Kruger Park Day 3, 22May2011

Sunday 22May2011, Skukuza Rest Camp

Sunday was our last full day in Kruger NP. What an amazing experience it has been for us. The sheer diversity and abundance of wildlife is startling. To cap this off was the wonderful surprise we received on Saturday evening when we were dining at one of the restaurants here after the guided Sunset Drive which had arrived back in Skukuza at 7.30 pm.

Mary and I had just sat down and placed our meal order when Nick, our son, and his wife, Lee appeared at our table. We were flabbergasted. They'd flown from Cape Town that morning and picked up a hire car at Johannesburg then driven all the way to Kruger to surprise us.

I had to rise before sunup on Sunday to go hiking with a small group guided by two armed park rangers. The walk itself was enthralling but was made even more interesting by a close encounter with two white rhinos grazing peacefully and unaware of our presence around 50m away.

So the remainder of Sunday was mainly spent touring the park with Lee & Nick. And what wonderful sights! On this one day alone we encountered four of the Big Five: lion, buffalo, rhino,  elephant. And all viewed from our little hire car driving on bitumen and gravel roads. The highlight was undoubtedly an encounter with two rhinos which were wallowing in a muddy waterhole. Ours was the only vehicle present for most of the time and we were within 20 metres of these fantastic creatures as they cavorted and interacted, apparently unconcerned at our presence.

I'm writing this while sitting up in bed, sipping a Monday morning coffee. The sun's just risen so we're off again for a couple of hours with Lee and Nick before our checkout time of 10am. Then Mary and I will leave the park for the mountain town of Graskop, about 150km west, where we will spend the next two nights.

Kruger Park day two, 21May2011

Skukuza Rest Camp, 21May11

We slept deeply and soundly from around 8pm last night, awaking renewed before the sunrise, a splendid event just off to our right front and un-curtained, for the sky was completely clear and fringed on the bottom edge only by the African forest.

We're here for the wildlife, mainly, and boy did Kruger turn it on for us today. Instead of lining up at 5.30am at Skukuza gate (opens to outbound traffic at 6am) with the crowd in the know, Mary and I breakfasted on our deck, prepared a light packed lunch and left just before 8am for a drive to the NE.

Within 15 minutes we encountered a small herd of elephants which surrounded and passed by our parked car close enough for us to touch them had our windows been open...

Many more encounters with wildlife ensued. Except at certain specified locations, alighting from your car is forbidden and I didn't see anyone breaking the rules. Some pics follow of some of the other animals seen from the car in a slow 4 hour drive within about 30km of our base.

This Nile crocodile (estimated to be about 3.5m long) was a very long way from the Nile, on the banks of the stream which runs past our front door, and barely one km from it.

The sunset drive in an open vehicle tonight is the next event, finishing at 7.30pm after which we're heading off for dinner at one of the other restaurants in Skukuza. And at 0515 tomorrow, 1.5 hours before sunrise, I rendezvous with guide and possibly several other live baits for the 4 hour Morning Walk in the bush. Mary opted to hit the Shop tomorrow instead of the walk...

We're having a great time and the weather is perfect.

Technical: Transmitted from iPad via 3G link, which is available at Skukuza

Kruger NP night one, 20May11

Skukuza Rest Camp, 20May2011

We were in our hut here in the Kruger NP by 4pm today after an incredibly smooth transit in which every arrangement worked perfectly. I did get pulled up by a cop for running a red light but got away with it, I think.

Our deck here at Skukuza, pictured, overlooks the Sabie River in which a hippo was swimming a few minutes ago. Also we've spotted a group of impala up close and, right near our hut, a bunch of mongooses and a vervet monkey.

This is a great place and all for a measly $150 per night for accommodation. Dinner tonight is to be a selection of meats roasted over an open wood fire on a deck overlooking the Sabie River, put on by the in-park restaurant.

The air is incredibly still and the sky still pink from the sunset. Monkeys in the tree above...

Greetings from Changi Airport, Singapore

Changi Airport Singapore at 2130hrs local time

At 2am the human body is generally at a low ebb but we're stuck with that flight departure time tonight. It's designed to put us into Johannesburg at 7am on a chilly Friday morning, a ten hour flight.

All's going to plan, as modern international travel generally does, despite travellers' tales to the contrary. But we're discovering new stuff, also a characteristic of modern times. In the hope that some of this may be useful or of general interest to other travellers on the same new-technology hurdy-gurdy here are a few observations from the trip so far.

>>Brisbane International airport lacks public Wi-Fi or at least I couldn't find it. See later comment about Singapore airport.

>>My pocket Wi-Fi device worked perfectly during the drive to Brisbane and at Brisbane airport so I was able to check and send email and communicate by Skype during our three hour wait in the terminal.

>>Singapore Airlines is still excellent. As Michelle Earl had predicted on Tuesday night at the Surf Club, the movie The King's Speech was among the many movies on offer, on demand. And yes Michelle, I enjoyed it.

>>Something new to me on the aircraft was the ability to charge batteries while flying. Here's a pic from SIA website of the charging port, tucked away on the underside of the central armrest. Thanks to my friend Allan Shearer for tipping me off about this.

>>Within 20 minutes of exiting the aircraft at Changi airport (Singapore) Mary and I were clear of Immigration and Customs. By 10pm (about 80 minutes after exiting) we were checking in to our hotel in downtown Singapore. During this time we spent about 30 minutes in comfort waiting for our hotel shuttle bus.

>>Before going through Immigration I stopped at one of the many Information counters, and, acting on information gleaned from the Changi website, requested my Free Wi-Fi facility. A few seconds later I had it, a printed docket giving login details. This provides six hours free high speed Wi-Fi, throughout the airport. It's given freely without any formalities.

>>Our hotel, not our first choice I must say but otherwise adequate, lacked Wi-Fi facilities.

>>My old favorite tackle shop in Arab Street has closed. But I found a couple of new ones and spent an enjoyable 30 minutes with Joshua Tan, the iPad-toting owner of one shop, talking about fishing while he flicked through the Noosa Yakkers pics on my iPad. He'd been to Noosa twice fishing and never caught a snapper. The pic of Jaro with a 82cm knobby got his interest. His shop has some interesting bottom fishing lures which I intend to pick up when I come back in a month or so.

So next stop Johannesburg. Hopefully the rather more complex travel arrangements for the rest of the day of arrival in SA (collect data Sim card for Pocket Wi-Fi; a one hour domestic flight; pickup hire car; buy essential provisions at supermarket and wine shop; navigate to Kruger NP and check in to our riverside thatched roofed cottage at Skukuza Rest Camp -- phew!) will fall into place. And then, being Friday, it'll be time for "cheese and bikkies on the deck" with a somewhat different view from our usual Friday evening.

South Africa, 2011

Having skipped travelling in 2010, we had a big year in 2011. This was the year we took an iPad for the first time and started posting to our blog. Our first trip for the year was to South Africa, in which we travelled independently, picking up a hire car on day one, and using it for four weeks while travelling from the north east of South Africa (Kruger National Park) to the south west (Cape Town).

To view the posts of the South Africa trip, in start to finish order, simply select the "Newer Post" option at the bottom of this and each post.

Alexandria, Egypt, 07Apr2009

Subject: greetings from Alexandria, Egypt
Date: Tuesday, 7 April 2009 2:16 PM

Founded by Alexander the Great in 332BC, this city fringes the Mediterranean north west of Cairo, and has a present population of only 4 million which grows to 8 million in the height of summer, July-August. Imagining where these extra 4 million people go is difficult as the place, to us, seems already crowded to capacity.

Last time I emailed we were about to leave on the overnight train from Aswan to Cairo. Fortunately, we'd managed to find the duty free shop, a scruffy place in the main drag, where we managed to stock up with the essentials for such a trip -- you know, bottles of gin, tonic, and similar. And we certainly needed them. The train trip was the worst I can remember. Not only did the carriage seem to have wheels out of round, producing a constant vertical vibration which made sleeping (in bunks) nigh on impossible, but every now and again, at all speeds the driver seemed to have a penchant for suddenly increasing or decreasing the speed with a huge jolt felt throughout the train. And this was the best rail service Egypt can provide.

And so, our gin bottles emptied, we arrived back in Cairo at dawn the next day, most of us sleepless, but I with the added burden of dose of the runs (the first I'd had on this trip) probably caused by incautious consumption of home baked bread with a dubious "spread" at a fascinating Nubian village in Aswan the day before. The Nubians actually keep live crocodiles in their homes, supposedly to keep the homes safe - the crocs are allegedly returned to the wild after a couple of years living in these parlous circumstances.

It was with great relief that I charged into the toilet in the spotlessly clean hotel where our tour team had organised breakfast in Cairo, after which we piled aboard a bus to set off for Alex, some three hours drive away.

Here we are ensconced in the old world style Le Metropole Hotel, an ornate has-been which features 14 foot ceilings and lavish wall decorations but also deficiencies in minor things such as toilet paper, oh, and hot water. The room, sorry, suite, which Mary and I have consists of a a huge drawing room at the entrance, a large bedroom, and a bathroom, complete with jacuzzi, which is bigger than many hotel rooms we've experienced.

But the hotel has free internet access so here I am, at 0600, in my hotel-supplied dressing gown, sending this to you.

Today we're off to the El Alamein battlefield followed by a return to Cairo for a last fling before the group members depart for their various destinations tomorrow. Mary and I have opted for a few days in Singapore before arriving home next Monday.

Some pics:

My quest to win the photo comp continues. A self-timer shot in the jacuzzi of our hotel.

The 13th century Citadel at Alexandria, built on the site of the Alexandria lighthouse which toppled several hundred years earlier. We can see this citadel from one of our suite's windows.

View to the west from the Citadel, showing the proximity of Alex to the coast.

Regards
Kev & Mary Long

Aswan, upper Egypt, 03Apr2009

Subject: greetings from Aswan, upper Egypt
Date: Friday, 3 April 2009 11:45 PM

How the world has changed in a few years. I remember clearly having difficulty in the year 2000 getting internet access of any sort in Turkey and Greece and now here I am in Aswan, Egypt, many, many kilometres up the Nile from Cairo and am sitting here with a quite fast and stable and relatively cheap connection.

Our floating hotel arrived here during the night yesterday, so that we awoke yesterday morning to a sunlit vista of a new location and the promise of new experiences. As a group we'd opted to visit Abu Simbel, some 3 hours drive SW, in the afternoon rather than face the crowds which inevitably accompany the morning visit, not to mention the obligatory 0400 start for that visit. Our convoy left at 1100 and returned to Aswan at around 1915, just after dark. This so-called convoy, topped and tailed by armed police, is probably formed only for political reasons, but that is the way things are so we have no option but to go along with the deal. The journey is through a desert wasteland on a quite good bitumen road which has only a few very gentle direction changes over its 250km or so. All around the landscape is dominated by sand with the occasional hummock of rock (particularly near Abu Simbel) which protrudes from its surroundings in much the same shape as pyramids.

The temples at Abu Simbel were, of course, relocated in the 1960s from their original position -- now totally submerged under the limpid waters of Lake Nasser -- to high ground, close by. It was a magnificent engineering feat, surpassed only by the magnificence of the original work, both temples having been carved out of the rock of two small mountains instead of constructed from blocks of stone.

Our base for tonight is an old style hotel, well appointed, overlooking the Nile. It has a heated swimming pool and reasonably priced large bottles of Stella beer. Having been informed by our tour guide of the nearby location of a duty free shop which sells spirituous liquors, several of us intend to visit that establishment this evening bent on procuring supplies to assist in the next part of the journey, an overnight train trip back to Cairo, tomorrow (Saturday) night.

All arrangements during this tour have worked faultlessly. Our small group of 13 friends is treated as an entirely separate group, with our own ground transport and of course a dedicated guide. On arrival at a new location the usual recce parties go out and report back at the obligatory 1900 hrs, pre-dinner, meeting, with drinks and humorous discussions, in one of the rooms.

Things could hardly be better and I, for one, am very glad that we employed a guide and undertook a tour as language is always a difficulty, as is the culture difference.

OK, some pics:

Kay and Geoff Gettons, part of our group, in front of the smaller of the two temples at Abu Simbel (sorry, its name escapes me right now). The red luggage strap is there to make the image eligible for the Bunnik's Tours photo prize, which I intend to win.

Yesterday afternoon the glass doors of one of the Nile cruisers cum floating hotels near us in Aswan were being washed by a couple of the crew who were seated (and sometimes standing) on a single plank suspended on two ropes. The ornate surroundings of the glass doors particularly attracted my attention. Remember, this is a boat.

Another boat image. This one was carved over 3000 years ago -- temple of Edfu, on the Nile, north of Aswan.

Temple of Edfu. Several of the ladies visible in the bottom right corner are from our group (Mary included).

This morning we visited a genuine papyrus-making establishment here in Aswan. Most so-called papyrus artwork available on the streets here is actually constructed from banana leaf. Mary liked the look of this piece and bought it.

Anyway, must go and check out the duty free. Next catch up will probably not be until Alexandria, in a couple of days. Thanks for the emails on the local news. Hope the Clio has recovered from its flood encounter, Beanie.

Regards
Kev & Mary Long