There is no doubt South Africa spoils you forever for nature
and wildlife.
We are half way through our Grand South African tour driving
from Cape Town to the north of the country, down through the Kruger National
Park and then round to Durban and so back to Cape Town.
This half of our trip has focused on the National Parks and
particularly the Kruger, the Big Daddy of National Parks, the size of Wales
which measures over 250 miles top to bottom.
There is nothing like the thrill of driving along tarred or
gravelled roads never knowing what may be round the next corner. It could be
anything from the enormous elephant, tall giraffe, armour plated rhino
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| Baby rhino |
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| Gemsbok |
to the
dainty steenbok or the masses of millipedes all long and hairy crossing the
road. You can drive miles without seeing anything and then you can see three
groups of rhino in half an hour.
The sheer variety and diversity of wildlife is breathtaking.
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| Stunning zebra |
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| Male nyala - note the handsome yellow socks |
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This lady and her friend strolled by obviously feeling a bit peckish
|
The beauty of zebra, nyala and gemsbok is incredible and if you ever tire of
the mammals or get impatient with the lack of animals willing to be admired
from the safety of your car, then you can start on the birds. Words fail me to
describe the beauty and sheer diversity of the bird life.
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| Vultures |
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| Ground hornbill - nest building |
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| An unusual black stork |
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| The electric blue greater eared glossy starling |
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| A jacana chancing its luck with a croc! |
Even starlings come
in stunning electric blue and there is endless fun in spotting and trying to
identify that bundle of feathers up in the tree.
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| A tsessebe |
So we visited Karoo National Park and the new Mokala
National Park which is wonderful for animal spotting with something round every
corner it seemed. It even has the rare tsessebe grazing happily.
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| Crook's Corner |
Then we had a
week in the Kruger Park going as far north as Crook’s Corner so called because it
is where the borders of Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa meet and crooks
and poachers could easily slip across the border away from the authorities.
It has been a heartfelt desire of mine to visit this part of
the park and it was even better than expected. The semi-tropical vegetation was
home to all sorts of animals and birds and there was a plethora of baobab
trees.
However this tour was not just to be an African wildlife
bonanza. We also wanted to meet up with some old friends, firstly Kobus van Rensburg
at his Spirit Word church for the monthly Miracle Pool meeting. We had hosted
Kobus and Annaliese for one of the St Albans conferences several years ago.
They were so pleased to see us and we to see them.
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| The pool of Bethesda |
The worship was amazing and the presence of God beautiful.
Kobus is very unwell at the moment but somehow God gives him the strength and
grace to teach the Word. Though he uses a Bible to preach, he seems to have large
chunks of it memorised and quotes freely and accurately roaming through the
Word linking Scriptures. Afterwards everyone is invited to walk through the
pool of Bethesda and be prayed for by a team of people.
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| The wall covered in crutches from people who have been healed |
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| John and Bev Wasserman with ourselves |
Next day we visited John and Bev Wasserman at their church
in Johannesburg. John used to visit the UK quite frequently but he also has not
been well for quite a few years and now stays mostly at home. His church hosted
both Arrows of Fire (the youth outreach team) trips to South Africa. It was so
good to see him and Bev and again we were warmly welcomed. The worship was
beautiful and Kobus’ youngest son Pietrus preached for the first time and
overcame his nerves to give us a good message. Again we were all invited to be
ministered to. It was so good to catch up with these people again.
Afterwards as we drove to the northern part of the country it
brought back many memories of our visits to this area in 1999 and 2002 with
Arrows of Fire. We had ministered in the rural area of Venda and on the way
there we had stopped to minister at a church in Malumalele. This time we got
stopped for speeding by a lady policewoman eager to take our fine in cash
rather than having the trouble of going to the police station. When we insisted
on going to the police station she let us go on our way as it was too much
trouble for her to go there with us!!
We had been advised that we could do any shopping we needed
for the Kruger Park in Giyani, also a place visited by Arrows of Fire in 1999
and where several of our party contracted food poisoning at the local Nando’s. The
whole town is busy, crowded, scruffy, grubby and very African. In great fear
and trepidation we entered the local Spar (a convenience supermarket as it is in
the UK) and found everything to be way outside our comfort zone. The butchers
had a huge box of chicken feet and other delicacies sitting next to a box of
goodness-knows-what. All the meat was very unappealing and there was little of
anything to tempt us, so we grabbed a few essentials and fled!
At present we are making our way through some beautiful
Mpumalanga scenery to the Indian Ocean near Durban where apart from a dip in
the sea, we are going to spend several days with some old friends from Fish
Hoek.
