7am arise, breakfast with the group at 8am, final goodbyes and at 9am we’re on to the shuttle.

The company of the group we’ve travelled with has been fantastic, a great group of people, but, as always life moves on and we start the rest of our adventure today.

Joburg airport is a challenge, The Cowboy tips a porter who gets us to the FlySafair domestic priority check in, he’s better at parting with money than me so well done Cowboy. Its good to see you can check your guns in and get them back after you land. A short break in the food court, God knows we need more food, then on to Boarding Gate D2. There are a lot of Springbok rugby jerseys in the airport, they play the All Blacks in Johannesburg tomorrow afternoon – I’m getting behind the Boks, now that I feel semi African, well-loved, sort of.

Afrikaans dominates the languages spoken as we board, the flight is bumpy as, but takes no time ( or so it feels) before Cape Town arrives, green and mountainous, it looks very scenic. Guess we’ll find out soon enough. The pilot takes two laps to find the gate he’s meant to be at. The Navigator rolls her eyes. Just another minor f… up we’ve been involved in over the last few days. But, its painless, like yesterday, nobody was injured or died so all is ok.

Cape Town is very modern, very clean, the electric fences and razor wire on house fences are more subtle, but we’ve been told it’s safe to walk “down town”. Guess we’ll find out when we go for a walk for dinner.

Our hotel, the Clarendon Fresnaye (Fresnaye is this area, right on Queens Beach on the Atlantic Ocean side), is beautiful. A boutique hotel, at a guess its 2 older “big” houses put together. Behind is part of the mountain that links on to Table Mountain. The landscape is spectacular.

We have lovely butter cake and tea before we head out for a walk. We are dining at Zest Restaurant, renowned for its seafood and view over the water. This will be a challenge for the Navigator.

We walk down the hill, The Cowboy takes leave of us, heads to Zest for early oysters and a cocktail. We go to the water, all the way I’m challenged by the Navigator about the route I led them, little did she know the reason I took the long way is because she annoyed me by not wanting to take the lead but challenged me when I did.

Anyhoo, let’s not bring personal issues into the day. The wind is blowing sea foam and sand off the waves, nearly blows us off the path, so a few photos are snapped then we retreat to Zest. Out behind the waves in the distance we see Robben Island where Mandela spent a few years detained ( about 27 years all up I think)

At Zest the view is great, looking over the sea, our waiter introduces himself as “Blessed”, he has a funky haircut and is an excellent waiter. The food is sensational, oysters are delicious, the prawns and fish are so good. The Navigator actually eats a crab cocktail with avocado and corn sorbet, then grilled prawns – I have to compliment her adventurous eating, even though earlier navigation challenges annoyed the crap out of me.

Anyway I punish her by taking the short track, up the hill, the way she suggested earlier but it’s steep and she nearly expires with lack of oxygen. I’ll say no more than “revenge is a dessert best served cold”

Fact ; Southern Africa is 80% Black 20% White. Fresnaye is 10% Black 90% White, but on the street it looks the other way around. The streets are full of Mercedes and BMWs.

Ciao from Cape Town, a beautiful city that we’ll be exploring more over the next few days.

Pauolo

8 am breakfast, we have the staff singing and dancing again as we leave. The African harmony and rhythm are wonderful, hypnotic almost.

Tipping is customary here, sort of expected we were advised. 8 Euros per person per day for you guide/driver and some for food, bar, room staff. Its a bit of money, but we were warned before we left Australia. And, to be fair, the staff here have been wonderful, in all areas, food has been brilliant, vehicles excellent, rooms done nicely and beds turned down at night, and the activities have been fantastic with some but not much down time. Sebatana has oodles of giraffes, zebras, impala, kudu, warthogs and many others, then Welvehovon and Kianga have the Big Five.

9am we commence the long drive back to Joburg, via Vaalwater where we stop for a break. We drive through Pretoria and then to the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg.

This museum is quite modern, very well done and takes you on a journey through the history of apartheid, the stories of Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Desmond Tutu and others white and black as to how they got to the stage of reforming South Africa into the society it is today. It’s obvious there are still a lot of have and have nots here living in shanties, but I feel that steadily they are making headway to try and make this better.

The Radisson Destiny Hotel, or whatever the f… they are called now have f…d up our accommodation, again. Apparently TripaDeal have contracted Agoda to do their hotel bookings, Agoda say the hotel haven’t paid them, so the hotel have decided we can’t get into our rooms.

Many side battles commence at the hotel between our group. The issue is TripaDeal and the hotel who should have been pro active if they hadn’t been paid. The Navigator takes up the battle and eventually we are in our rooms, it takes over 3 hours to get everyone into rooms. It will be interesting to see the reviews TripaDeal and this hotel get from our group. On the plus side Sebatana Reserve is amazing, no issues around that place.

Dinner with our travelling companions becomes a debrief of the trip, and a short journey through our lives. The group we’ve travelled with has been fantastic, varied backgrounds but a common love of travel and adventurous places.

Tomorrow we fly to Cape Town

Ciao for today

Pauolo

Hard to believe we’ve been here a week, the time has gone so quickly.

This morning, after a 6am breakfast we’re off to Kianga Game Reserve, next door to Sebatana where we’re staying. Sebatana abounds in zebra’s, giraffe, kudu’s, impala, warthogs and many other animals, but the big 5 are at Kianga. Nash isn’t driving today, he’s off doing accreditation to access another park somewhere else.

Today is a bit of a dry run, we don’t see lions or elephants but we see lots of other animals. A short break at a beautiful elevated spot over the Mokolo River before we head home. I try biltong ( dried Afrikaans sausage) for the first time, its actually pretty nice. They put some in today’s snack, amongst the nuts, dried fruit and chips all in separate layers in an Indian tiffin tin. The Navigator thinks she’ll buy one later on.

Lunch is bbq’d pork ribs, the smoke is billowing off the BBQ as we walk in. They are as tasty as all get out.

Forgot to mention, we dropped some of Tim’s ashes into the Mokolo River 2 days ago. Cheryl did the honours. This is the first time we’ve left him on the African continent. Being an animal lover he would appreciate this place so much.

This afternoon at 3.30 we head to Sunset Rock for champagne and a sunset. Also they organise a Kudu Berry spitting contest, I believe it was giraffe pellets. The 2 finalists were ahead of the pack when it comes to shit spitting.

Sunset is spectacular, the driver home rough. In time for cocktails and dinner. A managers debrief before dinner sets out stuff about leaving tomorrow, tipping etc.

Our final dinner is spectacular. Shame this part of the trip is over.

Ciao

Pauolo

Sleep in !!!!! 6.30am start today, then off in our Cruiser teams to prepare for the big hat and presentation competition. Nash takes us to a secret location where we ” Team Nashie” build a “special” hat and work up a theatrical presentation, we feel should be good enough to win. We hope.

It involves theatre, dancing girls, African music, poetry, engineering and decorative skills of an extraordinarily high standard. Nash tells us not to “crack the shits” in African terms if we don’t win, we’re not worried about this because we know we’ll win. We hope.

Everyone in our team of 11, which includes Nash, build the hat, decorate it, choreograph the dance, come up with a theatrical theme, a real team effort.

The 3 teams perform so well and build great hats but ours is better, and our theatre wins us the day. 2 bottles of wine come our way for tonight’s dinner. We’re not competitive, not much, and we don’t have to ” crack the shits” . The Navigator is a dancer, matriach = appropriate, The Dancer decorates and choreographs and dances, The Cowboy builds and bleeds (skewered himself building the hat and I write a quick bit of crappy poetry for our presentation.

Brunch is at a location up in the Park and is so good, a bar, champagne, lunch of kudu rissoles and warthog sausages ( all gluten free), followed by a delicious dessert. The Navigator keeps up her remarkable culinary conversion to a broader pallette. She is eating like an MKR judge.

Afternoon tea then a game drive. Our time at a hide near Christina’s Wallow isn’t successful, our group are not quiet, they are like noisy school children, talking, sneezing, laughing, so we don’t see any animals. Later groups, better behaved and see animals.

Back at Lion Lodge at 6.30pm for Guides Cocktails, shots are consumed, happy hour Margherita consumed. Beautiful 3 course dinner is consumed. The group has grown tighter, the conversation flows easily as though we’ve known each other for years.

Pauolo

This place ( Sebatana) is booked out until 2028, its easy to see why. A great location, fantastic staff, great food and accomodation, and Lion Lodge is the best Lodge, Elephant and Rhino are no where near as good, in my opinion.

Ciao from Sebatana Private Reserve in Limpopo, South Africa

Today breakfast at 5.30am, depart for Kaingo Private Big 5 Reserve, neighbour of Sebatano where we are staying.

I was a bit doubtful if I was going after a bout of Africa Belly last night, must have been the weirdly names African salad I had. Blockemups and supplements in water get me good enough to go.

The Big 5 on case you were wondering are;

1. Lion
2. Elephant
3. Rhino
4. Leopard
5. Buffalo

Its a different landscape to  Welgovonden Game Reserve where we went a few days ago. Both are enormous tracts of land with hardly any fences, wildlife roam freely, but, security is tight as there are still poachers around and rhino horn sells for a motza in China, apparently it helps mens problems! At Welgovonden we only saw a rhino and a buffalo, today we saw lions, an elephant, rhinos and buffaloes but no leopards, so today 4/5.

The lions are 2 females, gracefully loping through the bush, looking for dinner, the elephant is a large bull destroying tree for his lunch  the buffaloes were bulls without a harem, the rhinos were resting.

We check out a little local school, totally funded by donors, of course it has a Christian feel about it, the boss man is a Springbok rugby fan, and professes to know how they beat the All Blacks in Cape Town on the weekend. These kids, about 37 come from broken homes and other difficult situations., they live at the school. If I hear of a school kid in Australia complaining……!

Ciao from Limpopo, South Africa

Pauolo

Last night’s dinner was at great spot in the bush, a giant thatched roof dining hall, not as rustic as I thought it might be, but pretty good We’re shipped out in the 3 cruisers, in the dark.

Dinner is wilderbeast rib eye fillet. It is a beautiful piece of meat, tender, juicy, plenty of flavour and most importantly The Navigator eats it and enjoys it. She does skip the green veggies though. I’m impressed by her culinary flexibility this trip!

The time doing a night game drive is pretty much a waste in my opinion. We see the same animals as we see in daylight, maybe it’s just that we’re tired after the early start.

Ok – on to today – 6am light breakfast then a walk in the bush with Emellie and Mirra, lessons in bush medicine, use of plant for making things, tracking, plant types and general things in nature in the African environment. These girls are only about 21 but confident and mature. The Navigator returns at the half way mark, not that interested in horticultural things, although I thought the medicinal stuff would have been right up her clinical alley.

After a lovely lunch we find out that some monkeys have raided the spa, knocked off some product as well as some scrabble tiles from the chalet next to us. Guess the cheeky little buggers will come up with some good words.

This afternoon is chill time, catch up on a bit of rest after an early start.

Tonight is a tribal dinner and local indigenous dancing and singing. I stick to my rule of no dancing and no singing while allowing others to embarass themselves. The dancing is brilliant, pounding African drum, fast feet in dust, so physically demanding. The dust gets up my nose and it’s hard to breath but well worth the effort of attending.

Ciao for today, tomorrow a really early start.

Pauolo

An early start today, lots of layers, its freezing cold but we’ll need sunscreen by mid morning.

5.30 breakfast, a bit of excitement is in the air, today we’re going to a nearby game park that have the Big 5, but we’re not likely to see them all. It’s a large reserve, so plenty of places to hide from the chill breeze that’s blowing this morning. 

We are in 2 mini buses then 2 Landcruisers kitted out with safari setup. Its freezing in an open cruiser with no windscreen, so were rugged up with blankets to try a warm us up. The roads are rough, really rough, giving us the ” African Massage”.

Before we leave they discover a flat on one of the cruisers, Emellie and Mirra attend to it, young women who know how to get things done.

We see plenty of wildebeest, zebras, baboons, giraffe, warthogs, kudu. A buffalo or two  and finally white rhino, plenty of them. No elephant, lions or leopards though.

Tonight is a bush dinner, somewhere on the reserve, guess we’ll find out where and when shortly.

Today there wasn’t anything hugely exciting to report, but still a great day exploring Africa. I’ll report on the bush dinner in tomorrows blog.

A sleep in this morning, although The Navigator boiled the jug at about 5.30am for her morning cup of tea. Can’t complain because I didn’t hear it.

Breakfast was a hoot, Marguerite ( I think it was her) pulled an African drum out, started belting our a driving beat – signal for ” breakfast is served”. The food here is so good, fried eggs, crispy bacon, a sweet mushroom dish, on gluten free toast. Now the gluten free thing they do so well, there are two of us and they seek us out – unlike the big hotel in Johannesburg.

Half way through breakfast the staff bring out the drum and start to sing, a strong African beat in a local language, they dance, its almost trance like, everyone has a smile on their face, most of all the local staff.

We then meet the safari team led by Nash (pronounced Neshhhh or so he says) and Emillie and ???, 3 landcruiser’s set up for safari with 3×3 seat on the back and 1 beside the driver. We go out of the compound gates, up a steep rocky track to a spot under cover where we are given a geography, natural resource and political lesson on where things sit for this area. We are about 70 km from the border with Botswana, which is a mountain range we can see in the north west. We spot giraffes, warthog and antelope on the trek back.

We explore the shop, the museum.

Lunch is great, can’t believe they do food so well in such a remote area.

The afternoon photo safari starts at 3pm. We see Impala, kudu, giraffe, warthog, zebra, Fresh water crocs, honeyeater birds, and lots of other stuff. Plus we finish with a brilliant Africa sunset near a watering hole.

Dinner is another gastronomic delight, after a Sebatana Sunset cocktail for happy hour.

Tomorrow a 5.30 am start. We’re off to a neighbouring wildlife reserve to try and see the big five, or as many of them as we can. No guarantee’s, it was explained these places are not zoo’s, so we may or may not see them.

Ciao for today

Pauolo

A little drama yesterday that TripaDeal resolved after I put the cranky pants on. Good work on their part to fix their f..up quickly. The Navigator resolved another issue with Qantas remotely. Its 30 – Love in  The Navigator v Qantas match

The Radisson OR Tambo Hotel, now under the brand Destiny Is a lovely hotel, nice staff.

Oh, nearly forgot, there is a Jehova’s Witness ” Eternal Happiness” Convention on at the hotel, mostly young people, well dressed, colourful clothes, smiling faces and no cardigans or dour fashion. Might take a closer look? Yeh nah!!!!

A shower and rest was so good yesterday after the flight. Sleep cycle was reset to Africa time.

The Dancer and The Cowboy arrived 5.45pm looking a little worse for wear.

Today we started early, and, its freezing. 8am 3 mini buses arrive, William from Sebatana Game Reserve organises us into which one and off we head from Johannesburg to Pretoria. Freedom is our drivers name. First stop is the Voertrekker Monument, commemorating the Boer movement out of the Cape area in the 1830s, because they had some grievances with the British. Can’t understand that happening! Godfrey is our guide, another cool name.

South Africa is governed from Pretoria so next stop is the Union Building, or, their government house.

North we continue, lunch at a funky little roadside restaurant, then further north to Sebatana. We see Kudu, zebras, wildebeest, giraffe, ostrich and a variety of antelope.

Sebatana Lodge is fantastic, we are a little gobsmacked how nice it is. Our rooms are beautiful with a verandah looking over a creek. I’m glad we had to pay a little extra and take the chalet style accomodation rather than the standard accommodation. Baboons are wandering around the manicured gardens. We are welcomed by the boss who introduces us to the cook, the room staff and a few of the guides, plus drinks and canapes are served in the restaurant around the pool.

Dinner is high level food, main dish is Kudu, The Navigator eats it and most other things, what’s going on.

Tomorrow we start the real safari’s.

Ciao

Pauolo

Singapore Airport at 1.15am is still humming with people transitting all sorts of places, but, after a day of travel it ain’t much fun. We rest at our gate,  until we find out about midnight that they’ve changed our gate from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1.

Another security check, boots off for both of us, The Navigator is a little miffed, I’m just marginally miffed, if they are going to frisk you at least have a smiling attractive woman do it. And don’t get us started on the huge carryon bags + other bags other people bring on and fill up the overhead compartments with. And rude pricks who push into lines, they get The Navigator ” stink eye” look  and you don’t want that, I saw it when she was talking the Qantas help desk on the phone. Scary!

Johannesburg can’t arrive quick enough, overnight flights destroy me.

We land in Joberg 6am in the dark, sort of, a cracking red/orange sunrise in the east.  Hardly any sleep, more crap gluten free tucker, including GF bread rolls that would kill a human if you threw it and hit them. They are like rocks. Nearly finished Michael Connelly’s “Ironwood”, while listening to some music.

Through the airport quickly, walk into South African soil and shuttle to our hotel. Personal safety is explained to us, and its clear there are some issues. Barb and razor wire, spikes on man fences, some electrified wires on the top of fences, but otherwise it feels like Dubbo temperature wise.

We met some of our fellow travellers (for the first week in SA), we’re just with Cheryl & Graeme the rest of the trip.

They arrive about 4 this afternoon.

Ciao from Johannesburg, South Africa

Paulo