Safari in Kruger Park

After four days of statistical conference, three colleagues of mine and I joined a four-day safari in Kruger National Park.

To get there, we had to take a plane from Durban to Nelspruit, where our guide was waiting for us. The plane itself was one of the smallest I have ever been to and it started flying towards the Indian Ocean, in the wrong direction! Thanks Lord, the pilot turned the plane soon afterwards and we arrived without problems.

The first thing I had to do when settled in the park was buying a hat like Indiana Jones. Once bought, we could start looking for animals. In Skukuza, our campsite, I was lucky enough as to pick the last hat of XL size (the other hats were either size S, small, or XXL, huge) and have a look at the result: four statisticians worried about the financial crisis.
We managed to watch the Big Five (leopard, elephant, lion, buffalo and rhino) before the end of the second day. Big Five are those animals which were deemed as most dangerous to hunt but, needless to say, we did not have any intention of hunting them. The best moment of our visit was when a leopard decided to walk close to the road: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y1v952jpj8

We also spotted giraffes, hippos, springboks, crocodiles, birds, vultures,... One can easily feel danger in the park every second. Humans do not rule there and one must be very careful. The lions we spotted had blood in their mouths. Moreover, a hippo came through a lake and five metres from our car opened its huge mouth in a clear sign of who had the power in that lake.

We even had a problem with an elephant when a hood of them was drinking water. Ah, elephants, I feel now kind of tired of them, I have seen so many of them. Just to close this blog, here is a picture of some elephants.In the next entry, I finish the trip to South Africa with Blyde River Canyon.

Lost in Lesotho

One day, feeling tired and bored with the statistical conference that had taken me to South Africa, I decided to join a day trip to Sani Pass. Sani Pass is the only way going into Lesotho from Kwazulu-Natal. It is situated in Drakenberg Mountains at 2873 metres above sea level. In the picture below, the pass is on the top left hand side corner, just close to the snowed peaks.
In any case, as it is supposed to be an important trade point, I expected at least a paved road until the summit. Needless to say, this may be the common way in Europe but not in Africa. The road to Sani Pass is not paved and as it climbs higher in the mountains, it turns out to be no more than a goat's path ("camino de cabras" in Spanish). After some African massages, the top is reached and then the visitor must immediately proceed to the Lesotho border to get his passport sealed. Then, there are two options: either to visit one of the shepherd's cottages which are only used in summer or go directly to the highest pub in Africa, Sani Pub. Or even better, you can easily manage with the two options.

Lesotho is one of the poorest countries in Africa and it is the country with the highest average altituted above sea level. Most of it includes only mountains beyond 2000 metres above sea level. With this is mind, it is easy to imagine that Western civilization has not entirely reached Lesotho. I think it is the most exotic and lost country I have been in my life so far and I will ever be.

In our way down, we found some clouds below us, which seemed to take us deep in hell (obviously, they only took us back to Durban).
Next chapter will be devoted to Kruger National Park.

I am legend

The next stage of my trip to South Africa took me to Durban, where the 57th Session of the International Statistical Institute took place. There were four days of boring work and presentations, where there is not much to be said.

Durban is the main harbour in Africa and the 9th in the world. Beyond that, it is an extremely dangerous city where it is not safe to walk alone in the streets, even during daylight. That was the advice I received in my South African guide, in my hotel and from the local organisers of the conference. Some attendants to the conference were not so cautious and they had to learn the lesson in a different (and harder) way.

I must admit that the city itself looks like a ghost city taken from films such as "12 monkeys" or "I am legend", that is to say, a city after a global disaster. Nobody walks and everybody is driving. I get the impression that Durban was quite prosperous in the 80s, as it has a lot of hotels in front of its amazing beach, but afterwards everything seems to have been stopped and people has left the city centre, leaving it empty and ghostly. Buildings have not been repaired in many years and they all have quite a decadent air.

In any case, let me show you a picture from the room of my hotel. That is all I can give you...
Next post: Sani Pass in the Lesotho border.

48 hours in Cape Town

I will start the briefing of my holidays with the most recent ones: my stay in South Africa. By the time I finish, I may have forgotten about Iceland because right now it seems that it happened a long time ago... No way, how on Earth could I forget the amazing days I had up there?

My first stop in my South African trip was Cape Town. Firstly, I had to fly to London Heathrow and then take a direct flight to Cape Town. I spent 12 hours flying and that is quite an achievement for me, given that I get bored in a plane after 30 minutes. I only had a day and a half to spend there, so I took the easy way and I booked two trips around the city. In the first one of them I was with an Italian couple who made me remember the name of a Spanish village: Puerto Urraco. The woman was wearing some kind of golden trousers which I cannot take out of my mind now... She was very interesting in buying a diamond, but her husband did not share her enthusiasm, if you know what I mean.

Cape Town, as it is easily understood by its name, stays in a... bay! Yeah, but around 30 kilometres from it, you find Cape of Good Hope (originally baptised Cape of Storms by Bartolomé Dias), which is an amazing place, where the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean meet, as you can see in the picture. On your right, the Atlantic Ocean and on your left, the Indian Ocean. Some people claim to see two different colours in the water but I do not dare to go so far.

Cape Town has an interesting history. It was first spotted by the Portuguese, who did not settle at all. Then, the Dutch established a port there and afterwards the British arrived. With so much European influences, one can feel that it has an European atmosphere and structure, nothing to do with the usual African cities.

It lays under Table Mountain, a huge rock 3 kilometres long, who seems to watch out the ocean. Unfortunately, the cable car to the summit was closed due to maintenance works and I could not admire the outstanding views of the city from that point. Close to Table Mountain, you find the Twelve Apostoles (see below), which make a beautiful contrast with the ocean. The Atlantic Ocean is quite cold at Cape Town and full of white sharks, so it is not the best place to swim.
But there are more interesting places around. We have the amazing plants in the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garten, where the national flower of South Africa, King Protea, is kept (by the way, do we have national flowers in Spain?), the Castle of Cape Town, the Waterfront, the Island of Seals (which must be like a supermarket for white sharks), Simon's Town, False Bay, Constantia, Cliffton,...

Even more, there is a penguin colony in Boulders and they are one of my favourite animals. Look how funny they look like in this picture.

Next chapter, Durban.

Ten intense days in Iceland

Well, I am back from my first destination of my holidays: Iceland. What an amazing landscape, full of waterfalls, glaciers and without trees and vegetation. During these days so much has happened that it is difficult to summarize it all here, so get ready for a lot of entries in this blog about it.

Just to simply enumerate it, let me tell you that I received "smashing pumpkins", that I have been in a Icelandic Police Station, that I have known the Spanish Chancellor in Oslo, that I have touch a glacier, that I have seen whales, that I have been attacked by an artic bird,...

Here is it a first picture of Iceland. More will come once I am back from South Africa, around 25th August.