Last of the travels through South Africa and Swaziland

From Durban we went did a short drive to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi National Park for the first experience with going on Safari. Entering the park we were immediately greeted by some Zebra and Giraffes. It was a great sign of things to come.

That evening we went on a night safari which was cold. We saw early on a bunch of animals, in particular a bunch of elephants and a hyeana. Then we ended up driving around for awhile and it got really cold but were rewarded with my first sighting of a leopard right by the road which was exciting to see.


The next morning we did a self-drive around the park and ended up seeing a bunch more of elephant feeding by the road and also encountered some a spooked elephant herd that crossed the road frantically in front of us. One of the elephants stood behind and made sure everyone was safe before marching off. It was interesting to see.

After that we drove into Swaziland. The border was a bit of a mess but crossing over it was clear that Swaziland was a more relaxed place than South Africa. People constantly waved at the car as it passed by, which never happened in RSA. The place we stayed in Mbabane was a cool place with a great hike up the mountain behind it. From there you could see for miles around at sunset and it was a amazing site to see.

The next day we went to a wildlife sanctuary in Swaziland but a good portion of the park was closed down because they were having a dirt bike race through the park. It was an interesting sight to see. On one side would be a bunch of impala and then next to it would be several people biking past.

After that we crossed the border into South Africa and made our way to Barberton. It’s a sleepy small town, with a nice small town vibe. It was a mining boom town , where the boom was brief but left a lasting impact. It was interesting to see the old buildings and to do a quick drive into the mountains south of town to see some amazing views.

From there we went to safari right next to Kruger but I am going to update that post on my photojournalism blog http://www.douglaszimmerman.blogspot.com/ where you can see all the (stock) wildlife photos I took at Sabi Sands as well as posts about the World Cup as well.

Touristin' Through RSA

Well another 4 years and another World Cup.

To view a slide show of all the images click HERE

I arrived in South Africa this past Monday and it’s been a week since I started my trip through the country. Its been an interesting adventure so far with a ton of traveling in between so I wanted to do a quick round up of the first week or so.

I am traveling on this part of the trip with my friend Kathy from San Francisco. We arrived in Cape Town last Tuesday morning. We rented a car and spent the first few days there staying at a hostel called The Backpack in Cape Town. It was a really friendly place and a good location. It was close to Long Street and the central city. Also from the hostel you could see Table Mountain that looms majestically over the city.

Traveling in South Africa a ton of people were constantly reminding you to be careful and remind you to take care and be safe. There definitely is a vibe to being in South Africa that you need to always be aware of your surroundings and make sure you don’t put yourself into a bad situation. The hostel was in a good location of the town but you still needed to be aware.

The first night I walked around with Kathy and ended up at the bar for the hostel and met an English guy who was here to volunteer but came a month early to enjoy the World Cup.

He was the first of several people that I met at the hostel that had arrived to be here for the World Cup. They included people from England, Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Australia and Argentina. Over the next few nights I had to do work and was not able to explore the city so I spent a lot of time at the hostel meeting these fellow travelers and getting into the vibe of traveling yet once again.

On Thursday night a huge rainstorm blew into Cape Town and the rains were incredibly strong reminding me of a strong storm blowing in off the Pacific Ocean into San Francisco. It was very intense but luckily the worst of the storm blew through we began our car trip across South Africa.

The first day was a several hour journey along the N2 road to Nature’s Valley. It’s a seclude part of the country and a great place to hang out along the Garden Route a really beautiful part of the country.

From Nature’s Valley the first day we went on a hike called the Salt River walk. It ended up being a much more strenuous hike then I expected having to climb over sharp rocks and even doing some cliff climbing but it was amazing being that close to the Indian Ocean and watching someone fish in the water. After taking a rest at the mouth of the bay I asked a couple of people for directions and climbed over the hill to get a great view of the town of Nature’s Valley on the hike back.

When we got back into the town the fisherman was actually walking back and I struck up a conversation with him. His name was Vernon Peters and gave an education about all the fish that were in the area and also explained he lived in the town all year round.

This time of year was the winter in South Africa so it was the low season. We basically had the place all to ourselves with a few other tourists. Apparently during the high season the town was crazy.

After the fisherman said goodbye, the guy who gave directions earlier on the trip walked by and showed off a Nautilus Paper shell that he found right after talking with us. We started talking and his name was Rocky and he actually ran a house where a lot of South Africans who volunteered in the nearby townships stayed at and it also was a backpackers hostel as well.

That night was this big Rugby game called the Super 14’s and Rocky invited me over to check out the game. It was the championship of a tournament involving Rugby teams from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

So after that we went to check out the Elephant Sanctuary that was close-by and it was a really cool experience. You got to interact and get close to an elephant, which was an incredible experience.

That night I went to watch the Rugby game at the Rocky’s hostel called the Rocky Road. It was a lot of fun. There was a bunch of South African’s watching it there on the big screen and it was a lot of fun watching with them and learning the rules of rugby.

After that I hung out and got to talk with some RSA people about their country and then met one guy who had a really great taste in electronic music and was able to spend the next couple of hours listening to some great tunes and hanging out.

The next day we went to a Monkey sanctuary that was a lot of fun and got to see some of them try to grab my cuppa tea.

And then we drove by Tsitsikamma park which has a really cool suspension bridge that we crossed over a the mouth of the Storm river. It was a lot of fun to hike down there and walk over it.

After a quick pit stop in East London it was Port St. Johns.


The drive to Port St. John’s was a lot of fun. In the morning we left East London and traveled east through an area which is known as the Wild Coast.

The drive out of East London was long and had a lot of turns but eventually came unto a savannah like landscape. Gone were the trees and brush, and in front were mostly grasslands along slopes of hills.

We cruised along in our car through the mid-afternoon and we had to use the facilities. We were miles from any city but I saw a sign for information and pulled off the road. Luckily where I turned off was part of the Nelson Mandela Museum in the hometown of Nelson Mandela. When we got there no one at the museum and there were not many exhibits on display. A person in charge on the exhibits, his short name was Zim, because I could not pronounce his real name, was kind enough to show us around the grounds. Just outside was the actually primary school that Mandela was first educated. When he was a kid he also had to watch over the cattle that would graze near his father’s house. To keep himself entertained while taking a break from working there was a large rock that he would slide down. Zim showed us the rock and had a hard piece of plastic so we could all slide down it. It was a lot of fun and sliding down the rock was a bit much quicker and scarier than you would believe! We even got Zim to take a ride as well.

From that we were on our way again to Port St. John’s. Arriving in the early afternoon it was a really nice, mellow town full of people right along the shoreline. We walked into town after checking into our place and grab some food to actually make a homemade meal. It worked out pretty well and even got a chance to view some of the beautiful scenery of the city.

That night South Africa had another friendly match against Guatemala and I was able to catch the game with two other South Africans. It was a blowout. 5-0 RSA and it was fun talking about soccer and other things about the country during the game.

From there it was a drive to Durban to recover a bit before heading up the coast to start going on Safari and Swaziland.

I should have more pictures to post in a week!