Winter in South Africa! We might have ignored this and the fact 
that we are here at heights between 1000 and 2000 meters. So the nights are cold, bloody cold. Spending the nights in the tent becomes more a survival training than fun, even with the hot water bottles, first thing we buy upon our arrival in Upington. Even the nights in Sudan with up to 38 degrees don’t seem so bad any more.
The first thing we notice here are the bird nests along the road on the power masts. Is it a problem for the power companies??
Our first stop in South Africa is Upington. Here we find the right infrastructure to have the service for the Toyota done, replace our spare tire with a “new” used one and enjoy strolling through the city. Upington is known for its wine, we never heard of it, but Thomas enjoys it a lot…
From here it is a long drive to the East, again through rolling hills with yellow plains and scattered trees. Some call this part the Texas of South Africa. We enjoy the great meat we “braai” in the evenings for dinner. 
The campgrounds are empty since the school break is over and we seem to be the only hardcore campers around. Excitement is always provided by the animals on the campgrounds. Sometimes there are springboks or 
elands, Kudus, warthogs, our “friends”, the monkeys, ostriches or even Emus, the Australian version of an ostrich, and all of them have one thing in common: they are very curious and always hungry. So watch your food.
It is a long drive to Sun City, our next destination. It takes us 3 days to reach it. They call it Las Vegas of South Africa probably because they have gambling here but it is for sure a little smaller. The Palace Hotel reminds us very 
much the Atlantis Hotel in Dubai. No wonder, since it belongs to the same owner. Sun City is located in a valley in the mountains. The center is “Lost City”, the Palace Hotel which is surrounded by a nice water park. There are 
some very brave people who even use the water slides with water temperatures around 11 degrees. We prefer to stroll around and have a look to the casino. Off season, so the few customers we see seem to be retired.
From here we head for the Pilanesberg Game Reserve, which is next to Sun City. Here we spend two quiet nights on a huge campground, which is not very busy. We enjoy the game drives we take through the park. It offers a very 
diverse landscape and vegetation as well as many animals. We even spot a few rhinos in very close distance, which didn’t happen too often during our trip so far. Often the small not so popular parks seem to 
be the better choice in particular since they are not so busy and we have the park nearly to ourselves.
Next destination is Johannesburg and a visit to Scott and his family. Scott is a friend of Thomas, who made almost the same trip 10 years ago. He is the one who inspired us to do the trip and 
always gave valuable input where to go. Approaching Sandton shows the contrast between rich and poor. We drive through very nice areas around lakes or on hills with pricey villas and the obviously required tight security setup followed by townships, where the poorest of the poor are “living” and which seem to have only very basic infrastructure. Wherever we drive, we also see the progress they are making with the preparation of the 2010 Football World Championship.
We are happy to see Scott, but shocked as well, because he just broke his leg, only some hours before we arrived! It happened while jogging in the morning. We hope he didn’t want to run away from us! But even with his leg in cast 
and using his crutches he manages to show us around in Johannesburg. A highlight is the trip to Soweto and the visit of Nelson Mandela’s house which has been recently converted to a museum. There would be so much more to see 
in and around Johannesburg, which probably would take weeks. Thanks Scott and Renée for your warm hospitality and the delicious food. We still remember the “lecker bobotie” Renée’s mother prepared. We also enjoyed sleeping in a real bed for the first time since nearly 3 months.
On our way to Kruger National Park, we make some interesting stops in Pilgrim’s Rest, an old gold digging village. We are amazed how nice the old houses are preserved and we feel like 150 years back in time.
From “God’s Window” we enjoy a beautiful view over the Blyde River Canyon.
We always were looking forward to visiting the Kruger National Park, which is for sure one of the most famous parks in Africa. 
However, when we arrive, we are a little surprised how unfriendly we are treated by the guards and at the reception. During our drive through the park we notice that it is very crowded and wherever 
an animal can be seen, there are already some cars around. Moreover, there are not so many animals to be seen. May be we have seen too many nice parks before and it is probably hard to top what we have seen so far. Unfortunately we even cannot stay in the park since all 3000 campsites are fully booked!! So we decide to leave…
Sometimes we feel like being back in Germany…
On our way to the Drakensberge next to Lesotho, we pass an area where a lot of battles took place. One of the most famous sites is the Blood River where they have an interesting display of the battle that took place in 1838.
When approaching the Drakensberge, we notice how much we have missed the mountains in all these weeks! Even the almost unbearably cold night cannot prevent us to stay here for two nights and to make 
some nice hikes. The good thing of the cold nights is that the campground belongs all to ourselves, even it could host up to 500 people… It’s wonderful to hike, always with the amazing view of 
the “Amphitheatre”, a 3000 m high mountain range.
But we also are happy to leave, to the hopefully warmer South Coast close to Durban. It is indeed much warmer here, but the 
first impression is that the real adventurous time of the trip is over. Campgrounds, or as they call them here Caravan Parks, are packed, quite busy and could be also somewhere in the middle of Europe. Probably a good way to get slowly prepared for the return to Germany.
There are a lot of Road Signs in South Africa which make you really think…
We are now 5 months on the road, drove 30.000 km and are still enjoying every moment.
South Africa is a huge country. We drove from Upington to the South Coast 3180 km and it is still a long way to Cape Town.
29.07., Ifafa Beach, a place “even the South Africans don’t know it exists…”
Thank you for visiting us. We had a really great time using your current experiences to relive our own. Listening to the stories and seeing some pictures that are not on your blog was fantastic. You are more than welcome anytime to stay and hopefuly next time we will be able to adventure together.......
ReplyDeleteCheers and enjoy the Cape.
Renee, Christopher and Scott