We drove down to Mbabane which is the capital of Swaziland and stayed the night in an great place with the most amazing views out over the countryside.
The people of Swaziland were super friendly, and they walk everywhere (an alien notion to us)...even in the very hot weather,without breaking a sweat . School children walked up to 15km a day to school in 35° temperatures smiling and laughing all the way. Can't imagine I'd have a smile on my face! We stopped and shared sweets and colouring pens with them and were met with warmth and huge smiles every time.
We left Swaziland behind and headed to the World Heritage Site area of St. Lucia. Wow! What a beautiful place! There was such a great, laid back atmosphere here; we loved it. It reminded us very much of some of the lovely little coastal towns you find in Australia. We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast called Parkers Cottage and felt like we had been taken in to the family home itself. It is something we have felt time and again on this trip; the South Africans invite you into their homes and then wrap you in warmth. Whilst in St. Lucia we visited the local beaches and took a cruise up the estuary to view Hippos and Crocodiles up close - sometimes a little too close, as one hippo took particular offence to our boat and charged us, mouth wide open...not for the faint hearted. The days were finished sampling some amazing local food whilst talking with some great locals. Human contact was important to us at this point, as Roman had started referring to people crossing the roads as herds; I think maybe we have spent a little too much time around animals!
We stayed in St Lucia for 3 nights and then headed up to Dundee to visit the Battlefields and take in a whole load of historical learning. Zulu was my younger brother's most played film growing up, so I was very much looking forward to visiting the actual sites.
The Battlefields we chose to visit were Talana, Rorkes Drift, Isandlwana and Blood River. First off, Talana, which also hosts a great museum that teaches all about the history of the town and how it was built on the back of the mining industry by a couple from Scotland. It comes complete with its own steam train and original house that has been restored. it is located a just shy of 2km outside of Dundee itself. Talana is Zulu for ‘the shelf where precious items are stored’ which is a fitting name and is a great way to start the Battlefields tour as it gives you plenty of historical and contextual information about the places which follow.
From Talana we headed to Rorkes Drift, the site of the battle behind the 1964 Michael Cain movie Zulu. It is here that approx 139 men, the majority of which were British Army men, held off an attack by 4000 Zulu’s. The battle was a bloody one and it was humbling to stand in the very place it occurred. The most Victoria Crosses ever given during battle was here and totaled 11, with another being refused in favour of a commission. There is a simple cemetery and a memorial stone for the British losses and a newer Zulu memorial. The Battle for Rorkes Drift took place on January 22nd 1839 and left 17 British dead, the true number of Zulu’s lost is not known but it is no less than 500.
Isandlwana was the next site we visited,situated just 20km up the road and actually where the battle above had started out. The Zulu’s had tricked the British army into dividing their camp and because of this they found themselves confronted by 20,000+ Zulus. The battle was fierce and resulted in the loss of 1300+ British and 1000+ Zulu’s, the white Cairns show the burial spots and points where soldiers died; these go on as far as the eye can see in varying cluster sizes. It was a very hot day when we visited and we could not be out of the car for long due to the need for the air-con, but the time we spent there gave you goosebumps and you could almost, if you listened hard enough, hear the swishing of the grass as the enemy crept closer to you. I would not like to spend a night up there that’s for sure.
We spent our final day in the Dundee area visiting the site that is the most famous battle and most important in the shaping of South Africa. Blood River as it I now known, was reached after driving 30km on roads that leave you wondering if you are on an outback 4x4 course.
The battle itself took place between the Zulu’s and the Voortrekkers andit was a huge battle involving around 10-15,000 Zulus against 470 Voortrekkers on 16th December 1838. The Vortrekkers had prayed to the gods that if they were spared in this battle after suffering terribly at the hands of the Zulus they would declare the day a national holiday and build a church. The battle took place around a circle of wagons, the Vortkrekkers being inside and the Zulu’s surrounding them in their famous bull formation which resulted in a total surround of the enemy. Against all odds the Vortrekkers won the battle and suffered only 3 minor injuries; the Zulus lost 3000+ and the carnage turned the river blood red, hence the name of the battle Blood River. It is commemorated today by a true life scale replica of the 64 wagons from the battle set in bronze. A plate in the middle and a few rocks piled on top of each other show where 28 years after the battle the Vortrekkers and Zulu’s came together as friends to remember and to move forward as neighbours in peace.
We enjoyed our time amongst the battlefields and all it had to offer. We chose to concentrate on just a few, but we discovered that the total loss of life was much greater as many more battles were fought in the surrounding area. Notable people who were involved in the conflict include Ghandi and Winston Churchill and also the Prince Imperial of France and heir to the Napoleon Empire who was killed whilst serving alongside the British army, bringing to an end the Napoleon family and a great relationship with the British.
From here we traveled to Durban with yet another 350km drive and a 1 hour flight to Port Elizabeth. We had some serious problems en route with road works and made our flight with minutes to spare. We venture on now along the garden route; first stop Knysna and 3 nights to relax and see the sights. We look forward to telling you about it in our next chapter.
We then set off to Talamti bush camp which is pretty remote to say the least. It is a place where bugs and critters surround you, and when I say critters I mean giant moths,mosquitoes and cockroaches...basically the things found in people’s mouths on I’m a Celeb. I just need to add here John finally discovered, despite me telling him previously that cockroaches do in fact fly, one day he will believe me when I tell him that I know everything! Basically, if you put a light on you became the the ultimate hang out spot for anything that buzzes, flies or bites. So now, not only am I scared of spiders, I am now scared of putting lights on...
The upside to this camp is that when you find game, (and you do...in abundance) you are generally by yourself; no line of people queued up like you're waiting for a ride at Disney World. We have sat and watched Elephants, Rhinoceros and Giraffe stroll down the road or stand stripping the tree’s roadside without them caring at all that we are sat, window down, mouths open, staring at them. Roman has fallen in love with a little animal called the Impala, more commonly known, or so I have been told as The MacDonald’s burger of Kruger. It is a skittish little thing and when I look at it I think of Bambi. The park has around 130,000 of them and so our son shouts Impala about 300 times a day on average and insists on stopping for another photo of them.
Whilst at Talamati we took our first guided sunset game drive, complete with guide Chester and his rifle! In the park the camps have a cut off point where you have to be inside your camp: in November it is 6.30pm, and after that the gates close to stop the animals coming in. If you want to experience night time outside of the gates it is done at sunset or later at night. The cost per adult is 250 ZAR (£20) and for a child who must be over 6, (Roman was close enough we were advised) was 120 ZAR (£10). This was the best money spent so far in Kruger; Firstly, Chester had eyes like a Hawk and could spot things we would have missed a million times over, and secondly, on our return to camp when it was dark we stumbled across a group of four male Lions walking in front of us down the middle of the road. We followed them for a few minutes and then they posed for filming and photos for about 15 minutes, seriously only a few feet from our open vehicle. Nothing can describe the feeling that all three of us felt - I personally could have cried, as it was such a high point in my life. I hope that the pictures help you understand why we felt so amazing.
We spent three nights at Talamati and saw some amazing things and I will never forget our time here. It was strange to be out of contact with the outside world, but sometimes I think you need to be cut off to realise how much our lives depend upon the things we're plugged in to, and here we really got to enjoy just being a family without the distractions (well apart from the critters). It might surprise some of you to find out that John coped much better without the mobiles and internet than I did...hmm or maybe it won't.
We headed to the more family friendly camp Satara to seek out the elusive Leopard and any other cats. We sure found them! We came across five female Lions lounging under a roadside tree one lunch time and sat with many other vehicles watching them in all of their lazy glory (But hey! At 35 degrees with no air-con who can blame those lovely lions). We did our own day drives both on the main tar roads and the gravel B roads. We saw more on the main roads but shared these viewings with more people so off road ones sometimes felt more special. It was on these drives that we found such animals as the Warthogs, Buffalo, Chacma baboon and most of the Antelope family including Bushbuck, Nyala, Blue wildebeest and Sable.
We hadn't however found the Leopard that we craved for our “Big 5” experience, so we decided to do another Sunset guided tour, as being a nocturnal animal we would have more chance of sighting a Leopard after dark. The sunset tours are 3 hours and start at 5pm, Roman slept for the first hour and a half as only he could, bless him. We found a huge herd of Buffalo numbering 100+, such an awesome sight and also found out that they are one of the most dangerous animals as they will attack you quite happily (not us fortunately!); the biggest killer in Africa though is of course the Mosquito, followed then by the Hippo. We saw birds that are called various names with European at the start as the crazy little things come to us for summer - do they not realise we do not have one?!
I have to put a special mention to some Vervet monkeys that decided to ransack our bungalow outside at Satara, you really do have to lock the fridge or put dry food inside, these guys mean business. Roman lost his Weetabix but I got some great video footage and photos I hope you enjoy, Roman was less impressed about no breakfast.
So that is our time in Kruger, sorry it has been such a long post but we covered a lot of miles...over 700 in total, although thankfully fuel here is less that a pound a litre.
Our footsteps will slow now for a while and I promise the next blog won’t be so long.
Our first camp was called Berg-En-Dal and is located in the south of Kruger. It is set amongst rocky terrain and was, if i'm honest, not quite what I had pictured Kruger to be like - the plains of the Lion King it is not! The camp itself has all you need and would expect and also has all of the things included in our bungalow that I had previously been convinced by others that I would need. We leave the park tomorrow and to this day I have not used any utensils, plates, cutlery or loo roll among the million other things I was convinced to purchase in Hazy View. Family wise it had a pool and laundry which cost 50p for a full wash and dry.
The second camp was Talamati. Talamati is special in that it is a bush camp and therefore much more remote with just 15 bungalows, no shop, no phone signal...in fact not much of anything. Well apart from the score of amazing animals that we encountered which made it a great choice. It was hard to get to but that was mainly due to the weather and conditions on our day of travel; torrential rain, back roads with no phone reception and wild animals do not make for a pleasant 7 hour journey. We spent three nights at Talamati, which for us with a child of five was maybe one night too many (Roman still likes to be able to go swimming and the 8 hour daily drives started to grind him down.)
We were then due to head north to Olifants, but upon doing a little further reading and also desperate for our Leopard sighting we managed to change to two nights at Satara Camp. Satara was a fantastic camp for us as a family. The staff were amazing, Faith on reception was wonderful even after we had monkeys trash our place of rest. There is a children’s play park and an amazing pool perfect for cooling down or tiring out children. It is a camp known for its cat sightings and it did not disappoint...more about that later.
The final Camp was Lower Sabie, dream camp and very hard to get into, we struck lucky for one night. It has a pool, laundry and an amazing viewing deck overlooking the dam where you can watch the Hippos, Crocs and huge array of birdlife 24/7. It had an amazing waterhole 500 metres down the road where we got our best Hippo views. It was just a little sad that we only found the place on the last stretch of out time in Kruger.
So that's the camps, next update the WILDLIFE.
When we first started planning this trip my dream destination was South America; I have long wanted to explore there, but for reasons unknown I never did. Our original ticket would see us flying into Brazil and out of Argentina to Australia and then onto Asia. The flights were ready and the dates worked out...all that was left to do was pay. That’s when the sleepless nights started; you know, the part between 6 am and 11am when I would normally be sleeping.
Our flight consultant, the very lovely Scotty, listened to some of our/my concerns: death, kidnapping, bus crashes (Yes all of the usual Cooper craziness) and suggested South Africa may work better for us as a family at this point in our life. That is not to say that all of the above might not happen here, but with a wee one with us South Africa offered us so much more - and boy was he right!
I am very sad to say that Scott has moved on to pastures new and is by all accounts doing a fantastic job in his new chosen field. I could never replace him, but have found a wonderful crazy girl called Barbara who works in Scott’s old branch of Flight Centre, so I annoy her now and she is mad as a hatter...I love her already!
So it is thanks to Scott that I am able to write about Kruger National Park and South Africa. Thanks a million from all of us, it’s perfect.
