Week TWO April 2013

So, I hit the road and we are cruising along at 60km up the hills, Goerge is marvellous, he has fixed my baby like a star, we did a quick stop in at Pilgrim's Rest where I could not find the cemetary becasue it is now on the other side of the road, also popped into Sabie but did not like it so kept going, we headed for Dullstroom under cloudy misty skies, missed most of the beautiful scenery through Long Tom Pass, which we did manage to do at a fast click, I can't believe how we were driving before, laboriously.

Pilgrim's Rest Hotel

Long Toms Pass into Lydenburg

Spent a night with Eric and Alice staying in the camper in their backyard in little Dullstroom, one short street and a hundred trout farms, all privately owned so stopping for a walk and a stretch was, well a stretch..........

Bubbles and Alice

Bubbles and Eric

Alice and Erik in Dullstroom

We dashed through Carolina and Belfast and Piet Retief, just not good vibes, and ended up in Pongola after travelling through beautiful countyside with Swaziland in the distance looking pretty and green, found a lovely park to stay in and discovered it was part of the Pongola golf course, for some reason the locals took exception to us parking on their golf course, very particular these golfers, I could have told them the dogs would retrieve their balls for them, but we were not being well received so we left and ended up in the campsite, real crummy.

Outside Amsterdam on a coffee break

I headed for Sodwana Bay next, never been there and decided to see what the fuss was about the place, well after driving for 97km from Hluhluwe, along bumps and slow down signs, along narrow roads with sharp bends and lots of traffic, hot and tired, we finally get to the gate only to be told ;no dogs' so I said okay, i've travelled a long way, the camper is hot and overheating, I'll walk the dogs for half an hour and we will leave,no chance, I was nearly locked up and the dogs nearly shot for daring to let them out for a wee in the CARPARK, well can you imagine what would have happened if we had walked onto the beach, which I could see but was not allowed to walk on, 12 security guards made sure of that, so back we went, 40km to Mkhuze where I wanted to see the Giant Fig trees, but, it was a game park and by rights, definately no dogs, but I ran into Themba, a lovely old black man with few teeth.

in the Pan with the crocodiles

our bed outside in Mkhuze

beautiful fever trees everywhere but the Fig trees are far away

love the water

He was in charge of resurrecting the Pan for his tribe, about 20 000 strong, he was due to receive R10 mill from the government to upgrade the area for tourism, we got chatting about alternate energy and so on and I found out he did a course on permaculture so we chatted about the possibilities, he asked me to stay and help him build the resort he has planned, I stayed the night, we camped next to the PAN, which is 14km long, full of wild bird life and many of the parks animals, we were watche dby 2 young crocs and heard a hippo wallowing further downstream, Themba took me to meet the Induna, the big chief, who wanted one of my dogs, I wasn't sure if the dog was to be a pet or for the pot, so I declined to hand one over, interesting character.

Excellent night and if I had to sum up the day and think about the paranoia of the security guards, who took photos of me, the van and the dogs and threatened all manners of horrors for daring to let my dogs out in the carpark, off leads mind you, and then we end up sleeping alongside some of Africa's wildlife in a park that is definately off limits to dogs, but Themba's attitude allowed it, not sure what the moral of the story is but I guess there's one there somewhere.

I'll keep in touch with Themba, he is an intelligent man with great ideas.

Can't post pics just yet as I have not figured how to download them as the computer keeps reading my camera as an empty folder.