shedding' programme to save electricity. Every part of South Africa is affected by these regular planned shutdowns which last several hours at a time. Everything is shut off including retail and industry. Apparently, the government is actually selling its electricity to Zimbabwe as part of a previous contract even though it can't provide enough electricity for it's own people. South Africans are understandably very unhappy about it. The restaurant we chose for dinner had their own generator so that we could continue watching the football when the power went off at 9pm. We ordered food and ate and chatted while watching the football. Luckily, Mane scored what proved to be the winning goal for Liverpool just before the electricity shutdown at 9pm and it took a couple of minutes to get the generator to bring back the tv pictures. We got taxis back to the hostel as it would have been dangerous to walk back in the dark. The surfers hostel was in 'party' mode with young people drinking around the fire pit and candles lighting the bar due to the lack of electricity. We got an early night in the dorm as we had an early start the following day. I managed to go off to sleep quite quickly considering the noise outside. Later at night I could hear big booms in the distance which I assumed to be distant thunder claps.Meer informatie
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- Dag 84
- zondag 16 februari 2020 om 07:43
- ☀️ 24 °C
- Hoogte: 203 ft
Zuid-AfrikaJeffreys Bay34°2’47” S 24°55’2” E
Journey to Addo Elephant Park

I slept reasonably well despite the noise outside and some light disturbances from hostel residents coming in and out of our dorm room. However, I woke up with a dull headache and queaziness which has defined the mild virus I had been suffering with. I gotba cold shower as the electricity was off again as part of thr 'load shedding' scheme. I had a light breakfast with my fellow travellers in the communal kitchen which included a treat of hot cross buns. We packed our things, boarded the truck, rolled up the sides and set off for Addo Elephant park. We travelled near the coast and over some impressive rocky ravines. After an hour or so of driving we reached the gates of Addo Park and I went up the the 'beach' at the front of the truck with an open top over the truck cab. This allows 360 degree views which is perfect for viewing wildlife. Low trees and bushes, interspersed with flowers of reds, pinks and whites, covered the ground as far as the eye could see. It made for a beautiful and lush African scene rising and falling over low hills. This was one of the prettiest parks seen on the journey. After some minutes of looking for, and not finding any animals, we saw a mother and infant elephant on the road ahead. As we approached they moved on but were then followed across the road by several more adult and young elephants. All thr elephants were a distinctive shade of brown which reflected the reddish brown mud of the park that they bathe in. Further on we entered more open ground and saw several zebra with their young near the road. Then we began to see more antelope including kudu, an eland and several stripey backed hartebeest. Two of the hartebeest locked horns in mock battle. We also saw some topi and red hartebeest in the green grasslands between the trees and bushes. We then saw a pristine example black backed jackal right by the truck. Next we came across a small waterhole with a small family of elephants in the red mud. There were two youngsters and one of them looked recently born. It was wonderful to watch the youngest elephant rolling in the wet mud and then struggle to get back up. We spent several minutes photographing and watching this lovely family scene. A warthog and two infants were also by the waterhole as well as a big buffalo sat right in the middle of the water. We travelled on through the thick bush and saw more zebra and antelope. I saw an ostrich in the distance and a small tan coloured mongoose run into a bush. We saw lots of elephants in the bush by the side of the road including two elephants and youngster pouring water over themselves with their trunks. I realised that Addo is called an 'elephant park' for a reason. We then came across a larger heard of elephants by a waterhole including females, young and a large male bull elephant. It was again very special to watch this family of elephants interacting with each other and roll around in the mud. One lovely example was watching a young elephant rest his trunk and small tusks on a younger elephant. We travelled through more beautiful bushland and could see back towards the sand dunes on the coast and the bright blue sea beyond. We then arrived at our next campsite within the bounds of thr park. The heat reached extraordinary levels of over 40 degrees centigrade and it felt like being in an oven. It was difficult to find the energy to move but I managed to make it to the campsite ship to buy cool soda water to replace my now hot truck water and my favourite mango and orange 'Paddle Pop' ice lolly which both helped me to cool down a bit. I visited the 'Interpretive Ventre' with lots of fascinating information about the life, history and geology of the Addo area and good information about the evolution of elephants and their anatomy. There was also a wall of 'horns' which showed many of the different skulls and horns of the Park's animals. I then walked down to the waterhole where there was a wooden lookout. I only saw a warthog by the waterhole and decided to walk back to our campground where I got a cold shower to try and mitigate the effects of thr extreme heat.
We then headed off for our second truck safari at 4.10pm. I again sat in the open top of the truck over the cab. This caused some annoyance with the park wardens who didn't like us sitting above the truck, bit we did it anyway because we were kneeling and perfectly safe. Soon after we entered the Park again, we were seeing animals. We saw two beautifully patterned Kidu right by the road. Further along the park roads we saw an elephant right by the road and spent some time with this gentle giant as he munched his way through the surrounding shrubs. We then saw a small leopard tortoise crossing the road, buy got stuck climbing the other side, fell on his back and had to be rescued by our driver, Often. These parks seem to be full of these mini-dramas of life paying out in the wilderness, and we happen across just a few of them on our safaris. Further along we saw a magnificent example of a male ostrich. We also saw lots of zebra, kudu and Bush buck for the first time in this park. We later swam saw a larger herd of elephants crossing the road right in front of is including a very small baby which looked very cute indeed. We saw a larger tortoise in the road. We saw a large herd of the magnificent ooking kudu as well as many more zebra and other antelope. We climbed to the highest point in the park and looked out over the bushland and could see several large elephants, zebra and antelope grazing in the distance. After some more travelling around thos beautiful park and seeing a large bird of prey and the wonderful flowers in the bush, it was time to return to the campsite. The park guards were still very exercised about our kneeling above the truck cab and threatened to fine the company.
We arrived back at our campground and I put up my tent while the cook group prepared dinner of bangers, mash and beans. I bought another Paddke Pop and soda water from the shop to cool down. We ate our meal in the darkening skies while lightning flashed in the distance and an increasing breeze threatened a big storm to come in the night. I went off to sleep with rumbles of thunder in the distance and crickets chirping their nightly call.
Morning;
Elephants, zebra, kudu, hartebeest, red hartebeest, eland, topi, warthog, mongoose, jackal, ostrich, tortoise, Reebok, buffalo, springbok, ibis,Meer informatie
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- Dag 85
- maandag 17 februari 2020 om 03:54
- ☁️ 20 °C
- Hoogte: 75 ft
Zuid-AfrikaColchester33°41’28” S 25°49’31” E
Addo Park - Day 2 and Journey to Chintsa

I got up at 5am for am early morning 6am safari drive in Addo Park. I had a hot shower and light breakfast from the truck. I felt very tired and irritable, which indicated that I was still getting over my virus, and was rushing because I hadn't given myself enough time to get ready and pack up my tent. Once I was on the truck I could relax and look forward to the safari drive ahead.
I sat up in the opening above the truck cab again so that I could get an all around view of the park as we drove through it. We drove through the beautiful bushlands with their flowers and birds under overcast skies. We didn't see any larger mammals for a while and I began to wonder of this would be one of those drives where we didn't see very much. However, this changed as we saw two hyena in the bush at a distance. We also saw the occasional elephant in the distance and some kudu antelope by the roadside. Things got even better when we saw a mother hyena and her two young cubs by a waterhole and they walked right up and past our truck. This was the closest we had been to hyenas on the safari so it was special moment to see them so nearby. We travelled on and came across a small herd of elephants by the roadside eating heartily in the bush. There were adults and their infants with one very small baby elephant. Again, it was wonderful to spend time with these gentle animals and to feel their close bonds as an infant felt his or her mother's face sensitively with his or her small trunk. You could feel how caring and intelligent they are. I had a moment of feeling how it would be to be one of those elephants in the herd and felt a close connection with them. After spending some time with these elephants, it was time to move on, even though I could have stayed with them for a lot longer.
As we continued along the park road, we saw more antelope such as kudu and hartebeest. We saw a large bird of prey with big white wings which I will need to identify. We saw a larger herd of kudu near the road - there seemed to be a particularly large number of these large and beautifully striped antelope in this park. We also saw a black backed jackal lying sleepily under a bush. We passed a very lush green valley with two large elephants, including a large tusked male, feeding at the far end. This gave me the sense of a very primordial and ancient scene played out over millions of years. We entered another open green area soon after with many zebra, warthogs and hartebeest all feeding in close proximity - another scene that has played out since time immemorial. I was consciously soaking up all these images as I knew that this would be my last chance, on this trip, to see all these African wild animals roaming and living in their natural habitat. We saw a large herd of elephants feeding in the bush above the road and surmised that as the road rose and turned that we might be able to see them closer on the other side as they continued to walk up the hill. I was better able to see them as I was stood at the top of the truck so I directed Often, the driver, to reverse back to where I thought the elephants might meet the road. It took some time for the elephants to reach the road, but when they did, we were glad we had waited. My directions had gone well as the whole herd of elephants including several small infant elephants walked right up to our truck and then crossed the road in front of our truck. This was another special moment, of many such moments, with elephants in this park. As we continued down the dusty road, we came across two male lions lying in the grass. We were excited to see these magnificent big cats again. One of the young male lions was limping heavily and had clearly been injured in the leg, perhaps during a hunt. We drove the truck around to view the other male lion who had sat up. There was then a wonderful moment when this male lion stood up and gave that distinctive and primal, low, resonant, guttural roar that they give when communicating with other lions at a distance. We came across a small herd of zebra on the road with a couple of very small baby zebra with them. We continued on and came to a large open area that seemed filled with animals such as kudu, zebra, warthogs, hartebeest and eland. This reminded us of the density of animals we had seen back at the Ngorogoro crater and was a lovely way to draw this final safari experience for this trip to a close as we soon left through the gates of the park.
We drove on to the next town where we said our goodbyes to Phil and Bro who had been very friendly and likeable Liverpudlians on this trip. We were now down to five remaining travellers going all the way to Johannesburg - Grant, Brian, Kristin, Graham and myself.
We drove on to our next coastal destination at Cintsa. The hostel was beautifully positioned over a lagoon behind a long white sand beach with huge dunes behind it. We were given a lovely dorm room with a balcony overlooking the sea and our own toilet and shower. Unfortunately, I started feeling unwell again with the persistent virus I had been struggling with over the previous few days. I felt dizzy and exhausted and immediately fell asleep as soon as I lay down on my dorm bed. This made me late for my cook group duties which I felt guilty about but everyone seemed to understand that I wasn't well and purposely hadn't woken me up for the cooking. We had a very nice spaghetti bolognese and garlic bread for dinner and I did a lot of the washing up to make up for my earlier absence. We all retired to bed early after a long day and I went to sleep again very quickly.Meer informatie
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- Dag 86
- dinsdag 18 februari 2020 om 09:58
- 🌧 22 °C
- Hoogte: 39 ft
Zuid-AfrikaCintsa32°50’6” S 28°6’48” E
Chintsa - Day 2

I slept well but, as usual, I woke up earlier than I wanted at 6am. I got a shower and joined my fellow travellers for a nice breakfast of cinnamon buns and an omelette which we prepared ourselves. I was still feeling queasy and low in energy due to my virus, and it was overcast and raining, so I decided not to do any of the paid activities such as horse riding or quad biking. Instead, I walked down to the beach with fellow traveller, Graham. The ecology of the lagoon, large sand dunes, and beach, was varied and really beautiful. There were many types of flowers and plants on the walk down with lush forest up on the very high sand dunes. As we approached the smaller sand dunes at the end of the lagoon and before the beach, the dunes were covered in grasses and long stems of a very attractive magenta coloured bell shaped flowers. We walked out onto the beach and walked along the shore with the white foaming waves rolling in. The spray created a mist over the sea and it was very atmospheric. It was very warm despite the overcast skies and I decided that I would go for a swim. Graham walked back across the beach and returned to the campsite. As I walked out into the waves and dived under a large wave, I could feel a very strong undertow current pulling me out to sea and decided that it would be dangerous to go out any further so returned to the shore. I then spent the next couple of hours walking along the shore, paddling in the sea and picking up brightly coloured shells. This allowed me to reflect on the journey through Africa and all the life that I had seen along the way. I fell into a reverie, feeling deeply that everything is alive in nature, including the sea, rocks, mountains, trees, creatures and even the great multitudes of stars and planets above. I experienced nature as God, or the Great Spirit of native Americans, and that I am a part of that nature and everything existing plays their small role in this immense unfolding creation from the grains of sand beneath my feet, to the skipping birds running past me, to the clouds and sun beyond. God as nature is therefore not to be believed in, but to be lived and experienced imminently in the world all around us. In this sense everything is holy, precious and can be loved and cared for. I wondered if humanity could play a vital role on this planet by becoming guardians and protectors of life and nature rather than the current destroyers of it?
I eventually returned to the hostel, chatted with my fellow travellers, had some lunch down at the poolside bar and wrote up my blog. I then returned to my dorm room to rest as the rain fell gently over the land and sea beyond the balcony window.
We had a very tasty Indian buffet meal in the hostel's dining room in the evening and I had a nice chat with my fellow travellers where my head felt clearer than it had done since I got the virus which was a positive sign that I was finally recovering. I then got an early night ahead of an early start in the morning.Meer informatie
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- Dag 87
- woensdag 19 februari 2020 om 11:18
- ☀️ 22 °C
- Hoogte: 3.668 ft
Zuid-AfrikaLily Vale31°58’6” S 26°58’36” E
Journey to Lesotho

I slept well and woke up a minute before my alarm was due to go off at 5.45am. I always marvel at the ability of my internal body clock to measure time so precisely as to wake me up a minute before my alarm. I got a shower, packed my things and had breakfast of cereal and an omelette before boarding the truck with my fellow travellers for a very long drive to Lesotho. We stopped at a nearby supermarket to buy lunch and provisions for the next few days. We then drove on through a cultivated landscape of fields, trees and farm buildings. After a couple of hours on the road the landscape became more filled with a rocky terrain and mountains with steep rocky escarpments rising up, shining silver in the sun. This was the beginning of the steep rise into the high mountains of Lesotho.
Kristen, Grant and myself then had an interesting and wide rangimg seven hour conversation about changing the current economic narrative to one that is environmentally sustainable for the future of life on this planet by moving from our current addiction to private consumerism to a narrative of public, shared wealth. This would then meet our basic needs for living whilst allowing us time to pursue more meaningful and nourishing activities such as spending time in nature and looking after the environment. We also spent a long time discussing religious history (which is an academic specialism for Kristen) and the roots of Judaism and Christianity and how a once radical and progressive religious narrative has become fundamentalist, conservative and restrictive. I discussed my interest in a narrative of nature as God which allows a holistic and inclusive approach where science, art and spirituality can have their valued place and where spirit and matter are both part of our experience of nature rather than separated from it.
After some long hours driving, we reached the Lesotho border and it was an easy and efficient entry into the country that is a kilometre high in the mountains. The transition to a much poorer country was immediately evident in the small houses and shacks that people lived in. We were back in an area with little tourism and the local people waved and smiled at us with some glee as we waved and smiled back to them. They came across as very friendly and welcoming. We continued waving to local people and children on their way home from school until the dark clouds descended and it began to rain heavily which meant that we had to put the tarpaulin sides of the truck down to protect us from the rain.
We drove on through heavy rain with occasional glimpses of the mountains of Lesotho ahead. We turned onto a long bumpy and muddy track towards our next hostel destination, Malealea Lodge, with the truck sliding in the mud at one point. We arrived at a large sprawling site with a reception, games hall, bar, dining area and a communal kitchen. This was an interesting place that tried to be as eco-friendly as possible and had solar powered electricity. Unfortunately, the rain was still falling and we got quite wet being guided around the site. We were each booked into our own rooms with twin beds and an ensuite toilet and shower which was the first time on this trip I had had my own room and it felt like a real luxury. We had a debrief on activities that we could do while staying at the hostel before we walked over to the dining room for a very enjoyable buffet meal (paid for us by Jemma) along with other people staying at the hostel. I had a glass of red wine with my meal of beans, swede, potato, sudza (maize mash), coleslaw and pork. I was feeling better in my health and enjoyed the evening chatting and joking with my fellow travellers. We all got an early night as it had been a long 11 hour trip on the truck. I was able to get a hot shower before I settled down to sleep with the rain still falling heavily outside.Meer informatie
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- Dag 88
- donderdag 20 februari 2020 om 13:28
- ⛅ 19 °C
- Hoogte: 5.958 ft
LesothoQaba29°49’42” S 27°36’0” E
Lesotho - Day 2

Sadly, I could hear heavy rain on the roof of my accommodation as I awoke at around 7am which would put pay to doing a trek in the mountains as I had planned. I therefore got up for a shower at a leisurely pace and enjoyed having my own space in my own room. I joined my fellow travellers for a light breakfast in the communal kitchen we had been allocated. After spending some more time relaxing in my room, I played some table tennis with fellow traveller, Kristen. It took me a while to get back to playing again as I hadn't played table tennis for many years, but I started to get back into the rhythm of playing, and Kristen played to a good standard, so that I slowly improved even though she was beating me I got closer to matching her. It was an enjoyable game and passed the time while it rained outside. I had some lunch and the weather began to clear so that I could begin to see the mountains surrounding the hostel for the first time.
I rested in my room after lunch and then returned to the bar. The clouds had further cleared from the mountains so I walked around the perimeter of the hostel and out of the front gates to take photos of the mountain. I then found a really nice spot to take photos of the mountains in a field at the back of the hostel grounds. I then went to the games room to play table tennis with my fellow travellers, Grant, Jemma, Kristen and Graham. We had some more close and enjoyable games playing doubles. After the table tennis we went to the bar to play pool doubles which was equally enjoyable. We then had macaroni cheese cooked by the cook group in the communal kitchen. We all returned to our dorm rooms for an early night. However, I noticed that the skies had cleared and the night sky was blazing with stars of the milky way. This was probably the best night sky I had seen on my travels through Africa so I spent a lot of time looking at the night sky and taking photos. I had been having difficulty getting into and out of my room as the wooden door appeared to have warped with all the rain. I therefore had to force the door open with my shoulder. I eventually settled into sleep on a less than comfortable mattress where the springs pushed through.Meer informatie
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- Dag 89
- vrijdag 21 februari 2020 om 07:00
- ☀️ 17 °C
- Hoogte: 5.157 ft
LesothoRibaneng29°50’12” S 27°37’30” E
Lesotho - Day 3

We were due to have breakfast at the relatively late hour of 9am so I was able to get up at my leisure. I packed my rucksack for a day's trek I had planned. However, when i tried to open my dorm room door it had completely stuck and wouldn't open so i had to climb out of the window to get out. We had a cooked breakfast of eggs, bacon, mushrooms, beans and toast cooked by the cook group in the communal kitchen.
After breakfast, Graham, Kristen and I organised to do a trek to a waterfall and then to some caves with ancient 7000 year old rock paintings painted by hunter gatherer bushmen. We were allocated a young local woman as our guide for the day and she took us out of the hostel and down a long hill towards a valley surrounded by high mountains. The guide stopped by a series of graves and told us about the local funeral and burial practice which seemed to be a mixture of ancient burial rites mixed with more recent Christian practice. For example a cow and a sheep were sacrificed and eaten as part of the funerary and burial rites. The family also cut off their hair and mourned until it grew back. The rites were also strictly divided between men and women. If one of twins died there was an even stranger practice where the living twin had to get in the dead twin's coffin and grave and say their dead twins name and say, but I am not him/her, I am the living twin.
We continued to walk down to a beautiful river valley with a bubbling stream tumbling down it. There were small fields of maize and sunflowers. Apparently, local villagers could claim land for farming with the permission of the chief of the village. We walked along the stream valley with wonderful views of the surrounding mountains until we reached where the stream met a larger river valley. The rain had brought out a carpet of various wild flowers that were visited by a multitude of butterflies and insects. We talked about the density of wildlife and how England would once have had a similar density of life before the intensification of farming. The stream carved through a geological layer of white smooth rock which created sculptural carvings in the rock. A large eagle circled in the thermal updrafts above. We crossed the river with some difficulty as the the river had risen due the heavy rains that fell when we arrived in Lesotho. As we made our way up the lovely river valley towards the waterfalls, the guide realised that the river level was too high to go up the river to reach the waterfalls. We therefore had to climb up a steep, loose rocked, path out of the valley which was a very taxing climb in the hot, strengthening sun as we approached midday. We then crossed over the top of the valley to the top of the waterfalls. The waterfalls were quite high with the river water passing through two narrow outlets to tumble about 30 metres to the floor below. We then had a long walk over and down to the bottom of the waterfalls. As we arrived at the bottom, two herder boys came down and started some very poor drumming on a home made drum in the hope that we would give them money. This rather destroyed the peaceful atmosphere of the place and after a short rest we climbed back up the steep path to the top of the waterfall, climbed back across the valley top, and then had to negotiate a very tricky descent back down the loose rocked, steep path. The rocks rolled under foot and you had to concentrate very carefully not to slip and twist or break an ankle. When we reached the bottom of the valley, we walked back down the valley, and then turned up a long, steep incline up a hill towards the local village. We all got very tired climbing up long incline and rested under a large rock ledge to shelter from the strong, hot sunshine. The views back across the valley to the mountains beyond were again very beautiful. Three young children approached where we were sitting, but did not come too close, and shyly waved at us from a distance. They later cupped their hands to ask for money, emphasising the poverty of the area. There were also children and adults herding sheep and two donkeys, one very young rested in the sunshine. After our rest we passed through the village. Some villagers were friendly and said hello, but others looked at us with a blank expression as if we weren't their. I had noticed this contrast in local people's response to us white tourists already during our stay here.
We then had a long descent down the other side of the hill towards another valley where the caves and ancient rock paintings were. We could see large, dark clouds gathering over the mountains behind us and could hear worrying rumbles of thunder. but we were lucky as the storm passed by us without raining on us. We had wonderful views over the distant mountains all around us as we slowly descended from the high point of the village. When we dropped down into the new river valley a large group of children ran excitedly down the hill to follow us down. This river valley had huge sheer, polished, rocky sides which opened out into a simply stunning view over the river and to the valley beyond. You could see why the ancient bushmen hunter gatherers regarded this as a special place. We walked down to a small cave and the guide showed us how the bushmen had used this cave acoustically as an impressive echo chamber. I whistled loudly and a perfect echo of my whistle came back a second later as it reverberated down the sheer sided, narrow, rock valley sides. The young children watched on from above and chatted and laughed with each other. After a short rest we continued on down a short path to where another indent in the rocky sides of the valley revealed a number of very interesting 7000 year old rock paintings in red (blood and plant pigment), white, and black (charcoal) colours. Most of the paintings were of elongated human figures with animal heads including birds and antelope heads. Our young female guide suggested that the elongated human figures represented the visionary experiences of the shamans who painted the images. She said that the shamans experienced themselves as tall giants in the landscape. This was a very interesting insight into the nature of the shamanic visionary experiences. There were also images of animals such as antelope, snakes, fish, and a beautifully rendered figure of a large cat. There was also a depiction of a number of human figures congregating together and possibly singing and dancing. This place had a very strong atmosphere and was clearly a sacred place for thousands of years in this stunning valley. The images had faded with time and were difficult to photograph, but you saw more and more in them the longer you looked. We then walked on to another indentation in the smooth yellow rock where there was another series of rock paintings, fewer in number, but perhaps even stranger and more evocative in nature. Some of the figures were painted high up on the rock wall and were more distinct. One of the elongated figures had a birds head and another had two horns. A third figure was more bent over and had a very strange, indefinable, animal like quality. The figures had an other worldliness that almost took you into the visionary experience of the shamans who painted it (apparently only shamans were allowed to paint the images). Another figure that was difficult to make out had an impossibly extended leg and foot which extended for nearly a metre away from the body. This also gave a sense of how the visionary experience allowed the shaman to stretch his spirit body to enormous lengths. We spent some time resting, photographing, and looking at the rock painting. Unfortunately, a third cave with rock paintings was too difficult to reach. We decided to walk back up out of the valley. When we reached the cave with the echo, the children had set up a small choir and sang for us in the hope of us giving them some money. I had no money on me, but left them a big bag of nachos to share among themselves which they seemed quite happy with. We climbed back out of the steep valley with stupendous views of the valley and mountains behind. It was hard work climbing out of the steep valley after many hours of walking up and down steep inclines in this mountain terrain. We then reached a more level path where we could recover our breath a bit. We passed some houses where people waved back in a friendly way - they also knew our local guide. We passed a very old and characterful woman with a dog who also sweetly said hello and goodbye to us. We then had another exhausting climb back up to the hostel and were fantasising about reaching the bar for a cold drink. When finally got there we paid for the guided walk in the reception and I paid in advance for the evening meal. We also left positive comments about our kind and friendly guide in the visitors book which would help her to get future guided walks and gave her a big tip. The guided walks are apparently shared among members of the local community to help give them some extra income.
I then bought a cold coke in the bar which tasted very good after a long, tiring walk and collapsed into a chair. The evening sun cast long shadows across the distant mountains. My dorm room door had been repaired while I was out walking, so i could now get in and out of my room. I returned to my room to get a shower and rested in my room until it was time for dinner in the dining room and 7pm. I joined my fellow traveller, Brian, for a nice dinner of roast chicken, potatoes, peas and carrots with a gravy like sauce. I had a nice glass of red wine with my meal which was only 20 rand for a large glass, about £1. We sat opposite a young American woman who was working locally as a paediatrician before returning to Texas where she was from. We had an interesting conversation with her about our mutual experiences of Africa before going to the bar for another drink.
I felt very tired after my day's exertions and soon retired to my room to rest. The crickets were chirping loudly as I slowly went off to sleep on the less than comfortable mattress.Meer informatie
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- Dag 90
- zaterdag 22 februari 2020 om 04:29
- ⛅ 15 °C
- Hoogte: 4.662 ft
Zuid-AfrikaFairy Glen28°41’6” S 28°57’36” E
Journey to Maloti Drakensberg Park

We had another very early start, so I got up at 5.45am for a shower, packed my things onto the truck, and joined my fellow travellers for a light breakfast in the communal kitchen. We had all enjoyed our time in this quirky hostel and lodge and in this wonderful mountain landscape. We headed back along the long and bumpy track back to the main road, passing spectacular mountain scenery that we had missed on the way in because of the rain. We travelled through Lesotho and some sizeable towns, including the capital city. Again, we were waved at and met with friendly smiling faces of adults and children along our way. We passed through countryside with the same warm responses from the local people. We eventually reached the border with South Africa and passed through without difficulty.
As we journeyed our way towards the Drakensberg mountains we started to see more fascinating geology in the mountains rising from the flat plains in separated sheer rock faces with flat tops. The views of these isolated mountains was once again spectacular and I just kept looking out of the windows on both sides at them passing by in an endless series of shapes with some having giant rock protrusions on their tops - one such rock looked like an enormous Easter Island head statue perched on top of the mountain. We stopped in a town to buy some food for our cook group dinner that evening and to buy our lunch. We continued on through yet more mountain scenery with sheer smoothed rock faces similar to those we'd seen in the valley with the rock paintings the previous day and were probably formed from the same layer of rock. We passed an area of several dams with more wonderful views of the mountains rising up from the rivers and reservoirs. This was also a wildlife park and we saw zebra, wildebeest and kudu. We then began to approach the Drakensberg mountains which were truly an enormous sheer sided wall of mountains on an epic scale. We could see over to an enormous circle of these mountains known as the amphitheatre. We could also see a huge cleft in the peak of a mountain called 'God's window'. We could see waterfalls falling from the top of the wall of mountains hundreds of metres towards the bottom.. We entered the Maloti Drakensberg Park and drove up to our campsite which was impressively nestled amidst the high mountains all around and with a lovely rocky river running nearby. We pitched our tents on the grass and started to prepare our vegetable curry and rice dinner. However, clouds gathered over the mountains and we could hear distant rumbles of thunder. We put up a tarpaulin tied to the truck to protect the cook group from the spots of rain that started to fall. However, we were lucky as we were able to cook and eat our curry without too much rain. After dinner, and washing up, we saw a bushbuck deer tamely walking in our torch light right by our truck. We then sat in the dark and watched a spectacular lightning show behind the mountains which I was able to film. The lightning made wonderful purple colours in the pitch black sky. We retired to our tents just as the storm hit our campsite. The rain began to fall very heavily indeed and monumental claps of thunder and lightning shook the surrounding mountains which amplified the sound down into our campsite. It was all very exciting and I was lucky that my tent stayed dry apart from the odd spot of water falling onto the floor. We were in the mountains and were receiving a heavy dose of mountain weather. After writing my blog, I slowly went off to sleep with thunder still rumbling in the distance and rain falling heavily on my tent.Meer informatie
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- Dag 91
- zondag 23 februari 2020 om 11:01
- ☁️ 14 °C
- Hoogte: 4.665 ft
Zuid-AfrikaLion28°41’24” S 28°56’48” E
Maloti Drakensberg Park - Day 2

As I got up at around 7am after a reasonably good night's sleep despite the heavy rain, I was very disappointed to find that it was still raining lightly with low heavy clouds that reduced visibility markedly. This was exactly the weather we didn't want for trekking in the mountains and enjoying the views. I got a, thankfully, hot shower as it was very cool with the rain, and joined my fellow travellers under the tarpaulin for a leisurely breakfast of cereal and toast. We managed to keep a good sense of humour and had some fun banter about how Brian was using the Irish rain gods to create the rain, and I was trying to counteract his 'magic' by summoning up some sunshine. So far, Brian was winning hands down. A troop of baboons were mischievously patrolling the campsite looking for free food and were being chased off by various campers, some armed with sticks. Kristen, Brian and I retreated to the relative warmth of the truck to read and write and pass the time while it rained.
Throughout the morning the drizzly rain occasionally abated, the cloudy sky brightened a little and I became hopeful that we may be able to go for a trek to view the mountain scenery. However, no sooner did I have that thought, than the skies darkened and the rain began to fall again. This happened several times throughout the morning. We decided to go to the park's Visitors Centre about a 15 minute walk down the road. I made a quick sandwich to eat along the way. We left the high fenced campsite and walked down by a very swollen river with all the rain we'd had. The river was actually flowing over the low road bridge. The visitor centre had some helpful information and a 3D model of the impressive Drakensberg mountain amphitheatre which showed potential walks. I was still interested to do one of the walks if the weather cleared but so far it hadn't done so. It also had some information about some ancient rock paintings nearby which sounded like a good alternative activity. My fellow traveller, Kristin, is also interested in rock paintings and so we decided to walk up the road for about 30 minutes to where the path to the paintings began. It continued to rain so that we got pretty wet along the way. There was nowhere obvious as to where we could pay for the guided walk, so we decided to walk up the rocky and slippery path ourselves. After about 30 minutes of climbing we came over a rise into a very attractive valley filled with trees. On our right was a large rock face which had clearly been cut into, damaged, and excavated like a quarry. Further along we found some rather faint, but interesting, rock paintings in red and white pigments. Again, the more you looked, the more you could see. There were some nice renditions of antelope, and a whole series of figures in various poses in white pigment. To the right was a rendition of a buffalo or bull and what looked like a frontal depiction of a giraffe. Then I saw some more vivid and well drawn renditions of antelope high up on the rock that were the best preserved of the paintings. However, we didn't see the impressive animal rock paintings that were in the photo at the visitor centre and then realised by re-reading the information from the centre that most of the better depictions of animals in the rock art had been literally blasted from the rock using dynamite by the British many years ago and were now placed in a museum. This explained the damaged state of the rock face, and we wondered how people could be so ignorant as to blast out rock paintings from such a special and evocative place. We had therefore been unable to see the best images, but I was still pleased to have seen the wonderfully rendered animals that were there. Kristen and I then had the long trek back down the path and along the road back to the campsite. When we reached the bottom of the path we encountered a large troop of baboons including a mother with a small baby clinging to her back and looking at us curiously. There was also another very tame bushbuck antelope feeding amidst the troop of baboons. I reflected that this would possibly be the last time I would see such African animals roaming in the wild and already felt that I would miss this ongoing experience of such animals when I left Africa. Further up the road we saw another tame bushbuck very close to us on the road. We walked back past the visitor centre with the rain still falling. I realised that my hopes to do a trek to see the Drakensberg mountain amphitheatre would be dashed for the rest of the day as the weather wasn't going to lift. This was perhaps the biggest disappointment of the trip on the final day of the trip, but I consoled myself that I had been so lucky to have seen so much on the rest of the trip that at least one such disappointment was to be expected. Kristen and I returned up the path by the swollen river and this time crossed a rickety old wooden suspension bridge over the river to avoid getting our feet wet by crossing the flooded road bridge. When we arrived back at our tents, I retreated to the relative warmth of the truck to rest and dry off. Jemma and Grant returned from doing their clothes washing and we hatched a plan to drive up to a viewing point over to the Amphitheatre the following morning if the weather allowed. It was weather dependent but would give us another opportunity to see this spectacular view of the Drakensberg mountains.
Kristen, Jemma, Grant and Graham played cards through the afternoon and came into the truck for warmth. I also sat in the truck with Brian and wrote my blog. A couple wearing matching white tops and red shorts arrived at the campsite and spent a long time trying and failing to put up their tent in the rain. Kristen dubbed them Mr. and Mrs, Claus on account of the Christmas colours they both wore, and they provided us with some macabre entertainment as their tent kept collapsing. Then Jemma and Often cooked us a wonderful dinner of soup and cottage pie. Often managed to make a bush oven using hot coals to bake the cheese on top of the cottage pie. It continued to rain and the temperature fell very low so that we could see our breath in the air. I had to put on my fleece for the first time on the trip to keep warm. I opened a bottle of red wine to help keep warm and we all drank some alcohol over dinner, except Often and Brian who don't drink alcohol. The hot soup and cottage pie was delicious and helped keep us warm in the cold night. We reminisced about our long journey now coming to an end and talked about our highlights of the trip. It was a lovely evening of conversation and humorous banter which I knew I would miss when I returned home. I felt fortunate to have travelled with such a friendly and warm group of people throughout this epic journey across Africa and I thought of all the people that I'd met on the trip and the fellow travellers no longer with us. We washed and packed away all our cooking utensils and flapped them dry for the last time on the trip. I stood around the last embers of the burning coals with Brian, Graham and Often and we discussed our journey and how it had seemed so long ago that we started our trip on 26th November 2019. We all then retired to our tents for our last night camping in this unforgettable experience of wild Africa. I slowly fell to sleep with the rain still falling on my tent, the swollen river roaring below and the great continent of Africa stretching thousands of miles to the North, so much of which I had now experienced and seen, and yet so much more of this vast continent I had yet to see and explore. There were many animals prowling and sleeping in the black night that I had now made eye contact with and connected to, and one lion in Antelope park that had somehow managed to open my heart and show me the pure fire of creation.Meer informatie
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- Dag 92
- maandag 24 februari 2020 om 07:46
- ⛅ 11 °C
- Hoogte: 4.656 ft
Zuid-AfrikaFairy Glen28°41’6” S 28°57’30” E
Journey to Johannesburg

I got up early at 5.45am after my last night camping in the tent on this trip. It had been another cold night but i slept quite well with all my sleeping layers on. However, when I opened up the tent zip in the hope of seeing a clearer sunny sky, I was very disappointed to see another morning of low misty cloud hiding the mountain views. We had hoped to trek to see the renowned Amphitheatre of mountains but it would be unlikely that we would see it in this weather. I got a hot shower at the shower block and joined my fellow travellers for a light breakfast of cereals and toast from the truck. The mood was a bit gloomy to match our disappointment with the weather. After breakfast, I was still hopeful that the weather might break and wanted to do the morning trek to the viewpoint for Amphitheatre despite the poor weather. However, my fellow travellers were not so keen and wanted to drive straight to Johannesburg so I was outvoted. As we left the campsiite, crossed the now heavily flooded bridge over the swollen river, and headed out past the ever present troop of baboons, onto the main road, I struggled with my disappointment at not being able to view the Drakensburg mountains on our last day of the trip. We headed down along the lovely river valley and we could see the nearer mountains but not the high mountains of the Amphitheatre beyond. There were bright patches in the sky with the sun peaking through so it looked as though the weather may clear later in the day which was even more frustrating. As we continued back up and through the lower, but still impressive mountains and valleys we had passed going towards the park two days earlier, I began to process my disappointment and remember all the wonderful things I had seen previously on the trip. We saw two kudu by the fence of a wildlife park. We then passed out into more open pastoral countryside and the sun began to peak through the clouds more and more until there was clear blue sky. Howecer, the wind continued to blow very cool into the truck.
We continued travelling through very western looking countryside of trees and fields and the views were less interesting than the mountainous views we had seen through most of South Africa. The terrain flattened out into large wheat fields which had amazing looking small black birds, 'Wedos'?, with huge ribbon like black tails that dangled below them as they hovered over the wheat sheaves. We stopped in a small service station to buy lunch and some provisions.
After a few hours, we arrived at the outskirts of Johannesburg and at our campsite, Backpackers Connection. We acknowledged that this was our last stop on this amazing journey across Africa and that we would no longer be boarding our faithful truck, Chui (meaning 'leopard' in Swahili). I felt quite nostalgic and emotional leaving the truck for the last time. We headed for the reception and were shown around the bar, pool and communal kitchen and then to our rooms, dorms, and tents. I had booked a safari tent which was nice, but very hot in the afternoon sun.
I began to move all my travelling possessions from the truck to my tent. When I went to collect the last of my things, there was no one else on the truck. I therefore sat down in the seat I had most often sat in on the trip, I looked around the truck and up towards the front where the 'beach' opening at the top of the truck was. So many wonderful memories came in a jumbled procession, of time spent on the truck with my fellow travellers, the amazing views I had seen from the beach, all the hundreds of animals I had seen, like the mother cheetah with her cubs, or the black rhino mock charging the truck, or the lionness running alongside, all the thousands of African people I had waved to from the truck through twelve countries, and all the amazing landscapes and vistas I had seen. All these images and more passed through my mind as I looked around the truck and I mused at all the memories that it carried with it along the road with more experiences to come with its next set of travellers. I felt very emotional leaving it behind.
I spent the afternoon with my fellow travellers, swimming in the pool, drinking cool drinks from the bar, and playing pool doubles on the pool table. I went back over to the truck to see our driver, Often, to photograph his log book that had all our stops, campsites and mileage written down and would give me a record of all our campsites on the trip for my blog. Often and I talked about how we had enjoyed sharing our mutual interest in the wildlife during the trip. Often had enjoyed my interest and questions about species of animals and birds, and I had greatly enjoyed and valued his knowledge of the wildlife. We agreed to keep in touch on Facebook and that I would be in touch with him about any future trips to Africa that I planned.
I then got ready for our final joint meal in the evening. I enjoyed our conversation, humorous banter and reminiscences about our long 9000 mile journey. I sat next to Often and we had some final banter and I was able to give him a tip for all his help and kindness during the trip. The founder and CEO of Oasis Overland was in Africa to meet the crews and drivers of the trucks and was due to meet with our tour leader, Jemma, who was likely going to work for Oasis in South America, and our driver, Often, who would need a new tour leader to train up or take on the role himself in the future when Jemma left. Chris joined us for dinner and asked us a lot about our experience of the trip. We, of course, gave great praise to our excellent tour leader and driver. I also mentioned how helpful Katie had been in the Oasis office in England when I was planning the trip. Chris talked about his experiences travelling and the trips that Oasis planned in the future. It was interesting and timely to meet Chris and hear his thoughts at the end of our journey with Oasis Overland.
We got a lift back to the campsite from the manager of the site. I said my goodbyes to Often, and thanked Jemma for all her help and support during the trip. We all then retired to bed as it was getting late in the evening. I settled down to sleep as the night cooled considerably under a clear, starry sky.Meer informatie
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- Dag 93
- dinsdag 25 februari 2020 om 10:03
- ⛅ 20 °C
- Hoogte: 5.299 ft
Zuid-AfrikaMogale City25°58’54” S 27°39’36” E
Johannesburg Day 2 - Cradle of Humankind

I got up early at 6.30am for Kristen, Brian, Graham and my planned trip to the 'Cradle of Humankind' which is an area of many limestone caves near to Johannesburg where evidence of many fossilized early hominid bones have been found. We had a nice breakfast of cereal and toast in the communal kitchen before getting an Uber taxi to the Maropeng Visitor Centre where there was a large and impressive museum of information about the geological history of the Earth and the complex web of fossil finds in local caves indicating our many early hominid forebears, some of whom became our ancestors and some of whom went extinct. It was incredible to think of the expanses of time during which our early ancestors were living in this region along with many now extinct animals such as a long legged hyena that probably hunted more than scavenged like current hyenas do. The museum outlined the complex webs of hominid evolution with a more recent find of a previously unknown species of early homonid, Homo Naledi, where many skeletons and bones were found in the back corner of a cave where they could not have been washed in, indicating that these early hominids had burial rites where they placed bones of their dead in a particular place. It was previously thought that this was the preserve of later hominids like our own homo sapien ancestors. The museum also outlined the various theories as to how hominids departed their birthplace in Africa in several waves into Asia, Australia and Europe, and how modern humans may have followed this same path and displaced or absorbed earlier hominid migrators through interbreeding like the Neanderthals who went extinct relatively recently several thousand years ago. The museum was very interactive and would have been a fun way for older children to learn about hominid evolution as well. There is clearly a lot of speculation about this complex hominid evolution and ideas are changing with ongoing new and exciting fossil discoveries. This area of Africa is proving to be a fruitful place for this exploration of our ancient past. I reflected on how this journey had taken us back to the birthplace of all our most distant ancestors, right back to early mammals and monkeys. It was humbling to think about.
After the museum, we went to the Sterkfontein Caves for a guided tour of the caves where the fossilized bones of early Australopithecus hominids have been discovered in quite large number including The Taung Child, Mrs. Ples and Little Foot. Most of these unfortunate early hominids had fallen into the cave through the many sink holes and never managed to escape, were calcified and then fossilized over thoisands of years where they were then discovered during archeological digs. Some of the chambers of these caves were of an impressive size. As we left the caves we could pass a current excavation and look over the surrounding landscape and imagine these early ape faced hominids walking in small communities across the land many hundreds of thousands and even millions of years ago. The museum had earlier displayed some very good reconstructions of what these early small hominids would have looked like.
After our enjoyable visit to the Cradle of Humankind we got the same Uber taxi back to the Backpackers Connection hostel about an hour away. We ordered some lunch at the bar and had some cool drinks to combat the increasingly hot weather. Kristen was then due to leave for the airport at 4pm and we all said our goodbyes to her. I had enjoyed some interesting conversations with Kriaten during our trip and we also had a shared interest in ancient rock art and early hominid evolution which had led us to find sites with rock paintings and it was Kristen who had found and organised our trip to the Cradle of Humankind that day. I was also thinking of doing the same Oasis Overlamd trip through central Asia that Kristen is planning to do.
After Kristen's departure, we played pool doubles, and Jemma and Grant finally beat myself and Graham which they had previously been unable to do - they were both pleased to have broken our undefeated status. I then returned to the porch of my safari tent to write my blog as the evening cooled.
Brian, Graham, Jemma, Grant, Oftan, Chris and I, all had dinner of sausage and mash in the hostel dining room at 8pm. We chatted about our travels and the potential impact that the Corona virus will have for future travels. We all retired to our tents, rooms and dorms after the late dinner. My tent was very cool again as I went off to sleep.Meer informatie
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- Dag 94
- woensdag 26 februari 2020 om 16:42
- ☀️ 26 °C
- Hoogte: 4.902 ft
Zuid-AfrikaMadeteleli25°56’48” S 27°46’42” E
Johannesburg - Day 3

I got up at 7.45am which felt like a long lie in after all the very early mornings on our trip. I got a hot shower and had the light breakfast provided by the hostel. Often, our wonderful driver, was due to leave with his faithful truck, Chui, at 9am that morning and head all the way back to Nairobi where he lives and the truck is kept. I had a last look around the truck to say my 'goodbyes' to our travelling home for the last three months. Then it was time to say a fond farewell to Often who had been so helpful and kind during our trip. I asked Often to sing the ubiquitous Swahili 'Jambo' song one more time so that I could record it and also recorded him saying his cheerful 'Jambo, jambo' good morning which we heard every morning as he arrived for breakfast. It was now my turn to sadly wave off the truck and say goodbye as Often drove off and away.
Grant and our tour leader, Jemma, then had an intriguing proposition for Graham and I - They were planning to hire a car as part of their longer stay in South Africa and were going to visit another local wildlife park, the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve, near to Johannesburg - They kindly offered to take us along for the ride which we readily agreed to.
I went back to my tent to do my final packing for my flight the following day and made good progress, throwing out all the things I no longer needed and managed to squeeze the rest tightly into my larger rucksack.
I had some quick lunch in the hostel bar. It was then time to say a fond farewell to Brian who had been a very kind and valued friend all through the long journey from the beginning to the end. He was also a very witty and humorous Irishman who could remain positive and optimistic in the most trying of circumstances - something I often failed to do and could learn from. We hugged goodbye and agreed that we would keep in touch.
Grant, Jemma, Graham and I then got a lift to the airport to pick up the hire car which unfortunately took over 45 minutes to organise with Eurocar, leaving us less time for our planned safari. We drove out of Johannesburg with the city centre skyscrapers shining in the hazy distance and arrived at the wildlife park about an hour later. The park was in the the same 'Cradle of Humankind' area that we had visited the previous day. It was a smaller park with fenced, but quite large enclosures for different animals. The enclosures for the predators was due to close at 4pm so we drove to there first. We had to drive through the much larger park area for herbivores to get to the carnivores and saw a lot of zebra, eland, wildebeest and warthogs along the way. It was wonderful to see these beautiful African animals for one last time before I left Africa especially as it was unexpected that I would get another chance. We arrived at the gated predator enclosures and entered the lion enclosure. We could see lions in the distance lazing under a tree but couldn't get close on the available tracks through the bush. We therefore drove through another gate to the wild dogs enclosure. We drove around the perimeter track and actually saw white lions close by in the adjoining enclosure. These were stunning looking, large lions with their white coats and manes. We really wanted to see the wild dogs and so started another loop of the perimeter and were quickly rewarded by seeing three wild dogs lying in the shade of a small tree. They looked up as we arrived and I was able to get some nice photos of them. The wild dogs got up a couple of times to walk around before lying back down. They were quite nervous and would jump up if they heard an unfamiliar noise such as workmen working in a nearby enclosure. I was very pleased to see these rare and endangered animals for the first time before I left Africa. We then drove through another gate into the cheetah enclosure. Again, we drove around the perimeter and again we saw two male white lions in the adjoining enclosure. As we continued around the perimeter red mud track we came across two cheetah lying in the shade of a bush out of the hot African sun. One of the cheetahs was lying in the open right in front of us and was a particularly beautiful example of these sleek and lithe cats. We then drove up to the white lion enclosure gate. Unfortunately, one of the large male white lions had laid down near the gates and it was not possible for the woman who opened the gates for the cars to open the gate as the lion was too close to her. She then somewhat bizarrely started throwing small stones at the lion and shouting to him to move away. The lion moved a few metres and laid down, refusing to move again. This seemed to be far enough away for the woman and she opened the gate for us. We then got some great views of this very large and beautiful white maned lion as he looked about and then stood up to walk a few more metres before lying down in the long grass again. We saw several more white lions almost hidden in the long grass as we continued up the track. We later saw an impressive looking female lioness at more of a distance before we left the white lion enclosure and returned to the wild dog enclosure to try to see them again, but this time they had completely disappeared into the long grass of the enclosure and made us realise how lucky we had been to see them and the other predators. We then returned to the normal lion enclosure. As we drove around the perimeter track, we decided to take a turn down quite a rough looking track that bisected the enclosure and were rewarded by seeing two male lions lying in the shade of the bush right by the road. We then saw a lioness peering at us through the bushes. We left the predator enclosures and drove back through the herbivore's enclosure to an area of smaller caged enclosures. Here we saw white tigers and their cubs, a male leopard, a black female leopard and their cub, black jaguar's and their cubs and two more white tiger cubs. While it was lovely to see these exotic breeds of predators, I felt uncomfortable about the small size of the enclosures and saw the huge male white tiger was pacing around like a bored prisoner. These animals are used to travelling over large territories in the wild and I feel it is cruel to keep them captive in such relatively small spaces.
After the small enclosures, we drove back out into the large herbivore's enclosure. We saw blue striped wildebeest which were magnificent looking beasts with thick, curved horns. We passed a waterhole area filled with zebra, sable, oryx, wildebeest, ostrich and warthogs. As we drove by on our way back to the main gate with only 15 minutes to go until they closed the park, we saw a white rhino walking up to the same waterhole on the other side of the road. We stopped and reversed up the road to watch this magnificent icon of Africa walk up and cross the road right behind the vehicle. We were about to drive off again, when another five white rhino walked up towards the road. We reversed again so that they all passed in front of us and up to the waterhole. The male followed behind the females and was clearly nervous and a bit skittish about our vehicle being close by. He jumped around as an antelope walked behind him. We reversed back along the road as we were concerned that the male rhino would decide to charge the car which would put all our lives at risk. We reversed onto a different road and drove back to the main gates that way. We were all exhilarated to have had another close encounter with wild rhino just before we left the park and it was a wonderful way to finish my experience of African wildlife on this long journey across Africa.
We then drove back to our hostel in the outskirts of Johannesburg while a beautiful red sunset was forming above the motorway with a large orange sun descending through the bright clouds and shedding rays over the centre of Johannesburg. As we arrived back at the hostel the sun became a deeper orange as it closed down on the residential horizon. Soon after an orange crescent moon lifted above the horizon into the clear, darkening sky. This was another wonderful final view of the epic African skies at sunset. We waited for our beef stew dinner at the hostel and I again retired early to my tent, but sat outside writing my blog before going in to sleep and saw a few bats darting through the night sky. I went to bed and slowly fell asleep in the cooling night to draw a final veil of dreams over my last night in Africa.Meer informatie
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- Dag 95
- donderdag 27 februari 2020 om 20:30
- 🌙 22 °C
- Hoogte: 5.630 ft
Zuid-AfrikaOliver Reginald Tambo International26°7’56” S 28°13’54” E
Johannesburg - Day 4 Final Day in Africa

I slept reasonably well and got up early for a shower at 6.30am in order to leave time to finish packing all my possessions before checking out of my safari tent at 10am. It proved to be more of a squeeze to get everything into my large and smaller rucksacks than I had anticipated the previous day and I had to dispose of more unneeded things to make room. As I threw out my trial running/water shoes into a dustbin that I had worn pretty constantly during the journey and were now worn through on both toes and smelt terribly, one of the local hostel employees came up to me and asked for the shoes to wear. I explained that the shoes were in a terrible state but he insisted that he could patch them up and wanted to have them. I, of course, let him have them, and he thanked me and also asked for a pair of shorts that I had bought during the trip that were worn and stained. If there was ever a clear demonstration of the disparity of wealth and throw away consumer culture between my country and Africa then this was it. This man was delighted to have something that I was throwing away. I heard from the tour leader, Jemma, the following day that she had seen the man wearing my former shoes.
After finishing my packing, I went to have the light breakfast of cereal and toast provided by the hostel. I was joined by Graham and later Jemma and Grant. After breakfast I took my large rucksack out of my tent and stored it securely in a room behind the reception area. I kept my smaller rucksack with me. Grant had discovered to his dismay that we had picked up a puncture on one of the tyres of the hire car that we used for our excursion the previous day and he had to change the tyre. Afterwards, Jemma and Grant came and said their goodbyes to me as they were going to the caves in the 'Cradle of Humankind' and I would be heading for my flight home before they returned. Jemma had been an amazingly helpful and friendly tour leader during my trip and Grant had also been a kind, helpful and very enjoyable companion on the journey. It was sad to say goodbye and I knew I would miss them both. Grant kindly invited me to come and stay in New Zealand so I will hopefully see them both again in the future. This really did signal the end of my journey in Africa.
I then rested, wrote more of my blog, and waited for my transport to the airport provided by the hostel at 4pm. I sat with Graham on one of the picnic benches in the garden area near the pool. We had an enjoyable conversation and I discussed my thoughts about how I would like to take my creativity forwards by combining the writing in my blog, the photographs I had taken on the journey, and make artwork of the journey on my return home. The conversation clarified my creative intentions on my return.
I had a cooked lunch at the hostel and Graham and I had one last game of pool which we had played a lot over the previous few weeks in different hostels. This particular table was very challenging as the tip was coming off the cue, making playing shots extremely difficult, and there was a big roll on the table.
Writing my blog and transferring the many photos of animals I had taken the previous day from my camera to my phone meant that the day passed quickly and I was soon settling my bill and getting out my large rucksack in preparation to board the people carrier to the airport.
We drove through the busy traffic to the airport and I was joined by three other travellers who were flying home to Belfast and Paris. I arrived at the terminal quite early for my flight so waited a while in the terminal foyer until I checked in my large rucksack. I passed through security and had sandwiches for tea while I waited to go to the departure lounge. When I got to the departure lounge, I saw that my flight would be on the large, double decked A380 aircraft which is one of those aircraft that you wonder how it gets off the ground. I was soon then boarding the plane and heading along the runway and lifting up into the night skies with a glittering view over the orange and yellow city lights of Johannesburg. As we left Johannesburg the view out of the window faded into complete darkness. I ate the impressive vegan meal provided by the airline, had two glasses of red wine and watched BBC documentaries of African wildlife on my video screen. Watching all the animals that I'd seen on my journey through Africa in the documentaries, made me quite emotional and helped me to realise how much I had seen and experienced over the previous three months. My experience of seeing these African animals on the screen was richer and deeper now that I had seen them in real life and so close at hand. I now had a deep sense of their spirit, their particular personalities and their ways of being in the world. They had a strong familiarity and recognition to me now which wasn't the case before my journey in Africa. I knew that this would help to deepen my artistic response to them for my upcoming creative project.
I was fortunate to sit next to a very friendly older couple, living in Bude, Cornwall, who had just been to the Krueger National park and had been on several other safaris in Africa. We were therefore able to share our stories about our wildlife experiences and our love of the African wildlife which helped pass some of the ten hours of the flight enjoyably.
I tried and failed to get some sleep on the plane as we hurtled through the dark night. Apart from a few minutes of light dozing I find it extremely difficult to sleep on any transport and found it equally difficult to sleep on our overland truck no matter how tired I was. I took the opportunity to sort out the photos for several of my most recent blogs and waited out the long hours of the flight which experienced quite a lot of turbulence at times. Turbulence had previously made me feel a little anxious on flights, but I now seemed to associate the bumping and bouncing of the turbulence with the bumping and bouncing of our overland truck. I therefore now found it strangely comforting and nostalgic.
In managing to keep myself busy, the flight passed relatively quickly through the dark hours of the night. As we crossed the Mediterranean into Europe, I could see the lights of cities and towns below to remind me of the dominating presence of human activity in this part of the world. Earlier I had seen the lights of small towns that seemed to be illuminating the red sands of a desert that must have been the sands of North Africa. About an hour and a half before we were due to land at Heathrow airport, the lights came on and the flight attendants brought us breakfast. I enjoyed another good quality vegan breakfast of beans and vegetables with fruit. We were soon reaching the English coast and preparing for landing. As we slowly descended, there was a wonderful clear view over the enormous city of London lit up brightly below, with the pitch black curves of the waters of the river Thames snaking through, crossed by the many bridges like glittering bands around the river snake's body. We kept descending to a smooth landing on the airport runway and taxied into to where we would depart the plane. There was a rail shuttle to the security and baggage reclaim areas from Terminal 5 which took me a little while to work out. Once there, it was easy to pass through the automated security and find my rucksack on the baggage carousel. However, things did not go so smoothly after this. I found the National Express coach stop in good time, but a customer service representative misled me as to which coach to catch meaning that I watched my coach come and go and had to get a new ticket for a coach that left over an hour later. It was a genuine miscommunication by a not very competent member of staff, but my extreme tiredness from not sleeping all night, and my frustration at actually watching my booked coach come and go, meant that I became very angry with him, and over reacted to the situation, making a complaint, which I regretted later. This journey had further taught me how my moods tended towards extremes when I was very tired and I reflected on how I could manage these vicissitudes of mood better on future travels and in life in general.
The temperature felt very cold relative to the stifling heat of Johannesburg and I had to put extra layers on. The rain had also been falling steadily as I boarded the later coach and we headed through the airport terminal stops towards the M4 motorway. I watched the English winter countryside roll by the coach window and reflected on the extreme contrast with the huge vistas I had witnessed from the truck across Africa. English countryside was on a much smaller scale, but still has it's own lush darker green beauty, and in passing several roe deer in a field, i was reminded how it has it's own special wildlife. What the sheer density of life in Africa had taught me though, was that wildlife in Britain has been desperately depleted by industrialisation and intensive farming, confirming my passionate belief in the vital need to rewild the Bristish landscape as well as protecting the diminishing wildlife in a rapidly industrialising Africa and wider world.
The coach arrived in Bristol which looked very familiar as if visiting a place I once knew well but hadn't seen for many years. The intensity and volume of experiences I had been through over the previous three months had seemed like years in the making. I got an Uber taxi back home from the bus station and had the same experience when I entered my flat. It was as if I had lived there years ago, and couldn't quite remember where everything was or the daily routines I carried out there. My room had the same quality of seeming like it had been unlived in for many years. It felt like it had been deserted like the Marie Celeste and didn't quite welcome me back into its fold. One of my flatmates, Tom, had left the flat to go and live with his girlfriend in January but my other flatmate, Beth, was still there and her boyfriend was staying over the weekend. I emailed Beth at work to let her know I was back and it was good to catch up with her and Tim in the evening and talk about my many experiences in Africa. Beth listened attentively and told me about changes in her working life as she had left her job to start Social Worker training. However, I realised that I was in a position familiar to travellers, that noone at home could really understand what I had been through and experienced in my long journey through Africa. The only people that could really understand were my fellow travellers. It was therefore comforting the following day to be in touch with my fellow travellers on WhatsApp and continue the humorous banter that we had had during our trip. I already missed Africa more than I could express and knew it would take some time and some well needed rest to adapt to daily life back in England.
A couple of days later I looked at the nature ritual wheel that I used to connect with nature on a daily basis. I had placed 24 African animals around the wheel before I departed for Africa, none of which I had ever seen in the wild. In the long journey around Africa, I had now seen all these 24 animals and so many more which meant that I could connect with them more deeply when doing my daily nature rituals and making art and writing about them. I was closer to their natures and therefore that much closer to my own nature. We need this connection and witnessing of life on Earth to know who we are and our place in it and the wider cosmos. I had found such a place, like so many before me, in the wide plains of a wild Africa which stands as a fading beacon of the wild world we need to recreate and restore to this precious, but ailing, planet that is our one and only true home.Meer informatie