Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens

Enjoyed hiking along the ridge that runs parallel to Hendrik Potgieter Drive in the Roodepoort area with the Tuesday group. Years ago when driving to Magaliesburg to collect Laura and Michael from school I would often look up at the ridge, never realizing that it was part of the Botanical Gardens and the home of a breeding pair of Black Eagles.

Entrance is free for pensioners on Tuesdays!

We hiked up to the top which probably took 45 minutes and then walked along the Roodekrans ridge in a northerly direction as far as the beacon.
The views eastwards back over the Krugersdorp highway, the extensive new housing developments and casino contrasted amazingly with the quartzite and protea bushes along the path.






We saw the adult pair of Black Eagles circling ahead - another "tick".
Their nest is close to the Witpoortjie Falls which are at the source of the Crocodile River. We walked back along the ridge and descended to view the nest. A photographer had just captured some photos of the single juvenile eagle on the nest with a huge camera set up on a tripod. The eagles are a well known attraction.












The descent alongside the waterfall was easy as steps have been built and there's a handrail. Stunning views of the waterfall from the bottom.




A lady working on a research project was recording every movement of the eagles and had a scope trained on the nest. We looked through but couldn't see the young eagle as it was lying below the level of the nest.

The more traditional garden area between the falls and the main gate is very natural with many indigenous plants.









And amazing memorial benches carved from trees.




Definitely worth a visit!
More info:
http://www.sa-venues.com/attractionsga/walter-sisulu-botanical-garden.htm

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Location:Krugersdorp

More Mabula

Peter left this morning for work after a long weekend at Mabula. The day started off windy and unfortunately it did not change, so Edward and George went up to the games area and played pool and George won 2 games out of 3 despite being handicapped as his pool cue was sabotaged mysteriously. Then Janice appeared out of nowhere and beat George and Edward beat her as Janice sunk the white with the black.

We had a later game drive today at 4. We saw a warthog chasing a jackal and then 3 rhino. The drive was cut short by half an hour. George drove there and Edward drove back.

Mabula moments

Early yesterday morning we spotted eight elephants walking in our view at the back of the house they were walking towards the dam and they soon disappeared into the trees.



Janice afterwards was taken in a small plane around the area and George could see the plane flying over - they were trying to spot the elephants from the air.







Edward after the game drive picked up a weaver nest on the side of the road. He thought it was empty ... but then Edward edward stuck his hand in it expecting to pull out an egg after he felt something but he pulled out a rotting weaver which fortunatley didn't smell as it had been sun baked to a crisp in the nest which had most probabley been there for quite a while . Edwards comment was its tasted like chicken so he most probabley licked it before handing it over to the hornbills to be eaten.

We found ourselves overwhemed by many warthogs visiting our house. There were about 12 of them and a large one with sharp tusks was towards the younger ones.

Later on in the day Edward was strolling round with his shoes on and he decided to step on a acacia thorn which pierced through his shoe into his foot. George stayed on the computer whilst the others went out for a walk however they did not see anything but George in his great wisdom knew a giraffe would walk by but the others wouldn't listen to him.

My favourite place

So here we are at Mabula. Must be our 22nd year here and we all still love to come. A Family Holiday.
We stopped off at Zebula yesterday because we left home early and couldn't check in here till 15h00. It's only a few minutes away. Took Ed & George to see our house at Zebula and temporarily used the fridge and freezer. Both youngsters have their provisional licences so Ed (who has had 5 lessons) drove us along the sand roads from the house to Python Dam for a spot of, you guessed correctly, fishing.









They didn't catch anything but we passed a couple of hours and George had his first stab at driving - which went excellently.

Received a great email from Jen whilst relaxing.

Ed then drove us again up past our blue gum picnic area - we saw Zebra, Wildebeest , Hartebeest and Gemsbok.



I took over on the busy dirt road to the main lodge and we arrived just in time to see Mike and Conrad chipping to the 18th hole.
We checked out the caged tigers, snakes, crocs, caracals and mongoose and found that the wonderful bird aviary had been totally emptied and the birds all sold. Don't know why.

Drove to Mabula and checked in but still too early to get the key so walked in search of the klipspringer and dassies and had some more Kodak moments. Having trouble uploading photos again although the signal here is better than at home.

Love the moment in the drive from the main Mabula hotel to Modjadji camp when you come over the top of the hill and see the plain and distant hills ahead. That's when I arrive at my favorite place.

Mike arrived soon afterwards, then Peter straight from work and finally Laura and Mark. Didn't see Ed and George again - they had their shirts off and were boisterously running around, checking out the game and scrambling around the bush.


Sat around a roaring campfire in the bouma after supper and were visited by bush pigs.






All was well with the world!

This morning Graham and Myriam drove over from Zebula and Myriam joined us for a game drive. Almost immediately we came across a Secretary Bird strutting across the plain.








We were lucky to see all of the elephants in an open area on their way to Charles Glass Dam. They were clustered together and one of the larger ones had it's trunk on a smaller elephant.


Good viewing, followed by sightings of red crested korhaan, hippos out of the water,


3 rhino and a group of male buffalo.


Peter and I are now chilling at the house whilst everyone has gone up to the pool area. George and Edward have taken the tennis racquets - I think they're trying to get some practice in before Mike and I challenge them.

Lucky Lions

Thursday's plan was to drive home via the Kruger and get back before 18h00 when Peter would be due home from work.

We packed the car once again and headed the 500 metres to the Kruger Gate. By now we had the routine down to pat - fill in the form with the gate guard (count the number of passenges and check whether or not they are foreigners (do they pay more?), open the boot for a search (weapons, alcohol, animals??) and take the form into the office and pay the daily fee. This time I opened the boot and of course it was full of all our luggage. There on top for all to see was our innocent looking cooler box. Yes of course I would open I said, glibly knowing that none of the 3 of us were drinkers. Completely forgot about the box of wine which was lying in there!!!! This was immediately confiscated and banished to the bin. Moral of the story - if you want to take alcohol into the park these days put it in the back of the car. We went in 3 times and they never searched inside the car.

The plan was to take the road along the Sabie River towards the Phabeni Gate, drive down to Pretorius Kop and then take Voortrekker road to Malelane and hit the N4 for the 4 hour trip home. Where had all the animals gone? We saw very little  - one rhino, one giraffe in the first hour. We took a detour around the koppie and the boys saw cats twice but I missed them and they didn't get a good enough look to be sure of what they were. Oh and one Gabar Goshawk.

Decided to have a toasted sandwich at Preorius Kop and whilst eating heard a parrot calling from the coral tree alongside. It was a Brown Headed Parrot and was pulling each scarlet petal off the tree, eating the nectar at the end of the petal and then dropping it to the ground. What vandalism! It was soon joined by 3 others and later I saw that it was a new tick in my book. Catching Peter!

When we arrived at the start of Voortekker road it appeared to be closed - this was the only reasonable route to Malelane in the time available. There were yellow barriers across two thirds of the road but no notice to say what was going on. I tried phoning the Parks Board to find out what was going on - none of the officials had warned us of any closure. Anyway the signal was poor, the call cut off and we decided to carry on down the road and see if it was really closed or if the barriers were just protecting a bad patch of surface.

We had driven for ten minutes when we came upon some surface reconstruction and realised that we would have to turn back. A minute later Ed said "Lions" and there at the side of the road that we had just driven down a couple of minutes earlier were 2 male lions. We had them all to ourselves - one was lying alongside the car at the edge of the road and the other was about 5 paces away and was a bit more lively sitiing, turning, yawning. Good Kodak moments and not another tourist in sight!!!!

We eventually tore ourselves away. Decision time - take the long route to Malelane or cut the Kruger visit short by going out of the Numbi Gate and then take the scenic route home via Sabie and Long Tom Pass. We decided on the latter and drove out through Hazyview and on the back roads all the way to Witbank where we joined the highway and arrived home just before 18h00.

Loaded the washing machine as we needed to pack for Mabula and then went out for pizza with Peter.

Kruger park

We spent another day in the Kruger. We managed to see leopard, lion, buffalo, elephant and many other animals and and birds.

Firstly we drove though the park arriving at Silolweni dam where we spotted some lions which hurried to move on as many cars collected at the side of the road to see them . Then we drove down a dirt road where we came to a white landrover discovery pratrolling the road so we curiously ;) asked them what they were doing. It turned out they had spotted a leopard and two of its cubs but they ran away because their car scared them. Eventually after many minutes scanning the trees driving up and down the road Edward apparently saw a leopard cub running however, George and Janice have their doubts to whether he really did ;).

We were carried on down a tarmac road where a small blue hatch back sped past us whcih we bumped into later with their warning lights on and they had spotted a leopard laying on a rock which then moved when another person started shouting at it from another car.

Later on in the day we were leaving towards the kruger park gate and a pack of small lions came out on the bush and started running with the car and the car infront. We were promptly joined by the other people who were rushing to get out of the park by closing time and we were over run by other tourists us being the only car with no annoying tourists in!

Monkey Business

I will leave it to the boys to describe the monkey business a bit later - they're trying to get the braai going.

We spent the day in the Kruger Park - I think we travelled 130 kms and it took us 11 hours!

Would like to upload the photos and yes we have a signal. Only problem is the camera batteries are all busy recharging! Sorry Barrie and Sue - please be patient for the distant photo of the Lesser Jacana. It was a much smaller bird with distinctive head markings. See what you think once the photo has been uploaded.

We were also lucky to see 3 Ground Hornbill, including one juvenile.




We didn't see any cats today but did see spotted hyaena, lots of elephant, buffalo and a couple of white rhino, giraffe, zebra and steenbok. Plenty of impala of course, several kudu, a common duiker and a klipspringer.

Oh and monkeys.....




Edward was viewing a crocodile out the opposite side of the car to his window
and a monkey sneakily crept into the car and edward felt it climb over his shoulder, meanwhile George was taking a picture of a crocodile and was oblivious to what had happened then turned round and jumped as he got a shock that there was a monkey sat next to him rummaging through the food that had been packed for the day ! Edward was disappointed as George and Janice decided that it was his packet of Cheddars and apple that the monkey had stolen - which was a fair judgement as edward let it come in !


Edward was also struggling to start the braai so he came to ask George for help however even though George is always the best person for the job he couldn't get it going either so now we have resorted to using the grill to cook the ribs . Yum :)

Location:Kruger Park