TravelStream™ news feed for member tomlinej on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/tomlinej en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 26 Dec 2007 15:28:14 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1195644480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1195644480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1195644480/tpod.html Wed, 26 Dec 2007 15:28:14 -0500 Adios Miami. Beth and Erik's adventure before returning to their motherland...the great north.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Sessriem, Namibia

After a very long and difficult drive on terrible gravel roads, through mountain passes we arrived in Sessreim, just before the park closed. Due to poor planning on our behalf, we gave them the last of our money for park entry fees. Luckily we had plenty of gas to get to the next town. We set up camp in a sand storm that never ended. We slept with an accumulating layer of sand forming around and in our tent. The next day's view in the dunes at sossuslvlei was worth it!! The hike in was very difficult with a broken sandal. They did have shuttles in via 4x4, but they wanted money and we had none, so.....a hiking we went. We decided to cut the 5 km hike back short, due to time and frustration, but hiked up a dune and got some wonderful pictures. The color of the sand was a beautiful orange-red and the sun cast amazing shadows in the morning. Luckily we were able to capture all of this and Beth was able to fly her make-shift kite.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1195731480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1195731480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1195731480/tpod.html Wed, 26 Dec 2007 15:20:29 -0500 Adios Miami. Beth and Erik's adventure before returning to their motherland...the great north.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Keetmanshoop, Namibia

After a difficult drive on dirt roads to Sessreim, we decided to take the long "paved" route to Luderitz. This brought us to Keetmanshoop for the night. It is the largest city in the south of Namibia, which is about the size of Altoona, WI. We found a camp site just outside town that had two private parks associated with it. The first was Quivertree Forest and the second was Giant's Playground. The Quivertree Forest was right next to our camp spot and we got to hike around in them as the sun was setting. A quivertree is really a very large aloe plant that looks like a tree and the San Bushmen used to use the hollowed out bows of the "tree" as quivers on thier bows. It was very cool to see, because this is the only place that they grow.

We were up early the next day, by the way Beth is waking up with the sun now, to visit Giant's Playground. This is an area with gigantic granite pilars and boulders naturally stacked on top of one another, like children's blocks. It was a fun place to hike around for a couple hours in the morning, then off to finish our drive to Luderitz and the diamond fields.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1198551660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1198551660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1198551660/tpod.html Tue, 25 Dec 2007 12:22:14 -0500 Adios Miami. Beth and Erik's adventure before returning to their motherland...the great north.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, United States

Driving across the US during the last five days have been an adventure all of its own! We can honestly say that the past few days have been the most difficult driving we've had during the past two months. A vicious 24 hour flu, rain in the mountains at night, driving in 40 mph winds on slick highways...the overall highlight was today though! Before we left Miami, we remembered to change our oil for the winter conditions but failed to remember change the windshield wiper fluid...We didn't think that the fluid we got in Miami would freeze into an ice block under our hood. OOPS! Our last 7 hours (should have been 3) were spent driving exit to exit in order to clean our windows from the salty grime. There was one stop that was amusing. We took some pictures to show the vehicles of choice in Wisconsin's winter.

Although it's been a struggle getting here, it feels SO good to be back! Beyond the fact that we missed our families and friends, it's feels amazing to have a real home cooked meal, free laundry, a familiar bed, fresh towels, and (even though it's currently stressing our thinned blood) a white Christmas!

This is it. We're HOME! We're done traveling but not exploring. Being home is the beginning to another adventure in its own right... We hope you enjoyed the African trip with us. Make sure to include us on your future trips!!

Happy Holidays and Happy Trails,

Beth and Erik
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1197708240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1197708240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1197708240/tpod.html Tue, 25 Dec 2007 12:12:41 -0500 Adios Miami. Beth and Erik's adventure before returning to their motherland...the great north.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Bergville, South Africa

We arrived at the Amphitheater Backpackers around 10 am since it was just a couple hours north of our last stay. We spent the day lounging outside of our tent reading and enjoying the sun and the view of the mountains. At about 5, it started pouring rain and thunderstorms. The lightning and thunder were wild...the begining of the rainy season finally caught up with our trip! The electricity turned off after a few loud cracks...but would eventually come back on again. Considering the amount of rain that we got, our tent kept us and our things amazingly dry!

The next morning (very early) we drove out to the Royal Natal National Park and went for a great hike half-way up the mountain. Along the way were beautiful waterfalls and panoramic vistas. At the top of our climb, we noticed some thunder heads coming over the top of the Amphitheater. Remembering the rains the night before, we decided to turn around. We left the park around noon for our drive to Johannesburg. Just as we left we the heavy rains started and continued the whole drive north. At least we weren't still on the mountian!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1197359040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1197359040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1197359040/tpod.html Tue, 25 Dec 2007 12:02:05 -0500 Adios Miami. Beth and Erik's adventure before returning to their motherland...the great north.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Nieu Bethesda, South Africa

After leaving the Hogsback, we drove up towards Graaf Reinet, South Africa. A friend of Beth's (Hi Emily) has a friend (Hi Rob) working on a farm near there. We have been playing our South Africa travels more by ear than we did in Namibia, so we weren't exactly sure if or when we were going to get up there. At this point in the trip it seemed like a good idea, but, because we didn't plan ahead enough on our end and give Rob a heads up, we missed him while he was traveling himself. We did, however, find Nieu Bethesda. It was a little blurb in our guide book, but it looked interesting none the less. This part of the country, called the Karoo, is more like Namibia than what we've seen of South Africa so far. It is full of red granite cliffs and valleys and red dirt roads.

We pulled into Nieu Bethesda after driving down into a river canyon on dirt roads in a slight drizzle. When we got there, the rain stopped and it felt like we pulled into a town from the old west. There were like two cars. Come to find out, the town is sort of an artist village where people in the know escape to find peace and quiet. We also ran into some people that Erik had met while we were in Knysna. They were leaving the next day, but said that we had stumbled on to a gem and they were right. As far as sights and seeing the town, we did that in half of a day, but we decided to stay two and read and just sit and watch the world go by....
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1198091820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1198091820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1198091820/tpod.html Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:27:51 -0500 Adios Miami. Beth and Erik's adventure before returning to their motherland...the great north.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Miami, Florida, United States

Well, after an 18 hour flight and staying up for about 36 hours...we have finally arrived in Miami. Our friends, Stephanie and Nacho, have graciously let us crash at thier house before our very last leg of our adventure. We're not sure how long it will take to adjust to the time zone... Hopefully, we'll sleep through the night and wake up on track tomorrow. We want to start our drive back to the Midwest for Christmas as soon as possible!

Our first thoughts "back home" are:
CNN rules the airports in a very loud way!
We're surrounded by HUGE trucks!
When did "Petrol" get so expensive?
and
Automatic cars are such a luxury...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1197795600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1197795600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1197795600/tpod.html Wed, 19 Dec 2007 13:57:11 -0500 Adios Miami. Beth and Erik's adventure before returning to their motherland...the great north.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Johannesburg, South Africa

We arrived in Johannesburg and found Mufasa Backpackers again (where we stayed our first night). We pretty much just hung out and read, watched the new Pirates of the Carribean DVD, packed up all of our stuff, and traded our old beat up tent and Erik's old sleeping bag for a giant wooden hippo at a market on our way to the airport.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1197621660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1197621660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1197621660/tpod.html Tue, 18 Dec 2007 03:42:56 -0500 Adios Miami. Beth and Erik's adventure before returning to their motherland...the great north.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

We were originally planning to get up to the Ampitheatre in the Northern Drakensburgs by tonight, but we drove through about 70 km of fog coming through the mountains, so we had to take it very slow. So we wound up staying in Pietermaritzburg, the capital of Ka-Zulu Natal. We did however get to experience real South African Indian food at Bollywood Curry.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1197533040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1197533040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1197533040/tpod.html Tue, 18 Dec 2007 03:19:33 -0500 Adios Miami. Beth and Erik's adventure before returning to their motherland...the great north.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Maclear, South Africa

When we were leaving Nieu Bethesda we planned to just go up through Bloemfontein to the Northern Drakensburg Mountains, but Ian, the guy who cooked and helped run the Backpackers there, told us of a better, paved route that would take us south of Lesotho through the whole Drakensburg Mountain range. He said there is a great new backpackers at some waterfalls near Maclear. We drove the beautiful paved country route that he told us, and arrived in Maclear at about 4. We called the backpackers for directions. As we were driving to the backpackers, the dirt road kept getting worse and worse washed out in areas. We had to cross two small streams (in our Ford Focus) and finally got to an impassable area that would have been difficult in a 4x4 with a high clearance. We turned around, frustrated and drove back into town. We called the backpackers to tell them we wouldn't be coming. The lady was very apologetic and said that they had just sent someone to look for us. We found a B&B in town and stayed there for the night. The place was really nice with a kitchen, bed warmers, a satellite TV, and a beautiful tile bathroom. One of Beth's favorite films, the Triplets of Belleville, was on TV, so we made dinner, watched the movie and fell asleep.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1197124740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1197124740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tomlinej/bethanderik_sa/1197124740/tpod.html Mon, 10 Dec 2007 10:02:19 -0500 Adios Miami. Beth and Erik's adventure before returning to their motherland...the great north.

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Hogsback, South Africa

We heard in Namibia that there's a place in SA where J. R. R. Tolkien found his inspiration for the Hobbit. We had to come to Hogsback to see the forests! We heard of a place called Away with the Fairies and made reservations for camping. When we got here, it was pouring rain so we switched to the "Hobbit" cabin. We love this place so much, we checked our box of food to see how long we could stay! The fireplace kept us warm in the coldest night we've had so far...the doors in the cabin were "just Beth's size" and hobbits and fairies were painted in every room (either behind doors, looking out from curtains or peering up from door frames).

A hiking trail starts right from the lodge. The forest was amazing! Trees covered in hanging moss sway as little monkeys jump around, we saw strange trees called Knob Wood Trees...the whole trunk is full of little stubby wooden knobs, and the Madonna and Child waterfall was worth the two hour hike!~ If ANYONE ever comes to SA...they have to come here for the hikes and amazing mountain views!!! (and very cool people too!)
]]>