Coming back "home"...

Dear friends and family,

sorry for the little enthusiasm we had for maintaining the blog but most of the days we were either too busy or too tired to sit ourselves down and write so apologies for this.

Just to give you a short wrap-up of what happened so far:

On Oct. 14th we arrived in JoBurg and headed to Capetown on the same day. Well, not really Cape Town but rather a little smalltown called Fish Hoek where we found the most beautiful B&B called the Tranquility House nestled into the hills of a stunning bay. The owners Ron&Gill are the typical hospitable and ever friendly South Africans I got to appreciate over the last couple of years. But still a wee bit nicer. :) And the breakfast is the best you will ever get in whole South Africa. Not only did they say so, we also did after we had it. :) So we stayed 2 nights there, made a trip to the penguins in Simonstown, the Cape Peninsula, Chapman's Peak and, of course, the Cape's Town itself.

After this we spent one night in Franschhoek in the heart of the winelands, visited the Spier winery and it's cheetah research and breeding centre. Off we went to Plettenberg to stay 2 nights at the Hog Hollow Lodge, another beautiful place in the hills close to the coast. Some whale watching from an aquatic national park and great food at a place called the Lookout directly at the waterfront plus a visit to Tenikwa, a place where the owners Mandy and Len take care of injured and rescued wild animals to either release them into the bush later or keep them in their good hands. Besides they educate their visitors and the locals about wildlife and the numerous conservation issues. Thanks for a great time to both of you!

Our next part of the trip took us to Addo Elephant Park where we stayed in the Kuzuko Lodge located at the northeastern border of the park. Too bad that they had a bad drought for 2 years and lost a lot of their animals. It still was fun to go on the game drives with Riaan, our guide who was very knowledgeable and helpful. This is where we made a "cheetah walk" approaching two very relaxed males on foot. Lions, red hartebeest, zebra, oryx, springbokkies, elands, elephants, rock monitors and many others were also on our sightings list.

After Addo we had quite a bit of driving ahead of us cause we went to Bloemfontein where we paid Kate and Eve a visit. Great dinner at the Green Fig and a couple of hours with my friends was the perfect finish after a long day of driving. The next morning we went to the Cheetah Experience where a group of volunteers (one of which is Eve) take care of orphaned and/or rescued wild animals, especially cats (cheetahs, leopards, lions, caracals, even tigers). It was an interesting thing to do but I always feel a little uncomfortable to see wild animals in an enclosure.

After this we drove off to Centurion located between JoBurg and Pretoria to see Nicolette and Niel, my favorite South African couple. ;) We had dinner at the Godfather, a legendary steak house in Centurion and with full stomachs slept over at their place to drive to Kruger the next day. Made it there just in time to go on a magnificient game drive at Crocodile Bridge main camp (black-backed jackal pups, porcupines, a civet, elephants, you name it...) but had to stay outside afterwards as the park was fully booked that day. The following day, after lots and lots of great sightings we stayed in safari tents in Tamboti, a satellite of Orpen main cam. Very basic with communal showers but a delicious braai (rump steak, gemsquash, butternut). Unfortunately our sleep wasn't too tight thanks to an outrageous thunderstorm haunting the southern Kruger Park that night.

Some more driving around the park the next day and off we went to the Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve covering an area of 65.000 hectares to spend our first night at Chitwa Chitwa Private Game Lodge. If there is a heaven on earth then this place is it. Unbelievable. Stunning. Wow. Extremely hospitable and friendly staff, two danger-seeking rangers called Johan and Harley and the most beautiful accomodation ever. A great leopard on our first game drive besides lots of other good sightings. Time to relax and enjoy. The next day we went off to the neighbouring Nkorho Bush Camp where we stayed 1 more night before it was time to say goodbye to Sandra because she only had 2 weeks of vacation which is why I drove her to Hoedspruit airport. On my way there I got my 2nd speeding ticket within a week for no particular reason and after I returned to the Nkorho Bush Camp I discovered that 5 other tourists had also been ripped off by the police at the same spot. What a nice way to treat your visitors! But anyway...that was yesterday, Sandra has gotten back home safely and I will spend 2 more nights here before I probably spend my last 4 nights back in Chitwa Chitwa. On today's sunset drive I took one of my best leopard pictures ever of a young female resting on a termite mound. Shortly after we arrived the afternoon sun came through the quite cloudy sky and shone directly on her face. It was the perfect situation, everything was right and a dream came true. One more of the many "wows!" during this trip.

So this is it for now, I might get to write a few more lines or add new pictures to the album (link below) but maybe it won't be possible due to the poor internet access in this area. I hope you enjoyed reading the post, pictures can be found here. Time to sleep now, wake up time is at 5am.

Cheers!

Stefan