Page 7 - Final Word

We all made it home from our wonderful trip with lots of memories.
To view this blog properly you need to start with page 1 at the bottom and work your way up. I have also created a photo site, linked to my homepage www.kentkauffman.com, where I have posted 200 photos! They have captions on each photo as well, and it will give you a more complete overview of our trip. Once you go to kentkauffman.com, click on "Tour Photos" and then 2009 South Africa.
This is another tour that started out as a one-time trip, but I definitely plan on repeating it!

Page 6 - Little Karoo and the Magnificent Cape

From the Garden Route we turned inland to the Little Karoo, a semi-arid region known for the hundreds of ostrich farms. We visited a farm and Rod got to race on an ostrich! We also visited the Kango limestone caves. We followed Route 62 across the Karoo into great farming country and arrived in Cape Town for our last 3 nights. We took the cable car up Table Mountain and hiked(!) down. It almost did us in. We drove through the Stellenbosch Wine Country and then my friend Tracey, from our days on Cunard Line ships, threw a feast for the whole group at her lovely place in the country. Delightful! The next day we spent down on the Cape, driving Chapman's Peak Drive, seeing the PENGUINS at Boulder Beach, and going to both Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. Four of the hardiest hiked the mile from Cape Point to Cape of Good Hope in hurricane-force winds. The next day we enjoyed the morning at the incredible Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens. What a great close to our incredible trip!

Page 5 - Nelspruit, Bushman Sands, Garden Route

Before leaving the Kruger Park area we visited the National Botanical Gardens in Nelspruit with their "Lowfeld" vegetation and lovely cascades and waterfalls on the Crocodile River. An elevated walkway through the rainforest was a highlight. We drove back to Pretoria and Thursday flew to Port Elizabeth on the south coast, the beginning of the Garden Route. We stayed at Bushman Sands in Alicedale. We drove over rough gravel roads through the bush to get there and suddenly found ourselves in a cute little town with a 4-star hotel! We walked around town and visited the factory where they weave mohair into beautiful products. The next morning we took a game drive before heading out on the Garden Route. Tsitsikamma National Park provided us with a fantastic walk along the coast and to a suspension bridge. The waves were huge! We overnighted in Kynsna with rooms overlooking the lagoon.

Page 4 - Blyde River Canyon and Kruger Park

We have not had much internet access so it's been difficult to keep this up. Great sightseeing and animal viewing continue! It's hard to put these photos in a good order with the limited internet connections we've had, but here's further description. We left Shiduli and toured the Panorama Route and Blyde River Canyon area for a day. The Three Rondavels are hills that look like Zulu huts, towering above the canyon. Another photo shows Rod at the same area, with the lake in the background. The strange rock formations are the Bourke's Luck Potholes and there is a photo of Berlin Falls and one of Steve trying to fall off the cliff into the Lowfeld. We enjoyed a wonderful rainforest walk on top of the mountain at God's Window. We went to Swaziland for a day and did a moderately strenuous hike to a cascading waterfall and returned in a terrific thunderstorm and saw the mountains white with hail! We spent another full day driving around in our vehicle in Kruger National Park and again saw a wealth of wildlife - dozens of zebras, giraffes, elephants, gnus, impala etc. Also saw a lion who had killed a buffalo. He was just lying in the shade waiting for dark when he would eat the buffalo, but keeping guard to make sure the vultures and hyenas didn't help themselves first!

Page 3 - Shiduli Safari Lodge

Shiduli Lodge was absolutely wonderful. We spent 3 nights there and had a game drive every morning at 5:30 and every afternoon at 4:00. We were able to get very close to the animals and observe them. We saw all the "Big Five"..... Lion, Elephant, Buffalo, Leopard, and Rhino, as well as lots of giraffe, zebras, impalas, kudus, wildebeest, and various boks! It was an extraordinary three days!
Shiduli Lodge is superb and the staff are most accommodating.