Heathton Manor Creations: Africa

Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts

Thursday, 20 February 2020

African adventure in Kenya.

The middle of February saw us fly to Kenya, via Perth and Johannesburg. The flight to Perth is 4 1/2hours, we had a 2 hour wait, then a 10 1/2hr flight to Johannesburg.
We had to wait 5 hours for our connecting flight to Nairobi. On arrival we were met by our driver and transported to our hotel, to rest overnight, before we begin our tour.
After 28hrs on leaving home, it was an early meal and early to bed.
The next day we met our driver/guide, Debit who navigated the very heavy traffic of Nairobi and we made our way to the Masai Mara National Park.
This drive was about 5 hours, we drove through the Rift Valley, the bread basket of Africa.
The great Rift Valley is part of the Afro-Arabian rift system which stretches from Jordan in the north to Mozambique in the south. Nowhere is it more defined than in Kenya where in places, it is as wide as 80km (50miles) across the escarpment walls rising up to 600 metres (2,000feet)
The views from some of these walls are spectacular.

We travelled through the scenic plains towards Narok and the Mara National Reserve.

View of the Rift Valley

Lots of curio shops

After our viewing, we drove down the valley to have a very good cup of Kenyan coffee.
We arrived into our lodgings, which is situated in a conservancy bordering the Masai Mara game reserve.

Mara Sentrim, our accomodation

Glamping style with full amenities.

The pool area.

After we settled in and had lunch, we went on a game drive for 4 hours in the Masai Mara game reserve.

The grass was very long and green, hard to see many animals clearly, we were lucky with the serval cat being on the road.

This serval cat was walking along the road, apparently they are hard to spot, we were lucky to see one, at first we thought it was a leopard, often mistaken for one.

We also saw four cheetahs, lying in the grass, we were allowed to go by two cars with the permission of the research team.

The four cheetahs

Crown primrose birds.

A lone giraffe

A Masai Mara sunset, gorgeous on a Valentine’s Day.

The Masai Mara lies along the border of Tanzania, it is bisected by the Mara River and boarded on the western boundary by a spectacular escarpment. The film “Out of Africa” was filmed in this area.

The Mara is an area of 2700sq km (690sq.miles) and is the home of the greatest variety and largest number of wild animals in Kenya.

It is also the northern extension of Tanzania’s famous Serengeti national parks and the animals wander freely across man-made borders.

Our abode for the night

Part of the big five, we were luck enough to see 6 lioness and 7 cubs, just dawdling along the road, so excited to watch them, they were not scared of the cars. Everyone rushed to the spot to catch a look, I have several photos of course as well as a video, too see them this close was a bonus.

All the safari vehicles, word gets out very quickly.

A Masai giraffe, they are browner than the South African giraffe.

Leopard in the tree, this was an adventure to get this photo, let me begin an explanation, not sure how it was spotted, but it was in a tree in the distance, to get closer, money had to change hands and two cars at each time were allowed a photo stop. In the Masai Mara National Park, a heavy fine applies if you go off the tracks and make your own tracks. To get close to the leopard we had to cross a large embankment!!!!, here lies the drama....... we got stuck on the embankment, to get off after several attempts, the help of other game drivers, we had to pushed with a big bull bar to try and go forward, after several rams and skidding of tyres etc, we event

gotta free, I might add we were the talk of the park.

This is the point at the Mara River that borders Tanzania and Kenya

Distance described to both countries.

A hippos jaw on the Mara River

Our ranger guide Will, who took us on an escorted tour of the Mara River.

The Mara River where the migration happens every year in July. This is where they cross. During the migration the whole reserve may be dotted with herds of wildebeest. A count during migration in the 80’s revealed over a million wildebeest, half a million gazelles and over 200,000 zebra residents in the reserve at any one time. In the crossing of the Mara River, which flows very fast, the loss of animals can be up to 2,000 or more and the river just stinks with dead animals. The wildebeest usually follows the zebras. They cross to give birth and return to the greener grass in September /October.

The Mara River

Hippos live along this river as well as crocs.

See how fast the river flows.

The Mara River signpost.

The two Tony’s discussing the river and crossing.

Huge crocs in the river, they feed on all the carcasses.

The river, how fast it flows.

Hippos in the river.

This photo was captured by a professional photographer in Masai Mara reserve, one of the cheetahs we seen of the four, helped bring down a topi on the 20th February.

We had two wonderful days in the Masai Mara Game Park, very different landscape to Kruger National Park. More adventures to follow with our visit to the Masai Mara village.

Friday, 17 May 2019

Franschhoek, wine country

Thursday we were picked up and driven to the beautiful Franschhoek Valley, which is known as the wine and gourmet capital of South Africa. The drive took just under an hour and we arrived into the Franschhoek township just after 8am. We were not disappointed with the breath-taking scenery, surrounding this well maintained township and valley. Here we were to board a wine tram and bus, which will take us to five different wineries.
The Huguenots first settled in this spectacular valley over 300 yrs ago, they bought with them their traditions and knowledge in wine making and viticulture from their native France and transformed the wilderness around them into one of the most beautiful valleys in the world.
This proud heritage can be seen and felt today in the village on the surrounding farms.
There are a variety of cellars to visit, we chose to visit, Allee Bleu, Solms Delta, Boschendal, Plaisir de Merle and Verde en Lust, where we chose to have lunch.
DH and I did not sample, but we had coffee and beer at different locations, personally I do not like the taste of winE and DH decided that he just wanted to have beer, there are a few craft breweries available, but the tram did not stop at them.
We spent 4 to 5 hours visiting the wineries, having lunch at Verde en Lust in beautiful surroundings of the vineyards.

DH organising out timetable

Some of the sampling rooms

More sampling rooms

Boschendal seating area, a gorgeous setting amongst the rose gardens, apparently roses are planted next to grapevines, to check to see if the soil is any good, if the roses continue to bloom all is good with the soil.

Garden setting

Tasting rooms

The mountains surrounding the valley, so tranquil.

Allee Blue.

We had coffee here.

Entry to Plaisir De Merle

Artistic statues throughout the town.

Our tram, there was sampling on board, DH and I had a taste !!.

Tasting rooms

Gorgeous gardens

Mountains in the distance.

Entry

Our bus before the tram.

The tram station.

Lunch, salad and corn fritters.

Lust restaurant

DH had haddock fish cakes and beer.

Theses small homes are provided for the farm workers

Statues throughout the town and vineyards

The old train station, now a bar and cafe..

Small homes for the workers

Vineyards, now is autumn going into winter.

Franschhoek is a little like Margaret River in WA, but a lot more beautiful due to the surrounding mound set in a valley. The town is very arty and has a huge array of cafe’s, shops, art galleries and boutique shops. After our tour of the vineyards we spent a couple of enjoyable hours window shopping and of course a little purchase for me.

All things quirky appeal to me, so I bought a nigemi doll and some more bead wire animals.