Africa - Day 3 - Part two

A long day travelling with Chris! We left the apartment at about 8.45, filled up with fuel then set off driving round to the south of Johannesburg. We are now in a convoy of three vehicles as we have been joined by Rick and Mark in their rented 4x4. At 10.30 we stopped at a mall and bought more water, snacks, toilet paper and the accessory for uploading photos to my iPad.

Left the mall at about 12.15 after a burger at Wimpy then drove until we reached Vryburg to buy more biltong. Chris says he has some really great biltong from here, and it was certainly better than the stuff we bought in the German butchers on our first day. Biltong can be 'wet' or 'dry', fatty or lean. We got wet, fatty!

We finally reached our campsite, Red Sands at Kummerman at about 5.45 where we meet the rest of our group. There is Ossie and Conrad in separate cars and Armin and Liesel in a smaller car.

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Africa - Day three 11th Feb -Part one

I now have a device for transferring photos into the blog, but as I'm sitting here in a camp with no internet I can't update the blog. However I'll try to keep writing it as we go along, then update when we get back.

Here's the apartment where we were staying.

A yellow finch building a new nest outside the Wonder cave.

The Wondercave, one of the largest we have visited.

One of the cheetahs we saw in the Rhino and Lion park, just before being fed.

And later, enjoying his food!

Mick playing with the lion cubs! They were delightful.

The baby serval who loved the lacy frill on my dress, and playing with the lens cap.

There were five rhinos in the park, and we saw them all as we were leaving. 

Africa - 9th Feb 2017

A great day spent exploring an ancient gold mine, care of Gavin at the Kromdraai Gold Mine Museum, then a trial safari in the Lion and Rhino park next door.  Some amazing photo ops as we watched the cheeters being fed and played with a baby Serval.  Mick tried the 4x4 capabilities of the vehicle and got used to driving it, and Teri and I practised taking photos.  We had intended to visit the museum of the Cradle of Humankind for our cultural fix, but failed due to lack of time.

Back at the apartment we handed our rigid suitcases over to Chris for safekeeping, and drove to another shopping mall for a steak dinner.

I have realised that I've forgotten to pack my card reader for the iPad, so have no method of uploading photos onto this blog.  I'll try to buy another one tomorrow when we stop for Rick to get supplies, otherwise I'll get one in Johannesburg on our return.  There will be no wifi coverage now until we get back to Joburg in 11 days time, then I hope to have a marathon blogging session to cover the intervening days!

Africa 8th Feb 2017

We landed in Johannesburg this morning!  Flight was a bit late, and it took us a while to get through immigration, then find a taxi, but we finally arrived at our lodgings for our first two nights at about 9.30am.  We have a lovely apartment with a kitchen, comfortable lounge and two bedrooms.  Not the most promising area at first sight, but very close to where Chris, our safari guide, lives.

We get a message to meet Chris at the local Wimpy, where we finally make contact after several months of emailing each other.  Chris has brought our 4x4 to us, ready packed with tents, sleeping bags etc, and gives us a quick introduction to the area and what to expect for the next few days.

Then we wander round the shopping mall, buying German dried sausage, nuts and dried fruits for our lunches, plus water, wine and beer.  I even find a fabric shop and buy 4m metres of wax cloth and some printed sunset pictures to make into placemats.

Back to the apartment, and we pack the 4x4 with our safari clothes.  We also temporarily remove the fridge so that Teri can sit in the back for the next day.  Our evening meal is at the Ocean Basket in the shopping mall.  An excellent meal of fish, calamari and prawns washed down with a nice white wine.  An early night for all of us; we go to bed at just after 8am!

Indian - Day 21 - Thursday 24th November

 Woke early on the boat and had a short walk on the bank before the others joined us for tea and breakfast.  The boat cast off at about 8.30 and we quickly entered the vast Vembanadu Lake.  It took Nother two hours to reach the northern part of the lake where our next, and final, hotel was located.  The last part of the journey was made trickier by the vast amounts of water hyacinth clogging the surface.

The Coconut Lagoon is another CGH resort, and this time out but has a wonderful old wood ceiling, and a veranda overlooking one of the canals.  We watched two men clearing some of the ever present weed, then joined the others in reception.

Our boat trip to a farm for lunch turned into a tuk-tuk ride, then a short boat trip across to the island.  We visited part of the farm, then had one of our best meals of the trip.

Back at the hotel we had a swim, and a laze, and watched a monitor lizard walk past us, then met four of the others for an evening meal in the seafood restaurant.

India - Day 20 - Wednesday 23rd November

Our coach left the Spice Village at 8am, and we endured the bumpy, hair-raising ride down the hills towards the coast. The scenery was magnificent, all misty mountains and twisty roads, but the traffic density was amazingly high, and the overtaking on blind bends was terrifying at times. We passed back through the tea growing areas, and past all the rubber plantations.

Back on lower ground we started to see paddy fields full of rice and long channels of water. After about five hours the coach pulled up at the side of the road, we said goodbye to our driver and his assistant, and we transferred into tuk-tuks for the final 3 kms down to the boat yard.

Our groups has been divided between two boats, and once our luggage was on board we set off through the mixture of lakes and broad canals that form the back waters of Kerala. The boats are much bigger than I expected, with a large lounge/dining area at the front, four double bedrooms down the boat then a kitchen at the rear. 

The density of houseboats is high, apparently there are over 600 privately owned houseboats on these waters, and the driving style is slightly reminiscent of the roads. The views and birds we see make up for everything though. We also have an excellent lunch on board.

The density drops dramatically as evening approaches, and by the time we moor at around 5.30 we can only see two other boats. As the sun goes down our crew attach mosquito nets round the lounge area, and we soon realise how necessary these are. Dinner is served about 7, another delicious meal, then we sit around reading, writing and squishing bugs, and watching the occasional fire fly.

India - Day 19 - Tuesday 22nd November

 

Sadan came up trumps this morning, he found an ATM which had money, and no queue. We dashed down with him and managed to get some cash. Tony tried to get some cash about an hour later, but it had already run out of cash by then.  Breakfast was delicious!

At 9.30 we left in the coach for a short trip into the Periyar National Park. There we donned leech proof socks and were given, on two groups, into the tender command of a guide for a walking tour.

We saw lots of birds as we walked along side the lake, then slightly further inland we saw an Indian hornets nest. Apparently if you are stung by five of these at the same time you will die. Pleased to say we saw no live hornets at all.

Further on our guide asked for complete silence, and as we rounded a corner we saw several,other tour groups on a bank ahead, and a wild elephant in the distant trees. Suddenly he started to charge towards us, and our guides told us to run. Indeed, they nearly picked us up and carried us away! I got a quick photo, which was much admired.

We waited on a further bank, and four more elephants came into view, including a baby and a young male. We stood transfixed for about 30 minutes watching them until our guide made us move on.

We left the park and headed back to our hotel, where we had a quick, cold swim, before heading into town for a quick shopping trip. I bought another saree, and Mick tried some local chocolate.

At 4pm we got back on the coach for a visit to a spice plantation. Though the area for the tours was relatively smallish there were a huge variety of spices growing, including cardamon, ginger, pepper, vanilla, allspice and tumeric.

Our guide was very knowledgable and entertaining, and there were many animals on the farm next door as well.

Next trip was to a small elephants trekking area where 6 of us paid to have an elephant ride for 20 minutes. It was a small trail round the edge of a field of coconut palms, and the saddles where just thickly padded blankets with a wire frame providing hand and foot holds. Our seat kept slipping sideways, and the elephant was huge which made sitting astride close to painful.

Mick and I got off the coach early on the way back, and did a bit more shopping, this time for a pair of cooking pots. We also got another suitcase and some more cash from the ATM which had been re filled during the day.