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JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED …

The flights were booked
The accommodation was booked
We were counting down the days

And then

Screeeeeeeeeeechhhhhhhhhh

Life intruded in our carefully laid plans .....



Russ was admitted to hospital with a floppy heart valve, and a couple of months and open heart surgery later here we are …… STILL counting down the days.

Russ has recovered and the trip is still on (...... you don’t expect us to sacrifice a trip to KTP do you? ) and all our plans are still on track. We will be visiting Storms River, Augrabies and KTP with a couple of side visits to other parks - time permitting. We are hoping that the peace and tranquillity of KTP will be the last bit of recovery we both need ..... obviously we have to be careful about those heart stopping sightings ……… I’ll just tell him to close his eyes .

So now it's just 10 sleeps to go and the excitement is building, all the camera gear has been packed leaving us very little weight left for clothes, but clothes shmothes - as long as we have something to pack around the camera gear I am sure we will be fine (If you see us just stay upwind !!! ). Here's hoping this trip will be just what the doctor ordered!!!!

Thank you Michael367 and WAC, well, as you can tell - we are back We had a lovely time, very busy with LOTS of driving and more importantly LOTS of pics I should be able to get some of the pics done by next weekend (as usual - going on holiday means manic rushing when we get back to work) so hope to start our trip report then. Highlight of the trip - a Yellow Ribbon in KTP - it was great meeting you and your brother Norms

Well, we are back now and a week of work has made us feel like we have never been away!!! … but at least we now have the trip report to help us re-live our experiences.
The holiday was great and Russ did rest (a little!), we made full use of our wild cards and visited Storms River, Boulders, West Coast NP, Augrabies and KTP ... amongst other side trips.

5th May 2011
Our first National Park was Storms River Camp where we had a lovely family reunion. Ever since both our parents had passed away my brothers and I had not been together in one place. Thank You to my lovely SO for his cunning plan to make this happen, being together with our families was great fun and a lovely treat.

After an early flight from Durban to PE we (Russ, myself and brother V & family) met my other brother J (no, not Daryl ) at the airport and soon we were on our way to Tsitsikama National Park. We made pretty good time (+- 2hours) and although we had a slightly protracted and confused book-in we were soon looking at the road up to the Guest Houses and wondering how the hell we were going to get the cars up there!! We had booked one of the Guest Houses (4 bedrooms) so that we would all be together.

The road to the Guest Houses is VERY steep and at one point, when driving a high vehicle, it feels like the car is going to do a somersault backwards. This picture does not really do it justice but for those of you who, like us, were wondering were the Guest Houses were - they are up the road next to the Restaurant and shop.



The parking area at the top is a little squashed and as we had 3 cars it was not much fun trying to manoeuvre them all to fit. There are garages but we did not bother with them. The two Guest Houses are situated on the top of and along what can only be described as a ridge, with quite a steep drop into a valley and stream directly behind the house. The road carries on up to the staff quarters. We stayed in Guest House No 1 and it is nice and spacious – more than enough space for 9 of us (6 adults, 2 children and 1 toddler). All the bedrooms have ample space and the kitchen, lounge, dining area and TV room are roomy. There is an outside braai area on a wooden deck and a covered veranda with a big table and chairs for outdoor eating. The only downside was the view – the vegetation obscures the view of the sea except for a few areas. (House number 2 has a much better view)
We made good use of the braai area the first night and while the boys were standing on the decking and doing the cooking we even managed to see a pod of dolphins making their way along the coast (no pics I’m afraid as they were too far away).

Here are some pics of the house for those who may be thinking of booking it.

Guest House No. 1









Guest House No. 2






Hopefully I will be able to continue later on this week

6th May 2011

Conquering the fear!

Ever since I was a wee one I have had a quite irrational fear of suspension bridges ( my folks were the adventurous types who took us on walking/mountaineering holidays in the Drakensberg as well as other weird holidays). Although I will force myself to go on small suspension bridges it was a personal goal for me to go over the one at Storms River. The question was, could I do it???





Is just me or do all the dassies in Storms River look evil or mean???

Who ya lookin’ at?


After spending the early morning photographing the sea and dassies the whole family trooped off along the River Mouth trail. It is longer than you think but a very nicely done boardwalk. My brother J is homeschooling his girls and took every opportunity to teach them as we walked along. My 4 year old niece scampered along in her welly boots – how the heck children cope I just don’t know (although she is like the Duracell bunny and just never stops!!)






I, on the other hand, was quite glad when the trail ended (even though it meant that I had to attempt the bridge crossing) as I had realised that I am not as young or as fit as I once was!!! Some of those sections are steep!!! … and worse when coming back!





Well, for those of you wanting to find out – YES, I DID IT!!!! …. Then I realised that I had to come back again as well ….. doh!!!! I had to wait until the whole famdamily had crossed over before I attempted it but I did do it and even managed to take some pics on the way!!

(By the way, for those of you tempted to do the ‘ViewPoint’ walk just on the other side of the bridge – be warned. It is not boardwalked and is a very steep climb! Something Russ probably should not have attempted with his heart. We, quite wrongly, assumed that as it appeared to be a continuation of the River Mouth trail it would be gradual and boardwalked – wrong! It is also a VERY long way up to the top of the hill on the other side of the suspension bridge. The Duracell Bunny did it at a run – I turned around halfway and poor Russ ended up feeling quite rotten and had to lie down when we finally got back. I gather that the views are spectacular but in my state of fitness, even if I had made it I don’t think I would have been able to do much except try to breathe )

Here you go

Monday 9th May

Boulders

After making our leisurely way to Cape Town we now had a full day to spend there – what to do?? Well, in my opinion there is only one thing to do ... take a slow drive over Chapman’s Peak and go to Boulders.

I love Boulders and would have loved to have got there nice and early but all that travelling had put the mockers on an early start and we decided to just ‘get up when we woke up’ so we missed the light but hey, I still saw all those lovely little gangsters. (I really think that they look like mafia hit men .....)

This time, thanks to Google Maps, we found the proper parking for Boulders and had enjoyed a great morning there. It was a lovely sunny day and in between the busses we just about had the place to ourselves












The Boulders Bouncer?


Casing the Joint “Nonchalant”


Keep perfectly still, blend in .... they won’t see us ....


The Gangster Getaway, “keep it casual lads, keep it casual”



So many cormorants




Love this sign!!

Thanks for your comments Micetta, CoS, Crested Val and Pumbaa - next brief installment coming up ...

Tuesday 10th May

On our way to Paternoster we stopped off in West Coast National Park for lunch. We were just turning off the main road onto the road to the restaurant when Russ slammed on the brakes, nearly put me through the windscreen and yelled ‘CARACAL’ all in one smooth (or not so smooth) moment!!! ... and there she/he was ... a fleeting glimpse and no photos to show for it but we had seen our first cat of the holiday. We stayed around for quite some time hoping to see more but it was not to be. Neither of us had seen a caracal before so it is a really treasured memory.

On a high we had lunch at the Geelbek restaurant, accompanied by the resident weavers and sparrows and then went to the hide to see what was around. It was quite overcast and windy but it was still a much better drive than on the motorway!! It was even windy in the hide so our pictures did not come out as well as we had hoped and are quite grainy.





















Next SANPark on our journey – Augrabies!

Ok that was post 60 so I am going to take a chance ..... Mod's don't shoot me if it doesn't work

Thursday 12th May

After and long and very straight (“here comes a corner whoohoooo!!!”) drive we arrived at Augrabies.

It did not take us long to take a walk down to the falls – we hadn’t even unpacked yet! The falls were still quite full and viewing the broken platforms was sobering. After unpacking we went for a drive in the game area but did not get far as I was a little unsure about how deep the many river crossings were and so we turned back. On our way back we saw what we thought was a dassie but after looking at it through our bino’s we decided it was possibly an otter – pic quality is not great but you decide ....











The life around the chalets is quite amazing given the barren landscape and we spent most of the afternoon watching the antics of the dassies and ground squirrels. At sunset we took another stroll to the falls and then it was off to the restaurant for dinner. I can’t complain about the service but the food was a real disappointment. We did not expect 5 star but minus stars were what we got.

Thanks Micetta and granjan

Friday 13th May

!!! Friday 13th. What a day to do a loooooong drive! (actually I was born on the 13th so consider it a lucky day no matter what day of the week it falls )

The drive from Augrabies to Upington went without a hitch and after a little confusion we found Kalahari 4x4 and met up with Pieter Nel again. We swapped our luggage over to the new car and dropped the ‘old’ hire car off at the airport (At this stage, if I don’t confess, Russ is going to comment so I will admit that I got lost getting out of Upington and finding the airport – there is just something about Upington that I just can’t get my head around the road layout .. oh well, we must all have at least one failing )

The drive to KTP did not take as long as we were expecting, possibly because of all the long distance driving we had done to get there! We soon arrived at the long anticipated highlight of our holiday, deflated our tyres, did some shopping and were off – out the gates and on our way to Kalahari Tented Camp.

We had a relatively quiet drive up to KTC but we were NOT complaining – just too glad to be in the park again. At one stage the heavens opened and we experienced our first KTP deluge but by the time we arrived at KTC it had all dried up and was looking innocent again. “Rain, what me?”

We spent two nights in KTC and although I enjoyed the camp it would not be my first choice again. We had the honeymoon chalet which must have the biggest bed I have ever seen – it was a little chilly and my human hot water bottle was far to far away for my liking!!!! I also struggled with hearing lion roaring most of the night and lay there stiff with adrenalin, my heart beating in my ears and shivering with cold ..... it was only a couple of hours later that I realised that my lion roaring was very rythmical and was actually our neighbour snoring!!! What a fool I felt, and by that time sleep had fled and I then lay away trying to see if there was actually a lion roaring – no luck.

We did not have any luck with kitties this side of the Auob but lots and lots of birds. We are very good at enjoying bird sightings but not so good at identifying what we are seeing!!! I would appreciate any help with identifying the birdies please. (some of them I know but the raptors have me stumped)





Possibly the most photographed hyena den ......




Homage to Caracal’s car reflection in a lion’s eye – I didn’t quite manage that!!




Our first giraffes in KTP (we didn’t believe that they existed!!)




The side of the chalet that gave me the heebeejeebees – especially when Russ insisted on sitting with his back to the wall and leaning back as far as possible .....


Very special sighting


A display in dive bombing (I think this is a lanner falcon being bombed by a pygmy falcon???) It was very interesting to watch as the bigger bird did not fly away but just walked around the waterhole - very funny to watch!!

Rain

Nice curious meerkats

It is not a lion, but the car is there all right

One of “my” squirrels

It’s a black-shouldered kite with the falcon

The white eagle might be a juvenile martial, but I am not sure.

A sub adult southern pale chanting goshawk, I think.

And then a tawny eagle, pale form.

Beautiful bird pics

Bird ID's icurrie. (IMHO)

Lanner hastled by black shouldered kite.
Juv martial eagle
Juv PCG
Tawny eagle
swallow tailed bee eater
familiar chat?
liliac breasted roller
scaly feathered finch


Nice selection

Thanks for turning the page Vlakvarkvrou

Sunday 15th May

It was sunny and warm when we woke up but very windy. We were up by 6:15am, packed the car and were ready to leave at 7am. We drove to Grootkolk via the upper dune road, Dikbaardskolk picnic spot and Nossob. As we had a very long way to go and were not sure how long it would take us we drove at the max speed limit and only stopped for good sightings (and even then we did not stop for long). We swopped drivers at Dikbaardskolk and Russ drove until Nossob. The road was very quiet and aside from the usual game we did not see much until I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, some brown moving bodies. “Stop” - Lions!!! Finally we had found our cats. Two adult lions, a lioness and sub adult male were loping along looking for lunch. We stayed with them for about 15 minutes and then had to leave them - we were not happy to have to go but hey, we had somewhere to be by 6pm.







We got to Nossob at 12:30, booked into Grootkolk and filled up with diesel (R220). We were soon on our way and oh boy – it felt like a long way!! We got to Grootkolk at about 3:30pm and were given chalet number 2. We settled in – not too much place to put all our stuff as the crockery and cutlery and fridge were inside the chalet. It was lovely and peaceful and I can see how people can fall in love with the place – we certainly did!!






Russ was unpacking and decided to have a rusk from his stash, he took the packet outside and the next minute I heard an almighty yell – I immediately thought “Snake!!” and peered outside the chalet door to find that his rusks were all over the floor and he rather shakily was saying ‘mouse!!’. Ok, now I know that it was not a snake but little Mr/Mrs Ticklemouse was inside the packet of rusks and as Russ had put his hand in the packet he had felt the little bugger moving around ......we managed to find the little one and took a few pictures. We were worried that the mouse had been translocated from KTC but we did find him/her the next day looking none the worse for wear! So this was the second time Russ’s heart had been put to the test on this holiday!!!

“Ticklemouse” with evidence (crumbs)


Translocated “Ticklemouse”


We had just started the fire and were sitting down with a drink when a herd of about 14 kudu came down to drink at the waterhole. It was lovely to sit there and watch them milling around. We had a lovely braai and Amarula Hot Chocolate for bedtime warming as the temperature had steadily dropped and it was freezing. We both put our thermals and socks on before climbing into bed. Russ was up and down during the night filming the wildebeest, jackal and hyena at the waterhole. (No decent pics though)








Monday 16th May

We woke up late today, 7am, and had a leisurely cup of coffee and biscuits before driving to Union’s End. We did not see much, the grass was so long that we could have been driving right next to a lion or cheetah and not seen them! We did manage to see warthog twice – a very special sighting so we were happy with that! (pics aren’t great – but proof anyway)

That ‘just woke up’ feeling ...






is this the Munster family ......?






If you won’t scratch that itch I’ll do it myself ..





We got back at about 11am only to find that a lioness had visited the waterhole while we were out – luck of the draw! We decided that after all the driving we had done in the last few weeks we deserved an afternoon off so we sat in the sun and read out books while serenaded by the sociable weavers and occasionally other birds. The serenading is very loud but quite enjoyable.

We finished our supper at about 8pm and while we were eating hartebeest had come down to the waterhole to drink. As it was starting to get cold we had our traditional hot chocolate and amarula in bed. Thank goodness for the thermals and socks – it was very chilly! (and that is saying something as my blood has thickened up and Russ just doesn’t seem to get cold at all – it’s a running joke in our house!!) At about 1:30am hyena came down to the waterhole and wandered around outside our chalet and between the cars. We managed to get some film from the night vision bino’s. The hartebeest were at the waterhole most of the night and there was also a standoff between the hyena and some gemsbok at about 2:30am.

Thanks Gavin

Wednesday 18th May

It was a sunny but cold morning and we were up at 6:15am, packed and out of the gate by 7am. Drove around Marie se Draai, nothing at the waterhole but we did come across two kudu who crossed the road in front of us.

The road to Dikbaardskolk was quiet although we did catch a fleeting glimpse of an African Wild Cat as it dashed across the road. At Dikbaardskolk we decided to go the long way around and take the lower dune road back to the Auob river side.





The road was quiet but we did see a very large herd of Gemsbok at a waterhole and as we were driving along a very corrugated section of road I saw something walking along the road. I tried to slow down quietly but no luck and as we juddered to a halt 3 sub adult lions left the road in front of us and walked into the veld.





We were the only people at the sighting so we stopped and watched them as they moved up the hill. We thought that that was the end of it but they turned around and walked back down the hill. They passed us and we reversed to keep in contact with them. Boy can they walk fast! They re-grouped and after making a fuss of each other they lay down and disappeared – no wonder we had not had many cat sightings!!!

As we had a long way to go we left our lovely sleeping lions and made our way to Mata Mata, the rest of the drive was quiet with the exception of a very funny ground squirrel who was trying to get into a large Tsama melon and some bat eared foxes just before Mata Mata.









We arrived at Mata Mata at 4:15pm and checked into chalet no. 2 – what lovely luxury and a great way to finish our holiday! While we were making our braai on the veranda I noticed something up on the ridge opposite us – it was very far away but I was sure that it was a cat. Colin was equally sure that it was a log and as we were having our banter about the cat vs log the ‘log’ started to move. We had to put our cameras on the longest possible zoom and eventually we identified it as a cheetah. Just as we were getting a good view it decided to roll on its back, get up and stretch and vamoose behind the dunes. Ah well, at least Colin had got to see his cheetah even if it was so far away!

The log!





We had a lovely braai for our last meal – the hugest steaks each – one T bone and one Fore Rib steak and some very odd mushroom sauce which I made from a packet of soup – not great!

Thursday 19th May

We were up at 7, packed up and out of the gates by 8am –very sad as this was our last day in the park. We drove all the loops on our way down but it was very quiet and even the birds did not appear to be awake yet. We had breakfast at Montrose waterhole and while we were munching someone stopped and told us about a cheetah sighting – we packed up our brekkie and went on a cheetah hunting spree – we drove and drove but no luck!

Then up ahead I saw 4 parked cars and drove cautiously closer – to our surprise there was a cheetah in the road and it looked as if it was getting ready to hunt a springbok which was on the hill opposite. The springbok must have sensed something as it moved off over the ridge before the cheetah could get into any kind of stride. The cheetah disappeared over the hill but left us feeling sooooo happy!!!









As usual the Kalahari had given us one last surprise and one last enticement to bring us back – we’re not complaining about that!!!  we are already planning our next trip .... sound familiar anyone??