Africa, what you see

After a great week in the Kruger National Park we have seen all sorts of things-

Lots of these-





...and at night you can find these eating the other animals you saw during the day...

This was the rarest beast we saw. I've only seen one since we arrived. Thousands of BMWs & Mercs as they are both made here and exported around the world.



We were travelling in two Toyota Condors, the white people-mover in front there, based on a ute. I chatted to the guy in the IS. He said they sold 160 last year, and he was looking at upgrading to an IS300.

The speed limits are 60kph & 120kph. Doing 100kph in a 60 area will cost you R450, about $100NZ!!! At 120 you will get severely overtaken by the Bimmers & Mercs anyway!

Whoa! Nice pics and glad to see you are chatting to IS owners worldwide...to speak frankly I will never own a IS300 in Africa, it will either be a damn Corolla or an bulletproof Lincoln Towncar. Man I will worry about my personal safety in those countries. They only sold 160 Lexus IS in the last year? thats as worst as Kiwiland!!! keep more pics coming.

Matt =)

hey greeneyes.. looks like fun over there.. how did you manage to track that rare beasts trail??? i wanna see more big cat pics

Hi Keith:
The big cat was stareing at you!? Must be a special experience! I only had the chance to see those sleepy lions in the zoo.

Have fun!
SSML

You are RIGHT! We talked about this with other ppl too. A TV program can never give you the spooky feeling of fear that you get when a lion looks into your eyes!! Looking at a lion means you see it, but having the lion look back into your eyes means communication. It communicates very clearly that "you are food and I eat your sort of people!!!" Suddenly all your genetic programming kicks in.

On a night drive the second jeep (not ours) had a lion chase an impala up to the vehicle, & when the impala jumped sideways the lion crashed into the side of the open jeep. Apparently the tourists (from Europe) were all screaming and yelling...

We went on a mountain bike ride with a couple of Park Rangers one afternoon. That was quite something too, walking and riding through the Mopane scrub. A week before, an elephant suddenly walked out only 4metres in front of the Ranger. He panic stopped and the people riding behind crashed into him and knocked him off his bike & he dropped his rifle. In the chaos following the second Ranger managed to fire a warning shot and the elephant left.

Thats why they carry elephant guns... They make a big noise!

A young girl got mauled by a lion the day we left. Personal safety is not so high up the Govt's list over there, so you can do a lot more exciting things than you can in NZ.

Over two months we saw 4 Lexus IS.

More photos soon.

keith

damn those are quite hair-raising stories keith.. tell us more!

Well, we were sitting in Auckland Airport at 4am to check in on the day we left.

By lunchtime we were out of Sydney & on our way. Somewhere over the Indian Ocean they served dinner, and for dessert we had Magnum ice creams.... at -50degC!

As I bit into it I broke my front tooth off, the brown (dead) one that I'd had for 20years, right in the front. My pirate trademark I used to tell the kids about at my daughter's primary school!




Anyway- We arrived in Pretoria at 3am New Zealand time, 5pm local, on a Sunday. First job was to find a dentist!

Monday morning I was at the dentist of the lady who owned the Bed & Breakfast we were staying at, and a delightful young lady made a mould of my teeth, talked me out of a gold tooth, and glued a temporary epoxy one in place! Took less than an hour. We grabbed the Toyota Condor hire vans and vanished into the distance.

After 10days at Kruger park we returnerd to Pretoria, and within half an hour she had a new tooth glued in. Better than new! and only cost $NZ600! Now to see about the travel insurance claim!

That was more scary than any animal!!

hahaha that is the most scariest animals of them all i've seen so far of your holiday keith

Now we are going through the photos at home.

Here is how you are warned of tight corners in Mozambique. This is on the only piece of new semi-motorway, leading up to a closed border post with Swaziland. When all finished they will open that post.

Note that you are told not to do 100kph around the fast downhill corner, but they give you no clue as to how fast you CAN go! (and at 100kph you are not going to see those little red lines anyway!! )

Keith:
That's pretty good deal u got there for a porcelain crown ( I assume it's porcelain rather than temporay resin crown)

a Porcelain fused to Metal crown will cost u ~ $1000+ AUD in Brisbane.
if it's all ceramic crown, even more expensive.

no more those good old GOLD onlays!?

You're right! I had the epoxy one for the ten days in Kruger, then when we got back to Pretoria she fitted the porcelain one. I was quite happy with the epoxy one actually!!

Now here is a sign from South Africa. I think because it is largely a flat country, and when you get hills they are BIG with BIG mountain passes in them. You can whistle around them on the doorhandles at 90kph, but the trucks are only doing 20kph!

This is in Maxixe, 2days North of Matputo. One of the local taxis. The sand on the road is typical, the tarseal is a bonus!