This
was the inagural trip by LOE to Africa.
WILDEST
AFRICA
The
LOE team spread their
wings in 2007 and 2008 with a fantastic tag-along trip to Africa for a truly
amazing travel experience.
Read
all about the first 2007 trip. The fabulous 2008 trip can
be seen on this link.
The
LOE crew all joined up at the Farm Inn in Pretoria, South Africa, (www.farminn.co.za/) in
mid-April, along with our great mate Bertus Hanekon who was to be our South
African guide and expert for the trip. With all the guests collected safely
from the airport over a couple of days, we got everyone settled and all
their needs sorted out before heading off. The vehicles were also delivered
and handed over and the paperwork completed.
Our first
day out saw us heading east and south, through farmlands and coal mining and
power stations. By the afternoon the scene changed and as we dropped in height
the country was covered in tree plantations. The Itala Nature Reserve was
our destination and while it was dusk the group saw their first wildlife before
reaching camp within the park - the best sighting being a couple of rhino.
The drive out the next morning was better for game viewing with a variety
of animals spotted.
Our drive the next day took us past the Pongolaport Dam and the impressive
view that is had as you drive up the range. We were heading towards the Mozambique
border and travelled through tribel farmland before arriving at the small
village of Kosi Bay and into the National Park camp ground. The camping area
is situated 100 metres from the water’s edge of the third of the three
lakes that make up the Kosi Bay lake system. This lake, being the furtherest
from the sea, is the freshest and reeds line the bank. Hippos can be found
here while crocs and sharks also inhabit the waters. There were a few monkeys
around but they didn’t give us too trouble - not this time!!!
We all experienced a bit of local culture and shopping in the nearby local
village before reaching the SA/Mozambique border. The SA side was rather
informal, while the Mozambique side was little more than a couple of tin
sheds outside the wire enclosure for the SA border buildings. Once we got
through, which only took an hour for the 12 vehicles the road which had
been bitumen turned to a sandy track - in fact, three or more sandy tracks.
The small
village of Ponta Malongane and the Campismo Ninho was our stop for
the night and the road was an interessting drive along sandy tracks that crossed
grass covered dunes -the interdunal valleys being subject to flooding and
the central pans – some of which had water in them – were surrounded
by dense green scrub and palms. The village itself is nothing more than a
cluster of grass huts and stalls and bars which are set up to cater for the
adventurous tourists who come up from SA to this magical area.
The Campismo Ninho was located on the steep hills above the beach
and Indian Ocean. The individual campsites are tucked into the scrub just
back from the drop to the beach, while the bar had grand views of the coast
south to Ponta do Ouro. While a few jobs were done around camp, quite a few
of the group hopped into the back of Bertus' Cruiser ute and went into Ponto
do Ouro for the afternoon for some shopping and another cultural experience.
It was a great adventure shopping in the local market which was just a collection
of ramshackle wooden stalls set up selling all sorts of food, fresh &
general. The butcher/fish monger was also situated beside the market and here
we found plenty of frozen fish and prawns. We headed home with a very large
whole Spanish mackerel and 2 boxes of prawns for that night’s dinner.
It was an afternoon enjoyed by all who went!
The next day saw more sandy tracks and short sections of potholed blacktop
to negotiate, stopping for a visit in the oldest Hindu temple in Mozambique
– built in 1908. It was rather different and showed the influence of
the Indian people.
We
drove through some bigger towns and villages on our way back towards the Mozamique/South
Africa border witnessing the hussle and bussle of daily
village life - goats being led to water, women washing clothing and themselves,
kids swimming - all a very colourful scene.
The border
wasn't quite as easy this time around and Bertus came into his own sorting
out the drama of handing over all our passports and having to wait in a very
hot, very crowed building trying to sort out paperwork. Such is Africa!!
We were headed
to the famous and incredible Kruger NP at the Malelane Gate entrance and then
onto our camp at Berg-en-Dal. Berg-en-Dal is well set up like all the camps
in Kruger and is well setup. You come to Kruger to see its amazing wildlife
and that means getting up early - 5 am and it was well worth the effort for
our group. They had an amazing morning's game drive spotting a heap of animals
including wild dog, leopard, lions, rhino and more. We don't think they really
realised just how lucky they were to see all these animals in one morning,
yet alone their first morning in Kruger - but that's the luck of game drives.
The afternoon
game drive wasn't quite so action packed as we headed for our next camp at
Balule, but still two black-mained lions, elephants and the normal range of
antelope were sighted.
The groups
luck continued the next morning with the big and exciting sighting of a pack
of wild dog and a leopard in a tree with a kill - it doesn't get much better
than that!!!
We reached
our favourite camp in Kruger at Letaba where there is a fabulous museum/display
on elephants - not to be missed. When everyone had had a good look through
the Museum and brought a few souvenirs we exited the park at the Phalaborwa
gate and then headed west to Pietersburg via the very scenic drive through
the pass and past the Ebenezer dam west of Tzaneen.
Our next
port of call was into Botswana, and we travelled through
a lot of tribal land villages crowded with small 5sqm brick houses. The
border crossing. It all went smoothly (again having a local expert like
Bertus along really helps) and we paid our Botswana road tax of 120 pula.
Our goal was Kubu Island which is located on the eastern edge of the large
Sua Pan which is one of the big pans of the Makgadikgadi Pans area of
central Botswana. The island is dotted with boabs and is very rocky,
but very striking and has a number of archaeological sites dotting the
island which date back quite a few hundred years. This was an amazing
drive crossing large areas of pans with tracks everywhere, making navigation
interesting.
The native
town of Gweta was a hodge podge of roads and drive ways but following the
power lines got us to the bitumen near the post office and to the fuel servo
on the main highway. With full tanks we headed for the sprawling town of Maun and the amazing Okavango Delta region.
Our camp
was to be at the bridge at North Gate and while the group went out for
a game drive, the crew stayed back to keep the little vervet monkeys at
bay - this camp had a very bad monkey problem. You simply couldn't leave
anything out, windows down in the vehicles or doors open as they would
be in and out again like a shot with something (not necessarily food).
The facilities were very basic but this is a true wilderness camp - there
are no fences of any sort and anything can and does walk through camp -
a Leopard was seen at the camp next door that evening, we knew something
was around as the baboons were barking. We also had a raid that night by
a spotted hyena. Which meant we slept with one eye open all night wondering
what else was going to walk down the track and into camp! But what an experience!!!
Burtus lead the next day's drive to Xugana
Lodge and a range of animals was
spotted including hippos down at the Hippo Pool and a mob of 150 elephants
crossing the road amongst them. The afternoon saw us experience what the Okavango
is all about on a 3-hour Boat trip traversing through the many channels that
make up this part of the delta. From the pleasantries of the boat, the drive
to our next camp was a bit more challenging, following some fainter tracks
and dodging stretches of water - it was fabulous country to drive through
with thickly treed areas and large areas of cleared grass lands. Along the
way we saw big group of elephants, a few red Lechewe, as well as the occasional
giraffe, and mobs of impala.
Our camp that night at Third
Bridge was right beside swamp amongst trees.
This time the monkeys and baboons weren't a problem, we just had to watch
out for the hippo that obviously camp out of the delta at night to mark
his tree (by excreting over it). We weren't visited by the hippo, but instead
3 hyena decided to visit the camp and see what they could scrounge - that
caused some excitment!!!
We dragged ourselves out of the Park and headed back to Maun to resupply.
Our next destination was San territory and into the Central Kalahari
Game Reserve. It wasn't what we expected - it rained, and the country was heavily
vegetated in scrub with an understorey of grass - it made animal spotting
a little difficult but we did manage to spot some eland, gemsbok and springbok.
While the track was sandy all the way to the Kutse Game reserve, from here
it opened up into grassy pan areas where it was a lot easier to see the game,
including small mobs of springbok, some gemsbok, and groups of cute sprightly
ground squirrels.
The road
improved slightly, but was still sandy in places but we were on bitumen when
we reached the Mokolodi nature reserve which was our final camp and meal for
the trip. Next morning we all headed back into South Africa, some to go straight
to the airport, others to have another night or two back at the Farm Inn in
Pretoria.
All in all
it had been an incredible and memorable first trip and we can't wait to go
back to Africa again!!
Post
Script: the 2008 LOE Africa trip was even better and everyone had a
fantastic trip - travelling through South Africa, Botwsana, Zambia
and Namibia. Read all about it now.
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