Tours with Klaus und Erika - October 2007

1) KRUGER PARK and Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cradle of Humankind-Maropeng!

Not a tour I usually do, but friends of mine wanted me to take their friends on such a tour.

We flew up to Jo'burg and stayed two nights in the Guinea Lodge in Joies. The owner of Guinea Lodge took my guests on a Jo'burg Tour to the mines etc. I took them the next day to Pretoria, Voortrekker Monument and then out to Maropeng (Cradle of Humankind). Very interesting and my guests enjoyed also the Sterkfontein Caves, but a little too narrow at places.

The next day we took off to Mpumalanga and the Longtom Pass. There had been huge fires through the area, but fortunately it started to become green again, but the black, dead trees still looked sad.

The next day we drove from Sabie to Grasskop, to Pelgrim's Rest and then to the Macmac and Berlin Falls and from there to the spectacular Potholes and Blyderiver Canyon. We had a fantastic day in this beautiful area.
We had to take a long dirt road at the end of the day to Nsele Lodge. This road started getting narrower and narrower as it also got darker, BUT we made it after a long day to these very friendly people, Stephanie and Olaf, who run Nsele in this Game Reserve conservensy. Very interesting cottages are arranged around a small pool in a lovely garden setting. This conservancy is very close to the Orpan entrance into the Kruger Park.
Here we stayed for 4 days and saw from buffalo, beautiful giraffes to lions, large elephant families, lots of antelope, zebra and also one beautiful leopard. Much more than we saw during the one day in Kruger. It was a lovely time and we were really sad to leave this tranquil, remote area on the last day, having to fly back to Jo'burg and then on to Cape Town.

2) GARDEN ROUTE TOUR:
After the Kruger Park Tour I also did a short Garden Route tour with Klaus and Erika. This was very pleasant.
They enjoyed our beautiful Garden Route and we as usually came back via the interesting and scenic Klein Karoo, which is so different, but has its own beauty for most visitors. The friendly Guest Houses do surprice them mostly. Coming back through Ropertson with its lovely wine farms is greatly appreciated.