The Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria.

The monument highlights the struggle of the Afrikaners as they trekked from the coast to the interior of South Africa and up to the Transvaal.

It shows the history of a difficult period for all in South Africa, and the diversity of the cultures in our Rainbow Nation.

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The Lion Park, near Fourways in Johannesburg.

There area range of animals such as Bok, Zebra, Ostrich, Giraffe, Hyena and Cheetahs.

However the star attractions are the Lion prides, and the ability to touch and play with the cubs!

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Abseiling and White Water Rafting on the Krokodil River with the team at Outside Edge and Pelinduna in Broederstroom.

The abseil was a 25m effort, whilst the white water rafting was a grade 1-2 rapid. Fairly easy but a great experience for novies like us!

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Even though the World Cup has come and gone, the spirit of Ubuntu remains.

South Africa during the FIFA World Cup 2010 was an awesome and inspiring place to be, but it doesn’t have to end there.

This video and organisation epitomises what we need to strive for, to ensure we make the new South Africa the country we all desire.

We’ve selected some of our favourite photo’s from our trip (really hard to cut down 9000 photo’s to 140!).
You can view the photo’s at:

 http://www.sanjaydeva.com/diary/south-africa-2010-pictures

or, you can view the photo’s as a slide show at: 

http://www.sanjaydeva.com/diary/south-africa-2010-slide-show

We hope you enjoy them. Feel free to comment, and feel free to ask to see more photo’s, or hear more stories – we love sharing

When we got to the airport, we had 3 hours to check in and go to all the shops. Over the last few years OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg had really been upgraded, and their are plenty of shops before going into the departure area, including plenty of restaurants.

Coming to check in we were told we had 47kg, and were 1kg overweight. However the nice young lady (sorry we forgot her unpronounceable name!) told us we weren’t going to be charged as we couldn’t afford it, and our money would be better spent buying gifts for us or our children. Who were we to argue with that!

Our hand luggage was also overweight by almost 2kg, but they let us off for that too. Couple with the fact you don’t have to fill in those annoying departure or arrival cards, travelling to and from South Africa is great! (Hint hint to other airports!)

Once we had quickly looked at the shops on the outside of the departure areas, we went through customs and had about 90 minutes. We decided to quickly get something to eat. All the major restuarants were outside so we settled on the Ekaya foodcourt which prepares meals and looks very flash.

We had to wait as they made Rheanna a chicken burger, while I had a beef potjie. We got our drinks which was a major balancing act, and as Rheanna couldn’t hold them, she put them on my tray, which had a large plate of food. Now Rheanna had gone to sit down with her food, and I had my suitcase trolley, a laptop bag and a tray of food with a can of grapetiser and a large glass of coke (in a large fancy glass) which was quite heavy. I didn’t think I could carry this safely, but put the laptop bag on the suitcase, and thought I could make the 10m to the table Rheanna had.

The laptop bag started to shift however and as it moved, my natural reaction was to try save it, meanwhile the tray with the coke goes flying! I had manged to save the glass and the food from spilling, but still stood there drenched in coke, with coke all over the floor, and plenty of sniggers and comments of “what an idiot!” It was very embarrassing!
There was coke all over my clothes, the suitcase and latop bag. Not the best thing when you still have 20 odd hours to travel for. We quickly scoffed our food, and it was not the planned shopping experience we had hoped for!

Our last days in South Africa saw us travel back to Jozi, spend time with family and do too way too much shopping!

This was interspersed with 2 trips to Loftus, one for the Currie Cup match against the Pumas on Friday night, before a visit with the Loftus store! That hurt the credit card!

In the weekend we had 2 Potjies as cousin Morne and Colin came around. The Soccer World Cup final on Sunday was actually fairly uneventful for us!

On Monday we sent a parcel weighing 22kg, believing that would be sufficient to allow us under the luggage limit. On Tuesday we had 2 great meals. Firstly we went to Menlyn Park and had lunch at Ocean Basket,  which does the best seafood. The meal was just perfect, with brilliant service. Then in the evening we went to celebrate Rheanna’s dad’s birthday and had dinner at Spur.

When we came to pack on Wednesday, we discovered we’d need to send another box as we had just been to Chamdor which is a fabric and material warehouse, and obviously we bought too much.

So we ended up sending another 17kg! Surely we’d be fine now…

You can always tell if there is an interesting animal on the side of the road in the Kruger park as there is a queue of cars waiting. It’s actually usually very civilised. People pull up, take their photo’s, and move on for the next person. So we stood in the queue and then moved in the prime position just infront of the Lions (ok, so we were on the wrong side of the road which is not etiquette, but who cares).

The Lions were lying of the side of the road. One male and one female. A bit odd that they were not with a pride, but it didn’t matter to us. We sat and we watched and watched. and took a photo each time they moved. And there was no way Sanjay was going to give up THIS position, so all other cars just had to come and go as they wanted, we were not moving.

After about half an hour the female lion gets up and stares at us, and starts moving toward us. We get a bit nervous and roll the windows up slightly.

She walks toward the car and then walks right up agains the back of the car and crosses the road. The male jumps up and follows her across. Once on the other side of the road, they simply just lie down again. We’re still in prime position, because the cars of the other side of the road park very nicely so that we have a great view. Many cars came and went, often stopping in-front of us to take photo’s and apologising most profusely, but it was fine.

We stayed there for 2 and a half hours!! Sanjay said he would stay till the lions left, or the camp gate was going to close (5:30pm). It was only about 1:30! Eventually. the only reason we left was because Sanjay needed the toilet! We went  back to camp and had lunch, and left again within an hour.

We headed straight to the Lions again. They were still there, they had just changed position. We stayed there until we had to leave for the camp because the gates would be closing (You get a fine if you are not in on time). It was hard to pull Sanjay away,  but his wife is such a nag! We got to the camp with 2 minutes to spare – which Sanjay was quite disgusted with as that could have been 2 minutes more with the Lions.

Kruger Park - Female Lion showing her teeth	Kruger Park - Male Lion
Kruger Park - Female Lion getting comfy	Kruger Park - Male Lion finding some shade

Kruger Park - Male Lion crossing the road	Kruger Park - Female Lion getting up to cross the road
Kruger Park - Female Lion not looking happy	Kruger Park - Female Lion big yawn

Kruger Park - Female Lion	Kruger Park - Male Lion
Kruger Park - Male Lion

On Wednesday we had booked to go on a morning game walk, and Rheanna’s parents had been booked on a morning game drive. The start was even earlier than the previous days, as we could leave before the gate opened. We drove almost an hour to the place where we were going to walk. It is a bit off the beaten track so that there are no other tourists or vehicles around to disturb the animals.

Luckily we were only on the walk with one other couple (from Montreal), and 2 guides who were armed with rifles and a magazine of bullets. Obviosuly they will only shoot as a last resort (at the animals we think!).

We tracked a Black Rhino for a while, and were shown tracks for Lions that had been through, and also elephants. We studied dung from the black and white rhino’s, (which were fresh) and also elephants.

Black rhino are ‘browsers’which mean they eat leaves etc, whereas white rhino are ‘grazers’ which mean they eat grass. This means that their dung is quite different. We also learnt about the white rhino’s ‘midden’. This is basically their toilet. They have a number of these ‘toilets’ around their territory and they always do their business in one of these – as a means of marking their territory. For another rhino to use one of these, would be a challenge for the territory.

Black Rhinos are also aggressive animals, so you don’t want to be found downwind from them as they will attack.

It is also a slightly nervy feeling walking through thick reeds and bushes, knowing that a predator such as a Leopard or Lion may be greeting you at your next step. When I was walking last, I made sure I kept turning around to watch my back often!

Unfortunately though, other than tracks and dung, the only thing we saw on the walk was baboons and Impala. It was very interesting though, and we learnt alot.

Kruger park - morning walk	Kruger park - Rhino midden (toilet)

We then decided that time was running out and we really needed to find some Lions. Sanjay really wanted to see Lions (during the day). So as soon as we got home we went with Rheanna’s mom for a ‘short’ drive. As soon as we left Skukuza, Sanjay saw another leopard. Unfortunately it walked into the bush, and we lost sight within minutes. We also saw  giraffe, ground hornbill, and a chameleon crossing the raod! He was so slow. He picks up his leg, pushes forward about 3 times to get momentum to take the step. It was painful to watch!

We then came across 2 kudu. They looked like they were about to start mating so we stopped and were taking photo’s, and video. Isn’t it kind of weird how we find this so cool, yet the human version is best left alone! Meanwhile a car drove up to us and says there are Lions 2km down the road, they are lying in the road! So in a huge rush, we left the Kudu to do their business and we were off to find Lions!

Kruger Park - Giraffe	Kruger park - chameleon crossing the road
Kruger park - Ground hornbill	Kruger Park - Kudu trying to 'get it on'

Kruger park - Leopard

On Monday we woke up early and were at the gates by 5.50am for the 6am opening.

We drove around for a few hours searching for animals. We saw: Vervet monkeys, Bushbuck, Hippo, giraffe, Steenbok, Baboons, Elephant, Warthog, Buffalo and even Wild Dog (and a few other things)

Then we went back to Skukuza to check out and then made our way to Lower Sabie rest camp. The road between Skukuza and Lower Sabie follows the Sabie river and is supposed to be one of the best for game viewing. The  43km distance took us nearly 4 hours, with all the stopping and taking photo’s and so on. It was great, but a long day.

We checked in at Lower Sabie, and only had a short time before our night drive. The night drive from Lower Sabie leaves earlier than the one the previous night at skukuza, not sure why that is. We had a female guide this time, who was awesome. She talked about the animals, and found many animals. We were busy driving along a dirt road, seeing a few animals, when she gets a call on the radio from the other guide. We can’t understand what they are talking about, but she says to us we have to rush a bit, she will stop if we want, but there is something we have to see. We drive and drive, by now the light is fading. We see a herd of Buffalo. We stop to take photo’s, and then the guide says, we can come back, there is something just around the corner. Around the corner we find a big tree, with an Impala (dead) in the tree, and lo and behold – a leopard!

We spent a while at the leopard, since it was getting darker, you could not see alot, but we did see it feeding on the Impala. We then went back to the Buffalo, and then we caught a glimplse of a pride of Lions walking through the bush. The guide followed them, and even went down a path that she was not allowed to go through just so that we could get some photo’s. It was great. All in all, we managed to  see the Big 5 (Lion, Leopard, Rhino, Buffalo and Elephant) in that one night drive – now that is a worthwhile drive!

Kruger Park - Buffalo (nice pose)	Kruger Park - Wild Dog
Kruger park - Hippo	Kruger Park - Bush buck

Kruger Park - Elephant at a watering hole	Kruger Park - Lioness
Play Spot the Leopard - can you see the Impala?	There IS a leopard - look closer