Heading home

After coffee we headed off to look at one last property before taking he drive back to the airport. We enjoyed e business lounge with its free food and wine, and flew back to Cape Town,  arriving about 11 o clock. Mike kindly fetched us, so late at night and we were delighted to see our dogs again, so we'll looked after by Kestern.

Kruger

We drove on to Hoedspruit where we had breakfast at the Wimpy before meeting Rob, the agent. He showed us a fee properties,  all of which were nice. Looking at farms takes long, and soon it was 4 when we were meeting the next agent. We looked at a large farm owned by French people, where they had been doing cheetah breeding, but it wasn't what we wanted. Rushing for the gate by 6, we drove to Parsons where we were spending the night.
As we arrived at our accommodation,  Appreciation came to welcome us and I asked if an elephant had knocked down the tree. She said I missed him by 10 minutes, he'd spent the afternoon in the garden. I was so sorry to have missed him.

Elephant damageain the garden

We were advised it was too dangerous to have our sundowners at the river, so we walked down and admired the hippos and baboons.

Our view

The vervet monkeys were in the tree next to the house. It was truly lovely. We enjoyed our drinks on the patio before Roy braai'd some boerewors for supper.

Waterberg

We woke up with ease thanks to jet lag and were ready forward our morning game drive. I asked if we could see elephants and since the matriarch is tagged they were able to give me my wish.

Soon we stopped for a coffee and muffin break.

Saw some zebra and wildebeest.  There were lots of babies.

We went back to the lodge for a lovely breakfast.

After breakfast we packed up and got ready to leave.

We saw buffalo on the way out, so valuable because of being TB free that they are kept seperately from the lions. We got to the gate about midday and put our luggage into our hire car, said goodbye and headed off to look at properties.
The main farm we wanted to see was close by. The farmer wasn't around so the guy who built the road on the property met us at the gate. The padlock was huge, but nothing a big Farmer and pair of bolt cutters couldn't demolish. He also kindly drove around with us, showing us the spots and took us down to the river on the back on his bakkie. I was sure we'd loose it down the hill, but he was an excellent driver. Thanking him, we left for the next property.
The agent for these properties is a total price (excuse my language but I just can't think of a polite word for him). Every comment he makes on his website or mail is aggressive and money grabbing and he was beyond useless. He'd not set up any of the appointments and after spending an hour looking for the next farm where nobody was home it seemed, we gave up and left. Never spoken to the agent since, so maybe he thinks we are still looking for it.
Living up to it's name, we got the afternoon rainfall.

We drove towards Kruger, getting as far as Tzaneen before finding lodging for the night.

Joburg and Welgevonden

We landed in Joburg, collected our bags and picked up the hire car, a Ford. With no time to spare, we headed off for Welgevonden in the Waterberg. We'd booked the 1 of clock lodge transfer and our gps said we would get there 12:45. The weather was wonderful, just warm enough to wear a t-shirt and feel hot. We arrived spot on time at the reserve and were welcomed with cold beer. Fantastic to be back in Africa! We were sharing transfer with a Dutch couple, Minke and Bart who we spent our time with at drives and meals. They were great.

We saw buck, zebra and my favourite, bush pigs. The sky started getting dark and we raced back to the lodge, thunder and lightning cracking loudly, just as big drops of rain started falling. I was so happy! Africa, hot and a thunderstorm. Sigh with pleasure.
The lodge was beautiful and we were shown our room, which had a warm, bubbling jacuzzi that we jumped into before lunch.

Our private jacuzzi

Lunch was great. Salads and chicken pie, with cold Fat Bastard savignon blanc.  Yum!
Soon we were off for our game drive, accompanied by the other lodge guests, two elderly sisters in their eighties, a gentleman friend, who we heard later was worth 40 million, but living a miserable life in a home, and a youngish friend who was his carer for the weekend. The old man was getting dementia and would forget where he was was. But I was impressed with these old guys off on safari. We saw some rhino and lions and enjoyed our sundowners, even though it started to rain.

Our Dutch friends, Bart and Minke

Dinner was great and soon after we fell into bed exhausted. Although it was only 10 o clock, for us on Beijing time it was 4 o clock in the morning! 

Last day in Beijing

After packing our bags for one of the last times this trip, we checked out of the hotel and left our bags at reception. Got the metro to Panjiayuan antique market. There wasn't much we found interesting and had the bargaining issue again. There were some lovely bowls I would have bought, but at R80 a small bowl it wasn't worth it, so I walked on. We did get a nice iron tea pot for a fair price and will treasure it as our Chinese souvenir.
Got one of the delicious egg pancakes.

Egg on pancake with crunchy stuff

Yum

Wondering how to spend our last afternoon we got the metro to the Forbidden City area walked through the hutong (old street layouts) to the gardens behind the Forbidden City.

Forbidden City garden Wall from the hutongs, and my new friend

In the Forbidden City garden, with it's man made lakes

From the gardens we walked back to our hotel, passing an ice rink on a lake,

before having lunch at a very overpriced restaurant right in the centre of where all of Beijing seemed to be spending the weekend.

We ambled back to our hotel to collect the bags and then got the metro and the express train to the airport. We had a coffee while waiting for check in to open and then spent the last two hours waiting in the business lounge. The airport was strangely quiet. Our flight home was lovely. My first ever booked business class long flight and we were treated like royalty. Table laid, lovely food and best of all, a bed!

Sleeping in business class - I like!

Slept well and woke feeling refreshed.

The Great Wall

Having arranged a taxi and guide via email enquiry previous night we woke early and were collected from our hotel before 9. We passed the 'Birds nest' on our way to Mutianyu, one of the towns at The Great Wall where there aren't too many visitors.

At Mutianyu we decided to take the chairlift to the wall.

It's been a dream for many years to walk on the wall, and it was lovely, although like anything in life, too much build up can only lead to disappointment. It was beautiful though.

We walked back down the mountain and asked to be dropped at the camera shops. We hit Beijing rush hour traffic which was bad, but made the mall in time. Roy tried all the shops but none had the lens yet, so it was all a waste of time.

We headed off for dinner. Trip advisor suggested the best restaurant for Peking duck which Roy wanted to try, so we took the metro and asked a lady who lived on the street to help us find the restaurant. There were queues of people waiting for a table which is always a good sign. We eventually got a table and the meal was nice.

Summer Palace, Beijing

We were not able to get tickets in the same cabin so a young man in mine kindly swapped with Roy so we could be together. We slept well and woke up in Beijing. We fetched our bags after being charged for 5 days instead of 4 because it's not 24 hour period. Grrrrrr, always in their favour.

Got the underground to our hotel which was close to the metro station and happily we were given the room so early. It was a bigger hotel then Roy expected, but it was still very nice. We cleaned up and by about 11 we left for the Summer Palace. The metro is stupidly cheap in China, but even distances are quite far and the journeys seemed to take longer. We found the palace and special a while walking around the grounds.

Garden of supreme satisfaction (or something similar)

The ground are quite extensive

Roy had heard that he could get a new lens he wanted from a camera mall and we followed he directions he got off the Internet. We got off at the right metro stop but spent about an hour looking for the place with the incorrect directions, finally finding it as it closed. Frustrated, we caught the metro to the 'silk market' where you are supposed to be able to shop to your hearts content.  Unfortunately it's not like that. Besides being hassled from the moment you step foot in there, as a Westerner you are given exorbitant prices and bargaining is so hard and unpleasant it doesn't worth it. A lot of stalls were unwilling to give prices close to what a local would pay, and it was obvious that they would rather get one stupid price from the occasional Westerner than give more a fair one. So at most shops we left without anything. We got Roy 2 shirts, paying just a bit more than we should have, and I got a bathing costume for close what I'd pay at home. We tried buying a suitcases but the prices were double what we'd pay at home, so we didn't get. Looks like it won't be needed at this rate anyway!
By the time we left it was already late and walking at the lake nearby our hotel all the restaurants had stopped serving. Roy was disgusted that he was forced to buy Mc Donalds take aways when in China!