My top 10 places to view Wildlife in South Africa

We lived in Centurion, Pretoria for 4 years and welcomed numerous visitors every year to South Africa, including family, friends and work colleagues. We were regular visitors to the first 6 places and enjoyed annual trips to 7-10.
In no particular order, other than closest to our home at the time, are the following places to view game, wildlife and birds.

1. Reitvlei Nature Reserve just off the R21. Fantastic for picnics, bird watching and viewing Rhino.

2. Groenkloof on the outskirts of Pretoria where the M18 and the R21 join. Get out your car and take a walk with Giraffes, Zebras and Gnu’s. Hire bikes, ride horses or experience the awesome 4x4 route. Picnic, camp and experience authentic African food at Moyo’s restaurant.

3. Walter Sisulu Gardens in Johannesburg. Enjoy a picnic, a stroll through the gardens, view the nesting Eagles and walk to view the waterfalls.

4. Krugersdorp Lion Reserve, best to visit on a Sunday and experience the feeding habits of the Lions in a semi wild habitat. Picnic site and camp site with restaurant.

5. Pilanesburg Game Reserve. The closest place to view the Big 5. A two hour drive from Pretoria or stay over in a lodge, Sun City or camp site. Take a picnic or eat at Pilanesberg Centre. View Lion, Elephant, Rhino, Cape Buffalo and a Leopard if you’re lucky. Self drive or game drives available.

6. Kruger National Park. Nearest entrance is Malelane, nr Leopards Leap Golf Course, stay inside or outside the park in a lodge or camping. Drive along Crocodile River and take a walk with a ranger to view the hippos. Visit one of numerous restaurants in the park or take a picnic and braai.

7. Take a road trip to Cape Town via Port Elizabeth and visit the Addo Elephant National Park, there’s a variety of lodges nearby at reasonable prices. Spend the day viewing Elephants and other game.

8. Port Elizabeth Light house and visit the SAMREC Penguin Sanctuary. Learn about the plight of the penguin and the good work they do to rehabilitate penguins and return them to the wild. Take a walk on the beach to the light house and view the Oyster Catchers in their natural habitat.

9. Visit Oudtshoorn, inland of Mossel Beach and George. There is a great restaurant and gift shop and take a guided tour of the Ostrich farm and learn about their environment and the trade in feathers. Finish the day off with an Ostrich ride.

10. Finally visit the Cape of Good Hope, where the Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean meet. Take a walk on the beaches with the free roaming antelope.

Week 94 - My Sunday Photo and Photalife - Life

Dubai is man made, apart from the sand and camels. Not a lot can live here without water desalination plants and air conditioning.

The temperatures are cooling enough now for people to start getting outdoors during day light out hours.

This photo was taken on Friday at Zabeel park, about a 20 minute drive from where we live. I will be exploring it further with How Does Your Garden Grow, next week.

How Does Your Garden Grow - Kruger National Park

It doesn't rain in South Africa in the winter and after the drought and water shortage from last summer, Kruger National park is very dry and very brown. The river levels are very low and some river beds have dried up completely.

However Kruger is still stunning, with amazing scenery and wildlife. You can tell when you're near water as the grass and shrubs are greener, other than that there is very little colour unless you look very hard at the picnic sites where the flora is looked after.

Dogs and Herons in the Desert

Every Friday morning we take a trip into the desert to Al Qudra Lakes with Bob. It's the ONLY place in Dubai he can run off the lead. We take him out for a walk every evening around the neighbourhood on the lead, but we can't take him on any of the beaches which is a shame as we only live 1km from the sea.

It's a 45 minute drive for a 60km trip, and the lakes are located directly behind the Al Qudra Cycle Centre. From the lakes on a clear day you can see Dubai Marina and on the drive home the Burj Al Arab and Burj Khalifa are also visable and we use them as our landmarks to navigate (oh and we know the route too well)

The lakes are man made and are home to 130 species of birds.

There has been an increase in traffic to the site in the past year since we've been visiting and sadly there is lots of rubbish left behind by visitors who have been camping, dog walking and partying in the desert. There is also a lot of damage from 4x4 off roaders and is very noisy some days and you have to keep a close eye on your dog with all the dune buggies and quad bikes.

Sadly, a lot of users of the lakes seem to think it has been designed just for their use, there is very little harmony amongst the groups and a fierce amount of competition in various face book groups about 'who' is the cause of the issues.

We, like many others, believe we are good users of the lake. We keep to the tracks when driving, we remove all of our rubbish and dog poo and we take rubbish bags and help clear up mess left behind by others.

There is a small coffee shop at the cycle centre, where toilets are also located, that is dog friendly and we've got into a routine of stopping for a drink after our morning walk, Bob gets fussed over by the cyclists and the staff bring out water and treats for him.

There is always a friendly dog for Bob to play with.

I hear the birds in the garden but it is not often I actually get to see them or have my camera with me.

I really want to visit the bird sanctuary again soon at Ras Al Khor, around the 4pm time when they feed the flamingoes.

Does a bear shit in the woods?

This one certainly did, about 100 metres from our tent while camping in the wild in Algonquin, Ontario, Canada, last summer.

HDYGG round up 2015

I've had great fun this year joining in with Annie and How Does Your Garden Grow. I've added a tab at the top of my blog if you're interested in reading my full HDYGG journey.

I'm living in Dubai, in a desert, we don't have sandy soil, we just have sand. I've never been big on gardening, usually I get bored and seedlings and bedding plants tended to go unwatered, so in the UK I stuck with shrubs and twice a year we'd have a 'tidy the garden' session and a couple of trips to the local tip.

One of my first photos this year was with Project 365 where I joined up photo prompts from snaphappybritmums and FMSPhotoADay.

I started noticing the colour in the streets while I was out and about exploring our new home and a visit to The Dubai Miracle Gardens had me convinced I too could achieve greatness in the empty sand and concrete garden at the villa we are renting.

We've now completed a full year in Dubai, starting and finishing in winter. I now know what to plant, where and when, I've visited places I would probably never have been or written about.

So what am I going to do for HDYGG this year? 

I don't have any travel planned this year, but I still have a few posts to write up from 2015 trip to Canada where I went camping in the wilds of Alquonguin and visited the beautiful gardens of Casa Loma in Toronto. I'll probably switch to a monthly round up of the garden, once I've caught up with all the lovely places I've visited last year. now that I am working full-time and of course there will be school planting projects I can report on, but sadly no photo's but I can try to recreate some at home.

I'll leave you with what's happening in the garden right now, we've had 2 tomatoes from the garden and there are lots more waiting to ripen, a few seeds are poking through in the pots and I'll be digging over the sand pit in the next few weeks ready to plant the seedlings out.

It would appear I'm not going to be digging alone, this bone burying of Bob's had better stop soon, or no more bones for Bob.

The municipality have been in full force also with their planting, this is the road outside the Burj Al Arab.

Red Squirrels in Cheshire

We went to visit hubbies aunty in Hyde last month as part of our UK tour and were surprised to see red squirrels in her garden, even more so to see the cheeky blighters come in through the back door and they took a lot of persuading to go back outside. Mind you she does feed them so hardly that surprising really.

I'm off to South Africa this week for a month, so expect to see plenty of posts about the wildlife out there.

A day at an English Farm

All our kids have left home but that doesn't stop us having fun when we visit the UK in the form of our 4 year old niece, who we were lucky enough to borrow for 24 hours from my sister and BIL. We had a meeting at our sons boarding school in Gloucestershire and took O with us for the day, followed by a picnic in the pub in the evening with friends and their 3 year old boy.

Pull Court, Tewkesbury

The old stable block converted into the boarding house

The day we visited the farm was the wettest day we've had in ages, since we are currently living in Dubai, hence why the picnic was moved from lunchtime, which we had in Morrison's, to the pub in the evening.

Despite the rain and unsuitable footwear we saw geese, turkeys and chickens close up and cows, sheep and miniature ponies in the fields.

Our favourites were the pigs and as O called them 'proper, real, pink piggies with curly tails and big noses'

We had a small problem with folding the pushchair, you can see how much use I was in the pouring rain while hubby struggled with it for ages, almost abandoning it in the car park. You'll also notice that we forgot to put O in the car while we fought with the pushchair in the pouring rain. It's been a long time since we've parented anyone that small.