Rest of Africa

Jeffrey's Bay

We again had breakfast at Tsitsikamma and packed our stuff. We had loose plans for the day and headed to Jeffrey's Bay, not knowing if that would be our final destination for the night. We got to Jay-Bay and checked out a couple of places and scoped the main strip. It was quite a relaxed vibe so we decided to stay at Ubuntu backpackers. They had free wireless internet but there was to be no downloading or uploading. Unfortunately (for them) I seemed to inadvertently download some updates for the laptop and no-one could use the internet later on!

Watched some of X-Men again as someone had it on DVD, then we went for a drive down the strip and visited the Billabong shop (everything was small in comparison to big old me!). Jenni got a few bits and we headed back for a few drinks – Robertson natural sweet rose wine!! Not just a pretty bottle.. Later still we headed out to eat, went for Mexican in the end. Great Chilli con carne and Enchiladas plus great wedges. Best wedges ever?

We had an early morning stroll along the beach at JayBay. Disappointing sewage pipes going to the sea, rain coming in, no “Supertubes”, in fact lame waves all round. So we left JayBay tired (as the bed squeaked with every move) and a bit anti climaxed. A change of plan saw us heading for Port Elizabeth and Loryn's house as her mountain biking competition only lasted the morning. So we drove to Seaview game and Lion park, in between Jeffrey's Bay and Port Elizabeth.

Seaview

We got our tickets from the man at the gate and drove at no more than 40kph around the park looking for animals. We saw some antelope and giraffe before we got to the Lion enclosure. There were dozens of lions roaming around their enclosures, making all sorts of loud roars. There were also 3 Tigers looking grumpy. We found more, younger looking lions around the corner that gave us some good shots before we headed off to the restaurant and cubs area. We paid 50 Rand each to spend some time with the cubs; we opted for the 3 boys – about 6 months old – Marley, Dutch and Abalone (I think). We spent about ½ hour in their enclosure, able to stroke them, watch them playing with each other, sleeping and so on. We got good pictures of us kissing the lion cubs before Dutch growled at me for doing so....

Port Elizabeth

Satisfied, we left the Lion Park and headed for Port Elizabeth, and headed for the beach. We met Loryn & James at the Red Windmill of Pro Dive at Hobie Pier. From there we trekked out to their pad in Charlo, a nice place with pool and a gate! After relaxing and doing some washing – oh the luxuries – we headed to the beach to watch James kite surf – looks like hard work controlling the wind and a surf board! After that we had Braai back at their place. Good conversation and home luxuries were great.

Loryn worked the next day so I headed to Greenacres hospital to have my stitches removed. The doctor came to check out the work and seemed impressed by progress, no problems with the stitches and they were taken out. We had a wander round the Greenacres mall and bought some stamps to send letters home. We picked James up from his mum's house – he'd been applying for jobs – and headed to the waterfront to look for curios and then ended up in the casino. 20 Rand deposit for a card and then I put 10 rand on the card, we had a little go on the machines before cutting our losses at 10 Rand! We bought garlic bread and fruit for dinner as James was making Bobotie. We got the stuff from Woolworths, which turned out to be the M&S of South Africa! The food was great – hopefully we'll get the recipe.

Addo

After 2 nights at Loryn's, clean washing and a package of stuff to send back to UK in hand, we left and headed for Addo Elephant Park. Stopping at a post office on the way to send the package. 294 Rand and somewhere between 3 weeks and 3 months for it to get back to the UK!

We drove out to Addo past a massive township area, stopped at the backpackers place amongst the orange trees and then headed for Addo. Had an evening self game drive seeing a Lion sleeping, Buffalo, but no Rhino that we are still waiting to see, nor any elephants!! Ah well... A night at Hillbilly central followed – the place was huge, but the whole village seemed to go in and help themselves, the flat was nice, but the bathroom door broken – OK if it's just you, but there was another loud european (maybe dutch) couple arrived in the adjoining sharing room. Not great!

Mthatha

Anyway, we drove on, aiming for East London. We made it by lunch time, stopped at a crazy windmill ranch burger place that served you like at a drive in Movie, had a toilet break and decided that we did not like East London... So we carried on driving, thinking that we'd go to Coffee Bay. But our plans changed again on the way... Coffee Bay was a long way off the road, so we carried on to Mthatha, home to Nelson Mandela. We turned up at the backpackers place and they had a room with DSTV so I could watch the Champions League Final in the comfort of our own room with a few drinks.. We had dinner at Mike's Place and then had to watch United get beaten soundly by Barcelona 2-0. A part of me wishes I could have been there, and it's my fault we lost as I didn't go... But part of me is glad I didn't have to see the beating first hand..

Durban

Made Tuna sandwiches and Jenni drove the first leg to Durban, twisty and turny and slow – through crazy towns full of harzardous driving and people everywhere, not a white face in sight... Once we reached the coast again, we returned to normality!

In Durban, it was more the city life we were expecting. Busy streets, but we found our way to Happy Hippo Backpackers near the uShaka marina (place to visit later). We thought we'd take a look and were very surprised by the place. So new (like a converted warehouse), it had nice rooms, awesome showers and nice staff. We had heard much about the Durban curries, so we headed down the waterfront area and had dinner at Copper Chimney. Food was great, but they didn't have water, and I was gasping! Serve spicy food, but no water, what sort of crazy logic is this!! We had a nice drive around and stopped for water and snacks before heading back to 'appy 'ippo's...

We went to uShaka marine world, which was conveniently positioned around the corner from happy hippo's. So we walked there, had a Wimpy breakfast and got our student combo tickets that enabled us to go into both Sea World and Wet and Wild. Sea World had a dolphin show on as we got there, so that was good timing, getting it out of the way, and we mosied on round looking at the penguins and into the aquarium. Lots of fish, sharks, turtles (at feeding time) and other undersea stuff. After a brief lunch stop we went into Wet 'n' Wild – an aqua park with slides and the likes, but the water was pretty cold when we tested it. No matter, undeterred, I headed for the slides, a little wary of my post op condition. I started on Jika-Jika, a blue ring that went nicely down with the water. Cuda, Squid, both regular water slides, just powered with loads of water.. Much more than usual places. Mamba was a tube slide – darkness, almost. Duzi river was a lazy river kind of ride. Then there were 3 kamikaze style slides rising in height and steepness. One last slide was in a ring straight down a bumpy slide. I did them all twice :) and it was so much fun. I do enjoy being a kid again! Ice cream on the walk back to the backpackers! We were going to have dinner at The Cargo Hold, a restaurant at uShaka but they had a dress code and Jenni didn't have the relevant footwear, so we cancelled and went to the casino instead..

We had dinner at an all you can eat buffet, which was surprisingly nice considering my expectations. We then went to the cinema and saw Angels and Demons. We didn't gamble our savings away! Again the cinema was pretty cheap, but the whole complex was amazing, safe inside and everything there to do.

St Lucia

We drove a couple of hours north to St. Lucia – only one way in and out of the place – in the wetlands. We tried very hard to like the place, but there really wasn't a lot going on. We took a drive down to the estuary and beach, walked along a long boardwalk to the water. The hippos and crocodiles were right there, only a matter of metres away in the estuary and yet we tiptoed up to the edge! There were a lot of people fishing there – the catch must have been good to warrant that proximity to hippos and crocs! We watched for a while and headed to the very local, yokelly boat club. Had a look at some more crocs and hippos and went back to the backpackers lodge. We had self made dinner and relaxed when the sound of drums intrigued me. I ventured outside to find a bunch of zulu dancers performing, so I watched and inevitably was invited up to dance with them – a task that I did no questions! Got my photo taken with them and they seemed like nice guys. I remember the dog barking his little head off at them! Someone left the tv on next to our room and it was 4am when Jenni switched it off. A disappointing stay really.

Hluhluwe

We left early from St Lucia looking forward to another day of game driving, but after ½ hour, Jenni realised that she left her earrings at the hostel, so around we went and back to St. Lucia. On the way we noticed that Hluhluwe (pronounced Shlu shlu we) was signposted where we had come from (if we avoided the highway) so after getting Jenni's earrings, breakfast and coming back we went straight there. We got to the gate around 11am and paid our fees, then headed in. We took a left, went to the Imforlozi side first and saw the usual Zebra and antelope, but nothing more than that, so we turned back and headed for the Hluhluwe side. Not long after getting there a car came past and wound their window down, a helpful chap let us know there were some elephants just further along by the side of the road.

Jenni was driving and we rounded the corner and came to a little bridge. The elephants were not by the side of the road, they were crossing the narrow bridge. We had no option but for Jenni to back it up, we thought they'd cross the road and head off. No such luck, as it turns out we backed up quite far and still the elephants fancied taking the road route. As Jenni reversing usually ends up hitting a tree, we switched quickly, I ran around the car... Still the elephants came at us. A car came past them (sneaked around) and said it's fine if you stay still. Trouble is, on a narrow road, who is the boss? Jenni had earlier read in the leaflet that there had been some “unfortunate incidents between elephants and cars”, so we heeded the 50 metre advice! I decided that I could get round him if we sat still and nudged round, but as soon as I went to go, he wheeled around into the road, ears flapping and truck flailing. I decided to back up some more until he went off road again! They were soon gone and we trucked on, hearts beating a little faster!

We were still searching for the elusive rhino to make up our big 5 viewing and eventually we got to some. Why do they always have to be in the middle of the road? And with huge tusks/horns? Thankfully the small herd (about 5) of rhino were just trying to cross the road and before long we were able to pass, not before a Japanese guy tried to go through the middle of them and almost got himself skewered! His passing comment to us was “High Lisky!”

Time was getting on, so we took one last turn-off to head out and find some big cats. Jenni had a headache from all the fierce sun and looking, so had her eyes closed as I climbed a hill. Just as I was nearing the top, over the brow came a huge Bull elephant, striding down the 1 car wide road. “Whooah!” I cried and stamped on the brakes, waking Jenni up. I let it roll back down the hill, round the corner, out of sight, out of mind. I guess the ellie wanted to take the road as well though and he was a little bigger.

So I backed down some more, sunlight in my back window and mirrors glaring in my eyes through the thick layer of dust we had accumulated on the trip round the park, I thought I could see a nice turning spot, so I could select zone 5 and escape! But with the panic of the elephant hurrying towards me and the lack of vision, I mistimed my turn and ended up back wheels down a wheel rut and unable to go forwards, or backwards at the little tree that was there! So, we were stuck – thankfully just off the roadside – as the elephant picked up pace down the hill. I turned off the engine and waited. Here he came, striding down, trunk flapping side to side. Jenni was not looking. The elephant stopped by the front of the car, had a look, then carried on his merry way... Phew! Jenni thought we were toast!

Nonetheless, we were still stuck, the gates closed in 1 hour and I didn't fancy spending the night there! We tried for what seemed like an eternity to get out, backwards, forwards, jamming stones under the wheel to get some leverage when a car came down the hill. 2 german guys were in it and they were able to help me push out... Free. Granted, we did the pushing where there may or may not have been Lions, Leopards, Cheetah and other wild animals!

We still had to get out, but our nerves were shot, only to go to see some Rhino at a watering hole and we almost ran them over they were so close to the road! No more! So we headed out the park and saw some black rhino on the way. Great, hadn't seen any Rhino then saw both types in one day! We headed to Dave's backpackers place just outside the park and had a few drinks, a braai and relived our scary tales!!

Johannesburg

A driving day! Through lots of roadworks, stop-start for a long way to Johannesburg. We headed for shoestrings – why not end africa as we started!! We were able to pack all our stuff up, purge the unwanted stuff we had accumulated over the past 3 weeks and relaxed. We actually went out for dinner, had italian, then back to finish off our flight preparations.

Next morning we were up earlier than necessary, banking on our priority passes getting us some pre-flight lounge action. They were all closed bar the ones departure side. So, after dropping the poorly hire car off, we had to wait for check in before we could get to the lounge. Turns out, when I changed the flights, they hadn't actually been changed. Great. It didn't matter though, we still made it on the flight to Singapore. African adventure was finished!