Back to the real world

Yesterday the tour has ended. Part of me is a little sad because that means my holiday is almost over, but another part is very happy too.
I'm so so sooooo happy I don't have to sleep in that tent anymore.

I know camping is for some the best way to spend a holiday, but to me it's a hassle.
Putting the tents up every evening and taking them back down every night, to me, is a waste of time.
Then finding stuff in your luggage is another thing. Or the mats to sleep on, not the most comfortable thing to do.
And then I haven't even mentioned the fact that we had a lot of rain on this tour.

The last day was a beautiful day though, sunny and warm. The last day we were going for two winetastings.
One was at Creation. I think I even saw this wine in the stores in Belgium.
It was delecious! It came with a cheese plate, but since I don't like cheese, I went for the charcuterie.
After the tasting there we drover to La Vierge, another winery, to have lunch.
You could overlook the winery, the view was spectacular! A little Michael Bubblé coming out of the speakers, nice breeze.
Life was good :)
After lunch we had another wine tasting but I preferred the wines from the previous winery.

We went to Hermanus where we were putting up our tents for the last time.
It was near the ocean again. I love the sound of the sea.
Around 6pm we were gonna go out for dinner.
As we did the previous night.
The night before it was our tour leader's bday, so be got balloons and stuff. The dinner I had there: a trio of game (kudo, springbok and impala) was really good, but there was classical music playing really loud. Not the best athmosphere.
On our last night the place was by the ocean, a little less formal so that was good. I had some sushi.
As we left it was pouring rain outside.
And Bonnie and I realised we didn't close off the tent!!!
We didn't expect any rain.
As we got to the tent everything was soaking wet. My shoes, my papers, my pillow, my sleeping bag...
Ugh... Hated it!!!!!
Last night. Thank God!
In the morning took a hot shower and repacked my wet stuff.

Couple hours later we were dropped off in Cape Town.
I said goodbye to the group and took a cab to my hotel.
You can't believe how happy I am to be in a dry room, with a bed, clean sheets, towels, my own shower (no more carrying my toiletries and clothes to showers where they get wet before you get dressed), my own toilet and I even have aircon, a tv and a safe!
I'm on the rooftop of the hotel overlooking the ocean. I love it here.

So the title of this blog refers to that and also. Cape Town,, you don't have the feeling your Africa anymore.
Very western. Makes me feel like Sydney a little.
I do love it here... It's beautiful.

And as i'm writing this I realize it's already 10am and I need to go and explore!!! Because I have only two more days left...

Talk later
T.

Break from camping

Left Addo elephant park early in the morning and we were heading to Tsisikama. Another national park and where the garden route starts.
Before we got to our camping spot, we stopped at a very high bridge for those who wanted to do a bungee jump of 216 meters.
Nikki, Bonnie, Lindsey and Rafael wanted to do it. They asked me as well. But feet tight and heads down. Nope, just not my cup of tea.
I may have jumped out of an airplane or went on the most crazy rides in amusements park, but bungee. Was never on my bucket list.
I gave it a thought for about 3 sec and said no.
We had to wait for two ours there, but finally my new friends jumped.
They loved it. Good for them :)

Arrived at our camping spot in Tsitsikama, it was stunning. right next to the ocean!
We put up our tents and walked around before our tourleader and our driver prepared dinner.
Pork roast with butternut squash and potato salad. Very good.
Since there was no bar we had a pretty early night.

The next day we were all going for ziplining. High up in the trees gliding down on a zipline.
Some of you know, I love to fly, it's a little like flying.
And although I'm afraid of falling off high ground, I loose that fear when I'm well attached.
There was your life line and two back ups, so I was pretty confident I couldn't fall.
Still looking down 30 meters made my knees a little weak.

After the ziplining thing and lunch we could either go kayaking or have the afternoon off.
I was kinda tired and wanted to do some laundry (oh yes, even on holiday you don't really escape domestic thinks like laundry and dishes)
So I just chilled out with my book.
When dinner was almost ready, it started raining. We all got on the bus to finish our meal.
It didn't stop raining. Since it was only 8 o'clock and too early for sleeping we decided to go to the restaurant at reception and have one drink there.
Reception, being 1 km away, maybe wasn't the best plan.
I didn't take my rainjacket from back home since I didn't expect it to rain so much...
I did have a rain poncho still from Rock Werchter that I used. Thank God I brought that with me.
After our glass of wine (all wine is so good and cheap here) we went back to the tents.
Still pouring rain.
As you can guess, everything was soaking wet. You get into your tent to put on your pyama and everything is just moist.
Your sleeping back is a little wet, my pillow was a little wet.. I hated it..
Did fall asleep and waking up too early again; 5h35 the alarm clock went off, still a little dark outside as I' trying to find all my stuff in the tent.
I managed to find a few dry clothes, got dressed an packed again.
Most of us had enough of the camping so we were hoping for an upgrade in the next place: Oudshoorn.

Driving to oudshoorn, the skies were blue again an the rain was gone. The older couple and us four girls went for an upgrade. We got a litlte cabin with our own bathroom.
Gosh, you won't believe how happy I was! Finally, not setting up the tent, no more hassles with showering and dropping clothes to the floor when trying to get dressed in the shower, a bed, dry sheets, a towel en plugs to finally recharge my tablet and phone!
The last two days we were all feeling a little tired and the atmosphere in the group was a little less fun.
But with the upgrade we were all so happy again.
The fantastic four: England, Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium.
Me being the oldest of course. But hey, I feel 27 at the moment!

Oudshoorn is known for the Ostrich farms. So at dinner we had a braai with some boerewors and ostrich.
I really liked it actually. Normally I'm not too crazy about red meat. But ostrich: pretty yummy.

Then we showered and blow dried our hair.
Yey!!! no more frizzy hair for a day!

As we left again early in the morning (7am on the bus and ready to go) we are now on our way to Swellendam, also known as the wine route.
We just had our first wine tasting at 11 am :) at Joubert-Tradauw
Tasted one white chardonnay and two red wines. A pinot noir and a blend.
Not bad, but I've had better south african wines

Anyway, typing on the bus is a little hard, very wobly at the moment and we"re almost gonna stop for lunch.

So I'm gonna make it short.

Today, March 17, known as Saint paddy's day in Ireland.
Since we have an Irish bloke on board we must celebrate it tonight (God help my liver)
It's also our tourleaders Bday so I guess i'll be a fun day again. I'm gonna miss my new 'family'
In two days we are saying goodbye. A few of them flying out in the evening, and a few staying in Cape Town for a couple of days, me included.
But I don't want to think about that just yet and enjoy my life on the road in a land far far away...

Tania x

Surfboard vs Tania: 1-0

The weather at the wild coast was grey and rainy. A few on my trip only brought one thin sweater because they were expecting it to be summer weather. So was I but since I always overpack a little I'm glad I put extra warm clothes in my tiny suitcase
We booked our activity for the next day: Surfing!!!
I haven't been surfing since Australia 7 years ago. I loved it then. Not that I could really stand up well, but trying is fun.
And boy did I give it a try at the wild coast.
At 9am the next morning we put on our wet suits and went to the beach which was right next to our backpackers.
The surf teacher explained the basics and we got into the water.
Martin, from our group, caught a way but didn't check if anyone was there. ME.. He bumped into the back of my head where there's a big bump now.
Painfull but no blood or concussion so I got back into the water.
After we were trying to get a hang of it he explained how to get up on the board.
I went in again and gave it a few tries.
But at one point, a big wave came, I got on the board, started peddling but I was on it to much to the back or the front,, I don't really remember.
And the board just shot up from under me, before realizing where my board went I fell on my nose and left eyebrow.
AUCH!!!! that hurt.
The side of my nose was a little scratched and bleeding and as soon as the surf teacher noticed that he said I should get out of the water.
Some others of the group who didn't sign up for surfing were at the beach and as soon as I approached them they were like: 'OH MY GOD, what happened'
By the look on their faces I could tell it wasn't looking pretty.
I said: Maybe I should go back and put some ice on in, because I was feeling this huge bump in the corner of my left eyebrow.
The ice helped, the swelling went down a bit.
I took a painkiller just to be sure.
The others came back, all asking how I was.
We have such a nice group, really, I've been having the time of my life here!

In the afternoon we actually wanted to get a tan at the beach, but grey and rainy :(
The weather here hasn't been too good for us. but I guess for the plants and animals and farmers it's heavenly.
So I went to take a nap to give my head a rest.
An hour later, came out of my tent refreshed but with a poofy eye.

Oh right I forgot to tell you about the camping!
We arrived at the wild coast when it was pouring rain. Most of us don't like camping, I think only Bonnie and Anthony were excited about it.
As it was a backpackers they had dorm rooms and lodges so 7 of us asked if there were any rooms available to upgrade.
Because non of us wanted to put up tents in the rain.
It was a Fridy night and everything was fully booked. The expression on our face must have been funny, we all looked at each other like 'UGH'
Got back to the truck to go to the campsite. Thankfully it stopped raining, so we put up our tent.
There pretty easy to put up, and they 're new, so we are lucky.
I slept ok in it, but maybe the vodca appletisers had anything to do with that as well )
Alcohol is so so so cheap here! One shot of vodca is 10 rand in a bar. That is 0,60 euro!!! So I've been drinking dubble or tripple vodca's
Fun times at the bar with my new friends :)

Second night we did't stay up that late because our group leader said that the tents had to be packed by 6 am...
Ugh..
All packed we head up to Addo elephant national park.
Where I got to see Lions!!! God, seeing wildlife never gets old. It's so, so beautiful.
We saw an elephant coming for a drink and the usual kudu's and zebra's.
We wanted to do a sundowner safari but that one was fully booked so we signed up for a nightdrive.
Knowing we probably won't see much.
It was freezing cold last night. We got to see a spotted owl and a jumpy rabbit with a squirrel tail. I forgot the name but it hopped like a kangaroo :)
Some more kudu's and zebra's but nothing more.

Cold and tired and knowing we had to be up at 5h30 again we went to bed around 11pm.

The alarm this morning really really didn't get me in the best mood. Crawling out of the tent to find the showers, packing again, putting the tent down again.
No, not my favorite start of the day. But then again, it's Monday and I rather get up at 5h30 to walk to a shower a little further and taking down tents than being at work :P

Right now i'm on the bus, on my way to Tsisikama where we well be stayiing for two nights.
One of the group, Niki is gonna do a bungeejump later this afternoon, it's supposed to be the highest bridge or something.
We all think she's crazy :)
When we get there we'll be looking into the activities they have to go do them tomorrow. I'm thinking of doing the longest zipline thing.
But I'll see when I get there what they have.

We are hoping the sun will come out again soon, it's grey and foggy right now. It's almost as we are following the bad weather because yesterday when we left the Wild Coast, it was blue skies and sunny.
Maybe there is a spell on me and I really am Queen Modjadji, because in Belgium it's sunny and spring weather apparently...
Oh well, still, rather be here in misty grey weather with my group here than at work when it's sunny outside ;)
Can't believe time is going so fast here.
This Saturday the tour will be over, my holiday will almost be over...
I'm gonna miss my new friends. They are all unique in there own way, it's like we are one big family on the road.

Enough about the future, let's just survive today withough any more bumps and bruises ;D

x
T

Top of the mountain

Yesterday we left Drakensberg early in the morning to drive to Lesotho, which is a small country in South Africa.
We crossed the border, got another stamp in our passport and I was confronted with the poverty of this country immediately.
Little huts made of corrugated roof boards were their shops or people just sitting on the streets selling junk.
As we drove to Malealea, the clouds cleared and blue sky with sun and white fluffy clouds appeared.
I smiled. Thinking about the fact that I am able to do this.
Travelling makes me humble again, makes me appreciate what I have.
Yesterday evening I was talking to a South African and he was saying how he wanted to see Europe some day but that he had to save for a trip like that for two to three years.
Because the Rand is really low and travelling for South Africans is crazy expensive.
Travelling makes me me again. I know this may sound a little bit odd to read, but I guess in Belgium I sometimes feel trapped in my life there.
I don't really know how to explain it really. But I like the me on the road better than the me I am back home.

Where was I? Oh yes, beautiful Lesotho.
We reached our lodges somewhere in the afternoon. The rooms were old, but we appreciated a bed because after Lesotho, the real camping would begin...
Looks like I'm not the only one that's not super excited about setting up the tents.
I walked around the area and Lesotho is absolutely gorgeous. The mountains just made me so peaceful.
As we checked in we were told that there was running water daily from 6am-8am and from 6pm-8pm.
Electricity would come on from 6pm to 10pm.
There is severe water shortage in this part of the world and I guess in Lesotho also an electricity shortage.
Well, I got to say, it sure makes you appreciate running water and electricity a whole lot more when it's suddenly not there.

We looked at the activities for the next day and there was horse riding to a waterfall on it.
I signed up for that one together with 4 others of my group. But before signing up, we took a look at the horses first. We didn't want it to be skinny horses in bad condition. But they were well treated.

We were gonna be on a horse for 5 hours, yey!
We left around 9am and the surroundings here are stunning. I can't even begin to explain how it looked.
Picture a perfect postcard of beautiful mountains, blue sunny skies and a few white fluffy clouds.
It really was as if we were walking through a picture perfect postcard or a scene of a movie.
We were going down mountains so steep I sometimes thought: if my horse slips right now, I guess they can arrange my funeral.
The cliff was right next me, as I looked down my legs got weak.
But the horses were used to it I guess.
The first stop after 1,5 hours was the waterfall.
Well, waterfall, since there is a severe water shortage, there wasn't much of a waterfall left. You are supposed to swim there but it was just a little stream.
We got back on the horsed and continues for another hour and a half to a nice spot up a mountain to have lunch.
As we got back to the lodges, We all felt it in our legs, but apart from the sore muscles, I loved it! It was the most beautiful horse ride I ever been on.

All sweaty and dirty we wanted to shower but.... No water until 6
So we just took a little walk to the village where some the houses don't even have water or electricity inside.
They have one tap in the middle of the village with drinkable water. But if they want to do laundry they have to go to the river.

The kids were cute, waving and asking for candy.
Wearing torn clothes and played with an empty plastic jar.
Compared to what kids have in Belgium, wow, gives me goosebumps thinking about that...
Such a different world here...

As I'm about to shower (almost 6 o'clock) I gonna finish this blog with the following:

Please appreciate what you have, we are living in a mean world sometimes, but don't forget it's our only world and it can still be a beautiful place.

Tomorrow I'll be on the bus to the wild coast for 12 hours (leaving at 6am) so probably no blogging about that.

My friend, big hug from me, hugs are free in every country!
xxx
Tania

Me time

The tour started, we are 9 people on a bus that seats 26. Ugh, if I knew, I could have easily carry my big suitcase.
But so be it, I'm gonna stop wining now, until I'll be packing to fly home again. :)
So, my group. 1 Canadian girl, 1 dutchie, a polish couple, 1 irish guy, 1 girl from England and an older couple from England.
Our tourleader is South African and he's name is Kenny. Our driver's name is Shwaami, or something like that. He is originally from Botswana.
After we met up at 6 we went to our dorm room. It had been, I think 5 years, since I slept in a dorm room in Zurich.

The next morning breakfast was at 7 en by 8am we were on our truck to Drakensberg.
It was very hot outside, and sunny.  At a certain time there was a little traffic. A car broke down in the middle of the highway, it was the police :)
Around noon we arrived in Drakensberg. I felt uncomfortable. You can tell there is a lot of poverty here. A lot of homeless people, but that was also the case in Durban. Rows of homeless people.
The centre of Drakensberg, and parts of Durban as well, it's very dirty.
And here we are in our truck, the white people getting of to get some food from the Spar.

A little later we arrived at our lodge where we will be sleeping for two night.
I'm sharing a room with Bonnie, the Canadian girl.
After we checked in, we went for a hike.
Now, I'm not the hiking kind of person. But I didn't mind this one, it was only 1,5 hours.
But hiking a whole day, is not my thing. It's not the activity itself, I don't mind walking, but with the hiking you have to watch your feet all the time so you won't trip or fall.
And when I have to look at the floor constantly, I don't enjoy the surroundings.
I know a lot of people like that and they get a sort of high when reaching the top. But I'm not one of them.
I guess that's why I love Australia more than New Zealand. New Zealand is also about hiking, a lot.

After the short hike we came back and had some free time before dinner.
I wanted to use the wifi but it's bad here. It's 10 rand for 60 Mb. So they say, but after 2 minutes you're logged out again.
No way did I use 60Mb when all I did was opening what's app!
Complained, got another code, but after a couple of minutes, it's gone again. Then the guy said: 'well, it's satelite wifi so it doesn't always works'
Uhu. But you still have internet at your counter.
Oh well, guess I won't be uploading pictures here.

Today you could go on a day hike, but 1. I don't like hiking that much and 2. they were predicting rain, a lot of rain. And walking in the rain, getting soaking wet and paying 590 rand for that?
Nah, didn't feel for it.
The lady at the desk was saying there was also rock climbing and abseiling.
Everyone in the group wanted to go on the hiking but me ;-) So I asked how much the abseiling or rock climbing would be.
The woman then said: 'oh but we need three people for that. So it's not going.
But why don't you go hiking? It's really beautiful.
It was obvious she wanted to push me into this. Bonnie said: 'don't let her talk you into it if you don't wanna do it'
So I didn't.
The polish couple dropped out eventually too, because of the weather predictions.
Since non of the other activities were gonna be organized, I was having a free day.

Woke up at 6h30 this morning to have breakfast with the group at 6h50
Than crawled back to bed and slept a little longer :)
Took a shower, washed my hair, unpacked my tiny suitcase to repack it, washed my bikini, transferred pictures from my camera to my tablet, put on some make up, listened to music.
A real 'me-time' day :)
And now, I'm writing the blog! Although I'm not sure when I will be able to post it...

As I'm typing this I'm sitting outside our lodge under a roof since it's been raining almost the whole day today. It's still warm, but grey.
So glad I didn't go on this hike!

Tomorrow morning we'll be going to Lesotho. Another country in South Africa. I'm very excited for that! Also, another stamp in my passport :)
I just hope it's won't be raining so much.
Being queen Modjadji is exhausting :)

Out of the comfort zone into the adventure

Yesterday I had to say goodbye to Peter, Virginie and her seven doggies. Miss them already.
Had such a wonderful time in Blacknoll. That week went by too fast!
But that's the thing when you are having fun.

So, yesterday I flew from Hoedspruit to Jo'burg and than to Durban.
Hoedspruit is such a cute little airport! Reminds me of Deurne airport (well in the old days, guess it's a little busier nowadays)

I got to Durban around 4h30 pm.
15 minutes later I had my teenie tiny suitcase (ugh) and went looking for the shuttlebus to take me to the Happy Hippo Backpackers.
I just mist the shuttle so I had to wait an hour.
A lady also waiting started talking to me.
Apparently, here nobody speaks Afrikaans no more. Only English (and their tribe language which in most cases here is Zulu)
To bad, I just started to get a hang of it! :)

Arrived at the hostel a little before six and it was getting dark outside.
They locked the door.
Coming here I could tell some streets around the hostel look poor, a lot of homeless people, it's very dirty outside, smelling of urine.
I guess I know what they mean by 'be careful, it's not safe everywhere'
I was hungry though, didn't had anything to eat after breakfast but a bag of nuts on the plane.
So I asked reception where I could grab something to eat.
On the left, just about 25 meters there is a gas station with a little shop.
So I had a mushroom chicken pie for dinner. Wasn't bad.

Back in the room I was sweating my a$$ off! No AC. There was a ceiling vent which helped a little.
Took a quick shower (not that it made the sweating go away) and went to bed.
I put my alarmclock at 7am because I wanted to go for a run in the morning before it got too hot.
Being in Tzaneen for a week sure made me gain weight :D
So, I got up and by 8 o'clock I was at the beachfront to start my 5K run.
Boy... what was I wrong. It was already very hot! The sun was bright and it felt like 28 degrees already.
First 3 kilometers went well, but the last two were hard.
Oh well, I did it anyways!!!
After my run, I went to by shampoo. Everything here is a lot cheaper than Belgium. Besides shampoo I guess :) 52 rand for a small bottle (about 3 euro)
Oh well :) Better that than greasy smelly hair!

I got back to the Happy Hippo Hostel and went for a shower after my run, I could taste the salt on my lips.
I love travelling, and being in a hostel makes it easier to make contact with new people.
But the shower is sometimes a hassle.
You have the shower, a curtain and inside two little hooks to hang your clothes.
Of course, what do you think happened? My pant fell on the wet floor.
Good thing it's a quick drying fabric.
Had to check out of my private room, so dragged my bags downstairs. Went up again to eat breakfast, yogurt and a banana, as I saw a girl by herself sitting at the table as well.
Smiling friendly.
So I asked her: 'Are you by any chance joining the tour tonight?'
She said: 'Yes!!!! You too?? Oh I'm so happy to see someone else going on the tour'
Her name is Bonnie and she lives in Alberta, Canada. Beautiful Asian girl.
We talked a little and she also had issues with the luggage restrictions on this tour.
I guess here suitcase will be bigger than mine :)
She also said, that bringing a sleeping bag is taking up so much space!!!
Couldn't agree more.
She wanted to explore the city today, I wanted to go to the beach and enjoy the sand and water. So I'll see her again at the meeting in 1 hour
When she booked the tour there were only 6 people going. So I don't think it will be fully booked, which gives us a lot of room on the truck. I don't mind :)

I hope intrepid will fulfill my high expectations, since I'm used to Contiki tours which were awesome!

I'll try to start putting some pictures on FB as well. It' just, I already have over 1000 photos, it's hard to pick a few :)

Just in case you won't here a lot of me, I'll be in Drakensberg tomorrow:

Love,
Tania

Without wings

On the braai last Saturday, there was  a man named mark, who flies the helicopter. He flies over farms to spray the crops for bugs.
He was talking about how he had to fly for game on Thursday. A farm with koedoes and wildebees was selling a few animals zo they had to be sedated. But farms here are a lot bigger than Belgium and if you needed a bull or a cow and had to go after it yourself it would take days to find 5 animals.
So, they hire the chopper here to dart them from the air and then the truck will drive up to that point to collect the animal.

We were excited and he invited us to come along!

We had to be ready yesterday at 5am, he would come and pick us up in the garden :)
A little over five the helicopter landed and for the first time in my life I was gonna fly in one!
Flying in a helicopter was on my bucket list. So you can imagine how thrilled I was to be in one, and not just a typical touristy 10 min. flight. Now we were gonna fly to Gravelot which is a 25 min flight.
As it got light along the flight, I felt like a bird in the sky.

The great thing about helicopters is that it's like flying in a big glass bowl. A lot of window, great view.

It was supposed to be a 2 to 3 hours thing.

We got to the farm where the vet was preparing the darts to sedate the animals.
A little later we were off to there, according to them, 'small farm' about 400 hectares.
The helicopter went up with the farmer and his gun with the darts in it.

Very quickly he shot the first Koedoe bull.
The vet timed it, it takes about 4 min to sedate him enough to collect him.
You can't be there too late because he might fall asleep and lifting a 300 kilogram animal isn't gonna work.

They brought him in, he got some injections (not sure what it was, maybe his annual shots :) )
And they load him in a van. Once he was put in, they measured his horns, and took a picture also of the teeth (I guess to determine the age maybe?)
After that they gave him a shot to reverse the sedation, and they had to hurry to close the trailer.
Within 2 minutes the bull was up and awake again.

Second time they were gonna dart a bull I went along in the helicopter.
So cool!!!!!
I always said: if I have enough money I want to learn how to fly an airplane, well, add the helicopter to my bucket list as well :)
So easy and fun if you could just take a heli from point a to point b! :) A girl can dream right?

What was supposed to be 2 to 3 hours, turned into 7 hours.
When we left it was still cloudy and not too hot. But after a couple of hours it was sunny and hot!
Of course, I did not bring any sunscreen. So you can guess it by now.
My arms look like a lobster... My shoulders are 50 shades of pink....
The African sun versus queen Modjadji 1-0

Since we've been up since 4:30 in the morning, we were getting really hungry by 12...
Actually, if you think about it, it's almost like a full working day. 7 hours.
They collected 2 or 3 bulls, and 3 cows.
But they notices one of the cows was lactating which means she must have a little one.
They went looking for the baby koedoe and found him stuck in the electric fence. He kept jumping in and in and in again.
They pulled him out but he was in too much stress. The vet tried to resuscitate the deer, heart massage and mouth to snout, but it was gone.
Sad moment.

Around 1pm it got too hot so we were invited to have lunch.
'Pap en boerewors' I think it's like polenta and sausage.
Wasn't bad actually and we were so happy to eat something :)

We said goodbye and got back into the helicopter.

Marc said: 'do you mind if we stop at a friends place?'

Since we had no schedule, of course, no problem.

This guy Barry, beautiful house up a hill, owns a game farm with mainly bulls.
We took a drive with the 'bakkie' on his 'small', 600 hectares, farm.
We saw a lot of bulls, they decided which 6 ones they were gonna sell.

After the visit (by helicopter) we left and flew back to Tzaneen.

What a day!
Normally 3 hours, turned into a whole day of adventures. Happy but tired we ordered some sushi and I went to bed a little after 9 pm :)

This morning woke up at 7 en around 8 we walked the dogs for an hour. About 5 km on this beautiful property than I'm leaving tomorrow morning.
I'm very excited about my tour, but I'll miss my friends and the farm and the doggies who greet me every morning. It's a special place here, it calms me down. No stress.

This zen girl is now gonna put on her bikini AND sunscreen and will dive into the pool, because it's getting hot again!
x
Tania

Into the wild

I woke up at 5h45 on Monday. Looked at my phone and Facebook said: 'it's february 29 today, the next one will be in four years so make it a good day!'
And I did :) First time to the Kruger National Park.
For those who don't really know what it is, it's around 2/3 of Belgium.
The Kruger is a vast sanctuary, devoted to the preservation of wildlife.

For me, a very big animal lover, this was a high light in my life. Having the opportunity to see wildlife the way nature intended it.

I don't like a zoo, animals in cages, way too small for the entertainment of people.
I always said: 'when I have kids, I'm gonna take them to Africa, to see an elephant and a giraffe in it's natural habitat.
Well, as life turned out a little different for me, no kids, I still wanted to see those beautiful animals wild and free, not in small concrete cages!

When we drove in we already spotted buffalo's and zebra's.
I was soooo excited!

What a huge difference to a zoo. In a zoo you walk from cage to cage looking at the sign that tells you what animal is (locked) inside.
Then you say: 'oh yeah, here are the lions, next cage, oh look, a giraffe, next cage...
But now, into the wild, where the animals are wild and free, you look around to spot them. "Aw look a giraffe and right next to it there is an elephant crossing"
Yeah people, in real life, the animals live side by side, not divided by big concrete walls and iron bars.

Sometimes you drive half an hour and don't see any animal, but then all of a sudden, you see warthogs (pumba's) with their babies walking by. On the other side of the road you see impalas (sort of bambi).
Little further there is an elephant going for a mud bath.
I have seen so many animals: elephants, giraffes, wardhogs, buffalo's, eagles, ...
In the late afternoon I even saw a few white rhino's! They are endangered because some ignorant
people think their horn would look good on their wall or it gives them better potential are anything.

By 6pm we went to our lodge and did a braai for dinner.

I was gazing at the stars. It's been almost 6 years ago, from the time I was in Australia that I've seen so many stars.
You could see the milky way.

There I was, in the middle of nature surrounded by wildlife gazing at a million stars.
Seriously, I don't need much more than that. It made me the happiest girl on the planet at that time.

Woke up again at 5am so we could leave around 5h40 when the sun was rising.
Hoping to spot a lion or a leopard. There aren't as many big cats as there are buffalo's or zebra's, unfortunately.
And they aren't very active during the day.
We've seen many animals again. An elephant family with the cutest little 'dumbo's', baby zebra's, monkey's playing.

But one other thing we noticed the last two days. There is hardly any water...
Summertime is supposed to be the wet season. But there has been hardly any rain.
Many rivers are dried out, places where there is supposed to be lots of water at this time of year is completely dry.

It's gonna be a hard winter for the wild life, since that is the dry season and they need water.

It's funny how we in Belgium have too much water at times and dislike the rain, while here they are so happy it rains.
Now I understand why, for the animals, for the plants.

Somewhere in the afternoon we finally found a little water and also found a hippo.
The hippo's especially have it rough. Not a lot of grass because of the drought and hardly water.
We saw one next to the road, getting sunburned and you could tell it was exhausted and in need for water.
It broke my heart. That too is nature, I know. It can be the most beautiful thing in the world, but also the hardest at times.

Before leaving we drove to an overview of this beautiful reserve. There was a little water there!
The last two days are in my top five of most beautiful things in the world I have seen so far.
It's hard to describe the Kruger park in word, beautiful isn't even close to it.
Ok, you know when you watch one those beautiful natures documentaries on national geographic? Well, imagine yourself being in one of those. So pure, so beautiful it's unreal!
It's like pinching myself because it felt like a dream, a good dream

OK, I didn't get to see a lion or hyena or leopard this time, but that only means I have to come back some day ;)

Paw,
Tania

Pumba drinking water behind me :)