Walking with Rhinos

Well we have just had the most amazing 3 days in Hlane National Park in Swaziland (the Swaziland king's park).

The first afternoon we decided to do a guided walk (and for those that have been paying attention we haven't had much luck on guided walks to date). Well it was with much excitement we started out with the expectation of seeing rhinos. Our guide this time apparently didn't need a rifle just a well crafted walking stick was enough.

Well after 2 hours of walking I was beginning to see a similar pattern emerging -  especially when the guide started talking about ant hills and dung beetles but he promised he would find us rhinos and he didn't let us down.  We finally came across a mother and her calf about 20 meters away and then amazingly we walked closer and closer again.

The thing with rhinos is that they have fantastic hearing and smell but their eyesight is very poor so us being downwind allowed us to walk right up to them. We then crouched down and waited and amazingly the mother and calf walked right up to us trying to work out what we were.

Thanks to Dave for taking the photos because I was in total awe that I forgot to take pictures (keep in mind rhinos can weigh up to 2,500kg) - more photos attached now. It was a privilege being able to get up so close to these gentle giants and them not mind our company. Truly a memory that will stay with me for the rest of my life. Amazingly I didn't think it could get any better but the next day was just as good (stay tuned for Dave's blog on our day with elephants and lions).

We are now in Mozambique and never too far from animals (tomorrow it is snorkeling with whale sharks). More adventures to follow I am sure

White Knuckle Rafting in SWAZILAND!

I was feeling that just being in the wilds of Africa was not cutting it on the Adventure meter, so I signed us up for some white water rafting.

I reviewed the safety records of all potential companies, and chose the one that had the worst...and cheapest.

We took off with limited instruction: lean towards rocks, look backwards after rapids to ensure you are both still in the boat...oh, and lift your knees up if you 'fall in'.

It all started well enough. The padelling was easy, the sun lovely, and there was only one other 'crew'. The funny thing was the other boat was crewed by the girl who told us this was a great first timers river...and very safe.

My suspicions grew when the guide pointed out where the crocs were sun baking.

The first rapid was called Monica Lewinski (work it out for your self). The next was a gap in a hydro weir, which was a good 6m drop...which was interseting.

We were smashing it, and cleared every rapid, where as the other crew were spat out of every one.

Perhaps we were getting smug, and the last rapid was called the 'initiator'....I think it should have been called the eliminator (grade 4+ rapid). Our approach was perfect...and then it went to custard!

We were both put through the wash and spin cycle and spat out. I ended up with two paddles, Tanya ended up with a boat for a hat.

The guide tried to clear it three times..and got spat out just like we did...but not with as much style...for beginers my arse! We both ended up with some dents and scratches...but pretty good considering.

I think Tanya will not be keen to do this again...but I have read about this awsome group that do the Zambizi River in tractor tubes....bring it on!

In search of Elephants

Well for the last 2 days we have gone bush and I have reacustomised myself with the love of camping (yeah right) in search of elephants. We have been in the Tembe Game Reserve which is right in the top corner of South Africa. The Tembe reserve is home to the largest of Africa's elephants.

We entered the park and were given a pamphlet of what to look out for in an agressive elephant - head shaking, front foot stamping, sniffing the air in your direction - all of which sounded like what elephants do so we threw away the piece of paper and decided to just stay a respectful distance. We stumbled across a beautiful bull elephant happily drinking whilst we took lots of photos.

With a little bit of apprehension we approached our next bull elephant - we were warned by the only other person in the park that an aggressive elephant was on the track. Well he was literally on the track (right in the middle of the road) and there wasn't anything aggressive about him - a young male that was happily throwing sand on himself (and of course the best sand was on the road). We sat and watched him for about half an hour as he continued to come closer and closer to us - happily looking for more sand and something to eat.

It was amazing seeing these beautiful animals in the wild - there are some amazing people doing good work to rehabilitate elephants across the world - if you are interested check out the elephant project in Cambodia, in Laung Prabang in Laos and in Thailand at Chang Mai.

After the elephant park we camped the night at Numbo reserve - well after seeing a rhino right at the start of the park we decided to go for a walk with a ranger and hopefully come across some animals on foot. Well our guide looked the part with a large rifle and shinny bata scout shoes - the animals were nowhere to be seen. After walking for 2 hours through a mosquito infested swamp the best we saw was a ripple from a hippo. That is not to say our guide didn't try - we walked up and back looking for this red crested bird as our guide did bird calls (that was never going to cut it after seeing elephant all day). Well finally our guide gave up and we trudged back to camp only to see more animals at our camp site eating the grass than we did on the entire walk. Just goes to show that they are wild animals.

We are now off to Swaziland to do some whitewater kayaking - I hope this blog finds you well.

St Lucia- going over the wire!

Whilst I know there has been endless requests for more photos of Larry, be patient, a Center Fold will be coming shortly. Today was our first 'on our own' wild life expose'. We took a walk over the 'wire' into wild country to see what we could see. The warnings add a whole new dimension to bush walking!

I was armed with my trusty pocket knife and car keys ready to repel any cranky wild life. Whilst the walk was generally sedate, we did stumble cross a family of warthogs, who are considered the hooligans of the 'veld'.

We then took a short drive up  forest track and  had to stop for a White Rhino, which was amazing. They realty do look the full 2,000kg when close!

We pulled over to the side of the road to take some pictures of Zebras, and they were so happy to have us there they let us walk up to the mob and pose for photos!

We also got close and personal with a few buffalo, which put on quite a show for the camera ( Sony DSLR using a Minolta 300mm lens with a Polaroid filter and hood).

The whole area is just exploding with animals of all shapes and sizes. We saw a leopard today, but he/she was far too quick for us to get a picture, but the cute fello in the last photo is indicative of what he/she would have been having for supper.

Tomorrow we head North, and I think we will both be sad to leave St Lucia...it has been the best so far.

At last Animals!!!

Well Dave is lovingly washing Larry so I have got the blog today at last (Dave doesn't seem to let the facts get in the way of a good story or a laugh at my expense).


Well the last few days we have finally made it into the game parks - Imfolowze in KwaZulu Natal. We managed to see zebra, rhino, giraffes, baboon and lots of different versions of deers  with antlers. We then got caught in a huge thunder storm (literally with lightening crashing down around as we tried to get off a ridge which  I insisted on going up in search of elephant). Below are some pictures we managed to take before visibility reduced to a few feet.

We are now at St Lucia - an estuary by the sea which has a big population of hippos and crocodiles - apparently the hippos even wander through the streets in the evening. Once again I managed to bring drought breaking rains with us (yes my skill seems to have followed me to Africa) but we did spend the afternoon on the river watching the hippos (my new favourite animal in Africa).


I hope you like the pictures - we are all well and I am loving seeing the true stars of Africa - it's animals. 

Cape Town to Kwazulu Natal

Well friends, we are in Shuka Rock (Secret Surf Spot). A lot has happened and we have come a long way. Our journey thus far has been Cape Town-Stallenbosch-Oudsthoorn-Wilderness-East London-Port St Johns and now Shuka Rock KZN (about 1500km).

We are both well, and most importantly, Larry is in good spirits (we already have about 100 photos of Larry at different destinations and now Dave is taking photos of other random Land rovers).

Some high lites (low lites):

Capetown-the day we were leaving, I parked Larry outside a store to get some gas, and a charming little chap decided that Tanya was no deterrent to him helping himself to the contents of the cabin. He must have thought she would just sit there....clearly her cougar cat impersonation sent him packing with nothing but injured pride. I am taking the John Howard approach, be Alarmed and not Alert..or is it the other way..what ever I have put my fridge magnet on the dash, and I now feel secure.

Oudsthorn-The ostrich capital of SA...they are delicious. We went adventure caving in Caren Cave, which was hard corps and cool. The 'post box' was an exciting little maneuver, we went head first out of the 27x20cm crack to be deposited on the cave floor in an unceremonious manner, only to find out everyone else went feet first and looked quite composed....I said we were professionals and it was too dangerous for the other to do it like us.

East London-They call it the Detroit of SA, but we got there during Guyfawlkes night....it was way more like Baghdad! The locals shot fireworks at each other all night....kind of entertaining.

Port St Johns-Clearly the pot capital of SA, there was so much passive pot smoke we would both fail urine test for the next month. We got very lost on the way in (#travel tip 2, when setting your GPS routes, be careful not to select the option that include roads that have been closed for at least 10 years). We ended up at the head land of the Werethefuckarewe River. It was very pretty, and I thought I would take a quick video before we turned around. As I was filming a HUGE whale jumped out of the ocean just in front of us...I did catch it on film..but the commentary makes it only suitable for 18+ viewers.

Tanya said nothing else exciting has happened...but I saw a wild rhino on the side of the road. She said it was in a game park, so it was tame. I say I saw if for free, and it was on the side of the road..that makes is a wild. or at least free range.

This photo is the headland where we ended up when we got LOST (which was Tanya's fault)

This is a photo of where we finally ended up!

Capetown

Well, we are here and the smell of adventure is teasing us through the city streets of Capetown. Tanya has been referring to Capetown as 'Africa Lite'....you know your in Africa, but there's just no taste.

The flight in was a horror, it was 26hrs of travel, and most of it though unseasonal turbulence. We wandered around Singapore Airport for six hours in the middle of the night staring at the other fluro lit, lifeless zombies who were as out of whack as we were. But nothing fixes jet lag like buying tax free booze in bulk.

On Saturday we climbed Table mountain...which would kill normal people, luckily we have been training hard for our trip.

Table mountain is pretty amazing, each night the clouds 'pour' over it into the sea. From the living room of our 'little house' I can look out each night and watch the event.

On Sunday we went to Robbin Island, which for the un-educated is where Mr Mandela spent the better part of his imprisonment. What ever you may think about South Africa or it's history, I can only imagine the courage, strength and determination of that man to live out that horrible place, and then raise to become the leader of a nation.

We picked up Larry on Monday, and whilst it went without any huge problems we have learnt that 5 minutes in Africa means 1 hour.... almost to the second, perhaps we just loose the meaning in translation. That being said, Larry is here and fine.

Tomorrow we head off to Stellenbosch, and then to the south coast. Bring on surfing with the white pointers at Jeffery's Bay.