Africa Revisited. South Africa. Sabie to The Kruger

A video ( about 20 minutes of our route from Monateng to Merry Pebbles Campsite.

Travelled from Monateng Camping in Pretoria to Merry Pebbles near Sabie, just outside The Kruger. Such a beautiful drive with absolutely stunning views, such amazing scenery! We loved the trip though the Long Tom Pass and we actually managed to find Long Tom a very large silver canon. Long Tom was the British name for this Boer operated field artillery gun that fired 38 kg shells, with a reach of 10 km.It caused the British generals and their soldiers a lot of grief. Shame about the tacky craft stalls at the entrance.

Travelling through the Pass, the scenery became almost overwhelming. We went through clouds, fires and over some very challenging roads. It was fun following the maps as the town names had changed, Lydenburg had become Mashishing, a bit confusing as both names appeared to be interchangeable

Very difficult here to choose the right pictures, as with every turn of the road there was a new picture waiting. These we taken with Den's new super duper Canon lens.

We did not allow the lack of windscreen wipers to deter us, although we did stop just outside Pretoria to have them fixed. Thank goodness for Tracks4Africa who with the help of Madam Sat Nag, found the Toyota Dealer. New fuse safely installed and we made for the next campsite. The Toyota dealer commented that the Toyota Hilux had a known wiper problem and that it looked as if the fuse had been changed a number of times before. Those words would come back to haunt us.

Merry Pebbles was a great site. We met up with a second group of happy Bobo campers. A twenty strong German group with two Bobo mechanics in tow. We made ourselves known. Just as well, because we would have further dealings with the mechanics. A beautiful meal at Merry Pebbles in a lovely restaurant.

Very spacious site with a lovely swimming pool. We didn't actually try the water but it looked clean and cool. We tried our kettle, a hot tip from Nic and Cara, it worked so well! Ignoring the Elf & Safety brigade ( we are not operating at EU standards here) , we were VERY careful. This had to the hot tip of the holiday and saved us so much time and gas. Just as well, as the gas bottle we had been given and which had to be returned full, was half empty! We did have to go back once, as a certain person left it sitting on it's perch.
NB: We would not do this at home or anywhere near children playing, we usually used a short extension lead on the ground.

This made us smile, a very long morning briefing for the German party, it looked very intense. Morning meeting over we all made our way to the next stop. Not in a convoy but we couldn't actually avoid taking the same roads.

I wonder what the collective noun for a clutch of Bobo Campers Is?  Bobo ettes, Boboeeze?

 Ever on wards, we were travelling through the Blyde River Canyon to the Forever resort at Blydepoort.

We passed through the Blyde Canyon, the second largest canyon in Africa, past waterfalls and a view through "God's Window". We went a little off piste and found some other less touristy waterfalls down a dirt track.

We also passed the "Three Rondavels", huge cliff rocks reminiscent of the local people's houses or rondavels, hence the name.

 We stopped at Bourke's Luck Potholes and spent a happy hour scrambling about the rocks, very touristy and busy as all the coaches stop there but worth a visit.

A view downwards towards the potholes. It was really hot so we were quite pleased to be down in a bit of shade by the water.

Next stop The Kruger, we were really looking forward to a visit and we would be staying three nights at different camps so we hoped to spot some game, we would not be disappointed. We stayed at Satara Rest Camp, Letaba Rest Camp and Shingwedzi Rest Camp. All of them slightly different but the facilities were quite good. The best game sightings were further south. We went in at Orphen Gate which was fine but on reflection it would have been better to enter the park further South via Hazyview. Next time we visit we will try and go for 5 nights to enable some early morning and late evening drives. As it was we were not disappointed. A highlight of the visit had to be the snoring lions, they were sleeping off a night's kill in a dry riverbed with a lioness standing guard. The snores could be heard right across the valley. 
A small selection of some off the animals we spotted. Sadly no rhino or leopards!

Our very first sighting within 10 minutes of arriving at Kruger.

Water buffalo, one of the big five.

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Parked up at Satara. It was actually quite busy here, but we managed to find some electric.

Sad, but a fact of life in the wild. Vultures picking on the bones of a dead elephant. The smell was horrific. We hoped the elly died from natural causes!

Funny little Southern Ground Hornbill. 

I think these are one of my favourites zebbies.

Greater Kudu, these are everywhere and in beautiful condition.

Spotted hyena, he was just resting at the side of the road, in the shade of a tree during the day. He posed beautifully.

 Where there is one giraffe there is always another hiding in the bushes often in family groups.

Blue wilderbeests, these seem to get on well with the zebbies, we often saw them together. At one point we saw hundreds in the distance we presumed looking for water.

A lone bull, we were lucky enough to also see many family groups.

The lioness on guard. She was so well camouflaged it took us a while to spot her.

The snoring echoed around the river bed and was really loud. Lazy lions. We think there were around six lions in this pride we only actually saw four.

African Buffalo pretty prolific in these parts.

Further North in The Kruger, long roads but pretty empty.

From a viewpoint on a bridge we spotted this Ellie queue.

Basking in the sun under the bridge an African Rock Python, cleverly spotted by Den!

A Leopard Tortoise crossing the road. Lucky he wasn't squashed, we saw some that were.

Impala enjoying a morning sniff. These are a beautiful colour and blend so well into their environment.

Not only animals in The Kruger this baobab tree was massive.

We loved The Kruger, away from the main roads, the park was actually pretty quiet and we found some brilliant lookout points. The 4 x 4 came into its own here, especially on some of the very remote back roads. 

On our own by a lookout, it was so quiet and peaceful.

The campsites were dusty and further south a bit crowded but we were out driving most of the time. We ate at two of the camps, one of the restaurants was a bush camp, we tried the pap and sauce......not our favourite, but the wine was nice and the atmosphere was friendly.

 A slight rerun of the wiper saga on day 2, as guess what? It started to rain, albeit briefly and the windscreen wipers packed up again! We arranged to meet our friendly Bobo mechanic back at Satara, only a three hour drive there and back, he changed another fuse and fiddled with a relay, off we went. Problem solved...well no. More to follow. 

A  short dashcam ( 20 mins)  of our drive from Sabie through the Kruger to Tshipse. 

Looking forward to the next visit.
One more stop in South Africa and then on to Botswana.

Africa Revisited. South Africa First Stop and Bobo Campers.

Arrived rather bleary eyed in Jo' Burg for the start of our great adventure. On our own this time and looking forward to our introduction to our van and roof tent. The arrival at the airport was pretty uneventful as we knew what to expect. We picked up our Sims Card previously ordered online, from the Vodacom office, so at least we could communicate with the world. We soon found a man waving a card with our name on it and we were off, first stop Bobo Campers, to meet our new friend a Toyota Hilux DC 4. The taxi dropped us off at the Bobo Depot about 40 minutes from the airport. We arrived just before a coach party of people on the Camping and Caravanning Club Worldwide Motorhoming Holidays Escorted Tour to Southern Africa. We were doing more or less the same trip. We were pleased we had booked a direct flight, as some of the other group of happy campers had come via Dubai and had had a much longer flight than us. After going through the formalities and being given a demo of how to put the tent up we were ready to go.

The van looked pretty good and as far as we could see everything looked in order. We did query the scratch marks on the back of the vehicle, little knowing we would soon find out how they were caused! We were slightly apprehensive when a faulty compressor was spotted and replaced and a little put out that the the skirt which should have been with the van to give us a changing area and shown on the Bobo Campers video, was " around somewhere, but no-one ever used it!" Dismissed with a shrug, we gave up that battle, was this a portent of what was to come? We were also a little concerned that the tent cover zip was broken so the tent could not be kept "dust free". Never mind this is Africa, we mused.

We were graciously told we had been given a 75% full tank of fuel ( you're so lucky!) and reminded to bring back a full gas bottle, which we could get filled at any camp site. The documentation for the campsites and vehicle were excellent and instructions on getting to the sites was very clear. We were also given a good pile of maps. We had brought our own Garmin SatNag with Tracks4Africa loaded, this turned out to be invaluable.

Here he is in all his glory Elisha Otis our new best friend. We didn't really connect with his name, so he just became "the van". All Bobo Camper vehicles are named after famous inventors. Elisha Otis was an American who invented the elevator.

A few more bits of paper to fill in, credit card zapped and with our bags safely stored in the van, we were let loose in South Africa on our own. We had spotted a "Pick N Mix" store just before the Bobo Depot so we headed back there for a few supplies. Soon we were out on the roads around Pretoria heading for our first stop Monateng Caravan Park. We soon found out what the scratches on the van were about. Velcro straps that secured the tent cover that blew around because the Velco was exhausted. Den had to brave the motorway twice to tie them down securely. Thanks Bobo Campers, we would have to find a better solution.

Monateng is a Sotho word meaning "place of joy". Well, shall we say it was a well run comfy site, we parked in the shade. Within 10 minutes of our arrival the cavalcade of motor homes arrived from Bobo. Yes it was the "other party", we were politely asked if we would move as there were 15 motor homes arriving and of course they all had to be parked together. We retreated to the bottom end of the field under a tree. We did have a few words with some of this group they were all very friendly, we would meet again.

Our first experience of putting up the tent was entertaining but we were sure we would improve once we got a routine. We did. We were somewhat disappointed to find on climbing into the lofty perch that the bedding was not as clean as we would like. looks like the travel wash would come in handy. We did actually at the next stop buy a new blanket. The fridge and storage in the back of the van was fine once we had found a place for everything.

The next morning in a flurry of activity the other motor homers left and we were almost on our own. We were there for three more nights and arranged to meet our brother-in law Harry who lived in Jo'Berg.  We set off to an explore and found Monateng had more going for it than we had originally thought. A lovely swimming pool and a 25 minutes stroll up the sand track was the main resort. More swimming pools, a restaurant, shops and other leisure activities. Things were looking up! There was a massive deck area overlooking the valley where there was game, sadly we didn't spot much. The toilet block was clean and tidy with the usual baths and showers. We always thought it strange that there were so many baths in South African ablution blocks and fewer showers. Some of the pitches 
( stands as they call them) had their own toilet and kitchen blocks.

A bit of a trek to the main resort but worth it.

Our first game spotting, well nearly.

A beautiful swimming pool, but a bit chilly for us.

There were game drives from here but we thought we would save ourselves for The Kruger. We did manage to spot some wildlife, the weaver birds were fascinating and very nosy.

Oh and it rained! Golf ball sized hail stones, a good test for the tent, no real big leaks. Was this really Africa and would the sun come out?

The answer is yes. The sun did come out. 

Our windscreen wipers broke and we had our first phone encounter with Bobo trying to arrange to get them fixed. We avoided snakes and a storm on the way back from the restaurant on the hill, did the washing and spotted some real game. We also met a lovely South African couple, Nic and Cara, who showed us what a proper braai should be like and very tasty it was too. Thank you so much for your hospitality, the honey and lemon and the tip about the electric kettle!

So it was time to move on. We had met with Harry our brother-in law twice and he had kindly taken us out for supplies. We found some cable ties for the Velcro straps, we bought an electric kettle and Harry reunited us with our coffee pot from our previous African adventure. We had survived our first stop, a mega rainfall and four nights in a tent. Off on the dirt road at the back of the camp. Harry had told us to avoid the main road as much as we could here as there had been many accidents where people had pulled out. We took the scenic view and our first chance on an African dirt road on our own.

  What's next??