November 27-29, Kruger National Park

So the beach camping though nice was not quite what we expected. While certainly beautiful the surf and waves (and initially some nasty looking bright blue jellyfish) made swimming and snorkeling impossible at Cape Vidal. Despite our initial reaction to Sodwana Bay, we were able to swim and snorkel a little – but if planning on coming here, know that it is much more a divers paradise – needing a charter boat/tour to get you out to the 'spectacular' (just what we hear) reefs a coupe miles out. So after three nights in Sodwana Bay which though initially disappointing got better with a little snorkeling and the friendly cat, we left and drove 7-8 hours north around Swaziland to get to Nelspruit – another nice town where we were staying the night before going to Kruger National Park. Kruger is one of the greatest game parks in the world, about 380km long and 60km wide – 20,000 square kilometers – with the reputation of having the greatest variety of animals of any park on any continent (147 mammal species, 507 bird species, 114 reptile species, 49 fish species – didn't see any of them!) Generally people are looking for the big five: lion, leopard, elephants, cape buffalo and black rhino – but of course there are hundreds of others ranging from tall giraffes to tiny insects. When we were here three years ago we did a two night tour which cost about $700 – we thought surely we can do it for cheaper by ourselves and we did.

Last time we saw many things but no big cats – no little cats for that matter either. We were hoping we would this time, but somehow the 1500+ lions, 1000+ leopards, 200+ cheetahs all managed to evade us – even though we would get up at 4:30AM and be out of our camp gate shortly after it opened. We did have many encounters with elephants including one that got a little too close, lots of baby elephants, one very attentive rhino up close too as we were leaving after three days, many hippos in the water, cute and solemn giraffes, countless impalas, kudus, waterbucks, warthogs, buffalo and many many birds. We even witnessed a highflying bushbaby mama do a roof to tree top rescue of her baby offspring! A highlight for Andrea. Kruger is a wonderful camping spot – many camp sites with a wide variety of accommodation – some a little like little villages with stores, restaurants, even swimming pools – which are super handy when the temperature hits 100 degrees. It would be 72 or so when we got up in the morning at 5, but by 9am the temps were rising. Yesterday the temperature in the sun on my watch was a toasty 45 C...wait for it... 114 F!!

So despite no big cats yet again, Kruger was great! Loved that we could do it ourselves. Loved the wide open spaces – again, good for the mind and soul. Every now and then you run into a few cars who have stopped to look at the same thing, but much of the time it's just you in your car out in the bush. Oh and I began to teach Andrea how to drive a manual! She can say more on that!

Duncan

November 23-25, Staring down Monkeys and Other Adventures in Sodwana Bay

After two great nights at Cape Vidal we made our way north to Sodwana Bay, still part of the St. Lucia Wetland Park. We had read that Sodwana Bay was within the top ten of great dive spots in the world and that there was also great snorkeling. We had booked 3 nights of camping precisely because of the beach and the snorkeling. We arrived at the check-in a few minutes after 3pm to find the rangers locking the office up. They told us to go to the gate and just check in there. When we did the guard was very confused to find that we had already booked and paid in advance as we thought we needed to because it is the start of summer and thus school breaks/vacation time in South Africa. We have been warned by all guide books and people to book in advance for our accommodations during the next few months. So we did, and after a lot of confusion the guard reluctantly let us through the gate to the campgrounds.

Because Cape Vidal had been almost completely full and because Sodwana Bay has this fantastic reputation we assumed the same would be true of the campground here. We fortunately had a site number already, E-249, so we started to follow the signs to E. The paved road ended and heavy sand began, making it difficult for our 2WD Toyota Corolla to maneuver. We drove around and found – NO ONE. Not a soul. NO ONE. We eventually found our campsite after passing 20 or 30 EMPTY sites.

On our third and last night at Sodwana we had only ever seen ONE other campsite filled. And the camp is massive – there are easily 250 sites (seriously – google map it). When we arrived on the first day, I found this very disturbing – having no idea where we were (even where our campsite was in relation to anything else) and thinking of all the African animals and bugs that surrounded us in only our mosquito net tent. And in fact to confirm this fear shortly after we arrived we saw a troop of 30 mongooses wander through the campsite next to us.

As night fell, Duncan went to collect water to boil and returned saying, 'Well I've seen my first wild African cat.' (At Cape Vidal when we were hanging out with our neighbors they had told us that they saw long tailed genets in the tree above them). Trying to size up my predator I asked 'How big? Like house cat size?' Duncan replied, 'Oh no, bigger.' We finished dinner and climbed into our tent for the night and were slowly drifting into sleep when we heard, 'meow!' Turning our lights on we discovered a very pregnant house cat sitting underneath our car. Ahhh, relief. I figured that a very pregnant cat would not survive long in the bush unless there was a lack of large predators – especially considering she was the size of the mongooses we saw earlier. She left us alone that night but then returned our last night and hung out for some time. We said goodnight to her figuring she would be gone when we left in the morning, but there she was to greet us as we woke. She watched Duncan make breakfast and hung out with us until we left. She was a very pleasant surprise.

The beach at Sodwana was farther away than we had anticipated. At Cape Vidal we could walk 4 minutes to the beach, at Sodwana we had to drive 7 or 8. The other problem was to get to the reefs you really had to charter a boat. If you were a diver there was no problem because there were lots of companies ready to offer good packages, but there were no real packages for snorkelers, and the only company on the beach regularly would only offer to rent us snorkel gear. So we had a great time swimming and Duncan in particular did some good snorkeling at low tide just off the beach with our own mask.

The only other adventure we have had of note was a war with the monkeys who view our food as their food. One morning Duncan cooked up a wonderful breakfast of sausage and French toast. We had finished the meal and cleaned up. Duncan went to sit in the car and read for a bit and I wandered off to the bathroom. I came back to find Duncan standing outside the car with a big stick in his hands. He explained, “Monkey Attack.” Looking around our campsite we were completely surrounded – at least 20 monkeys. The only thing we had left outside was our garbage bag which had one piece of moldy bread in it. One monkey had created a diversion while another stole the bag and climbed up high in the tree. While clearly one piece of moldy bread is no treat for 20 monkeys, we being the only campers for what seemed like miles, were the concentration of their efforts. We threw rocks into the trees, waved sticks, banged our pot, clapped our hands, and hissed all to the great amusement of the monkeys who didn't budge except when the occasional rock came their way. They all had their different personalities and different roles in the troop. One was definitely the leader, one was the 'sentry' who would see how close he could get, and others were diversion makers. Eventually they lost interest and went away, only to return every morning and evening, conveniently around meal times to see if we'd be careless again. We were not. :)

Andrea

P.S. If any of you are divers you should really consider Sodwana Bay. Look up Coral Divers on the internet – they are down the road from our campsite and provide full accommodation, meals, and dives for very reasonable prices (in fact, even to us it seemed a great deal). They also have a deal for you divers who want to teach others to dive - $1000 USD for 3 months accommodation, meals, and training to become a dive master. You of course work for your keep in those three months, but your work is really hands on training.