We drove out of the park through a different gate than the one we used when we had arrived on Saturday: the Paul Kruger Gate. We were headed to the town of Graskop. That would give us a several hour start, the next morning, on our long drive back to Jo'berg and the airport. Even with the 2-hour handicap, we'd still have to get up very early on Wednesday to catch our flight at 2:45 the next afternoon.
As we crossed a final river in Kruger, (most had been dried up during the summer), a couple of Maribou storks were hanging out by some rocky river pools, drinking and biding their time. These scavengers are huge. they have the second largest wingspan of any land bird - up to 10.5 feet!
Two Maribou storks drinking from pools in the river bed that we crossed.
Would you look at that wingspan!
Next, we spotted a couple of Nyala - a South African antelope, grazing by the side of the road. This was our first sighting of this graceful animal.
Now we were out of the park but the topography was still wild and unspoiled. As wild as it was, we all remarked at how wonderful were the South African roads: clean, well paved and beautifully maintained.
We drove along and found ourselves back on the Great Escarpment but along a different route than we had taken on our way to Kruger. The scenery was breathtaking -- wide open landscape with voluminous white clouds set off against the brilliant blue sky. We wanted to stop to take pictures but the road wound torturously back and forth and stopping was impossible. Every once in a while we'd get stuck behind a logging truck filled with timber that was lumbering up a mountain and we'd slow to a crawl. The area goes through the lumber towns of Sabie and Graskop. This area encompasses millions upon millions of acres of trees planted to provide timbers for the gold mines! The sight of perfectly lined-up rows of trees stretching onwards for miles and miles is astonishing.
Breathtaking scenery on the road to Graskop.
As we reached our destination of Graskop we made a turn in the road and came across a lovely restaurant that was perched on the edge of a massive canyon and outcropping of rock. I quickly declared that this was to be our lunch stop and that turned out to be no mistake, for Madeleine's Coffee and Catering, which had only been open for a few months, turned out to be a gem - both in location and in food.
The view from our table. The massive outcropping in the distance is the actual Graskop (grassy head) from which the town takes its name.
This place was magical: a lovely little swimming pool is built into the cliff - quite idyllic.
At Madeleine's we also got our first taste of a rather wonderful South African dish: Bobotie. It consists of curried chopped beef baked with a custard topping. Delicious!
As we prepared to drive the last few miles into the town of Graskop, the skies turned ominously dark and the wind picked up. Suddenly, a ferocious downpour with hail and drenching rain.
We could hardly see the "grassy head" any longer through the drenching rain.
Lori and Peter ... waiting out the rain at Madeleine's.
We drove into the town proper, and checked into a lovely hotel that Lori had booked before we left New York: The Graskop Hotel. Their slogan? "An art gallery you can sleep in." And, indeed, that was true - lovely art decorated the entire place, inside and out - in the lobby, restaurant, gallery and gardens. A great place to spend the night.
Lori and Stacey pose for my camera in front of the Graskop.
The lovely pool at the Graskop. Behind it were our rooms - individual apartments arranged around a beautiful, and quiet, garden.
Our rooms were set around a lovely garden guarded by St. Frances and his friends. (Notice Lori and Peter?)
Cocktails, anyone? Sitting in the hotel lobby after our drive from Kruger park.
Art work filled the lobby and many galleries of the Graskop.
Stacey and folk-art friends.
Dinner was just across the street at a lovely Portuguese-Mozambique restaurant - a reminder that we were in Africa and that Africa was ruled by the colonial powers for so many years...a legacy that is still very evident.
We turned in, woke early to continue our ride to the airport and our flight to Cape Town and the second half of our trip. Very interesting posts await you my dear reader, including --
- the cool, hip city of Cape Town with all its contradictions - enormous white wealth on the back of immense Black poverty -- the legacy of apartheid, 12 years after its abolition.
- mixing it up with penguins at Boulders Beach.
- we reach the very bottom of Africa - the Cape of Good Hope.
- we take a cable car to the top of Table Mountain - awesome!
Breakfast at the Graskop, before setting off for Johannesberg airport - five hours away.
Brother and sister at the airport, preparing to fly two hours to Capetown.
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