South Africa ~ The Great Trek: Part 1 (a very long post)

In planning our trip around the world, a return visit to my country of birth was a no brainer. South Africa has so much to see and even through Danielle and I manage a trip home every other year, with just a week and a half, after you put in time with the family, we don’t have enough time to really do any exploring of the many landscapes the country has to offer. I have been to the north, natal and through the interior before, but it was when I was a child and I don’t really remember much of it, so being able to devote 4 weeks to SA is a treat and we have made full use of every day.

We started in George, the small town in the Garden Route that my parents live in. After a few days, and the arrival of my brother from the UK and Danielle’s mom from the US we set off in two cars over the Outeniqua Mountains and north east to the Golden Gate Highlands National Park in the Northeastern Free State. This park is set in the foothills of the Maluti Mountains and has magnificent scenery, abundant wildlife and very impressive sandstone formations. We spent 2 nights in the log cabin mountain retreat and were treated to some amazing sunsets. During the day we hiked up a valley to get an up close view of the sandstone. The park is a hidden gem, and I would highly recommend giving it a visit.

Next we headed into Mpumalanga in search of trout. My bother Richard is a avid fisherman and the area around Dullstroom is known for its trout fishing. We spent 2 nights in our own 5 bedroom farm house “the valley of the rainbow B&B”. Richard took us all down to the dam for a fly fishing crash course. I am sad to say, although we could see the fish, they were not biting.
Now we continued our journey, stopping for a stroll through and lunch in the town of Pilgrim’s Rest. This town is famous for its gold prospector history. The buildings are unique, being built of tin and timber with the intention being that once the gold ran out the prospectors would move on, however the gold lasted almost 100 years.

We found ourselves in the Blyde River Canyon, and this was not by accident. The scenery in this area has been called the most beautiful in SA and the vistas are spectacular. I specifically wanted to visit this area for the “Gods Window” viewpoint, rumored to have been the inspiration for the Lord of the Rings books. After taking in the views of the canyon and the pinnacle (an impressive column that rises out of the forest below) we headed into the town of Sabie. We stayed at the Valley View guesthouse. Just a heads-up, this is not the 4 star establishment advertised, I would advise looking elsewhere if your expecting 4 star. Accommodation aside, the next day was awesome, we drove the waterfall tour. I would recommend the following; Berlin Falls, Lisbon Falls, Horseshoe Falls and my favorite, Lone Creek Falls which at 230ft sends spay onto the surrounding forest. We also made the drive to Bourke’s Luck, which are beautiful potholes carved by the swirling waters at the confluence of the Blyde (“joyful”) and Treur (“sad”) rivers.

Another morning, and another long car journey through the mountains towards the Kruger National Park. Kruger is SA’s largest national park at 19,633 sq km or 7,580 sq miles (the size of Israel) and is one of the best wildlife sanctuaries in the world.

However, before arriving we still had a few spots to visit just outside the Orpen Gate. 1st stop was the Moholoholo Rehabilitation Center. This gave us the opportunity to learn about the challenges facing wildlife conservation in Southern Africa. My sister also got to get a little too close to a Vulture (see the pic).

Then after a short drive we reached our destination for the night, “Tshukudu Game Lodge”. This private reserve has all of the big 5, but on a smaller scale than Kruger thus increasing your odds of excellent sightings. We spent the evening in a land-drover doing just this. And it gets better, they have a few wild cheetah and one called savanna who is friendly to humans. We found her walking in the bush and under the watchful eye of the game ranger we got to spend some time with her one on one. Luckily she was distracted by the fresh meat she was eating. That night we returned to our tented camp, and an already raging fire in a traditional South African “Boma”. We cooked dinner under the stars and were visited by a bushbabie who seemed to like our bread rolls. Although the tents (which have real bathrooms, and beds etc.) were very nice, Danielle and I got very little sleep given the strong winds that night compounded by the noise of lions in the bush near by... my bother and sister found themselves sleeping in the car :-). At 6am the next morning, the Game Ranger Chris met us and took us on a foot walk through the bush. We had too other friends along for the walk, one was a labrador bursting with energy and a lazy Lion Cub. At first the lion did not want to walk with us, but once the dog found something to pick up with his mouth and run around, the lion then wanted it and the cat and dog chasing began. This walk was incredible, not only did we get to walk with a lion, but we walked past Rhino, Giraffe and Hippo. If you have a chance to visit Tshukudu, I would definitely recommend it.

Ok, thats all for now.... stay tuned for part 2 of the Great Trek across South Africa.