We left Liindbergh Lodge just as the wildebeest were departing from the waterhole early on Wednesday morning (18th). With our host Doolie at the wheel, we had plenty of time in hand to drive the 45km into Wolmaransstad. She stopped on the way to rescue a large terrapin from certain death by moving him from the centre of the dirt road, safely onto the grass verge. As recommended by the bus company, we had nearly an hour in hand before the Greyhound would arrive, and Doolie suggested that we have a cup of coffee in the petrol station café. The bus came in on time and as we went out to board, it rolled passed - without stopping! Undeterred, Doolie leapt into the car, shouted at us to jump in and off we sped, in hot pursuit. By the time we caught sight of it again, it was a speck on the horizon but Doolie pressed on regardless. We zoomed past huge trucks, squeezing between them and oncoming traffic until some ten miles later, we were on the bus’s tail. Our lights flashing, horn blowing and Mike waving frantically from the car window, we overtook and flagged it down. Both the driver and the hostess looked a little sheepish but there were no apologies - even though they acknowledged that we were on their passenger list! This is Africa.


White and shaken, with our suitcases stuffed into the seats behind us, we sat back and took a deep breath . At least this bus went all the way through to Pretoria so there would be no further hiccups….


As it approached a hot and steamy Johannesburg, we were informed that we would have to change onto another bus in the city; it would be waiting for us. Mike was not a happy bunny; our tickets said quite clearly that Pretoria would be the last stop! However, there was no arguing with them and we were turfed off the bus, complete with our cases and told to wait. “But you said the bus to Pretoria would be waiting for us!” I lamented but of course, to no avail. By the time we finally arrived at Pretoria bus station, there was no sign of our exchanger, who had offered to meet us there. The phone number we had for him did not work; it was extremely hot and the place was teaming with people; what to do? We settled down in the terminal office for safety’s sake, Mike had a row with the Greyhound people over the tickets and I wondered around in the scorching sun looking for someone called Hoffman . After nearly an hour, I spotted what was probably the only white man in the entire terminal. He was also wearing a Panama hat which was a bit of a give-away. I leapt upon him, shrieking “Are you Hoffman?” and when the poor man had recovered from my assault, he admitted that yes, he was.


So eventually we arrived here at Elandsfontein Farm which is about 20k from Pretoria in a beautiful, rural setting. Like most whites in South Africa, his great-great-great-grandfather was also a settler (Afrikaner) and the farm has been in the family for six generations. They are primarily cattle farmers. We were invited for dinner to meet his lovely young wife, Ninelle and we had a lovely evening. We are housed in the charming guest cottage which is so pretty but missing only two things - a washing machine and a dishwasher. This has been fairly common throughout our travels; labour is much cheaper than machines in Africa!


Hoffman has given us a car to use and so on Friday, we set off on the Hudson trail - to Benoni and Zesfontein . My mother was born in Benoni and the family lived there until she was was five, when they moved to live on her grandparents’ farm at Zesfontein. Benoni was essentially a gold mining town and my grandfather, Vernon, made his money reprocessing the gold dust in these mines. He also started a profitable brick company. Now the gold is all gone and although there are numerous brick factories in the area, Benoni is a dreadful place; very scruffy and poor. We did find a miserable little museum in this huge town but there were no clues there. We found a cricket team pictured at about the correct time (do any of these guys look like a Hudson?) and a school where little George and his sister, Gwendoline would probably have been pupils. The suburbs are slightly better than the town centre and Victoria Street (pictured) may well have been where the family lived.


We were grateful to be out of this horrible place; we both felt uneasy simply walking down the street and we feared for our exchanger’s rather nice car! With the help of a very good map, we found the district known as Zesfontein which probably hasn’t changed much since great-grandpa George Frederick farmed there . We know there was a large farmhouse and four other smaller houses where three of his sons’ and one of his daughter’s families lived but we also know that the big house burnt down in about 1930. The house and farm pictured are certainly in the right area, but we can’t be sure that this is it. We need further information!


On Monday 23rd February, we set off for the Madikwe Game Reserve which is on the Botswana border. We had been invited to join our next exchangers (from Parys) at Kukama Lodge, a luxurious lodge within this superb game reserve on which ‘the Big Five’ (lion, elephant, rhino, buffalo, leopard) can be found. Ananda and Herman van de Schyff are Afrikanas and they were joined by their friends, Fred and Alanda, Marti and her mother-in-law Rhoda and Ananda’s mum, Anna. Their first language is Afrikaans but they all speak English, too. They were a lovely bunch of people, full of fun and laughter. It was sometimes hard to keep up because a joke or conversation would start in one language and change to the other mid-sentence . Most of the time we laughed uproariously, chiefly because they did!


Our days started at 5am to be ready for the 6am safari drive into the bush. We were fortunate enough to see four of the Big Five, apart from leopard which are notoriously hard to track. However, extraordinarily, we did see cheetah twice (these are very rare sightings, apparently). On the second occasion, parked within feet of four of these fearsome animals, we watched and waited as they stalked their prey with silent and deadly intent. Suddenly they took off (cheetah are the fastest mammal on earth) with us in hot pursuit in the Land Cruiser. Our guide put his foot down and drove at full speed across the bush, over rocks, bushes, tree stumps and much more, with the nine of us hanging on for dear life. These trucks have no seat belts, doors or side panels so you simply grab hold of the panic bar and pray! Needless to say we eventually lost them so we do not know if their hunt was successful but most probably the cheetah were after a small zebra foal which was reasonably easy prey for these young males .


Further excitement was to follow on an evening drive when we came across a pride of lions (three females and an old male) who were sleeping off the effects of an afternoon kill. Our guide drove the vehicle across extremely rough terrain to get to them, climbing over rocks and thick bush before stopping within feet of them. One of the females arose languidly and stretched, before sliding off into the bush (where did she go?). We watched them for some time (too long for me; I was a nervous wreck by this stage!) before we reversed, only narrowly missing a fourth lioness, asleep behind a bush. There was no way we could have made a hasty retreat on that hostile terrain - this was not for the feint-hearted!  


Back at the lodge, we lazed by the pool, ate far too much delicious food and spent hours watching the water-hole which was constantly visited by elephant, impala, kudu, giraffe, buffalo, zebra, baboons, water-hogs, hyenas and wildebeest. Our guide was also very knowledgeable about his birds and we took at least 30 pics of the beautiful South African birds, all of which we can now name! Barbara, you will be proud of us! The evenings were special - dinner was served outside next to a glowing log fire - but it was early to bed because of those early mornings.  


Back to Pretoria today (Thursday) and another five days at Elandsfontein Farm before we go south of Johannesburg again for our final ten days in Parys (pronounced’ Par-ace’) with our new-found best friends. This has been a ‘vei lecker’ holiday!