Here is a map of South Africa with Kwazulu-Natal Province highlighted in red for you geography buffs out there:
For the first part of the trip, we drove from Maseru to Hluhluwe (pronounced not at all how it is spelled: “shuh shloo wee”) where we visited the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi game park and saw all sorts of animals including giraffes, zebras, cape buffalo, white rhinos, dung beetles, turtles, upside-down bird's nests, warthogs, baboons, and an African elephant. It was incredible! Here are some of our favorite pics from the safari:
After that wonderful adventure, we set out for the big city of Durban on the southern coast where we got to see the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately, we hit a rough patch of weather starting in Durban, so there was not a lot of sunning to be done. We did, however, enjoy walking along the beautiful Durban beachfront. We also got to see all sorts of marine life at the uShaka aquarium - South Africa's Sea World. We ate the famous "bunny chow" (Indian curry served in a bowl made from an entire loaf of white bread) and had a lovely meal at a fish place that had a conveyor belt with little sushi choices along the bar. It was great fun.
The next leg took us to Margate in a section of South Africa referred to generally as the “South Coast”. We managed to find a beautiful room in Margate with a view of the ocean, but the weather simply refused to cooperate, so we spent a lot of time catching up on sleep and reading. It was a different kind of vacation than we expected, but it was lovely none-the-less. In Margate we came to appreciate the Cock and Tail bar, where they make a mean Pina Colada, as well as a South African coffee shop chain called the Mugg and Bean, where they make a drink called a Pedro with Amaretto or Kalua. Needless to say, we enjoyed ourselves.
We ended the trip by driving North to the Drakensberg Mountains. The first day we intended to drive up the Sani Pass, a huge mountain pass with Africa’s highest pub at the top. Unfortunately, there had been so much rain that week that the pass, which is normally an epic drive, was simply impassable. We turned around after several guides recommended that we do so, even refusing to take the advice of a couple in a small truck who told us to “go to the first river-crossing at least…the water comes up over the hood of the car!”
Despite the failed attempt at Sani Pass, the Drakensbergs are beautiful, and we enjoyed immensely our drive around the eastern side of Lesotho with the mountains as our backdrop. We managed a stop at Royal Natal Park along the way where we took a lovely walk along a small creek that had become a raging river because of all of the rain. The scenery was breath taking, and we definitely want to go back to the area sometime soon.
So that was our vacation in a nutshell! It was our best three weeks in Africa so far. South Africa is definitely a destination to put on your “must see” list . Kwazulu-Natal is an agrarian province (we saw Sappi paper forests, pineapple farms, Clover dairy farms, grape vines, and our fair share of majestic windmills) with a wonderful mix of wild preserves and city. We really enjoyed it.
Okay, that’s all for now. It’s 11:43 on a school night, and I will soon turn into a pumpkin. We hope you’re all well and would love to hear from you soon.
S&J
