Africa? Sure, why not.
Just finishing up going through about 100 gigs worth of photos from our trip to SA. It was a great trip, entirely unlike anywhere else that we have travelled and getting to spend time around the wildlife there is something I won't soon forget.
We landed in Johannesburg Sunday night and early Monday morning we picked up our 79 series Land Cruiser from Bushlore. Bushlore was great to work with, they made everything pretty easy for us including picking us up and dropping us off at the airport. The truck was fully outfitted with an Alu-Cab camper, awning and all the camping gear that we would need. All we had to do was hit the grocery store for some food and water and get on the road. This was by far the most dialed in camping setup that I've used or been around. Full setup from pulling into camp to having tent up, awning out, table out, cooking and a beer in hand was less than 5 minutes. The Alu-Cab stuff is spendy but after using it for a couple of weeks, it's definitely top notch.
lunch break at one of the camps in Kruger
Our plan was to start at the north end of Kruger National Park spending a week working our way south. From there we would head to the coast and check out an area known as Kosi Bay. Here's our route in google maps:
http://bit.ly/2lZyPrq
For the most part getting around SA was easy. Once I got over driving on the opposite side of the truck and the opposite side of the road things were pretty normal. They highly suggest that you don't drive at night for various reasons and so we stuck to those rules. In the more rural areas there was a lot of animals (cows, donkeys, goats, dogs) in and around the road as well as people.
Kruger National Park is a beautiful, well maintained park with an enormous amount of wildlife. We were not planning to have any sort of a guide for the safari part of our trip and I wasn't sure how hard it was going to be to spot animals but they were everywhere. Except the cats, they were harder to find and mostly only out in the very early mornings or right before sunset. We did go in what people consider the off season. It's their summer in SA. It's hot and it can be rainy. I was also warned about the bugs. It really didn't get that hot except for a couple hours in the very middle of the day and that made for a perfect time to take a break, have lunch, a beer, a swim and a nap in the hammock. The bugs were almost non existent. I think I got less than 5 mosquito bites the whole trip. We did get some rain however. A cyclone hit while we were there and the 2nd half of our trip was pretty soggy. I was really happy to have that Alu-Cab awning at times.
Here's some random shots from inside Kruger:
wild dogs are pretty rare. they estimate only about 120 total in the whole park. we didn't know it at the time but seeing a pack of about 10 of them was quite a find
cheetahs are quite rare as well
rushing to get back to camp before the gates close. the campgrounds inside the park close their gates around dusk, you need to be back before then or else...well, I'm not exactly sure what would happen
Inside the park it's a mix of paved and dirt roads, some of the dirt roads get a little rough but nothing that you couldn't do with a 2wd truck. If it got muddy you'd probably want 4wd but it seems like they are quick to close the dirt roads if there's heavy rain.
We weren't originally planning on traveling through Mozambique but after looking at the map it seemed like it might save us a considerable amount of driving to cut through Mozambique in order to get to Kosi Bay. I won't go into it too much but we got to the border and it was really sketchy on top of them wanting quite a bit for visas to enter the country. We decided to stick to SA and take the long way around. We later found out after talking to some locals that we made the right call, apparently the roads through that part of Mozambique are in really bad shape, full of corrupt cops and crime as well as including a river ferry that was broken down and not running.
On our way from Kruger to Kosi we spent a couple days checking out the Sabie River valley. We really liked this area a lot, unfortunately this is about when the rain hit and it really poured most of our time there. We did go check out a couple of waterfalls which were much larger than normal.
Lone Creek falls. As soon as the falls came into view you were instantly drenched from head to toe from the spray coming off of it
Kosi Bay is a really interesting area. It's fairly remote and very low key. The beaches were beautiful and the water was warm. Apparently this area has a pretty high shark population as well as also known for having crocodiles and hippos in the water at times so swim at your own risk. I didn't see any of those 3 things and I spent a good amount of time in the water. I had brought my fly fishing gear with me and had planned to do some fishing. Normally this area is known to have some really good fishing, including a large population of GTs, one of my favorite saltwater fish. It had been unusually hot just before we got there and the cyclone hit just as we got there so the water temps went from warmer than normal to quickly colder than normal, really throwing the fishing off.
We camped at Utshwayelo, a nice little spot just a short 4x4 road away from the beach. There are lots of beaches to explore in this area. It can be a bit hard to navigate at times because it's a spaghetti bowl mix of sandy double track roads leading out to them but if you can find the right road it will lead you to some places like this, which we had completely to ourselves. Some beaches do require paying a small fee and getting a permit, others you can drive right up to without needing anything.
we met another couple from Vancouver traveling in a Bushlore vehicle who were keen to explore the coast
pictures always make it look flatter/easier than in real life but we needed both front and rear lockers to make it up this
and then at the top looking down into the other side, it didn't look like any vehicles had been this way in a little bit, just cow traffic
After a few days exploring it was time to head home. We intentionally played it a bit safe on this trip to get a feel for the area and it left us wanting to go back. After talking to some other travelers it sounds like a return trip to Namibia and Botswana is in order. Some day...
Just finishing up going through about 100 gigs worth of photos from our trip to SA. It was a great trip, entirely unlike anywhere else that we have travelled and getting to spend time around the wildlife there is something I won't soon forget.
We landed in Johannesburg Sunday night and early Monday morning we picked up our 79 series Land Cruiser from Bushlore. Bushlore was great to work with, they made everything pretty easy for us including picking us up and dropping us off at the airport. The truck was fully outfitted with an Alu-Cab camper, awning and all the camping gear that we would need. All we had to do was hit the grocery store for some food and water and get on the road. This was by far the most dialed in camping setup that I've used or been around. Full setup from pulling into camp to having tent up, awning out, table out, cooking and a beer in hand was less than 5 minutes. The Alu-Cab stuff is spendy but after using it for a couple of weeks, it's definitely top notch.
lunch break at one of the camps in Kruger
Our plan was to start at the north end of Kruger National Park spending a week working our way south. From there we would head to the coast and check out an area known as Kosi Bay. Here's our route in google maps:
http://bit.ly/2lZyPrq
For the most part getting around SA was easy. Once I got over driving on the opposite side of the truck and the opposite side of the road things were pretty normal. They highly suggest that you don't drive at night for various reasons and so we stuck to those rules. In the more rural areas there was a lot of animals (cows, donkeys, goats, dogs) in and around the road as well as people.
Kruger National Park is a beautiful, well maintained park with an enormous amount of wildlife. We were not planning to have any sort of a guide for the safari part of our trip and I wasn't sure how hard it was going to be to spot animals but they were everywhere. Except the cats, they were harder to find and mostly only out in the very early mornings or right before sunset. We did go in what people consider the off season. It's their summer in SA. It's hot and it can be rainy. I was also warned about the bugs. It really didn't get that hot except for a couple hours in the very middle of the day and that made for a perfect time to take a break, have lunch, a beer, a swim and a nap in the hammock. The bugs were almost non existent. I think I got less than 5 mosquito bites the whole trip. We did get some rain however. A cyclone hit while we were there and the 2nd half of our trip was pretty soggy. I was really happy to have that Alu-Cab awning at times.
Here's some random shots from inside Kruger:
wild dogs are pretty rare. they estimate only about 120 total in the whole park. we didn't know it at the time but seeing a pack of about 10 of them was quite a find
cheetahs are quite rare as well
rushing to get back to camp before the gates close. the campgrounds inside the park close their gates around dusk, you need to be back before then or else...well, I'm not exactly sure what would happen
Inside the park it's a mix of paved and dirt roads, some of the dirt roads get a little rough but nothing that you couldn't do with a 2wd truck. If it got muddy you'd probably want 4wd but it seems like they are quick to close the dirt roads if there's heavy rain.
We weren't originally planning on traveling through Mozambique but after looking at the map it seemed like it might save us a considerable amount of driving to cut through Mozambique in order to get to Kosi Bay. I won't go into it too much but we got to the border and it was really sketchy on top of them wanting quite a bit for visas to enter the country. We decided to stick to SA and take the long way around. We later found out after talking to some locals that we made the right call, apparently the roads through that part of Mozambique are in really bad shape, full of corrupt cops and crime as well as including a river ferry that was broken down and not running.
On our way from Kruger to Kosi we spent a couple days checking out the Sabie River valley. We really liked this area a lot, unfortunately this is about when the rain hit and it really poured most of our time there. We did go check out a couple of waterfalls which were much larger than normal.
Lone Creek falls. As soon as the falls came into view you were instantly drenched from head to toe from the spray coming off of it
Kosi Bay is a really interesting area. It's fairly remote and very low key. The beaches were beautiful and the water was warm. Apparently this area has a pretty high shark population as well as also known for having crocodiles and hippos in the water at times so swim at your own risk. I didn't see any of those 3 things and I spent a good amount of time in the water. I had brought my fly fishing gear with me and had planned to do some fishing. Normally this area is known to have some really good fishing, including a large population of GTs, one of my favorite saltwater fish. It had been unusually hot just before we got there and the cyclone hit just as we got there so the water temps went from warmer than normal to quickly colder than normal, really throwing the fishing off.
We camped at Utshwayelo, a nice little spot just a short 4x4 road away from the beach. There are lots of beaches to explore in this area. It can be a bit hard to navigate at times because it's a spaghetti bowl mix of sandy double track roads leading out to them but if you can find the right road it will lead you to some places like this, which we had completely to ourselves. Some beaches do require paying a small fee and getting a permit, others you can drive right up to without needing anything.
we met another couple from Vancouver traveling in a Bushlore vehicle who were keen to explore the coast
pictures always make it look flatter/easier than in real life but we needed both front and rear lockers to make it up this
and then at the top looking down into the other side, it didn't look like any vehicles had been this way in a little bit, just cow traffic
After a few days exploring it was time to head home. We intentionally played it a bit safe on this trip to get a feel for the area and it left us wanting to go back. After talking to some other travelers it sounds like a return trip to Namibia and Botswana is in order. Some day...
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We had a few laughs at that stop for sure.
