Satara Rest Camp October 18 - 20

We left Oliphants and headed South for Satara.  We took a gravel road, bumpy again and saw crocodiles, steenbok, impala, and various birds along the way.  Highlight was seeing a momma warthog with 4 little babies.  We stopped at Timvabati rest area and cooked a full South African breakfast:  sausage, shoulder bacon, potatoes, eggs.  What a feast.  Talked to some locals who said that we were really blending in.  Got to Satara around checkin time of 2PM.  We are on the perimeter which means the only thing between us and the animals is a big fence. After checking in we unpacked and took a walk around the camp.  They have a nice pool, camping area, restaurant, store, gas station, amphitheater.  

On Saturday, Oct. 19, we set out early again in search of lions.  This is suppose to be big cat country.  But the day was misty rainy and cool.  Not too many animals out.  We saw zebras, giunnea fowls, giraffes, more warthogs, wildebeest, Cape buffalo, water bucks, Southern yellow billed hornbills, and the ever present impalas.  It was very cool today.  The weather here can be very warm and then turn cold over night.  We came back in for lunch and went out for an afternoon drive.  When we got back I realized that I had not locked the cabin that held our food.  We have a lot of Vervet monkeys in camp so they got into the cabinet and ate our bananas and spilled our pasta all over our patio.  I learned my lesson!

Today is Sunday and we had a good morning.  We saw three lion cubs early and waited for over an hour for the mother to come back but finally we had to move on.  Then about an hour later we had a female lion cross right in front of us.  We also saw hippos, giraffes, Cape buffalo, wildebeest, fish eagle, elephants, baboons, ostriches, and many interesting birds.  One of the elephants had a collapsed ear.

This afternoon we went out again to a water hole.  We watched impalas, rhinos, saddle billed storks, and more birds.  On the way to and from the water hole we saw a large herd of elephants, ostriches, wildebeest, baboons, and cape buffalo. Tomorrow we are driving to Skuskua Rest Camp where we hope to post all these blogs and use the Internet.

 

Olifants rest camp, Kruger NP

On October 15, we left bright and early again (5:30 the gates open) and headed from Berg-en-dal to Oliphants which is about 227 Km.  We were on paved roads the entire way.  The highlight of the mornings drive was seeing a leopard just north of Afsaal rest area.  The leopard was holding some women's clothing in its mouth. Hopefully, he found this item of clothing and did not tear it off of some lady!  We watched the leopard for quite awhile.  It was beautiful.  My pictures don't do it justice but Dean got some great shots.  Along the way we saw lots of zebras, elephants, warthogs, and, of course, the ever present impala.  There are over 130,000 impalas in the park and they are everywhere.  Stopped at another picnic area, Tshokwane, about half way and had kudu which tasted like steak, corn mush, which tasted like potatoes, and tomato gravy, which tasted like spagetti sauce, for 30R.  Watched a monkey steal a candy bar from a ladies lunch.  The monkey had a baby hanging on her stomach and was up in a tree eating the candy bar before the women could even yell.

Olifants rest area is situated on a hill over looking the Olifants river.  We could see lots of animals down by the water especially hippos, impalas, and waterbucks.  We have round bungalows and they are air conditioned with cooking area outside.  On Oct. 16, we drove north toward Letaba rest area and saw a heard of elephants, two rhinos facing off in the river, and 4 lions snoozing under a tree.  We had lunch at the Letaba picnic area and continued on to a bird blind.  We watched two elephants playing in the river, more hippos, a rock monitor lizard, a chameleon, turtles, and lots of birds.  That night we had peri-peri chicken and roasted veggies on the grill.  This was another warm day, probably in the 90's.  On Oct. 17, Dean and I took a break and stayed at Oliphants while Ron and Bernita went for a morning drive. We really enjoyed our patio overlooking the river.  After coffee we had breakfast at the restaurant and took a walk around the camp.  We are not getting our daily walk with all this car riding.  During our walk we observed a monkey, with baby hanging on, steal some bread off a patio then open the refrigerator and take a loaf out and start eating it.  I yelled but the monkey did not budge.  Finally I taped on the window of the bungalow and yelled "a monkey is stealing your bread".  A man said thank you and scared the monkey off.  Ron and Bernita had a good siting of a male and female lion.

That night we went on a night drive lead by two guides.  We didn't see much except hares, rabbits, and impalas.  Just not lucky!

Oct. 18, I got up early and went with Ron and Bernita for a two hour drive.  We saw Cape buffalo, elephants, giraffes, zebras.  Then we circled back, picked up Dean, packed the car, and headed for Satara.

Madalene, South Africa and Berg-en- dal Rest Area, Kruger National Park

We are staying at Hhusha-Hhusha B&B in Madalane, South Afica for two nights.  This is a lovely B&B with a pool, cooking area, air conditioned rooms, and located 4 Km from Kruger gate.  The owners are Sarah and Guiomar and they have created a delightful place to stay.  Dean was very impressed and he does not impress easily.  Both mornings we were treated with a hearty breakfast.  The full day of our stay at the B & B we spent 4 hours shopping for 20 days in Kruger where we will do our own cooking.  We shopped at the Spur grocery store which is very large.  Dean and I hit the Tops liqueur store where we bought wine and beer.  The day was very hot, over 100 F, so we got into the pool when we got home.  That night we cooked on the braai (barbecue): lamb chops and corn on the cob.

The next day, Oct. 13, we stopped at the Pick and Save, another grocery store, for a few last minute things, got gas and headed into Kruger.  We had to stop at the entry gate and fill out some paperwork.  Since it was too early to check into Berg-en-dal, we drove a gravel road along the Crocodile River.  The gravel roads are pretty rough but you can only go 40 Km.  Highlight was seeing a large herd of elephants and large herd of baboons.  We checked into Berg-en-dal for two nights.  We had perimeter rooms but we couldn't see anything for the brush.  This is a lovely rest camp with large pool, campground area, store, restaurant, and gas station.  Our rooms were large, air conditioned, bath, inside kitchen, outside braai and large patio. We cooked Boerewors sausage on the grill and fried potatoes and onions.

On Oct. 14, we did over 100 km in the South part of the park.  We stopped at Afsaal rest area and cooked eggs and veggies on the braai.  They are propane and rent for 2 Rand.  The rand is 10 to 1.  There was a lot of groups cooking and a lot of birds waiting for a handout.  We made the mistake of going on a paved road early and coming back on a rough road.  From now on we will try to do the gravel roads when we are fresh since they are very rogh and washboardy.  The highlight of the day was seeing a baby elephant with mother and a baby rhino with his mother.  So cute!  We cooked lamb chops again on the braai and green beans and carrots on the grill.  First day we saw Hippos, Impalas, Helmeted guinea fowl,  Elephant herd, Cape glossy starling, Nyala,  African fish eagle, Chacma baboons.

The second day we saw Elephants,  Giraffes, Crocodiles, White rhinos, Buffalos, Zebras, Hammerkop, Wholly neck stork, Hyenas,  Southern yellow billed hornbill,  Warthogs, Lots of impalas, 

Steenboks,  Swainson's spurfowl,  Lilac breasted roller,  Southern ground hornbill, Mongoose, African mourning dove,  Grey go away bird

Prescott to New York City to London

On October 5, Dean and I left Prescott on Shuttle U, bound for Phoenix Sky Harbor to start our journey.    We left on American Airlines around 1:30pm and with one stop in Dallas, arrived in New York City around 11:30.  We had a free shuttle bus to Comfort Suites in Queens, thank goodness, because we never would have found it.  But it was a nice hotel, we had a nice room, and the breakfast and staff were great.  

Oct. 6: After breakfast the next morning we had some time to kill so we took the free hotel shuttle to the subway and went to Times Square.  Walked around for about an hour, had a pizza, and then took the subway and hotel shuttle back to the hotel.  We picked up our luggage and went to LaGuardia where we caught the inter airport shuttle to JFK.  We met Ron and Bernita at the terminal and around 9pm we boarded a Delta flight to London.  Didn't sleep much on the plane but watched 'The Great Gatsby'.  

Oct. 7: In London we went thru customs, caught the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station and walked to our hotel ( The Reem Hotel).  The lobby in our hotel is being renovated so the staff (Umar and Sam) were in tight quarters.  But they were very accommodating.  Our first room was very hot so the second two nights they moved us to a nicer room on the first floor (we were on the third floor).  The breakfast was very good with cereals, yogurt, fruit, rolls and toast, juice, coffee or tea, hard boiled eggs, cheese.  The hotel had an elevator (which is rare in Europe) and was fairly quiet and in a nice location, close to Hyde park and Kensington gardens.  We walked to Hyde park, Kensington gardens, Kensington Palace, Diana's memorial playground and then had beers and fish and chips at a pub.  Tired from the flight, we went to our rooms early.

October 8:  After  re-packing and changing rooms we bought the Hop on Hop off bus pass and rode for 3 hours around the sights.  We got off at the Marble Arch and had lunch at a nice sandwich shop.  Then we got back on the bus and rode back to the Tower Bridge and took the free Thames river cruise.  The day was warm and sunny in the morning and clouding up in the afternoon.  This bus ride takes the whole day - the traffic here is frightful!!  We tried to catch another bus but decided to walk home which took us an hour and a half but we passed Buckingham Palace, lots of arches, walked the length of Hyde park and saw Diana's Memorial fountain (which is not much).  We got home and went to another pub on Queensborough Blvd.; had a drink and chicken and mushroom pies then went back to the hotel very tired!

Oct. 9:  Ron, Bernita, and I took the first bus bound for Buckingham palace to watch the changing of the guards.  Dean decided to stay at the hotel and meet us later.  We got to the palace early and talked to a real 'Bobby' who told us there was no changing of the guards but a ceremony of starting the baton for the Commonwealth Games and the Queen was coming outside to send off the baton which will go thru the countries.   So we got a look at the Queen and the Duke thru lots and lots of tourists.  If I enclose a picture realize that I had to zoom in a lot. After the ceremony we took the cruise boat to The Tower of London which in my opinion is really a old castle with very large walls around it.  We took the docents tour, very informative, looked at the Crown Jewels (one word - WOW),  wandered thru the other buildings and walked the walls.  We had time to take the Hop on Hop off bus, finishing the route we didn't see on Tuesday, back to the hotel.  We didn't see Dean until we were back at the hotel but he said that he had been at the Tower about the same time.  This night we ate at a Thai place after a drink at our favorite pub.

Oct. 10:  We all slept in today, packed, and walked along Queensborough Blvd.  Around 2pm we went back to the hotel, picked up our luggage, said goodbye to Omar and Sam, and walked to Paddington station which today only took us 20 minutes.  The first day it took us over an hour because we didn't know where we were going.  We took the Heathrow express again, went to terminal 4 and checked in.    We flew to Paris and had a couple of hours layover before flying to Johannesburg.  This flight I watched 'Lone Ranger' and slept fairly well (Bernita gave me 2 Bonine).  

Oct. 11:  After arriving in Joberg we again had a 2-3 hour layover and flew to Nelspirit.  We picked up our large rental van and headed for Madalane which was 60 k away.  This was Ron's first time driving on the 'wrong side'.  I am the other driver but, hopefully, will not drive until we get into Kruger.  The drive was suppose to take about an hour but took us 3 hours because of road construction.  Then we got lost trying to find the hotel and finally arrived around 8:30.  We are staying ay a wonderful B&B which I will write about in the next blog.

Pictures: Dean on Times Square;  Dean, Ron and Bernita in front of Kensington palace; our favorite pub on Bayswater St.,  the bus tour, Trafalgar Square, The London Eye, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Parliament and Big Ben,  our Bobby, Buckingham Palace, and a really blown-up shot of the Queen and the Duke.

Prescott

Just realized that I had not posted my last update on the Alaska trip so I did it today after being home about 6 weeks.  We are getting ready to head our again. This trip will be a flight trip and we will be gone about 6 weeks.  First stop is New York City to meet up with the Poutneys and then fly to London for 3 days.  Then we are off to South Africa to stay at Kruger NP and then the Cape Town area.  Last of the trip will be 4 days in Paris.  What a trip!

We will miss our beloved Chica but she will be in good hands with our friends Sheila and Paul.

Next post will be in London.