Hartbeespoortdam

I came across this song about the Hartbeespoortdam on youtube… I don’t know the artist… but it’s a funny song… if you listen to the artist, you will hear a very distinct “accent” which is very typical of some Capetonians… he sings a mix of Afrikaans and English and it’s an accent which you get in Cape Town from the Cape Coloureds ( a mixed race)….. it’s beautiful. The Hartbeespoortdam is near Pretoria and if you travel from Johannesburg…(also Jo’burg/Johies/Jozi)… it’s about 30 min travel… When I was a student, we used to go for a day to this dam to try catch some fish… not that we were lucky though…it was more for the fun of it… Once a friend  also scared me with all kinds of tricks in his helicopter! We flew over the dam and he perhaps tried to impress me with all his tricks, but I felt sick most of the time and sat with a paper back on my lap! LOL! There is a little zoo at the dam which you can visit. If you want to do some hang gliding….then this place is just the place to do it, you have to go up the mountain with the cable car! If you watch the video, you will see some great pictures of the tunnel and the road across the dam…. be prepared for weekends…this place is PACKED!! with visitors and travelling through the tunnel can be a nightmare…don’t say I didn’t warn you…there are all kinds of curious shops to visit too….places to have some scones and tea!! Yummy!

Play golf!

Click HERE to book your holiday at Hartbeespoortdam or surrounding areas…The link will open in a new window.

 

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Knysna/Outeniqua Choo Choo

Photo of the Kaaimans River

 This is for Meghna…and anyone planning to visit South Africa…DO NOT MISS the Outeniqua  Choo Choo!!
Click HERE to read more about the Outeniqua Choo Choo. You can follow the “photo gallery” link to see beautiful photos on that link too.

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Edinburgh

Click on the images for larger views ….
Trip to Edinburgh to the Botanical Gardens, called the glass houses. You will find  biomes from different parts of the world. On the first two pictures you can clearly see plants from South Africa. 

Edinburgh is a clean city and easy to get around. I would love to go and live there. The place looks so ‘calm’ and everybody seems to be very happy to live in such a ‘quiet’ place.

On this page you can visit the Edinburgh Botanic Garden and there is a pic of the Palm house.

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Swadini..more

I think this pic is really great…the thorns….I like the focus here…just what I wanted….
And of course….the leaves and the colours were the focus here…I love Autumn, for all the changes during Autumn…
If any South African can leave me the name of this plant…I would appreciate it…I don’t know what it is called, I only know that it got seeds on the end of the branches….they make a lovely scence, though the colour looks a bit dull…
Waterfall sign post alongside the road from Swadini Forever Resort on your way to the Blyde River dam. This waterfall is about 20minutes’ walk into the forest…stunning!

And…as you can see…ET! When you arrive at the waterfall, ET meets you there…look at that eye!
I know these pics are not that great…if you are in a hurry, this is what you get! That’s the only pic I have with this rock tied-up in the tree…
And this little mini-beast!!! He wouldn’t let me photograph him properly, I tried everything to enhance the pic for you to see what I tried to capture…this little naughty spider, was a bit curious and even played dead! on the last pic…he suddenly turned over and aish! he thinks I’m dumb! He must have known that I know he plays dead…silly little creature…but I love them, I can watch them for hours! I wish it was my job to go out in nature to photograph these creatures or just to do research on them….I would love it…

Next pictures to blog…a Tufa waterfall…the third longest in the world, called the Crying Tufa…in the Blyde River Canyon and I’ve got some very good pictures on it! A tufa waterfall is formed when water running over dolomite rock absorbs calcium. Mosses which grow on the rocks in the stream extract carbon dioxide during photosynthesis which precipitates the calcium from the water to deposit it as layers of tufa on the surface of the waterfall – a process that takes millions of years. The waterfall continue to flow underneath this rock-hard outer shell. There are only a few active tufa waterfalls in the world – one of which is at the Blyderivierspoort Dam.

Here is a fantastic link to keep your mind busy while I’m sorting my pictures…

Here are two links to spider websites, South African spiders and I’ve sent an email to Norman on the one site to identify the spider on this pic for me!

This one is Science magabout spiders

Bio Museums about spiders with Norman.

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

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Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight click to read more…

This waterfall is in the historical town of Shanklin…..beautiful!

King Henry’s Kitchen…a Restaurant on the Island….He is also the King who beheaded 2 of his 6 wives! Read here… about King HenryHe was King Henry VIII…a vicious king I would say! He was the founder of the Church of England……and he wrote “Green Sleeves”!

In primary schools the children learn this rhyme to remember what happened to his wives…”Divorced, beheaded, died

Divorced, beheaded, survived”. In that order, is what happened…!

Houses and a hotel on the Isle…..I particularly liked the house on this picture…it has some style and character….
A tack shop on a farm where you can do horse riding! Everything horsey in here..!
I had to take a picture from this book! It is in an art shop…a tiny shop…everything is left there…there is nobody…If you want to buy something, you write your name and the amount you leave in this book!! Ha! They really do trust people on this island!! Amazing!!

Graveyard….and daisies….

This place was really enjoyable….this is called the “Needles”…whoops! Look at
THIS SITE and you will see why I say the chair lift is kind of scary!! It was really fun going there…..but be prepared for those chairs…I just closed my eyes and bit on my teeth at one point…!

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Blyde River/Swadini

During our holiday in August – South Africa, we were really lucky to find accommodation at a place next to the Swadini Forever Resort (previously Aventura). I grew up in the Eastern Transvaal -now Mpumalanga, which means:”place of the rising sun.” We drove through Lydenburg, spent time on the farm where I grew up.Krugerspost lies between Lydenburg and  Pilgrims Rest, the historical town and from there we then ventured off to the Echo Caves. First we stopped at Ohrigstad to fill-up the car. We first thought to stay at the Echo Caves Motel, but changed our minds and headed for the Blyde River Canyon. We initially thought that we would just pop-in and have a place to stay! But, as we were on holiday and didn’t take any notice of dates and public holiday days in SA, we didn’t know it was a long weekend!Thursday was Women’s day and the Friday was a public holiday! Anyway, we got at Blyde River Forever Resort: “Sorry…we are fully booked!” Well, we didn’t expect to hear that, but then realised why we heard such unexpected words! OK! It was 7pm, not very late you know, but we’ve been on the road for a very long time by then. There were loads of B&B places, which we saw on random roads, not very far off, so, we decided to take the road, looking for some decent B&Bs.
Just as we took a turn-off, stopped to look at an entrance of a B&B, Andre stopped next to us. He was our angel! “Hello…are you lost?” he asked very friendly and with him was his partner.”No, but we’re looking for a place to stay”, we replied anxiously. “Come with us! You can stay in Marius’s lodge!” We didn’t wait for a second invitation. Tired of being all day on the road basically from Groblersdal, we followed him, for only just about 80 m! What we got, was a fantastic lodge, place for about 10 people to stay. We could pick and choose where to sleep, like Goldilocks!! haha..I tried different beds…playing Goldilocks…! It was fun…2 bathrooms, showers …huge kitchen…(if you keep coming back to my blog later, you will see all of this) It was fantastic.”Because you don’t have any cleaning services for the weekend, you can pay R30 per person less…,” he continued through all the non-stop talking! I wanted to say: “Shus, you’re talking too much,” because Andre was talking non-stop about all the places we can visit and the more he talked, the more excited he got!! He also told us about – click here: – Moholoholo Animal Rehabilitation Centre, but our time was limited and you have to book to go there. Our boat trip was already booked for the same time we could go to Moholoholo, so sadly, we couldn’t go there, as we were heading for Pilgrims Rest and Sabie the following day…If my memory hasn’t gone lost…”moholoholo” means something like…”falling rock”…or ‘rolling rock.’

Enjoy this movie about the area of the Blyde River, which I put together using some of my pictures, not a great camera, I need to warn you. Our video camera perished a few days ago and we need to wait till we’re back in the UK to try and get it fixed.

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Holiday…Pretoria

I’m still busy sorting zillions of pictures, here are a few pictures from Pretoria…I liked this taxi..the yellow was striking and the number plate…just right!

This is where the road from Akasia split, turn off to Gezina and the Market and other routes….when you take this turn off and turn left again, you cross the Apies River, before entering Gezina ….I think from Van Heerden Street…is the one way …from West to East…”Apies” is the Afrikaans for “ape”….the river is named after the many apes that were found in this area when Pretoria was founded in 1855…this Apies River can be a “mighty” river! With heavy rains, places alongside the river get flooded, but that doesn’t happen very frequently though.
This is a very familiar “landmark” ….the cement factory as you leave Pretoria and you travel north to Pretoria North/Akasia….or on the Mabopane highway..traffic on the road can be quite heavy…if you look at the lanes on the right…you can see….rush hour is a nightmare on this road…! We were heading towards the city….and it was after rush hour….
Traffic in Pretoria, paper boy on his way to his post…just sold us a paper!

.Gezina if you turn left…Harties (Hartbeespoort) if you keep going…..more traffic, 10-ish in the morning…
I know this road like the palm of my hand! Travelled this road for a couple of years from school in the afternoon…..Zoo coming up on your left….Langenhoven High school as the sign board indicates…always a speed trap when you go down! I missed them most of the time, but got ONE once….it is a 60km/h zone and I drove 70….think my fine was something like R60! wasn’t much anyway….
Now, if you live in Pretoria, you know Boom Street very well!! Buses…zillions of them, because, this is Zoo-area ….and….a main route for the buses to travel to other areas easy accessible for them. There is parking for coaches at the Zoo…and as you can see by looking at the trees: It was Winter!! July/August…”boom” is the Afrikaans word for “tree”….this is also a VERY busy and “dangerous” street…crime! Though the police claimed that crime isn’t anymore that high in this area, they (the police) also claimed that they are very visible….because of all the tourists visiting the Zoo…we didn’t see them…perhaps they were around….
This is the same road…the one I travelled a couple of years from my school, just a few meters back…all these pictures were taken from inside the car…perhaps yo can see the wipers of the car!…..there wasn’t time to stop every now and then to take a shot….so, they are not as good as they should be! I was in a moving car!!…hahaha…
ZOO! entrance….Boom Street…this is really a MUST if you go to Pretoria. I’ve been to London’s Zoo and it’s not a patch against Pretoria’s…I must truly say, I was a bit disappointed the day when visiting London’s Zoo….visit the Pretoria Zoo WEBSITE here.

Click on this link to see beautiful pics and a video about Pretoria….https://chessaleeinlondon.wordpress.com/2007/09/30/jacaranda-cityjakaranda-stad/

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The 3rd biggest and the greenest!!

This daisy is called a Baberton-daisy…what’s in it?! My favourite colour!! Baberton is a town in the Eastern part of the country…Jock of the Bushveld – country….a legend of a dog…read it!! Search my site for Jock of the Bushveld…it is there…

The GREENEST canyon in the world!!! All other canyons are dry!!! And..this is the THIRD biggest…in the world! The Blyde River Canyon….Grand Canyon is the first…then…in Namibia!! the Fish River Canyon…and then ours…do you know where Namibia is…it borders South Africa…! Windhoek is the capital of Namibia…once called South West Africa and before that…do you know what is was called before THAT!! YES! there is another name….try find out….

This is the Blyde River dam….this is about 1/2 of it on this pic…
map…..
and here….ladies and gents…can I introduce you to…the very famous POTHOLES!! In the Blyde River!!
And…I hoped there was a spider here…can you see one?

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Drakensberg Movie

I love the Drakensberg mountains….did a few hiking trips there….my first was when I was 15…with a school trip….and I made it to the top of Mount Aux Sources…the highest peak in South Africa…I think it is about 4300m……there was a hut…but the roof was down!  The highest peak of the whole range is in Lesotho.

If you’re the kind of outdoor-type of person and like to go on hiking trips….you MUST go there….!! You will not regret it…be careful….you get snow in October in the Mountains and you musn’t go by yourself! On any hiking trip…always at least 3 people….I also did a couple with children…my library monitors back home…three times…good old times….In the UK I would never dream of taking children on a trip like that…”health and safety” always a big issue….what a shame, this country has really brought some problems upon themself with “health and safety”… I wonder what it is like in other parts of the world…I think that’s why our kids from SA is much more “tougher”…they can handle a lot more and cope with much more than kids in the UK….you feel like pampering them all the time…Read in English here what I’m going to write in Afrikaans…you can also see  a movie on that link.

Toe ek ‘n student was, was ek met ‘n staptoer saam met Oom Mauritz…van Centurion…hy was die hoofingenieur van die Hoogland waterskema in die Transkei en hy het die Transkei soos die palm van sy hand geken. Ons was ‘n groep van so 36 wat vanaf Port St Johns gestap het, noord na Port Edward se kant. Daar was ‘ n paar kindertjies ook van so 10-11 wat die trip bietjie moeilik gevind het, daarom het ons by Mkambati Natuurreservaat opgehou. Oom Mauritz het die bus van Margate laat kom om ons daar te kry en ons het regdeur na Margate geskiet en daar by ‘n hotel ordentlik gebad en ‘n dag daar deurgebring. Dit was heerlik!! Die roete wat ons gestap het was fantasties….soms op die strand gestap en soms op die rantjies….lees hier (gaan net af met die slider wanneer jy by die link uitgekom het) oor die roete en stappie daar… by Port St Johns het ons beeste op die strand gekry…en natuurlik anderskleuriges wat in onderklere swem…wonder hoe dit deesdae daar lyk….Oom Mauritz het ons na teeplantasies geneem…die Magwa Falle ook gaan wys….’n waterval gewys wat die enigste in SA is wat DIREK in die see val!…allerhande pragtige plekke…ek wonder of hy nog leef! Dit was regtig ‘n belewenis om saam met hom te stap…ek het dagboek gehou van letterlik alles, waar ons gestap het, hoe laat ons waar geeet het, waar ons geslaap het…een nag het ons onder ‘n oorhangende rots geslaap…genoeg slaapplek vir almal van ons!

 

Hy het ons in kookspanne in gedeel en almal het vir almal gekook, jy het jou beurt gekry om “aan diens” te wees en die gees onder die groep was fantasties…daar was twee uitruilstudente wat hulle by ons groep geskaar het, met die gevolg dit was heeltyd Engels praat terwille van hulle. Die eerste nag was nogal ‘n koue nag, ons was veronderstel om in hutte te slaap wat oom Mauritz gereel het met plaaslike bevolking wat hy geken het by Lusikisiki…hierdie spelling…weet nie meer of dit die regte spelling is nie, maar toemaar, ons weet min of meer…en toe was die hutte se dakke af en hy kon nie die mense daar kry nie. Ons het toe maar in die oopte geslaap en dit was koud…Oktober…maar die wind het gewaai! Oom Mauritz het in Hans Strydomlaan gewoon, spoor hom op en kry hom op ‘n staptoer in die Transkei!

The Chainladder that takes you to the top of the mountain…
 

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Wales

On our way back from Aber, we planned our journey especially to go through this town! It is a town full of bookshops! Unbelievable! This first photo, is a bookshop in the open, but secondhand books….and they trust you to leave the money in that box! Every second shop in this town is almost about books! Wow…if you’re a booklover like me, this is really the place to be! One bookshop has all the classics…and the books were really expensive, but I spent more than an hour just paging through books in awe… in some shops you can really get books quite cheap…very cheap…but then it’s not really the books you might be interested in…the area is beautiful. We had tea/scones – our favourite – and there were a bunch of old ladies sitting nearby…they all spoke Welsh…as this town is on the border of England and Wales! It’s an English town, but we’ve heard that it’s more Welsh than English….
Read also my other post about the visit in Wales!
Follow this link to read more….
http://www.hay-on-wye.co.uk/bookshops/frameset.htm

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Aberystwyth

In 2004 we visited friends of us in Aber. Aber is short for Aberystwyth. Pieter and Leone came to the UK in 2002 and we met them in Sutton, where we used to live when we came the first time to the UK. Leone is an ex-teacher, retired, but an artist and she is just amazing. Some of her art works are to be seen in Embassies! They are two lovely friends and spent a lot of time showing us around in Aber and nearby places.

These pics are from a castle in Aber. Follow the weblink to read more. The dog was funny…we stopped to buy something on the A438 route and he was sitting, very patiently, in the van waiting for his master!

Aberystwyth is in West Wales.

http://www.aberystwyth-online.co.uk/

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4×4 South Africa—Sani Pass!

Click HERE to read more about Sani Pass.

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Mkambati Nature Reserve

As a student, I went on several hiking trips. One with Uncle Mauritz, a kind, friendly man from Centurion, Pretoria. He was also the chief engineer of the Transkei Highland Water Scheme Project and he knew that part of the country like the palm of his hand! We were 34 people and about 6 children age 9/10. We went to the part of South Africa, called the Wild Coast! 

At some places we walked ON the beach and other places just about 20 m away and sometimes even on high cliffs of the escarpment.  At night our tents were about 50m from the beach. This was an amazing trip!

Uncle Mauritz showed us spectacular places, the highest water fall with its fall cascading into the sea, it is called the Waterfall Bluff.  Hidden places! Tea plantations and the spectacular Magwa Waterfalls! Top Hat, Lupatana Splash Rock – these are just a few to mention. It was really an experience I will never forget. You got to see the beautiful unspoiled beaches and part of the trail is up along the escarpment. One walks along the cliff tops with magnificent views. The terrain was fairly strenuous, but it was all worth it – a hundred times worth it.

It was a too difficult route for the children, so when we came to the Mkambati Nature Reserve, we sadly had to end our trip. But, we had to cross a river first and it was in flood! – see the first picture in this entry.   We had a GREAT time for a day at the resort and it was great fun, the bar man was a great sport and we had big laughs with him. A coach picked us up at the resort and we set off for Margate – one of THE places to go on holiday by the beach – well, that was ‘way back then.’
I kept a diary an exact diary of everything: where we stopped for lunch, what the time was, how long it took us to walk from A to B, etc. etc.

 

Click on the image for a larger view. We started at Port St Johns and we walked North towards Port Edward.

Waterfall Bluff -wildcoast.co.za

Update: August 2011

Since I got my own photos now with me – I could scan them in and here are a couple of pictures from this hiking trip!

In this photo you can see uncle Mauritz, our leader. He was also the chief engineer of the Highlands Water Scheme. We all gathered first at his house and he showed us a slide show of the area and discussed all sorts of ‘issues’.

And everybody wants to take a picture! Obviously, I took this picture of ‘everyone’! lol

Whole-in-the-wall seen from above – the cliffs. This is my own picture.

One of the beautiful waterfalls on the trip. Hope you can see the people in this pic.

And this is ME – end of the trip…exhausted.

‘Top hat’ and to the right you can see part of Lupatana – also my own pic!

This is the actual Lupatana – an image from this site:

http://throughtravelanderror.blogspot.com/

Mbotyi falls – image: Wildcoastholidays.co.za

This is the hole in the wall at Coffee Bay.

The Magwa Waterfalls – this can be seen in the area of Lusikisiki – near Mbotyi

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