The wildlife parks of South Africa

We visited six parks since our latest report. First of all, the Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park-of 960 square kilometre, consisting of two adjacent parks founded in 1895, and St. Lucia Wetland Park (iSimangaliso Park), the third largest park of South Africa. The Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park was declared South Africa's first Natural World Heritage Site, it has 280km of near pristine coastline and comprises of 328 000 hectares of magnificent scenery. Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park encompasses an immense mosaic of habitats ranging from marine systems (coral reefs and beaches) and coastal forests (from salt and fresh water marshes to the open estuarine waters of Lake St Lucia itself) from lush coastal plains to the drier woodland areas. This is a remarkably beautiful place in South Africa. Both parks are located in the province of KwaZulu Natal, which is called the garden province and is the home of the Zulu nation.
The skeleton of the oldest human being has been found in this area. Here we stayed in two, by Dutch people –operated, lodges; the Wildebees Eco Logde in Hluhluwe and the beautiful Elephant Coast Lodge in St Lucia.
We drove about 100 km through the Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park, and 70 km through a part of the St Lucia Wetlands park, and made a boat trip on a river in which 2600 hippos and many crocodiles have been counted. Time and again, we were excited when we saw the wild animals, whether they were small or very large.

Hereafter we proceeded to Swaziland, an independent State since 1968, in which the King has an absolute power. We have stayed for two nights in Reilly's Rock Hilltop Lodge, a house in the middle of the Mlilwane Wildlife Reserve. This was the home of Mickey Reilly, one of Swaziland's earliest white settlers and a highly entrepreneurial man, the main building was built of stone in exchange for an ox-wagon in the early 1900's. The house has remained in the family and has recently been transformed into a unique hilltop lodge tastefully decorated in keeping with its colonial roots. Until his death in 2004, Prince Bernhard of the Netherland used to stay here every year for some time.

Reilly' s Rock
The fifth park that we visited was the Kruger National Park. This is one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers more than 20.000 square km ( half of the surface of the Netherlands) and extends 350 km from north to south and 60 km from east to west. Because of the ever increasing hunting with more modern weapons, the park was initially created in 1898 to control hunting and protect the diminished number of animals in the park. Since a few years, the park is part of the cross-border larger Limpopo Oogrens Park, situated in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
In the park, visitors are not allowed to leave their vehicle except in one of the 25 rest camps. In addition to the size, this park is also known for the large variation in animal species. The most well known are the so-called Big Five: the Lion, Buffalo, Rhinoceros, Leopard, and the African elephant. Of the latter the Kruger Park has the largest population in the world. In 2003 there were 11.700 African elephants in the park. In addition to these five species, there can be seen another 147 different species of mammals, such as the giraffe, impala, wild dog, hyena, jackal, zebra, cheetah, wildebeest, warthog, baboon. Furthermore 114 species of reptile, including 3000 crocodiles. Out of the 517 species of birds found at Kruger, 253 are residents, 117 non-breeding migrants, and 147 nomads.
The first two nights we stayed in a tent and heard the roaring of the lions and the sniffing of the hippos in a nearby pond. One morning five velvet monkeys stole all what was edible from our refrigerator !
We have been driving about 450 km through the park, mainly by our own car, but also with a guide and have seen the big five during the same day. As it was spring here, there were very many newborn animals of which we will remember the four days old giraffe and the tiny rhino most.
From here we went to Guernsey Private Nature Reserve, a private park, where we slept two nights in a tree in the Pezulu Tree House Lodge, an unforgettable experience.

We visited this park by 4WD Landrover and found a lion that had recently killed a buffalo. He was guarding his prey, while vultures were waiting in the surrounding tree tops. We also found four cheetah’s and before sunset we had seen the other members of the big five as well; a worthy end of our visit to the wildlife of South Africa.

From here we drove to Dullstroom and the capital Pretoria and on 3. December we left from Johannesburg to Holland where we will stay until Christmas.

Once more we received many reactions to our blog such as from Pierre and Marlyse Schmid from Switzerland. They have lived on Bonaire for some time and like us, they use to travel the world on a regular basis, perhaps more than we do!

For more pics see our Dutch blog http://www.jan-margreth3.blogspot.com/

Our first 2750 kilometres through South Africa

Two weeks have gone since we last reported on our blog. The main reason is that a very few hotels in South Africa offer internet facilities. We found this very strange because in Asia and South America we had WiFi connections in almost every hotel.
It took Malaysia Airlines less than 7 very comfortable hours to bring us from Argentina to Cape Town which appeared to be a beautiful city. Unfortunately the weather was bad and for this reason we could not visit Table Mountain and Robben Eiland where Nelson Mandela has been imprisoned for more than 20 years.

But we have made a nice trip over the Cape Peninsula to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope where two oceans meet, a highlight for every (old) seaman. A very few can say that they have been to Cape Horn and Good Hope during the same trip.
It is springtime in the Southern hemisphere, trees are in bloom and flowers can be seen everywhere, in the fields and along the roadsides. This year we have experienced Spring twice during our trip, in April in Japan and in October/November in Argentina and S. Africa.
From Cape Town we drove in our rented car through the wine region where we stayed overnight in two lovely small cities, Stellenbosch and Swellendam, enjoying the good things of the region.
After we had passed a mountain range we reached the Kleine Karoo, a semi- dessert area and the city of Oudtshoorn with its numerous ostrich farms. From the Karoo we reached the coast and stayed in Knysna with its little port and famous lagoons. In Addo we visited the first National Game park where we have seen hundreds of elephants and other animals. It was very exciting to explore the park on our own and to meet suddenly eye to eye with an enormous elephant bull that crossed the road.
We visited the former “homelands” Ciskei and Transkei, home of the Xhosa, which were reunited with S. Africa in 1994 and stopped in Qunu, the tiny village where Nelson Mandela was born, to visit the museum. Village where Nelson Mandela was born

After a two days rest in Coffee Bay in a beach hotel at the Wild Coast, facing the Indian Ocean from our room, we drove to Underberg in the province of Kwazulu Natal from where we made a trip with a 4WD over the well known Sani Pass to the kingdom of Lesotho. We will never forget this breathtaking trip over the worst road we have ever seen, steep, slippery, rain, thundershowers, cold!

Sani Pass between S. Africa and Lesotho

We do realize that we will be visiting several game parks in the coming days but that we will leave this beautiful part of the world within 2 weeks!

See also our Dutch blog www.jan-margreth3.blogspot.com

Our last days in Argentina and four days in Brazil

De Quebrada de Cafayate

Once more we have travelled and seen a lot since we have published our last report.
We will never forget the journey from Cafayate to Salta in the most Northern province of Argentina. Our path led us through a beautiful canyon ( see picture above ) about 60 kilometres long, with walls of red sandstone up to 100 metres high. Along the way are canyons and rock formations sculpted by wind and water, never before seen by human eyes. We have seen this wonder of nature in the parks of Utah, but here we felt alone while the parks in the USA are visited by millions every year.

From Salta we flew to Buenos Aires, where we had a day to walk through the streets of this enormous city. We concluded that Argentina is a really beautiful country with a great diversity in environment, nature and the countryside. This enormous country has only 40 millions inhabitants, of which 14 are living in and around Buenos Aires. Apart from some other cities the country is virtually empty! Since the financial crisis that hit the country in 2002, Argentina changed from one of the most expensive countries in South America into one of the cheapest. Because it is so widespread , we had eight flights by Aerolíneas Argentina that proved to be a reliable company. We really had a wonderful time and recommend everybody to visit Argentina.
From Buenos Aires we flew to Rio de Janeiro, where we would stay for four days. We had booked a good hotel in the Copacabana area where, after eight weeks travelling, we took a well deserved rest during the weekend. Of course we have seen a lot of Rio.
The city is surrounded by the sea at three sides, giving it a number of very wide beaches with well-known names as Ipanema and Copacabana. Furthermore the city is divided by mountain ridges of which some of the peaks are a thousand metres high. Rio de Janeiro is famous for its natural settings, its carnival celebrations, samba and other music, and hotel-lined tourist beaches, along with its favela slums. Some of the most famous landmarks in addition to the beaches include the giant statue of Christ ('Cristo Redentor') atop Corcovadomountain, named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, Sugarloaf mountain (Pão de Açúcar) with its cable car; the Sambodromo, a giant permanent parade stand used during Carnival and Maracana Stadium one of the wolds largest football stadiums. The city also boasts the largest and second largest urban rain forests in the world: Floresta da Tijuca, or and (almost connected to the first) the forest in Parque Estadual da Pedra Branca, or White Stone State Park, more than 32 square kilometres in total.
We had time to visit the above mentioned places and paid our daily visit to Copacaba beach where we had our meals.

We have often written that we do not favour large cities but Rio appeared to be an exemption.

On 3. November we flew back to Buenos Aires, where we had one day to reorganize the suitcases (Margreth) and to update the blog (Jan) before we would fly to South Africa in the evening of the fourth of November.
Reflection of the Catherdal of Rio in opposite buildings

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COMING IN FROM THE COLD!

Road to Cafayate

Argentina: Salta, Purmamarca, Cachi and Cafayate

It took Argentinean Airlines a full day to bring us from Ushuaia to Salta, a trip of more than five thousand kilometers!
Salta is a rather big city in the far North of Argentina, close to the Chilean an Bolivian borders. Nicknamed Salta la Linda ("Salta the Fair"), it has become a major tourist destination due to its old, colonial architecture and the natural scenery of the valleys westward where we were heading for.
We rented a car and drove a scenic route to Purmamarca, the Town of the Virgin Lands - "Pueblo de la Tierra Virgen", which is the literal translation of the Aymara mountain indian language word Purmamarca, a beautiful village cradled to the north by the Río Purmamarca, and to the south by the mountains bordering the ravine by the same name. It has less than 400 inhabitants and comprises a square and just a few streets from where we could see the surrounding mountains from different angles, especially imposing is the so called "Cerro de los Siete Colores" - the Mountain of Seven Colours behind the village.
From Purmamarca we drove through the more than 100 km long Humahuaca Valley. This Valley has been used over the past 10,000 years as a crucial passage for the transport of people and ideas from the high Andean lands to the plains. Its distinctive pre-Hispanic and pre-Incan settlements, as a group with their associated field systems, form a dramatic addition to the landscape and one that can certainly be called outstanding. We stopped in most villages and had lunch in Humahuaca, a village slightly larger than Purmamarca. We returned from here to Salta where we had ample time to visit the town square, the Cathedral and the Convent of St. Francis before we left for Cachi. The 200 kilometers long road to Cachi was unpaved for the greater part and was leading over a mountain ridge that was hidden in the clouds. For that reason we have been driving with visibility almost zero over a slippery and unprotected road along ravines that could not be seen, a terrible experience. However, after reaching the plains, the sky cleared and the temperature increased from 5 to 28 degrees centre grade. Without noticing we had entered a national park of which the red sandstone mountains could be seen in full glory.
Cachi is a nice small town surrounded by imposing snow-covered mountains reaching as much as 6,480 meters. We decided to stay over for the weekend and enjoyed the hospitality, the wine and the bright sunshine that warmed our bones that had suffered so many days of icy temperatures.
Cafayate, our next destination, was only some 165 kilometers from Cachi but the road was unpaved, reason why it took us five hours driving. But what kind of hours? The word “unbelievable” is the best that can be used to describe the beauty of what we have seen. This must be one of the most beautiful parts of Argentina and still it was deserted, we passed some villages that consisted of a few houses and sometimes a church but we rarely saw people. Sometimes we were driving through a deserted moonlike scenery that could suddenly change into a spectacular wall of hundreds of feet of high sandstone castles.
Cafayate appeared to be an important tourist centre for exploring the Calchaquíes valleys, and because of the quality and originality of the wines produced in the area, the last we have enjoyed above all.
From Cafayate we will return to Salta and Buenos Aires from where we will travel to Rio de Janeiro to spent some more days in this beautiful part of the world before crossing the next ocean.

We have received another unexpected reaction to our blog from Barbara Kalmoutis in Campbell, California. She and her late husband Peter used to live on the Greek Island Aegina where we always spent our summer holidays between 1980 and 1992. They have moved to the USA where we have visited them in 1994, almost 16 years ago. Barbara must be about 90 years old by now and it appears that she is surfing the Internet regularly. Well done Barb!

As usual: visit http://www.jan-margreth3.blogspot.com/ for more pics

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Argentina: Buenos Aires, Valdez peninsula, El Clafate in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego

Since we finished our last report, we have arrived in Tierra del Fuego in the South of Argentinia. The flight with Continental Airlines to Buenos Aires was long but comfortable and after one night travelling we arrived in a reasonable condition. We stayed for two days in the capital of Argentinia and during a guided tour, we got a good impression of the this beautiful city. A city of contrasts, very pleasant and rich areas but there are also poor areas. Of course, we visited the famous Plaza de Mayo and had great diners in a few of the fantastic restaurants. Since we will return to BA twice, we have parked our large suitcases in our hotel, and left BA by Aerolineas Argentinia to Trelew in North Patagonia on the Atlantic coast. 150 Years ago, the first pioneers from Europe have landed here to start a new and possibly better life in the arid and icy steppe of Patagonia. We rented a car and headed for Puerto Piramides on the peninsula of Valdez with a lunch stop in Puerto Madryn.
Most of the peninsula is barren land with some salt lakes. The largest of these lakes is at an elevation of 35 metres below sealevel, the lowest elevation in South America.
It is an important nature reserve which was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999. The coastline is inhabited by marine mammals, like sea lion, elephant seals and fur seals. Southers right whales can be found in Golfo Nuevo and Golfo San José, protected bodies of water located between the peninsula and the mainland. These whales come here between May and December, for mating and giving birth, because the water in the gulf is quieter and warmer than in the open sea. Orcas can be found off the coast, in the open sea off the peninsula. The inner part of the peninsula is inhabited by rheas, guanacos and maras. A high diversity and range of birds live in the peninsula as well; at least 181 bird species, 66 of which migratory, live in the area.When we arrived in Puerto Piramides the weather was beautiful, sunny and warm and there were many tourists. This is the place for whale watching and many boats
are being towed onto the beach to make it possible for the passengers to board with dry feet. It was a perfect day for watching the whales but we were too late to book a trip on arrival but we could see them from the beach.
The next day the weather had changed dramatically and there would be no boat trips during that day so we drove more than 200 kilometres along the coast and through the plain of the peninsula. At Punta del Norte we admired the sea life, seals, sea elephants and sea lions. This is the place where orcas swim ashore to snatch young sea lions and penguins. The weather became really bad, causing problems to drive the unpaved road, it rained and stormed and it was terribly cold. We saw herds of guanacos and after the weather had improved, we stopped at a penguin colony to see these lovely animals. The next day the weather had improved and we boarded one of the boats to watchthe whales. It has been a terrific expierence to see these giants with their calves coming to the surface, taking a breath and diving again after a minute or so.
After three days in Puerto Piramides we left for a flight of two hours to El Calafate, a city in Southern Patagonia, close to the Chilean border. This is an important tourist destination as the hub to visit different parts of the Los Glaciers National Park, including the Perito Moreno Glacier (one of the most visited in the world).
The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of only three Patagonian glaciers that are not retreating. The terminus of the Perito Moreno Glacier is 3 miles wide, with an average height of 240 ft above the surface of the water of Lake Argentino, in Argentina. It has a total ice depth of 558 ft . Due to its size and accessibility, Perito Moreno is one of the major tourist drawcards to southern Patagonia. It is less than two hours by bus from El Calafate, and many tour companies run daily visits. A large visitor centre at the site features as a walking circuit which allows both faces, and the surface of the glacier to be seen. The first day we visited this glacier by bus to see it close from the platforms along the 80 meters high ice wall. Sometimes we saw big parts of ice, as high as church spires, breaking of the wall, collapsing into the lake with enormous noise, causing tsunami like waves.

The second day we have been on a boat all day to see the different glacier from lake level. We were prepared for ice cold weather, wearing warm clothes so we could watch this spectacle speechless from the deck of the boat. It is unbelievable how impressive nature can be and we are glad that we have had the opportunity to witness this spectacle. During the three days in El Calafate we enjoyed the Argentinean kitchen once more and were getting used to eat large steaks like all people do here.
From El Calafate we travelled to Ushuaia, the most Southern town of Tierra del Fuego, at the end of the world as people say. We have navigated the Beagle Channel for several hours and experienced Winter and Summer during the same day: wind force nine with hail that turned into bright sunshine! Here we took some quiet days while walking and enjoying the cool fresh air.
From here we will leave chilly Patagonia an will travel to Salta in the most Northern Part of Argentina, some 5000 kilometers away!.
Visit our Dutch web for more pictures: www.jan-margreth3.blogspot.com

Traveling back to New York, a wedding and an unexpected meeting

After two days in and near Boston we travelled further to the South. Without a road map and a GPS that had poor or no satellite reception, we tried to reach Jersey City, where we would have a last night in the RV. After departing Middleboro it was difficult to find the Interstate to NY but the failing GPS became really annoying when we approached New York City. We almost took a road through downtown Manhattan but a friendly policeman stopped us at a toll gate, telling us that RV’s were not allowed on this road. He advised us to make a U-turn at the next exit where after he would give us proper directions when we would pass the toll gate for the second time.
So we were suddenly driving our RV in the Bronx where people were asking themselves what we were doing there. After a few traffic lights we were back on the highway were our police officer was waiting for us. He allowed us to pass the toll gate without paying and told us how to reach the George Washington Bridge. After passing the Yankee Stadium we crossed the bridge and drove into New Jersey. This was not the end of our misery because the GPS lost contact at the most crucial moment in which way we almost found ourselves in the Holland Tunnel, leading into Manhattan. We were able to take the last exit and there was this nice man on a bicycle who brought us to the campsite, where we had made a reservation. While registering at the office, we heard that he was waiting near the exit on a regular basis to assist lost campers like us against a small fee! Free advice to GPS owners: be sure to have road maps with you!
From the campsite we could see the Statue of Liberty and Lower Manhattan, on the other side of the River.
On 1 October, we delivered the RV at El Monte in Linden (see picture on left: Margreth and Martina) and booked us for six days in the "extended Stay America" Hotel in Elizabeth, where we had a good room.
The reason that we were in New York, was the wedding of Farrah and Jordan, on 3 October in the Botanical Gardens of Brooklyn. Farrah is the daughter of Hidi and Sheila, who we visited in Bangladesh last February (see our blog www.jan-margreth2.blogspot.com ). We know Farrah from childhood, and we felt that we had to attend her wedding.
On the night before the wedding Hidi and Sheila invited us and some friends for a dinner where we met a number of old friends.
The wedding ceremony was impressive in a beautiful environment and was witnessed by more than 160 people. The reception was great and the diner and ball were unforgettable. We are thankful that we could be present at such a beautiful day.

We received a response to our first report in this blog by Luigi Schiano, a former colleague of Jan from Italy and after an email it appeared that we both would be in New York by the end of September when he and his wife Annemarie would visit their son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren in West New York.
West New York is 18 miles away from Elizabeth, where we stayed and therefore we joined them on Sunday morning for a brunch.
Together with our spouses we have attended may conferences all over the world and have visited each other in Italy and The Netherlands. However, we had met last in 1991 so we had a lot to talk. Time flied and we had to say goodbye too soon but not after we had promised to maintain contact.

The following days we have visited Ellis Island, where the immigrants set foot on American soil for the first time, the Statue of Liberty and, of course, we held a pilgrimage to “Ground Zero” where a new WTC is being built. Of course we have walked the streets of Manhattan until our feet hurt and our necks were stiff.
On Wednesday, 7 October we fly with Continental Airlines to Buenos Aires where we are scheduled to arrive on Thursday morning at 9 o'clock.