Thursday 9th July: South Africa. Kruger park to Barberton.
We had breakfast at 7am and were on the road by 8, heading for Malabane
Gate into the Kruger. It was only 10 minutes away. Compared to the rest
of Africa, entry into the national parks in South Africa is very
reasonably priced, as is everything else. It’s about £10 for foreign
visitors, so compared to the $80 John & I paid in Zambia,
definitely good value. We got to see Hippo, Elephant, Giraffe, Warthog,
Impala, Waterbuck and a whole variety of birds, including Vultures.
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| From Dust and Diesel 2 - The return to the South |
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| From Dust and Diesel 2 - The return to the South |
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| From Dust and Diesel 2 - The return to the South |
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| From Dust and Diesel 2 - The return to the South |
We
didn’t get to see a Lion so disappointed about that. Overall, it sounds
like we saw lots but actually it was poor today, and we drove around
for about 4 hours. It’s a huge park and our original plan of entering at
the northern gate of Parfuri & taking 4 or 5 days to travel
south, was put to rest after we shredded our spare tyres in Tanzania. To
get to Parfuri from Mozambique would have involved a difficult cross
country trip on bad roads so we shelved that idea. I’m sure we would
have seen the Big 5 many times over if we’d managed that.
Once we left
Kruger, we headed in the direction of the Kingdom of Swaziland. We got
to the quaint historical town of Barberton at about 5pm and as it was
the last town before the border, we went looking for beds. We quickly
found Kloof Huis, a small guesthouse dating from 1880’s. It was
originally offices for the gold mining era when Barberton was the 2nd
largest town in South Africa. Now it’s a small town although gold mining
has picked up again. It reminded me more of an Australian outback town
than a South African one. We went to the Phoenix hotel, owned by Trevor,
a very entertaining English man who bought it in 2000. It has a ladies
bar (just like old Australia) and a sign saying that no dirty overalls
to be worn by the men.
We had a couple of beers there and then went to a
local restaurant for dinner. We had a great steak & were back
in our digs at 9.30pm. As we walked back, the town had literally died,
there was no one to be seen. Everything except the bar appeared to be
closed. We decided against a beer & headed for bed so we could
have an early start tomorrow.
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