Wednesday 12 August 2015

Our Trip to South Africa (Part 4)


Our drive to Port Elizabeth the next morning was for 2 hours and it was the last part of our scenic garden route drive. We soaked-in every bit of it, the green pastures, the golden fields, the rainbows, the animals, the sunsets, the many different textured and shaped mountains. We were staying at the Ibhayi Town Lodge at Port Elizabeth for just one day, before we took the flight out to Jo'burg for the latter part of the trip.


  


  


  





We reached PE at around lunch time, and were desperate by now for a good Indian meal (after having great food everywhere for 12 days, we still yearned for comfort Indian food). We hunted for one nearby, and landed for some nice butter chicken, naan and dal at Royal Delhi Restaurant. Seemed to be a local favorite, we saw Indians and others on a weekday afternoon here. Service was good, but the food on hindsight, I admit was quite rich and oily (buttery, to be precise).

Our night at PE, did not go too well, since the 6.5 year old started a bad fever and cough. With a home delivered burger from Mc Donald's and some quick medication, we spent a disturbed night. The next morning, we returned our car at the PE airport, and flew to Johannesburg. With the help of a friend, we quickly got him some medical attention. Stress out of the way, we sat down for an amazing vegetarian lunch at Dulce Cafe, within the Fourways Life Hospital. The Avo & Halloumi salad and wrap were to die for.









A 2 hour drive from here on a rather boring route (psst.... compared to the lovely ones so far) took us to Suncity, we were staying at the Hotel Cabanas just for one night. We just had to see Sun City, so we stopped here, but we thought it was a destination that was highly over-rated. Its association is more with a few movies, and the fact that it is the first man-made resort etc. The service was very very sad; after being on the garden route and meeting extremely friendly, pleasant and helpful people, this was really a let-down. A Pakistani man at The Raj, was the only guy who was happy to see our family coming in for some biryani and raitha. Suncity was just good for one thing, a break in our 4 hour drive to the latter part of our trip - The Safaris.....

Safaris:

All Safaris and animal encounters are alike. Except for the weather, the time of the day, the location, the scenery, the animals, the birds and of course, the biggest part, it has to be a lucky one....
  • We stayed at places called game lodges which were situated right in the middle of the national park. 
  • Our rooms were tents with four poster beds, open bathroom and toilet (the bed being the barrier, but no doors), no TV, no Internet, no phone, no fridge. (Blissful)
  • The stay included three meals a day as part of the buffet at the restaurant. We were not allowed to go to the room or the restaurant after 6 without someone from the lodge. This was just to ensure the free roaming animals weren't alarmed by our presence.
  • The schedule for each day was the same. Early morning wake up call with coffee, then go on the safari, stop for another coffee or hot chocolate and snacks in the bush. Come back for breakfast, rest for a while, lunch, rest for a while, tea, then safari again, stop for some wine or coffee and snacks in the bush, come back in time for dinner.
  • A ranger who was assigned to us would take us on the safaris and show us the animals and birds, and ensure our safety. Each safari lasted 3 to 4 hours depending on how much we wanted to or got to see. There were hot water bottles and blankets to help us keep warm during the early morning and late evening open drives.
  • The rangers were extremely efficient, knew what we wanted to see, where to stop, were patient for photo ops, gave us loads of information on all the animals and birds, spotted the most elusive animals in the bush, were extremely pleasant and supportive of the needs of the kids in the jeep.

Madikwe

The drive from Suncity to Madikwe was 3 hours, most part of this was off-road (thankfully we had a 4x4 Nissan) and we kept seeing impalas, warthogs, cows, donkeys, guinea fowls, forest chickens, mongoose.... But our drive was great and we finally reached the beautiful Thakadu River Camp after lunch time.  (Thakadu is the name for an Aardvark in the Tswana language of Botswana, so their logo is a black aardvark). Madikwe is on the edge of the Kalahari, and is covered from all sides by mountains. This part of the bush is so full of green in the mountains that surrounds it, yet the ground is brown. The air is really chilly and there are quite a few water bodies. Apart from the common ones like the rhino, elephant, lion, impala, wildebeests, giraffes, we saw the African wild dog which is supposedly a rare sight.

  

  

  

  







Pilanesberg

This national park occupies an extinct and eroded alkaline crater, and is right behind Suncity. It is surrounded by an industrial area, suburbs and seems like a zoo because it is reclaimed agricultural land. But in effect, about 40 years ago, 6000 animals were released into this park, and they have grown since then, and a large number of animals and birds are roaming freely in the wilderness. 

We checked into Black Rhino Game Lodge in the afternoon, and found that this was a fancier game lodge. It had stand-alone cottage like tents, with fridge, TV,  and an unusual open air shower area. 



  

  




The highlight of our stay here, was the hot-air balloon ride with Airtrackers, that lasted 60 minutes and floated over the park slowly. One should never assume, that the grey elephant, white rhino, black and white zebra, brown lion, deep brown giraffes are of different colors. It is only when they come together in a park with tall brown vegetation, that one realizes that all these colors camouflage and blend in so well. From that distance up in the air, we could hardly spot them. (See if you can in the pictures below) Expert binocular view is what actually helped us. We also saw the eroded crater in the distance. We were taken to the stylish Bakubung Bush Lodge, for our breakfast at the hot air balloon table. The buffet was huge and the food was amazing.

  

 

  

  






Our longest drive so far was the one from Pilanesberg, up further north. So we broke the journey at this quaint and lovely small town called Dullstroom. As we were close to the place, we noticed the terrain changing and looking like some on the garden route, it was full of green mountains, many water bodies, bridges, winding roads, hilly drives, and we witnessed a beautiful sunset. We stayed at the Dunkeld Country Estate, which is a great weekend place for fishing, horse riding, golf. Our room overlooked a green pasture where we saw zebras and bonteboks grazing.

   

  

  

  




We had a late dinner at their restaurant and after a good night's sleep, left early morning. On our way out, we saw the town slowly and lazily waking up on the Monday morning. A chirpy place served us some scrumptious breakfast. Waffle & Co. and their waffles, omelettes, shakes and juices were out of the world. Our next part of the journey, a 4 hour drive up and down and winding around the mountains, was to the spot we want to call the 'icing on the cake'...... our more than perfect end to the 3 week holiday.........









2 comments:

  1. Wow Sai! I didn't know that you have a blog. I enjoyed reading about your trip. You should write more often.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! Someday I hope to be able to write more!

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