South Africa

Elephant in the Kruger National Park

Snake bird in Mkuzi National Park

Impala's in the Mkuzi National Park

Typical house in the Cape Province

Leeuwekop as seen from Table Mountain

Kafferboom, no leaves and beautiful red flowers

Protea, the national flower of South Africa

Ndebele

Esther belongs to theNdebele tribe.

She is one of the nicest ladies I ever met

Parliament in Pretoria

Bourke's Luck Potholes in Eastern Transvaal

Zululand

Road signs can be very entertaining in South Africa

From the 15^th of September 2005 until the 1^stof October 2005 we went on holiday to South-Africa. We flew with Iberia, which was not such a nice experience i.e. we had 4 flights (Brussels - Madrid and Madrid - Johannesburg and back) and not once they were on time. We rented a car and did a round trip from Johannesburg to Durban, than up north visiting Hluhluwe, Saint Lucia and Mkuze game reserves. The second week we traveled further north to the Kruger National Park to return to Pretoria and finally to Johannesburg. In Pretoria with stayed with Hugo and Anton, two fantastic guys who gave us an unforgetable last 2 days. We hope you enjoy some of the pictures we took during this trip.

These first pictures are taken in the 1000 hills a region just north west of Durban. Lovely flowers as you can see but we visited also a typical Zulu kraal. We got rather quickly tired of Durban and decided to leave it one day earlier than planned and to stay a night in Mtubatuba. This was a very good idea we had and it gave us the opportunity to visit Saint Lucia and make a boat trip on the lake to see hippo's, all kind of birds and real crocodiles. As we did this trip late afternoon we could enjoy a gorgeous sunset.

We travelled further north and stayed at Banghoek Lodge not far away from the Mkuze game reserve. Mkuze is one of our favourite game reserves because it has some hides from which one can observe the wildlife. It is however necessary to go there early in the morning (be there like 6 a.m.) which we tried to do. But as you can see we had a flat tyre so we were a little late. But than not too much because Gökhan proved to be an excellent mechanic. He did it in 12 minutes flat... luckily.

In the same region, about 10 km south of Hluhluwe we visited Dumazulu, another Zulu kraal. Very interesting visit. We even could taste Zulu beer, something you should try.

And that was the end of our first week. The Friday (23/09/2005) we travelled further up north from Mkuze to Skukuza near the Paul Kruger Gate of the Kruger Park. A long tiring drive as we could not go through Swaziland because Gökhan needs a visa for Swaziland, something we didn't bother to get. Anyway we did about 580 km that day and we were both very tired when we arrived in Skukuza. But the place we stayed was very nice so that compensated quite a lot. The Saturday we didn't do anything except playing mini golf (I won't tell you who won and who cheated) but on Sunday we did a trip in an hot air balloon. For people who never have done it, we only can advise you to try it. It is a really nice experience and after the fantastic sundown in Saint Lucia, we had a fantastic sunrise over Hazyview. When we were back on the ground we had a lovely breakfast at the Chestnut Lodge in Sabie.

In Skukuza we stayed right at the Paul Kruger Gate, entrance to the Kruger National Park. We visited it 4 times and saw all kinds of wildlife, elephants, gnu, impala, giraffe, lion, hippo's etc. The most exciting however happened on the last day when 2 monkeys came right into our chalet to steal our very last slices of bread. No breakfast that morning !

But there are also other things to see and to do in the area. A drive in the Blyde River Canyon region is a must. The Mac Mac Falls, God's Window, Bourcke's Luck Potholes and the Three Rondawels are a must.

After 4 times the Kruger Park we thought that was more than enough and we decided to leave one day earlier than planned. We made a reservation in Loerie's Call a bed and breakfast in Nelspruit. This was bascially the best decision we took during our whole trip. My God what a lovely place. THE atmosphere to relax, to enjoy and to play lots of cards... again I won't tell you who won but without cheating this time ;-)).

Shall we start our own business in South-Africa ? Why not ?

From Nelspruit to Pretoria... last two days in South Africa. I can write a book about it, such a lovely final of our holidays, thanks to Hugo and Anton. They really treated us like kings. The only thing we can do is hope that they will come to Belgium soon so we can overwhelm them with the same hospitality and friendliness as they showed towards us. Only we won't be able to go with them to Randburg but there are as nice places here as there are there :-)). Thanks guys !

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