ensued a comedy sketch as we were
under the beds with torches, (‘squeak’
said the squirrel), up amongst the
thatch, (squeak!), we peered down
between the floorboards (squeak!).
Finally, the squirrel won the bat-
tle and we collapsed laughing and
exhausted into our beds and left the
wee critter to its own devices hoping
it wouldn’t poop in our panniers.
In the morning, I wandered out
onto the veranda to have a coffee
when suddenly; the birds started
sounding an alarm call. I looked
round the side of the chalet and there
was a huge giraffe peering back at
me! I shot back into the chalet and
shook Jane awake.
“Look! Look!” I spluttered as she
blearily awakened. Jane sat bolt
upright as I pointed out the window
and we both simultaneously breathed
“Wow!”
The giraffe was standing three
metres from our window and was
having a good old look at us as we
gazed back at him. He was com-
pletely unperturbed and just stood
there watching us. What an amazing
experience!
Later in the day, we saw the fourth
of our big five sightings as we were
driven in a safari truck by Jason past
the park’s buffalo herd. But no rhi-
noceros. The last of the big five was
proving elusive.
We left Moholoholo rather sadly as
that was our last visit to a big game
park and in keeping with the mood,
the weather changed for the worse.
Riding up into the mountains, we
entered the clouds. It was freezing!
The clouds were so dense, we were
soon soaked through. We were riding
in close convoy with numerous other
vehicles and riding with hazard flash-
ers on. Visibility reduced to a few
metres and Alex gave us hi-vis vests
to wear for safety. Almost like riding
in Scotland really.
The last night on the road was
spent in the town of Dullstroom
which is the highest town in South
Africa. We had a pleasant enough
evening, but the mood was lowering
towards the end of the holiday and
we still hadn’t seen any rhinos.
The next day was to be a rather
boring motorway push back to Jo-
hannesburg so with heavy hearts we
packed the panniers for the last time
and loaded the bikes for Joburg and
set off down the motorway.
After a couple of hours of steady
motorway riding, Alex slowed to pull
us into a motorway service area. I
was just thinking how much I had
seen, that I had seen the best of South
TRAVERSE 56
Africa but still no rhinos, when Alex
started gesticulating wildly to the left!
Rhinos! A whole herd of rhinos!
We parked up in the motorway
service area and ran up to watch the
rhinos. They started ambling towards
a small lake near the cafe to take a
drink. There was a tiny little baby
one which was feeding from its mum
and a herd of adults. Oh! The excite-
ment! We had seen the big five! Ten
days without seeing a single rhino
and nine come along at once!
On the very last day of our vaca-
tion, at a motorway service station,
we finally saw rhinoceros. What a fab-
ulous end to our South African safari.
Now that is a sight you don’t see at
Southwaite! CL
Carolyn's son came home one day and
announced he had bought a motorcycle,
she was sent into a mad panic.
Once the panic subsided she agreed
to help buy gear and lessons. In the
dealership she found herself signing up
for lessons too. That was two and a half
years ago and she's never looked back
and has adventures that she once only
ever dreamt about ...