Flips, Sun City and surrounding area
Trip Start
Aug 22, 2009
1
22
Trip End
Sep 26, 2009
Limpopo, South Africa
Thursday, September 24, 2009
From here we headed into J'burg and where we stayed the evening with Oom Johan – this was a nice relaxing weekend where we stayed at their place and on the Sunday we had a huge braai with all the family over. A great concept the 'fondue braai' where the coals were thrown around a circle in the middle of a table and each person had their own pair of tongs to cook their own meat right in front of them.
Sunday evening we headed towards Oom Flip and his holiday place at the dam, the night before heading towards Sun City.
Sun City and Lost Cities.
Monday we headed over to Sun City and we had planned a two night stay out in Boshuek (10km from Sun City) – here we stayed at the Amritz Guest Lodge and the owner of this guesthouse is actually a relation of Paul's (on his Mum's side). The guesthouse was out in the middle of a farm, they had a small aviary filled with budgies and two female guinea pigs – so cute!
The Monday was a nice relaxing day over at Sun City where we spent most of the day at the 'beach' (its actually an artifical beach that's been created here) and swimming in the 'waves' (actually a large wave pool). They had some awesome slides here too, the 'Tarantula' which was pitch black inside and you sped left and right and straight down... the 'Black Mumba' where we went down floating on a rubber tube and again was completely pitch black but was soo cool!
The scariest slide of them all though was the 'Tower of Courage' which this was the first slide we went on – here you had to cross both your arms across your chest and your ankles. I saw Paul go over first and disappear over the top and finally saw him splash down at the very bottom... I really wanted to walk away but I thought damn it I'm going to regret not going down. So here I am panicking while I'm lying flat on my back, cross both arms and legs 'check'.. next thing I know the woman up the top has pushed my back so I slide forward but then all I can see ahead of me is the far far horizon, next thing I know I'm completely airborne, I've closed my eyes and I start really freaking out and I feel my ankles uncross them BAMB I feel the slide back behind my back and I close my eyes til I finally reach the water at the bottom. I get up from the water with a sore toosh, which is actually still bruised might I add!! And Paul's just laughing at me, shaking his head saying 'why did you uncross your legs??', well it's kind of hard when you're airborne!!
We walked around the area checking out the broken columns, elephant sculptures, other animal etchings into the stone – we felt like we'd stepped into an India Jones movie site!! it was so cool and so beautiful. We continued around Lost City checking out the little waterfalls, and walked up the stairs up to the Palace. We didn't realise we couldn't get inside the Palace which was a real shame and we were too late to book a tour so we've bought a book we'll show everyone of the inside.
We went and had dinner at the Raj restaurant in the Sun City Hotel which was fantastic, and Paul played a bit of Blackjack in the casino.. the 100ZAR got blown in bout 5minutes, he had fun! I must say the detail in that place completely blows Skycity out of the gutter!
We were going to spend a second day in Sun City but we figured as we had already checked out the casino and the pools etc, we went to MaroPeng and the Sterkfontein Caves instead, in the Cradle of Humankind (after an hour long detour after us not paying attention to the GPS and reading signs). This was fun, here we went into a cool museum which basically focused on the evolution of man – I enjoyed the mini boat ride so here you go into a round boat which takes you underground and through the different elements so example we went through a cave full of ice, then past 'volcanoes' and you see them erupt etc.
From here we drove over to the Sterkfontein Caves, these caves were made famous as they discovered the earliest human remains in the world – look up Mrs Ples and Little Foot and you'll see the name Sterkfontein, this is where we went... compared to the Sudwala Caves they were really cool where they were exceptionally tall, cool at a constant 18degrees and luckily they had no bats!
Lesedi Village
By now we must admit we're getting really tired, homesick and can't wait to get into our own bed!! we miss our Echo too! So we're now trying to cramp in all the last minute touristy things before we leave...
Today (Wednesday) we've left Mariette's guesthouse and headed back towards the dam (Oom Flip's), and off to Lesedi Village. Here we got to experience the different African cultures – Ndebele, Basotho, Zulu, Xhosa and Pedi, so with our tour guide (dressed as Zulu) he took us around these mini villages and were greeted by the different chiefs in each village in their native tongue (the Xhosa was difficult as they 'click' and 'cluck' in their language – Nelson Mandela's was Xhosa) and saw different unique experiences in each.
After walking through each we were lead to a large grass roofed hut where all of the different cultures came out and danced for us – these were incredible where especially the Zulus kick their legs up so high where they can actually kick past their head! And I thought I could kick high from my dancing days...
After getting up and booging with the Zulu girls we worked up an appetite and ate in their restaurant where they offered a buffet meal and we both got to try crocodile and ostrich meat for the first time! Very very nice!
Cheetah Park
The following day we went along to the de Wildt Cheetah Park with Paul's younger cousin Edene and her friend – so here we could tick both cheetah's and wild dogs off our list! This was a nice reserve where the area was donated by Anne de Wildt's children.
Firstly they introduced three of their cheetah ambassadors which ran for us, first up was Dee who was quite skittish but she was very young (1 year), she was a bit slow getting out of the vehicle and was more interested in watching something in the far distance but once she got going wow damn she was quick! Second we had Shakra (another female but little bit older), she was amazing once the back door of the vehicle opened up she leapt and ran into the track and immediately started chasing the target! Thirdly they brought out Alan's Girl / Big Girl and rather than bringing her down to us in the vehicle they just simply opened up her enclosure and she walked on down with the guide – again she was amazing to watch, and oh so quick! By now we had given up trying to get photos of them trying to run... oh and note the cheetah's were out in the open with us, we all lined up parallel to the track and they would've simply been 10m in front of us!!
From here we went into a small auditorium where we learnt the history of the reserve and of the different animals they have – cheetahs (obviously), ostrich, wild dogs, small cats, badgers etc... In here we had the opportunity to pat one of their most common cheetah's Byron. Apparently they take Byron around the country to different schools and talk bout conservation issues and cheetahs etc etc and kids get to pat him all the time. We all got to go up and pat him and get our photo taken so yay another thing we can tick off the list – we've patted and had a photo taken with a big cat!
From here we went on a 2hour ride around the reserve to look at and learn more about the different animals so again here we saw vultures and the different breeds – Eqyptian, Cafe Griffon etc, ostrichs and the vervet monkeys were hanging out with them and stealing their scraps, brown hyaenas, wild dogs, cheetahs and something extremely rare, so uncommon to see in Africa... the friendly impala!! (ha!).
Unfortunately these guys didn't have any fridge magnets BUT... Paul got a soft toy souvenir, you'll have to wait and see what he got (those who know him best should be able to guess what it is...).
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This will be our last entry on our blog while we're actually away – the plan is we'll go to the apartheid museum in J'burg tomorrow morning and from there we'll be off to the airport to fly back home so we'll see you all very very soon!
