Chilling in South Africa
On the 26th in the morning we all met up at Jo’burg airport. The bunch from Austria and Germany waited for us from Sweden, all equally exhausted and excited.
We got our cars and started our trip going to Hluhluwe Game Reserve. Though we had some initial problems like finding the blinkers and handling the windscreen cleaners, confusing ourselves and fellow car drivers, getting lost …, I have to say, the four of us driving did a really good job – considering we had to drive on the wrong side of the road!
It took quite much longer to drive to our first overnight stay (Isinkwe Bushcamp) than anticipated, so our first day, considering we all travelled overnight with little sleep, was rather long.
Saturday morning did not offer much rest, as some smart person booked a whole day safari starting at 6 am, but it was definitely worth getting up that early. It was much greener than expected and we saw nyalas, rhinos, zebras, giraffes, impalas, vervet monkeys, crocs – I have surely forgotten some animals we saw, especially all the birds are hard to remember by name. The tired bunch we were, we all took turns sleeping in the bumpy safari car, which crossed rivers at some spots and made us wonder how all the self-drive safari tourist are getting around in their normal cars.
The heat during the day did not really make it much easier to stay awake, but – we did not have to bear with that for long … at midnight it started to pour down with rain (some of us even got wet in their hut!) and it has not stopped since … so now we are in St. Lucia, hoping the weather will calm till tonight so we can go on a crocodile and hippo tour on the river – and most of all we hope the weather will be better tomorrow, when we go to Cape Vidal for a whole day, including snorkeling and lunch at the beach!
Until then we will try to do our best, not walking around at night, as one or the other hippo might cross our way and they are not to play with 🙂