Hello boys!
@unrated and
@TRF_heineken!
Im back from S.A! fist of all y want to thank you cos many of your advice where very usefull.
its been a hell of a ride full of emotions of all kinds.
To start with, the plane to get there was very hard to endure! 2.45 to Sao Paulo, 5 hs there and then 8.30 to joburg, Few more hours at the airport and then the plane to skukuza. It took us like 24 hs! i was thinking how tougth it must be for the players! we did feel de jet lag and slept for 14 straight hs.
The rental car was there as we got out of the plane. I had little to no problem with driving from the other side (while in the parck) just turning on the wind shield cleaner insted of the turning sign (every time) but the speed limits, litlle traffic and good roads, allow me to adapt well. At the beginig i tried to get de gear shifter whit the right hand only to touch te door.. but it was the first day (i´m left handed so it was relativley easy to do it.)
Kruger park
This place is just breath taking, the amount of animals, their size and majesty is something well never forget. the hole place seemed taylored por the tourists so we felt safe in spite of the obvious danger.
As you mendioned betwen Lower sabie and Olifants there where so many incredible palces, landscapes and animals that we could not belive our eyes.
The camps where confortable and we had a great time, visited satara and Letaba aswell ( my son loved the elefant museum ) and an old guide there, gave us very interesting insights
We got to see 4 of the big 5 (dont understand why the giraffe is not among them) they are such beautifull creatures. we could not get to see the leopard.
we followed your suggestion and took the safaris, one in the night and one in the morning before sunrise. it was just great! but the best sightings we did them by ourselves. We didnt get to see rhinos at kruger (but did saw many of them later on in santa lucia)
The main incident happend when we took a long loop and run, by surprise after some bushes, with a bunch of elefants. One of them let us know inmediately that she didint like us to be there. Think we kind of surpise her. She scared the s... out of us. I just escaped at full speed. in other ocasions we run into them but they didint seem to care. We even had a picnic (in a permited area) and there was a family of elefants feeding not more than 10 meters away.
we got to see a herd of lions feeding very close too.
(before getting there i thought il would be more like a zoo kind of experience. Nothing to do with a zoo! you really get an amount of exitement that a zoo will never provide the experience is so different!( it s you who s in the cage) when the male lion appeared it froze us like a thunderbolt!
and then there´s the hunt having to work for it (i drove more than 500 kilometers in the park alone)
The food and prices in the park where reasonable, we ate very well for like 15 uSs in every camp. (the food is damm good) people are so, or even more crazy than us about braai, it looked like everybody grilled every night!
about malaria we took the very expensive medicine (but didnt see a single mosquito) at santa lucia the told us that there had not been cases of malaria in 15 years.
While driving to cocodrile camp in the south end of the park we got to finally see a cheeta with 2 calves that was so lucky! later on they told us that is the hardest to see.
Moving to izimangaliso.
Driving to Santa Lucia was indeed an adventure! It took me like 10 hs. There is a clear difference betwen the provincial and national roads. but all of them where at least decent (dont know what your uncle considers a bad road he should come to argentina HAHA) at some point we passed thou a long lapse of very poor black comunites
where lots of people where walking along the road) and
hitchhiking. i wanted to stop but didint dare. The place and people seemed so differnent and remote.
People looked at us like we where from mars. Think everybody could tell we wheren´t from there, even though we are white we don´t looke like white South africans at all.
For instance we met lots of kids visiting museums, and they satared at us and specially to my kid. to finally say hi!
We stopped in a gas station in a place called Mkondo and the guy asked me where we where from! when i say Argentina he just smile and nod his head, i repeated and then had to use de code name MESSI!! then he goes ahh!! that was funny.
A few miles away from Santa Lucia we got to meet the road police. One of them rusehd acrros the road as we passed. They said i was speeding ( i think i wasnt) in any case he said i could pay a reduced fine right there.. i palyed along: 500 rand and left as quick as i could (the police does the same **** in Argentina)
We loved Santa Lucia and the izimangaliso park, there we did the tour for the hippos an saw plenty them, even a family out of the water (wich the guide said is unusual) tons of nile crocodiles, birds (an african fish eagle)
The appartement we rented was very nice and we enjoyed to go back to confort. As soon as i sat on the cauch and turn on the tv i looked for the sport channels and there it was the Curry Cup fisrt divison final!! So i got to see live how the boys won the tournamet!! (realy jelous of your rugby channel!!)
the next day we snorkel in Cape Vidal and visited the bat cave. those beaches there where so beautifull!! To sink your head in the water and benith the first rock find a lobster and multi colored fish! The water was pristine the sand fine and soft we could even see the humpback whales some hundred meters away from the shore (those same whales visit aregnetina too). We do have 5000 km of shoreline, but our beaches suck. They are windy, the water is cold and green brownish. the sand thick..
We had a great time there saw plenty of animals,10 difernet rhinos, kudus and much more. The monkeys where a bit annoyng, after a while my son fed them in spite of my advice.. and then they where after us, a bigger adult appeared and demanded food in a very agresive way! my wife and kid where scared i tried to scare him away but he stood up! showing me his teeth, she was eating an apple and we had to give it to him. We got mugged by a monkey!! After that i looked for a big stick and hold it with me at all times, it was the only way to keep them away.
We saw them storm some tourists that had gone to the sea. They stole everyting!!! even opened the fridge!!
To durban.
After that i drove to durban where we had to drop the car. We drove around the first day and got to se the kings stadium home of the sharks! mi son was exited!
But we find the city to be very agresive, lots of highways dificult to go by and places with so much povety. it remind me of Sao Paulo or Colombia and also Argentina. But it was tougher cos you are ignorant of the codes. It was hard to understand the accent. We visited the very beautifull botanic garden and a natural museun that where very nice, It´s defently not a city to walk arround! i had returned the rental and we moved with uber. We stayed two days and that first night we walked to a restaurant 2 blocks away, it was 6 pm or so (we are used to have diner much later) but by the time we left the hotel by feet the street was deserted, we passed several people sleeping in a corner, we found an Arab restaurant where all the people where muslims some women had burkas, no blacks no whites just muslims (didint know they where so many, indians too) in aregntina people are way more integrated and mixed. it looked like they where " new" inmigrants. the food was chip and very good!! and where very kind to us.
the fist one is where the plane lands the southern airport. the other to are up north. havent sort what to do after that. 
