YannAv Tour de Afrique Sud

Av and Yann tour

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Visitors

Some things happen for a reason and I guess that in the end I was better off being out Pezulu lodge because it’s given me the opportunity to see more of l South Africa and other places. I came back from my trip to Zimbabwe and Botswana completely exhilarated by the sights I saw and was looking forward to Avril and Yann’s visit. I spent a night in Jo’burg and funnily enough I met an Irish guy and we had a few beers. We watched the Augusta Masters and we had a few quid on the winner at 8/1 with 4 holes to play! Thank you Betfair! I got up the next morning and picked up our car for the tour with Avril and Yann. I was delighted to find that we had a big VW Combi. Enough space for Avril and all her bags and if times got tough, we could sleep in the thing!
I headed north after trying to find my way out of Jo’burg for an hour. No GPS at this stage but eventually got on the right track. I ended up in Soweto though at one stage. The best part of Jo’burg to be honest is seeing it in your rear view mirror as you drive out of the city. I drove for a long 6 hours and eventually got to Kruger’s Skakuza camp. I was gonna spend a couple of nights there before the holiday makers arrived. After surviving a couple of ATM scammers at a petrol stop on route and a couple of hairy driving moments I was delighted to land into the rest camp. I got myself a nice big T Bone Steak and a couple of beers and set about making myself a Braai. This is the real Africa for me. Cooking your food under the stars with all the wild life around you. No music or any other distractions. Just you and nature. It’s a cool experience and one I’m gonna miss when I go home.
I spent two days in Kruger and bumped into some of my old college mates. They are all working and the same theme seems to be true about guiding. It’s a business where the guide gets exploited. Very long hours for shit pay. Most people do it for the love of the animals and not for the money anyway but I think that unscrupulous lodge owners take advantage of that. Myself Emma and her sister Nicola had a few drinks on the second night in Satara and watched a herd of Buffalo drinking at a pan just outside the fence line. It was nice and it’s funny that you tend to bump into people by chance all the time!
I travelled to Eastgate airport the next day and met my weary travel companions for the next two and a bit weeks. The flight was fine and they arrived a little tired but in good form. We drove to our first lodge for the next 5 days in the conservancy I used to work in. We stayed in a place called Sunset lodge. It was a lovely trendy modern lodge only about 1 km from Pezulu. It doesn’t have the rustic feel for me of a lodge though and although it’s cool in it’s own way I prefer the bush style accommodation. We had a blast for the 5 days regardless. Most of the Pezulu staff came over to say hello at some stage and we had a fair few drinks! We did all the touristy attractions around the area and Av and Yann had never been introduced to so many wild animals in such a short time. The time flew there and before we knew it we were on the road again and heading down South. I drove down to Jo’burg and met the guys off their flight. I was fairly tired by the time we met them and we hit the road for Bloemfontein. We arrived there at 11 and stayed in a kip of a Backpackers. The Footprint book I was using really got this one wrong. The Lonely Planet even recommended it. Avril and Yann’s bed definitely had bed bugs and to say there was a stain on the sheet would be a small oversight. They showed me the next day and it looked like the Shroud of Turin! Needless to say they didn’t sleep very well that night! We had a nice surprise the next morning to see the GPS bag with the Garmin GPS and my I Pod sitting in a bag just outside the car!! The guy in the hostel told us it was safe area here and we counted our blessings!
We headed further South to a place called J’bay or Jeffrey’s bay. This place was made famous by a surfer video called “Endless Summer,” in the sixties. It was a cool spot but the weather wasn’t kind to us. It rained for the 2 days we were there and it was the equivalent to Dollymount Strand with some big waves! You don’t come to Africa for that kind of weather! On the way further West Yann decided to do the biggest bungee in the World. He jumped off Bloukrans Pass Bridge at 216 metres above the river below. It was savage to watch but as myself and Av discussed. It must be an age thing because I wouldn’t have any interest in doing it. I did consider the Vic falls jump and might do that at some stage again. Having said that I’m probably going to do a sky dive in Cape Town when we get there. Maybe it’s a bad idea to even write that idea down! We had a couple of chilled nights there and headed on to Plettenburg bay. This to me is a far nice area. The waves are good, the beaches are beautiful and it just has a nice feel to it. We are heading on to a place called the Wilderness lodge this evening and I’m going to get my Braai skills going and impress Avril and Yann! Fingers crossed!

Botswana and Zim

We seemed to adopt dogs where ever we went. Here are a few of our new mates/guard dogs. They even took on a group of Banded Mongoose one morning. That was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. The little Jack Russell was all bravado but still was a bit chickenish as the Mongoose’s ganged up on him. I’ve included my hoard of millions/billions/trillions that I accumulated in Zimbabwe. What a class place!