Monthly Archives: June 2016

Watering holes

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My best sightings of elephants so far has been at Nyamundwa (I don’t think I can pronounce this one), which is 10km East of Phabeni Gate.  This lake was one if the few that I have been to that still had a lot if water in it during the dry season.

When I arrived there was already a few cars there.  You can park right at the edge of the lake and, if you are lucky, you can see elephants taking a bath! There were maybe 15 or so that were playing around in the water and just relaxing in the morning sun.
Further East, close to Lower Sabie is Sunset Point, which is also good for game viewing, especially around sunset.  I saw quite a few hippopotamus here.  They are hard to spot at first if they are almost fully submerged, but if you wait they will return to the surface.
I also saw some crocodile here, which is perhaps why it is important not to get out of your car!
Last night I took another night drive and saw hyena for the first time.  There was a mother and two cubs.  I will add pictures once I download them from my camera.

Driving in Jo'Berg

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So before I left Canada, I was slightly nervous about renting a car in Johannesburg, so here are my top tips for driving in the big city:

– First of all South Africa drives on the left.  If you are from a left driving country, or you have driven on the left before and feel reasonably competent, you will be fine.  If you have never driven on the left, I would suggest that Johannesburg would perhaps not be the best place to start.
– Speed limits are high compared to most European and North American countries.  Most residential streets have a speed limit of 60 km/h and the highways quickly go up to 120 km/h.  Saying that, most of my driving in rush hour was in stop and go traffic.
– The hard shoulder on the highway appears to be used as a driving lane. If you are going too slow, drivers in the left lane will expect you to move over to the shoulder to let them pass.  They may thank you by flashing their hazard warning lights after passing.  Be careful when you move over to the shoulder, as some of them end abruptly.
– When traffic lights turn red, I estimate at least 3 or 4 cars continue through, sometimes at the dislike of cross traffic!  Right turns are equally bad.  I was honked at because I did not go through a red light to make a right turn even though there was no traffic coming towards me 🙂
– There are certainly rough areas, but in the daytime I never felt threatened while driving and there were always lots of other motorists on the road with me.  I never tried driving at night and I do not think I recommend it unless you know exactly which areas are good or bad.  There are still about 300 carjackings a day in Johannesburg but I never felt there was an issue during the daytime.
– I drove into Seweto to take a bike tour.  The biggest issue in the townships seem to be non functional traffic lights, either because of a power cut, or because of vandalism.  In the latter it may be hard to identify that there should be traffic lights, since they have been torn down!  I suggest being cautious at intersections even if you have no stop sign or traffic light.
– Finally, parking.  You usually find some nice South African that will watch your car for you.  They expect a little tip.  R5 or R10 seems to do the trick, assuming the car is still there when you get back of course!
I would say all in all, driving in JNB was not half as bad as I thought it may be, and once you relax it can be kinda fun 😉

Kruger sunset drive

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I flew from Johannesburg to Nelspruit yesterday morning.  Getting from the city to the airport in rush hour as a bit of a task in itself, but I can save that for another post.

Nelspruit airport is quite small and the car rentals are located directly after you pick up your baggage.  I requested a small car and got a Chevy Spark Lite. This is probably the smallest car I have ever driven!
I drove from Nelspruit to the Crocodile Bridge gate to enter the park.  Thus was a little over an hour.  The drive is quite scenic as there are rolling hills, but otherwise it’s just freeway driving.
Once you enter the park, you need to cross a single lane bridge with no guard rails on either side.  They have some concrete safety stumps on either side, but plenty are missing!  I’m quite curious to know how many cars end up in that river!
From there it is only about 35km to Lower Sabie where I was spending the night.  It’s a slow drive in the park with a maximum of just 50 km/h, which is good since there seems to be a lot to see.  I first stopped at the side of the road when I saw an elephant in the distance drinking water from a steam.
A little further on, a lot of cars were stopped and I saw 2 giraffes eating leaves from the top of the trees.  Suffice to say, it’s difficult to drive and take pictures, but hopefully I can get some better pictures than the blurry ones I have so far!
I arrived at camp just in time to attend an evening drive.  When you do this, the ranger drives and you are free to take pictures.  The first thing we saw was a lion that was drinking from the stream.  After this, we saw a pride of lions that were sleeping under a tree.  This must only have been 100 metres or so from the truck!
We also saw, among other things, a leopard sleeping in a tree.  At first the ranger found it by seeing it’s tail.  I don’t think I would ever have noticed it.  Eventually it jumped down from the tree and walked across the road in front of us, heading off to find its dinner!
If you ever visit Kruger I would really recommend the drives.  The rangers seem very good at spotting all kinds of things!