Hellooooo South Africa! 😊

To join our holiday feeling and comfort in Brazil, we picked up a rental car upon arrival in Johannesburg and headed straight to Dullstroom (about 2,000m above sea level).

There, the next day, we first explored the surroundings...

...and then let Joyce show us her favorite animals.

She works in a small rescue center for birds and informs visitors about the abilities and characteristics of the injured birds or non-native pets during their necessary flight hours. She practices with them every day to be able to release them back into the wilderness after a lot of hard work and patience.

(In some areas of South Africa, owls are considered unlucky and are therefore often killed in large numbers. When school children come to the bird show, many are very frightened when Joyce introduces an owl. Joyce tries to educate about this misunderstanding and to end the hunting of these fascinating animals with her work.)

Our next stop took us to a high plateau...

After that, we headed to the Kruger National Park. What we saw there in the four days exceeded all our expectations. The proximity and diversity of the animals overwhelmed us.

We were lucky enough to see all of the 'Big Five' animals. Some animals were even so close that our hair stood on end and we had to reverse a few times...

We used the return trip towards Johannesburg for a little tour through the Blyde River Canyon, a 25 km long canyon that winds its way through the northern part of the Drakensberg Mountains.

Due to the weather - dense fog - we unfortunately could not enjoy all the viewpoints, but what we were allowed to see was very impressive! :)

Back in Johannesburg, we used the Hop on Hop off Bus for the first time on our trip and were positively surprised by the professionalism and amount of information :) Johannesburg is definitely an interesting city, but difficult to explore on foot and therefore definitely not our favorite place on the trip ;)

We also took the time to learn more about the history of this country and its long and dramatic path to overcome racial segregation in the Apartheid Museum.

In the end, we have to say that we unfortunately had too little time in South Africa and there are definitely other places and areas that we would still love very much :)

We have now arrived in Botswana and are struggling a bit with the lack of backpacker infrastructure - Welcome to the real Africa - but more about that in our next entry :)

See you soon and best wishes

Matthias and Lisa