Blyde River Canyon

The Blyde River Canyon area of Mpumalanga province features a number of picturesque tourist-friendly stops that can all be visited on a day-trip from Nelspruit. Mpumalanga literally means, where the sun (langa) goes out (puma) in Zulu and is often translated as “land where the sun rises” or something similiar.

The northern Drakensberg mountains give the landscape some of its dramatic features along with the Blyde and Sabie rivers that have carved out a number of canyons and gorges. Our first stop was the Mac Mac Falls waterfall followed by The Pinnacle; a rock tower jutting out of a deep gorge making it appear to almost hang in mid-air. Then it was off to a stop along the route where one can walk to the edge of part of the Blyde River Canyon with the help of a number of bridges.

Blyde River Canyon

Then at the bottom of Blyde River Canyon are…

Bourke’s Luck Potholes

I failed to get clarity on how these rock formations got their name – the Bourke’s Luck part I mean – since the potholes part seems like a no-brainer. If I had to guess, I’d say that the first part has something to do with the gold prospecting which went on all over South Africa back-in-the-day. After the Potholes we went on to God’s Window, a lookout point that rewards hikers with a panaorma of the whole valley below. Finally our last stop was the Three Rondavels which are rock formations high above the canyon wall that bare an uncanny resemblance to the traditional African dwelling of the same name. At Three Rondavels the Blyde River seems to stop and form a pristine and isolated lake.

The Three Rondavels

Near The Three Rondavels

And of course no South Africa journey would be complete without encountering at least one of these.

Kruger National Park

I finally made it! After almost 2 years in SA I arrived at one of the most commonly visited destinations in the country. Since I’d already heard about everyone else’s trips (usually with family or friends visiting from the US) I was pretty prepared when I got there myself a few weeks back.

I decided to fly from Durban to Nelspruit, which is the closest major town to the southern entrances of Kruger Park. But that ended up being an adventure in itself. What I was not prepared for was the pandemonium that accompanied traveling anywhere over this year’s Easter Weekend. I called for a taxi to the airport extra early but it didn’t come for over 40 minutes. While I was waiting I called other taxis and they said it was at least a 20 minute wait because of all the traffic in the city at that time. So I ended up missing my original flight and the next one I could book left at 6am the next morning!

In between the missing and re-booking of flights I also tried unsuccessfully to rent a car at the airport, thinking I would just drive to Nelspruit instead. Every single rental car company was completely out of cars. Has anyone ever heard of that happening? There are no less than 8 rental car companies with offices at Durban International Airport – including some of the big guys like Alamo, Avis and National. All out of cars.

So there I was stuck at the stupid airport. By this time it was 4pm and I had been there for over 3 hours and didn’t feel like sticking around until 6 the next morning! A British girl on her way to a backpackers in Durban gave me a lift home in one of the last available rental cars in the city. The guy working at the Budget desk had taken pity on her – she had just come from Moz and supposedly was recovering from malaria – and called one of his “friends” at this back-alley rental car company. I got to go to the offices with her on the way home. It was literally in a back alley.

Bright and early the next morning I was on my plane to Nelspruit. It was only about 4 hours or so of actual travel time, but by the time I got there it felt like it had been DAYS. I quickly proceeded to Funky Monkey’s backpackers, which is the PC SA gathering point in Nelspruit, and met up with a whole bunch of people.

After a day hanging out in Nelspruit we – Leanne, Jessica, Deborah, Nitto and I – all proceeded to Kruger. The Park is actually huge – it runs the length of two SA provinces on one side and then has Mozambique on the other. Along the SA side there are numerous entry and exits points or gates. We went in at one of the southern-most gates…I think it was Mtumbi Gate, around 2 or so in the afternoon. We drove around that general area of the Park and saw among other things; giraffe, impala, wildebeast, elephants, zebra, guinea fowl, a mongoose and a baby puff adder!

Leanne, Jess, Debs and I were all crammed into a little two-door Fiat, which made photographing the animals interesting. Luckily you can still see lots of stuff if you’re only mainly able to stick to Kruger’s paved roads – of which there are plenty. The animals don’t seem to be very afraid of cars and can get pretty close. In Kruger Park, as in most game parks and reserves you’re not allowed to get out of your car for any reason – unless you’re inside one of the rest camps. The rule exists basically to stop people from getting eaten by lions and trampled by elephants.

We stayed overnight in a rondavel at one of the Park rest camps called Pretoriuskop. You’ve got to get to the rest camps by 6pm or you’re in deep trouble with the park authorities. No one is allowed to be out in the park at night without special permission and a guide. The camp facilities include self-catering accommodation, single room rondavels like the one we had, space for tents, and indoor shower/toilet facilities. There was also a restaurant, general store and a gift shop.

The next morning we left the rest camp at 6am with the hopes of spotting some “cats” which we heard are most active in the mornings. Nitto works as guide on the safari tours organized by Funky Monkey Backpackers, and let us tag along behind their safari vehicles as they headed towards prime cat-viewing spots.

Organized safari guides work really hard to make sure people get their money’s worth and see the big animals, often scouting-out areas of frequent or recent sightings and radioing others when they do find something. So when we got to a spot where there were lions (2 of them) and cheetahs (2 of them) there where also about 15 other cars and safari vehicles jockeying for the position with the clearest view.

The lions where maybe about 100 yards away from the cheetahs with a small herd of impala in between. Everyone was waiting semi-patiently to see if something was going to try to kill something else. Finally the cheetahs went after the impala and chased the whole herd into the road where the impala ran off without any casualties. Then the cheetahs just sat there and didn’t try to go after them or anything, which seemed weird until we were told what was really going on…

Apparently lions are notorious for stealing meat from other animals after they’ve just gone to the trouble of chasing it down and killing it. The cheetahs we saw knew the nearby lions probably had a similar plan for any impala they managed to get, so they chased the herd off to another place where they planned to follow later and take care of business – I guess after somehow ditching the lions.

Next we drove through a huge troop of about 30 or more baboons. Having heard many a tale of baboons’ abilities to open car doors and stitch their hands in through partially open windows, the Fiat was put on immediate lockdown. Then we were off to one of the innumerable watering holes scattered throughout Kruger which give one a decent chance of spotting animals. We were in luck because there was a pride of 9 lions lounging on the other side of the watering hole when we got there.

After that the trip was ruled a success and we headed back to Nelspruit.

NOT Chiggers

 

So I had these weird bug bites on my ankle region for almost two weeks. The bug got me while I was standing outside of the office one night waiting for a lift to this work-related function. It burned and itched badly afterwards, but when that stopped I pretty much forgot about them.

That was until I noticed that they were not going away as quickly as would a normal bug bite. Also around this time I was visiting Leanne (see below) and we discussed the possible sources of the bites. In this photo they do look alot like ringworm, however, this was quickly ruled out since due to prior experience I can confidently say that this isn’t that. Then somehow the subject of chiggers came up.

When I was younger my Mom used to warn me about chiggers – that if you layed in the grass for too long they could bite you and then crawl under your skin and itch like hell. Having never seen a chigger nor heard anyone else other than my Mother mention them since, somewhere along the line I decided that she just made them up. I figured she thought it would a good way to stop me from rolling around in the grass and getting my clothes dirty. Leanne agreed with this hypothesis and the matter was temporarily closed; although we never did manage to come up with a solid explanation for the source of the bites.

Then a few days later Leanne informed me that chiggers do in fact exist – right here in SA. According to the PC SA Medical Handbook chiggers are little “beasties” that live in sandy soil and burrow under the skin of one’s feet where they lay their eggs. Eggs which then multiply.

The Handbook is conspicuously silent as to what happens next or about how to get rid of them. Once mature, do the chigger larvae burst out and run off into the night? Or do they dig deeper and deeper into your body until you get really sick or worse? These details became of the utmost importance to me because as soon as I learned that chiggers really exist, I became immediately convinced that I had dozens of them reproducing just above my left foot. And everytime I thought about chigger eggs growing under my skin I started to feel just a little nauseous…

Obviously this couldn’t go on, so I was prompted to do what must be done in such extreme situations. Call the PC for help and guidance – a step which I usually avoid at all costs since at least in SA, the PC is rarely helpful. Surprisingly enough, after only 2 phone calls I had the PC Doc on the line, and I explained my situation. She quickly ruled out chiggers as the bug bite culprit since they don’t actually live in Durban. Instead she said bird lice were likely responsible.

I was suspicious of this diagnosis at first, until I remembered that there is a bit of a pigeon infestation in eves of the office buildings near mine…making the likelihood of the ankle-biters being bird lice very strong indeed. Still disgusting – but better than chiggers!! She even gave me a prescription for some creme.