Singapore and a really shit day...

Narelle and I spent the night at a motel near the airport in Jo'burg. It was a pretty amazing place, they had a lovely food court, inside a huge building with the ceiling painted to look like sky. It was awesome

The statue of David, near where we had dinner

More of the indoor/outdoor area. It was quite fascinating.

We then went to bed as our flight was not until 1:45 pm the next day. What a mistake. We should have traveled on Sunday evening. As it was by the time we arrived in Singapore it was 6:05 am Singapore time, but only 00:05 South African time. We had had very little sleep, as first we weren't tired and then we couldn't sleep, airplanes are not the best for sleeping at the best of times. Once we arrived we got a taxi to our hotel and we were not allowed to check in until 3:00 pm. Shit.... All we wanted was a shower and a sleep. We had 9 hours to fill in. Our hotel is in Chinatown, it is a very interesting area, but we found no interest in it yesterday. We took a train to a local shopping centre and found that nothing opens until 10:30 am, great, nothing to do and nowhere to go. We wandered about a bit, but we were both exhausted. we finally took a train back to Chinatown and found a tourist info place. We found they have a hop on hop off bus, so we decided to do that, at least we could sit down, there are no bench seats for pedestrians in Chinatown. Well we did two different routes on the bus and I fell asleep on both, Narelle lasted the first one, but was also sleeping during the second. The hop on buses are very boring in Singapore, I was hoping for some history about the place, but the information was very boring. Some of the architecture is interesting, but not enough to keep one awake.

Our area is all decked out for a festival, we are just not sure when it is happening.

We finally got into our hotel room and had a shower, we did a bit more touring of the area and then had dinner and went back to our hotel for an early night, we were both dead on our feet. Narelle was asleep by about 8:30 and apart from me waking her about 11:30 for a few minutes, She slept until 9:55 am. I went to sleep later than her, about 9:30 pm, but woke about the same time. What a sleep.

The Buddist temple in Chinatown, it was amazing inside

See

Yesterday we thought Singapore was crap, today we were more kind to it and actually found some things we enjoyed. We couldn't have high tea at Raffles as you have to book, so we had afternoon tea at their bakery instead. It was really nice, the place is to die for. I am so glad I went there, I have read about it in so many novels over the years.

Narelle at Raffles, on the side verandah

Part of one of the courtyards at Raffles.

Raffles Hotel

We also went shopping and I brought a new camera, I love it. I can even send pics to my phone, or by email, from my camera, how cool is that?? Okay you can probably all do it, but I have never heard of it and I am wrapped that I can now too.

Narelle and I went shopping this afternoon and the shop keepers were no where near as irritating as they were yesterday, so either they improved overnight, or our tempers did, with a good nights sleep.

We asked our hotel man for suggestions as to where we have dinner. He said the Clacky, luckily I asked him to show me on the map, as he was trying to say the Clarke Quay. I would have had one confused taxi driver had I asked for the Clackey. Though maybe not, if he was Chinese too.

Narelle at our table at Hooters, on the Clarke Quay. The food is very expensive and not that tasty. A steak at one restaurant was $80, we did not eat there.

Singapore has some lovely flowers, it is very humid here and everything is green

A local Hindu temple

We are now relaxing in our hotel. We have to leave here tomorrow at 5:30 am to get to the airport in time for our flight back home.

So thank you all for sharing our wonderful adventure with us. We loved Africa, even if I did get sick, it was an amazing adventure, with the most wonderful animals. Singapore I could take or leave, but today was a nice day.

Cheers for now

Lones

The Rhino Sanctuary in Botswana

Yesterday we traveled to the Rhino Sanctuary in Botswana, it was amazing. We saw so many animals, plenty of Rhino, the sanctuary has over 30 white Rhino and about 5 black Rhino, we did not see any black ones, but about 20 white ones all up. We now know how to tell them apart.

Mother and Baby Rhino, at the waterhole

We also saw ostrich, jackals and springboks.

Springbok

One of the Jackals

We saw lots of vultures, zebras and wilder beast. The place was crawling with game.

Another mother and baby. The breeding program must be going well, lots of females had babies with them.

We also got bogged in the sand. Two Aussies we met earlier had told us they got bogged in the sand, so it was no surprise. The roads in the sanctuary were a nightmare.

Pushing the submarine out of the sand. Most vehicles just passed us, but one 4WD stopped but he had not rope. About 8 minutes later a South African family stopped and they had a rope. So together they managed to get us out. Pushing got us nowhere.

The Chalets we stayed in were okay, we had to share our bathroom with the two Italian ladies, but the accommodation wasn’t too bad. Except, we were driven to our chalet in the dark, and then Pumy drove off to take the others to their chalets and we had no idea where we were. We had no phone and no street lights so we could not have found our way out in an emergency. The place is also not fenced, so the Rhinos and the 9 leopards could be just outside your door. That wasn’t great. Luckily nothing happened but Marta is in her 70’s so it could have. There is no health and safety in Botswana.

Our chalet, the way we saw it, we arrived in the dark....

Today we travelled back into South Africa and we used a different border crossing, things went much better. It was still slow, but not as bad. People say Australians are laid back, if so, then the South Africans are horizontal….. Nothing happens fast, not shopping, purchasing lunch, crossing borders nothing. It tries your patience sometimes.
Pumy took us to the airport and we said goodbye to our fellow travellers. I have the email of some of them, but as you know you do not always keep in touch with people you travel with. I hope to catch up with the French family when I next go to the tour.

South Africa and Australia are very alike. This notice made me think of home.

Narelle and I are now in our hotel near the Jo-burg airport. Tomorrow we fly to Singapore.

That's all for now

Cheers

Lones

Okavango Delta and the Mokoro Polers

We set off from Maun to join the Mokoro Polers, so they could take us into the Delta for 2 night camping. What an amazing lot of people they are. It looks like chaos when they are packing the Mokoros, but in reality it is very organised. Once they have all the gear packed away, they make room for each passenger, two per boat and make little back rests etc so each person can be comfortable.

Poler station/border

It was amazing. Once we were in the Mokoros (flat bottom canoes) it took over an hour for us to arrive at the campsite they had chosen for us. The polers then helped us set up our tents and basically did everything about setting up camp. They are really happy cheerful energetic people and nothing is too much trouble for them. We had two leaders on our expedition, Justice and Dreamer. All of the polers take other names, we do not use the ones there parents gave them i do not know if that is because we couldn't pronounce them or they don't want us to know them. On our trip we had Justice, Dreamer, Jessica, Monica, Bee, Shelly, Luke, Marcel and another girl we never knew he name, they all told us there name son the first night and they weren't mentioned again, we were lucky we remembered the amount we did.

The Polers use poles to move the mokoro's they do not have paddles or oars, just poles so can only operate in water that is not too deep for their poles.

Our Polers

Polers at work

On the first afternoon we went for a long walk, and we didn't see any animals, well we saw some Zebra, but they were a long way off and you couldn't even see their stripes, they had to tell us they were zebras. We saw some birds too and that was it. So I decided right then that I would not be doing anymore walking around the Delta. So when they set off the next morning at 6am for a 3 hour walk, I was not with them, neither was Narelle. luckily as they didn't see any game at all. same thing the next night and the next morning, nothing ziltch, so I am very glad I didn't hike all over Africa, huffing and puffing, for nothing. Apparently the water is too high at the moment for where we were, so we didn't see any game at all, and on a brighter note, we didn't get eaten by lions either. We still had to take all the precautions for leaving our tent in the night time etc, but no wild animals at camp at all.

One of the amazing sunsets, my camera does not do it justice.

We had a cruise in the evening yesterday, in the mokoros, but we didn't see anything then either. Narelle and I did have a relaxing time though and the Polers were great, they entertained us with music and dancing and games last night and it was a great evening. It was the first time I have actually seen Orealeo be relaxed and he was hilarious, I think he and his wife were both half cut, they had us in hysterics.

The polers entertaining us with songs and dancers

As Justice was bringing Narelle and I back to the Poler station, he showed us an elephant, our first sign of game on the whole camping trip and it was about 200 meters from the finish...

The elephant in question.

Today we got back to Maun about 12 pm and had lunch, we are back in the great accommodation, so a good nights sleep tonight I hope, the last two night were on hard ground, with a thin mattress that could not cope with my weight.

This afternoon we had a flight over the Delta, for an hour and it was brilliant. We saw so many animals it was amazing, so they are on the Delta, we just didn't see them. I tried to get photos, but as we were up 500 feet, it was hard to get any good pics, my camera is crap. Our pilot looked to be about 12 years old, he looked like he should be doing his homework, not flying planes, I was tempted to ask him if his mother knew where he was. But he did know his business and we had a great smooth flight. We saw all kinds of animals in our hour flight, it was well worth doing and only $90 Anmrican.

The Delta is huge, we did not have any idea how large until we took the flight. Well worth the money. Loved it

As we were heading to dinner tonight Narelle and I saw a goat at the crossing, waiting to cross at the red light, Some cattle going around the roundabout and some horses on the roundabout, we then spotted 3 donkeys crossing the road, this was all in the town and all within a 200 meter area. It was something to see. The animals run free here, even in the towns. Pumy told us if you hit an animal in the day, you have to pay for it, but if you hit it a night you don't, as they should be locked up at night.

We have had two really different days, neither of us was fussed on the camping sleeping, but we are glad we did it, the polers are amazing and it was great to see how they live and have them show us their country. We were honoured really.

Tomorrow we head for the Rhino sanctuary and on Sunday our tour ends and we fly out to Singapore on Monday.

That's all for now, I am too tired to write more

Cheers

Lones

Botswana and the best resort... ever..

Yesterday morning we had to leave by 8am to travel to Botswana. It was only an hours drive and the border crossing was so easy it took only moments each, for both side of the border. We then traveled to our accommodation and got local currency. I traded $84 American for 683 Poola. So there you go.

Narelle then went to a supermarket and then we had lunch. After lunch we had free time until our sunset cruise on the Chobe river. I had a sleep and Narelle had a cuppa. She then came to the bus and woke me to see the mongoose. There were dozens of them, everywhere around the bus and campsite.

Mongoose

We headed off to the cruise at 2:45, we were to cruise from 3 to 6pm. What a lovely way to see the animals, we saw abundant wildlife, mostly things we have already seen, but in such a wonderful setting. We were very fortunate as Narelle spotted a leopard, once the guide moved the boat closer we realised that she had one cub with her, what an experience, everyone was so pleased. All of the other boats came to see too. It was a very rare moment, as Leopards are very shy creatures. The leopards stayed for ages and although they stayed mostly behind bushes, they did come out and give us good views of them occasionally. Some of the folk got some lovely shots, but my camera is too small to enlarge like they do. But I have some I will share with you.

You have to really look to see her and even I can't see the cub, but my camera is shit, so this is the best I could do. I shall look in Singapore for another one.

We also got some lovely close shots of Hippo’s closer than the ones the other day, so very pleased about that.

Elephant and water buffalo swim over to this Island often the green grass seduces them. Other animals stay ont he island permanently, like red boks and kudus.

Kudu

Yesterday we arrived at the most beautiful accommodation, my favourite yet, it is wonderful. I could live here. Sadly we are moving on today.

The amazing bath

Yesterday we travelled through Botswana and we passed a Foot and Mouth dousing station. I have no idea if that is what they are really called, but we had to get off the bus, take all of our shoes with us and walk through a hessian lined puddle and dip all of our other shoes in it too. They are trying to prevent Foot and Mouth, but I am not sure if it is because they have had it or they just don’t want it…..

We passed the shadiest, mingiest hairdressing salon I have ever seen, if we pass it again today, I will get pictures. Narelle and I thought it looked real dodgy, but we got a good laugh.

Once we arrived here I did not want to leave, so I was a bit sorry we had booked an afternoon game drive. This place is so nice, the food is great, the pool is marvellous and the rooms are to die for, even a claw foot bath. The whole place burned down in a bush fire in 2008, so everything is pretty new. I love it, not to mention free wifi.

We did however go on the drive and it was great. We saw wilder beast, really close this time, a Springbok, a Secretary bird, a jackal, from a distance and flamingo and Pelicans, so a really good drive. We have been extremely lucky this trip. While our bus had stopped near some others at the famingo , another guide from another bus came over to talk to Narelle and I. He was hilarious, a big black South African. He was telling us how he only has 2 Aussies on his trip and 10 Italians, he feels really sorry for the Aussies, Italians are so rude. He then told us how it used to be just Aussies travelling in Africa, and we made this tourist stuff look easy, he said that is why they all got into it, because we made it look easy, but now they have to deal with the French, Germans and Italians and it isn’t easy anymore, they complain about everything and they want everything there way. He said they do listen and they never shut up, especially the Italians. We had to agree with that, one of the women on our bus doesn’t stop talking even if a guide tells her to, and the man is always talking over the top of the guide to translate to two others. It makes it very hard to hear the guide, even though we understand what he is doing. I try not to stand near him. Anyway we liked the SA guide he made us laugh. We saw him again back here, his tour is staying here too. We also caught up with the other Aussies after dinner, they stopped at our table on the way out of the restaurant when they heard our accents. They are a young couple from Queensland doing a Botswana Tour. Very nice and a bit over the Italians too, though they said there are some on the tour from Northern Italy and they are nice and embarrassed by the other and often apologise to the two Aussies for the others behaviour.

Wilderbeast

This morning we leave, we have no idea when, Narelle and I went to the restaurant and didn’t have tea at the camp. So no idea what time or anything. I don’t mind really, if they want us early they can come look for us. I am off to find Wifi to post this. We are off camping in the next few days, so not sure when I will be able to post again.
I have more pics to share, but my power is getting low.

So till next time, cheers to all

Lone and Rellie

Victoria Falls and helicopter flights

Today has been wonderful, lovely and quiet. We started with breakfast at the hotel, but no early start. We then waited until 10 am to be picked up for the helicopter flight over the falls. What an amazing adventure, we both loved it. We only did the 15 minute flight and that was plenty of time, $140 USD, but worth every cent. Neither of us has been in a chopper before and it was really good, it had doors, which pleased Narelle as she had a vague idea they didn't have doors. It was noisy, but the earmuffs were adequate and we both enjoyed it. we went up with the French family, Gerald, Sophie and Chloe. They are very nice.

Coming up to the falls, the river system

Part of the falls

Mpore river system

After the flight we asked the driver to drop us in town and we went shopping, just a few necessities and then we got a taxi back, I was very tired by then and not up to the walk. I still have very little energy.

This afternoon we have laid around and read, Narelle decided to go for a swim, which was a bit of a surprise as Narelle never swims. She was gone for all of 5 minutes and arrived back dripping wet. I was a bit shocked as she must have jumped in ran across the thing and jumped out the other side. Which is pretty much what she did, it was freezing she said. Well I wasn't surprised, it would have to be 105 in the shade for me to swim and it isn't anything like that here.

We are now waiting to have dinner and tomorrow we leave for Botswana, I have no idea what internet access we will have there, so am doing this now.

I will add a few pics of things we have seen that I have not shared with you yet.

A male and female lion that had just crossed the road in front of us, sadly they are walking away by the time I took the picture. A wonderful sight, we saw these two just before the painted dogs sanctuary.

Dr Livingston I Presume... He is very big in these parts. This statue of him is at the falls.

The Cheetah we saw. This cheetah was laying near a water boar, and an elephant was drinking at the boar. Our guide told us to watch as it is rare to see the two together. She said as soon as the elephant realises they will chase away the cheetah. We all watched as the elephant started down the track towards where the cheetah lie. But the cheetah decided that withdrawal was the smarter option and left the scene before the elephant started running. I have a small video of it I will post, but you cannot see the cheetah until it starts to move really. At least not on this small screen

The short video of cheetah leaving the scene.

Giraffe and Zebra, often found together as the giraffe can warn of danger. There long necks give them a view of a large area of surrounding bush land.

Okay that's it from us. we hope you are all enjoying our adventures with us.

Take care

Lones

And then I got ill

Today I woke up with gastro, I have never been sick while travelling before and it sucks, I did have a bad hangover once, back in 1980, but we won’t go into that now. Today we were to visit Cecil John Rhodes Grave, some bushman caves and maybe spot some Rhino. I was too sick to care. I just stayed on the bus and tried not to poo. Narelle went along and had a good day. They took them in a 4WD to the bottom of what Narelle assures me was a mountain, and they had to climb to the top. She tells me the climb was very hard, but well worth it, the paintings are spectacular.

some of the bushman paintings

Back in the 4WD and off to another mountain, which they also had to climb. The grave was just a grave, and another grave of Rhodes right hand man. But the view was wonderful. The guide explained how Rhodes cast out the two tribes that lived in the area and they were not allowed to return for 100 years, sounds like a creep to me.

For some reason my laptop cannot turn this pic and save the image, an unknown error, so just tilt your head to see Rhodes Grave, if you can be bothered...

After they came back down the mountain, and drove off through the bush and had to alight the vehicle to look for Rhino. Narelle was a little nervous about that. They walked for about an hour and saw nothing. They got back into the vehicle and went for another drive. They then went for another walk and found a mother and baby Rhino. The mother had had her horn removed, for safety, so she looked a little different. Narelle was wrapped to have the advantage of seeing them in the wild.

The mother Rhino and her baby, how awesome is that. I am jealous now, but back then i didn't care, too sick to be bothered.

They then returned to us and asked if the three of us who were too sick to go wanted to do the last part and see the Rhinos, Rosella (from Italy) and Gerald (from France) both went, but I was too sick. I could barely raise my head. I hope to get a chance to see other Rhinos in the future.

They then had lunch and we travelled to our next destination. It was a lovely resort, with a small waterhole, they had to put it in as the elephants kept drinking out of the swimming pool. We had a nice little cottage and lucky for that as I spent all the next day there. I was too sick to even feel sorry for myself. I just didn’t want to move.
Narelle and the others went off on another 4WD in the early hours of the morning (that what she calls 7am), and they were gone most of the day. Hwange national Park was where they went. They saw more elephants at a watering hole, wilder beast, Zebras, Giraffes, Squirrels and a herd of elephant with 3 baby elephants. They also saw lots of herds of Kudus. She had a good day but did not think it was as good as Kruger. They saw two big birds, one called Koribastart and the other was called a secretary bird. The guide said it was called this as when it gets its prey it jumps up and down on it like a secretary typing….

Apparently it was cold...

Wilder beast

Elephant at the waterhole

They had a great guide called Mr B, not to be confused with Mr Bean. He told them he would send an email off to the elephants to meet him at the watering hole and they did. Narelle found him very amusing and totally enjoyed the day. They stopped at a supermarket on the way home and Narelle brought a drink, but the lady would not let her take it away, she had to bring the bottle back. Apparently they have a small deposit on the bottles like in South Australia, but the South Aussies aren’t as militant about it all, if you buy the drink you can take it anywhere you like.
Last night they had a nice meal of stew that Pumy cooked up and I had some toast.

Today we visited the painted dogs, which look similar to Hyenas, but are apparently almost extinct. They were okay, but I wasn’t really up to the walk we had to do, so was exhausted when I got back to the bus. I feel okay not, just no energy and still have to stay close to a toilet.

We arrived at Victoria Falls. We all had lunch at the restaurant at the falls and it was a big disappointment. At least I finally ate something. Narelle and I walked to the falls but did not walk along them, I had no energy and Narelle was feeling her rheumatism in her foot. We came back to the hotel and we are relaxing in our room before dinner. We have a lovely room, so that is something. Most of the accommodation on this trip has been fine, sometimes the bathrooms make Narelle raise her eyes but the rooms have been fine.

My first view of the falls

That's it for now, we are off for a helicopter ride in less than an hour, so till later

Lones

More Zimbabwe

We travelled most of the day, arriving at our next accommodation at about 5:30. It is some nice cottages, there are a couple of zebras walking about the grounds and I am told there are some Warthogs and a leopard here too. Fortunately we have an en-suite and don’t have to go out in the might to the bathroom, I am not messing with a leopard.

We have had a stir fry for tea and it is now freezing, my first cold night in Africa. I have retired to our cottage and left them at it. Half of the group have come down with illness and I don’t want to get sick.
Tomorrow we go on another game drive. I cannot believe we will be lucky enough to see as many animals as we have been seeing so far, but fingers crossed.

I will add a couple of pictures and some videos for you to see. I hope the videos are not too far back. Digital cameras push everything further back than it is, it is very annoying.

A bit of an elephant. i am not sure if this will work

A lovely view

I hope to get wi-fi tomorrow.

Cheers

Lones