September 5th until 7th: on the road to Centurion and Lajuma

Sept. 5th: Groundhog Day. I could keep the hiking-thought alive. Pretty cool trail, very impressive to actually walk for a change. :) Mostly plants along the way. Well, except for lots and lots of insects. And a Reedbuck. Thank god there were no snakes in what I would consider being their perfect habitat. Cause the trail guide mentions the puff adders and cape cobras that might just lie on some rock to heat up for the day. Pff. It felt a bit strange while walking through the long grass every once in a while. Ahem.

Anyway...at 3pm I took off from Royal Natal National Park sweaty as I was. Only shortly after I found myself seriously talking to myself for the first time during my trip. My GPS had suggested a really weird route and I suddenly was in some area around Harrysmith neither a tourist nor a local would really want to see himself in. Some young guys went to jump in front of my vehicle to get a lift. Or whatever. Well, I just kept going and they hardly managed to get out of the way. Not my fault. :-S. Anyway...with sweaty palms and blood rushing in my ears I reached the N3 and then was on my way to JoBurg. Finally. I don't know who put up the N3 road signs but they must've had a sense of humour. JoBurg: 288km. Then JoBurg 297km. Then JoBurg 278km. Another road sign: "Welcome to the Gauteng province. Enjoy your stay!" Ironically it had three bulletholes in it. :-|

But anyway. I arrived in Centurion at7:20. More than enough to hit the Godfather on time. If only we hadn't chatted as if the last visit would have been ages ago. ;) Well, we made it to the steak house at 9 and had a great evening there. It's so nice to be around Nicolette and Niel and I feel as much home as possible when I'm there.

Sept. 6th: After another great breakfast and with Niel's support I managed to fix the tent one of the poles of which broke in the Kalahari. I would have hated to return Ian's tent in a damaged condition. I also managed to finally fix the Avis issue, cause I will rent a different car to get to Sabi Sand tomorrow. That's a huge load off my back now. Made a few enquiries for accomodation in the Waterberg area but Nicolette convinced me to stay for one more night since it would have been a waste of money. Both don't mind even though it's their 5th wedding anniversary. Well...cool! ;) We went to Ludwig (Nicolette's boss) birthday party instead and I met a bunch of new and nice people. We had some delicious braai meat (what else?) and Ludwig and I had quite a chat about cameras and photography. We had a good time over there and finished the evening with watching some really cool stuff on YouTube (especially the three "Simon's Cat" clips are hilarious).

Today we also took it quite easy and I will take off to Lajuma at noon. (More) pictures and pictures.

Kind regards to everyone!

Stefan


P.S.: I would really love to get your opinion about some of the pictures I took so far. Well, those which are online. I've taken roughly 3700 now.

P.P.S.: Hardly any cell signal in Lajuma and no clue how it is in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve so I might only be able to post once I'm back in Germany...