Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Bully's Travels
I only had ten days to explore South Africa, so there was no time to waste. We had taken an 11-hour direct overnight flight from London to Johannesburg, so when we landed at 7.20am we were raring to go. We took a short drive to the hostel for a wash and freshen up and headed out to get a tour of the Soweto, South Africa's most famous township. It may not be somewhere you would think of going for a tour but it's very much apart of South Africa and you do get to learn a lot about it's people and history as well as having a look around Nelson Mandela's old home.
The next day was an early one, getting up around 5am for the full days drive to the Kruger National Park. We stayed the night just outside the park in a cultural village in mud huts. A great night for drinking a beer around the campfire and listening to our guides' stories of camping out in the park. It really got you in the mood for the Safari the next day.
The amazing thing about doing a safari is that you never know what's going to happen. The Kruger Park is huge, the size of Wales. You could be looking for wildlife for hours and see nothing and then suddenly there's a sound. You look up and there's a herd of elephants obviously been startled by something, running from left to right out of the trees, across the road and back into undergrowth. The last one to cross the road was a big bull that stopped in the middle of the road and looked straight at us. He must have only been there for a few seconds but it felt like a lifetime before he turned and joined the others. A chill ran down my spin.
After two day in the park we headed south to the Kingdom of Swaziland, where we stayed on another game reserve and was woken up by an Emu knocking at my door.
Then we drove down to St Lucia on the coast, which is famous for it's Hippos. So be careful when you walking home from the pub as it maybe not a car that you bump into! I also discovered that I'm not that good on the water when we went sea fishing. I didn't end up feeding the fish (if you know what I mean) but spent most of the time enjoying the horizon. Thanks to my travel buddies though, we caught enough for a BBQ to feed everyone staying at the hostel that night.
We made it down to Durban to catch some good surf, something else I discovered I couldn't do. But also took a trip inland to the Zululand and got a tour around small village. We met the medicine woman, a highly respected lady in the village, who advised me to take some of her love remedy. I declined.
Finally we headed back to Jo'berg via the Drakensberg mountains which would have been great for hiking but my time in was nearly over, so only had enough time for a quick night stop and some more of the great South African hospitality before making my way back to the airport and home. But I will be back.
Martin
- comments
Olivia I really loved reidnag your blog. It was very well written and simple to undertand. Unlike additional blogs I have read. I also found it very interesting. In fact after reidnag, I had to go show the spouse and she ejoyed it as well!