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SOUTH AFRICA - 3
The journey is the reward.
Chinese proverb
4th August
We returned to South Africa from Botswana at the border at Martins Drift crossing the Limpopo River and then drove to Polokwane (Pietersburg), to camp at the Polokwane Game Reserve and Caravan Park. It was bitterly cold with a strong wind and it was difficult to get warm but the ablution block was excellent with plenty of hot water.
Definitely not camping weather though!
5th August
We put the heater on inside Moby for the first time as we drove toward Burgersfort, a very large and busy town with new, modern buildings such as Shoprite, Chicken Licken and King Pie, alongside local stalls and markets. Hot food stalls, bags of oranges and piles of tomatoes were plentiful at the sides of the road.
We stopped for delicious, savoury pancakes at Ohrigstad and then followed winding roads through forests of pine trees to Graskop, situated on the edge of the Klein (small) Drakensberg escarpment at the top of Kowyns Pass, with lovely views of the lowveld almost 1000 metres below. We camped at the very nice Panorama Rest Camp that had an infinity pool (for warmer weather) and beautiful views.
6th - 12th August
We drove into Nelspruit today still following the pine forests and found the excellent Safubi River Lodge and Caravan Park run by George and Valerie. Situated in 38 acres of bushveld on the banks of the Gladdespruit, it turned out to be a lovely, quiet and relaxing campsite with shady trees and a very clean and well-kept ablution block.
We met Torsten, Christina and 4 year old Sylvie there, who had also driven overland from Germany following a very similar route to us. We plan to keep in touch with each other and meet up later in Mozambique.
Nelspruit is the largest town in Mpumalanga's lowveld and is the provincial capital. It is a very modern town and still growing at a fast rate and we were amazed and very impressed with the enormous Riverside Mall for shopping, plus many other smaller centres, coffee shops and restaurants. The supermarkets were vast, with just about everything anybody could want. The winter climate in Nelspruit was also wonderful, although a little chilly at night and first thing in the morning, the days were warm and sunny. It was also very conveniently situated for visiting Kruger, Swaziland and Mozambique, as well as having some spectacular scenery of its own.
We caught up with lots of outstanding jobs, shopping and Internet.
We rang Danie and Nitzi whom we had met briefly as we were leaving Klein Aus Vista in Namibia and who had kindly kept in touch. We were invited to stay in real luxury in their beautiful home that had been built in the grounds of their very own game park! We had constant views of zebra, impala and giraffe and they often wandered into the garden.
Thank you both very much for your generous hospitality, it was really appreciated and made a wonderful change from camping for a few days. Your offer of a stay at your beach house in southern Mozambique with our friends from Germany, will make a wonderful beginning to our journey through that country. Thank you both once again for your kindness. We hope the National Orchid Show that you are organising Nitzi, will be a great success.
13th August
We left for a visit to South Africa's famous Kruger Park today. We entered by the Phabeni Gate and managed to secure a camping place for the night at Crocodile Bridge in the south of the park, also a good leaving point for the border with Mozambique to meet up later with Torsten and Christina.
We had a great day in Kruger, quite a different kind of park with tarred roads as well as some tracks but beautiful scenery, especially by the river. We were very close to a large herd of buffalo as we waited for them to cross the track, saw plenty of elephant, zebra and giraffe and glimpses of a group of leopards amongst the bush. Can only presume it was a mother with her young, as we were told it was unusual to see them in a group. A shop and a restaurant were at Skukuza and we enjoyed our lunch there sitting in the warm sunshine. We had planned another early morning drive the next day before we left but discovered our fridge was not working properly in the evening and so it was back to Nelspruit, where we were hopeful that it could be fixed.
14th - 18th August
Dakar 4x4 kindly lent us a cool box to replace our fridge whilst they sent it back to the main Engel dealer in Johannesburg to be tested. We were very grateful for this, as we had stocked up with food for Mozambique.
We spent our days back at Safubi River Lodge, still busy with jobs and more time spent at the Internet Cafe. We enjoyed chatting with our camping 'neighbours', a lovely couple from Cape Town who were escaping the grey days and the cold there and spending a month in Kruger. Thank you for your company, coffee and delicious cakes, we hope you have a great time in Kruger and safe travels home. Also Ann and John who had such interesting stories to tell about their many years spent managing various game parks but were now beginning a new challenge in life. We would loved to have heard more about your time spent in the bush but we wish you both the very best in your new venture.
It was also lovely to chat with George and Valerie, such helpful owners of Safubi and we both hope you manage to catch up with your Australian friends and plan that trip out there!
Hopefully our fridge will arrive tomorrow and we can be on our way to Mozambique and catch up with Torsten, Christina and Sylvie who have been waiting for us there.
19th August
Our fridge was waiting for us at Dakar 4x4 when we arrived there early this morning and once fitted, it seemed to be in good working order. We were very grateful to them for having got it all sorted for us so quickly.
And so it really is goodbye to South Africa after our third and final visit here during our journey. We will go away with some wonderful memories of the many places that we have visited in this spectacular country. We have also been overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness of the South African people that we have met and who have helped to make this part of our journey so special.
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