Robyn and Gareth's (mis?)adventures...

This time we headed 'down under' to South Africa for a bit of sight seeing and yet another wedding.

First stop Nelspruit via the delightful Jo'burg airport. Then picked up by our fabulous tour guide (Tony) and into Kruger as quickly as the van (VW Combi - excellent!!!) will carry us! We entered through Malelane Gate on the south side of the park, with some unsuccessful game viewing on the way to our rest camp, Berg-En-Dal. As you never seem to stop when you're in Kruger, we went on a night drive which is slightly weird when it's dark at 6pm. Point to note for those who ever travel to Africa in winter - it's freeeeezing at night!!!! Apart from being bone-chillingly cold, we saw a bachelor herd of white rhino and a small pride of lionesses and cubs, one of which was only a few weeks old and very very cute but our camera is not so hot at night photos so nothing to show for it i'm afraid!

Day 2 consisted of getting up at stupid o'clock and being out the gate at 6am with a final destination of Satara rest camp (via Skukuza) which is about 150 km's away which doesn't seem like very far but when your speed limit is 30 km/h, it's a long day. Memorable sighting for the day...

A real zebra crossing (there were more - promise!!!)


This is the team lookout which was just next to our camp.

The sunsets are incredible. This was taken just before we headed back to camp before our real South African braai - delicious and meat galore!!!!

Day 3 again up at stupid o'clock and on the road. Destination today was Olifants which is about 50 km away. Memorable sightings for the day...

These guys decided to cross the road in front of us, warm up on the tarseal and head off into the grass. They are literally about 10m away!

More gruesome but apparently really unusual as they normally devour food where they find it so this one has cubs hiding somewhere.

You're only allowed out of your vehicle as certain places - like in the middle of a 400m bridge, although you have to hang out with the local monkeys.

After arriving at Olifants we took a trip up to Letaba Rest Camp, which is only about half way up the park and it makes you realise how huge it actually is. You've got Vervet Monkeys and Steenbok wandering around the camp and a really brilliant elephant museum which has loads of info about elephants, some massive skeletons and the tusks of the 'Big 6' and stories about each of them.

And after some highly unsuccessful game viewing that afternoon, we returned to Olifants where Gareth proposed at sunset, very romantic! We then had a celebratory dinner with Tony, who was in on this cunning plan as well.

Olifants is an amazing rest camp. It's on a hill top with the river running below. We had a hut (rondavaal) on the edge of the camp which overlooked the river.

Day 4 started with an early morning walk with a couple of rangers from Olifants. You basically drive for 30 minutes into the middle of the bush looking for game and when you find some, get out the vehicle and wander around on foot. We found a white rhino cow with two young and followed them for a while, but then found a bull rhino hanging by himself. So we hid behind a bush downwind and he just walked closer and closer until our guide decided 10 meteres was far too close and made some noise, then he bolted.

So after another healthy breakfast of bacon and eggs overlooking Olifants River we headed south and back towards Satara Rest Camp and would finally head out of Kruger to Nelspruit.

Other memorable sightings of the day...

We came across a batchelor herd of elephants, about 7 in size which is quite large and this guy was hanging near the side of the road.

Then slightly further on we found a breeding herd of elephants of about 24 which all decided to cross the road in front of us.

This guy was hanging out by the road and has a particularly massive horn.

Wildebeast were trying to escape the sun.

So it was time to leave Kruger and head south to East London via Johannesburg for Jen and Larry's wedding. After staying the night in Nelspruit we managed to miss our connection in Jo'burg (not quite sure how as we were in the departure lounge) but managed to get on the next flight.

Here are a few photos from Jen and Larry's wedding...

The Bury St Edmunds rugby boys - Tom Gee, Larry and Gareth

'The Kretzmans'

The NZ/UK table - sober!

Sporting decent hangovers the next day we did a bit of sightseeing as our trip to East London was pretty short. The beach is amazing!!!