Not content with Liwa dunes we set off for a day trip on Friday January 6th, this time with the Carnes, Audretschs AND Doyles along, to let the young folks see Fossil Rock and have a bit of serious dune bashing! This is our usual lunch spot – ladies lunched (except Katy) while men (and Katy) played boules!
Just a small dune in our Prado…. 
Then came the serious stuff and the long drop off the top of Fossil Rock. We all struggled to get to the top to do this, but we all went down this very very steep slope….. 
10 Green Camp Chairs Sitting On A Dune! This is Fossil Rock in the background and we have just come down a slope just off to the left. What we are all sitting watching is the locals and their mad attempts at climbing UP the slope you see in front of us. A cup of coffee, piece of cake and what entertainment! 
And, bizarrely, as we left, what did we see sitting in the back of someone’ jeep but a cheetah?!
Thursday, 2 February 2012
Fossil Rock
Camping at Liwa 2
Breakfast as usual by Pete – Canadian pancakes and maple syrup! Yum! 
The drive out was past these incredibly dark camels 
We stopped to search for desert roses and found heaps of them in the sand 
Heather and Evelyn sheltering form the sun while the team searched! 
Then there was the Climb……. 
..and what a climb. 105 feet we reckoned – just about killed the Oldies! 
Then there was the Jump… 
…and then came the Singing!
Then lunch on the way home
..and a bit of fun photography
Camping at Liwa 1
Liwa is an oasis in the south of Abu Dhabi, close to the Saudi border and is on the northern edge of the Rub Al Khali desert (or Empty Quarter). The great attraction of this area is the emptiness on the desert and the height of the dunes. It an easy 3 hour drive from Dubai along good roads. Having spent New Year in Dubai watching the fantastic fireworks…. 
…we set off about 11.30 on the 1st to meet up with the Carnes and the Audrestchs en route. We followed The Auds into the desert and after a sticky patch or two we finally found a nice camp spot late afternoon. tents up and up to the top of a dune to watch the sunset. 
It also involved some jumping as we discovered we were in an area of Singing Dunes… 
Evening entertainment involved food, a few drinks and some strange action games….!
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
South Africa – the videos
Cape Town
The Garden Route
Kruger - Day 1 - Sabi Sands
Kruger – Day 2 – Kruger National Park
Kruger – Day 3 Back in Sabi Sands and Day 4 The Panorama Route
Sunday, 15 January 2012
Our Safari in Kruger - Day 4 Panorama Route
We were very sad to leave our camp in the bush. These are photos taken on our last morning – the restaurant where Howard is sitting, the swimming pool and the Braai area now looking a little bare (I wish I had taken some photos when we sat around the fire chatting in the evenings – it was so lovely)
but Gavin (van der Merwe, the owner) took us to Jo’Burg on the most glorious of routes back – the Panorama Route. High up into the the rugged mountain range of the northern Drakensberg in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa it passes through the north-eastern part of the Great Escarpment where from the plateau you have fantastic views of the plains a thousand metres below. We made 3 stops:
The Blyde River Canyon – the Pinnacle
Then God’s Window – the most famous and rightly so (and thus a little more developed, tourist-wise) A walk to the edge of the escarpment through a small section of rainforest and this fantastic view opens up.
And then the Berlyn Waterfall…. 
Jacaranda trees in full bloom on the road back – beautiful 
Our last stop with Gavin – appropriately enough a Pancake House!
