The Rustic Ramble - Our Ginger Journals

Botswana Bush Life

2011-09-20T13:42:00.000+02:00

I must have re-written this blog 3 times now, each timechanging the mood to suit our new surroundings. That is our new life out herein Botswana – each month we change camps and get to know our new environment.John and I were back in Johannesburg for our holiday in August and I canfinally put these past few months into perspective and try to give friends andfamily an idea of our new lifestyle. So apologies for the lack of readingmaterial but here forth the latest instalment... (with more to come I promise)

John and I are the new relief management couple for ‘GreatPlains Conservation’, a company which own and run 3 camps in Botswana: SelindaCamp, Zarafa Camp and Duba Plains Camp. Our job requires us to stand-in for thecamp mangers while they are on their month’s leave. This means getting to knowthe staff, guides, camp layout and facilities, activities and ultimatelyensuring the guests have a wonderful time. This is a totally new lifestyle forus and one which we are embracing whole heartedly. We have embarked on a newcultural experience as well, getting to know Botswana customs and the language,of which the staff are our teachers. We were encouraged that our resident andwork permits were obtained in record time and we plan to make the most of lifein the bush.

April – July 2011:

Getting to these camps is the first part of the adventure,both for us and for guests. It requires flying over the most magnificent sceneryin a tiny plane that shudders and shakes and requires one to pack very lightlyin a small bag – something many guests struggle with and often end up having tore-pack in the airport. For me these plane trips are bitter sweet, as I watchgobsmacked the scenes below me, I also have to clutch my stomach and keep aneye on the sick bag. Once you land, you are driven through pristine wildernessto one of the beautiful camps, all of which have simple, practical layouts andwill ensure your stay is comfortable and memorable.

Although technically winter and while it certainly feelsthat way in the morning and evening, the days during April to June are stillvery warm and calls for a layering effect starting with wearing everything youhave and getting down to skirt and t-shirt and slops by 10:00. It’s ratheramusing to watch the guests go out all bundled up then return half the size andcarrying mounds of clothing. However aswinter drew on, John and I had to order an emergency package of a hot waterbottle, thermals and tracksuits to survive the cold. We forgot that weatherpenetrates canvas tents rather easily. Likewisesome of the guests don’t realise that Africa gets so cold and sales of beanies,scarves and fleeces skyrocket in winter.

Each day starts out in the dark and on particularly coldmornings, it can be a challenge to motivate oneself to get going. Traffic onthe way to the office normally consists of dodging baboon excrement (eithercoming from above or freshly made on the ground), checking any elephant roadblocks up ahead and listening out for any alarm calls from the francolins. The first port of call is usually the fire towarm up and grab a cup of tea. Friendly exchanges of how one slept and theweather are made with the morning team while defrosting and preparing for theguests.

At Selinda camp, the sun rises over the distant lala palms, amagnificent welcome to each day that one never tires of. At Zarafa it’s the sunset over the lagoonthat is so incredible – watching the colours change and listening to the hippossloshing around in the water. Savouringthese moments of peace between the chaos are important to balance out thelifestyle out here.

While at Selinda, the pace and concentration are definitelyway up there. With 18 guests coming and going, you need to be on top ofmovement for the day, activities and camp issues. I think I lost a few kilo’swhile there as I was walking at least 5km a day, usually at pace, all aroundcamp, checking rooms, greeting guests, back to the office etc. The pace atZarafa camp is noticeably different which is why the relief management positionis so appealing to us – every month achange in scenery, people, animals and momentum! I was initially concerned thatI didn’t have a watch and wouldn’t know when guests are due in, when tea timewas etc. However I have found that if you plug into the surrounding activitiesyou get a sense of time and you start to feel the rhythm of life in the camp.The staff who have been doing this for many years seem to know exactly what ismeant to happen when and things always happen right ‘on time’.

The wildlife out here is amazing to say the least. Bothcamps have an extraordinary amount of movement through camp. Mostly this isfrom elephant, hippo, baboons, mongoose, honey badgers,kudu and impala butoccasionally we have some special visitors. This is one place where you can’tafford to be daydreaming while walking around as we have both realised when wefind ourselves facing an elephant’s bum! Some of these big boys feel right athome in camp and no matter what you do, they will move along in their own timeand at their chosen pace, doing some serious landscaping along the way.

At Selinda there is a local hippo called Scarface – so namedbecause he was in an almighty fight and has this massive gash on his side whichis still healing. He got kicked out of his pod and so seems to have adopted thecamp and staff as his new home. As such, he has no problems walking throughcamp, past the kitchen and office, among the staff houses and generally whereverhe pleases. He is often seen walking around during the day and on severaloccasions I almost ran right into him. I can tell you hippos are huge when theyare a few meters from you. Luckily he seems pretty chilled out and I havemastered the art of changing direction and side stepping to the nearest manmade structure.

At Zarafa we were treated to a few visits from the wild dogwho realised that the impala like to hang out at camp. On many occasions theyhave ran straight through camp, one a few meters away from me and another Johnsaw while he was showering! One evening a single dog chased a young impala intothe lagoon right off the main deck. The dog was reluctant to follow and so theimpala survived another day (well we like to think it did, no one actually sawit swim back out!!). The dogs have denned on the reserve so guests have beenthrilled to see 15 little bundles of fur running around with mommy. John took adrive out one morning and these are some of the pics of the little ones – weare looking forward to watching them grow up.

Another exciting morning we had a honey badger kill a largepython between two guest tents. No one was particularly keen to go and removethe snake as the badger kept growling and there isn’t a person in Africa who doesn’trespect these awesome creatures. Eventually when it was starting to smell and thebadger had disappeared, the remains of the snake was safely relocated! We were treatedto a ‘kill’ at tea time when a spotted bush snake grabbed a tree frog on theroof above our heads. Granted the timing was not great and some guests did notthink this sight was too delightful, but it just shows there is alwayssomething exciting happening if you just take the time to sit and observe.

For John adjusting to the lack of technology has been surprisinglyeasy. Guests will often comment about the lack of media out here, but to behonest we haven’t missed it much. There is so much else going on around us andlots to absorb. The bush almost becomesthe daily reality show with moments of excitement, tragedy and tenderness. Youget very accustomed to the local wildlife and their habits. Watching newlyhatched francolins go from a group of 8 to 1 was very sad but then watchingthat 1 francolin grow and get as cheeky as its mother was also very sweet.

I didn’t realise the extent of what living away from a cityand cut off from shops can do to you. When we receive a package off a planeit’s super exciting (well for me at least), and no one dares open them upbefore me! It’s normally just some boringtoiletries we ordered from town or mail for the staff, but nonetheless onenever knows what surprises awaits one. Our primary means of communication isthe radio, but obviously everyone can hear you so we often have a chuckle whenpeople forget this fact or when someone sounds particularly animated.

The guests that come through the camps have been anassortment of nationalities and personalities. The majority are from the USA but at one stage we had 2 sets of Japanesegroups who were so cute and happy, even though they could speak no English, thegestures and smiles went a long way in communicating and by the end of the weekmost of the staff had polished their Japanese. I was still trying to get thehang of Setswana and ended up speaking a mixture, both badly executed! It’s also really great to see how thelanguage of the bush transcends all cultures. John absolutely loves instillinga passion about the bush into each visitor to whom Africa is new. Even thetrees and insects can be exciting if you communicate it effectively. Of course,in some cases, only a lion or leopard will do!

Managing such a camp also involves managing the staff andspending so much time in the bush, the staff become part of your family. Muchtime is spent as a nurse, confidant, shoulder to cry on or even battering ramas the ins and out of lodge life play out.

The water levels around the area continue to rise, bringingwith them challenges and ever changing scenery. At Selinda the boat station isalmost underwater and one can just about take a boat right up to the lodge.Many of the roads are impassable and our airstrip is currently closed due toflooding. It’s amazing to watch on a daily basis the slow creeping of the waterlevels. For John these challenges have to be dealt with on a daily basis asvehicles with guests get stuck and punctures happen regularly so lots of rescuemissions being sent out. At Duba Plains driving through water is a daily eventand logistics in camp can be challenging. Ensuring fuel, gas and food suppliesreach camp are priority and take careful planning.

For each guest that comes into camp, we try and ensure theyall experience the bush and the camp in a way that they will remember forever.The animals do this on their own with some amazing sightings this past 3months. We also have an assortment of activities and events designed to producethe ‘wow’ factor. And when the guests are blown away, it’s an awesome feelingfor us. There is a pulse to camp life,busy when guests are around, and quiet when they are out. I have started to enjoy the quiet moments incamp when guests are out and staff are resting.

One evening, as I sat on the deck, glass of wine in my hand,warm fire at my feet, chirping insects and hippos for company, I drew upon apiece of knowledge that had lodged itself somewhere in the back of my memory:that making others happy invariably makes you happy. I had just returned fromtaking guests to their tent where a hot bubble bath was run, champagne on ice,candlelit room and gas fire ablaze. Their reaction was superb. So I had one oflife’s little moments of happiness, as a smile crept uncontrollably to my face.I sat in my bubble of contentment and savoured the moment. I encourage everyoneto try out the theory – go out there today and make someone happy, butintentionally and selflessly, and focus on your reaction and emotions....pretty simply route to happiness…

Adventure 2.0

2011-04-26T16:21:00.000+02:00

Hello everyone,

We stand at a great precipice. One that represents a goal we set ourselves in November 2008. We made a promise to each other and to ourselves that we would follow our dreams no matter what. The months unfolded and we started to put in place our plan to leave the corporate world and find a different path through life. We traveled, soul searched, job searched, spoke to many people in many countries, brainstormed, business planned and while doing so spent all of our saved money! Then by chance a recruitment agency punted us hard to a reserve in Botswana.

Tomorrow, 27 April, we fly to Kasane in Botswana to take up positions as Relief Managers on the Selinda Reserve in the northern Okavango Delta. This is a huge step for us. We have not done this type of work before - however - I am totally confident that our passion for the bush and for showing people the bush combined with our past lives will mean success!

So, a little bit about the Reserve we will be working on can be found on this link - htttp://www.greatplainsconservation.com/index.html
Have a look at the sections down on the bottom left - Zarafa Camp, Selinda Camp and Selinda Canoe Trail.
Then take a look at the people we will be working for and with - http://www.greatplainsconservation.com/team.html

We feel very privileged to be working for such a high calibre of people in the conservation realm, it really doesn't get any better in our opinion. We consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have been offered this position and to have a chance to work with the people of Botswana, a place we love.

The journey thus far as been exhilarating and we look forward to it picking up the pace a little!

We will continue to blog when we can from the reserve as the wonders of modern technology allow for internet connectivity in the middle of no-where - Liz reckons this is not such a good thing but I, the gadget freak par-excellence, am quite OK with that!

Until later then! All the best and sala sentle (stay well)!
John

(I have appended some pictures I took in the Savuti during November 2010 which you may have seen before, but I like them!)

New beginnings

2011-04-01T08:37:00.000+02:00

Wow, I can’t begin to explain the brain storms, deliberations, extreme ideas, questions, emotions and soul searching that we have been through in the past 3 months. Since arriving back in Joburg for Christmas, John and I spent some time with our families and have been bunking with my mum while we considered our next move. We had a few things to get sorted out such as fixing poor Cruiser who got bashed up in Namibia. While hanging around, we kept ourselves busy and even managed a couple of weekends away, a refreshing break from the hustle and bustle. Once the summer rains had subsided the flowers this year were just so beautiful, so I have included some photos in this blog for lack of other photos!

While doing some life planning, we realised we had depleted our savings quite significantly and so we started to look around at possible job opportunities. After deciding the call of the bush was still strong, we looked for a job which would put us in the wilderness but offer some sort of income. So we searched in a variety of industries such as conservation, NGO’s, lodge management, research and journalism but found them all very tricky to get into and with huge experience requirements. After having our CV’s with a few recruiters we finally cracked an interview for a lodge in Botswana. So we took a road trip up to Kasane in Botswana, a location we were now fairly familiar with after our volunteer work at a lodge across the river there last year. The drive was beautiful from sunrise over the Nylsvlei to the elephant and animals along the national road passing Nata. Everything was looking green and lush after the rainy season.

The job entails John and I being ‘relief managers’ for the 2 lodges and a conservancy office in the north of the Okavango Delta on the Selinda Spillway. The lodges fall under the Great Plains Conservation company, and are predominantly owned by Beverly and Dereck Joubert, well known wildlife documentary film makers (many of you would have watched their amazing movies on National Geographic – The Eye of the Leopard is one of the more recent ones). So we were thrilled to be working with like minded people who place conservation at the forefront and who strive to ensure their lodges are as sustainable and as eco-friendly as possible.

We were able to actually get up to the lodges which entailed an hour’s flight from Kasane in a plane that makes the back of a mini look like a limousine, but the views over the Delta and the river channels were spectacular. Once we had landed we took a drive around the reserve to meet the various managers and gawk at the two lodges, which are truly beautiful. We didn’t take any photos (some of the photos included here are taken directly from the website below to give you an idea) so you will have to check out the camps at their website (http://www.greatplainsconservation.com/). Zarafa Camp is the more exclusive camp with only 8 beds and has the most amazing setting while Selinda Camp has 18 beds and is fairly busy all year round. All the people and staff we met were friendly and welcoming and we had a fun night with divine food.

We then had dinner with the CEO and HR manager in Kasane, got all our documents in a row – one of which entailed us being declared by the local doctor that we are not (and I quote) ‘an imbicile’ or 'an idiot'!! We took it easy on the drive back and took 2 days to get home, avoiding donkeys and Mopane worms on the roads! We then met Dereck and Beverly as our last ‘interview’ and we can confirm that we have the job – Wow. We now await our work permits and then we will be heading up there to start!

With such an extreme lifestyle change we were slightly apprehensive and spent some time talking to people who have been in the industry. Their input has been invaluable and we feel we can cope with the stress and requirements.

We understand the job is demanding with long hours and constant attention to guests and detail. But the flip side of the coin is just so appealing – living in a true wilderness area (no fences, no boundaries, something different every day), contributing towards conservation initiatives, working with friendly and competent staff and being able to get involved with hands on conservancy management. Another great perk is the one month off we have after a three month stint. Which means we will be able to continue to travel with our trusty cruiser and see more of this great continent.

So it’s just a waiting game at the moment – our work permits are submitted and we are waiting for our waiver. We could be up there in a matter of weeks. In the meantime we are frantically getting ourselves sorted for our new adventure. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our mum’s, family and friends for supporting us and providing sound advice during the past few months. I know it has not been easy at times but we appreciate everything you do for us and are grateful to have you in our lives.

John and I will next blog from the camps as we are connected to the internet, but no cell phones or TV (thank goodness). I hope to hear some great stories from those of you who have also decided to do more travelling and try new experiences – life is for living. I will leave you with some words of wisdom from the Dali Lama:

‘Man sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices his money to recuperate his health. Then he is so anxious about the future that he doesn’t enjoy the present. As a result he doesn’t live in the present or the future. And he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies, having never really lived’.

To health, happiness and new experiences....

Love Liz

Homeward Bound for Christmas

2011-01-10T08:38:00.000+02:00

Since we were only across the River from Zimbabwe, had had to pop in and visit the world famous Victoria Falls. It would be too costly to take the car in for 2 days so we organised a transfer company for the trip from Kasane to Victoria Falls – a drive of about 80km through the Zambezi National Park. The town itself is looking a little run down with some shops closed and others re-vamping. We opted to stay close to town at the Vic Falls rest camp which offered a variety of accommodation in large grounds with a pool and restaurant called In-Da-Belly (a wonderful play on words with reference to the local Ndebele culture). Its only 10 mins walking distance to the falls but the walk itself is a bit of a gauntlet. There are so many desperate curio sellers and street vendors who come up to you and want to barter your shoes or hat, sell you something or ask for money or help. It was fine at first, then wears you down once you have told the 20^th person that you really don’t want to purchase their lovely carving. Once you get to the forest by the falls you get escorted by the ‘tourist police’ who ensure you are no longer pestered!!

The falls on the Zimbabwe side are buffered by a wide area of lush forest and greenery which means once you have entered the park, the walk up to the falls itself is really beautiful. But nothing can quite prepare you for the site of the falls. I liken the experience of seeing the falls to one where we had a large male lion roaring at us about 4 meters away on a small hill – making him eye to eye with us. It knocks the wind out of you, rendering you temporarily speechless, awed and respectful. The site of the falls is breathtaking, and the emotion that immediately welled up was uncontrollable.

We walked the entire length of the falls, marvelling at each point where the lookout allows various vantage points. Although the falls were not at full tilt, the good rains that year meant it was still flowing heavily, yet you could still see the bottom and did not get drenched but rather pleasantly cooled from the humid heat. While the falls themselves are noisy and thunderous there were very few people around, allowing us to appreciate the falls in peace and serenity.

I was tempted to do a bridge swing but I never really got in the mood but its still on my list of things to do. There are all sorts of awesome activities which have come highly recommended – it seems a weekend away with a bunch of mates is what Vic Falls really calls for. That afternoon we decide on a river cruise on the Zambezi, upriver of the falls. All you can eat and drink made for a lot of merriment as our newly acquired friends on a group birding holiday went ecstatic at the sight of African Finfoot and a lovely Pel’s fishing owl whose large eyes peered at us from his low perch. The sunset was beautiful and we fell somewhat ungracefully into bed that night dreaming of birds and rivers.

Before our pick up the next morning we squeezed in a cup of tea of the colonial style Victoria Falls Hotel. What an elegant and tasteful hotel with great views of the ‘smoke that thunders’ from the falls and the bridge. Our visit to the falls was completed with John doing some last minute bartering for a whole bag full of old Zim dollars – claiming he was an artist and he was working on a project – can’t wait to see the outcome of his artwork!!

Later that afternoon we checked into Namibia through Botswana at Kasane (making that 3 countries in 3 hours!) and headed for Impalila Island Lodge.

I had to include this poster which we saw in the Kasane immigration office. It’s the best poster we've seen which advocates abstinence as a form of AIDS prevention! Impalila Island Lodge is a beautiful lodge set on an Impalila island between Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe! We were to assist by providing any help they required with guests and to prepare the lodge for the new managers who are arriving in January. Having limited experience in running a lodge we were certainly kept busy with things like hosting, filing, stock-take, guest relations, food and fuel runs into town, maintenance and general ad hoc stuff. I will from now on appreciate what goes on behind the scenes to ensure each guest has a great holiday.

Anything can happen out in the bush – one afternoon, a fire set by locals in order to clear space for cattle grazing on the island came quite close to the lodge and we had to run around ensuring hose pipes were connected and praying the wind changed direction. The sound of the wet reeds burning was unbelievably loud. We were fortunate in that the fire burned out before it got to the lodge. Another incident was when one of the local islanders had his fingers chopped up when he accidentally put his hand into the large steel blades of the generator cooling fan!

The first aid lessons came in handy once again as I bandaged him up and he was sent off to the local clinic on the island. One morning the generator decided not to start and with a 5:30am wake up call for one of the guests I couldn’t just switch on the kettle for their hot water. Instead I was faced with an industrial gas stove I had no idea how to use. After much knob turning and lighting of matches I got away with my eyebrows singed and the guests getting woken up 5 mins late – all in a days work!

The great part about working in a lodge are the people you meet. A tour group for enthusiastic photographers had John drooling over all the outrageously sized lenses and expensive camera equipment, as well as the amazing photos that were being shot. The group were from all over the world and enjoyed chatting to us about all their travels and highlights. Another couple were both space engineers whose self invented gadgets were currently floating around in space – one of them tracking the next comet but it was only halfway through its 11 year journey to reach the comet!!! Then there was an enthusiastic entomology couple who placed butterfly nets around camp to see what was around. It’s great to meet people who just love nature and cherish the small things.

Some of our personal special moments included regular sightings of the Schalows Turaco cawing away in the trees above the camp. Unfortunately we didn’t get a photo of one but because they are just so beautiful I opted to download one from the internet to show you (Picture from www.flickr.com/photos/33886452@NO3/374671147). Another highlight was spending time with Toff and Kiddy, a couple from Botswana who were also helping to manage the lodge. They too have a house in Kenton and I am looking forward to some sunset river cruises with them in the future along the Bushmans river. We are very thankful to Phil and Kevin for affording us the opportunity to get involved at Susuwe, Impalila and Ntwala lodge – thanks again.

After 2 weeks it was time to head home, the quickest route back was through Botswana. It still amazes me how driving down the main tarred road, one passes elephants and wildlife on the side of the road who just raise their head to see what is going on then continue with their activity. All too soon this makes way for goats and cattle and the odd homestead. En route passed Nata while driving through natural wide open savannah we noticed a very ominous and strange looking storm cloud ahead of us.

It seemed to be morphing with the wind and was a weird brown colour. Only when we got closer did we realise this was a sand storm ahead of the rain and was being fuelled by dust from the Makgadigadi pans to the west of us. This was our fist big sand storm experience and we had cameras at the ready. It was eery as the sunlight gave way to a hazy brown hue and at the worst point we had to put on hazards and pull over as you literally could not see anything, but that moment passed swiftly and soon we were on the other side of it – jabbering like excited children.

After an overnight stop at a campsite in Francistown, we finally found ourselves back in Joburg, surrounded by Christmas chaos and the welcome of friends and family. All too soon our daily lives were replaced with the wonders of electricity and hot showers, diversity of cuisine and lazy lunches catching up with friends and meeting the new additions to their family. After spending time away from city life, the less attractive aspects seemed more pronounced than before – the constant need to go to the shops and purchase stuff you don’t need, watching hours of mindless TV, driving on car infested highways and enduring the slightly pessimistic and cynical attitudes that appear more regularly in a city. We are almost hesitant to hang around too long lest we be sucked back into it. But of course Joburg has been my life for over 30 years and will always be my home.

Our year long adventure has been truly life changing. Unlike most people who keep saying this year has flown by, for John and I it has felt like a lifetime. When we meet up with friends and family now, the usual remark is something like “welcome back to the real world”. But when I think about the friendships we have made, the experiences we have had, the emotions we have felt, the places we have seen, the natural phenomena we have witnessed, how we have grown together and discovered more about ourselves, I feel that it is has all been very real, even if only temporarily. We now have to strive to make those experiences more frequent while mixing it up with the reality of working , running a home and being part of the tax paying community again!We are both so grateful and appreciative of what this past year has afforded us.

Our plans for now are many and as we slowly go through them, deciding on our next adventure, I am sure we will find something that suits our new found needs as one thing we have discovered this year is that a rewarding life is not worth compromising for. Find your passion, take some risks and make sure you are living the life that fulfills you and keeps you smiling J Don’t be afraid of change and embrace every opportunity as there are lessons to be learnt everywhere –just be open to seeing them. The universe is on your side J A song that seems to resonate with me at the moment is one by the legendary white zulu: Johnny Clegg. Hopefully these words will inspire someone to create their own adventure....

I’m searching for the spirit of the Great Heart

To hold and stand me by

I'm searching for the spirit of the Great Heart

Under African sky

I'm searching for the spirit of the Great Heart

I see the fire in your eyes

I'm searching for the spirit of the Great Heart

That beats my name inside

Sometimes I feel that you really know me

Sometimes there's much you can show me

For those people feeling nostalgic and want to hear it for yourself, check out the original music video:

If the video doesn't appear, click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_9xtCbRgH4

Stay Well

Love Liz

Captivating Caprivi

2010-12-29T09:06:00.000+02:00

I apologise this is a bit late - the connectivity in the Caprivi was limited. We are actually back in JHB as I write this blog, spending time with our families. I have had to split the final part of our journey into 2 episodes as there was simply too much happening...........

The main rivers that run through the Caprivi region are the Okavango, Kwando and Zambezi/Chobe. After leaving the funky Ngepi camp on the Okavango, we drove eastwards towards the Kwando River to the Nambwa campsite in the Bwabwata Reserve. We popped into the Popo falls on the Okavango on the way out.These falls are small but significant as they mark the point where the river drops and slows, thus resulting in the great Okavango delta downstream.

After driving through a colossal storm (it was indeed the rainy season!) we turned into the dirt road and followed the ‘4X4 only’ signs to the campsite. I must admit using the words ‘rain’ and ‘Caprivi’ in the same sentence did make me nervous but in these parts the roads are all very sandy and are actually easier to drive on when a little wet.

I was, however, comforted that we had asked some lads from Ngepi camp if they were keen to join us for a night at the campsite so I relaxed knowing that they could assist us if we got stuck. (Editorial note by John: Liz continues to have no faith in our car, or my driving skills...)

The campsite itself is idyllic. Each site is nestled alongside the Kwando River, secluded from the other sites and the ablutions provide hot showers in lovely surroundings (I know it’s weird but in the world of camping, ablutions are very important!).

We settled in and Sam and Henry arrived in time for evening sundowners on the wooden deck overlooking the vlei behind the camp. Red letchwe, kudu, broad billed rollers and Levalliants cuckoo all around us. Early the next morning a game drive to long lagoon and horseshoe bend provided excellent sightings of an elephant herd drinking, playing and swimming in the water. We also checked out Fort Doppies, a SADF ”recce” base which formed part of South Africa’s efforts in the Angola border war. If you do visit this area, do some reading beforehand of Fort Doppies as its history and stories are really fascinating and when you are standing in the middle of it, one can only imagine what these guys had to deal with on a daily basis. It was there that I clapped eyes on the bird I had been searching for all year……the Racket-Tailed Roller!!

Fantastic sightings and each time we passed through their territory we would see them again, one time doing a mating display!

We spent 3 wonderful nights at the camp site. One hot afternoon, a thunder shower came over and we took the opportunity to get into our swimming costumes and enjoy the refreshing rain shower. That evening after dinner we went up to the wooden deck to watch an electrical storm. All shades of oranges and pinks were flashing in the distance, whilst right in front of us, the glow bugs were giving us another show of their own! I felt like I was in a disco – it was enchanting and we both watched in silence, admiring the wonders of nature.

Just across the river from Nwamba campsite is the Susuwe Island Lodge. John and I had arranged to spend some time there helping out where we could. We were delighted when we realised some family friends were also coming to stay there. We had a lovely time with Richard and Chris Patton and Kevin from Islands in Africa, looking for birds and enjoying the surroundings. We went boating down the river and on a few game drives and managed to see leopard twice, buffalo, elephant, monitor lizards and lots of cute baby warthogs and impala.

The lodge is really stunning and surrounded by huge trees which give shelter to Swamp Boubou’s, Paradise Flycatchers, Brown Fire Finches and lots of weavers. The lodge was empty for most of the time we were there which meant it was peaceful and relaxing.

After 6 nights at the lodge we headed across the last stretch of the Caprivi and into Botswana at the Ngoma border post. We crossed the Chobe River and drove through the reserve to Kasane, a little town on the banks of the Chobe River. We had decided to drive to the Savuti Reserve for a few nights but were worried that we had not booked anything. A trip to the park gate at Kasane was all it took to make the bookings (quite pricy mind you) and after a pleasant night at the Chobe Safari Lodge campsite, we headed out very early the next morning for Savuti.

It was a cool morning, the earth wet with fresh rain and as we drove along the tar road towards the reserve we passed a big herd of elephant crossing the road - lots of little ones and a few big mamma’s. We also passed buffalo, hyena, giraffe and jackals – it certainly was rush hour! The road to Savuti was a bit scary in places but John drove brilliantly and soon enough I had learned its better to keep my mouth shut than offer advice which is completely unfounded! (Editorial note by John: That’s better!)

Once through the reserve gate, you hit wall to wall mopane, sometime nerve wracking when you are in elephant infested bushveld! Then the odd open plain appears and a few hilly outcrops. Finally we arrived at the Savuti campsite which was particularly special as the Savuti channel was actually flowing. For those of you who may not know, the Savuti channel has flowed sporadically over the past 100 years, more often dry than flowing. The channel is flowing now for the first time in 12 years I believe. We were very excited to explore the area and look for the lion that hunt elephant, the huge herds of antelope and zebra and the open marsh teeming with birdlife that you see on National Geographic.

Alas our 2 day adventure was a bit of a let down with no predators, 1 zebra, 40 wildebeest and 5 elephant!! But we did see all the small things like wonderful mongoose, owls, tortoises and birds. The scenery around Savuti is wild, rugged and wet with marshland, rocky outcrops and bushveld all melting into each other and providing points of interest around each corner.

For example we came across a baobab which seems to have taken a very serious knock over the decades – supposedly by elephant. The good rains meant that some roads were off limits, and even John admitted defeat when the road crossed the flowing Savuti channel. Some of the smaller game roads are a bit overgrown which resulted in a myriad of wondrous insects landing in my lap as the branches scraped and bashed along the car. We also occasionally got dived bombed by cicadas who were very busy flying among the mopane Trees. The game roads in this area are not marked at all so its all a bit of an adventurer when you turn down a small track, not knowing what you are going to find! There are also very few people around which makes it all the more exciting (and no cell phone signal which is perfect).

After 2 days we headed back to Kasane for a visit to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and then onto Impalila Island Lodge located on an island between Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe!! More on that in our next blog…

Love Liz

Here is the "worm" detailing where it is we have been this year:

Nearing the final destination now...

2010-12-20T08:54:00.000+02:00

I came across this quote on someone’s Facebook profile recently, and I absolutely have to share it:

“Reminds me of the time I went to Africa, someone forgot the corkscrew and we had to live on food and water for days.” - W.C. Fields.

Having left the coast behind us we headed onwards to Hobatere Lodge. Liz was asked to compile an environmental assessment of a new lodge site on the concession there as part of our volunteering for Islands in Africa.

What a treat it was. Hobatere is a fantastic concession nestled in amongst hills and open plains in a semiarid habitat. Steve and Louise Braine have run Hobatere for almost 19 years and it was a privilege to spend time in their company. Their son Sean and his wife Benita now manage the lodge and Sean is also a well respected guide. This was a real opportunity to learn from some exceptional people.

We spent two nights in a guest room and were treated to all the bells and whistles which included excellent food! A real change from our camping style cooking! We then spent a further two nights in the Tree House which is at the proposed site of the new lodge. This tree house lifts you up over a plain which was always full of game thanks to an artificial water hole on the edge of the plain. It was to be an exciting two nights; as we arrived on the first evening a lioness had just brought down a Zebra no more than 80m from the tree. She was in the company of a young adult lion. They didn’t seem interested in the Zebra just then. We settled in, ate our packed dinner and went to sleep. At around 3am we were awoken by the male lion that had begun calling incessantly from what sounded like the ladder to the tree house. Very little sleep followed.

The calling went on until around 6am when, under the cover of darkness, the lioness brought down a young eland about 50m from the tree. Finally at around 7am a second lioness and 4 sub-adult males appeared on the scene and began to devour the young eland kill. By 8am when we were picked up to return to the lodge for breakfast there was little left of the eland, and the pride was now tucking into the Zebra. There were no fewer than 8 black-backed jackal all trying their cunning best to sneak a nibble off of either carcass.

We returned to the tree house late that afternoon for the second night and a little wary, I have to say, at the prospects of sharing a campsite with 7 lion and knowing full well that lions can and will climb trees. But there they were, all 7 lion lazing around, strewn across the area in the shade of the bushes – no threat at all, not with a fully belly at least. Behind them, countless head of Zebra, Impala, Giraffe and Eland all waiting patiently to approach the water hole, none were brave enough and so these animals had to go without water until these lion moved off. In the middle of the night however we were awakened by Elephants trumpeting, they were unhappy about the Lions hogging the water hole and decided to make the Lions well aware of their selfishness! We got up early to observe what the Lion were up to and shortly after we awoke they moved off in the direction of the lodge.

Having thoroughly enjoyed 4 nights at Hobatere we headed off towards the Etosha National Park. We had made no reservations for Etosha and planned to spend 3 nights in the park. Being the “off season” we were able to arrive and book without any hassle. The day we left Hobatere there was an ominous build up of rain clouds, Steve had said this could be the start of the rains and I was inclined to trust 19 years of wisdom. We entered the park at Anderson gate which is in the south-west and proceed onto Halali Rest Camp which is the “middle” of the three public campsites in the park. We were astonished at the amount of general game as well as Elephants and a chance sighting of a lioness near a waterhole.

There were very many babies of all the species around; tiny impala whose leg joints didn’t seem to work properly, small Zebra foals diligently following their mothers at close quarter and young giraffe who were clumsily learning to browse the shorter acacia trees. We spent a lovely day exploring the thick Mopane of the southern areas and the sheer openness of the pan. We arrived at Halali which is a lovely rest camp with what seemed like hundreds of demarcated camp sites. We setup camp, all the while keeping an eye on the increasing build of clouds.

Steve could not have been more correct on his weather prediction. The afternoon of our first night in Etosha brought the first rains of the season, something that was an absolute wonder to witness. The next morning the white powdery dust that we had spent all day the previous day in was now slushy toothpaste like consistency that caked itself nicely into every nook and cranny on the exterior of the vehicle. The Etosha pan itself transformed from dusty white nothingness, a seemingly endless void of a mirage, to a damp oasis whose ancient algae colonies had bloomed into a fantastic hue of green.

Overnight the park had simply changed. Staff at the rest camps were elated with the coming of the rains, one lady was seen running around in her underwear, in the rain. Signs of relief filled the eyes of the animals as they could now with confidence begin to nurture and raise their newly born offspring.

The next two days and nights just melded into one. We moved over to Namutoni Rest Camp at the eastern side of Etosha for our last night. That afternoon we came across a Zebra who had died giving birth and her dead foal not far from her body. Nature had already begun its process. 15 white-backed vultures, 2 lappet-faced vultures and a pair of Tawny Eagles were already on the scene – roosting in trees and making occasional forays down to the carcass.

Two black-backed jackals were making quick work at pieces of flesh exposed by the vultures. Jackals rely on other animals or birds to create openings in the skin of a kill in order to themselves be able to get a meal. On our way out of the park the next morning we drove passed the site again and now it was a totally different scene. The carcass of the Zebra and that of its foal were nowhere to be seen. Instead it had been replaced with 13 Spotted Hyena who had obviously made quick work of the bones and remaining flesh.

Some were still dragging around masticated remains, while others took refuge from the morning heat by lying up in the shallow water and mud of the pan. An amazing sight! There were more black-backed Jackal now too, 11 we counted, and trying to scavenge off what little remained. Fascinating to see how quickly the whole clean-up operation had taken.

On we went, heading towards our final destination at the eastern end of the Caprivi. We had a fair distance to travel to get to our first stop: Susuwe Island Lodge.

We broke the journey by stopping for one night at a lovely little lodge just outside of Grootfontein called Roy’s Camp. An excellent campsite and popular stop off for overland trucks and holiday makers alike, it has an excellent restaurant and bar which adds to its popularity. There were also some lovely nature walks in the farm on which it is located and we had a lovely afternoon walk there trying to spot the Eland and other antelope which frequented the campsite at night.

From Roy’s Camp we continued north-east towards the Caprivi with a quick stop in the border town of Rundu which stands on the Zambezi between Angola and Namibia. Up to this point, Namibia has been characterised by dry, arid to semi-arid countryside which is sparsely populated. This changed dramatically on the way up to Rundu. We crossed a veterinary control point not far from Rundu and Namibia transformed into stereotypical sub-tropical Africa; palm trees, Baobabs, one continuous stream of human settlement along the road with the requisite numbers of goats, donkeys and cattle wandering around on and alongside the road. We were back in the real Africa. Rundu is not too noteworthy apart from being a typical African frontier town; very bustling. It has some good supermarkets and fuel which we have been topping up regularly as we do not completely fill our long range tank any more since the accident.

We headed east then from Rundu and into the Caprivi Strip and stopped for the night at Ngepi Camp which is situated along the banks of the Okavango River. What a spectacular setting, well worth a visit! Ngepi is extremely well setup. It caters to overlanders, campers and has chalets as well as tree houses – and they manage to keep all these parties well separated so that there isn’t much interference from the stereotypically boisterous overland truck groups (not that I am not boisterous myself at times). We enjoyed one night there and ate from the restaurant and watered ourselves at the bar, it is a fantastic spot which I will definitely return too perhaps next time to travel down the Okavango.

Finally then we were on the stretch to Susuwe which is nestled in amongst massive Jackal-berry and Knob-wood Trees along the banks of a channel of the Kwando River. This is where I must leave you, Liz will blog the remainder of the trip soon!

I wish you all well over the coming holiday period, if you travel please be safe and I hope you return refreshed and energized for the new year! If I can recommend a new year’s resolution: travel, go and see a place you would never otherwise have thought to visit here in Southern Africa – go to Zimbabwe or Malawi, these are the true gems of our region. If you ask me nicely I will come along and show you some awesome things!

Sea, sand and sweeping views

2010-11-27T14:42:00.000+02:00

Swakopmund is a very popular destination, yet it has a weird vibe that is hard to describe. The cold sea provides permanent air conditioning, a welcome from the hot interior, and the mixture of old and new architecture adds to its charm. The wide streets lined with shops and bars are lovely to explore and there is plenty to keep you busy. Finding accommodation was difficult – maybe because it was a weekend. Yet on a weekend, the shops close on Saturday afternoons and on Sundays! I guess most people are off sand-boarding and quad biking in the dunes, throwing themselves out of planes, eating at local restaurants, or riding the waves in a boat. We decided to skip the sandy bits and did the wet ones instead. We were picked up and taken to Walvis Bay for a morning boat ride, complete with drinks and lunch.

There are local seal colonies, Heaviside dolphins, whales and plenty of gulls and sea birds. It seems to be the thing to do as the pier was filled with tourists all eager to board the various boats. It was a lovely morning out (especially since I didn’t get sea sick), although the weather was a bit cool, and we spent the rest of the day exploring the town. Namibia has a lot of natural minerals which are mined extensively and you can see the variety of crystals found at a local museum. All sorts of colours, sizes and shapes – and the energy inside was incredible.

After chatting to some locals we decided to change our plans and head inland towards Etosha, instead of the Skeleton coast road.

We drove up the good salt road to Henties Bay, through the dramatic desert where we stopped here and there to admire the views, take some pictures and even explore the rocks for gecko’s and lichens – all of which thrive out here.

We then turned inland, through the desert, towards the Brandeberg, Namibia’s highest mountain. Slowly you experience the environment change from the barren, rocky and sandy desert, to larger shrubs and finally bushveld and savanna with the Brandeberg Mountain dominating the landscape.

We visited the famous ‘white lady’ rock painting, a 40min walk (or run if your guide wants to get back for lunch) through the majestic rock formation, littered of rock paintings where you find the white lady who is actually a man, surrounded by various animals – all 2000 to 6000 years old!

We were now in Damaraland, known for beautiful mountainous scenery and lots of places to explore. We headed to Twyfelfontein, and pitched our rooftop tent at the large and friendly Aba-Huab community campsite, on the banks of a dry riverbed.

We were serenaded to sleep by the local choir who were performing for some tourists. Early the next morning the dawn chorus of birds roused us from our sleep and John was off running down the river after some Rupppel’s parrots. I turned down this opportunity knowing the other campers would think we were totally bonkers as we scrambled around in our pyjama’s with binoculars in hand (it wouldn’t be the first time). This was a mistake as I am yet to spot the endemic parrot L I did have breakfast with some bare cheeked babblers and red billed francolins as a consolation.

While in the area we checked out the ‘organ pipes’ which are a really impressive geological formation of rocks. We did a tour of the rock engravings at Twyfelfontein, a World Heritage Site, where there are literally thousands of engravings all over the area. It was fascinating to read all about the interpretation and meanings behind the engravings – the bushmen who inhabited the area over 2000 years ago even drew maps showing water points and animal concentrations.

It was a very special place and in the morning light, the surrounding mountains were stunning.

We continued along the undulating dirt roads towards the Petrified Forest. The first sign for the forest did seem rather informal but G-man (our GPS) confirmed it as the location of the forest so we pulled in and drove up to a little ‘office’ where we waited for our guide who came running from the closest homestead. The very polite and welcoming (yet slightly sweaty) boy took us on a little walk and showed us some great examples of whole tree trunks that had become petrified (fossilised) over time and with the right conditions.

You can even see the growth rings in the trunk, now turned to stone. He also showed us some Welwitschia plants – another endemic plant to this region which grow very slowly and has adapted well to desert life. At the end of the tour we bartered some food for some crystals – and with both parties very happy indeed, we left. Further down the road we passed more informal signs, as well as a very official looking Petrified Forest office where all the busses were parked! I think in the end we got a more personal experience, and enriched the lives of some of the entrepreneurial locals J

Our experience of Namibia so far has been great. What strikes you at first is the lack of people (as opposed to the rest of Southern Africa) and when you do encounter some locals they are all friendly, non-harassing and welcoming to tourists - of which there are many. It seems Namibia is well advertised in Europe as the safe, friendly African destination to come and explore. There are hired 4x4’s everywhere, mostly driven by older German couples. There are also lots of tourist groups for the less adventurous and we have sat and chuckled on more than one occasion as a group pulls in and gets a lesson on how to erect the roof-top-tent and inevitably someone sets the rented cars alarm off in the middle of the night and scrambles to find their keys and the circus continues.

The tourism industry here is booming and there is no shortage of places to stay or German tourists. You even find yourself on the odd occasion saying things like ‘Zuper’ and ‘Nein’ and occasionally feel you are in some strange province of Germany. But that aside, there are also some great spots which are off the beaten track where you can get away from all the tourists and enjoy the peaceful and majestic surroundings. The wildlife and birds here are also all new and interesting with lots of reptiles and insects which have had us delving into the books (see the Namib Rock Agama in the photo).

From the Damaraland we headed to Hobatere Lodge and Etosha for an amazing wildlife experience – which John will chat about in the next blog.

Regards to all, we are looking forward to catching up with everyone in December.

Love Liz

QUIZ: The last blog I asked if anyone could find the grass hopper. Here are the 2 pics showing the little guy in disguise and then I have pulled it back in the same position he is lying. Hope you can now find him. We will do another quiz in the next blog.

Into the Kalahari and beyond

2010-11-07T17:06:00.002+02:00

Phew!! Where did October go?! It seems like yesterday that we left South Africa and began the long journey into the heart of Namibia for our volunteer research project. We left Springbok (Northern Cape) early in the morning for our first days drive towards Keetmanshoop, where we planned to overnight. We crossed the mighty Orange River for the second time this year; the previous time was upon entering Lesotho believe it or not!! The border formalities were simple and very soon we were on our way to Keetmanshoop.

Upon entering we noticed how remarkably similar things are to South Africa but how strangely different it was too, we had lots to discover still. The route that day can be described with very few words, and I have included some pictures to try and tell the story.

We have not travelled as far a stretch where there is no sign of human habitation other than the good-old 4 strand farm fence and the occasional stretch of telephone line. No windpumps, no livestock, no lush and leafy outcrops in an otherwise monotonous landscape which are so typical of a farm house and its surrounds. Nothing. Wild. Beautiful.We spotted our first mammal at around 200km into Namibia; a horse. I think our bird list totalled 4 birds until we reached our destination and then an explosion!

Keetmanshoop is an oasis in a dry and unforgiving place. It comprises a few good large shops for stocking up on essentials, one petrol station for every 10 people it seems and a quiet and relaxed atmosphere. We stayed outside of town at a quaint place called the Quiver Tree Forest Lodge where we camped. Another thing about the place is that there is all of a sudden a lot of life around, apart from the humans of course.

In the afternoon we spotted Rosy Faced Lovebirds, Mountain Wheat-ear, Acacia-pied barbet, Pygmy Falcon, Crimson-breasted Shrike to name but a few of the birds.

Then there are the Rock Hyraxes and Meerkats which abound. This all in a 100m radius of our campsite! In addition there is a forest of Quiver Trees, yes forest! (Kokerboom for my Afrikaans counterparts). A spectacular arid region plant that poses regally in the afternoon setting sun.

From Keetmans we travelled another long stretch onwards to Rehoboth which put us within a short distance of the reserve where we were to be for our Entomology research project the following day.

Rehoboth is another oasis town in the middle of an otherwise desolate, dry and lunar landscape. The only remarkable thing is the Oanob Lake (actually a dam) which forms part of the water supply to Windhoek which is 90km away. It was on the “lake” that we camped that night. Temperatures were moderate at this point, in the late 20’s to early 30’s there was some humidity and we were feeling more and more that we hadn’t left South Africa yet; everyone speaks Afrikaans still at this point.

In the morning thereafter we headed onwards towards Kuzikus Wildlife Reserve which is a privately owned farm of some 10,000ha roughly 150km SE from Windhoek. It is situated on the western edge of the Kalahari desert. We arrived to Kuzikus, our home for the next 20-something days, at around 12h00 noon. There we were greeted by our project leaders Johanna and Joana who are German-Namibian and Portuguese respectively.

So began our first stint of volunteering in Namibia. The research camp was simple comprising of a kitchen tent, lab tent and individual tents for the researchers. We cooked communally and our meals comprised mostly items out of a tin, fresh veggies in the form of carrots, butternut, pumpkin, cabbage, onions and potatoes and the occasional piece of venison which came from the lodge which does a little game off-take and uses the meat. We were treated to Oryx, Blue Gnu (Gemsbok and Blue Wildebeest as we call them in SA) and smoked Giraffe. We baked bread, made mealie pap and I made a potjie with the meat we got.

Our days consisted initially of a lot of field work in order to capture insects through various different methods, the details of which I will not elaborate on now. Those of you who are interested in how one catches insects can get in touch separately. Let’s just say there was a lot of crawling around on all-fours, sweeping, beating, pootering and staring at UV lamps in the dark.

Once we had collected the insects we had to identify them in order to gather data about what species occur in certain habitats and are best collected by which methods etc. We were also then pinning some of the larger and nicer specimens for display at the lodge. This involved much time in the lab tent peering into Binocular microscopes in my case and playing with relaxing fluid and pins in Liz’ case.

Temperatures now were an order of magnitude higher than anywhere else we had been thus far in Namibia – this picture says it all note the humidity and time of day:

The days passed quickly, waking, eating, identifying insects, eating, carrying water to your tent to fill your bucket shower for the afternoon cleansing session whilst looking out over the savannah that surrounded the research camp, it was a lovely setting! The local birds were also a treat, becoming very domesticated so we got up close and personal with the little finches and weavers.

Soon though we had to move on as our next volunteering session beckoned. We departed from Kuzikus early on Monday morning this week for what was supposed to be 1 night in Windhoek and then onwards North towards Etosha and ultimately the Caprivi. I say supposed as it was on Tuesday just after 12h00 noon that disaster struck us. Well actually it was a Hilux bakkie that struck us. In the rear. At about 80km/h. As we were stopping for a red light here in Windhoek. I could not believe what had happened.

The impact was fairly severe and yet we have come away with nothing more than stiff back, shoulder and necks and a sad heart as our beautiful Land Cruiser has now had her first accident. The car is OK-ish. After assistance from the Land Cruiser Forum, we had a local Land Cruiser specialist assist us with opening the rear tailgate as this was rammed shut and while there he had his team inspect the car for any damage that would stop our journey prematurely. Fortunately there is no damage to any of the drive, suspension, steering or undercarriage at all! Our spare wheel carrier and rear towing rack absorbed much of the impact and the result is that the chassis is a little out of shape, but miraculously this is not affecting the handling of the car at all. Our long range fuel tank is now on 3 bolts as the fourth sheared off in the impact but it seems stable at the moment. So we are going to hobble along, after a very reasonable bill for the bits of work that the specialist did and the fixes needed to put the exhaust back where it belongs.

We have had to spend more time in Windhoek and as a result have now decided to change course and instead of going directly to Etosha and on to the Caprivi, will go across to Swakopmund and Walvis Bay and then north to Terrace Bay and finally across to the western edge of the Etosha where we have reorganised our volunteering to begin.

Windhoek is an excellent place for this to have happened, as strange as that sounds. This is by far the cleanest, city we have visited in Africa; South Africa included, as well as friendly and laid back. People really are lovely here and very genuine. They all speak Afrikaans of course as a link language. There is a lot of German spoken here of course as a residue from the colonial rule by Germany of South West Africa. All-in-all this is a lovely place. I feel like I am still in South Africa only there is a different symbol denoting the currency, which is 1-to-1 to the Rand in any case and they accept Rands. There are so many South Africa chains of shops, department stores, restaurants, cinemas, everything really. The only difference is that with such a low population service delivery is generally good in my opinion. For example we were able to collect our accident report from the central police station less than 24 hours after reporting the accident at another satellite police station. Then there is the fact that our accident, complete with a picture of Liz and I, was reported in the local daily German newspaper, on page 3 as well, the very next day! I think Namibia has a lot going for it and look forward to visiting more of it!

So we have had high-times and low-times the past 4 weeks, but generally it’s been a great time. Accidents happen, insurance pays out, and you keep going.

It is all part of the journey. Until next time, all of the best to you and yours!

QUIZ: It seems most of you are getting very lazy with regards to the quiz!! Some have even come up with excuses instead of the answers (Mr Anderson!). Congrats to Charles who seems to be a closest nature guru – it is indeed an Angulate Tortoise. You can tell by the extended bottom plate under the head and the pattern along the edge of the shell. This week – for all you lazy people – I have included a ‘hide and seek’ photo. Somewhere in all this grass is a grasshopper – can you find it?? We will post the photo showing him next time – for now have a good look. No need to email me if you can see him – just enjoy the search.

Coasting

2010-10-09T07:15:00.000+02:00

After settling in so well in Hogsback, we somewhat reluctantly packed up and headed down the mountain for the coast. We thought Steve and Kirsten might like to spend some time getting re-acquainted so we all went down to the sleepy sea side town of Kenton-on-sea for some R & R. After spending a wonderful few days frolicking in the cool waters, walking along the rocky coastline and chatting over sunsets, we departed for the west coast.

Not having explored the Garden Route much, we ambled along the coast, gasping at the impressive gorges we crossed, marvelling at the dense, green indigenous forest, and being blown away by the amount of development taking place. Kirsten insisted we check out Monkeyland and Birds of Eden which is located at The Craggs, just outside the urban jungle of Plettenberg Bay. The weather for the day was ‘mysteriously misty’ which made the pictures John took a bit dark, but the place is amazing and definitely worth a visit if you heading that way. The few-days-old ring tailed lemurs and the variety of birds was just wonderful.

We found a local backpackers in Natures Valley called Wild Spirit Lodge, an awesome place which envelops you as you walk in the door, its hospitality inviting you to stay. The lodge is located in the forest and is very eco-friendly – and the food is home cooked with love – Yum. After taking a tour of the farm, cuddling the kittens and enjoying the sunshine, we headed for Cape Town.

On route we passed some rather interesting little villages, as well as the usual popular seaside resorts, almost bursting at the seams with developments and fancy houses!! We were keen to get our Western Cape bird list going, and got very excited when we saw about 40 blue cranes hanging out in a field!! As forests turned to farmlands, villages to towns and stop streets to traffic lights, we entered Cape Town, looking as vibey and awesome as usual.

Not sure where to stay (we sadly realised we actually don’t know too many people in Cape Town) we headed to a backpackers in the city – very swish and modern and we ended up with our own apartment with a great view of the mountain. It was there that I realised, with horror, that I had (very uncharacteristically) left our passports in Hogsback!!!! To cut a long story short, we stayed an extra 2 days in Cape Town while the passports were couriered to us where I now keep them under watchful eye. We did manage to catch up with my cousins studying at UCT, go to the beach for some walks and got John a much needed hair cut!

We stayed with John’s family friend, Rob, in Table view – eating out at the bay, watching whales and people passing by. One of the striking things I noticed in Cape Town is that come 4:00pm – any day of the week, the beaches fill with locals, either running, walking dogs, partaking in water sports, boating, spending time with loved ones, kids running around etc. It was so great to see people spending time together, outdoors with their family – nice one Cape Town. Pity Joburg hasn’t really got that kind of culture (well we don’t have a beach either!).

From Cape Town we headed up the West Coast – all new territory for us. The weather was warming up, the trees were getting smaller and the roads were getting quieter, except for the occasional tortoise. We passed quaint little fishing villages, fish factories and farms then made our way into Jacobsbaai, to meet Rob and Pauline, some radio ham friends for lunch. All the houses in Jacobsbaai are built in a similar style, which adds charm and character to the place. After a very pleasant afternoon we ended up staying the night, being lulled to sleep by sea gulls and crashing waves.

After losing some time waiting for passports in Cape Town, we had to make up some ground so the next day was a bit of a long haul to Springbok. We took the more scenic coastal road, driving along seemingly remote areas, much more rocky and mountainous than we thought it would be. Here and there were splashes of colour from left over flowers, dotted with sheep and the occasional farm house. You can tell you are in 4X4 enthusiast territory when you have to pay a toll to use the dirt coastal road, even though there is a perfectly good tar road that’s free!! The longer days as a result of the sun setting later here in the west still take getting used to, but make the day so much longer – great for travellers.

Springbok is quite a big town, the last one before the Namibian border, where we will be heading to next. It will take us 2 days to get to the research reserve where we will be until 6 November. So I am afraid you will all have to wait a while until the next set of rambling news – but it promises to be an exciting one J Here comes another solid month in the bush for us!

QUIZ: To keep your minds occupied, and sticking with the nature theme – here is this month’s quiz. Identify this tortoise. Send answer’s to liz at toad.co.za

Have a fabulous October – lots of beer drinking and Eisbien eating I assume J And most of all October means summer is on its way, holidays and happiness.

Love Liz

Sneaking Monkey, Nesting Parrot...

2010-09-27T10:28:00.000+02:00

Hogsback. How does one describe Hogsback to someone who has never experienced it for themselves? To start, it’s a quaint village nestled high in the Amatola mountain range of the Eastern Cape. There is a fuel station which is actually the post office and adjoins a small grocery store. There is a hardware store that’s actually a bottle store with a mini-ATM and shebeen attached. There is a “shopping centre” that’s actually a hardware store, bottle store, bakery, butchery, newsagent, green grocer and coffee shop all under one roof. Then there is a plethora of hotels, inns, lodges, guest houses, B&Bs, campsites, restaurants, nursery's, craft stores and a backpackers. There is a Shakespearean style open-air theatre, a pottery studio, the Eco Shrine and a few little art galleries. So it is, in and amongst all of these, that your average Hogsbacchian local spends their time each day. The majority of the people here are retired or at least think they are. But then there are the gardens and the magnificent scenery. Let me tell you, its spring here in South Africa, and the manicured gardens in Hogsback are spectacular. This coming weekend is the annual Hogsback Spring Festival; 3 days of garden club visits, banquet style feasts at the restaurants, amateur plays and music at the theatre and general spring-time cheer!

Before I get too much into what it is that has kept us busy here since the 6^th of September, let me look a little bit into the past and to where we have been to have arrived here. This is an image with our route travelled to date overlayed onto Google (all credit to Garmin, Mapsource and Google).

Total distance travelled so far is reaching 20,000km, I haven’t the exact figure at the time of writing. It has been an awesome journey, it seems like yesterday that we were in Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique, and the day before yesterday Ndumo in KZN. So much has happened since then and it has all been fantastic. The recent highlight is of course 28 days in the Kruger’s last true wilderness area; the Makuleke Concession Park.

So back to Hogsback. We came here to house sit for some friends primarily. Dr Steve Boyes and Dr Kirsten Wimberger happen to be conducting post-doctoral research in Cape Parrots and Samango Monkeys respectively. So we offered them our assistance as volunteers on these projects in their absence.

We had the privilege of being involved hands-on in the initial stages of Kirsten’s research which involved the tagging of Samangos from two troops; town troop and forest troop. This was excellent fun! Kirsten had a veterinarian from the National Zoological Gardens (Pretoria Zoo) here to conduct the anaesthetising of the Samangos in order to allow Kirsten to collect samples of faeces, hair, blood, take body measurements, tag the monkeys ears and place radio collars on certain individuals. Interestingly from an ethical point of view is that only the vet may collect blood samples, hair samples and do the tagging. Essentially anything that involves handling the monkey. This was an excellent exercise to have been a part of and we learnt so much in the process!

The next step now is to monitor the monkeys using radio telemetry equipment in order to ascertain their movements and various habits such as socialising, feeding, mating. Samangos are amazing little primates! They are by far the most secretive of any of the primates I have come across. Well perhaps not as secretive as their bush-baby cousins but for a mid-sized primate they are very shy. They communicate with a complex range of clicks, trills, grunts, barks and booms! It has been very rewarding tracking them and watching them. Fortunately for us though is that the troop, which has many members, has a very limited territory and we are thus able to know where they are most likely to be.

So that’s what we have been doing with the monkeys for Kirsten, then there is the Cape Parrots. Steve has initiated the Cape Parrot Project here in Hogsback. The plight of the Cape Parrot is not a good one. Their numbers in the wild are said to total no more than 650 individuals. They are found in the afro-montane forest belts of the Eastern Cape to as far as Port St John’s and then there is a relic population still in Limpopo province. They are dependent on indigenous Yellowwood (Podocarpus spp.) trees for their continued existence; they eat the fruit of the Yellowwood which should be the primary food source in their diet. However, with the continued logging of natural Yellowwood forest the birds source of food as well as nest sites is dwindling leaving the birds little other option than to feed on non-indigenous food sources; wild cherries, wild plums, pecan nuts etc. These alternate food sources are thought to be causing a rise in Parrot Beak and Feather Disease (PBFD) which causes untimely death in the Cape Parrot (and many other species of parrot elsewhere too). So in short it is import to conserve the birds natural food and nesting site source.

We have been monitoring the activity of the Cape Parrots in the village and trying to attempt to see where they are nesting, and more importantly what they are eating. However we have been really hard pressed to find them feeding in the village; all of our observations have indicated that they are feeding during the day down in the forests below Hogsbackallo-preening, flying around the nest site and much vocalisation – they retire for the evening into the nest cavity.

So our typical day has been to go out as early as possible, usually between 07h00 and 07h30, and listen and look for Cape Parrots in the village. Some mornings they are there, and others we struggle to find them at all. Then at around 08h30 to 09h00 we head off to find the monkeys that is if we haven’t already seen the town troop while looking for the parrots. Once we have found and observed the town troop we head out about 3 kilometres from the village to where the forest troop hang out. We usually have to walk in the forest to locate the forest monkeys. These walks are really spectacular – there is so much going on in the forest!

There are a myriad of birds; the Knysna Turaco is prolific here, a few species of Sunbird, Cape Batis, Swee Waxbill's, Southern Boubous, Cameropteras, Olive Woodpeckers, the list is almost never ending. There are also Common Duiker and Bushbuck in the forest, we haven’t seen the Bushbuck but its spoor are there! The elusive Bushpig is here too, also not seen, but saw some spoor too! The forest is a really magical place but unfortunately is encroached on by commercial plantation and many non-indigenous and often invasive tree species such as Black Wattle (Acacia mearnsii) and Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon). Check out what the debacle on renaming of Acacias - http://www.worldwidewattle.com/infogallery/nameissue/decision.php.

We have also had an awesome time looking for frogs! There are two endemic species to this area that are of particular interest; the Hogsback Chirping Frog and the Amatola Toad. The Amatola Toad has not been seen for a long while, 12 years since the last scientist heard or saw one, and as such is facing extinction.

However, there is hope. A species may be declared extinct if there have been concerted efforts to locate it within a period of 10 years which have been unsuccessful. In this case there has not been a concerted effort over the past 12 years to find it and thus it cannot yet be declared extinct! Phew! I learned all of this from a group of experts who were here two weeks ago on a search for the Amatola Toad and also to do some searching for a very nasty fungus; Chytrid Fungus. This is a global threat to all amphibians for more details visit - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chytridiomycosis.

Our next move will be into Naimbia to a small private reserve called Kuzikus where we will participate in an entomology and reptile research project as volunteers. We will be on the reserve for a month starting on 11 October. We plan to ramble our way through the Western Cape and up into Namibia in time to start the research project.

QUIZ: Results of Liz’ last bird quiz: Well done to Charles, the Smiths (Cath and Graham), Henry, Chris, Louise and Greg. It was indeed a Brown Crowned Tchagra (used to be a Three Streaked Tchagra). Keep up the good work and we'll post a new quiz next time.

All of the best! Keep well!
John

Uber Kruger

2010-09-08T16:53:00.000+02:00

It’s still dark outside as the as yet unfamiliar noises from the bush infiltrate into our tent, sounding as though all the creatures are right on our balcony. I hear a rustle through the crisp fallen Apple tree leaves, alerting me to imminent danger – I listen closely then hear the rhythmic chewing of the local Nyala, probably coming in for a quick snack on the Nyala berry’s that have fallen from the majestic tree’s that surround the camp.
The cool morning air makes me pull my duvet closer around me and from the stirrings in the surrounding tents I know that we will have to get up soon. BOOM BOOM BOM BOM BOOM – the drumming begins, its rhythm and beat changing daily depending on which student is on duty – they are responsible for preparing the hot water, tea, coffee, rusks and cereal that meets us each morning on the student deck. We greet each person as they come up to the deck, some looking half asleep, others far too chirpy for 5:30 am, but all are prepared for the early morning walk.

As soon as it’s light enough – around 6am, the guide and back up grab a rifle, give the group a safety brief then lead us into the wilderness, everyone’s senses alert to take in the experience and absorb all the information that comes pouring out of our instructors..... ‘can you hear the Burnt Neck Eramomela, Tawny Flanked Prinia and Red Faced Cisticola?...’ says Bruce as we stroll towards a water hole. I strain to listen and pick out each individual song and grab my bird book to get some idea of what the little buggers look like. We walk through familiar Lala Palms and tall grass, then through an amazing Fever Tree forest, the morning light doing the lime green bark justice as we stop to take it all in. The bird list continues from Bruce and we whip out our notebooks as it’s all too much to take in at once. We end up at one of the pans and sit and have a snack and while sitting a bull elephant decides to come and have a drink. We are instructed to sit still on the ridge and we watch him calmly quench his thirst then move on. What an awesome sighting and how chilled he was – quite the opposite from his female companions. We head back to camp, examining all the spoor we can find, discussing each animals movements, size, activity and the possibility of tracking them if fresh enough.

Back at camp we discuss the mornings findings with the other group over a huge breakfast – the young boys tucking in good and proper. We then have a lecture on topics such as ‘ how to approach dangerous game, rifle handling, guest checks and briefs and animal behaviour’. We have some time to look up the tree samples we bought back with us, the birds we heard and the spoor we saw before we saddle up again, grab a lunch time snack and head off into the bush again, walking until the light fades. Sometimes we walked out from camp while other times we drive to one of the many spectacular locations. Upon return to camp we indulge in a great dinner feast before passing out from sheer exhaustion, usually before 8:30!!

This was our life for the past month doing our trails guide qualification at the EcoTraining camp in the Makulele Concession, right in the north of the Kruger National Park. The area is absolutely amazing with the Limpopo and Luvuhvu Rivers forming the boundaries, floodplains teeming with Fever trees, Jackal Berry trees and Nyala trees. The Hutwini mountain and Lanner Gorge providing awesome views over the Luvuvhu River, Baobab forest and Tulamela iron age site. Sand-veld with elephant infested Mopane tree’s and the best part is that it is a private concession with only 2 other camps operating in the area, so one really experiences the wilderness at its best.

During the month long course, we walked almost 100hrs, over 200km and took turns to both guide the group and be a back up. This meant we had to carry a rifle, look for pathways to walk on, be alert for any dangerous game and give the group information by interpreting the surroundings we were in while keeping them under control. This is what being a nature guide is all about and the experience we received from our instructors and peers was invaluable. The birds up there are fantastic with us seeing Senegal Coucal and Bohms Spinetail but I was more than upset when John’s group announced after one walk that they saw two Racket Tailed Rollers – one of the birds I have been looking for the whole year!!! My search continues....

We also had to learn how to handle a potentially dangerous situation and there were plenty of opportunities almost on a daily basis. The area is teeming with elephant and buffalo which we regularly encountered. While leading a walk, I saw a leopard scent marking 15m away and John saw rhino on foot as well as bumped into a pride of lion sleeping in a Lala Palm thicket! We also had to be proficient in shooting and we spent 2 days at the range to try and hone our skills. John passed with flying colours while I couldn’t get the bullet to land in the bull’s eye! We also both passed the numerous tests we had to write so all in all we have a really busy but productive month. Our fellow peers were a pleasure to be with and provided many a laugh.

With no electricity and the closest cell phone reception 16km away, one can immerse oneself in bush life. Being with like minded people led to inspiring discussions around the camp fire or on top of a mountain, as we discussed what nature means to us. The bush has a way of levelling the playing field where it doesn’t matter what car you drive, job you do or how much money you have, in the bush it’s just you and the wild elements. Nature has a way of humbling you, reminding you of our natural instincts, where we came from, and that we are all connected. It’s ironic how many of us feel frightened in the bush, because of all the unfamiliarity but feel at home in our man made surroundings – think about that for a moment! From a quote listed by one of our instructors, Alan ‘It’s not what you can learn about nature, but what you can learn from nature’ (source unknown).

After stopping in JHB to re-stock, we headed down to Howick to visit my gran and catch up on sleep. On Monday we headed down to Hogsback for a month of volunteering on our friend’s Cape Parrot and Samango Monkey. I am sure it will prove to be another good learning curve and we will definitely enjoy any challenge we encounter. We will post some news and info once we know more about what our daily tasks are.

For now we will leave you with another quiz as I am sure your brains have become rusty over the past month. Sticking with birds - this chap may look a bit dull, but his call is very familiar to us and pretty unmistakable - what is he? Email liz at toad.co.za

The only blog for August .... and some things to keep you busy.

2010-08-03T18:50:00.000+02:00

So, this will be the only blog for August. "Why is that?", I hear you ask...

Well we are disappearing into the bundu that is the Makuleke concession in the very northern part of the Kruger National Park. To be precise we will be here - http://maps.google.co.za/maps/place?cid=5335459187219306821&q=ecotraining+camp&hl=en&cd=1&ei=-EJYTMqmIJWEzASO7_BK&sig2=MBVFlXGWp7a7Cu-_Rq9sBw&dtab=0&sll=-28.45,24.7&sspn=14.002263,28.256836&ie=UTF8&ll=-9.145486,12.436523&spn=0,0&t=h&z=5&iwloc=A

Wow that's an ugly looking link, apologies for that.

We will be at the EcoTraining camp participating in the Trails Guide course which is a continuation of our Field Guide Level 1 course that we completed with Africa Nature Training (ANT) last year. We are with some friends from ANT, Pauline and Andrew, on the Trails Guide course and so we are going to have some fun! The course will involve advanced rifle handling, and the necessary training and practical experience in leading walks and drives in "Big 5" reserves. We will thus be walking into things like Lion, Leopard, Buffalo, Elephant... I am really excited!

I have finished uploading a selection of pictures to our web album. You can find them here - http://picasaweb.google.com/ravetoad

There is one last thing I want to share in this blog. For those of you who have a GPS and some spare time check out http://www.geocaching.com/. This is essentially treasure hunting, and is a massively entertaining and rewarding activity. It involves seeking out Geocaches which have been planted in some weird and wonderful places in order to draw attention to a piece of history perhaps, or a stunning setting or location or just for the hell of it in some cases. These Geocaches take many forms, some are containers with a small log book and some gifts or Travel Bugs inside. A Travel Bug looks like dog tag and is a separate item which you can retrieve from a cache, it may have mission which you need to help it achieve or could just want to get as far as possible and thus requiring that you place it in another cache somewhere else. Now, this might sound like something to do out and about, but here is the best thing: there are loads of Geocaches in cities. So if you are looking for a little fun one weekend when you are out of things to do; then go and look up some caches in your city, grab the GPS and go and log a few visits and who know perhaps discover hidden places or new knowledge you didn't have before!

Alright, that's enough of a ramble for now! We will be back online again around 1 September 2010 and will be full of stories, photographs, videos and scars... all the subjects of a series of blogs during September.

Until then, keep well, be safe and go Geocaching!

John

Zimbabwe - Part 2 and home!

2010-07-21T15:28:00.000+02:00

Still in beautiful Zimbabwe, we made our way across the country to Matebele Territory and arrived in the magnificent Matopos National Park which is just south of Bullawayo. We bumped into some friends, Paul and Beryl, who we had met in Zambia (these sorts of things happened frequently!) We spent 3 nights there, getting our full dose of winter with temperatures near to zero at night and we had ice on the car and tent each morning when we awoke!

We visited Cecil John Rhode’s grave up on Worlds View; an exceptionally picturesque place with huge boulders balancing precariously on top of other rocks and all manner of reptiles and small mammals running amongst the crevices! We watched the sun set from the top, beer and wine in hand, and took in the beautiful 360° view, just as Rhodes had done once upon a time.

Paul spent some time taking us under his wing and showing us the park and all its hidden treasures. He grew up in Bulawayo and Matopos was his childhood stomping ground. We cooked brunch at Togwhana dam and went for a lovely walk in search of a Vereaux’s Eagle nest (Black Eagle in the old language). On the way we saw some lovely rock art and an old iron smelter. We also saw the ‘giant rat’ one night which was a very unusual sighting – and rather disturbing to see a rat of such size!

Matopos is rich in Iron and Stone Age artefacts as well as countless rock art sites! It’s is an absolutely stunning place which is well worth a visit, especially with a mountain bike. The geology and geomorphology is amazing and it is still so unspoilt. A lot of the larger game has been poached out but there are still rhino and antelope around. The campsites are rustic but there is running water and hot showers occasionally (oh how I will never take a hot shower for granted again).

We then drove to Bulawayo town for a dose of some civilisation. We stayed with some of John’s mum’s friends for 3 nights. Bulawayo stands in contrast to Harare for us. It seems this is a place which has been forgotten about, with a very laid back and get-on-with-it feel. We generally just chilled out in Bulawayo and managed to watch some of the soccer matches which was great as we were quite sad to be missing the world cup back home. We visited the Khami Ruins just outside Bulawayo which dates to around the same time as Great Zimbabwe and the architecture and placement of the settlement reflects this. We then had a lovely guided tour from Marge whom we were staying with which included a walk around the Bulawayo Club which is very similar to the Rand Club here in Johannesburg. After a lovely evening meal at the Cattleman (a well known steak restaurant in Zimbabwe) we packed up and headed for the Botswana border through Plumtree.

And so we were now on the home stretch to South Africa via Botswana with a week stopover in the Northern Tuli Game Reserve to attend an AGM and undertake some road maintenance on our farm there. We spent 6 lovely days there, 3 of which we were repairing gravel roads with concrete and much rock relocating! This left us with rather tender hamstrings and backs for a few days but it felt good to be out in the sunshine in the bush. We had a good time at Shashe camp with the Salmons and Norris’s and we were all amazed at how wet and green it still is in mid-winter J

On Friday 9 July we arrived back at home in Johannesburg! What a welcome arrival from all the World Cup festivities too. We are so happy to have been able to experience just a little bit of the World Cup fever in Johannesburg (after getting confused comments from every border post about why we are running away from the World Cup). We were taken-a-back at how much patriotism we saw in the form of the SA flags flying EVERYWHERE; car wing mirrors, gardens, on lamp poles, everywhere. We drove around on Saturday absorbing the vibe and it was a magical feeling! South African’s can be really proud of this time in our history. Given the experiences we have had in Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana – South Africa is really leaps and bounds ahead of its neighbours and really is a great place to be!

Our brief travels these past few months have been an awesome experience. We have been touched by the hospitality and fellowship, wondered at the scenery and wildlife, laughed at the craziness and tall stories, been humbled by the poverty and strength, been inspired by the positive attitudes (despite hardship and despair), become enthusiastic to get more involved and have experienced life outside of the little boxes and stereotypes we all put around ourselves and others. It’s all so easy to get caught up in life but to be able to step outside, even briefly, really helps put things in perspective and has made us realise that we need to make some adjustments in our life. We are constantly told how ‘lucky’ we are to be able to do this, but what we are doing has been 2 years of planning, saving, learning and taking the plunge – something everyone can do to some extent – even if it’s just a month out of your life, to experience something new. I really hope we have inspired people to re-connect with nature and humankind – after all – we are all one.

After a few hectic weeks in Joburg, our adventure continues on 2 August with our one month Trails Guide course in the Makuleke concession in the Kruger National Park! (www.ecotraining.co.za) Hence posting will be a little slow for a while but we can’t wait to be back in the bush again. In September we are off to Hogsback to assist with Cape Parrot and Samango Monkey research (thanks Steve and Kirst) , then in October up to Namibia for a reptile and insect project. From there the rest of Southern Africa awaits J

QUIZ: The answer to last weeks bird quiz is a White-Browed Coucal. Girl Power this week with Cath, Ann and Glenda getting it right:) Half points for Jamie who said it was a coucal.

Thanks to all of you who have followed us on the blog and for your lovely e-mails, sms’es and phone calls along the way.

Shalaggbotse (Stay Well)

Liz and John

Zimbabwe - Part 1

2010-07-16T08:57:00.000+02:00

So internet access has been a challenge since Harare, so here is part 1 of the Zimbabwe blog, better late than never. We are now back in JHB until 3 August 2010. For more pictures keep checking http://picasaweb.google.com/ravetoad as I will uploading to keep up with each Blog.

Zimbabwe, being the country of my birth, held many unknowns for us prior to entering. I was last in Zimbabwe in 2000 at Kariba for a boy’s weekend of fishing. Prior to that was in 1994 on a family road-trip. A lot has happened since 2000 in Zimbabwe.

We began our journey by entering Zimbabwe at Kariba, over the dam wall which was a wondrous sight with the flood gates open. The greeting we received from the customs and immigrations officials was warm and welcoming. All the usual border formalities were proceeding well until we were asked to visit the Interpol officer around the corner and get our vehicle cleared. This to say the least was an unpleasant experience; the crux of the story is that in the time since we have left South Africa, Zimbabwe now requires that you are in possession of a vehicle clearance certificate issued by your home country’s police, which we did not have. The vehicle was cleared after much discussion around our perceived ignorance of the “relevance” of this document, our “lack of remorse” for not carrying the document and for “refusing to apologise” for not having the document.

We spent the night in Kariba at a quaint place called Warthog’s Bush Camp. We had some excellent conversation with some locals in the bar and restaurant that night and were then introduced to life in Zimbabwe. There are regular power cuts which are supposed to run to a schedule but never do, and can be for as little as 30 minutes or as much as a whole day. As a result things like hot water geysers will infrequently dispense hot water. So a cold shower it was the next morning.

From Kariba we spent 2 nights in Mana Pools National Park, at the Nyamepi Camp site. Mana is a fantastic park! We arrived in Mana on the weekend after the South African schools broke up for the World Cup holidays. Hence the park was chock-a-block full of South Africans. We saw fit to actually book accommodation via the central reservations in Harare, this however seemingly did not guarantee anything as the park is not in communications with central reservations all too often it would seem. None the less we got a nice campsite and spent two days exploring the park. The baboons and monkeys were once again as cheeky as ever but it was quite disturbing to see how these little critters bring out the ‘murderous’ side of humans with people hurling all sorts of objects at them – we even saw a tourist with a bow and arrow! We sometimes forget it is us who are in their territory.

We were treated to a magnificent sighting of the resident Cape Hunting Dog pack – around 15 dogs that were fighting over the scraps of their kill – a warthog. This was the first time we had seen wild dogs in the wild. We met up with Liz’ ex work colleague Graham who was on a family road trip to Zambia and staying at the private Ruckomechi Camp. It’s a beautiful camp and it was great to catch up with the Trusler family. We also saw great sightings of hippo and birds and the night life was very lively with honey badgers and hyaena’s lurking behind our tent.

All in all we had a lovely stay at Mana, there is a good amount of game and birds and we even spotted a snake, an Olive Whip Snake to be exact.

We moved on heading south towards Harare and over-nighted at the Chinhoyi Caves National Park camp-site. On the way there, we were introduced to more aspects of life in Zimbabwe; Police road blocks and Revenue Authority toll stops which cost $1 each time you pass through one. Now I am all for visible policing, but the road blocks in Zimbabwe take the cake! They are placed just before and just after every town, at major intersections between highways and are generally so well placed as to be unavoidable no matter the route you take. Some you are waved through, others you are stopped and asked for various pieces of documentation and then occasionally you are stopped on your approach and subsequent departure from small towns and asked for the same documentation at both places! Bizarre!

It was at one such road block that the issue of the vehicle police clearance certificate came up, this time they wanted to impound the vehicle and seek Interpol clearance. A process they described as taking up to two weeks. Eeeeek! So again with much discussion and apologies we were let through but made to promise that we would go to Interpol in Harare to clear the vehicle! So the saga continued!

I apologise if this issue of police formalities becoming long winded but these are major components of our first 4 days in Zimbabwe and gave us great amusement for the rest of our stay too. So after visits to the South African Embassy in Harare (who couldn’t help clear the vehicle, or perhaps it was wouldn’t help), a telephone call to Interpol (who could only refer us to the Zimbabwe Police’s vehicle testing section) and finally a visit to the head-office of the Zimbabwe Republic Police Vehicle Testing Section we were given a hand-written note complete with rubber stamped seal of the relevant authority to say our vehicle was cleared and could travel through Zimbabwe. And all of this without a warm shower yet too I must add.

Our first warm shower was thus a much needed reward for all the effort we had gone through to smooth our driving experience in Zimbabwe. We spent 4 lovely nights in Harare then, staying with a radio ham friend of mine and then in a lovely B&B. The weather by this time was pretty cold and Liz had to darn her shoes and socks for the first time on this trip. We spent the time visiting where I was born, took a trip to Liz’ Dad’s old school and generally just did some sight-seeing and relaxed. It was lovely. Harare is a bustling place with wide streets, massive verges onto large properties and houses to suit. The scrapping of the Zimbabwe Dollar has had mixed results, simply because of the manner in which it was transitioned to the US Dollar. Some people literally lost every cent they had in the bank through an insane process which involved the government removing 25 zeros (yes, twenty-five!) from the bank balance and then within a short space of time declaring that the US Dollar was now the official Zimbabwean currency without converting any of the present Zim Dollar balances. With people thus unable to withdraw Zim Dollars anymore they simply lost everything they had in the bank, pension funds, life savings etc. People who were retired now have no choice but to begin work again, that is if they did not have much foreign currency. A sad state of affairs!

Another novelty in Harare was at the shops. The lowest denominator in Zim is $1 so when you purchase something that equates to less that $1 you get change in your choice of chocolates, sweets, pens, razor blades etc. It also means that some of the notes in circulation are almost unrecognisable and certainly pose a health hazard to anyone who handles them – we got rid of these at the road tolls, trying not to actually touch them with our hands!

From Harare we headed down to Great Zimbabwe Ruins National Park and spent a night in the campsite there. It was here that we were thrust into winter and found ourselves donning long pants, jackets and forced to wear our shoes more regularly. We realised what everyone in Joburg was moaning about! The next day we took a guided tour of the ruins, and what a fascinating place it is. It is said to be the successor of the Mapungubwe empire which dominated the hills and valleys of the Limpopo west of Musina in South Africa. The ruins are where Zimbabwe gets its name from – meaning Large (zim) Dwellings (bab) of Stone (we). Well worth putting on the itinerary for any Zimbabwe trip.

From Great Zimbabwe we travelled westwards towards Bulawayo. A friend in Harare had asked us to visit Antelope Park outside Gweru and tell him what we thought. Well firstly, it should be called Lion Park as its main purposes is a lion breeding program with 90 lions at present and secondly it is a very well orchestrated tourist trap. I don’t mean to make it sound all bad, in terms of an overnight stop this is as good as they come; camping $5 per person, excellent ablutions, restaurant and bar all set in a stunning location. However Antelope Park does offer these sorts of activities ranging in price from $15 to $85: horse drawn cart game drive, elephant back safari, walking with lions, feeding lion cubs etc. They run a “volunteer” program whereby £1600 gets you two weeks of petting lion cubs, cleaning lion enclosures, painting, building and many other menial jobs. This and overland trucks seems to be the main source of income for Antelope Park. All-in-all it was an enjoyable overnight stop (always is when cold beer is on hand and free tea and coffee!) and we got away without parting with too many $$$ as we simply did a guided tour of the lion breeding program as this was of the most interest to us. We also spent the night around the camp fire with a group of Aussies and other overlanders jamming with guitar and drums under a cold clear sky.

That's it for part1 then of the Zimbabwe blog, it has been an interesting time here full of mixed feelings but a generally lovely experience. Will finish off part two during the coming week.

QUIZ

It seems that ornithology is definitely a firm favourite with our readers. We received a great response to the bird quiz. The correct answer was the White Crowned Lapwing (formally a plover). Well done to the Digby Wells contingency for finally coming to the party with Louise, Grant and Greg answering correctly. The Anderson family also got it correct and Steve was particularly excited to actually get one right (although we were slightly flexible on the use of the word ‘headed’ for ‘crowned’). Thanks also to Justin for providing some humour on the quiz!

We decided to stick to birds again this time with a photo taken in the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia.

The turning point!

2010-06-21T22:55:00.000+02:00

So back in Malawi - having travelled almost the entire length of the lake, we ended up at Livingstonia which is the final location of the mission station set up by David Livingstone and his followers (Dr Livingstone is quite a legend around here). It is set on a mountain 700m above the level of the lake and the 15km dirt road leading up to it is a wonderful drive straight up and includes over 20 hairpin bends – woohoo! Lovely views over the lake to Tanzania.

Almost at the top is the Mushroom Farm – very small, sweet and funky backpackers which is eco friendly and serves yummy purely vegetarian food (in fact Malawi in general is great for vegetarians). We stayed in a cute hobbit like house set in amongst the trees and right on the cliff edge.

We took a tour around Livingstonia which is looking a little run down but is full of history. I was told that my great grandfather was one of the original missionaries and sure enough after digging in the archives in the museum, we found some info on him and a photo of him and his wife – Dr David Kerr-Cross.Very exciting stuff and I will report it all back to the family upon our return.

We spent a great evening at the Mushroom Farm with some Irish, Americans and Australians of our generation – all well travelled, well read and full of the answers to the world’s problems. Went to bed feeling so optimistic having had such great conversation over some very serious matters! Eventually it was time to leave Malawi and we travelled inland through the busy and unmemorable city of Lilongwe and out through to Zambia. Our destination was South Luangwa National Park.

We stayed at the well known Flatdogs Camp, right on the Luangwa River. It’s a well organised lodge with all manner of wildlife that saunters past your campsite and at night the sound of hippo outside your tent ripping up grass is both fascinating and slightly terrifying – especially when you need to pee! The wildlife in the park lives up to its reputation with the only drawback being that the park is quite busy on morning and evening drives.

We did, however, find a pride of 6 lions doing what they do best (sleeping) and saw loads of other new stuff e.g. Crawshay’s Zebra (Equus burchelli crawshayi)and Puku (Kobus vardoniia a shaggy version of an Impala is the only way to describe them). During the day, however, you need to be vigilant around the campsite and protect your goodies from the local troop of vervets and baboons that have no fear and can spot anything edible a mile away. Met up with some local South Africans and we rallied together against the local bandits.

Crawshay's Zebra

Young Pukus

Small Spotted Genet

We were disturbed one afternoon by a flock of Crowned Hornbills in the tree above our tent. On closer inspection we discovered that a few of them were gorging themselves on frogs! John snapped a lot of shots, here is one of them.

We also managed to watch the first RSA game against Mexico and we were flying the flag and blowing our vuvuzela – the vibe at the game looked stunning and we hope to be back to catch the last few days of the tournament. Lots of SA flags being flown around Southern Africa and most TVs show nothing but soccer. After 4 relaxing nights at Flatdogs we headed south for Zimbabwe, over-nighting at a camp just north of Lusaka.

The drive from there to the Kariba border post in the north of Zim was an excellent road and very scenic as you drive past the mountains surrounding the Zambezi valley. At Kariba Dam the sluice gates were open which was spectacular, however somewhat smelly as the water was churning up the sulphur at the bottom. And so began our Zimbabwe experience, but John will elaborate on that in the next blog.

Travelling through so many countries in so many months can get quite confusing. By the time you have the hang of the local languages, customs and currency you have to start all over again. In Mozambique it was strange to speak a European language (Portuguese), in Malawi you couldn’t start up a conversation without first discussing everyone’s health and wellness, and in Zambia we became instant millionaires (thank goodness they have large denomination notes). It’s good to have an idea of what things cost when you get into a country – just ask the locals. It’s also worthwhile knowing the price of fuel so you fill up on the right side of the border. Roadblocks – there are many, and their attitude differs depending on the country. Avoid the busy border crossings and one character trait that you will need in bucket loads is patience! Food and water are readily available from local markets and most is grown organically by the locals. The latest in-country knowledge comes from travellers going the other way and you will always cross their paths.

We have finally hit Winter in Zim and I have had to put my shoes and socks on for the first time this trip! I believe its freezing back home so I just hope our sleeping bags and tent keeps us warm until we get home.

QUIZ

We have been neglecting our wildlife quiz for some time. Along our travels we have come across many interesting little critters. Birds in particular have been amazing and we have learnt about 30 new species on this trip. This week we would like you to identify this bird (email liz@toad.co.za)

So from a cold Zim, keep well wherever you are.
Liz

Malawi...

2010-06-06T09:25:00.000+02:00

It has been a fair time since we last managed to upload a blog due to a lack of any decent internet connectivity. As I sit and write this blog we are in Kande Beach, Malawi on a lovely Saturday afternoon 5 June. This lovely stretch of white sand coastline on Lake Malawi lies just about 50km south of Nkhata Bay. We have been in Malawi since Wednesday 26 May so a little back-tracking is required!

We left from Gorongosa National Park for the long trek up towards Malawi having decided that we would enter Malawi on the eastern side from Mozambique via a small town called Mulanje. This required that we had an overnight stop in Mozambique as the distance would have been far too great to manage in 1 day. We overnighted at James White Chalets in Caia just before the mighty Zambezi river crossing. A lovely spot with a very quiet forest walk and generally beautiful scenery. The next morning we were up before the sun to begin the final haul out of Mozambique. We crossed the Zambezi at the brand new bridge, filled up with fuel and headed towards Malawi. 192km from the border crossing we left our last piece of tar and were faced with a fairly rough sand road which ranged from hard to soft sand, smooth to rutted surface with potholes everywhere to actually quite pleasant. This was to be our last piece of hectic road for what would be a long time (we would have been more overjoyed at the time had we known this).

We entered Malawi on a beautiful piece of tar road all the way to Mulanje, a real contrast when the sand stops and tar starts! Mulanje is a spectacular place. Framed by a massive mountain which literally rises like a fortress out of the surrounding area! (Thanks Toto for that line!). Below the mountain, and all around the town, are field upon field of tea plantation. If you have never seen a tea plantation before then you have never seen how many possible shades of green exist in the spectrum of light! It is breath-taking to behold. Time seems to pass slowly in tea plantations; there is lethargic rhythm with which work is carried out. Tea pickers saunter through the fields selecting the best leaves, at some point a tractor arrives to collect the days pickings and then that seems to conclude the days efforts as far as collecting tea is concerned. The spray operators then have their time in the sun as they ensure water is sprayed across each of the myriad fields of tea. It all seems so well orchestrated, but over a long time!

From Mulanje we travelled a short distance to Blantyre, where we stayed at the notorious Doodles. It was a Thursday and we had originally planned to pitch the roof top tent in the car park at Doodles. Bloody good thing we didn’t! By 6pm the bar at Doodles was a melee of punters comprised of fashionably dressed locals, young ex-pats and a smattering of travellers. It was a good old does of “phuza Thursday” like back home!! So our welcome to Blantyre was memorable. In general the city is a very pleasant place; the streets clean, the road system well maintained and organised and there is a lot going on. A real hive of activity! Liz and I have had many discussions about how much we enjoyed Blantyre! We stocked up at the Shoprite, popped into the Game for some bit and pieces and headed to our first Malawi bush destination: Lengwe National Park.

Lengwe is to the south-west of Blantyre around 2 hours drive down a lovely escarpment onto a very flat terrain in which the park lies. We crossed the Shire River (pronounced She-ree locally) and headed into the park. We stayed at the Nyala Lodge which is the only private concession in the park and has a lovely campsite set into the bush. We spent a very chilled out and relaxing 2 nights there and did some lovely game drives. We added a new bird species to our list, the Bohms Bee-eater. We also had a sighting of a pair of water monitor lizards mating!! The reserve is well stocked with impala, nyala, bushbuck, suni, warthog and buffalo although the buffalo did manage to allude us! The local troop of vervet monkeys entertained us around the pool. There are a number of lovely hides which are excellent for morning coffee and a chance to observe the game and bird life. Lengwe was a lovely reserve, seemingly well run, but a little less diverse in terms of the game species.

From Lengwe we travelled back up the escarpment and onwards to Liwonde National Park. Here we stayed at Wilderness Safaris’ Mvuu Camp. A lovely spot right on the Shire River which is absolutely teeming with hippo and crocodiles! Here we bumped into some friends we had made back in Gorongosa, Jimmy and Kinnie, who are doing a long East Africa trip in “Big Mama” their converted Land Cruiser 70 camper home! Liwonde is a lovely reserve! Well worth the visit if in Malawi. There is a lovely range of game species, many great bird sightings and elephants roaming up and down the river banks. We did a lovely long game drive on the second day and really explored the surrounding bush.

The sky was a little overcast but that didn’t deter us and we were rewarded with a fantastic sighting of hippo out of the water and more feeding close to the banks! We stopped and watched for nearly an hour I reckon! After 2 nights in Liwonde it was time to move on again and this time to leave the bush and start our journey up the Malawi Lake shoreline.

We travelled up to Cape MacClear, around the corner from Monkey Bay. We stayed at Fat Monkeys which is right on the lake with some endless views out over the lake to the north and west. The small campsite soon started filling up over the course of the next day! Loads of people going in both directions up and down the lake from all over the world; Netherlands, England, South Africa, Australia! We did a boat trip out to Domwe island and snorkelled with the Cichlids which the lake is known for. I read that there are over 400 species of Cichlid in the lake, and only 18 of these occur anywhere else in the world, that’s 382 endemic species! After the snorkelling we were then taken around the island a short way in order to feed the fisheagles! This practice involves a few rather small fish (around the width of your palm) which are thrown into the water after much whistling, shouting, waving and other secret gestures at the closest fisheagle to the boat! It is then with great anticipation that one waits as more whistling, shouting, waving and other secret gestures ensues until finally the fisheagle swoops from its perch and snaps the bar-snack sized fish from the surface of the lake! All a little contrived for my liking, considering we are in a national marine park. However it was nice to see a fisheagle “hunting” up close. We had a lovely fish braai on the last night, and I tried my hand at the fish in beer batter recipe I was shown in Ponto do Ouro which was a great success, delicious!

From Cape MacClear we moved up to Nkhotakota to the newly opened Bua River Lodge which is inside the Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve. The reserve is fairly difficult to move around in with all the dense broad-leaf savannah but the game is around and about. We stayed just a single night along the banks of the Bua river in the lovely campsite and even got to eat at a table with chairs – how civilised! Self driving was not an option due to the dense bush and lack of defined vehicle paths, so we kept moving north to where we are now; Kande Beach Resort.

In the time it has taken me to write this blog 2 more overland trucks have arrived, bringing the total to 3, tonight promises to be a festive time in the bar! Kande Beach is a bit of a legend along the northern lakeshore, it is renowned as an overlander stop over whether you are travelling by foot, bicycle, truck or car. Hence we had to come here to check it out. I decided that this would be the spot where I would dive on the lake, so this morning I went out for a dive around the tiny island just off the beach. This involved a short trip in what is the smallest dive boat I have ever been on. It was just myself and the dive leader, Elise who is from Cape Town, on the boat. We arrived at the dive site, which is marked off with a buoy which is also a handy spot to tie the boat to while we dived! What a lovely dive: a myriad of different coloured cichlids! We stopped to watch the mouth-breeders mommies protecting the brood by taking them into their mouths! What a site to see!

So Malawi thus far has been most enjoyable. The people are extremely good-natured and always willing to help albeit sometimes too keen in the case of the beach boys who prowl the front of the beach resorts plying their trade and peddling their wares. They simply do not understand “ No thank-you”, “we have one”, “we have already arranged a boat ride” and so on! You just have to laugh it off! The chewing of sugar cane is a national pastime along with the riding of bicycles. I estimate that there may be more bicycles than people in Malawi. Bicycles are used to carry anything; people (up to 4 on one bike we have seen), massive piles of wood which look like an entire tree trunk sectioned up and strapped on, goats, banana’s, chickens, pigs, charcoal... anything! There is even such a thing as a bicycle taxi which involves a driver sitting on the seat of the bicycle, and the fare paying passenger on a make-shift seat which juts out over the back wheel. For a small fare you can be peddled anywhere it seems!

Malawi really is an awesome place to travel. Good roads, good people and wonderful places to camp and stay!

Another rather long blog I am afraid, but we had to catch you all up while we think there may be an internet cafe capable of uploading the blog! Until next time, keep well and hope all is well where you are! Soccer fever is but days away!!! We will be getting our vuvuzela out soon. Viva!!

PS Managed to upload this on Sunday! Woop!

Mozambique Part 2 - Gorongosa

2010-05-25T08:57:00.000+02:00

Still on the beautiful coastline of Mozambique, we arrived in Vilanculos, the place from which you can explore the Bazaruto Archipelago. Our first impressions of the town were a little disappointing as it is quite run down, but it has its fair share of accommodation, markets and beaches. We opted for Baobab Backpackers (as the name implies there are in fact baobabs on the beach!) which is a great spot away from town with a lovely beachfront and a dive charter attached. We treated ourselves to a cassita which is a typical Mozambican reed hut which isn’t quite mozzie proof but it’s lovely in the morning when the light filters through the reeds.

We spent a few days in Vilanculos exploring the town, meeting interesting people and also going to the islands of Bazaruto and Benguerra. We did a day trip out which included a rather wet and wild boat ride the 30km out to the islands then some diving and snorkelling on the reef. Despite taking my sea sick pills, the boat ride left me pretty nauseous, so I was glad to get in the water and lose myself in the underwater world. After the first dive we got dropped off on the very southern tip of Bazaruto island, which is just what you would expect: white soft sand, blue sky, dunes and shady trees and no people J Spent a few hours relaxing and snoozing during which time John had another dive. It was beautiful and highly recommended – you can also do the trip in a dhow which is more traditional. We had a great calamari and prawn braai with three adventurer guys from SA, one who had just canoed the Zambezi from source to sea, one which was riding a motorbike from Cyprus to Cape Town and one who is organising an epic mountain bike race on the Knysna coast. A wealth of stories was told that evening.

After 3 lazy days in sunshine we left for Gorongosa National Park, our main focus in Mozambique (http://www.gorongosa.net/). The park has undergone some major restoration and rejuvenation thanks to some funding from donors and the Carr Foundation which runs the Gorongosa Restoration Project. Chitengo camp has all the facilities you need; lovely chalets, camping, free wireless internet (!!!), a pool and a restaurant. Unfortunately due to some late rains, we were not able to self drive in the park, but they offer morning or afternoon game drives. The park itself is absolutely stunning! The vegetation is so diverse with palms, baobabs, bushveld, rivers with floodplains and mountains. The game is just as diverse and in only a few drives we have seen waterbuck, oribi, sable, elephant, lion, bushbuck, nyala, reedbuck, bushpig, crocs, hippo, porcupine, bushbaby, genet, civit, lots of warthogs and baboon and amazing birdlife. Just to brag a bit to the birders out there, we saw the black fronted bush shrike, livingstones turaco and the green headed oriole, all pretty damn rare to see.

We met up with Jos and Rob Janisch who run Explore Gorongoza; the only private concession in the Park. They have a beautiful setting in the reserve and setup 5 star luxury tented camp every year there, it reallystunning setup and spectacular location. Check them out on http://www.exploregorongosa.com/. We were given a full guided tour of their camp and we were so impressed with their set up, which is based on the principles of using renewable and locally made products, having a low impact, and ensuring the camp is totally mobile so it can removed in the wet season when the park closes as it is mostly underwater!

They very kindly offered to show us what it is like to manage a camp so we stayed a night out there with them when they had guests. We are full of admiration for their energy and professionalism as it is hard work, and if the bush is your passion, it’s worth the effort. They also invited us to hike up Mount Gorongosa with their guests, which would turn out to be a two day epic adventure.

We started off helping Jos to set up a base camp where we all spent the night in preparation for the hike the next day. We set off around 7am, albeit John and I were perhaps not as prepared for the hike as we should have been, with me using a chair cover as my backpack and plastic bags as waterproofing and a yoga mat for a mattress!! The rain started about half an hour in and did not stop for 24 solid hours. The walk starts off over meandering hills, past waterfalls, over streams and through small homesteads where children gape wide eyed and shyly run away when you greet them. This part of the mountain has been severely affected by slash and burn and consists mostly of crops and fruit trees. But then you reach the rainforest which is the protected part of the mountain. Here the walk becomes a hike as you clamber over boulders, under trees, through gushing water and over slippery mud, with the gradient getting ever steeper. After 6.5 hours we made it to the top, which opens up onto a plateau with huge rock faces which offered limited protection from the rain, but provided a cosy spot to recover in. After some lunch everyone’s spirits were lifted and we set about pitching tents, finding wood for fire and keeping warm and dry. After an early braai with the rain still pouring, everyone went to bed to try get warm in their damp sleeping bags.

In the morning, the fog was thick, but the rain had stopped so we quickly put on our cold wet clothes and packed up camp. On the way down (sometimes slipping and sliding) we could appreciate our surroundings a bit more, especially the beautiful rain forest. Although the hike was challenging and a bit wet, it’s those moments that give you a greater appreciation of a warm, dry bed and hot shower. Needless to say John and I were incapacitated the next 2 days and spent most of it sitting still!

John played some radio-radio (see pic) and I caught up on emails on the free wireless in camp (Africa is no longer the dark continent!)

I am truly amazed at the diversity of people we are meeting, and all the awesome things they are doing. There is also a great vibe in a campsite, where all the campers meet and greet and share stories (and charcoal) over a drink by a communal fire. It is very inspiring and has really got me thinking about our path in life. I have also been touched by the overwhelming friendliness and camaraderie in travellers. Coming from city life, where even your neighbours barely greet you and everyone is always ‘too busy’ to enjoy the real things in life, it adds to my theory that being out in nature really does wonders for the soul. There is a quote I found that rings true to me: ‘when one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world’ – John Muir.

Finally I would like to welcome into the world Jasper Boyd and Emma Cameron, both born Friday 14^th May. We hope you grow to love and enjoy nature as we do.

Seeing as this blog is quite a long one, we will forego the usual quiz and include one for the next blog (I know most of you can hardly wait!). I realised we forgot to include the answer to the last one – the black thing that resembled a snake was in fact a Giant Legless Skink. Thanks for trying Peter and Robert but the prize for best effort goes to Jonathan Nel who exchanged many sms’s in an effort to convince us that his answer was correct. We admit we did have a second look at the books to confirm!

Hakuna Matata

Liz

PS - John has uploaded lots of pictures to our web album at http://picasaweb.google.com/ravetoad

Mozambique Part 1

2010-05-10T16:03:00.000+02:00

It is a little over three weeks now since we departed from Johannesburg on this trip. It really does feel like we have been going a lot longer. At present we are in Mozambique in Vilanculos. The only place we had been to in Mozambique prior to this trip was Ponto do Ouro for the diving. We chose therefore to start off here, with something familiar to ease us into Mozambique. We entered Mozambique via Manguzi and Kosi Bay in South Africa and made the short sand road trip into Ponto do Ouro.

We spent 2 nights at Simply Scuba, and it was the quietest 2 nights I have ever spent in Ponto do Ouro. Ponto has a simple beauty about it at these quiet times, no squadrons of quad bikes, no tent city. Just sun, sand, waves, rum and diving. I did a single dive on the Saturday in what was the best underwater conditions I have ever dived, clear visibility in excess of 20m!! Top-to-bottom as we say!

We set off on Sunday for Maputo. We took the sand roads which run directly north out of Ponto do Ouro which we had previously heard a lot about! They were not that bad at all, before we knew it we were at Catembe at the southern edge of Maputo Bay waiting for the car ferry into Maputo and what a great view of the city from across the bay.

Maputo is a crazy town! It really has a wonderful hustle-bustle vibe to it. From all external appearances it seems run down, dilapidated dirty and tired. But, it has a lot of energy and is being rejuvenated. Museums are being renovated, there are brand new high-rise buildings going up and generally it seems to be moving forward at a great pace. We managed to get out to the famous Costa del Sol restaurant which was founded by a Greek and according to the blurb on their menu he invented the dish ‘LM Prawns’ on this very location. Just down the road is the Maputo Fish market. We were sad that we had already eaten by the time we visited it, as the fresh fish on offer (which can be prepared and cooked for you at the market) looked absolutely divine. Live prawns at least a foot long, crayfish twice that size, crab, barracuda, it was all so inviting!

After 3 nights in Maputo we decided it was time to move on, our next destination was the sleepy holiday-maker town of Bilene. A place heavily influenced by the droves of South African holiday-makers who flock there over December and April. But, during this time of the year it really does sleep! We camped in an excellent campsite at Complexo Palmeiras right on a massive lagoon which is located between Bilene and the headland at the sea around 2km away to the east. We were after some fresh prawns, and there was no shortage of gillies who were more than obliging. On the second evening we were offered around 500g of mixed sizes for 100MT (R22!) the going rate for a kilogram of medium prawns (had they had any, they were in short supply at the time) was 250MT (R55!). The campsite was full of some interesting wildlife, mostly lovely birds (the feathered kind); natal robin, gorgeous bush shrikes, purple turaco and a pair of spotted eagle owls which hunted on the beach at night! We even had a red billed fire finch sitting on our boxes in the boot singing away.

After 2 nights in Bilene we continued northwards up to Tofo, which is 22km from Inhambane. We were warned that this particular route has terrible road conditions. The picture speaks for itself really; this is the EN1, a national “highway”. The Chinese are in here relaying long sections, it was interesting to see the Chinese heavy machine equipment drivers in amongst the Mozambican workers! Complete with Chinese registered road works vehicles!!

The 382km trip took us just on 6 hours. Tofo is a little bit bigger than Ponto do Ouro with a similar vibe about it. Many beach bars, backpacker hostels, and a very sandy town “centre”. I managed to drink 1 too many Tipo Tinto (local rum; 1 part methanol to 1 part sugar, me thinks) and Sparletta last night. So it is with a heavy head that I sat and started write this blog on Saturday! But the old Rum & Raspberry as it’s called is something that everyone must experience at least just the once. Now I, however, can never remember what they taste like?! So I have to keep sampling them... resulting in my present state, every single time. “You’d think you would’ve learnt by now” reverberates around inside my head with Liz repeating it every so often throughout the morning just to amplify the reverberation and to ensure that it drones on, and on. But at least I have gotten that matter out of my system!

So we will head further north into the Gorongosa National Park for an extended period. Our experience of Mozambique thus far is excellent. White sandy beaches, laid back attitude, friendly but not too in-your-face people, coconuts, cashews and seafood, tropical vegetation, palm trees, bright coloured sarongs and bustling market places. There is a lot of development taking place with many South Africans building houses along the coast, which is good I suppose, but we are hoping to hit more remote areas as we travel north. Looking forward to it!!

Hope that you are all well, we could be out of touch for a while; cable break affecting northern Mozambique.

Ciao, John.

This is the EN1 between Tofo and Vilanculos. It is a national road; note where you have to drive.

Ndumo Game Reserve

2010-04-26T08:52:00.000+02:00

On the 15^th March we finally managed to get back on the road, and although we had tried to down scale in terms of gear and essential items, we were still bursting at the seams! Our destination was east towards the Mozambique border and en route we were going to pop into the Ndumo Game Reserve. This small but unique reserve is on the border with Mozambique and includes numerous pans and rivers which make it a birders paradise.

We would be staying in an old private lodge in the reserve which is in the process of changing hands and being refurbished to begin operating again. We would be a fresh pair of eyes for them and intended to help out where we could, write a camp assessment report, as well as do other bits and bobs.

Acclimatising back to bush life takes a few days. At first I jumped at every rustle and thump, freaked out when I walked into spider’s webs and was deafened by the birds and insects. But after a few days instead of quickening my pace at a noise, I went to investigate it. I hardly notice when I walk through the daily string of webs and I have become accustomed to the subtle changes in birdsong and insect noises. In fact, if you listen closely at night, it’s almost like an orchestra is playing, with the crickets and cicadas on strings, frogs on melody, birds on chorus and hippo on bass –a wonderful symphony to lull you to sleep.

We spent the first few days looking around the camp and marvelling at what has survived the 5 years of degradation in the bush. There are 4 staff members who were on hand to help, grateful to have something to do for a change, although communication was at times interesting.

We managed to hand winch (by making use of the Hi-Lift jack) the birding boat out of the crocodile and hippo infested waters. It has been sitting buried in silt for over 3 years and it took 4 men over two days to get it out of the river, cleaned and ready for action.

Fikele and I cleared out rooms filled with old blankets, furniture, kitchen stuff etc. While cleaning out the old reception desk I pulled out a large round pottery bowl and got a fright when I saw something snakelike inside of it. After letting off a little shriek and asking Fikele for her broom I soon realised it was just a snake skin – but a large one at that. Fikele was not convinced and swiftly moved out of the room, broom at the ready. After showing her it was indeed just a skin, she was even more worried, as that meant the real thing was lurking around. I had not really considered this before, and I continued with much more caution. I was, in fact, quite surprised we didn’t come across too many ‘live in’ guests. Most of it was either dead or decaying and evidence of bats and rats who are slowly taking up residence.

In between the mud and dust, we have had some great game drives. We saw 5 white Rhino in one morning, as well as porcupine, green mamba, forest cobra, tortoise, water monitors and lots of Nyala, which I always think of as the Bambi of the bush. The birdlife is also awesome with lots of new birds for me such as the white eared barbets, eastern nicator, yellow rumped tinkerbird, forest weavers, crested guinea fowl and a host of various water birds.

The resident hippo decided one afternoon to pop up in front of us and say ‘Hi’, then headed back upstream, no doubt to report back to his local gang, who went rather quiet for a few days after that! There are a family of warthogs who spend all morning and afternoon foraging around camp, their cute faces giving you curious looks or is that a toss-me-morsel look. Due to the camp having been very quiet, there is wildlife all around.

After a week of no contact with any other folk we met up with Peter; the local ‘croc guy’ who is doing some research on crocodiles out here. He took us up the Pongola River for a few hours which was great, and we watched the rugby at the Ndumo River Lodge with some of the locals. It was a good night out. The plan is that we will be here a few more days, and then to make the great trek North – all very exciting. Hope you all keep well and please let us know of any news your side of the world.

And now for our quiz...

For those of you who are new to the Blog, I do a photo ID quiz with each Blog. Prizes are nonexistent so your award is nothing more than bragging rights.

Apologies the results of the last quiz are so late. I realised afterwards that the question was a bit ambiguous as there are a number of very endangered species in SA, each in their own category. However the most commonly accepted answer for SA’s most endangered species is the Riverine Rabbit, which has a very limited habitat range in the Karoo. Well done to Robert Botha and John Woolcott.

The quiz for this week: What creature is this? It appeared on the access road to camp just after rain and was about 40cm long. Do not lose an arm and a leg over it though, enjoy!

Love Liz

Of gadgets, fittings and fixtures...

2010-04-14T20:56:00.000+02:00

Well, it has been a long time since we last posted a Blog. We have been in Johannesburg dealing with matters of my 30th birthday, assisting my Mom with some work around the house and so on.

With our departure set for tomorrow morning, I decided it was time to sit down and write this blog (yes, I had been threatening to write this since I started on the first leg). We have all sorts to Blog about, so will more than likely have another Blog out to you all over the coming weekend!

So without any more delay, these are the details of what we are travelling in, what it is fitted with, what is fixed to it and so on.

Disclaimer: This is a technical blog, if you are not technical or have no interest in technical things then you continue reading at your own risk. (Yes risk; of being bored to death). But maybe you will like the pictures?

The Vehicle

1996 Toyota Land Cruiser 80 Series GX

- 4500cc, 6 cylinder (straight)
- Average fuel consumption 4.5km/l (22.2l/100km)
- Present mileage 123,500km (Start of the trip was 117,000km or thereabouts)

Items fitted to the vehicle
Items that were on the vehicle when we took it over:

Jacking points and tow bar points front and rear.
East Coast Bullbars - Aluminium bumper replacement front (Australian product which was fitted to these vehicles when Honeydew Toyota delivered them to new owners).
Pair of run fairly ordinary Warn spot lights.

Items that we have added with our trip in mind:

180L long range feul tank (Baillies Offroad) bolted to the chassis in the rear where the spare wheel used to live under the vehicle making total onboard fuel of 275L our range then being around 1150km with contingency of around 100km.
35L water container bolted to the chassis under the front passenger (Baillies Offroad).
Bolt on spare wheel carrier for the wheel that came out from under the car. (IEF Engineering).
Safari Snorkel raised air intake (Baillies Offroad) this is not there so that I can go and wade across rivers up to 1.2m depth, but rather as a clean, cool source of air for the engine.
2.1m aluminium gutter mounted roof-rack (African Outback)

Aluminium table and slide under the roof rack (African Outback).
Tentco 1.4m roof top tent.
Tentco canvas awning on the rear of the roof rack.
Hi-Lift 1.5m jack mounted to the side of the roof rack.
Small gas cylinder bracket for a singlke gas cylinder.
90W Tenesol solar panel (produces around 5A at full solar exposure, this charges the 12V auxillary power circuit described below).

Old Man Emu shock absorbers and springs front and rear (Baillies Offroad).
Old Man Emu steering shock absorber and caster correction bushes (Baillies Offroad).
BF Goodrich 275/70/16 All-Terrain tyres x 6 (I got a really good deal on the tyres so purchased 6 as this allows me to rotate even numbers of wheels). These specific tyres are hellishly difficult to balance for some reason, the only person who can balance them properly is Peter at SupaQuik Paulshof! He is a master!

Items inside the vehicle

12V auxillary power circuit

2 deepcycle batteries: 102Ah in the spare battery bay under the bonnet, and a 105Ah in a battery box in the rear load area.
Mix of 12V sockets added to the front arm rest console and to the rear of the vehicle.
Power distribution box with circuit breakers to isolate each of the circuits, there are 6 circuits: Radio, Inverter, Power sockets front x2, Power sockets rear x2.
Steca 10A solar charge controller with LCD disply for present state of charge and current flowing to the battery and to the consumption side which is the fridge/freezer.
Solenoid controlled alternator charge can be applied to the auxillary circuit with a manual switch on the dashboard.
12V to 220V inverter with plug socket in the rear load area.

Roller drawer storage system (Frontrunner) which fits 6 low-lid ammo boxes for packing of items.
40L Stainless Steel fridge/freezer (National Luna).
Slider for fridge (Front Runner) to facilitate easy access to the fridge.
Communications

Icom IC-7000 All band, all mode HF/VHF/UHF transceiver
Matching Icom Antenna Tuning Unit
108" steel whip antenna for HF (Webb Industries)
Dual Band VHF/UHF antenna (Diamond Antennas)

Garmin GPSMAP 60 CSx loaded with Tracks4Africa.
12V air compressor for inflating tyres.
ARB tyre deflator for accurately lowering tyre pressure for different terrains.

Items carried lose inside the vehicle:

4-man ground tent (Outdoor Warehouse).
2 camping chairs (Makro).
Acer Aspire One Netbook for e-mails and internet.
3G USB data card.
Poynting 3G window mount and roof mounted antennas (these have been loaned to us for the trip, thanks very much Ylana at Poynting! Check them out at http://www.poyntingdirect.co.za/).
Nikon D50 SLR Camera with various telephoto and wide-angle lenses.
Canon FS200 SD Video Camera.

Well that about sums up the kit on and in the car, it is amazing that we fit anything else in!!

We will give some feedback on what we find works, what we would perhaps change and what other good gadgets we come across with other travellers. What we did find is that doing it yourself is a lot cheaper than buying it all, but it just depends on your budget and DIY skills. We have probably gone a bit overboard in some respects but sometimes you have to learn your lessons the hard way!

Lessons learnt

2010-03-22T10:21:00.001+02:00

We have been back in JHB for a few weeks now, which has given us some time to think of what we would have changed and what lessons we have learnt thus far. The following list should be reviewed by those planning such a trip. While some of these may seem logical, we are still newbies to all of this, so some lessons we learnt the hard way. I have also added in some photos for your viewing pleasure.

1. Pack what you need first, last i.e. ground tent should not be packed underneath everything else in the boot!
2. 1 driver, 1 navigator, and never the roles to be confused.

3. Weather affects mood: sunshine = happiness, rain = grumpy
4. Water and dust will always find a way into the car!
5. Don’t pass blame, feel guilty or hold grudges, there is just no space for them on such a trip.

6. ‘She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes’ only lasts so many verses in the Drakensburg and Lesotho.
7. When peeing from a rooftop tent in the middle of the night, ensure you have tucked away clothing and your wife is not below you!
8. While it can be lots of fun aiming for fresh cow patties on the road to hear them ‘whoosh’ under the wheels, the smell of your car a few days later makes this a bad idea.
9. Be wary when stopping for a pee in Lesotho and the Wild Coast – there are herd boys and children everywhere, which explains the snigger you hear as you stand to pull up your pants.

10. While travelling, you will often feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude, one of the most powerful emotions. You will always find so much to be grateful for.
11. Don’t give begging kids sweets, seriously. This is destroying the communities and encouraging a culture of begging, associated with violence when tourists don’t comply. Rather try to spend money locally, get involved with locally run projects or initiatives and donate clothes, stationary or food to local schools and needy homes.
12. Cable ties can solve almost any car related problem – ensure you have an ample supply in all sizes.

13. A vehicle can serve many purposes – transport, shelter, storage, place of safety from wild animals, boat, laundry, etc so make sure you look after it and treat it with love.
14. When descending down the other side of a 3,000m mountain pass, use your gears rather than the breaks as ours failed just as we reached the bottom, whew!

15. When trying to dodge farmyard animals on the raod, dokeys and cattle are predictable, goats, geese and dogs are not!

16. Its very useful reading other peoples blogs who have gone before you. They provide some great insight into possible probems and places to stay. Likewise for friends who have advice, as we should learn from others not try prove how macho we are.

We have also updated the blog site so for those of you who receive the blog by email, it might be nice to pop into the blog and have a look from time to time. http://therusticramble.blogspot.com/.

We have had quite a few queries as to where we are going to be travelling this year so here is our diary as it currently looks:

April, May, June, July = Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

July = Megwe camp in Botswana to work on roads and attend AGM then back for 2 weeks or so to prepare for rest of year.

August = Pafuri, Kruger National Park, doing our Trails Guide qualification.

September = Hogsback assisting with Cape Parrot and Samango Monkey research.

October = in Namibia working on an insect research project.

November = through Caprivi to Okavango, depending on rains.

We will then decide what to do after November, which will probably ential heading up to Kenya and Uganda.

We have enjoyed our time in JHB with our friends and family and spending time with Josie, our cat, who seems a bit impartial to our returrn! But we are now starting to get itchy feet and are looking forward to heading off again.

QUIZ TIME

Ok many of you are far too lazy to actually open a book to look up the items in our quiz. So this time I have given you a quick question which I am sure those with google in front of them can even take part in.

Q: What is South Africa's most endangered species?

I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend and I am sure we will be seeing some of you before we depart again. We are busy purchasing more reading material for our next trip so if anyone has read anything good lately, let me know.

Love Liz and John

Lesotho to Clarens and JHB

2010-03-07T17:58:00.000+02:00

On the way back to JHB we decided to do the scenic route through Lesotho. From the south-west we entered through Telle Gate bridge - after nervously hiding all the booze and other incriminating goods, we got the usual sleepy welcome and waved on through. Driving into Lesotho is like entering a time warp,going back 100 years. The people were all very friendly, lots of smiles and waves with a dress code of gum boots, blanket around the shoulders, stick for protection and horse/donkey/ox in tow.

Lesotho, which is aptly called the 'Roof of Africa' is famous for mountain scenary, dinosaur footprints, waterfalls, 4x4 routes (which include sections of the national roads), san paintings and pony trekking so it was promising to be an action packed few days. Our first direction was west passed the typical african town of Quthing, where we stopped to see some 180 million year old dinosaur footprints!!! Quite mind boggling really. We then followed the stunning Senqu River (which becomes the Orange River in SA) to the west towards Qacha's Nek and we stopped off at the community owned Mount Moorosi Chalets, which are 4km of the main road, surrounded by beautiful scenary. Very basic huts, but nice and clean. We were the only people there so we chilled for the afternoon while a passing rain shower provided some ambiance. John spent some time playing 'radio-radio' as we were in a rather sought after 'grid' which people were trying to tick off!!

The next morning we drove back down the same road (which can look totally different with some sunshine), and up to 2400masl then further north on the tar, before turning off onto the dirt towards the rather well known Malealea Lodge. Again the most beautiful scenary around every corner and the lodge itself is quite big and caters for all types of accommodation. We opted for camping as the facilities were all top notch and we were again the only people in the campsite. The local choir and band performed for us before dinner which provided some good entertainment. Shared dinner and a few drinks with some British blokes who organise car rally holidays around various countries and they were scouting out an SA route for 2011. Went to bed amidst a summer thunderstorm, as seems to be the tradition whenever we use the roof top tent!

Arose to a beautiful day so we hit the road and stopped off at a local waterfall. We were heading to Semokong lodge right in the center of Lesotho. Just when we thought we were done with bad roads of the wild coast, we soon learned that Lesotho has its fair share of 4x4 roads as well.
Six hours, and 110km later, we made it to our destination, after experiencing a weird storm with hail and rainbows, assisting a cash in transit vehicle to change a tyre (which involved removing the rear bumper, as you do) and driving through roads which had turned into rivers!! The Semokong lodge is also very large and well established with a number of different activities on offer. We set up camp which was right on a river and very scenic.

After much coaxing I managed to convince John of not only doing the 204m extreme abseil down a waterfall, but also of getting onto a pony (he hadn't been on a horse in 15 years). So Saturday morning was spent practising for our big abseil down the worlds largest commercially operated abseil, followed by a lovely horse ride to the Maletsunyane falls, the longest single drop falls in Southern Africa (184m). It was great to spend some time on horseback at the pace of the villagers and watch local life pass you by. Donkeys carrying maize and people, children and chickens running around, washing being done in the rivers, elders sitting smoking pipes and herd boys tending to their flocks of various beasts. The young black kids are the cutest things, as they get very excited to see you and give you the biggest smile and wave, powerful stuff.

Sunday we were up early and headed to the top of the falls for our monumental abseil. Unfortunatley John and I had picked up a bug from somewhere and were not feeling particularly olympic but we were in too deep to go back so we bit the bullet, put on the harness and threw ourselves over the 204m edge - EISH! It was actually great fun and with adrenalin pumping through our bodies and we each made our way down to the bottom of the falls, where the spray from the 'place of smoke' was both scary and refreshing. Of course what goes down, must come up, and the 1hr hike back up the gorge nearly killed us, resulting in a serious afternoon nap, followed by an early bed, exhausted.

Decided to take the rest of the holiday easy so we drove through Maseru (mainly so John could get KFC) and onto the tar road to Katse dam, where we were planning at staying at Bokong Nature reserve, only to be told the only accommodation is a hikers hut, over 1km away over the mountains! (they really should include this type of info in their brochures!) So we nervously headed into the local village and found a very sweet place to stay which even had with an en-suite bathroom - luxury (especially when you have a tummy bug)!

The drive to Katse dam is absolutely stunning, with lots of winding roads and views of the crystal clear water. The next day we did a tour of the Katse dam (for R10 one can't not really!) which was fascinating, followed by a visit to the local botanical gardens where a lot of the plants rescued from the dam had been relocated to.

We bought ourselves a couple of spiral aloes - the national flower of Lesotho. Hopefully they thrive in JHB. After that we headed north through the Calendon Port border post and arrived in Clarens, where we checked into the Clarens inn and backpackers and stayed in the "Honeymoon suite" which included an apartment style accommodation for the grand sum of R150pp.

Spent the next morning exploring Clarens, which is such a cute little town with lovely galleries, arty farty shops and resturants. Feeling a little homesick and having run out of money by now, we headed for home and made it back in time for afternoon tea.

So for now we will be in JHB for March while we plot the next part of our journey. We will do a couple more blogs this month so dont dispair for those blog junkies - John will do a gizmo and gadget blog for all the techno car junkies and I will do a lessons learnt blog, with a quiz attached :) For now, we are spending time catching up with friends and family, making some modifications to the car and planning the next 4 months. Any suggestions are welcome - so far we are thinking Mozambique, Zim and Malawi.

Sale Hantle (South Sotho for Stay Well)

Cintsa to Hogsback

2010-03-02T21:05:00.000+02:00

Wow, it has been a LONG while since the last blog. Simply because we have been lost in Lesotho since the 24th of Feb! So it is time to catch you all up on Cintsa and Hogsback.

From Dwesa we travelled further south to Cintsa which is around 40km north of East London, and would be our final stop along the Wild Coast. We were yearning for some civilisation and yet wanted a little rustic location, so Cintsa it was. We checked into the campsite at Buccaneers Backpackers in Cintsa West, a lovely place which was really well setup and had a brilliant new campsite complete with awesome outdoor showers and well equipped communal kitchen and dining area, not to mention it was close to the pool and bar.

We met a British couple, Mark and Julia, who are adventuring through “Africaland” after having completed a work stint here in SA. Mark and Julia were signed up for a surf lesson, so Liz jumped onto the concept and so the next morning it was off to surf school, but not before a good old braai and the imbibing of rum and wine at levels that can only be described as “antibiotic”. So off we went to the beach with hangovers the next morning! Surfing turns out to be some contrived “sport” which entails causing massive bodily bruising, mostly to the knees, shins, elbows and chest (as well as the ego). That is just while learning to “stand” on a surf board.

After watching around 3 hours of these attempts in what are called “white waves” I was convinced that all the surfing I had ever watched on TV was the work of special effects gurus with a Steven Spielberg meets James Cameron production budget. Epic. Needless to say the video battery ran out, as did Liz’s stamina, before she managed to actually “surf”. To those who can stand and surf, you are legends!

Out first dose of civilisation since leaving Johannesburg was a trip to the Hemmingway’s Mall in East London for lunch and movie!! Liz was overly excited about seeing a Woolies and we stocked up big-time. Since the weather had become overcast, it seemed a good way to pass the time so we decided we had to watch Avatar, although not in 3D, before it went off circuit. We enjoyed the trip thoroughly, and the R28 parking fee at the end of an 8 hour day at the mall left us with a feeling of home again.

After 5 days of surfing, relaxing by the pool with beer and pizza, movie and mall and good company (this travelling thing really is fun), we packed up camp and headed up to Hogsback to meet Steve and Kirsten who are doing post-doctoral research on Cape Parrots and Samango Monkeys respectively. We wanted to get a feel for what their projects entail in order that we can volunteer on them later in the year.

Hogsback is an awesome little place nestled secretly into the Amatole mountains in the Eastern Cape. It is home to endemic species such as the Hogsback Frog, Amatole Toad and to some extent the Cape Parrot (it does occur elsewhere in the region but not in the same population numbers – perhaps only 1000 left in total in all areas!). We did some lovely hikes in the area; on the Friday we did a short hike to the top of a waterfall called the “Kettle Spout”.

On Saturday we did the roughly 8km hike through the forests below Hogsback to a the largest Yellowood tree in the area and then on to the “Madonna and Child” waterfall, spectacular scenery! On the Monday we went exploring with Kirsten up to the microwave tower through misty plantations and spotted a frog which intrigued us, we took a photo and recorded its call which we passed onto Les Minter (frog guru) who thinks it may be Caco family, it was a lot of fun trying to look the little fellow up in the myriad frog books available back at the house and listening to the frog call CD (yes I know we are nerds).

The Yellowood’s pods are the natural food source for the Cape Parrot. Hogsback was once almost completely surrounded by natural Yellowood forest which has been systematically logged over the past 50 years. This reduction in the Yellowood trees and their fruit in Hogsback and elsewhere in SA has left the Cape Parrot in a serious situation where it now has to seek other sources of food, less healthy sources. This less healthy ‘parrot food’ food (e.g. pecan nuts), combined with the lack of natural food source has lead to a collapse in the Cape Parrot population. The protection of the remaining Yellowood stands in the forest is therefore paramount to the survival of the Cape Parrot as it cannot sustainably eat other food which weakens their immune systems and leaves them susceptible to Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease (PBFD).

So after 4 nights of fantastic company, great food, good drinks around open fires in the evening with our human hosts as well as Casey and Plaasie our furry Jack Russell and Maltese/Russell friends, we decided it was time to move on towards Lesotho with a stopover in Lady Grey.

Steve and Kirsten have also agreed to have us back in September to do some volunteering on their projects, as they will both be away on project related matters and we are so excited to be back there! Thanks Steve and Kirsten for having us, and we look forward to September!

Results of the Grasshooper quiz
Thanks to Steve, Julia, James, Robert B, Glenda and the Viv's for their submissions to the quizmistress. Glenda had it first, followed closely by the Viv's. This is indeed the Elegant Grasshopper! Glenda and Tania even went as far as giving us its full scientific name - Zonocerus elegans - the diagnostic feature being their vivid colouration as well as orange eyes. We have a plant for the next quiz, so those of you who are zoologically challenged and are botanical experts should excel.

Beautiful Bulungula

2010-02-21T14:13:00.000+02:00

The road to Bulungula was once again very scenic with lovely little huts and villagers moseying around, dog in tow. The last stretch to Bulungula is for 4 x 4 only and we soon realised why. Thirty minutes to do 3km in low range – great fun and a cold beer at the end destination is always good motivation. This is the place where time disappears and you are surrounded by sea, rolling hills, donkeys, chickens and friendly villagers.

Bulungula is a chilled out eco-backpackers. Being literally in the middle of nowhere they need to be very self sufficient, to reduce waste and minimise use of water. They do this in a number of ways. The toilets are compost toilets – no water. Urine is separated into the front and the rest gets emptied into a removable bin and put into compost.

The showers are ‘rocket showers’ where you place a small amount of paraffin into the bottom of a long tube, light it, and this warms the water for 6 - 8 minutes, accompanied by the roar and spluttering of the burning – a real experience (John wants to install one immediately into whichever abode we end up in).

They burn most rubbish and all other waste gets driven to Mthatha. Rain water is used for drinking and spring water for everything else. The huts which are traditional Xhosa rondavels are all very simple but the entire place is beautifully painted in vibrant colours.

The view over the river mouth is stunning and they also pride themselves of being a non-begging village and where there are no locks on the door. The backpackers is part community owned and all the local activities are 100% owned by the community. The entire backpackers is also run on an honesty system where you write down all booze and food that you use.

We couldn’t resist the sunrise pancakes! We were up at 4:15am and accompanied by ‘Pinkie’ who carried everything on her head over the beach and dunes, still in the dark. After a lovely hot coffee we sat and watched the sunrise while our banana, caramel and chocolate pancakes were being cooked up on top of the dune – magical.

We spent the rest of the morning reading in the cool of the forest, that afternoon John went fishing – and even caught a little fishy. In the evenings the young boys from the village come over and drum round the fire – what a great vibe. I got them to teach me a few beats!

John and I decided the following day to do a tour with the local herbalist in the village. He took us to his house, showed us all his lotions and potions, then walked with us in the forest showing us plants and their uses. Hopefully we can remember them all for next time we are struck down by illness. That evening we feasted on muscles, oysters and crayfish that John and a new friend had gone to forage for that morning – out here they use crayfish for bait!! What a scrummy feast.

After our 3 wonderful nights at Bulungula we headed to Dwesa nature reserve. It was a scorching day (41 degrees) which meant every river or dam you passed was filled with smiling children and a number of farmyard animals (we daren’t stop to take a picture as they tend to run after you asking for sweets). When we arrived, our little log cabin in the forest was nice and cool, and surrounded by birds and monkeys. Dwesa is another great quiet reserve. There is camping and log cabins all very secluded in the forest where you can hear trumpeter hornbills, purple crested louries, kingfishers, fish eagles and southern boubou’s all afternoon. We spent the next couple of days exploring the reserve, walking along the tidal pools at the beach and went for a game drive with the guide Vuyani. That is the biggest drawback of the reserve - you are not allowed to self drive so you need to take the guide. Vuyani’s local knowledge is amazing and he is very passionate about conservation. We saw eland, pygmy kingfishers, narina trogon, zebra, cycads and all sorts that afternoon. This is also a great reserve to mountain bike in and Vuyani will take you on walks, cycling or driving.

From Dwesa we were not too sure where to head to but had heard good things about Cintsa so we turned the car in that direction and headed off. Next blog will foretell of sea, surfing and Hogsback.

The Quiz
These two insects were having some fun in the sun on our tent. Now I know it is a grasshopper – but which one? Please send entries to liz at toad dot co dot za.

Port and Coffee, perhaps?

2010-02-14T17:37:00.000+02:00

The drive to Port St John’s (PSJ as it is known by locals) was meandering and beautiful, with hills of forest vegetation and colourful huts dotted around the mountainous landscape. The town of PSJ isn’t great, but there was at least a Spar where we could stock up on some veggies. We decided to stay at the Amaponda backpackers on Second Beach which was a really chilled, funky backpackers, away from town with good views of the beach and surrounded by forest. I took to communal living instantly and was on the couch with a beer, conversing with the locals in no time. A word about the locals – yes, PSJ is a hippy town so don’t be surprised to see lots of dreads, jewellery, tie die and ganja smoking (in fairly copious amounts!). But despite all this, it was great fun and we met some very interesting people and drank lots of ice cold beer – a treat in the heat and sun.

Everyone was friendly and we spent 2 nights there and we went exploring the surrounding areas of Umngazi and Umngazana river mouths where there are mangrove swamps. Then up to the old airforce airfield on top of the mountain above PSJ where the views are spectacular! We also got up before sunrise to walk to the blowhole to see the sun rise. PSJ is a really beautiful place! We walked back through Ben Deckers ‘abode’ where he has lived for over 25 years – Robinson Cruisoe style in the forest on the beach – a legend along this coastline.

Who remembers this photograph? Well I had the opportunity to meet the photographer, Thomas Peschak and this is no fake. For full details see - http://www.thomaspeschak.com/. He was in PSJ doing research for his next book which is going to be about the interaction between humans and sharks around the world (not just the type of interaction where one is bitten by a shark). PSJ has had 4 fatal shark attacks in as little as 13 months, the most recent being 19 December 2009. Three of these were life guards and the fourth was a local boy. Thomas is exceptionally knowledgeable when it comes to sharks and he was very open and chatty for the two days that we were there. In addition to the research for his book, he was there to support Tim (the owner of Amapondo) who is campaigning to get the life guards back into the water as they haven’t been in since the last attack (and neither did we!).

They have been donated 4 Shark Shield devices which are an excellent repellent of sharks in the water by means of electric pulses. However they are unwieldy looking devices which essentially strap to a surfer, bather or ankle and trail around 5ft of cord in the water which allows the electric pulses to travel in the water. We had great fun down on the beach one afternoon while the shark shields were being demo’ed and tested for effecectiveness when strapped to a jet-ski or paddle-ski.

At PSJ we also met Howard and Bram who are writing a book focused on the rural soccer fields of South Africa and the people who play it. They chose PSJ to represent the Eastern Cape in the book, which will be a coffee table format with a lot of pictures. Look out for it when it releases, should be good. What this meant is that every morning and afternoon there was soccer on the beach, with Bram getting the guys to do all sorts of things for the camera (soccer related, of course). Soccer is huge in the Transkei and you see a ‘field’ in every village and on every beach.

From PSJ we headed to Coffee Bay, where we stayed at a place called White Clay. We stopped off at the Umngazi River Bungalows for a treat and had their famous braai buffet lunch. We then travelled on the “inland” route which took 4.5 hours to travel a little over 90km. Tough roads! We camped for two nights there, and had a lovely time, waking up each morning to the sea and the sunrise. Coffee Bay is a tiny place so there wasn’t much else to do there but relax, the place is known for its fishing and there are a lot of private fishing cottages which I imagine are used during the peak seasons. All the same a very picturesque place.

We spent a morning down the road at Hole in the Wall which is a stunning sight, literally a massive hole in a piece of rock which juts out of the ocean!

Had a great swim on a deserted beach with only the cows for company. We met a lovely couple, Mike and Barbara, who were “babysitting” the place while the owner was away which they do a various places for almost the entire year, what an enterprising business we thought!

From Coffee Bay we have made our way to Bulungula, a community run backpackers a little further on down the coast where we spent 3 nights, but more about that in Liz’ blog. Yes, there is that much to tell! What an awesome place, but let me not spoil it by saying anything more now.

Until then, keep well and regards to you all!

Results of the "Frog" quiz
Just because a frog is on a tree (not hair, Paul) does not make it a tree frog. However, in this case it is indeed a Tree Frog, but a very special sighting as it occurs only in an extremely limited distribution along the southern KZN coast and into around PSJ. This is a Forest Tree Frog (Leptopelis natalensis). Well done to:
Paul - your description was correct however it occurs in Cambodia, Steve A, Steve Nuns - no this is not Kermet, Sonia, Julia, Fred, Maggie and Kay.
Look out for the quiz in Liz' next blog and we hope more of you participate in this free service to learn a little about South Africa's awesome fauna and flora.

... and onto the Wild Coast!

2010-02-09T10:56:00.000+02:00

The wild coast is like nothing we have ever seen before. Best you stock up on food and petrol before you leave as the Wild Coast is a land of deserted beaches, dramatic scenery, dirt roads, sleepy villages and farmyard animals (and very little in terms of developed areas, just rural living here). It’s a blast from the past and a must do for anyone who hasn’t ventured out there yet.

We started off at the Mkambati Game Reserve – a haven for hikers (although many of the paths are totally overgrown), mountain bikers and anglers. The Gwe Gwe cottages are right on an awesome little beach and there are only 7 of them so you are more than likely to end up there on your own feeling deserted. There are more animals than people and no noise except the roar of the sea. There are great waterfalls, walks, antelope and birds and lots of peace and quiet.

The swimming is great as you have the sea as well as a number of rivers which are crystal clear and clean. The roads are worse for wear but that is half the fun. John finally got a chance to braai and we made our first potjie bread which we used to make a bean and lentil bunny chow - yum!

The reserve’s facilities have been seriously neglected, we visited the “reception” and main lodge, and found a place that was eerily deserted and seemingly unused. There is a building that once housed a butcher and shop, on peering through the window we could see all the equipment under a thick layer of dust. The main lodge is a magnificent building with stunning views of the Msikaba river mouth. It left us feeling a little dejected and with a feeling that this was once someone’s pride and joy, now near ruin. Land Claims, as we were told by the locals, are the issue; the whole of the reserve is under land claim, and the Eastern Cape government hasn’t spent a cent there as a result.

After 2 blissful nights at Mkambati, we headed south towards Mbotyi. Part of the journey was on tar, through the town of Lusikisiki -an interesting experience which we drove through with determination to leave it behind (doors locked and valuables under the seat - still in Joburg mode but we are slowly relaxing!).

Then onto the dirt road, to a community run camp site, which was a fantastically scenic drive through a MASSIVE tea plantation called Magwa. Mboyti pretty much consists of one spaza shop, one lodge and the community campsite adjoining it which is all surrounded by the rural huts and of course the cows, who seem to love sitting on the beach! We had our first experience of rowdy campers – a group of 5 turned up who proceeded to drink until they pretty much passed out. They made numerous drunken appeals for us to join them and eventually realised that we were actually trying to sleep in our roof top tent, they buggered off and continued to play their music and sing into the wee hours of the morning.

Our morning wake up call was however far more pleasant, this involved the morning chorus of birds and the assembly songs sung by the neighbouring junior school.

We decided to make it a one night stop and left the sleepy Mbotyi for Port St John’s. A few kilometres outside of Mbotyi, in the Magwa tea plantation, are the Fraser and Magwa Falls (142m high!). Awesome drop-offs of water that are very close to their final destination; the Indian Ocean. At Magwa falls we were greeted by a “guide” who could not have been more than 9 years old and whose answer to every question we asked as a simple “e-Yes”. He did well to guide us the 150m walk around the falls to the view site for which he was rewarded with R10 and some left over nuts we had in the car.

John will blog on the trip from Port St John’s to where we are now at Coffee Bay, all is well, hope you are too!

We decided that we would include a little quiz with each blog of the local fauna and flora, so below is a picture of a frog which we found on the Wild Coast. We would like for you to try and identify this frog.

E-Mail the quiz master, Liz - liz at toad dot co dot za (you need to replace the spelling of those punctuation marks with the actual mark, this is to stop spam to this address!)

Mountains to Coast...

2010-02-01T21:13:00.000+02:00

After 2 wonderful days at Rosetta we left the luxury of a house and headed to the berg for some camping (many thanks to the Carter family, the view from their house is the pic on the leff). The dirt road to Underberg was so scenic, lovely mountains, waterfalls and little colourful huts around the landscape. Upon arrival at the Hermits Wood campsite – the heavens opened and we had to wait for a while before we set up camp (well at least mother nature was sending us the worst of the weather so it can only get better from this).

I am still trying to think of exciting camping meals – bit challenging with no Woolies around! John would braai every night if he could but the weather wasn’t playing game so after some mince and veggies and with not much else to do in the rain we went to bed early to read with the soothing rain falling on the tent. The mist and rain continued intermittently for the next day but we went for a walk along the river after breakfast and even managed the 7km return trip walk to the main complex for some warm lunch. Some more campers arrived for the weekend but most of them didn’t dare venture out in the mist.

On Saturday we packed up camp in the mist and headed to Kokstad (view of Kokstad and the dam we camped on to the left) where we were camping in the Mount Currie reserve. Finally some sunshine once we had left the berg which was glorious and looking back we could actually see some of the mountains sticking out through the clouds – something that had eluded us while we were there.

The camp site in Kokstad was very sweet and very scenic. Allan and Gen Wilcock who live in Kokstad were our personal tour guides for the weekend (thanks SO much Wilcock family) and we spent the afternoon seeing the sights and sounds of Kokstad, really a lovely little town with stunning scenery around it.
After dinner we heading back to the campsite and I must say, after a year last year spending weekends with 40 odd rowdy and cheerful campers, it is quite a change to be the only ones at a campsite – something I think we will need to get used to. But the froggies and birds were out in force. The dam the campsite is situated next to is home to some flufftails who’s evening song is a treat to hear. During the night we were visited by a herd of Zebra who were happily munching away on the sweet grass in the campsite, John did not manage to catch one as he was half asleep.

Sunday was perfect lie-in weather (as it was blowing a gale) and we sat in bed reading with a beautiful view of the mountain. The Wilcocks took us out for lunch at the Ingeli River Lodge which was followed by a great walk in the indigenous forest – where we bumped into quite a few spiders, a snake and magnificent trees – a lovely ramble. Back at the campsite that night, just as I was cooking up a dinner of butter chicken, the clouds seemed to part and the sunshine on the mountain was jaw droppingly stunning. Out came rainbows and sunshine and it was just beautiful and still, all you could do was stop and stare and feel moved. An awesome end to the day.

Today we packed up camp and I must say, having made and broken down camp a few times now, John and I are still argument-free and on good speaking terms – I think being out in nature just does wonders for ones personality and you can’t help feeling happy despite the weather, company or campsite ;)

We have headed to Margate to pick up Johns cousin, Ian, who arrived from UK and have dinner with him, a slight last minute diversion.

We are going to leave shortly and we will catch up with all that in the next blog. We are then heading down to the Wild Coast where we are sure to find some more adventure...

Hope everyone is doing well. We would welcome any suggestions on places to go in the Wild Coast or just egneral comments. Stay Well.

Of rain, off-roading and other things...

2010-01-26T20:06:00.000+02:00

I hope this finds you all well, and fired up for 2010. It has been 6 days since we left JHB and we are still not quite on our way yet. It has rained for 5 of those 6 days which makes doing things outside a little bit of a challenge!

We have spent the last 5 days in Howick with Liz' grandmother Priscilla doing some last minute preparations (which entails visiting every single hardware store in Howick, and the Toyota dealer) and getting ourselves ready to go. There is much deliberation as to whether we will go into Lesotho or the Wild Coast first.

At present we are at a friends house in Rosetta and plan to spend two nights here doing final preparation (more hardware stores) for when we leave for either Lesotho or Wild Coast. We have been looking at long range weather forecasts for both destinations, and they are equally miserable for the next 7 days!

Last Friday, Liz, Priscilla and I went to the Karkloof Spa. The spa is situated just outside Pietermaritzburg and inside a lovely little nature reserve and on the drive into the spa we saw all sorts of wild life. The spa is highly recommended for those of you who may visit this area, really really top notch.

On Saturday we did an off-road course with John Rich at Stoney Ridge (http://www.stoneyridge.co.za/). John comes highly recommended in the 4x4 community, so we thought that while we were in the area we would have a go. We had an excellent time! Some of the obstacles gave us a chance to really test out the Cruiser, and we did so with her fully laden to really see how she performed, and she exceeded our expectations and the rest of the crowd (Jeep, Landy, Ford) all green with envy!

I am busy writing up a blog on the vehicle itself, but I havent had a day yet where I can take some nice pictures of it (in the sun). I really want to do a pictorial of sorts to give those of you fellow gadget freaks a run down of the modifications and additions.

I hope that tomorrow yields some sunshine so that I can get out there and get some pictures of the vehicle and then I can complete the technology blog.

So, there isn't too much in the way of excitement at the moment, but in the next few days there will be a lot on the go which will yield some good material!

The Journey Begins...

2010-01-12T11:18:00.002+02:00

Happy New year to everyone, and we sincerely hope this year will be a great one. For those of who wondering when our trip begins.... we are hoping to be off on the 20th January, assuming all the remaining bit and bobs for the car are complete.

We will be starting with a visit to Howick to visit my gran, then off to the wild coast to test out the car, the camping gear and our toughness!!

So until then, we have lots to do in very little time, but watch this space.

We will be back in March for Johns 30th so you wont really have too much time to miss us.

Please also give us feedback on the blog - anything you would like to see, change etc as we are developing it as we go along and feedback would be great.

Stay well
Liz

The technology journey begins!

2009-12-03T11:54:00.010+02:00

Hi all,

So I have been setting up the technology side to this blog. I have setup a Google Group mailing list which will be used for e-mailing notification of Blog updates, as well as any general e-mail correspondance should we not be able to upload to the Blog.

To subscribe to this Google Group mailing list simply put your e-mail address in the text box at the top of the page, press Subscribe and you will receive an e-mail detailing the activation process (which is a simple click of a link in the e-mail).

Well, that's it for now, we will start to prepare and Blogour pre-trip items as we calm down to a mild panic.

All the best!
John