20.6.06 Upington (Very north of S. Africa) Hi there one and all! Before I get on to anything else I want to say a very big THANK-YOU for all the birthday greetings you sent me. It was really lovely to get them and I had a fantastic birthday the details of which I will tell you later on. Once again thanks for your messages it was such a nice surprise to get on the internet yesterday and see them all! Here as promised is the complete Landy introductory tour!! And yep we can fit all of this stuff in to the landy and still see out the rearview window! The Landy – A Recipe For Fun? (By Jason Gallier) As we are now the proud(?) owners of a Land Rover we (Jason) thought we ought to give you a couple of pics and tell you what we have kitted it out with. I must admit that the idea of a large 4x4 while being wildlife enthusiasts is a conservationists nightmare. There are many arguments for and against but after lots of deliberation and consultation it does seem to be the tool for the job and at least this Landy will get dirty and see considerable off road use. Kate and I are not the into naming vehicles but for those of you who are we are open to suggestions – a couple of possibilities could be: The Green Goddess or The Jolly Green Giant but we call it (her) the “Landy” with perhaps a hint of affection (Until something goes wrong that is!) Sadly we don’t have any green wellies! So, take a Land Rover Defender Td5 (2.5L Turbo Diesel) 110 (wheel Base in inches) remove rear bench seats, simmer, then add…………… Long range fuel tanks (Total 130L which is good for 1000+ km)............................ Water Tank behind rear wheel arch (40L)................................ Front and rear spot lights.......................... Full roof rack (aluminium).............................. Awning (to provide shade when we breakdown!!!! Oh that should be when camping) ................................ Roof top tent (with thick mattress, blankets and duvet to keep Kate warm and comfy).................................... Dual battery system (under passenger seat) – second battery is a leisure battery to power Laptops and recharge camera batteries etc..................... Power invertor (turns 12v into 240v to run all of the equipment)......................... Bull Bar (essential to putting up tent and to look as menacing as possible!)......... High lift jack and hand winch (to get us out of trouble when we get stuck).................... Draw (which sits in the back holds a surprising amount of stuff)................. Pioneer sound system (500w amp with 2 - 6”x9” speakers)................. Then Open up and Stuff with…………............. Lamp and torches (we opted for a lead acid battery lantern, a spot light and a couple of head torches with a box of candles as back up)....................... 3 Low energy bulbs for camping (plus 3 spares as they are glass an.d extremely difficult to get hold of).................................. Cooking stove (cast iron double burner)................................. 2 gas tanks (9kg main tank and a small 4.5kg for reserve)............................... Table (complete with table cloth – very civilised you know)................................... Chairs (Fold away - very comfortable ones too)......................... Pots and Pans........................... Cutlery.............................................. Food.......................................... Wine and beer plus cider while available (I use beer as a loose approximation)... 4 x 70L boxes to put it all in!!........................................ Add some stock and choice ingredients.......................................................... Laptop and disk drives, a DVD burner and a bunch of DVDs..................... Camera(s) and lenses, tripod, window mount and other fun bits of equipment......................................... MP3 player (played through the sound system – sounds good and it’s loud!)........ Binoculars (10x50 and 20x80).................................. Books (Lots of them – no surprises there)......................... Clothes and stuff (Kate has a lot more than I - no surprises there either!).......... Towels and washing bits and bobs..................... Washing up stuff........................ Medical kit (plasters and paracetamol)........................ Juggling balls and clubs..................................... Tools (I just hope somebody knows what to do with them!!!)............. Axe and Saw (for my caveman moments)....................... Tow rope (To help others out of trouble!)................ Tracking bag............................ Compressor (for tyres)............................. Extra Spices and Flavours........................................... Shock absorbers and springs (Old Man Emu – the mutts nuts apparently)................ Black Box (monitors the oil, battery and engine temperature)......................... Spare fan belt....................................................................... Oil, air and fuel filters............................................................ Triangles (in case of breakdown)..................................................... Finally sprinkle on top (roof rack).................................................. 5 x 30L boxes (Full of odds and sods from above)..................................... 2 x 25L Water containers............................................................. 2 x 25L Diesel Jerry cans............................................................ 8 (or so) straps and ratchets (to hold every thing down)............................. Finally bake for several months in hot African sun.................. Quite a lot of stuff but we are completely self sufficient and can probably survive well for 10 days – possibly up to 20 days if we rough it – break down in middle of no where. Considering some of our destinations we will probably need it and if anything goes wrong at least we have most things covered. As it is our home for the next 8 months or so the extra creature comforts should help us keep costs down by meaning that we don’t have to treat ourselves to mega expensive lodges – well that’s the idea!.................... Please note: the break down comments is to a – placate those who dislike land rovers before they get to say “told you so”; b – because my vehicles always tend to break down; and c – worry our parents!! ................................ Now back to where we are. As you can see from the top of this log we are still currently in SA. ‘What!!?!’ I hear you cry, ‘Aren’t you supposed to be out of there by now and seeing the sights and sounds of Namibia?’ Well in a word YES, but there is a good reason for our delayed departure from SA and that in a word is the Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park (OK 4 words!). We left CT a week ago with the purpose of travelling north to get into Namibia. We had got everything we needed to leave the bustling city behind and begin our trip in to the unknown. Then we remembered that we had heard very good things about the Kgalagadi (try saying that when you’ve had a few beers!!), the birdlife and wildlife was excellent and Jas had really wanted to go there. The park is right in the north of SA and is actually part of the Kalahari so crosses in to Namibia on the left and Botswana on the right. So naturally as we were heading north we decided that we would ‘pop’ there for a few days to check it out. My my what a treat it has been, we have been there for 5 days and it’s been absolutely amazing! It was a long old drive to get here, and this far up some of the roads are no longer tarmac, but well worth the effort. I know lists of things are a bit boring but you’ll have to excuse the following as it’s the easiest way to tell you what we have seen. Oryx, springbok, wildebeest, hartebeest, giraffe, hyena, lion, cheetah, leopard, jackal, bat-eared fox, Cape fox, secretary bird, lanner falcon, marshall eagle, pearl spotted owl (one of the smallest in the world), pale chanting goshawk, hornbill, slender mongoose, yellow mongoose, ostrich, kestrel, black shoulder kite, phew I think that’s about it! You can imagine we have been having a fantastic time spotting all of these! Admittedly, there are a fair few of the springbok, oryx, wildebeest and hartebeest wandering around, you’d be hard pressed not to see them. As for the more elusive creatures, leopard, cheetah, lion and hyena, seeing them was brilliant and each was in superb settings. We first saw the cheetah the day before my birthday in the late afternoon. One ran past the landy on the side of the road and when we pulled up to see where it had gone, we were excited to see there were two and they were in the veldt (grassland to you and me) not far from us. Then from behind us three more ran across the road to join the others and they all meandered through the slowly away towards to hills. Jas and I were ecstatic and took the opportunity to climb out the back of the landy on to the roof to get a real look at them. And before you all cry in horror at us getting out of the vehicle we did wait until they were a suitable distance away!! We drove on to a watering hole and stayed there a while just before we had to set off back to camp and watched various animals come to drink. Jas noticed something coming along and firstly we thought it was a jackal, but as it drew closer we realised it was a brown hyena. They are really ugly looking things and they do have an air of menace about them! We were very content to sit and watch him move around the waterhole and then trot past the landy and go on his way. Wow what a days viewing! On my birthday we were awoken in the early hours by the roaring of lions all around us which was incredible to hear and once the lions had finished the hyenas took over with their cackling and laughing!! Imagine that as your alarm call in the morning! During our morning drive we found a pair of gorgeous male lions having a lazy time in the shade of a tree again on the roadside. We were able to get close so they were only a couple of metres away. Needless to say no rooftop views this time, we wouldn’t have wanted to go outside with them quite so near! We stayed with them for ages, they were not in any hurry to move on and they would occasionally get up and move slightly to find a more comfortable spot to lie in! It was wonderful to see them and we could have stayed there all day but we decided to move on and see what else was about. We saw more of the other animals and had a lovely afternoon driving around and spotting things. In the evening Jas cooked a meal and we had a few drinks to celebrate my birthday and finished they day off with a big bar of chocolate which we had been saving for the occasion – a real treat when you’re on a campsite in the middle of nowhere!! These couple of days were spent in the middle area of the park at a campsite called Nossob. On the morning drive we found our cheetah again lying under a tree, but unfortunately they were quite far away this time. We found out that they were a mother and 4 almost fully grown cubs, and that’s quite unusual for a mother cheetah to successfully raise 4 offspring. Then we drove to Mata Mata another campsite on the Namibian border, along the way we came upon some oryx with young calves which were very lovely. They adults are grey, white and black, whereas their young are a lovely reddish colour. We also nearly ran over a yellow cobra!!! I thought it was just a stick in the road, OK so a brightly coloured stick, but I wasn’t really thinking in snake mode! Then as we got close to it the head came up and the classic cobra hood was clearly visible. I managed not to actually drive over it, but by the time I stopped and reversed up to get another look it had already slithered off in to the veldt and out of sight. I have to say that it was a very impressive size and I’m mighty glad we were several inches off the ground when we saw that one! On our drives around the Mata Mata camp we saw more of all the usual animals and the evening we got there we were setting up our tent and we noticed a spotlight pointing out of the camp towards something. We went for a look and found ourselves face to face with a spotted hyena! Yep we were that close you could make out it wets shiny nose. Yes you’ve guessed it there was a fence between us! It looked like a very pregnant one (either that or she had really gorged herself recently) and she was sniffing around and scavenging anything she could find, then after a while she curled up on the ground to see the night through. As with the other hyena she wasn’t the prettiest of creatures but we won’t hold that against her and she was great to see so close! The next day met a couple who we had seen back at Nossob, they had spotted a leopard and were watching and waiting to see if it went anywhere. We hung around too and were really impressed to see such a lovely female. She decided to go for a wander and we took a chance by leaving the road we were on and go around the back of her and hope we would meet up. We found the right area, waited for ages and just when we were thinking we had missed her, to our great satisfaction she came over the ridge and walked gracefully in front of the landy and on to the other side of the road. She was eyeing up a small herd of springbok, but wasn’t really interested in making a dash for them, so we happily watched her, watching them for a while. It was time to go back to camp and we had to leave her there, but we thought we would go back the next morning and see is she had caught anything. With all these amazing sightings we thought our luck would soon run out, but our final day’s safari – in true cliché style - turned out to be better than we could ever have imagined!! Leaving the park we thought we’ll take a leisurely drive straight back, but oh no that’s not how it turned out at all! Firstly we bumped in to some people who had spotted two cheetah on a ridge (different to the 5 we saw before) and we followed them for a while. Realising they were staking out a couple of springbok we could see they wanted to get in to action. We didn’t think we would be lucky enough to see a chase, but lady luck came through and the cheetah picked out a young springbok and off they went! It was fantastic and Jas got a great couple of pictures. We zoomed after them in the landy but soon the cheetah gave up and the springbok lived to see another day. We continued to follow them around for a while and then decided we needed to push on. Driving away from the cheetah we spoke to another group of spotters who had found a leopard with a jackal kill in a tree near the Mata Mata camp. What could we do but go back and try and find it – maybe we weren’t going to leave the park today! The leopard wisely chose a tree right by the road to snack on the jackal, so we could again get right up close! As Jas’s pictures show, what an incredible sight! The leopard was really crunching away at the jackal and was not in the least bit interested that we were there! After awhile we said again, ‘right we need to leave the park now’ it was going to take us a good 5 hours to get back to Upington!!! We left the leopard and promised not to get distracted by anything else along the way! But we did stop briefly to see a group of 8 giraffe, with young ones chewing on some trees. Then we found a springbok who had minutes before given birth! I kid you not, she was actually eating the placenta and licking the newborn in to shape. The baby could hardly stand, but mother was encouraging her as it is so important for them to be able to run as soon as possible. What a stunning sight! As you can see we had an amazing final day in the park and we still cannot believe all the things we saw over the last few days. The Kgalagadi NP certainly gets our thumbs up and we might go there again when we get back to SA at the end of our trip! Now we are back in Upington and tomorrow we will set off to the Namibian border and finally get in to another country!!! Thank-you for patiently reading this really long weblog, we hope you have enjoyed it! We are not sure how long it will be before we get to post another log, so keep checking and we’ll get something on as soon as we can. Cheerio for now, take care and we hope the sun is still shining in the UK! PS. The weather in the NP is gorgeously hot during the day, but at night it goes down to minus 3-5!!! We’ve had to wrap pretty well in the tent!

9.6.06 Stellenbosch, Robertson and Oudtshoorn Hello and a warm welcome from the wine regions not far from CT. We’ve escaped the big city for the time being, and it certainly is nice to have a change of scenery! We decided to take the landy for a bit of a warm up run around to give us a better chance to see how she moves and what little niggles she might have and we can iron out any faults and really make sure she is ready for the big off. So we thought for the time being we would move in country and try to escape the rain a bit! By the way sorry if I confused you before talking about a campervan and then the landy, we haven’t bought both, we hired the campervan just for a week whilst sorting out the landy. We couldn’t resist the pull of the wine regions (that is Jason couldn’t!) and we were told that the routes and scenery out there were lovely too. Stellenbosch is only about an hour’s drive from CT and we stayed in a hostel called the Stumble Inn! Well I mean we stayed in the car park in the rooftop tent!! I guess that will be a common problem for us in the urban hostels, their camping areas are quite often behind the hostel building and we just aren’t going to get the landy through the front door!! But hey we’ll cope and it’s actually quite helpful because they don’t charge us as much for staying, but we still use all their facilities! Now Stellenbosch is a lovely little town with big hills all around it, it’s a beautiful setting. It has a very small American town feel to it, which is quite strange, but it’s lovely old style buildings make it a very attractive place. Obviously the most important focal point are the many wineries in the area and all of them are open for wine tasting (yum yum!). We met a great couple in the hostel (Ben and Karen, from Australia and America) and they were travelling around like us and we hooked up with them for an afternoon’s slurping (checking out some good ones for you Tor!). Driving to the wineries is really picturesque, lovely rocky outcrops with miles of vineyards at the foothills. It is a nice time of year to come because all the autumnal colours are out and when the sun is setting it really sets off the colours. The wineries are set around stunning estates and look very idyllic and Jas, Karen and Ben had a very good time testing lots of different wines. I’m the first person to admit that I’m not a wine drinker so I was more than happy to be the driver and let them indulge! I was lucky that at one of the tastings the vineyard had developed their own special chocolates to have with some of the wines to bring out the flavours more. They certainly were different, dark chocolate with rock salt in it, dark chocolate with ginger and chai (Indian tea), and milk chocolate with Turkish delight. Apparently they did go particularly well with the wines, but I’ll just take their word for it as I just ate mine neat! After a couple of days we moved on to Robertson, another wine area which we were told had a ‘Wacky Wine Weekend’ on. We thought we’d see what that was all about and amongst other things each of the wineries offer FREE wine tasting all weekend, there’s lots of food tasting and live music, boat trips, ghost tours and more! The highlight we have heard is that one of the wineries fills a 10,000 litre plunge pool with red wine and then drops a 4 carat diamond in it!!! Then for 50p you can have a swim in it and have a look for the diamond (how though I can’t imagine!) and if you find it you keep it! Jas has said he might have a go, not for finding the diamond mind you, just for the chance to swim in the wine!!! As it turns out he didn't go in, it was way too chilly for it, but it was fun watching other people freeze in there! We also found an amazing maze and cactus farm with over 2,500 different species! Sounds dull but it was surprisingly interesting!! Jas got some good photos too, every day's a camera day!! Then we moved further up to Oudtshoorn which is the major region for ostrich farming. Yep it is very odd seeing large fields full of ostriches, mile after mile. They are rapidly turning into one of my favourite animals, they look really funny running around. To see a truck load of them driving past with just their heads bobbing up and down is quite peculiar!! This are is also well known for it’s mountain passes and we drove through one called Swartberg Pass which was absolutely stunning and very very high up. The pass ends up following a gorge and that was beautiful! We also visited Cango caves which are Africa’s largest show caves and one of the seven wonders of Southern Africa. We went on the longer adventure tour which involved crawling around and squeezing through parts of the caves with names such as the Tunnel of Love, Devil’s Chimney and the Letterbox!! It was great and the big chambers with lots of stalactites and stalagmites were really lovely. Well you now find us back in CT finalising the mechanics on the landy and checking that we have got everything (we hope!) for setting off to Namibia on Monday! Yes I know we have spent a while in S.A. where all is still relatively civilised, but you’ll be pleased to hear that as of next week we are embarking on the more adventurous parts of our trip. At last we will be heading in to the relatively unknown (for us anyway!) and we will be regaling you with tales of wild animals surrounding the landy, 4x4 white knuckle journeys and other African high jinks!! For now though we will relax during our last few days in CT and I promise that the next weblog will be a landy special with an insight to all of our gizmos and gadgets and pictures for you to see us and it in full glory!! Bye bye for now and we’ll be back soon!