ANOTHER VISIT TO KRUGER PARK - July 2013

Last weekend, we drove to Kruger Park for a weekend visit. The park is only two hours away, but we have to go via the Ressano Garcia border crossing. The first is on the Mozambican side, the next is on the South African side. This is where we get our passports stamped and we are given authority to drive across and back. This time we waited in a long line of people for two hours to leave Mozambique. Customs there is not very efficient. The South African side is more organised and efficient. On our return it took 10 - 15 minutes to go through both checkpoints! (I have been told on holidays and especially at Christmas, people can wait between 4-6 hours!!)

We eventually arrived at our hotel which was only 100 metres from the entrance gate at Malelane. We had an early night, as we wanted to get up very early the next morning. We intended to check out places to visit and stay when family comes to visit us in October and November this year. We drove as far as Satara.

During our day of driving, this is what we saw......

We were greeted by "Phumba" or a warthog as we entered Skukuza Camp.

Majestic looking water buffalo, by the side  of the road.

Graceful giraffes glided by us.

Our first ever leopard! They are very hard to spot.
This one was enjoying it's meal!

Showing off the carcass.

WOW! What a beautiful animal!

We were looking at a pod of hippos in a waterhole, when Mr. O.
spotted some lions in the distance with our binoculars.

We watched in anticipation to see our first hunt in operation.

The lion crouched behind a tree watching...

a "sounder" of warthogs. Oblivious to their onlooker. She pounced on them,
but they were too quick and got away with their tails in tact!
We think she was a juvenile and was practising her hunting skills.

Can you spot the three other lions, resting in the shade of the midday son?

Another leopard! Just hanging about and resting during the heat of the day.

A rare spotting of the endangered "wild dog"!

We didn't know that Kruger Park had ostriches!

Another wonderful find!
A mother cheetah with her three cubs!

Leopard #3 with its kill. Underneath the tree was a ...

big, mean looking hyena, grabbing at every morsel that fell from above!

Sunday. Before heading back to Maputo, we had lunch at a
special restaurant called THE DECK. It is situated right on
the banks of the Crocodile River that borders Kruger Park.

See how close we are? The electric fence was just in front of the deck railing !

We watched several herds of elephants "surf" down the steep sand banks to drink and swim in the river.
 They would bend their back legs and kneel down to create a "brake", so as not to topple.
They looked like they were having a fun time! It was very  interesting and funny to watch!

Timid kudos checking out the neighbours.

A male elephant on his own, crossing the river.

How lucky were we? VERY!

PORTUGAL & SPAIN : LISBOA - THE LAST STOP

 Looking down on Lisbon (Lisboa as the Portuguese pronounce it) having ridden the ancient Elevador de Santa Justa up three levels and climbing up three more levels to the top. A beautiful view, but I hate heights!

 Boats, cars, buses, motorbikes, trams and pedestrians make Lisbon a very busy city. It did not get dark until 11 pm and with the temperatures soaring at 40-42 degrees, many people were trying to find cool spots to sit and relax.

We found a cool place with a view of the harbour and great food, too!

Torre de Belem

We visited the famous Pasteis de Belem where they have been baking the delicious pastal de natas and other wicked treats for over 100 years. The best ever, I have decided. Not long out of the oven., the pastry was crispy and the egg custard still warm. Mmmmm! People queue out the door and around the corner to sample these treats!

We visited the Maritime Museum at Belem. Mr. O. fell in love with another map! We even had to buy a copy for his ever growing map collection. He was listening to the lady on the far left, tell the history of the Portuguese and Spanish accumulation of land and the explorers' discoveries and conquests.

We also visited another museum where they told the history of Lisbon in an hour! We walked around the well designed museum with individual  audio devices that told the history. Very interesting! Lisbon suffered a terrible earthquake in 1775 that killed over 15,000 people. It suffered many aftershocks and even a tsunami!






We travelled on the red bus around Lisbon, but this day ended up being too hot for us to sit on the non-airconditioned bus and walk around in the heat. We returned to our hotel and the comfort of our air conditioned room to pack for the early rise the next morning to head back to our apartment in Maputo. What a fabulous three week holiday we had! We learnt lots of historical facts, made new friends, met up with old friends, ate new foods, listened to different music, used euros for the first time and had loads of fun! I can't wait for my next adventure! I wonder where it will be?

PORTUGAL & SPAIN : BARCELONA

Barcelona is a big and bustling city! There were lots of noisy motorbikes and cars and buses and trams! There were many lanes and it was very hard to work out the road rules! We were glad that we were not driving! We walked down the very famous, busy and crowded street called Avenida Ramblas. There were lots of "street theatre" people there posing like statues in the hot sun. We visited the colourful and tantalising markets where we sampled some of the delicious food on offer. We headed down to the port and the Maritime Museum. We saw a very tall monument of the explorer Christopher Columbus. There was a gigantic catamaran that came into port. Mr. O. was fascinated by the size and manoeuvrability of this sea vessel.

This is the old bullring where they used to fight and kill bulls as a spectator sport. Apparently, now they do not kill the bulls. I wonder if they still fight them though?

Teacher picture.
Can you spot the 3D shapes, kids?

 Barcelona is known for many famous people. Three being Picasso the painter, Hemmingway the novelist  and Gaudi the architect . We went on a red bus tour all around Barcelona and we were fascinated by the arcitecture of Gaudi. Some was so imaginative and some were really weird. The highlight was his spectacularly beautiful church called "Basilica Sagrada Familia". It was positively breathtaking and so elegant!

Casa Batllo

La Pedrera

Park Guell where he grew up.
Looks like Disneyland without the rides

Basilica Sagrada Familia

We were very fortunate to meet a lovely young man who worked at the famous Barca "Soccer" (Football) Club. We had a private tour of the museum and the stands. some people I know would be very envious of us!

And the crowd goes wild!