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5th february - 13th march

Overlanding across Afica in our Land Rover Defender: South Africa 1

Andy Lees
2006-05-16 13:55:49

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are impressive, both in terms of location and the facilities. and we did see plenty of elephant, impala, white rhino, a few wilderbeest and even a lion albeit from a distance. and we enjoyed ourselves. we maximised the use of the new fridge for daily braais. kruger's a good place to hide out in the semi-wild for a few days, but for us, at that time of year, it wasn't the wildlife extravaganza it's cracked up to be.

swaziland - 16th february

after leaving kruger, we stocked up on supplies and drove the short distance to the border of swaziland. this small independent kingdom is a country in its own right, but is surrounded on all sides by south africa. after a few days spent enjoying its parks, we exited again in the south, on route to the coast.

kosi bay and sodwana bay - 20th february

sodwana bay is south africa's premier diving resort, with reefs that are said to rival those of mozambique, and we know how good they are! further north, almost on the mozambiquan border, kosi bay is a tropical wetland area with forest covered dunes separating four freshwater lakes from the sea. an abundance of hippos and crocs inhabite the lakes and kosi mouth is meant to be great for snorkelling. for us, it sounded like a good place to start.

to reach the campsite at kosi bay it is necessary to leave the tarmac road and head seaward on a sandy track through the dunes. the track split, then again and again. there were no signs so we just kept going, trying to pick the most used route from the sandy gullies. after fifteen or twenty guessed junctions, we weren't so sure we were on route to the campsite, in fact, acording to the gps we were about 1km away from being back in mozambique. we had to turn back. what's more, we could no longer ignore the young men at the roadside who had been so desperately trying to get our attention ever since we'd left the main road. sadly, ...