Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve – Pretoria – South Africa – December 2017

Tags

Cheetah, giraffe, Lions, Pretoria, Rhino, Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve, South Africa, White lions, Wild Dogs

Visiting friends in Pretoria

After disembarking from Rovos Rail at Capital Park Station in Pretoria, I was picked up by a private driver who took me to my friends’ Sue and Geoff’s home in a beautiful Jacaranda lined street.  Security is pretty tight along this street with my friends having seventeen-foot concrete fences with razor wire along the top surrounding their home and an armed guard response.

Driving along this street and others in Pretoria was actually beautiful and then seeing the huge homes…oh my goodness but again you have to be very careful driving as you may be carjacked if stopped at lights or at an intersection.My first day in Pretoria I took a bus trip to Soweto which was really interesting to see the Apartheid Museum and learn about the history  [I will write on that separately]. On day two my friends took me to the Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve which is a privately owned game reserve covering about 1200 hectares which opened to the public in 1990.   I am always a bit worried about these private owned parks as I always hope the animals are not caged but allowed to roam free.  In the main this one was very good.

As we were about to enter the park, I saw a pride of lions and lionesses.  I was so excited and absolutely amazed at how magnificent these animals are.  Just relaxing on the grass fenced off from the road but within a large area to roam.  Geoff kindly stopped the car for me to hop out and take some photos through the fence.Our next stop was to the cafe just outside the park where there is a giraffe that comes up close to the landing as knows we will all have food for her which can be purchased from the cafe.  I stroked her and she was so beautiful.

Then it was time to drive into the park, there is a small cost per person (goes to the running of the park) and after paying this, off we went on our adventure. We first saw some cute little warthogs and Impala and various other animals…all roaming free.Zebra was next for our viewing pleasure…We also saw several large horned animals – in photo order I think from memory they are Sable Antelope [what a beautiful animal], Wildebeest and either Waterbuck or perhaps Springbuck.We drove a little way towards the predator enclosure [I was happy that it is huge and took us ages to drive around] and first saw some wild dogs relaxing under a tree…As we were driving along the road one of us pointed out (think it was Geoff as he spotted most of the animals) this incredible lion…what a sight – I think I took sixty or so photos of the same thing as the lion didn’t really move but did change the position of his head a couple of times.A short distance away was the lioness – beautiful animal too.I could not of been happier at this stage and we reluctantly left to find the rhino; which I also could not wait to see!  We drove around for some time and Geoff told me he had purchased tickets for the animal creche so we could pat the lion cubs and cheetah.  How lovely! Again money goes towards the reserve and the upkeep of the animals.

When we went into this enclosure there were other beautiful animals – black leopard, black jaguar and clouded leopard but they were in smaller enclosures; made me very [very] sad. I know that we don’t want these animals to become extinct but I would love them to be able to run around rather than just walk around the sides of their grassed enclosures. I could see they are well cared for and had a good area to rest, but still it made me wish they could be free or in huge enclosures.I did pat the white lion cubs; there were two of them and they were awfully sweet.  The public is allowed to interact with the cubs and cheetah for five minutes at a time which allows us to pat and take photos whilst being monitored by the keeper.The cheetah was very beautiful too; another magnificent animal. As were the white tigers especially the ‘teenagers’ who were playing and one jumped into a waterless well and looked like she was loving it.And in the next enclosure was the cutest Pygmy hippopotamus; quite a bit of room to roam around which was good.We left this area and drove around again trying to find the rhino; but to no avail – very disappointing but Geoff said he had seen them the week before but they didn’t want to be found on this day.

 

We drove past another very large reserve where the white tigers live, who on this day were relaxing near the entrance gates so we could not drive in as we were told they might try and leave and go into the reserve where the non carnivorous animals are (and guess that would mean extinction in this park for those animals!!).On our drive throughout the reserve, we also saw some lovely birds including baby Ostrich [how cute] and then it was time to leave; fantastic to see these amazing animals in this enormous reserve…maybe next time for the Rhino!Really glad I went and really grateful for my lovely friends taking me there!!

 

 

 

Revisiting Hong Kong (1) – PRC – April 2018

Tags

Causeway Bay, China PRC, Harbour Grand Hotel, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Park, Lik Cha Tea House, North Point, vegetarian dim sum, Victoria Harbour, Wanchai

Meeting a friend in Hong Kong

 

I haven’t been back to Hong Kong since I lived in Beijing [2011-2014) when I used to travel down regularly.  So when my friend Naomi told me she was going there for a little ‘getaway’ from her home in Cambodia, I asked if I could meet here there; she was kind enough to say yes!

I took a day flight from Sydney aboard Qantas and after a glass of champagne, I watched a movie [kidnapping of JP Getty’s grandson – sad really to think the grandfather has that much money and didn’t immediately pay the ransom hence the grandson had his ear cut off], ate some lunch and checked out the little bag containing goodies…following which I promptly fell asleep for most of the flight.Around 8pm I arrived into Hong Kong to lovely views.Another friend picked us up from the airport and within minutes we were on our way to our hotel in North Point on HK Island.  After checking in we went to the Executive Club for a nice glass of champagne…and with these views who can complain.And lovely views the next morning whilst having breakfast…I compiled our six day itinerary as in 2008 I lived in HK and every weekend I would go out and visit not only the main sightseeing spots but also those that the locals visit.   One of the things I used to do with my visitors was take them on the tram which runs from one end of HK Island to the other…it’s a great way to see the old and new of HK Island and excellent value for $2 HKD.

But before we caught the tram we walked for a couple of hours around North Point through Causeway Bay and up to Wanchai where we then caught the tram.  These really are my favourite areas especially the old streets and buildings which I love more than the new ones…

There is a great website I used to look at when living in Hong Kong (www.discoverhongkong.com) and I would select a place to visit or something to do every weekend and found a lovely little tea museum and vegetarian dim sum restaurant in Hong Kong Park (Lok Cha Tea House).  I definitely wanted to take Naomi there as the food is wonderful as is the ambience.The Chinese tea selection is lengthy and once chosen it is brought over in tiny little pots with instructions on how long to steep.  Each table is also supplied with an electric kettle to pour additional hot water when your first pot is finished.We then took a look at the menu and we decided all dishes looked good so we ordered one of everything…mmm I would like to say our eyes were bigger than our bellies but we managed to eat everything!!We tried two different types of dumplings, turnip cake, spring rolls, glutinous rice wrapped in leaves, cabbage rolls, mushroom buns with soy sauce and a wonderful noodle dish.

 

So much food as you can see, but we still had room for dessert [must have been too full to take pictures]!!!

Then back out onto the streets to bump into all 7.3 million Hong Kong Chinese and expats!!

 

 

Lunch and Dinner – Criniti’s Restaurant – Darling Harbour and Longrain Restaurant- Surry Hills – Sydney – New South Wales – Australia – 2017 & 2018

Tags

Australia, Criniti's Restaurant, Darling Harbour, Longrain Restaurant, New South Wales, South East Asian cuisine, Surry Hills, Sydney, Traditional southern Italian cuisine

Lunch overlooking the Harbour in Sydney

My friend Sharon had to travel to Sydney a couple of months ago and after meeting up with another friend Katrina, we decided on lunch overlooking Sydney Harbour at a restaurant serving traditional southern Italian cuisine.  Yum I thought!  We chose a table directly overlooking the Sydney Eye.  Now having recently been on the London Eye, it was nothing like that; not as big but I think now a lot of cities around the world have one for visitors to get a birds eye view of the city.We decided to share an entree and chose a tomato bruschetta with a difference.  This one was huge, it was a large wood fired Italian bread with tomatoes, red onions, basil, olives and oregano and some extra virgin olive oil – delicious!I ordered the vegetable risotto which was absolutely delicious and came with baby spinach, asparagus, mushroom, shallots, sliced avocado, semi-dried tomatoes and fresh chilli, topped with a perfectly cooked poached egg.Katrina ordered the lamb salad with avocado, feta, oregano, fresh rocket and semi-dried tomatoes with a garlic aioli dressing – fabulous she said too.And Sharon ordered the beetroot salad with roasted pumpkin, goats cheese, shredded carrot, roasted walnuts and  fresh rocket with a raspberry dressing along with a side order of haloumi.  The food here was an absolute winner.  This is a chain restaurant and is also located in other locations in Sydney and Melbourne…just wish it was in Canberra.It was great to catch up with these friends and enjoy good food and after a while another friend joined us and he chose a healthy option of a marinated chicken salad  with cos lettuce, sliced avocado, cherry tomatoes, red onion, shredded carrot, feta, semi-dried tomatoes, roasted capsicum, mushroom and cucumber with a chilli aioli dressing…looked pretty good too.

Dinner in Sydney’s trendy Surry Hills

Like me, two of my other friends retired last year, so I said I would travel to Sydney and go out to dinner to celebrate their retirement.  I chose a restaurant serving South East Asian cuisine and known for being very popular (Longrain) and had come highly recommended by my ‘foodie’ friend Jane.

Reservations are limited [first in best dressed rule] and seating is at large communal tables.  But as we had a table of nine I was able to make a reservation for an individual table.  I wouldn’t suggest this would be a good place for a first date with the communal tables and no guarantee you will be seated across from each other – you might have to sit side by side!

(source: http://www.longrain.com.au)

We arrived early for our 6pm reservation and lucky we did as were told we had to give up our table at 8.15pm as the restaurant has two seatings per night -one at 6pm [us] and the next at 8.30pm [too late for me].  I really don’t like this system as with a large group you don’t really get the chance to chat to everyone within that confined timeframe…but we had no choice.  We were seated at a round table which only had room for eight so we had to squash together to accomodate the nine of us.

(source: http://www.longrain.com.au)

Our waitress encouraged us to try each dish banquet style which we did and ordered a range of dishes including an eggplant curry, a northern Thai lamb curry with pickled garlic and fresh ginger, a chargrilled chicken dish with mustard greens and crispy egg noodles, salt and pepper silken tofu (really good) and a plate of stir friend Asian greens with garlic and oyster sauce.

Some of the girls tried the desserts which I was told were very good and presented beautifully.   A coconut sorbet and a coconut ash ice cream swirl with a cashew nut praline were the desserts of choice.In the main the food was very good but it was an incredibly hot restaurant (too many tables with too many people I think) which made me rather uncomfortable and extremely noisy.  Made it very hard to hear friends across the table and those up the other end of the table, I had no idea what they were saying!

 

 

 

 

Rovos Rail – Zimbabwe, Africa to Pretoria, South Africa – December 2017

Tags

Africa, Animal safari, Hwange National Park, Pretoria, Rovos Rail, South Africa, Tropic of Capricorn, Zimbabwe

Three nights’ on a private train in Africa

After spending just over a week in Zimbabwe and Botswana, my friend Jenny and I took the Rovos Rail, a private railway company that operates out of Capital Park Station in Pretoria, from Zimbabwe to Pretoria over three nights.

source: www.trainsafaris.com/rovos-rail-victoria-falls.html

We began our adventure on Christmas Eve morning by meeting the train at Victoria Falls private railway station which is opposite the Victoria Falls Hotel.  We were checked in by the Rovos staff and our bags were taken by porters onto the train.  This afforded us the opportunity to walk around the hotel’s gardens.  The hotel is Edwardian style and was built in 1904 and the grounds are pretty spectacular [not that you can tell that from my photos].Inside is pretty stunning too…The grounds also have a stunning view of the spray from Victoria Falls and the bridge that marks the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia.After a complimentary glass of champagne and a briefing on our impending travel, we boarded our train and within minutes had departed.

My friend and I each chose a Pullman Suite which has a very comfortable sofa during the day which then converts to a double bed for the evening [every evening once the bed is made by the wonderful staff, there would be a lovely little surprise; a small box of chocolates, a small bottle of champagne or a Christmas gift – I loved this!!].    There is also a small bar fridge filled with your beverages of choice.     The suite also has an en-suite bathroom with shower.  Before we departed the chef and his team came and spoke to me about my dietary requirements – a lovely personal touch.

There’s an accent on fresh local ingredients, and traditional dishes such as game are a speciality; of course not for me. Every morning there’s a full breakfast as well as dishes cooked to order. A selection of cold meats, croissants, pastries, fresh fruit, yogurts, cereals and preserves make up the breakfast buffet.

For lunch and dinner there is a starter then a choice of fish, meat or a vegetarian dish, followed by a dessert and these are complemented by a selection of really good South African wines.  Dress code for the train is smart casual during the day and evening attire is more formal – for the men a jacket and tie is a minimum requirement while for us ladies a cocktail/evening dress or suit is required.

And to celebrate Christmas, the train was decked out with Christmas decorations in each of the common areas and dining cart…a lovely touch! One afternoon I walked up to the one of the two lounge cars; this one being near the rear of the train.  It was 4pm and afternoon tea was being served.  Fruit, biscuits, petit fours and small sandwiches are on offer along with whatever beverages you wish.

I had just finished two books lent to me by a friend so I borrowed one of the train’s to enjoy during the rest of my journey. It wasn’t that good but gave me something to read.I managed to take some photos of African homes and the countryside.Positioned at the rear of the train past the lounge car is the observation car which can seat thirty-two passengers. It’s a lovely area to sit and watch where the train is travelling and of course see that lovely countryside.  Permission was sought and granted by South African Railways to place the observation cars at the back of the trains, which allowed windows to be enlarged and an open air type balcony to be built. During the trip we passed along the edge of Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe’s largest wildlife reserve travelling south-east to Kennedy Siding for an overnight stop.

On Christmas morning we woke very early and disembarked for a game drive at The Hide. As we disembarked the locals were waiting for us selling their wares.We saw zebra, giraffe, elephant and many unusual and beautiful birds…

After the safari we stopped off at a small campsite where the staff had set up a wonderful hot and cold morning tea – so enjoyable and as I didn’t get up for 5am breakfast, I tucked into some lovely food and a cup of tea.

Then when we arrived back at the train, our wonderful staff had again set up tables but this time with champagne and orange juice to celebrate Christmas day – lovely!We then head for Bulawayo whilst Jenny and I exchanged Christmas presents – nice to do this on a train!  We then crossed the Botswana border at Plumtree during the evening and in the morning we travelled south through Francistown and on towards Gaborone, the capital of Botswana.  A short time later we crossed the South African border and lunch is served as the train passes through the farmlands of the Marico Valley.

We then head over the Magaliesberg Mountain Range, whilst we enjoyed dinner after which we pulled into Krugersdorp for our overnight stop – no rocking to get to sleep on our last night…but a lovely sunset from my suite’s window.Finally [and sadly] we arrive in Pretoria on the day after Boxing Day around mid-morning.  A lovely surprise to see Mr Rovos himself waiting to welcome all the passengers.  I still had my train legs (bit wobbly) for some time after disembarking the train.

What a worthwhile experience; one I shall not forget!