Bonus Day - Layover in London

On our way back, we had a nice 9hr layover in London, so we stashed our roller bags at the airport, grabbed all of the layers of clothing we had, and headed to the Underground to take in some of the sights. We hit the big ones on Bridget’s list – London Eye, Tower of London (and associated Bridge), Big Ben (which was more like Big Bummer because it was under construction/repair and you could only see his face), Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Piccadilly Circus. Bridget had spent a semester in London during college and was still a bit familiar with the city. Then it was back to the airport to go through yet another security line and catch our last leg home. Our plan was to stay awake as long as possible on the flight so we would be tired when we arrived in San Francisco at 7pm and would be able to sleep and sync back up with the West Coast Time Zone (and hope our bodies didn’t notice that we basically skipped a night of sleep). We ended up getting our own 3-seat row next to the window so we had space to spread out and be comfortable. That plan was mostly successful and now that we're back home, we are amazed with the opportunity we have had to see all the beauty in southern Africa.

Bridget headed to Hogwart's!

Westminster Abbey

Dr. Who anyone?

Tower of London Bridge

Day 10-11 - Northern Drakensburg

The next day we drove around the Drakensburg mountains to the northern side to another National Park (Royal Natal Park) which is closer to Joburg. On the way, however, we narrowly missed an intense rain/hail storm! We happened to stop for lunch and the rain started and just grew in intensity until the roar from the metal roof was deafening. It was like a white-out, but with rain/hail and not snow. So much hail fell that parts of the grass turned white! Needless to say, we took an extra long lunch break until the storm had passed and were glad of it based on several cars in the ditch once we got back on the highway.

Yes, that white stuff is hail...in Africa...and it sounded like the sky was falling

Our accommodation for our last night in South Africa was the most impressive. It was a 4-bedroom cottage with full kitchen and outdoor braai (it looked like a fireplace with a chimney so it could be used in any weather). Our guide had been talking about braai-ing for our last night and was a little concerned with the rain that showed up at lunchtime, but we had no troubles. Before we ate, Bridget and I did a nice little hike around the hills nearby and got some good shots, although they can’t do justice to the magnitude and majesty of the peaks in the distance.

View from our cottage

Bridget on the trail

Not sure why she took this picture...

Us with the mountains in the background

Cool sunset!

The next morning we went into the Royal Natal Park before heading up to Joburg (and the airport). We did a short guided walk to see some paintings made by the “bushman” – the original inhabitants of South Africa. It was pretty cool to see them in person, although most of what we could see had been defaced by previous guests. The trail used to be open to anyone at any time, but the vandalism got so bad that they closed it and the only way to go up is with an official park guide so he/she can make sure the visitors respect the artwork. There are 15 other locations of bushman paintings, but they remain secret for their protection. People used to pour water on the rocks to get the paintings to stand out better for photos, but this eroded the sandstone (duh!) and has washed the paint away. 

Legit Bushman paintings (look like cows)

Royal Natal National Park

After finishing up at the park, we headed up to Joburg and, on the way, we stopped at a Nelson Mandela Memorial where he was captured in 1952. There was a cool apartheid museum and a sculpture of Mr. Mandela. The sculpture looked a bunch of poles with metal pieces on them, but when you aligned yourself with them, they made a profile image of Mr. Mandela. Really cool!

Sculpture

From there, we stopped at a mall for some last-minute souvenir shopping before our guide dropped us off at the airport to start the journey home...

Days 9-10 - Underburg / Sani Pass / Lesotho

After St. Lucia, we drove through Durban (where the World Cup was hosted back in 2000-something) and walked the Golden Mile, which Bridget pointed out is somewhat of an odd name since they use the metric system in South Africa. Maybe the “Golden Mile” sounds better than the “Golden 1.6 kilometers”. Anyway, we then continued to Underburg, which is situated to the South East of the Drakensburg Mountain Range (meaning Mountains of the Dragons) which actually also serves as the border with Lesotho (pronounced “Leh – soo – too”). There is a pretty sketchy “road” that goes up and over the Sani Pass and into Lesotho from South Africa. The term “road” is pretty generous given the nearly impassable rocks and ruts. 4-wheel drive is mandatory to complete the last 8km. We were in a 4WD Land Cruiser-type of vehicle which seemed barely enough to make it, but somehow the taxi drivers got 4WD taxi-vans (like the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo) that miraculously could make it up and down the road without tipping over or sliding off the many barrier-less hairpin turns. Regardless, the views of the entire area (from the top and along the road) were amazing. Once we crossed the pass, we stopped over in a tiny village and got a short description of what life is like in Lesotho (at least in that little village). And we got to try some homemade bread, which was so spectacular that Bridget bought a nice wedge of bread to take away. ☺ We also stopped and had lunch and a local beer from Lesotho at the self-proclaimed “Highest Pub in Africa”. Dinner was quiet back at our accommodation with views of the green rolling hills.

Countryside on our way to Sani Pass

Wildlife next to the road (we forget their name...😕)

Us at the bottom

The road (just kidding), just a stream alongside the road

We're headed way up there!

The road up

A view of the mountains on the way up (our vehicle took lots of breaks on the way...)

Clouds rolling in

Rush hour!

View from the top of Sani Pass when the clouds lifted long enough to get a quick shot

Pretty self-explanatory

Lesotho Hut

The famous bread

Bridget got this enormous piece of pork for dinner. It was huuuuge!

View from the restaurant at our accommodation

Day 8-9 - St Lucia and Hippos

After Swaziland, we drove to the East Coast of South Africa to a place called St. Lucia where there’s a protected wetland area. We did a crocodile/hippo boat tour on one of the freshwater wetland areas. And we learned a few fun facts about hippos. They can hold their breath for up to 5 minutes, are quite fast on land (they can run up to 40km/hr) and in the water (25km/hr), and are nocturnal grass feeders. In fact, since St. Lucia is part of the protected wetlands area, the hippos actually come out of the water and roam the city at night. And since they eat grass, they actually keep the grass cut to a comfortable level (not a bad way to mow the lawn!).

On the boat (Hippos in the background)

Pic 1 of hippos chilling

Big group of hippos

Close(r) shot of hippos

Before the sun set, we walked along an estuary boardwalk to the water and dipped our toes into the Indian Ocean (for the first time!) and enjoyed the quiet, small-town feel for the evening before heading back out in the morning.

Lots of interesting warnings...

A very large Crocodile warning sign!

Beach!

Very interesting sign...

Days 6-8 - The Kingdom of Swaziland

After our Kruger tours, we drove to the Kingdom of Swaziland. Yep, Swaziland is one of the few remaining monarchies in the world with a legit king who is the head of the government. We stopped at a glass factory on our way to our next accommodation. It was really cool – they use recycled glass to make all kinds of unique figurines of animals in addition to the standard glasses/plates/etc. We got a cool wine pitcher with an internal ice-cube holder to keep it cool without diluting the wine. It’s kinda hard to explain, so you’ll just have to come over sometime to see it! ☺

Our accommodation in Swaziland was at a place called Milwane Wildlife Sanctuary which was started by a farmer back in the day who wanted to protect the animals. He eventually gave it to the king and it became a national park. The park doesn’t have predators, so the zebras, nyala (like small antelope), warthogs (lots and lots of warthogs), wildebeests, and other animals are able to live in peace.

Warthogs warming themselves by the fire

Kudu walking around, checking out the place

But the coolest part is that we slept in what they call a beehive – a circular building with a thatched roof, no windows, and a tiny hobbit-door at the front. This type of structure is similar to what people used to sleep in back in the day. It was really unique.  The floor was concrete (far better than a traditional earthen floor) but the walls and ceiling were made of grass and wooden sticks that were lashed together to make a dome shape. It looks small on the outside but is remarkably spacious on the inside. The materials actually did a pretty good job of maintaining a comfortable temperature during the day (nice and cool) and at night (nice and warm).

A traditional Beehive from a Swazi cultural village

Our "Beehive" for our stay

The inside of our Beehive... just kidding. This is the view from the restaurant where we ate dinner

This guy (or gal) greeted us our first morning at the doorstep of our beehive

We spent two nights there, so during our one full day in Milwane, we did a long 10-mile hike up to Execution Rock (literally what the Swazis used to and still call it – I’ll let you guess as to why). We got a little bit of a late start since I didn’t do a good job of figuring out where the trail started, but we made it up to the top for a nice picnic lunch (bread and cheese) with a fantastic view of the whole park and surrounding valleys.

Yep, we're headed up there!

The view was getting better...

Panorama at the top (definitely worth clicking on to expand)

Can you spot the striped frog?

Flowers hanging over the trail

These flowers were really cool, but aren't native and are taking over...

That night, we had a braai (pronounced “bry” – like “dry” but with a “b”) which just means grilling out. There was a nice outdoor pit and our guide procured some Wildebeest meat to try in addition to squash, chicken skewers, and beef sausage (wors). The Wildebeest was good and tasted similar to beef, probably with good reason considering… Anyway, so “braai-ing” is huge in South Africa. It came up multiple times a day with our guide – they have special wood for a braai and even have a National Braai Day (one time our guide was on a tour and they had a braai for every meal!). Definitely fun to sit around a campfire with some hot coals cooking food. Unfortunately, we did not have any s’mores, but I was so stuffed with other food that it didn’t really matter by the end.

Sunset over Milwane on our last night

Day 4/5 - Kruger National Park

1/1 – 1/2 Kruger National Park

After leaving the Blyde River Canyon area, we drove south and then wound our way down the 3,000ft elevation drop down to the “Lowveld”, or low lands, where the Kruger is. We dropped our bags at our hotel and then went right to the park for a sunset safari (4:30pm – 7:30pm). Many animals are most active at dawn and dusk, so this was a great time to be in the park. The next day we did a full day safari (5am – 3:30pm). While September- November are the peak season for the park due to good visibility since there isn’t a lot of foliage, a lot of animals have their young in December, so we saw a lot of baby animals which were adorable. Rather than blabbering on about seeing animals, I’ll just post a bunch of pictures as well as a tally of animals we saw:

Lions
Elephants
Giraffes
Rhinoceroses
Cape Buffalo (nicknamed the Black Death because they are so aggressive and are the #1 killer of hunters in the bush)
Zebras
Wildebeests
Crocodiles
Hippopotami
Baboons
Warthogs
Impala
Hyena
Turtles
Lots and lots of birds (including a very rare, nearly extinct hornbill)
Monkeys
Kudu
Monitor Lizard

This was Bridget’s favorite day in South Africa. She lovesd scanning the horizon for hidden creatures and spotted several along the day’s journey. We had an excellent park guide who has been doing safaris for decades. He did his best to help us see all the creatures that were on our lists and answer all our questions about the animals’ behaviors.

...and here are the pictures (in no particular order)!

Impala (including a little one!)

Wildebeest

Zebras (plus two little ones!)

Young male elephant

Cape Buffalo

Herd of elephants (including a little one)

Hyena

Us :)

Warthog mom and two mini warthogs

Crocodile

Kingfisher (check out that beak!)

Committee of Vultures (that's actually what a group is called...)

Baboons on the side of the road

Lions (See if you can spot them)

Herd of Giraffes

More elephants

Us with an elephant in the background :)

Kudu