Adventures in Mabita: Clarens Weekend

While Botha Bothe is limited in its tourist attractions, it is only a short drive (especially in a private car) to many other places. One of these is the South African town of Clarens.

I recently went to Clarens for the first time with fellow PCV Nick. Clarens was, for us, an three-night adventure in walking, eating, and drinking. As a top tourist spot in Orange Free State, the small town has a number of locally owned restaurants, a brewery, small shops, and over a dozen art galleries.

Nick and me on the hills overlooking Clarens. 

Walking: Although it started as just walking around town and checking out the shops and galleries, we soon learned that the town has a conservancy that made and maintains a number of walking and hiking trails on the outskirts of town. Although there are town maps with the trails noted, we splurged on the inexpensive detailed map. We spent half of each day walking the trails.

While walking is a normal part of life in Lesotho, these trails were well designed and free from the animal dung that must be dodged on the paths I usually walk.


Eating: On my other vacations in South Africa, dining has been a small part of the experience with destinations, adventures, and wild animals being a bigger priority. In Clarens, however, it was all about food...so much food! We ate out every meal but one...and that meal comprised bread, cheese, sausage, and fig jelly from a nearby bakery.

All this and dessert??

Highlights of the eating included a  giant burger, a cheese plate, a sausage plate at a German place, waffles covered in mince, eggs, and cheese, and salmon blue cheese pasta. The clear winner, though, was everything from the Courtyard Cafe. We first went for their renowned Sunday lunch buffet, which was perhaps the most I have eaten in one sitting in a decade. It was absolutely amazing.

Our one at home dinner was purchased at their bakery. Monday morning the town becomes a sleepy shell of its weekend activity and a number of places were closed, so we returned and I drooled over salmon eggs benedict. Before we left town, we grabbed two muffins from their bakery, making four consecutive meals from the same place!

Yummy stout

Drinking: Normally, I get more excited about wine than beer. In Clarens, however, my excitement lay with delicious locally brewed stout from the Clarens Brewery. It was exactly what this dark beer loving lady needed after going through a dark beer drought since departing America. Seriously, I think I had more good dark beer in Clarens than in the previous 21 months despite having a porter in America in October and a porter in Cape Town in August.


My other favorite beverage, of course, will always be coffee. Nearly every restaurant in Clarens had great coffee options-particularly espresso based treats like cappuccinos. In case that was not enough to keep me caffeinated and moving, daily deliciousness from Highland Coffee filled each morning topped off with free Wi-Fi (something not often experienced reliably in Lesotho). Happy Beth!

Sleeping: We stayed at the Clarens Inn & Backpackers. This place is a large rambling estate with significantly more space than meets the eye. It has a lot of personality, each room and separate building has its own style and name. Eccentricity meets relaxation. Although it is a ten minute walk from the town square, it sits directly off the local trails.

Spoiling Oneself: Clarens also allowed me to get my favorite rare treat: a pedicure. Just before we left, I visited the Wellness Day Spa, where I had the best pedicure of my entire life. My toes are now a beautiful teal and looking much happier than they have in ages. The relaxing on a massage table with a lavender compress on my eyes was not too difficult either!


Other Adventures in Mabita:
     Ts'ehlanyane National Park
     Liphofung Caves

Turtles and So Much More!

It’s 9:30pm, standing on a beach along the ocean, I watch three researchers measuring and tagging under the familiar and friendly glow of red lights. The behemoth of a turtle ignores their efforts, using her large fins to move sand, continuing to bury her eggs. The researchers finish gathering their data and move on, either no longer awed by the majesty before them or simply too busy to gape as there are at least another four turtles in the surrounding kilometer of beachfront tonight.

I, however, have no interest in moving on. I plop down next to Emily-my traveling companion for the holiday- and my new friend Ane, watching the beautiful creature finish her work. Soon she turns and begins her trek back to the Indian Ocean. With a huge body built for swimming and diving, her progress is slow and laborious. The twenty of us rise to follow her journey. Our guide, a local woman from the surrounding Thonga communities, shines her red beam on the turtle as we escort her to the sea. I feel as though we are somehow connected in this unique moment; this turtle and her human companions.

I expect that when she reaches the water, she will disappear quickly into her home, celebrating the weightlessness the ocean provides. Instead, she pauses, resting in the shallowest surf, most likely gathering her energy after dragging her huge body along the sand, digging a deep hole, depositing her clutch of eggs, filling and disguising her nest, then hauling herself back down the beach. For a species that typically weighs a ton, reproduction must be exhausting.

Finally she swims into the surf and her large, dark body disappears. Thrilled with our encounter with this Leatherback-the endangered, largest, and most elusive marine turtle, we continue down the beach. As the tide has turned and there is now hard-packed sand to walk upon, the going is much easier than before. Thirteen-year-old Ane and I marvel at how incredibly lucky we are to have this experience at the same time as I internally reflect on how aware she is for have just become a teenager.

Ane notices a light reflecting off the clouds far out to the East and asks what it is. I excitedly note the nearly full moon rising from behind a band of clouds. Our guide stops us all to watch a loggerhead turtle make her way back to the sea. After the leatherback, this familiar friend looks significantly smaller than before. This is our second loggerhead of the night, as one came from the sea while we let the leatherback dig her nest in peace.

Thirty minutes later, we are back in the SUV, Emily, our guide Ian, Ane’s family, and me. For the first time since picking us up at 4:30am, Ian admits that in four years of doing tours at this beach, sometimes as many as three in a week during peak nesting season, this is only his third time seeing a nesting leatherback turtle. I am blown away! This is why I shelled out more than my monthly Peace Corps stipend for our thirty-six hour adventure with Ian. Ever since reading Carl Safina’s Voyage of a Turtle, I have desperately wanted to see a leatherback. Every time I was sailing in northern Atlantic waters during the summer months, my eyes were trained for the turtle, who warms itself at the surface to make up for the frigid water temperatures. To understand that realizing my dream, even in one of their most active nesting sites in the world, is such a rarity humbles me.

We return to the rustic community camp near Bhanga Nek-one of several in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park- and I continue my reflection on the day. After leaving St Lucia at 4:30am, Ian took us to Rocktail Dive Center. We were brought to a nearly empty beach, with only about fifty locals near the road entry and our small group a few kilometers down the beach. We snorkeled off the dive boat in three places-a shallow 2m reef, a 6m reef, and a deeper spot to enjoy larger fish. While snorkeling we got great moments with three different sea turtles: loggerhead, green, and hawksbill. Ian was ecstatic as he had not actually seen a loggerhead from in the water yet and because he had a unique experience with a large sport fish near the second reef. His enthusiasm and our activities brought back flashes of my previous life sailing and our many incredible marine animal encounters. I love when a guide is jazzed about an experience.

Both the dive center and our camp for the night were down long sandy roads. We temporarily got stuck at one point, but another driver helped us out and Ian let more air out of the tires before the continued. It made me grateful we were experiencing this with a guide as I would have been tense and lost driving these back roads.

The morning after our incredible turtle experience, we headed inland to Tembe Elephant Park. As we drove, Ian pointed out a grove of Raffia Palms-which boasts the world’s largest leaf and is indigenous only to that area. Knowing my bird nerd tendencies, he told us about the Palm Vulture, which is rare as it lives only where there are Raffia Palms. A few minutes after I assumed I would never get to cross that bird off my list, Ian stopped short. There, directly ahead of the car, atop a Raffia Palm was a Palm Vulture!

We spent about four hours in Tembe Elephant Park. As we drove around, we got to see dung beetles rolling their dung balls, which it pretty entertaining. We spent two hours in a hide watching bull elephants cool themselves with water and dirt. In total, we saw five bird species, Elephant, Impala, Nyala, Common Duiker, Red Duiker, Giraffe, Zebra, Waterbuck, Warthog, and the Giant Flattened Dung Beetle in the park, which considering the heat of the day is pretty impressive.

Ian got us back to St Lucia with just enough time for dinner before we headed out on a night safari in the Wetland Park. Our night safari guide clearly loved chameleons, as he hopped out of the car three times to highlight them for us. First he showed us the largest chameleon in the world, the Flapneck Chameleon, followed by babies of the same species, and then the world’s smallest chameleon, the Dwarf Chameleon. We also managed to see Reedbuck, Bushbuck, Bush Babies (Emily’s goal!), Cape Buffalo, Red Duiker, Common Duiker, Waterbuck, Hippo, Genet, Bushpig, and Zebra as well as one new bird, the Watered Tickle.

Our last major animal encounter of St Lucia was fittingly an abundance of hippopotamus. St. Lucia is known for its hippos and has warning signs throughout town about them being out and dangerous at night. Apparently they actually will wander the streets! While we slept through the hippo roaming, we saw close to 100 in the estuary near town on a boat tour. It was incredible to listen to their moans and groans as they lay in the water relaxing during the heat of the day.

Although this trip only comprised a few days of our trip to Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa, it was absolutely amazing and I cannot say enough positive things about Ian and Extreme Nature Tours! Thanks for helping me cross something amazing off my life list!

Vacation: Kruger National Park

Standing atop the Topic of Capricorn.

One day shy of 14 months since we hugged goodbye, my sister Kathy and I were hugging at OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg. It was her birthday, but I think the present was mine as we set out on a 23 day adventure in South Africa and Lesotho.

Kathy, fellow PCV Tracy, and I rented a car and headed out for Kruger National Park. Everyone we encountered along the way told us this was the perfect time to visit, and it turns out they were correct. In our days in Kruger, we identified 26 mammals, 1 reptile (plus an unidentified blue lizard), and 44 birds. By the end of winter, many smaller water sources have dried up, forcing animals to congregate in larger numbers. The visibility is also better as Africa's scrub and brush has not grown for a few months and has been eaten or trampled.

Regardless of this, I suspect visiting Kruger any time of year would be absolutely amazing. The national park is incredibly well run, their staff was always professional, the camps were always clean and fostered a sense of nature despite being in camp with hundreds of other people. As a resident of a small village in Lesotho, I found everything I read about the camp shops, however, to be laughable. Reports in books and online suggest the shops are understocked and do no have much variety, but compared to what I have access to on a daily basis, each of the small shops I saw was incredible with a variety of drinks, souvenirs, camping and barbecue supplies, and foods I can only get in Lesotho. And the animals...they are everywhere. We saw all of the “Big Five” (lion, leopard, water buffalo, rhinoceros, and elephant); in fact we saw all by the rhino two or more times!

Tracy's birthday
celebration.

Tracy, Kathy, and I were a perfect pairing for this adventure, as we all preferred to cook in the communal kitchens or brai (barbecue in Africa) at our huts rather than enjoying fast food at the camp restaurants. We celebrated both Kathy and Tracy's birthdays, enjoyed a night drive, and shivered our way through a dawn drive. Kathy drove every day in the park, somehow still spotting most animals first and also managing to line up perfect photography moments for both the front and back seat. Both women were willing to accept and even support my bird nerd moments.

Our trip to Kruger was supposed to end after three full days. We exited the park as planned at the Phalaborwa gate with visions of visiting the Amarula factory and Blyde River Canyon in our heads. Unfortunately, this is Africa and nothing every goes exactly as planned. It turned out that Phalaborwa was completely blockaded by striking mine workers and it was too dangerous to try leaving, even via backroads. As a result, we found ourselves with a fourth and very long day inside the park before driving five more hours to get closer to Johannesburg our last day.

Here are a few of the most memorable animal encounters:

The Dawn Drive:

We were absolutely freezing in the early morning. I was thrilled to see dawn, but disappointed to realize that did not mean warmth. We turned down the road of the previous day's Great Elephant Encounter. Soon, our guide started acting differently; stopping and starting, craning his neck, opening his door, looking around, then slamming it again. Suddenly, in a tree on our right, I saw red. “Stop!” I yelled, finally alert and unaware of the cold. “There's something in that tree!”

As we backed up, it became clear we were looking at a fresh leopard kill in the tree. We spent the next ten minutes trying to spot the cat we knew to be nearby before I finally found her in some grasses 150 yards from tree. We watched her lurk her way back to a hidden spot behind the tree, admiring her grace but unable to get a clear shot. Even without a picture, the sighting was incredible and let us completely check off the Big Five.

The Great Elephant Encounter:

Moments before the excitement began...

We drove from Letaba Camp to Shingwedzi, arriving midafternoon. After settling in, we decided to head out for a bit. We drove North, choosing a dirt road that paralleled a river. We weren't seeing anything new or profoundly exciting-impala, giraffe, hornbills-and we were approaching the end of the road when we came upon a large herd of elephants.

The broached both sides of the road, dining. We sat patiently, watching while waiting for them to move on as the other herds we had encountered always had. As we watched, we noticed the cutest baby elephants. We were awed by the adorable foursome. They raced and played like children, which was fine until their race brought them close to our stationary car. Two large Mommas stopped eating and slowly approached, ears waved menacingly. Kathy put the car in reverse and backed up a dozen feet or so until the elephants relaxed.

As we began to relax too, an elephant that had been eating off to the right came running towards us at a 45 degree angle. Kathy noticed the charge first and flew into reverse as I watched her continue to charge. Like a champ, Kathy backed up faster than the elephant's run and far enough for the elephant to give up. We watched them a few minutes longer before realizing they were not going to leave the road and we would need to turn around to get back to camp before the gates closed.

On our way out, we warned two cars of the protective road block ahead. We toyed with two other dirt roads before reaching camp, but saw them blocked by large elephant herds so we gave up and went home. Kathy now has elephant induced PTSD.

Daily Dose of Lions:

-Day One-Weak Sighting

It was our distance day, driving 220km from Pretoriuskop to Letaba. On an open stretch of road, we saw 2-3 dozen cars parked; mostly SUVs and open safari vehicles. We craned our necks in our little rental and could just see the top of two lions, although they were virtually unidentifiable we saw so little.

-Day 2-Sleepy Couple

On a dirt road, we found a group of 4-5 cars and trucks, marking a male and female pair not 150 yards from the road. The female was hard to see well, but the male posed for a multitude of photos.

-Day 3-Two Boys-

We were still high on the leopard sighting when our guide paused to talk to some workers. Since they were not speaking English, I tuned out, but Kathy's ears perked up when she heard “Lions!” Sure enough, 2km later, we saw two males basking in the early morning light on a riverbank. We had apparently missed a pack of lady lions roaming the roads during our leopard moment but these two guys were clearly and easily spotted.

-Day 4-Bird Blind

We did not see any new birds species when we stopped at the remote bird blind, but across the river were two female lions just “lion around” (Thank you, Lion King) and sleeping.

-Day 4-Lion Jam

Lions, apparently, also bring out the worst in the people of Kruger. As we tried to head our towards the Orpen gate to start the long drive back towards Joberg, we found ourselves trapped by a dozen cars, campers, and trucks with trailers. Some were only trying to get through, but most had parked in an attempt to get a good look at a lion in a hard to see spot. We, however, only became frustrated and therefore did not even try to sneak a peak as we cursed at the cars and inched our way through the mess.

Leopard Modeling:

As I mentioned, there was not supposed to be a fourth day in Kruger. We were supposed to have moved on but the striking mineworkers changed our plans for us and thus we found ourselves with eleven hours of driving, six in Kruger on Thursday. The park, apparently, tried to make it up to us with some great animal sightings. The highlight of these was our second leopard.

Only a few kilometers from a rest camp (aka bathroom break), we found four cars stopped but saw nothing. We asked the first vehicle and learned they saw a leopard. We stopped, cameras at the ready. And the large male decided to grace us with phenomenal views. He walked on the right side of the road for a bit, to get clear of the brush. Then, he crossed directly in front of our car, paused on the left side, and continued into the brush.

As we drove away, we laughed at our luck and all the people who would be searching for leopard that day when one literally stopped us in our path.  

See More Photos from the Entire August Vacation: Kruger, Cape Town, and Lesotho.

August 24, 2015