That was a slip of the tongue from Sharon as we crossed the border from South Africa into Botswana! What she really meant to say was ‘look at the baboons in Botswana’. And to emphasise she in no way was talking about the cross-border and customs officials. There were actual baboons crossing the road in front of us.
We managed to leave Johannesburg last Thursday, a bit later than we had wanted to. We had to wait for a border letter from the car insurance company, which as it turned out we were never asked to produce! Chico, our car, got a clean bill of health that morning and let’s hope it stays that way. The drive was easy and the roads were in pretty good condition. We just had to watch out for the animals – mostly baboons, donkeys, goats, cattle and loads of ostrich.
We were only crossing through Botswana to get to Namibia so we only stayed there one night in a place called Kanya. We had no idea of where to stay before we arrived. We had found two hotel names listed on an obscure website, so stopped and asked a Kenyan lady where they were. One was no longer operating, but she very kindly led us to the other one which turned out to be fine.
The first palaver we had was with paying on credit card. The receptionist didn’t really know how the ‘chip & pin’ type cards worked. It looked like the card got swiped twice, but it was hard to tell as there was no paper in the machine!
The second palaver was dinner. The meat was a bit tough and Sharon had a choking attack in the dining room, but the locals were concerned and all willing to help. Thankfully the Heimlich (not sure how to spell) manoeuvre was not necessary.
Friday was to be our long day of driving so we wanted an early start. First stop was the ATM machine for some cash where the machine swallowed Dave’s bank card!!! The bank was not open and the security guard said it would be another hour or so before we could get help. But we were in luck this time, a very nice gentleman from the bank came out about 10 minutes later with Dave’s card so we were able to get a move on.
Considering we were only in Botswana for less than 24 hours, we haven’t got much room to comment, but the people we did met were more than helpful. In fact the customs/border officials on the way out of Botswana were the nicest either of us have ever come across! When Dave signed the form as the Customs official instead of the tourist they even joked about it!
We will keep Botswana on our ‘list’ and will try and get back there some day.
What a difference a day can make! We are happy to say that our second welcome to South Africa was a much more hospitable one.
The day after we last wrote our blog, our friends Michelle & Peter picked us up from the Basecamp Backpackers in Port Elizabeth. They drove us to St Francis Bay where they had booked us into the most luxurious place either of us have ever stayed. The Beach House was the ultimate in laid back luxury for the next three nights. We felt thoroughly spoiled and enjoyed every minute – sumptuous breakfasts, walks on the beach, and candle lit baths with sea views.
The Beach House DeckThe Beach House BedroomSea Views!Peter and Michelle
This was in stark contrast to the previous two nights we spent at the backpackers hostel with the craziest hosts we have ever met. Franzie and Monica were ‘Basil and Sybil’ to a tee! Franzie was completley interfering and Moncia constantly nagging him, but they did want their guests to have a good time.
We have also had our first experience of a Fair Trade in Tourism accredited operator – we took a city and township tour with Calabash Tours in Port Elizabeth which gave us an insight on how things work; it was a little disappointing, but worthwhile all the same.
We unfortunately had some very sad news in the last two weeks. Sharon’s sister phoned to say that Avis (a good friend and sister-in-law) had lost her mother in the fight against cancer. Then two days later just as we were getting ready to leave St Francis Bay, Sharon’s Dad phoned with the dreaded phone call that wee Eileen (who had been part of the Brunt family for more than forty five years) had died.
The next couple of days for Sharon were by far the saddest she has ever experienced living away from family, feeling so isolated and not being at home where she was needed. It was not possible to get back to Ireland and very difficult to come to terms with the fact that she could not be there to support family and friends. This is certainly the down side of choosing our travelling lifestyle, but we were so thankful that at least we had each other and we were with supportive friends.
Volkswagen Chico
Since then we have bought a car and to be honest not had the best luck with it so far. Let’s face it, it just hasn’t been our week, but DV things can only get better. We bought our little 1995 VW Citi Golf on Friday from a distant referral, but after walking the streets of East London talking to used car salesman, we thought even a distant referral would be better than taking a chance with a complete stranger. One thing we found is that it is very difficult to buy a car without a car – walking from lot to lot is time consuming work!
We also managed to clear our remaining baggage through customs at the end of last week, a bit of a long winded process, but we got there in the end and now have our camping gear and Dave’s paraglider in tow.
Anyway on Saturday we packed up and hit the road at 7am for an early start – 70kms later the car conked out, fortunately at a Shell garage where there just happened to be two policeman shopping for doughnuts and who were willing to help. They tried their best as did another couple of kind motorists, but all to no avail, the little Chico was going nowhere. Eventually the AA towed us back to East London where the mechanic took 10 minutes to fix an apparent simple alternator/battery wiring problem!
At 1pm we decided to stick with our original plan and headed for Howick (Sharon lived here back in 1990!) in Kwa Zulu Natal. Everything was going well until about 150kms from Howick. Sunset followed by thick fog (no more than 2 metres visibility) accompanied by pedestrians, wild animals and vehicles with no lights on the road meant driving was far from a pleasure. All this accompanied by the oil light flashing on the dashboard with not a garage in sight. Needless to say we were more than relieved to arrive with Mr & Mrs de Jong at 8.30pm in two safe, but shattered pieces!
We had a very relaxing Sunday watching Michelle and her horse in an eventing competition followed by time walking with Mr & Mrs de Jong on the completed Sakabula Golf Coursewhich we first saw in it’s infancy some 9 years ago!
Monday ended up being a bit of a marathon drive from Howick to Pretoria – the car did not get off to a good start, but we did make it just in time for a 5pm appointment with Sharon’s new boss at Fair Trade in Tourism. It was good to put faces with names and she now has no shortage of reading and research material to digest before starting work in January.
Right now we are at Michelle & Peter’s home in between Johannesburg and Pretoria getting ready to re-start our road trip. And guess what? The Chico has had to go into the garage for another check up! All being well we will hit the road again tomorrow and aim to cross the border into Botswana. We don’t plan on stopping long in Botswana on this trip as the goal is to get to Namibia and travel there for the next few weeks.
Although we no longer have our lap top (see previous blog post), we are still able to update schindlersinsa.blogspot.com and check emails via internet cafes to keep in touch.
6 May 2001, Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand
We imagine that most of you will be very relieved to find that this is our last travelling update. No more long posts for you to plough through. And what’s worse is this is probably the most difficult one to write as we cannot find the right words to describe the beauty of the South Island, but we will give it a go.
After Nelson we drove south along the west coast under a little bit of drizzle, but certainly not anything close to the amount of rain that is so common in this area.
By the time we reached Franz Josef the sky was blue and perfect conditions for a heli-hike on the glacier. We had about a 10 minute ride in the helicopter before it landed on the glacier where we were met by a guide who took us hiking on the glacier for a couple of hours. It was a really strange, but good fun experience walking on the glacier going through huge crevices and even ice caves. It could have been a whole lot different if Dave had fallen any further into some broken ice – the bruises on his shin were pretty spectacular. Thankfully, the ice kept the swelling down.
We spent the next few days taking it easy by Lake Wanaka. We managed a few short hikes with some fantastic views of the lake. The town itself was a lovely little laid back kind of ski town and it was just full of beautiful trees all shedding their colourful leaves. Some of the autumn colours we have seen en route have just been glorious – loads of deep reds and golden yellows.
Nap time in Wanaka!Stunning views in the Wanaka area
Our next stop was the explosive town of Queenstown, probably the tourist (and adventure) capital of NZ, and of course home of the famous AJ Hackett bungy jump. Dave had jumped last time he was here 11 years ago and Shaz was not desperate for an adrenalin rush so we gave it a miss. We did really enjoy a trip on the Dart River on a jet boat – the thrills were minimal, but the scenery was outstanding.
Probably one of the best campsites we have stayed at was our next one at Te Anau, which was our base for exploring Fiordland. The standard of campsites throughout NZ is really high and far superior to those we stayed at in Australia.
The drive from Te Anau to Milford was spectacular to say the least. We had met another couple at the campsite who came with us, as the road was not an easy one for them to ride their bicycles on. We were all booked on the Milford Sound overnight cruise on the Wanderer which set sail at 4.30 in the afternoon. Our luck was in again as this time the boat was followed by a pod of bottlenose dolphins. Once the boat had anchored for the night, we both took out kayaks for a paddle.
It was while we were on the water that we felt so insignificant in this place – we were surrounded by steep sided mountains with huge waterfalls tumbling down and baby seals playing under our kayaks. It is impossible to capture the beauty and mystery of Milford Sound in words; it just has to be visited.
As if the cruise wasn’t enough to captivate us, we also flew over part of the Fiordland and Milford Sound. We had a 70-minute flight from Te Anau, and to date, this has been the best ‘tour dollar we have spent. It was just the pilot and us and the scenery – mountains, fiords, and glaciers – it was simply stunning.
Once we got back down to earth, we were off to Invercargill, NZ’s southernmost city and a very depressing one at that. It just looks like a city that is dying and is the root of many Kiwi jokes.
Needless to say we didn’t hang around, but headed off towards The Catlins where once again we had beautiful scenery and wildlife to admire. It was here that we ended up staying one night in a cabin instead of the tent – the rain was catching up with us.
We also managed to view a flock (?) of penguins, the quite rare yellow eyed variety – they were really comical to watch and we were fascinated. Since then we have visited Dunedin where we watched our first game of Super 12 Rugby in a local bar and that brings us to where we are now, Christchurch.
We have a few more days left in the South Island, but must be back in Auckland in the North Island for Friday 11 May.
For those of you that haven’t heard the jungle drums yet, we will back in the UK for a quick trip, arriving on Tuesday 15 May and probably staying about a month. The time of course will be split equally between England and Ireland! We hope to catch up with as many of you as possible.
A few of you in the UK have asked us to bring some good weather back with us – not much chance of that as we would rather leave the drizzle and winter weather here and go back to some dry sunny days – some chance eh?
So as we say that’s your lot! It has been really lovely to hear from so many of you during this trip and hopefully you have enjoyed reading about it as much as we have enjoyed the experience.
New Zealand travel update 28 March 2001, Dargaville, Northland
We have been in New Zealand two weeks today and so far, so good. It is just simply beautiful – it doesn’t quite have the forty shades of green that Ireland lays claim to, but it looks pretty close.
Our first few days were spent in Auckland staying with Dave’s second cousin Marlisa, and it was there that we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by having a Guinness or two!
We are now back on the road again, this time in a rented Toyota estate/station wagon. It is costing us the equivalent of about 6 pounds per day so hopefully it will take us the distance! Our very rough plan is to spend a month in the North Island, and a month in the South Island before we make any longer term decisions.
From Auckland we headed north up the East Coast and apart from a little bit of rain here a there, managed to find some beautiful, sunny campsites with good walks and great swimming/snorkelling beaches – Martin’s Bay and Whangarei.
Although it is the start of autumn here it seems the Kiwis’ Indian summer is hanging on for as long as possible. Our only bone of contention at the moment is the dew (no puns please). The early morning dew makes it difficult to pack the tent away, but we are coping. We borrowed a six-man tent from Marlisa for the times that we spend more than one night at any particular place. It is really huge and like a house compared to our little two-man tent.
The Bay of Islands was our next stop and it was just stunning. We stayed in the small town of Russell for 3 nights and just loved it. We went sailing for a day on a 50ft racing yacht and had a fantastic time. It is Dave’s dream to own a boat, and a sailing vessel of some description is necessary to enjoy New Zealand at its best. No no doubt that will be one of our first purchases as even Shaz enjoyed the sailing! Mind you most days you will find us glued to estate agents windows just in case we spot the home dreams are made of, or the bargain of the century!
From the Bay of Islands we headed to Ninety Mile Beach where we were back to enjoying sundowners and great sunsets on the beach. It seems that even our daily lunch stops are getting more beautiful by the day – we stop at beach sides, lakesides or in forests. We also managed to make it to Cape Reinga at the tip of the North Island where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea.
We are now working our way back down the West Coast towards Auckland and plan to be in The Corromandel on the east by the weekend.
Well here we are in Melbourne with only a matter of days left in Australia. This is a long weekend in Victoria (Labour Day) and we will spend it with friends at a house by a lake, a couple of hours north of Melbourne.
Our flight from Perth to Melbourne was fairly uneventful and we arrived safely on a Friday night. Our friends Vito and Natalie took us straight to the buzzing Chapel Street where we enjoyed a fantastic Japanese meal. Melbourne is just full of cafes and restaurants, and the city seemed so big, busy, chic and sophisticated after the more laid back culture of Perth. We were able to spend the weekend catching up with another friend Jan and her family before setting sail for Tasmania on Monday night.
Ferry from Melbourne to Tasmania
Tasmania (the land under down under) is just a fantastic state to visit and we are so glad that we made it there, even if it was only for 10 days. The whirlwind tour was helped by the fact that we had glorious weather for 8½ days which made camping in our little tent a real delight (but of course we did miss Spot and all his luxuries.)
Back to the two-man tent in Tasmania!
Our first stop was the quaint little town of Stanley on the north coast; then two nights in Cradle Mountain where the walking was wonderful and the views just breathtaking. Apparently they only have one clear blue sky day in every ten, so we were thankful for the luck of the Irish to have two consecutive days there with blue cloudless skies – it was just beautiful. From there we drove (we had a hired car) to Strahan in the west, and joined a riverboat cruise on the Gordon River before heading to Lake St. Clair.
Hobart, Tasmania’s capital, was our next stop and what a surprise it was – a lovely clean city that seemed to be a perfect size for living in! The convict settlement of Port Arthur was not what we expected, but in all it’s historical misery was still well worth a visit.
HobartPort Arthur
We spent our last couple of nights in Coles Bay on the east coast and explored a little of Freycinet National Park – again great walking tracks and stunning scenery, and we had the added pleasure of watching five dolphins playing in the bay!
Wineglass Bay, Freycinet National Park, Tasmania
Tasmania is a definite must if ever any of you visit this land of Oz – we have travelled on a lot of roads (none of them yellow brick) and we haven’t managed to find the wizard yet, but we thank our lucky stars that we have been able to visit some of it’s most magical places over the past six months!
We fly to Auckland, New Zealand next Wednesday so that’s it from Australia for now.
This post is just a quickie to let you know that we have found Spot a good home.
After travelling just under 18,000kms (11,250 miles), we sold him yesterday to a couple from Dublin who are planning to drive around Oz for 3 months. We didn’t get quite as much as we initially had hoped for, but with the time on our visa running out we felt it better to take the cash and move on. We had mixed emotions selling him – Shaz was sad, Dave was more glad.
Meanwhile we have had a lovely couple of weeks in Perth lounging around and catching up with friends. We ate out on St. Valentine’s Day for the first time ever and had one of the very best Chinese meals compliments of Alison and James. We were lucky enough to be able to meet up with John and Carole Bernard (friends of Sue & Ilan) who treated us to a fabulous meal during their stopover in Perth. In fact we have done quite a bit of eating out and now desperately need to do a lot of working out! Mind you we did hire a tandem to ride around Rottnest Island at the weekend so maybe that counts as something.
Anyway we will be on our way out of Perth this Friday, and for the first time in almost six months we will board an aeroplane. We fly to Melbourne where we will catch up with more friends, and take a 10-day trip to Tasmania – a first for both of us.
Hi, we're Sharon & Dave an active and adventurous Irish & English couple who've been travelling together for more than 20 years. These posts are our travel stories and personal journeys. Follow our adventures to see where we've been and where we're going next!
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