We woke to the sound of roaring lions early on the Ukutula Lion Centre & Park – not really! They were all asleep. The trees & bushes were alive with a low & vibrant humming sound like an electric volt singing through the dense and lush foliage of the African bush. There were low clouds & some light rain which was a bit of a relief because the humidity had peaked the day before.
We were treated to a great breakfast, real coffee (there’s an awful lot of Nescafé going on over here!), apples & cinnamon baked and served warm with natural yoghurt and served with a warm croissant. We wolfed down eggs Benedict, washed down with orange juice & got ready to hit the road for a long journey towards Mpumulanga & Kruger National Park – about 300 kilometers.
As we drove out of the park a baby meerkat scurried across the road, we had to stop for a couple of giraffes who were wandering about on the road and a peacock darted out in front of us. There are road surprises everywhere we go – none as deadly and dangerous as the pot holes though. Roads in South Africa are literally littered with pot holes (actually sink holes some of them) with road surfaces just seemingly disintegrating – maybe it’s the type of soil the roads are built on or maybe the layers don’t go deep enough. Whichever – if you hit one at any type of speed, you’re in danger of doing your vehicle and yourself some serious damage. We found this out to our detriment the day before when we hit a deep one at considerable speed, sending the wheel trim spinning off into the bushes and bending the wheel rim out of shape. A nice man hammered it back into place in a local tyre fixing garage after Simon rummaged about in the bushes looking for the trim. Lessons learned and all that!
So we hit the road, and tried not to hit the potholes! Or the people walking and cycling on the motorway…
It was nice to drive across country, we took the toll roads to avoid a lot of the dirt track roads (and aforementioned pot holes) and got some great views of vast plains, hills and mountains as well as getting glimpses of everyday South African life and people going about their business, selling tomatoes & onions at the side of the road, washing billowing in the breeze and people hitching lifts to their destinations. Little minibuses stop to pick people up and set them down, and umbrellas were up to protect skin from the sun.
It reminds me a bit of America, Canada & Australia – big wide roads, strips and shopping malls, fast food smells. Obviously influences from cultures further afield and blended with African style & history.
We pondered on whether to leave the motorway when approaching Mpumulanga & got off at a junction called Belfast but the road was too poor to navigate in our Suzuki Swift so we plough end on until reaching Nelspruit, taking the forked road to Hazyview – our next stop for the night.
And what a view (although a little hazy)! We were climbing steadily through a mountain range which looked very similar to the Scottish Highlands crossed with the Cumbrian Lake District, miles of fir trees and other lush, green foliage across acres of hills and valleys all tinged with a hazy blue hue that blended the peaks with the blue skyline. Amazing scenery. Fields and fields bursting with citrus fruit trees for as far as the eye could see turned quickly into banana trees stretching and curving across the exotic landscape.
We reached our destination – a little town called Sabie – four and a half hours after leaving Ukutula. It was a pretty little tourist stop, although most of it closed as it was Sunday, but we managed to get some supplies for our stay in a self catering lodge, some Sabie ground coffee grown locally, some wine and beer, all local to the area and we feasted on some locals Indian fare (the only place open) but offering freshly cooked biryiana and chicken tikka rotis. It was lovely to get a taste of some English food! They feast a lot on fast food in South Africa, have a lot of food chains, Wimpy, McDonalds, KFC, Ocean Basket.
Just as we finished an afternoon storm began to blow in and we headed off for the last 30 kilometers to the Nwanakaille Lodge nestled in the valley between Sabie & Hazyview – and that’s when the rain came. When we checked in, there was a power outage which apparently is quite common in South Africa, they turn power off for a couple of hours to save energy or perhaps to leave tourists like us in the dark after a four hour drive. We marvelled at how the Lodge we were staying in not only had monkeys to welcome us at the door, but how it had managed to stand still in time since about 1976! Before Simon started to seriously contemplate growing a handlebar moustache and I reached for my flares, we decided to flee the dark by going to Hazyview for a drink.
We drove through it without realizing it was actually a place … It’s actually just a little strip of a shopping mall where people stay momentarily to breath on the way to Kruger. We had some very nice wine and a cold beer and waited for the lights to come on….planning our next adventure to Blyde River Canyon the next day.
Mags Winthrop Blog 