I’m back

Well I’m finally back in the UK after a month of R&R in South-Africa.

It always takes a bit of getting used to, but this year seems more difficult than ever. The quality of life in SA is just so much higher than in the UK. Why are we still in this country?!? I’m just moaning now I know – the UK and London specifically has so much to offer. I guess I’m just missing the sunshine, beauty & wide open spaces of South Africa.

Swiftly moving on. We spent the first 11 days at my parents-in-law on the Kromme River (near St Francis Bay). The next 10 days we spent at my parents at Boesmansriviermond. For the rest of my holiday my father and I spent in the Kalahari Gemsbok Park.

As you probably got from the 2nd paragraph, we had a fantastic time. The weather on the coast wasn’t as hot/sunny as you’d usually expect for this time of the year, but they needed rain so we didn’t complain too much. We still managed to spend some quality time on my brother-in-law’s jetski.

The Kalahari Gemsbok Park was superb (and hot as hell). It is meant to be the best place in the world to photograph lions. And these lions have the characteristic black manes. We had six sightings of lion; 2 producing some great photographic oppurtunities. We also experienced some hardcore thundershowers. It rained 63mm in one morning. The area’s annual rainfall is 130mm!

Although the KGP was superb, it almost turned very nasty indeed. I came about 5cm from being bitten by a puff-adder. Some of you may know that the puff-adder is a very poisonous. It is virulently cytotoxic (cell-destroying) and can cause some very serious damage. It was my own stupidity and I was bloody lucky to not have been bitten. If you do ever walk around at night in SA, make sure you look where you walk and wear shoes. I got told this and ignored the advice. It almost cost me.

I’ll upload some photos soon enough.