April 7 – 17

Ten days is not enough

Our 30th wedding anniversary provided the perfect excuse to indulge ourselves with a trip to South Africa. Ten days to take in Johannesburg, a private game reserve and some of the sights around Cape Town.

Predictably we left wanting to come back for more.

First stop – Johannesburg

After carefully made plans turned out to have been not so carefully made, we ended up making a last minute decision to join the Big Red Tour Bus. This turned out to be a really good way to explore Johannesburg. The recorded commentary gave an interesting perspective on the development of the city and pointed out the places of interest that we viewed from the open top deck.

We hopped off once to view Joburg from the top of the Carlton Tower, again to visit the Apartheid Museum and once more to grab a coffee.

The Apartheid Museum could have filled most of the day. We limited ourselves to just a few hours. Hardly light-hearted entertainment but well worth being reminded of what had happened here in very recent times.

The coffee shop turned out to be a bar with some very interesting cocktails. So the coffee stop ended up being a cocktail stop and since it was happy-hour it meant more than one. Needless to say that ended the tour nicely.

Next stop – Ulusaba

Sir Richard Branson’s Private Game Reserve. This was the real treat to ourselves. Three nights of 5 star treatment in a private game reserve on the edge of the Kruger National Park.

Two game drives each day at the dawn and dusk peak viewing times got us close, very close, to Africa’s Big Five and much, much more. We really recommend this place to anyone willing to spend a little extra to get the very best game viewing experience not to mention very special accommodation, delicious food and a self-service bar .

My recurring complaint to Stuart, our guide, was that I had brought a very expensive 400mm lens which I couldn’t use because he was getting us too close to everything.

Lions We didn’t see a single male lion last year in the Serengeti. We met this guy on our first evening here. he was supposed to be looking after the cubs but clearly had better things to do and wandered off alone. Fortunately the cubs survived the night and the lioness retuned the next day.

The feeding lions had brought down impala only about 100 metres from the Ulusaba Safari Lodge. No wonder we weren’t allowed to go for walks on our own!

African Elephant Most of the time the animals simply ignored the vehicles and so we were able to drive right up to them. One particular bull elephant was clearly curious to know more about us. One photo below shows Daniel, our tracker, sitting on the front of the Land Rover. The elephant came even closer and held his trunk just inches from Daniel’s face.

Leopard The leopard hauls his kill up a tree to stop other predators and scavengers from stealing it. This male was on his third tree day. The remains of a warthog can be seen hanging from a fork in the tree. We sat and watched him until it was dark. Then, in the spotlight we watched him climb up to his larder and finish the last of his meal while two hyena patiently waited below for scraps to fall. Their meagre reward was a few drops of blood over which they snarled and fought.

Cape Buffalo Stuart, our guide, rated the Cape Buffalo as the most dangerous of the Big Five. Bad tempered and unpredictable with a formidable set of horns.

Rhinoceros In the Ngorongoro Crater we caught very distant glimpse of rhinos. Here they were blocking the road and we had to wait for them to move. These are White Rhinos with a square-lip adapted for grazing. The slightly smaller Black Rhino has a hook-lip adapted for browsing (now I’m an expert).

That was the Big Five but as I said there was so much more …

Cape Town – final destination

Everyone told us that Cape Town was stunning. Nobody lied!

From the picturesque backdrop of Table Mountain to vibrant Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, nothing disappointed. We travelled as far south as the Cape of Good Hope and west to the Stellebosch seeing enough to know that we need to come back.

After the luxury of Ulusaba the Finchley Guest House, Camps Bay was certainly a downgrade but the friendly staff made it a perfect base from which to explore Cape Town.

Sunset from our balcony, sunrise on the beach and the view from Lions Head looking down onto Camps Bay.

We couldn’t resist a boat trip from Hout Bay to see the Cape Fur Seals on Duiker Island. Then the scenic Chapman’s Peak Drive took us to the Cape of Good Hope where we climbed a hill to admire the view, took some photos and left before the tourist buses. A real shame, there was so much more to do and explore but we were racing to see the Jackass Penguins on Boulders Beach and it was getting late – did I mention that we need to go back?

The description of the walk up Lion’s Head did mention that there was a little bit of climbing involved and that there were chains and ladders in places. I may have forgotten to mention that to Sue. As a result our 30 year celebration came dangerously close to being the last! Eventually we both ended up on the summit and the views were well worth the effort. Well I thought so anyway.

After a strenuous and stressful morning the day most definitely changed pace. We took a leisurely drive to the Stellenbosch and Franschhoek wine region to enjoy a decidedly decadent lunch with Jenni and Kevin Dittmer. Small world syndrome – they are Kiwi friends who live in Al Ain and just happened to have organised a trip to Cape Town at the same time as us.

Our last full day was partly spent touring Roberson & Caine’s boat yard and viewing the new Leopard 40 catamaran. Still not sure if this is the boat we want but we will definitely have to have a holiday on one at some stage. Then staying with a nautical theme we visited the V&A waterfront for lunch and the inevitable shopping excursion.

One more night in Johannesburg then back to Abu Dhabi. No idea when we will come back, but I do know that we need to – did I mention that once before?