24.09.2021 – Kruger National Park, or not!? (A night in the brothel?)

We had arrived in Ermelo the evening, or rather the night before, quite exhausted. The mountain tour and driving in the dark had been quite exhausting. Until we got admission to our accommodation, it also took what felt like forever, because no one opened the door. Unfortunately, there was also nothing left to eat and so we plundered the remains of the lunch packs – 2 small bags of chips – and still cooked tea and coffee.

At 04:30am the alarm clocks rang again, because we still had to cover 300km, or 3.5h, to the Kruger National Park. Andreas would not have made this distance during the night – how he made it into the parking space of the accommodation without damage is a mystery to us to this day.

When we reached the Malelane Gate of the park, we had reached our destination – the Kruger National Park. A nice lady welcomed us right at the gate and asked for our reservation. Unfortunately, we didn’t have one, as the park’s website had been working sub-optimally for the last 3 days. And so it happened that we were directly rejected again, because the park was already full.

So unfortunately, like many others, we had to turn our vehicle around and looked for a quiet place to think. We parked – under the suspicious glances of the rich and beautiful – directly in front of a lodge at the gate (overnight rates from 7000 Rand).

We quickly decided to spend the day in the car to drive down the Blyde River Canyon. Also, the whole coming weekend should still turn out to be a bit difficult, because in South Africa the “Heritage Day” was celebrated. The streets were full of people in traditional costumes, all accommodations were fully booked and all South Africans were happy to be able to celebrate again after the Corona measures.

The canyon was very beautiful to look at and at selected places we stopped to have a closer look at the landscape. Strange for us was only that some viewpoints were provided with barriers and we had to pay admission.

We stopped at Pinnacle, Lisbon Falls, Three Rondavels Viewpoint, and finally Bourke’s Luck Potholes. At the latter there was a huge party going on, everyone was barbecuing and having fun.

Also we were taken, as the only white far and wide, again gladly as a photo motif for the family album. Among other things once at the Three Rondavels of a sugar-sweet, approx. 6-7 years old lady, who did not want to let us go, because we were her friends. Another time of an approx. 30 years old, well obese lady at the Potholes, who smelled like her companion already 20m against the wind after cheap lint and whose hand “slipped” by mistake again and again at Andreas butt – South African Heritage Day simply.

In order to possibly make a second attempt at the Kruger National Park the next day, we decided to spend the night in Nelspruit (the city is now called Mbombela). A big city with everything that belongs to a big city.

We had booked and paid for a nice room on the way. However, when we arrived we were told that all rooms were already booked – nice bummer. We talked for some time with the gentleman present, who referred us to his cousin. We quickly got a new address as a meeting place and drove there. So far, the only thing that stood out was the gentlemen’s penchant for fast, tuned, German-made cars, their fancy getup, and their statement when we arrived: “I think you won’t like this place.”

We were a bit puzzled, but also tired and just wanted to get into bed. Some things seemed a bit “Spanish” to us. Andrea’s find next to the luxury TV in our “chamber” only made him confirm his suspicions about where we had really ended up here. No matter. We were tired, there was security on the premises too (house and pool had seen better times, by the way) and so we fell asleep peacefully in a somewhat “worked through” bed with black leather cover – once again without having eaten anything.