A very welcome reunion!

Well chaps, if you thought overlanding was all plain sailing, that trucks don’t break down, and that it never rains in Africa, then I’m afraid we’ve got news for you.

Happily reunited with Athena in Swaziland!  Everyone donned their Odyssey shirts to celebrate!

Let’s start with the truck... Due to new regulations, we weren't able to use our faithful Athena through South Africa as she is UK-registered, so we unfortunately had to charter a truck for our time in the first country of our expedition.  The truck that we chartered needed some attention, and on closer inspection by a mechanic one Friday afternoon, some maintenance was deemed necessary. It had to be Friday, didn’t it? So while the rest of the world is saying T.G.I.F., we had to wait until Monday for the new part to arrive...

In the meantime, we resorted to hiring local transport so we could get out of the rain in Chintsa and move on to Coffee Bay. All good, though a bit of a squeeze to get 22 people’s luggage, sleeping gear, tents and food into this trailer.

Quite a tight squeeze...

Anyway, Bering (our add-on driver for a couple of days) delivered us safely to the Coffee Shack, which was a great venue to celebrate the first of the birthdays on the trip – Matt’s.  We had a couple of days here – Lee, Rogan and Mike tried a bit of surfing, others walked to Hole-in-the-wall, did some drumming, bought some beads, and sampled a traditional Xhosa meal. Oh, and a night of heavy rains.

Ana on the drums

Traditional Xhosa dancing

Monique and friends

Matt and friends

Moving on, still with Bering and his bus, we left Rogan to collect the truck, and Bering took us through the Transkei, to the Drakensberg mountains. Unfortunately, despite Bering’s running commentary about what dangers could be encountered whilst driving, and which is the most dangerous animal to hit (as we avoided cows, pigs, goats, sheep, dogs, chickens), his vehicle was also playing up and by the time we reached Kokstad, the radiator needed some attention. And we needed to wait...

Waiting, waiting...

But we made it to the Drakensberg eventually, and had a couple of awesome days there – hiking, swimming in river pools and going up the Sani Pass and in to Lesotho.

David at Sani Pass

Spectacular Drakensberg scenery

The Sani Pass is definitely at 4x4 only road!

Abby & Elaine

Monique

Jen getting up close and personal with some bushman art

Sheep shearing

We were back in a truck for our final leg in South Africa, heading back to the coast and up to St.Lucia and Cape Vidal. A stunning spot – national park that includes wetlands and coastal reserve, as well as a section with some big game – we saw rhino, buffalo, kudu, waterbuck, warthog, bushbuck and even hyaenas; and from our camp at night: spotted genet and a bushpig. Unfortunately, it rained much of the way from the Drakensberg  to here, followed by a beautiful morning spent on the beach, and then a massive electric storm that lasted the whole night. Think we were all ready to leave SA and head to a new country and a new truck – Swaziland and our faithful Athena (our Odyssey truck’s name), to take us the rest of the way to Cairo. A happy day and a beautiful sight J, Athena is great, and much appreciated after our other forms of transport!

White rhino

Spotted genet

Spotted hyaena

Stunning beach at Cape Vidal

Swaziland is a small landlocked country, so we’ve only spent 4 nights here. We camped at Mlilwane Nature Reserve, which is a little sanctuary for mostly smaller game, in an area where poaching was once a huge problem. The nice thing here is that you can explore the reserve on foot, so observe the animals from outside of a vehicle for a change.

Martin

Monique

Not the prettiest, but still always a favourite, warthogs

We then headed (along with the rain) up to Shewula Community Camp, situated up on the plateau in Swaziland. It cleared up enough for a walk around the village, followed by some Swazi dancing, and a delicious meal prepared by the camp.

Now it’s Mozambique for a week, hopefully between rain we’ll get some good beach time! (Yes, it’s rainy season, and it can and does rain quite frequently, and I’m sure that’s not the last time you’ll be hearing about the weather from us!)

On our way to Cairo!

We are on our way to Cairo! The 2011 African Odyssey Cape to Cairo is officially on the road, and moving.

Firstly, to introduce the expedition members. We are a team made up of 22 travellers - Irish, Scottish, English, Welsh, Australians, Canadians, Portuguese(well actually from Madeira) and a South African.

Just so you know who we all are in the first (formal) group photo, from left, back row: Jane, Mike, Jennifer, Tom, Dianne, Caitriona, Monique, Jon, Adam and Abby. Middle from left: Graham, Peter, Dave, Lee, Martin, Elaine and Denise; and in the front Kath, Ana and Matt. The crew Rogan and Alison were taking the photos but you’ll see us in some pics further down the line (and recognize us as the ones who weren’t in the group shot!)

We left Cape Town just over a week ago and have wound our way up the Garden Route and into the Wild Coast. First stop was Stellenbosch and the winelands. Nothing like wine tasting first thing in the morning for a group to get to know each other. That was followed by exploring the avenues of Stellenbosch and then our First Night Camping.  I’m afraid we were ‘initiated’ into the whole camping thing early on, as the first morning of breaking camp saw us packing up in the rain, which seemed to follow us to Hermanus. So after an afternoon of whale spotting and a windy night, we made a quick stop at Cape Aghulas, the southern most tip of Africa, and then deviated from our original plan and headed inland for fairer weather and to discover somewhere new for Odyssey and off-the-beaten-track, which is what Odyssey is really all about.  We found a lovely spot in the Little Karoo between Calitzdorp and Oudtshoorn, a region known for good port production and ostrich farming. Had to sample the local produce so we bought a couple of ostrich eggs to scramble – 1 ostrich egg is the equivalent of 24 normal eggs, so 2 eggs literally fed all of us for breakfast.

Beautiful Stellenbosch

Elaine, Abby & Graham

Adam, Lee & Jon

Peter & Dave

Dave & a chameleon

Adam & Jon

Al, Dianne & Adam

African penguins at Betty's Bay, on the way to Hermanus

Camping - our faithful Athena is meeting up with us in Swaziland due to new regulations in South Africa, so the yellow truck is only temporary!

Caitriona

Plenty of opportunities to practice putting up your tent!

Rogan at Cape Agulhas

Elaine & Abby, on their second Odyssey, having travelled on the London to Australia expedition with Odyssey in 2009

Caitriona & Tom

David

Sunset over the Little Karoo

Sundowners, Kath, Elaine, Mike, Jane and Rogan

We joined the coast and the sun for a couple of awesome beach days near Knysna, and then headed on to Tsitsikamma National Park for another gorgeous summer afternoon, where some of us hiked along the cliffs to a waterfall with an icy pool at the bottom to swim in. Others were recovering from the world’s highest bunji. That’s right, a quarter of the group took the plunge and jumped off a 216m high bridge. Well done Abby, Ana, Adam, Jon and Martin!!

Dianne & Denise

Monique

Martin, getting harnessed up

Last minute checks for Adam

3 ...2....1...bungy!  Ana makes it look easy!

It is always exhilarating camping right next to the crashing waves, but what was very special was to see the waves glowing at night, as if they were luminous. Our guess was phosphorescence – an upwelling of plankton – in the water. It was magical.

Next was Addo, via a locally famous pie shop near Paterson. Addo Elephant National Park was the first of the game parks on this journey, and the first game-viewing for many of the group. It lived up to its name and provided lots of ellies for us, with an especially good sundowner show at the camp’s waterhole :)

We are now exploring the Wild Coast for a few days. Summer has temporarily left us, but that didn’t affect a good night of drumming in the bar, and it’s giving everyone time to catch on correspondence, photos, washing etc etc. We still have just over a week left in South Africa, which will take us up to the Drakensberg, in to Lesotho, and further on up the coast to St.Lucia.