Pelgrimsrest, Sabie and Graskop.

We left the caravan park Saturday morning for a site seeing tour to Sabie, Pilgrim's Rest and Hazyview. The road took us thru the mountains on the way to Leydenburg where we came to a T junction on top of the Longtom pass where we turned left to the town of Sabie and down the mountain we drove. I am still  amazed at how easy the little bus drive's these mountain passes.
We stopped at Sabie for breakfast at the famous pancake restaurant and after a delicious breakfast and getting directions from the owner we went in surge of the Brides vial waterfall. After driving a short distance on a very bad potholed road we arrived at the base of the foothills of the mountains that surround the town and is also the start off the hiking trail up the mountainside to the waterfall. It didn't look to steep so we set of to find this waterfall. We started off ok but as you get closer to the waterfall it gets steeper fast and it wasn't to long before I was panting like a old dog on a very hot summer day. Of course  I had to stop to admire the scenery of the rainforest and take in the smell of the trees around us a few times. Once we arrived at the waterfall and I got my breathing under control I enjoined the time we spent at the waterfall. We took some photos and then it was time to negotiate the trek down the mountainside, back over the boulders that was wet by this time  it being a rainforest and all, slipping and sliding down the muddy footpath mere inches from mind numbing cliff's struggling to keep my footing, all the time carrying our two year old down this very steep and dangerous mountain.
Well that's how I'd like to describe the footpath to the waterfall but in realty it's just a stiff walk up the mountainside and the forest is really breathtaking  beautiful.
We left Sabie to go to Pilgrim's Rest all the way driving thru grate mountains, Anita and I both decided that we wouldn't be taking the bus to this area, although the mountains are beautiful they're just to steep and we wouldn't enjoy driving here with a ten ton bus towing a heavy trailer. That is the reason we prefer to do our day trips with the little bus it's mage cheaper and more enjoyable for all of us.
We have been to Pilgrim's Rest before and at that time we enjoyed our stay tremendously. Pilgrim's Rest was the first mining town in South Africa and gold was first found here by Alex"Wheelbarrow" Patterson in 1873 in a nearby stream.
Today sadly it's just a tourist trap with more native beggars than tourists. This one's beautiful museum is overrun by natives selling nuts and harassing the few tourists that are still here. We walked around for a hour or so but decided to leave the place and go to Graskop 10 km from there.
So back up the mountain on a very narrow road that twist and turn all the way to Graskop. I can not belief that many years ago we toured this exact mountains with a 1980 Chevrolet C10 and 1981 Jurgens Superior and their was nothing strange about it. Now that I think back, maybe it was the ignorance of our youth those year's that made us do things like that, today I wouldn't thing of doing it agane.
We stopped at the caravan park in Graskop where we spent many wonderful days and what a shock we had, there is almost  nothing left of the one's beautiful caravan park.  Permanent renters took over the chalets I don't things they are paying for them. The swiminpool is a rotting messy hole in the ground, the one's beautiful absolution blocks are broken down and not serviceable any more. All that remains of this one's  majestic resort is the beautiful  views from the top of the ecskarpment to the Lowvelt down below. Om my beloved country, how long will you be able endure the ignorance and cruelty of your plunderers.
I thought long and hard about this post and how to write it, because in the event of anyone actually reading my blog I want to inspire them to also visit some of the places that we find so interesting and wonderful. But I guess I can only tell it the way I see it and try to be true to myself.
The rest of the town is tourist'y, I counted four Pancake restaurant's in one street that is not longer than one kilometer, with a lot of African craft stalls selling more or less the same stuff. We stopped at a chocolate shop for some delicious handmaid truffels the lady knows her business let me tell you they were to die for.
Because it was getting late we decided to return to the bus taking the road over the Kowyns Pass to the town of Hazyview. Next time I certainly want to spent more time in this town, I'm certain this town has lots to offer to us travellers.
We got back tithe bus 5:30 or so just in time fora glass of wine and a beautiful sunset.

Pilansberg to Nelspruit via Rustenburg and Brits.

We left Pilansberg after a wonderful two week stay to go to Rustenburg for their annual show. We worked the show for ten day's the first weekend was not to busy with the week days not busy at all. The second weekend was very busy and we worked real hard till late at night.
We then went to the town of Brits  with a traveling Carnival for ten day's the business was very bad but we enjoined the time we spent with old friends.
On our way to the City of Nelspruit we had to stop  for a week in Pretoria to visit our oldest son Tony and his girlfriend Mignon. Tony came for dinner the day we arrived in Pretoria and invited us to watch him and Mignon and her father ply action cricket on the Tuesday night. We went and really enjoined the evening with the family and made arrangements to meet again on Saturday at Mignon's family home for a get together and dinner.
The week was very busy with trips to our big suppliers to stock up for the Innibos Festival in Nelspruit, the traffic was horrendous and I was dead tired every  night and couldn't wait to get back to the bus at night.
Friday night we met Tony at Yamazaki a Japanese restaurant  close to his home in Waterkoof where he stays for their  Sushi buffet. The food was outstanding and we enjoined the time with our son tremendously.
Saturday afternoon we visited with Mignon and her family and had a scrumptios dinner and a wonderful evening with them and after saying our goodbyes we left for the caravan park to prepare for a early departure on Sunday morning.
Sunday morning was freezing cold when we left the caravan park at six o'clock. We took the N1 first and then turned off on the N4 that go's all the way to the city of Nelspruit. We had a pleasant drive most of the way except for out side the town of Witbank (God now's what the new native name is) we had a air leak  on one of the air pipes of the bus, it was a easy fix accept for my fingers that almost froze in the sup zero temperatures. After a steaming cup of coffee we where off agane.
It warmed up nicely as the sun came up and we head east on the highway. We left the highvelt behind and started the descent to the Lowvelt of South Africa. It is nice a drive through  the mountains past the small towns of Watervanboven and Watervalonder. I enjoined the drive through the mountains with the bus and was overwhelmed by the beauty of this area. As we took the offramp from the N4 to enter the city I notice black smoke coming out from behind the bus as I looked in the the side mirror of the bus and instantly realized that we lost a tire on the trailer and immediately pulled over to the emergency lane. As I got out of the bus to investigate what was happening Anita stoped  behind the bus and shouted that the tire was burning. I turned  around and ran back to the bus to get the fire extinguisher and ran back to the trailer to put out the fire.When I got their the flames was already licking on the side of the trailer and it took a few blasts with the extinguisher to put the fire out. We are so blessed not only could we have lost the trailer with all the stock for our sweets business but we also could have lost our home.
We ended off the day with a delicious family size pizza at Panarottis. No we are settling in nicely at a caravan park a few kilometers out of Nelspruit on the Barberton road enjoining t-shirt and flip-flop whether.
Cheers Karel.

 

Tony and Mignon at Pilansberg

Tony and Mignon arrived just after nine on Friday morning for their weekend visit. We where so looking forward to them spending time with us at our camp. Friday was spent talking and enjoying one anothers company and preparing food.
We got up at six Saturday morning to go on our first gamedrive with them and after paying for their entrance to the park we drove thru the gates. We stayed on the paved roads because the Honda Hybrid Mignon's sponsored car is riding somewhat low for the gravel roads in the park, we on the other hand travel the park in Mildred she has great ground clearance and the gravel roads are no problem for her. We spent the morning looking for game and although we did not see any Lion or Chethas we on the other hand saw Rinos, Elephants,Giraffe and many different species of antelope.
Between the game drives and preparing food, and time spent talking and joking with each other I realized that Anita and I are so blessed having our children. I had to bite my lip a time or two this weekend  not to get emotional, sometimes I am just pleasantly overwhelmed by all the love we receive from our wonderful children.
Sunday morning we went again for a game drive and after stopping at a lookout point a game ranger told me where the Lions where,  but after driving some distance on a freshly grated gravel road we could not find them. After talking to other tourists also looking for the Lions we decided to go on our marry way to see what else we could find. And not far from there came across what I think was our highlight of the weekends game sightings. We looked up to the mountainside and there was about sixty Elephants walking on the very side mountain. 

When we got back to the camp we prepared our Sunday lunch together and after eating we said our goodbyes and Tony and Mignon left for the big city.

Two game drives on one day.

We went for two game drives yesterday. We took the first at midday and another late afternoon. I did not expected to see many game at this time of  day it being so hot, but we did see some giraffe and other game. They are the tallest browsers by several meters, the Giraffe can reach a height of five meters and it can be found throughout  the valley savannah. The Kudu bull we found amongst the Kudu Thorn trees they are leaf eaters and keep to the bush areas.
Zebra is plentiful in the park and we see them often on our game drives. We where stopped by a game ranger who showed us a Leopard but we only got a glimpse of him as he escaped thru the long savannah grass.
On our late afternoon game drive we saw Elephants at the water hole drinking and playing. Not far from the water hole we game across two adult Rhinos and a baby Rhino . Rhino  are being killed for their horns at a alarming rate in South Africa lately and we really very worried, so far this year more than 400 Rhino has been killed for their horns.

Karla and the maths.

Monday was spent doing school work. Karla  and I spent most of the morning practicing different calculations followed by reading and writing . English is our second language and is not spoken at home. It always amazes me how fast the children can learn a new language. Anita spent the morning doing laundry,it's so mage easier for her having our own washer and dryer in the bus it saves me from hauling the washing to the laundry evrytime. We did not go for a game drive yesterday  so today we will renew our permit so we can do game drives in the park for the rest of the week.

Pilansberg National Park

We left our camp at Hartbeespoort dam today a week ago. We had only 120KM to drive to our next camp at Pilansberg National Park, Manyane camp. We left Hartbeespoort dam at 9:30 and we arrived at Pilansberg National Park just after 2:00. After paying for our stay we entered the park and setup camp. It wasn't long and we sat down to watch the wildlife around us. We had to go to Marulong for supplies and on our way back we entered the park from the northern side at the Bakgatla gate where we paid to entrance fee for the time we will spent exploring the park. After entering the park we started seeing game. We spotted Impala and Wildebeest and then we saw two chethas that killed a Impala and was feeding on their kill. We spent some time watching the Chethas and it's was a wonderful experience.
We spent the week doing game drives in the early morning's and school work during the day with a another game drive late afternoon. After getting back from the game drive at night we sit around the campfire talking and later preparing our supper on the goals.

Our camping spot today.

I took this photo this morning of our camp. With Millie the big bus and Mildred her smaller sister standing proud at our camp.