Jo'burg

Driving on the highway into Jo'burg this afternoon we had a bit of a fright. A man was flashing his id from a car to the right lane of us and motioning us to pull over. We were unsure of what to do but in the end the car pulled in front of us and stopped. The man got out and came to the drivers window on the verge side of the Landy (its a left hand drive). Duncan wound down the window a little and the man flashed his id as he explained in a friendly manner that he was special police with the airport we had just passed and needed to see our id, we werent from Zimbabwe were we? When I asked to see his id more closely he demanded to know where we were from and to see our passports. I reached up for the photocopies of our passports we keep tucked into the passenger side sun visor and again requested to see his id more closely before handing over the information. The man started shouting that we had to give him our passports and I said I'd be happy for them to follow us to the nearest police station where they could see our id. I was pretty skeptical about his story as most law officials dont start yelling at you, and why would special police from the airport want anything to do with an overland vehicle. Still shouting at us, he grabbed at the handle of Duncan's door (unlocked) and yanked it open. Duncan grabbed it back, locked it and we drove off, shaken. I guess they saw the foreign number plates and thought we'd be an easy Sunday afternoon mark. We're just here to go to the place that made the roof tent for some bits and pieces before pressing on towards Springbok. I'm not feeling inspired to get out and about.

Kruger National Park

I'm sitting now at the Crocodile Creek campsite inside Kruger National Park. Its Duncan's turn to sort out dinner. A moment ago I thought I heard someone walking behind me. The campsite is fenced from the game and our site is right by the fence. I shone the light on a hyena. It looked at the light for quite some time before slowly slinking further along the fence. I've never seen any wild animal so close. Apparantly the hyena in the park patrol the fences hoping for scraps that some irresponsible humans throw over despite clear directions not to. It saddens me that wild animals learn to rely on human tourism and become so bold that they become a danger to humans and eventually are destroyed by the authorities. I think of the baboons at the Simons Town campsite methodically pushing over the bins and going through the contents and also the vervet at St Lucia. One of the many nice things about Praia Mar e Sol in Mozamique is that the wildlife we saw, was wild... and wary of humans, rather than waiting for them to leave a nice supper. On the roof of the Landy we have a plastic strongbox where we store any rubbish until there is somewhere suitable to leave it.

...

On our last day driving around the park, we stopped for lunch at the Timbavati picnic site where Duncan discovered the many corrogated roads had worked loose the spare wheel on the rear door and set about removing, re-tightening and replacing it. A sign at the site declared




which were very 'tame' and begging at all the tables. There are signs in all the campsites explaining that feeding the wild animals guarantees their demise and that anyone doing it in the National Parks will be fined and/or prosecuted in a court of law. So what was the park employee doing? Feeding the damned Bushbuck, after which the tourists who saw him, did too.




Grrr.

...

Due to a higher rainfall in the south of the park, where we started, it is greener and attracts a greater number of game except for the antelopes (we have seen so many we now refer to them collectively as 'boks') and consequently the cats that prey on them. As you drive north the greenery turns brown then grey. There were miles and miles of Mopani trees, leaves afire in colours that reminded me of the famous New England fall.

Animal spotting turns out to be quite tricky. They seem to like to disguise themselves as other things. Crocodiles masquerade as logs, hippos as boulders, elephants as shadows, rocks and dead trees and giraffes as tree trunks and branches. The giraffes in particular seemed to have a way of standing completely still and blending into the background until a twitch of an ear or blink of an eye identified them and all of a sudden they were standing right in front of you. It reminded me of those magic eyepictures that were all the rage in the 90's.

We spent five nights camping in the Kruger and in addition to all the other wild animals we saw at Mokala and the other National Parks and more antelope of various persuasions, we saw a couple of large herds of buffalo, loads of elephant, a leopard hiding in the bush and a maned lion contentedly devouring the red and bloodied carcass of something.

Maputo

On our way back to Maputo we stopped in the province of Inharrime to buy their famed peri-peri sauce from one of the roadside stalls. I always thought Nandos, with its peri-peri chicken was a portugese chain and I was surprised to discover its actually South African. I guess that explains the Nandos restaurants on seemingly every corner in Cape Town.

Maputo was overcast, windy and dusty. It has a vaguely art deco feel to it, but the buildings are dirty and dilapidated. We took a walk to the main market and Independence Square which was a dirty overgrown crumbling version of its former self.

On our way out of town we went to Costa do Sol restaurant on the seafront for an extremely tasty prawn lunch. The spot to be seen in the 30's, the restaurant claims to have invented the 'famous' dish LM Prawns (named after Lourenço Marques, now known as Maputo), but sadly no longer includes it on their menu.

All the books we'd read about driving in Mozambique warned of the many police roadblocks and checks that you had the right paperwork, red hazard triangles and whatnot. We ensured we had the necessary equipment and got certified copies of our passports before we went to Mozambique as it is rumoured the police there will refuse to give back your passports after id-ing you unless you pay them a bribe. We were surprised that although we probably passed nearly a dozen or so of these checkpoints, we were waved through or ignored at all of them.

Apart from the many border 'assistants' crowding around the Landy wanting some us to appoint them to deal with the complications at the border (we ignored them), the crossing back into South Africa was fast, straightforward and uneventful.

Praia Mar e Sol

After three nights we broke camp to head back down the coast. At Quissico we decided to follow a sand track that wound 11km through coconut plantations and local villages down to Praia Mar e Sol on the coast. What a magical find.

Apparantly it used to be a beach resort before the war and now it operates as a campsite/backpacker hostel (although I have no idea where the backpackers sleep). The campsites are on the inland side of the dunes and the sea pounds the ocean side throwing up froth like bubblebath and a surprising amount of jandal carcasses. We saw many humpback whales spouting and breaching from the dunes. Slightly further inland are a number of shallow crystal clear lakes without hippos or crocodiles so perfect for cooling down in. So we did.

There were no other guests that night and Leonard and Emma, who run the place, invited us to join them at their fire. Watching Leonard I learned how to braii properly (I hope). From piling wood onto the fire to raking the coals to the right heat, to ignoring his friends repeated insistence that the food was done, until it was really done (with a secret ingredient he kindly divulged to us), I now have new barbeque methods at my fingertips.

No electricity meant no light pollution other than the braii fire and the night sky was awash with bright stars. The milky way was clear, or rather, very milky. I dont think I've seen it like that since I was a kid out in the bush in New Zealand.

We liked Praia Mar e Sol so much we stayed an extra night. The next morning Duncan woke up with a whole load of little spots on his face.

He thinks they're an allergic reaction to the new bug spray we bought. I'm worried they're mosquito bites from the tent invasion the night before.

Praia de Tofo

Your stereotypical tropical paradise - a two horse town at the end of a peninsula with a curving beach, high sand dunes and palm trees waving in the breeze. The first morning we saw humpback whales swimming and spouting from the deck of the hostel and later (with the binoculars) doing breaching further out at sea. This was sort of ironic as we'd been to many places along the western and southern coasts of South Africa hoping to see whales then they just pop up unexpectedly here.

After three days of non-stop driving we took it easy with a walk on the beach and up to the local dive centre to arrange some trips. Duncan dove Mantray Reef while I went on a boat for an ocean safari where I saw a baby humpback whale, a pod of humpback dolphins and snorkled with an enormous whale shark. I wouldnt want to have encountered that creature by myself in the sea without first knowing what it was. Actually, not sure I'd want to again either...

Mozambique

We made a relatively early start though it took some time to make it through the Maputo traffic to the road out of town. In town the roads are crowded with chapa's or mini buses of varying degrees of roadworthiness and stoved in frontage. The sliding door for the passengers on one of the vans we passed had come off completely and was being held up by passengers. As the Bradt guide to Africa Overland mentions, driving is theoretically on the left but in reality vehicles come from all directions. When Portugal pulled out of Mozambique in the 1975, the newly independent republic reached out to the socialist eastern states for assistance to rebuild infrastructure and political guidance. The street names in Maputo reflect that history - our hostel was on Avenida Mao Tse Tung, just off Avenida Vladimir Lenine.

The main highway we were following was sealed and in excellent condition until we reached Xaixai where it degenerated into a series of potholes strung together with a little tarmac. Not much further on we encountered still more roadworks although the Mozambique road workers technique of working the stop/go sign for use of the single lane was more erratic than South Africa. Several times traffic was coming straight at us from the opposite direction. I was curious to see Chinese workers at the surveying tripods at several points and at one point we were following two trucks full of dirt with Chinese numberplates so I guess the road is being constructed by China. I read recently that China had recently leased large swathes of land in Mozambique (and other African nations) for growing food crops to import into China and wonder whether the upgrade of the road is so they can transport the goods to the port.

Around 80% of the population of Mozambique engage in subsistence farming at least part of the time and the land along the roadside reflected this. Instead of the enormous fields of grain or cattle pasture we saw in South Africa (or right by the border, banana and sugarcane plantations), here it is a little more haphazard with small plots of corn and tomatoes with coconut and banana palms and other fruit and nut trees growing in the middle of them and the odd cow or few goats tethered nearby. As we drove north it became greener, rather than drier. It must take a lot of effort to keep those gardens green. Driving through villages we would see a parade of local women with 20 litre plastic containers carefully balanced on their heads enroute to or from the local well.

Mozambique Border

Once we turned back east around past the top of Swaziland the landscape changed from sun baked plains grazed by cattle into more green sugarcane fields. The N4 cuts through a beautiful gorge, all dramatic cliffs of red rock and twisting corners. After still more roadworks we finally made it to the Mozambique border not long before 4pm and I was pleased to see there was little queue ahead of us. We enquired at the enquiries desk about where to go about getting the Landy's carnet sorted out and were promptly accompanied by a self appointed assistant. Once the correct stamp had been made in the carnet and signed by the official (who had no pen of his own and declined to return mine), immigration stamped us out of South Africa promptly.

A few hundred meters down the road we completed visa application forms then went to get the Landy stamped into Mozambique. After much heated discussion between the official and our helper (his self made badge said he was customs clearance) the carnet was stamped and a receipt issued for the fee. Upon examining the carnet documents however, Duncan saw they'd stamped the Mozambique stamp on the very first page - the one for Australia where the Landy started last November! They were supposed to complete a form, stamp it and tear the perforation and retain the bottom third. Duncan went back to the official with our Portugese speaking assistant and with some more back and forth, by completing the form himself and ensuring it was processed correctly the Landy was legal to drive into Mozambique. I waited in line to sort out the visa's while Duncan showed the customs inspector the vehicle and its contents. There was some concern about bringing in a box of wine we purchased for special occasions and also about the jerrycans on the roof, until explained via our assistant they were currently empty. Once he understood the nature of the trip itself, the Landy passed the inspection while the customs inspector shook his head in wonder at the mad plans these foreigners have.

We made it into Maputo just as darkness fell and have set up the tent in the carpark of a local backpackers hostel. The plan for tomorrow is to hightail it up to the seaside resort of Tofo for some more diving, then pootle back along the coast. We have to return to South Africa via the same border crossing.

Detour

Although the original plan didnt take in Mozambique until after Zambia we decided to press up the coast to Mozambique and started the malarial tablets a couple of days ago accordingly. We reformed the plan to go up the coast to cross at Kosi Bay and re-enter South Africa at the transfrontier border between the Mozambique Limpopo National Park and Kruger. At both the Lesotho border crossings formalities were perfunctory on both sides, but Mozambique has more requirements and are officials are reputed to be somewhat capricious about whether you meet them or not. In preparation we had purchased another emergency triangle, some Mozambique triangle stickers, some additional reflectors and had copies of drivers licences, passports and other necessary documentation certified.

We drove about an hour further up the coast to the border crossing at Kosi Bay. Sunday morning, there was only one other person in front of us in the queue although when I enquired after his wellbeing the official grumbled that he was too busy. He stamped our passports out of South Africa with barely a second glance, but it turned out we couldnt take the Landy through that border to Mozambique! We would have to drive another 700 odd kilometers around Swaziland and use the Lembombo border right at the southeastern border of Kruger National Park! After a bit of explanation, the grumpy official stamped us back IN to South Africa and we started on a mission up to the other border. We thought if we couldnt make it to Maputo before dark, we'd stop in the Krueger for the night before continuing. That was before we came across a solid 95 km stretch of single lane only roadworks which delayed us by several hours... We've ended up taking a detour to camp at a farm still several hours drive from the border. We're back 1600 meters above sea level again and its freezing.

Greater St Lucia Wetland Park

This World Heritage Site the brochure on the region claims it houses five separate ecosystems, although then rather unhelpfully claims it takes days to understand how they interact, without actually outlining what they are. There are obviously wetlands and sand dunes, and between St Lucia and Sodwana we went through savannah grassland and wooded areas (in addition to the fields of sugarcane rippling in the breeze and pineapple plantations). On the coastline is a marine sanctuary where Turtles breed and coral reefs in the north offer superior diving.

St Lucia itself is a tourist resort village offering overpriced souveniers and guided walks and tours. We stayed at the pretty Sugarloaf site at the mouth of the estuary. Hippos were lazily lounging in the water and as the sun lowered in the sky Nile crocodile lumbered from where they were basking on a sandspit into the water to float downcurrent innocently pretending to be logs. As we were setting up camp Duncan told me to turn around. Some 30 odd small grey striped mammals with long tails and legs too long ferrets to be were swarming across the ground like a plague of rats. They were storming from one rubbish bin to the next foraging for scraps. We later identified them as mongoose (I love the Collins Fieldguide to African Wildlife). Later that night we saw a pair of bushbabies, one in pursuit of the other, bounding across the grass, mewling like infants.

As we arrived to camp Vervet monkeys were ransacking the campsite next door, going through the rubbish bins and jumping on their tents. Duncan left the drivers door open for a minute while he preparing the tent and moments later a monkey had jumped into the drivers seat and made off with a half eaten bag of crisps secured with a rubber band, which took him half an hour to figure out how to open. In the morning I felt under seige as I prepared breakfast - mongoose were swarming everywhere and I was irrationally afraid ofthem deciding to run under the Land Rover through the camp where I was standing. I was also surrounded by monkeys watching my every move for an opportunity to swipe some food. Fortunately they both headed off as the day wore on and the heat increased.

Battlefields

We spent a cold night in Cobham Nature Reserve in the Southern Drakensburgs, then splurged on a night in the Cathedral Peak Hotel which afforded amazing views of the mountains as well as a bath and warm bed for the night. After a sumptuous hotel buffet breakfast we set off on a mission through the Battlefields region to find some old Anglo-Zulu war sites. The landscape is rolling hills of pale yellow grass scorched by the sun interspersed with black fields, scorched by fire. Our first stop was Rorkes Drift (brought to popular notice in the film Zulu) where we stopped for lunch and a tour through the museum. Fugutives Drift where some soldiers retreated from the Battle of Isandlwana with the queens flag is several kilometers down the road inside a game park (?!) and marks the war graves with a commemorative stone. Another 30 odd km up and down winding roads, so dusty that pedestrians walking on the roadside wore grey masks atop their dark skin, we came to Isandlwana which is the site of the battle where the soldiers of the Empire were fairly massacred by the Zulu forces before the survivors retreated to Rorkes Drift and returned the favour. Isandlwana was just closing as we (finally) arrived but you could see the white stones and cairns marking the fallen soldiers from the gate.

Not wanting to brave another cold night at altitude, we hightailed it to uMlalazi Nature reserve on the coast through the timber plantations on a 'tar sealed' 'A' graded road that obviously isnt receiving any World Cup funding. For a solid 25km it featured craters rather than potholes, which Duncan assures me is simply a taste of roads to come. Like Lesotho there seem to be few fences in KwaZulu Natal however unlike Lesotho, the livestock has no herdsman to keep them in line. More than once we rounded a corner of the main highway at 100km to find a large bull standing unconcerned in the middle of the road blinking its big brown eyes at us. Kwazulu Natal also seems to make prodigious use of ripple strips and judder bars to control traffic speeds, which sometimes go on for several kilometers. We're considering driving up the coast and spending a week or so in southern Mozambique before cutting back into South Africa at Kruger. A week in the sun with swimming, snorkelling and seafood is very tempting.

Lesotho

So. Lesotho. It was Duncan's original intention to drive around the top of Lesotho to the Drakensburgs but Andy of Cape Town Backpackers (another Land Rover owner, they're a special breed) recommended a route going straight through the middle of Lesotho. At least, it looks straight(ish)on the map. In reality it involved much climbing of twisting mountain passes up into the sky and then plunging back to low ground on roads that could most kindly be described as challenging. Winter has left a generous dusting of snow on the higher peaks. The views were stunning, especially of the Mohale Dam, which is part of the ambitious Highlands Water Project to supply South Africa over the next century.

Overgrazing has caused dramatic erosion in this mountainous enclave. The air is hazy in the low lands due to the dust. There are no fences marking property or fields, but herd boys manage the livestock taking them from the villages to graze, to water.

We were surprised to find none of our cell phones worked in Lesotho. Mine is so old it didnt work in Cambodia or Thailand either, but the phone network in Lesotho was too modern for all of Duncans (three) phones. Not being able to call when you get lost can make finding accommodation a bit tricky...

We stayed the first night in Maseru, not far from the border crossing then took a rondavel the following night at Melealea Lodge, well known for its pony treks into remote mountain regions and development of a sustainable business model in cooperation with the local villages. Given that even the lowest point in Lesotho is over 1000m we thought it would be too cold to camp. For the evenings entertainment we watched a local choir, then a band with local dancers who played for the tourists at the camp and finally, the last 10 minutes of South Africa trounce Australia in the Tri Nations inside at the bar. No, I know that I cant talk, I know the All Blacks are playing terribly.

From Melealea we took some back roads heading north to the A3. Occasionally passing villages, irrespective of how remote we seemed, from out of seemingly nowhere children would come sprinting across the fields from their villages demanding pompoms(or sweets from the french bon bon).

The most noticeable thing about all the people we passed while driving was the clothing they wore. Generally both a blanket and a beanie. The beanies are due to the cold at altitude, I guess. The blanket is a traditional garment, replacing animal skins some time back in the 1800s. Blankets are worn differently by men and women for more than just warmth, they symbolise status. Women wear them around their waists if they dont have children, and around their middle if they have children. Boys graduate to wearing them in the men's style as part of the becoming a man ritual. By the time we were up in the snow covered mountains the herd boys looked like right thugs dressed in their blankets and balaclavas to keep warm.

We planned to stay the night in Thaba Tseka, though didnt realise the lodge we had in mind was another 55km on from the township, so got in to Mashai just as dark was falling. In all we drove about 320km, but it took nearly 8 hours.

A few kilometers after leaving Mashai the next morning we were flagged down by a young man running up the hill. Nyale was from the township south of Mashai and heading into Tsaba Theka for shopping. We gave him a lift the 12km up to the main road and I marvelled that for him, a round trip to the shop was a good 150km up and down the mountains. Later in the day we were flagged down by a woman and her two daughters and took them nearly 50km to Mon...kong. They were just waiting patiently around a corner at the top of some climb - given the small amount of traffic I wondered how long a trip like that would normally take.

Then it was time to head back to South Africa via the famous Sani Pass over the Drakensburg range where the melting snow turned the good part of the road into mush and the bends were knucklewhitening.

Although it wasnt on the official plan, I'm really happy to have been through Lesotho. In addition to the gorgeous landscape and lovely people, I feel it gave us a taste of the Africa to come and even put the Landy through her paces somewhat. From my perspective she's proven she's up to the difficult roads we've been warned we'll find on our way up the continent.

The Big Hole

We spent the day in the campsite re-packing the Landy and enjoying various animals visits to the waterhole. Most memorable to me were the giraffes, they're so graceful and there was an extremely cute baby giraffe in tow. We also saw some baby warthogs running around with their tails in the air like aerials for remote control. The following morning we went on a game drive around the park and came across zebra, baboons, buffalo and a single black backed jackal before heading further into diamond country to see The Big Hole in Kimberley, which is exactly what it says on the tin. It is the largest hand-cut mine in the world and stopped being mined in 1914. We're spending the night at an uninspiring and surprisingly expensive campground between the highway and railway tracks just outside Bloemfontein. i dont recommend it.

Mokala National Park

An early departure and after a quick stop for diesel and groceries we were on the road towards Kimberly. The Great Karoo used to be an inland sea when it was still part of Gondwanaland and the flat, barren landscape seems to go on forever. The drive was relentlessly uniform - the only occurrence of note was a posse of little vervet monkeys playing some elaborate game of daredevil with the articulated trucks along the highway. One or two would venture out onto the tarmac and then just as the truck was approaching, scarper out of the way, and the monkeys along the verge would start hooting and laughing and clambering along the fences like jungle gyms.

As we were following the Anglo-Boer War historical route along the N12, we took a short detour to a site marked on the map. The roadsigns directed us up to a farmhouse. We thought we'd be stopping and looking at some ruins, maybe reading a sign if we were lucky but were bundled into the farmer's car and driven to the historical site of the both the soldiers barracks and the concentration camp, then further to the historical museum. Rina and her husband discovered the artifacts and subsequent archeological site when they bought the farm in the early 1990s, she kept up a running commentary explaining the significance of the various ruins and the effects of the British 'scorched earth' policy. We finally made it to Mokala National Park as the sun was starting to go down. This is a relatively new park, established about two years ago. It isnt signposted from the main road south and after driving for miles on a dirt road into the middle of nowhere, I started to worry that we were lost. The landscape changed from rocky Karoo to bright red clay and pale green dry grasses. Savannah? A quick check of the wildlife guide confirmed it. On the way to the campsite we saw many types of antelope - Kudu, Oryx, Tsessebe, Roan Antelope, Wildebeeste and more Springbok. The campsite is in the middle of the bush right next to a waterhole, so I'm hoping to see some of the more rare wildlife early in the morning without even having to leave the tent.

Karoo National Park

Another freezing night and glorious day. After a leisurely breakfast we wandered down to the interpretation centre. This national park was established in 1979 on land once occupied by farms. The Karoo region is considered distinct due to its extreme geological and botanical diversity. We later followed the fossil walk which displayed a bunch of amazing fossils of nearly whole skeletons of the ancestor of mammals (not dinosaurs but therapsids) Once the blazing sun lessened we attempted to tackle the Pointer hiking trail, a semicircle along the road, up an escarpment. It afforded incredible views of the ancient flat topped hills. We didnt see any animals during the hike although we might have had we not completely lost the trail and had to retrace our steps. Last night as I was eating dinner I heard something behind me and discovered an enormous porcupine ambling past.

Karoo National Park

A freezing night in the roof tent dawned into a cloudless day. From Malmesbury we made a brief detour to the Allesverloren vineyard at Riebeek West. Alles verloren is the farm where DF Malan, one of the 'architects' of aparteid was born. We were stopping by to pick up some of their port which Duncan is fond of, unfortunately we hadnt considered that it was Sunday and their bottleshop was closed. Never mind. We went down via Paarl to the N1 and through the Hugenot tunnel rather than over the pass. Oddly the northern end of the tunnel exit was aswarm with baboons waiting for I dont know what but noticed the car behind us threw some lunch remains out of the window as we passed.

The N1 winds for hours through the Karoo - an arid semi-desert landscape with low shrubbery and succulents. Though the main thoroughfare between Johannesburg and Cape Town, it is only a two lane highway with few passing lanes or opportunities to pass the car in front of you due to the volume of oncoming traffic. Slower vehicles will pull into the 'yellow lane' which is basically the generously wide hard shoulder to allow faster traffic to pass. You thank them by flashing your hazards once you pull in front of them. All very civilised but the system breaks down when the car travelling slowly in front of you isnt familiar with the custom. Additionally South Africa is undertaking unprecedented levels of roadworks, both 'regular maintenance' on highways that havent seen maintenance in decades and widening main arteries - presumably in preparation for the tourism drawn by the World Cup next year.

We finally got to Karoo National Park, just outside Beaufort West at sundown. On the way to the extremely well equipped campsite from the main gate we passed Zebra and Springbok, this park is home to 60 odd different species of mammal along with a few hundred bird species and loads of reptiles (including 20 types of snake I hope I dont come across). Tomorrow we'll hopefully see some more when we go hiking.

Cape of Good Hope - Malmesbury

Finally the overland trip has begun! Tonight we're staying in Malmesbury, capital of the Swartland Wine country. It is a considerable distance closer to Cape Town than our plan of Karoo National Park, but the trip got off to a bit of a shaky start.

Yesterday morning we retrieved the Landy from the car park of our hostel in Cape Town (we'd been in South Africa for nearly a month waiting for the Landy to arrive) to find it had been broken into overnight. We didn't lose much of financial value but we're sorely going to miss