Road to our first Camp

Along the way we passed Pretoria, which is known as the government city - which we could understand looking at the beautiful lodges and residential houses. The highway is mostly 2-laned with English driving style on the left, with beautiful savanna images surrounding our journey. I was trying to spot some animals, but the driver told us that it would be very hard during day-time.

Next, we encountered several payment stops and even roadblocks by the police, searching for drugs or other illegal items. Luckily the driver knew what to do on those situations, so we never had any issue - even when pulled over once. Just that one sign still shows how careful you must be in South-Africa stating “Potential crime for the next 5km, so do not stop”. The driver explained several local communities reside inside the savanna bush and come out at night towards highways to stop cars and potentially look for food or drinks. So better not stop in order not to be stolen of.

We also noticed some agriculture along the way, such as large wheat cultivations. Strange to see dry red savanna soil suddenly change to green soils - of course fed by human watering system. Also, the agricultural territories are round instead of squares, so that machines can cultivate them easier. As space is not an issue in this enormous savanna, they are quite smart to do so. In the province of Limpopo, they mostly grow oranges and avocados, so you see many little selling spots along the road.

After 1h, the road became bumpier and changed to 1-lanes, so we knew we were entering the bush. We passed along an auction place for antelopes. The animals are sold to other national or private parks. Apparently, the Kudu is the best animal to breed. We even passed a small prison, local shops and KFC store. Those American franchises are everywhere, even in the savanna bush.

Finally, we took a 30min sand road and arrived at the domain of Horizon. We dropped off Lena as she was doing only the South-African tour and we continued to Camp Davidson for our African Explorer in South-Africa and Botswana.Read more