Rhinos and Leopard and Cheetah's - oh my!

Chris and I are spending the day in the 'local' internet cafe - which has taken us about an hour to drive to... so we will tryour best to fill you in on our past couple of weeks. After 2 test papers and one presentation each, Chris and I are enjoying a well earned day off. We are getting used to camp life - the first few days were a culture shock and with the visitation of a lovely Solifuge on the fourth night I was ready for packing my bags... (click the word if you want a look!!!) But after the incident, I am slowly getting used to the number of spiders etc, not liking it, but trying to accept it... To get onto the more fun things... the 5am daily wake up! From this we leave the camp at 5:30 either going for a 3.5 hour hike or game drive. Yesterday morning we got to see a leopard up quite close - one of only 4 in the entire 8000 htr park and then we got some good pictures of the cheetah with her two cubs. We then return for breakfast at 10am and then we have a daily lecture between 11 - 12:30. We're learning a lot of really interesting things and it is actually quite good fun! After this, we have free time until 3:30 when it's lunch time. Free time is used to either study, play volleyball, sunbath or more importantly, to sleep!!! Finally we got for either a drive or a walk in the afternoon (alternating from what you did that morning) and dinner is at 7:30pm. We are also getting used to being constantly hot - the weather hardly cools down and even this morning at 5am I was in shorts and t- shirt. The game drives are brilliant fun with us all taking to the wheel and putting the tracker into the bushes (they sit at the very front left hand side of the vehicle, above the headlights!!!) but the possibility of coming across some Giraffes, White Rhino and all the other species about the park is exciting. Here are some of the photos so far...


Two Hippos clashing

Zero the Lion eating his kill - a young giraffe

The majority of the herd of Elephants at Karongwe - so many sizes.


Back in 2+ weeks!!!

You never know who you'll meet.....

So much has happened in so little time and with Internet access currently at a premium, we have not been able to update the blog as much as we would like. Grab yourself a coffee and we shall begin.

The Rambling Brackens have been joined by the meandering Boyds. In a bid to escape the frost back home, Pat and Hammie (Jude's parents) met up with us in Cape Town on New Year's Eve.

For us, having left Lee and Mona's at daft O'clock in the morning, we flew to the Cape for cooler temperatures and 2 weeks of sightseeing, arriving on Old years night, fireworks at the V&A Waterfront seemed to be the most appropriate. Cape town is a massive city very much aimed at the tourist from near and far.

New year's day had us head for the Cape of Good Hope National Park which includes Cape Point. This is where the Pacific and Indian Oceans meet and is normally quite windy. With temperatures up towards 30 Celsius, the slight breeze was welcome. En route we had called into Constantia Winery, home to one of the oldest cape vineyards and also the famous town of Boulders which is home to the South African (jackass) penguins. Yes, I did say penguins. The outside temperature is about 30 degrees but the water of the pacific is freezing. A final stop in Hout Bay for some fish ended the day nicely.

Five days in Cape Town

The noon signal gun - Castle of Good Hope

South Africa is famous for several things but their biggest export is Diamonds. Pat and Hammie had arranged a tour of the local Diamond works (Coincidentally the same day as their wedding anniversary - and I had left my credit card at the hotel, just in case). The Diamond works had a lot of lovely things and the history: it is an interesting story about the young boy who found some glass in a field. Sold it to a prospector and eventually one of the worlds biggest diamond mines was built. With our finances still in tact, from there we visited The Castle of Good Hope which also had a lot of history behind it and several hours around the three museums had everyone exhausted. Lunch in Wimpy in the city centre (nothing but the best) inspired some us to wonder the Market place checking out all the cleverly created crafts. Handbags from old records Radio cases made from wire and bottle caps. Loads of stone and wood carvings and the latest novelty are wire frame animals covered with beads. Anything from a small lizard to a life size lion's head. We ended the day watching the sunset in Camps bay before a much deserved Ice cream.

Nelson Mandela's cell

You can't go to Cape Town and not notice Robben Island. The prison which housed Nelson Mandela for 18 years has a long history going back to the 1600's. Judith and I ran out of time during our last visit to Capetown in 2004, now we were here so we had to go. I think depending on your background you have a different opinion of the trip. There is no doubt that the conditions and treatment suffered by the blacks in comparison to the whites and coloured inmates was disgraceful but the tour to the island could have been a bit less 'pro-black' and perhaps more about the whole history of the place. As you may say, 'One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist', (our tour leader had been incarcerated for being in the ANC and having bomb making equipment!) It was worth the visit but I'll not be rushing back for a second look.

The one thing everyone must do is visit table mountain and after lunch there was a gap in the 'table cloth' so up we went. 1000m above sea level you have a very good view of cape Town and being on the west coast you get a spectacular sunset. The clouds rolled in and out several times and although there was a cold wind blowing we waited it out and saw another fantastic sunset.

En route

If you are into flowers then Kirstenbosch is 'the' place to visit. The cape peninsula plays host to one of the 6 floral kingdoms in the world. The others are the size of Europe or North America, this is the smallest with as many varieties of plants. While Pat and Hammie wondered the thousands of plants, trees, grasses and other flowery things. Judith and I relaxed, enjoyed the atmosphere and fell asleep on the lawns with a magnificent view. When we finally left through the swarms of picnic-ers and other tourist types there was only one thing left for the evening. Pizza and another sunset.

Signal Hill overlooks the west coast and joining the hundreds of other people we chilled out further. It was the perfect end to a relaxing day
So as the in-laws could experience a bit more of South Africa (and as they looked into our itinerary for the trip) we finished our time in Cape Town and headed northeast to the town of Montagu. Famous for its dried fruit, this sleepy little town is on Route 62, the longest wine route in the world. Our lodge produced it's own Muscadel (very sweet) but apart from the one glass, as yet I haven't tried too many wines. Two days in a fantastic little lodge with massive rooms and we moved on for a different experience....Safari time.

And it is now we are pretty much caught up on our travels. I've left out the birds, the boat race, the scenery and many other stories and facts but the past 24 hours have been as eventful. Bufflesdrift game lodge (a man made reservoir for 4 of the big 5) is a tented lodge on the edge of a dam. OK so the tents have Aircon (it's 39 degrees outside !) and a bath, double sinks, outside private shower, mini bar and a gigantic bed, you can't exactly say your slumming it but with hippo's paddling 200 meters from your tent (they can't swim !) it is exciting and very interesting. Cape Zebra, Springbok, waterbuck, Giraffes, Kudu, Rhino, Hippos and wildebeest have all been seen on the Safari drive with Elephant feeding tomorrow and an early morning game drive we are seeing and learning a lot.

Today was exceptionally good as we visited the Cango caves which makes Marble Arch look like a small hole in the ground. Judith also managed to ride as Ostrich. These big birds very much on the menu we visited a farm which let you ride the birds. Unfortunately I was too big for them on such a hot day but Jude led the way and managed not to break anything. I did get some scary looks from the birds but I'm not sure if they knew I ate part of their friend last night.
We may not get chance to post to the blog for a while. South Africa has seen our biggest access problems especially with uploading photos and videos (even with Lee and Mona's great connection). Knysna is tomorrow with a more relaxed time self catering. Boukrans bridge for a little 216 meter bunjee jump is on the cards and at least one wine tour. Back to Cape Town on the 13th for one last day shopping before Jude and I head off for 28 days of Field guide training near Kruger park. Pat and Hammie have 3 days to recover and top up the tans before heading back to the cold of Northern Ireland. Mid-february back to J'burg for a few weeks (Maybe Namibia, still to be sorted) and March will see us traveling from Zambia to Nairobi overland. Back at the end of March for a week to visit our soon to be born niece or nephew and then heading Dubai,India, China direction. We have lots still to organize but it's nice knowing we have 9 months still to travel !

We hope you've stuck with this longer upload, not the best way to start 2009 (Happy New Year to you all) - 8 days in and only one upload to the blog but thanks for all the comments xx