Reset search
Southern Africa May 2016Southern Africa May 2016
SatelliteEdit route
A 15-day adventure by Jay Read more
  • 38footprints
  • 6countries
  • 15days
  • 193photos
  • 0videos
  • 21.3kkilometers
  • 19.3kkilometers
Follow Calendar Share Bucket list
Date ascending
  • Jay RossiterSouthern Africa May 2016
    Day 5

    Gansbaai, South Africa

    May 15, 2016 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Today was a free day so Claude and I signed up for a day trip to go shark cage diving. We awoke at 3:45 am and were picked up at our hotel at 4:20 for the 2 1/4 hour drive to Gansbaai. The whole drive was in the dark but the sun was rising just as we pulled into town.

    We were served a hot breakfast, given a briefing on the day's itinerary and then got fitted with a life vest and heavy waterproof jacket before heading to the boat. The boat could comfortably hold 40, but we had slightly less than that.

    The skipper fired up the four 250 horsepower engines and we were off for the 15 minute ride out to Shark Alley. The wind was calm, but the sea had some good rollers happening. Once we arrived at Shark Alley the crew put the cage into the water along the starboard side of the boat and we suited up in our 7 mm wetsuits, booties and hoods.
    The cage holds up to eight people and the first group climbed down into it while we stayed up on the top deck for viewing.

    The company we used is a conservation company and they have a marine biologist on board each day. The crew is volunteers from around the world and they record all of the shark sightings to determine the health and the numbers of sharks. They attract the sharks by chumming the waters with a mixture of fish oils and juices and they entice them close to the boat using fish heads tied to a small boy on a rope and they have a flat, brown, seal tail shaped decoy they throw into the water. They don't feed the sharks as they don't want them becoming accustomed to getting food and their goal is to maintain their wild status. There is little known about great whites. They don't know the numbers left of them but they think its around only 3,500 world wide. In fact, they don't even know how they mate, so conservation and preservation are key.

    It was no sooner than they started chumming that the first shark showed up. When you're in the cage you can't see where they are coming from so the crew spots from above and shouts when to dive under the water and which direction to look. The cage is 4.5 meters long and about 1.5 meters in height. The divers float in the cage holding onto railings inside the cage and take a deep breath and push to the bottom of the cage when a shark or sharks approach.

    Sharks are top feeders so they come from below and jump up out of the water when attacking their prey, so the view from the top deck of the boat was excellent as we watched the sharks trying to get the fish heads off the rope. The divers were able to stay in the cage for as long as they wanted within reason and we each had at least half an hour in the water.

    Soon it was our turn to get into the water. It was very cold at first but soon warmed up quite a bit once the water in the wetsuit warmed. The water was a bit murky so you could only see the sharks once they were within about 10-15 feet or so of the cage. Watching that first shark swim by got the adrenaline flowing and we had several sharks get progressively closer. The fish handler would drag the fish heads right near the cage and those sharks would get plenty close! The highlight for me was when one swam right at the cage where I was standing and got within a foot of my face. It was terrifying yet exciting to see this massive open mouth with three rows of razor sharp teeth swimming right for my head! Thankfully I had all of my fingers and toes inside the cage as he brushed into the metal before turning away!

    Eventually we got out and let the next group go while we warmed up with some hot chocolate. The time on the water was about four hours in total and we soon were back on the van for the long drive back to Cape Town. We stopped at a lookout along the way to admire the beautiful views and watch a paraglider walk off the edge of the hilltop into the thermals for a peaceful sail to the flatlands below.

    We got back to Cape Town around 3:00 pm, cleaned up, packed and then met our friends for a delicious farewell to Cape Town dinner. We ate at a restaurant called Beluga and Claude feasted on roast ostrich, while I enjoyed the roast springbok. Both meals were absolutely fantastic and the company was excellent as well. We made it an early night after being up so early in the morning.    Read more

  • Jay RossiterSouthern Africa May 2016
    Day 6

    Cape Town to Hluhluwe

    May 16, 2016 in Swaziland ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    It was another early morning today as we had to be up at 5:00 am to get to the airport to fly to Durban. The check in process went smoothly and after we went through security the first thing we saw was Iron Maiden's 747 "Book of Souls Tour" plane parked on the tarmac. Apparently they are playing two dates in Cape Town over the next week.

    I must add that security when flying domestic in South Africa is very different than what we are used to. There is no liquid limits nor do you have to take your shoes off. The no liquid limit was great as I was able to bring two bottles of wine with me in my carry on bag!

    The flight was a short two hours, which was much nicer than the two ten hour flights to get here! Once we arrived in Durban we boarded the coach and headed for the Hluhluwe Imfolozi area. We drove directly to the St . Lucia estuary where we boarded a flat bottomed boat for a river game cruise. This was our first chance at animal viewing since we landed in South Africa.

    It was about 3:00 pm when we boarded the river boat and we travelled up river in search of hippos and crocodiles. We did not have to go far before we spotted our first hippo. Hippos are nocturnal animals and as it was late afternoon they were just starting to get a bit active. We were able to view several dozen hippos along the river including two young males posturing for attention and several baby hippos playing near the shoreline. We were also able to hear several of the hippos making their distinctive laughing sounds, which always brings a smile to my face. We only saw two crocodiles and even then neither were very clearly visible.

    There are many fires burning in the area as the farmers are burning the remnants after clear cutting areas of eucalyptus trees. They burn the remaining stumps before planting new trees to clear the soil of possible diseases and to ready it for the next planting. Eucalyptus is used for building beams and making paper and their other forestry species is pine which is used for furniture building. This area has thousands of acres of forestry and is very scenic. An offshoot of the burning is that there is a lot of smoke in the sky's which gave way to some stunning backdrops over the river and a spectacular sunset where the sun was burning red.

    We finished the river safari and made our way to the hotel for the evening in the Imfolozi valley. The hotel was pretty much in the middle of nowhere so we had dinner in the dining room and then retired early as we have another early start tomorrow.    Read more

  • Jay RossiterSouthern Africa May 2016
    Day 7

    Hluhluwe Imfolozi Game Drive

    May 17, 2016 in Swaziland ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    It was another 5:00 am morning this morning so that we could get to the game reserve early for our first game drive of the trip. The game reserve was about 50 minutes from our hotel and after a short delay waiting for some folks to find their passports we were off.

    On arrival at the game reserve we separated into groups of 9 or so and took our places in the open aired vehicles. I was fortunate enough to get the passenger seat next to the ranger/driver while Claude was a row back on the other side and about a foot higher than my seat. Thus gave us excellent views although I think everyone had very good views. Our driver Jerome, was hilarious and he quickly named me his spotting assistant.

    The very first animal we spotted was a lone female lion, although there were likely others nearby. Next were a herd of elephants drinking and eating vegetation at a watering hole. After that we came upon three young Cape buffalo butting heads and horns on the roadway and then more elephants and more elephants. After tiring of seeing so many elephants we went in search of more lions but we only found a young male that was gaunt and unhealthy looking. He had likely been injured and thus had difficulty catching any prey. We carried on looking for white rhinos and after a bit of time and driving spotted some in the distance and then traveled on a little further to find some a bit closer. And closer we did! We rounded a corner to find two rhinos standing in the middle of the road right in front of us! We stopped the vehicle and turned off the engine and watched as they stared at us and sauntered closer. Before they finally turned off into the brush they had gotten within about twelve feet of the front of the vehicle! We left the rhinos and then drive to the top of a pretty high hill to get a view of the surrounding terrain. The vistas were beautiful and we were able to get out and stretch our legs. After the brief break we continued down the other side of the hill where I spotted a giraffe off in the distance. We drove to get a better vantage point and found a family of four to six giraffes including a baby giraffe.

    By now the time for our Safari has come to and end so we headed back to the entrance to meet up with the others and to share our stories of sightings. We also came back to some bad news and that was that our good friends and travelling companions, David and Priscilla, were leaving the tour to get medical help for David. He had been feeling under the weather since the beginning of the tour and unfortunately instead of getting better, he was getting worse. He did not go on the safari and instead saw a doctor and it was recommended that he be admitted to the local hospital for rest and attention. We are so sad to say goodbye but we know it was the right decision and our hope is that they will be able to rejoin us in a few days time.

    After giving our love and best wishes to David and Priscilla we reboarded the coach to make our way into Swaziland. Crossing the border required us to leave the coach and get an exit stamp on the South African side, walk across the border and then get an entry stamp on the Swaziland side. We then got back on the coach and stayed our journey into Africa's smallest country.    Read more

  • Jay RossiterSouthern Africa May 2016
    Day 8

    Back to South Africa

    May 18, 2016 in South Africa ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    After crossing the southern border into Swaziland we drove for a while before stopping at a market place that sold candles, weavings, textiles and carvings all made in Swaziland. It was a chance to stretch our legs, have a snack or drink and do some shopping. We then carried on to our hotel in the Ezulwini Valley. We are in more remote areas now so dinner was eaten at the hotel and we visited with some of the other travellers on our tour before turning on for the night.

    This morning was not quite so early thankfully, but we were still up at 6:00 am. We boarded the coach armed with our purchases for the children at the local preschool we were to visit this morning.

    As soon as I stepped off the bus I was abducted by a three year old who grabbed my hand and led me into the classroom. The class has cement floors and three or four benches aligned along a couple of walls. There is no blackboard nor desks and no decorations or pictures on the walls other and a few handwritten signs on construction paper labelling a reading area (except there were no books) and a fantasy area. Gate 1, our tour provider has a foundation and they support non government run schools in many countries they travel to. While we were safariing yesterday Jason went grocery shopping for the village the school is in and they loaded all of the supplies into the bus for today's visit. We brought clothing, school supplies and toys for the kids from home so we packed these up as did many others.

    The older 4-5 year old kids helped unload the provisions from under the bus, each carrying a gallon jug of water or a 10 pound sack of rice or oats into the building. Once the provisions were unloaded and we settled into the classroom we were greeted by a couple of dozen 3-5 year olds singing for us in English and Siswati, the language of the Swazi people. Meanwhile my captor had taken up residence on my lap and settled in for the long haul.

    We spent about an hour at the school and my time was taken up by now two children on my lap, playing with my rings and my phone's camera. Even with no words spoken we shared some mischief and some laughter. We left the school with a stack of food, clothing, school supplies and toiletries and reboarded the bus for the next stop at a glass making factory.

    The glass factory was started a few decades ago by some Swedes who taught some locals how to blow glass. It started with only a few people and now employs 70 including three of the original locals. It was actually pretty fascinating to watch them creating beautiful glasses and figurines all made from recycled glass bottles brought in and sold to the factory from all over Swaziland.

    We left the glass factory and made our way north to a border crossing back into South Africa. Upon crossing we had driven across the entire country from south to north in about five hours total driving time!

    Right at the border crossing we stopped for lunch and a show at a Swazi cultural centre. We ate and then were herded into a Swazi house where we learned that Swazi men always go first "to ensure there's no danger", Swazi men have multiple wives and the first wife gets "promoted" and gets to pick the second wife and so on, that Swazi men expect to be completely taken care of so the women do all the cooking and cleaning and looking after the children and finally Swazi men do not spend the night with their wives, they decide which wife gets the "privilege" of him visiting and they knock on a pole in the wive's hut indicating they are there so the wife should pretty up and crawl on her hands and knees to service the husband! If he is satisfied he will leave for his own hut, if not he heads to another wife's hut for more. I can say this did not go over too well with any of the women in our group!!

    After the lifestyle lesson we watched a choir and dance group perform Swazi songs and dances and they were absolutely amazing! The harmonies and the dynamics of the voices was incredible and I've never heard 30 voices achieve the level of volume these people did. It was very impressive!

    We left the cultural centre back on the coach for the 90 minute drive back into South Africa where we are staying in Nelspruit near Kruger National Park as that is our next safari bright (or should I say dark) and early tomorrow morning.    Read more

  • Jay RossiterSouthern Africa May 2016
    Day 9

    Safari in Kruger National Park

    May 19, 2016 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    We were up at 4:15 this morning in order to get ready and be on the bus by 5:15 so we could get into Kruger for the sunrise. The only problem with this was that it was raining and quite chilly so unfortunately there was no stunning sunrise for us!

    Once we got to the park we transferred into our safari vehicles and entered through Numbi gate for an all day game drive. As it was still drizzling out we were given rain ponchos to put on so that we could keep dry as we zoomed along in the open sided vehicle.

    It took us about a half hour before we came across our first animal sighting, wild (or painted) dogs lying beside the edge of the road. Kruger Park is huge - about two thirds the size of Vancouver Island or about the size of the state of Connecticut.
    Because of this animal sightings can be quite spaced apart versus some of the smaller parks or private game reserves. This resulted in a lot of driving when there was a sighting reported over the radio.

    We drove for almost three hours before stopping at Skukuza Gate to have a bite to eat and a bathroom break and then we were off in search of game once again. We made a second stop back at Skukuza gate another couple of hours later before our final drive of the day and before heading back to the hotel.

    Throughout the day in addition to the wild dogs, we saw a couple of lions, a couple of cheetahs, several elephants, some baboons, some kudus, a couple of crocodiles, a vervet monkey, a few hyenas, lots of elephants, some water buffalo, a couple of hippos, some giraffes, a warthog family and dozens and dozens of Impala. All in all a pretty amazing day!!

    Thankfully the weather cleared up shortly after we started our first game drive and got progressively warmer throughout the day. As we're heading into winter here, the mornings have been cool and hazy before clearing mid morning and becoming sunny and warm in the afternoons. The temperature range has been about 50 degrees in the morning and up to about 75 degrees some afternoons. The rain this morning was the only rain we've seen so far.

    We had dinner and drinks with some of our travelling companions and turned in for the night after showering all of the day's grit off. Tomorrow we take a panoramic drive to Johannesburg.    Read more

  • 2024© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Blog
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Support
  • Legal notice
  • English