Touring South Africa's National Parks, and Goodbye to Africa

After a couple of long days driving across northern South Africa we arrived at Kuruman where we took the road north towards the Botswana border, driving through the coal mining town of Hotazel.

After 9 years of drought with farmers struggling to feed their cattle September saw heavy rain, and the Kuruman River flooded the tiny community of Vanzylsrus, the first time the river had flowed in many years. A lovely drive along the dirt road parallelling the river to the main road to the Kgalaghdi National Park. >Needing some rest before our four nights in the park we camped at the Kgalaghadi Meerkat Sanctuary, a few tens of metres from the Botswanan border. The campsite is set back from the road in undeveloped Kgalaghadi dunes offering complete peace and quiet. Though very hot in the day, the night sky was fantastic. A New Moon meant the Milky Way was spectacularly clear, with stars visible right down to the horizon. After a rest day we entered Kgalaghadi National Park and made our way north along the Nossob River valley, no water in the river.

Although there were not the large herds of antelope you often see in the Kruger, probably as the plentiful rains meant they could graze away from the waterholes, we saw a large flock? of Ostrich with a couple of adults and around 30 adolescents. Just before we reached a picnic site for lunch we we delighted to spot three cheetah resting in the shade of a tree. Our first wild cheetah on this trip! We spent half an hour watching as they viewed game around them, but were clearly not that interested as it was too hot.

Continuing towards Nossob campsite we pulled into the closest waterhole to find a pack of bloated spotted hyaena resting near to a gemsbok carcass. One or two were half heartedly gnawing at the carcass, but all were clearly well fed. An early start the next morning saw us follow a convoy of cars along the only road north, where most of them stopped at a group of three lion near a waterhole. 20 minutes later we spied three bat eared foxes still out foraging as the sun had not yet gained its heat, and we were entertained by a goshawk which flew down beside the van and captured a snake in its claws. We had a grandstand view as it managed to eventually grab the snake behind the nexk in its beak, and then swallowed it whole.

Reaching the picnic site we pulled in to be told by a new arrival that a male lion was right beside the road just a few kms away, so we delayed breakfast and headed to the spot. Sure enough a male and female lion were right by the road, the male lying down in the shade of a small tree, and clearly not wanting to move, so just gazed at us.

After 10 minutes we left him in peace and headed north to the junction of Botswana Namibia and South Africa, stopping to watch three more cheetah under a tree not far from a carcass being demolished by a group of vultures. Turning round to head back to Nossob Camp we checked on the lion, and some 3 hours later he had not moved, though did so after we sat beside him for 10 minutes. Over the following couple of days we roamed the roads in the park, amazed by the verdant green of the Auob valley, but saw few animals. We missed seeing elephant and hippo, which are absent from the Kgalaghadi NP as it is too dry. One special sighting just before we left was a lone brown Hyaena walking beside the track.

Animals are not the only attarction in South Africa and we spent the next few weeks visiting some of the other National parks. Augrabies NP is sited where the Orange River cascades 60m down over a granite waterfall into an 18km long gorge.

Rock dassies inhabit the rocks while the river thunders past with extraordinary power. In spate the riwaterfall carries has one of the highest volumes of water in the world. Trails run along the river to stunning viewpoints, but are only really possible in the early morning before the sun raises the temperature into the 40's.

A visit to the Namaqua NP on the west coast provided a real contrast in temperature, with cold misty and windy mornings. Although not the main flower season there was still an impressive array of flowering plants. A thuderstorm just before we arrived resulted in dry rivers flowing and in places flooding the roads, and the morning we left the park a storm was approaching the coast with some impressive 4m waves crashing onto the rocky shore.

Inland are the beautiful Cederberg Mountnains, where we spent a few days enjoying some of the trails, and one steep climb up to the Wolfberg cracks, narrow passageways between towering cliff faces leading onto the plateau near Wolfberg Peak. Some stiff rock scrambling rewarded us with spectacular views across the Cederbergs.

The Stadsaal caves further down the valley are extraordinary wind eroded sandstone formations where you can wander through the arches and openings and climb on the outcrops for stunning views. Nearby is a San Rock art site with 1000 yr old paintings of elephant. South east are large fruit growing areas where thousands of pickers were busy bringing in the apple harvest, before we entered the dry plains of the Karoo, where we spent a couple of days in the Karoo NP. Huge clouds of locust swarmed across the fields and crashed against the windscreen as we drove - a result of the good rains they have received this year.

Headimg south we passed through a beautiful gorge in the limestone Swartberg mountains and dropped down to green farmland. Cango caves in this PreCambrian limestone are a series of beautiful chambers worn from the rock, with spectacular Stalagmites and Stalactites formed over millions of years, and carefully illuminated. Some of the best calcite formations we have seen.

The final week of our travels saw us visit Bontebok NP, where the Bontebok antelope was rescued from extinction when the last 27 animals were provided with protection. There are now hundreds across several parks - a real success story. De Hoop is one of the parks with a sizeable population and we enjoyed walking the shore which is backed by huge white sand dunes. Cape Aghulas is the southern most point of Africa where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. It is not spectacular, just a low rocky shoreline, but significant geographically. Boardwalks and a large three dimensional map of Africa add some interest. The last few days are being spent in an apartment while we empty and clean the van prior to it being shipped to Canada where we hope to continue our travels in July.

Back in South Africa

Crossing into South Africa from Botswana proved very straight forward. One immediate difference is the level of cultivation with more land fenced and irrigated. Within a very few kms the scenery starts to change with hills, and then craggy mountains, a real treat after several weeks of very flat plains. After a couple of relaxing days in the craggy hills of the Soutpansberg in the north of S Africa we had 5 days in the famous Kruger National Park travelling from north to south.

February is the wet season here so we found lush grass, and very green foliage on the trees and shrubs. With more options for food and water awayfrom the waterholes the wildlife is much more dispersed, and therefore more difficult to find, but it makessightings that much more special. Early morning starts from the camps generally provide the best opportunity to see the predators, but rain on three of the mornings dampened their activity, nobody likes being out in the rain! It was lovely to see many young of the various animals, especially the baby elephant, who often don't quite seem to know what to do with their trunks. However we had some very special moments, one where a very large bull elephant walked towards us along one of the tracks. Normally when they get within 25 metres they step off into the bush, however this one clearly had no intention of doing so. We ended up reversing around half a kilometer before being able to turn around and take a longer route to our camp.

One early morning start rewarded us with a group of eight lion playing right beside the van. When a lion is within 2 metres you realise how muscular and powerful they are, and we had our windows well closed.

On our last but one day in the park we were privileged to see the "big five"; elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion and leopard as well as a pack of wild dog playing after a succesful night's hunting and a brief sighting of a serval by the road. A very special and memorable day.

Leaving the park in the south meant we ended up near the border with eSwatini where one of the best preserved complete ancient sedimentary geological sequences can be seen. The Barberton Greenstone covers rock deposition on the early earth around 3.6 to 3.2 billion years ago. Fascinating to see, and in an areas of beautiful unspoint mountain scenery.

South Africa has a wealth of sites of interest, covering history, wildlife and scenery, none more dramatic than the Drakensberg Mountains bordering Lesotho, where the famous Amphitheatre houses what is arguably the world's highest waterfall. The Tegula falls - a thin ribbon of water drops off the Lesotho plateau and descends just under 1000m in 5 cascades. A 7km path follows the river up from the base to the Tegula Canyon a dramatic vertical sided chasm. The falls however cannot be seen from here, though there are beautiful rock formations in the "tunnel". Other paths trail through the park to numerous waterfalls, all of which were flowing due to recent rains.

Having secured difficult to obtain bookings for campsites in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park we had to make our way fairly rapidly across to the west of the country, with some long days driving through undulating, dry grain producing country. More photos from The Kruger below

Beautiful Botswana

Having received our negative Covid tests, and had some worn bushes replaced on the front of the Landcruiser, we headed to Botswana. A new sweeping bridge now connects Zambia to Botswana, replacing the very old ferry system across the river at Kazangula, so we were soon walking into the brand new combined Zambian Botswana border post. Both countries occupy one large building with the Zambian immigtaion and customs on one side of the hall, and Botswanan immigration and customs on the other. With no other teravellers around we were through both border processes in less than 30 minutes, a new record for Africa!

Immediately you notice the superb main roads in Botswana, paid for by the revenues from their extensive diamond mines. Our first visit was to Chobe Waterfront National Park. When we last visited in the dry season this stretch of river plain beside the Chobe River was full of animals, now in the wet season many of them have dispersed into the watered pans to the south, so there were fewer animals. However we enjoyed some close encounters with a large group of giraffe, and a couple of families of elephant, as well as enjoying the lively hippo, mock fighting in the cool of the afternoon.

We were reminded that it is still the wet season when the clouds gathered in the afternoon. Torrential rain for half an hour or so created a slimy mud surface on the previously sandy track. Back at the campsite the previously dry site we had used was very boggy, so we camped on their hard standing.

Heading further south and west we visited the Nxai Pan in the centre of Botswana where the wet season sees an annual migration of over 100,000 zebra and wildebeest, second only to the Serengeti migration. However this part of Botswana had some heavy rain in January causing the grass to grow, but had little rain for the past few weeks, and the main migration had not yet arrived. There were some large herds of the beautiful springbok, along with a hundred or so zebra and a herd of buffalo, but not the spectacle we had hoped for. We had lunch under the famous Baines Baobabs, before returning to our campsite.

Botswanan sunrises and sunsets are dramatic with the sky changing colour quickly from blue, through yellow to deep reds and crimsons. The following day we booked a safari to see meerkats. Over a period of years one family of meerkats has been habituated by a team who follow them every day, and they no longer see people as a threat, quite happy to come right to out feet, and even considering climbing on us as a lookout. The family had seven recent young who were very cute. This is the group filmed by the BBC a couple of years ago. It was a real privilege to see these entertaining animals so close up just going about their normal day's activities.

A visit to the huge Makgadikgadi pans National Park involved a man hauled river crossing on a pontoon, but revealed even less wildlife, just huge skies looking like a clouded dome overlying the grasslands which stretch to the horizon. With virtually no visitors you can experience the complete isolation impossible in Europe.

Just before leaving Botswana we stopped at Orapa where one of the huge diamond mines is located. Just to get into the town required security checks and passes. The museum gave a fascinating insight into the extraction. For each carat of diamond, a tonne of material is extracted and sieved, no wonder diamonds are so expensive. A very ordered country Botswana has taken Covid precautions very seriously, with complete compliance on mask wearing in buildings used by the public, such as shops, and hand sanitisation as you enter, as well as at each ATM. More photos below

And into Zambia

After receiving our negative Covid tests we headed to the Zambia border, where we were soon stamped out of Malawi, and half an hour later after sorting out insurance and carbon tax our Carnet was stamped and we were on our way into Zambia.

There is an immediate difference, in Malawi people are walking or cycling along all the roads, everywhere you go, in Zambia, where the population density is 1/10th of Malawi you drive for kms without seeing anyone. A brief stop in Chipata where we stopped at the supermarket to buy food, (though we get our fruit and veg from roadside stalls) and topped up SIM cards. We headed straight to Wildlife Camp at South Luangwa.

The campsite is right on the river front looking into the National Park and is open to wildlife. We spent the afternoon watching the elephant, listening to the hippo and following the puku impala and babboon out on the promontory. As it was getting dusk a bull elephant made its way round to our campsite, and a hippo came out of the river and walked up beside the van. Both were within 20m of us, but completely ignored our presence.

The following day we got up at 5.30 to be in the park first thing, but were delayed by the bull elephant coming back through the camp.

The roads in South Luangwa park were reasonably dry, so we managed to cover quite a large area. The park is ioncredibly green compared to the last visit with lots of young animals around, especially very cute, unstable baby elephant. Most of the elephant were travelling in small family groups of 5 or 6 animals. A lovely day, spotting two lazy lion sleeping under a tree, but no buffalo, giraffe or rhino, which move away from the river in the wet season. We decided to spend the following day in the camp, and on getting up at 5.45 weere amazed to find four wild dog in the camp, which scampered off as soon as we moved.

Around 8.30 a huge herd of around 50 elephant went past the canp, with the rest of the day spent watching them out on the grassy promontory with the baboon and antelope. The elephant returned in the afternoo, back to their overnight location. Steady rain overnight turned the surface of the campground into a mud bath so we decided to pack and head towards Lusaka. Lusaka is one of the more developed cities in Africa with western style shopping malls, a lot of new building and a real buzz of activity. A couple of nights on a beautiful campsite before heading to Kafue National Park.

We planned to drive down through Kafue, then take a newly built road towards Livingstone where we plan to cross to Botswana. A beautiful drive through a very green kafue national park where the rivers had subsided enough to be below the bridges, and where despite suggestions that the wet season is not good for seeing wildlife we saw huge amounts, including otter and leopard (see photos below) An amazing day. On reaching the southern end we were told that a bridge on the new road had been washed away,

so the only way to Livingstone is back north along a minor road then an 800km diversion back through Lusaka! - That's Africa for you. Having taken three days we are now sitting by the Zambezi just outside Livingstone listening to lion across the river in Zimbabwe while we wait for our Covid test results before crossing to to Botswana.

Some of the wildlife we have been privileged to see.