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