South Africa Adventure

Checked off a bucket list trip. South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini. game drives, cultural exchanges, rondavels, wine tasting, hippo cruise, horseback riding. 20 days + Went with a tour group - only 4 of us at the end (originally 8). I took over 1,300 photos - so many animal sightings. Elephants within 3 feet. giraffes 5 feet away - thrilling!

The other 4? There was one woman who had just completed a tour with the same company, and added a week with us, then departed (so for the rest of the trip I got my own room even though I paid for "shared"). The other 3 were a family - the woman had had a colostomy in her 20's - lifelong problems. After two weeks into the trip, while at Western Zebra Natl Pk, at midnight she contacted the guide and reported severe pain, vomiting, etc and she knew she needed to go to hospital. We were 200 mi. from Port Elizabeth, the nearest real hospital. We would all need to go, but not at midnight, so at 8 am, we all left, dropped them off at the hospital. She had surgery the next day. We backtracked to Addo Elephant NP to get back to itinerary, and too late to make dinner at the truck that night, so we got $$ for a very nice dinner at a restaurant in Cradock, then on to accommodation back in Pt Elizabeth.



Wind and freezing temps at Sani Pass. Our tour jeep overheated so we didn't get to finish our visit with Basotho shepards, but instead hung out at the Highest Bar in Africa and played Jenga by the fireplace and drank South African wine until our rescue jeep picked us up.








[Edited on 7-27-2024 by wilderone]

[Edited on 7-28-2024 by wilderone]

Quote: Originally posted by wilderone

It is winter in South Africa in July, so higher elevations can get cold. Sani Pass is at 9,400 ft elev. - snow on the ground as we ascended and the wind was fierce. It was usually comfortable otherwise because I was prepared for the cold, and in some places, they give you hot water bottle (!) or a portable heater for your room which worked well. At Kruger, we got up at 4:30 am, safari vehicle pick-up at 5:30; park opens at 6:00 am and we were first to enter (ahead of self-drive vehicles) - lined up for 6:00 am entry. It was very cold in the early morning, and given blankets, but driving in an open air vehicle before sunrise so cold was a surprise - probably about 40 F. The only day I could have worn the shorts I packed was our day at Umhlanga Rocks beach, just north of Durban. Usually the sun was out but chilly -- there was a cold front and flooding at the Cape while we were inland and north - could have been caught up in bad weather, but were lucky.