Valentino does a Christmas Holiday ride to Malelane and Nelspruit

Merry Christmas and  a Happy New Year from Valentino Harley Bear.

December 2012 has been a very interesting time - Mommy and Daddy to this bear to the Kruger National Park, and it is not known for having bears. It does have Elephants, Lion, Rhino's, Hippo's, Crocodiles, lots of buck and many more wild animals.

Mommy n Me - Ready To Ride, Baby.

We left Durban on Saturday the 22nd of December 2012 at 6.00 a.m. (this is a picture of me in my riding position on all the comfy luggage). We had a very nice ride along the coast, passing through Ballito before going onto the freeway and going past Umtumzini, Eshowe, Richards Bay, Matubatuba (near St. Lucia), the beautiful Jozini Dam, before stopping at Pongola for lunch.

I wasn't hungry and guarded the Harley (some people found this very interesting and took pictures of me). As long as they smile when they see me (like the people in the cars we pass), I am happy to be photographed.

The next town was Piet Retief and we stopped here for a petrol fillup as the next stop was to be near Badplaas, another 250 kms up the road. An interesting part of this stretch of the trip happened when Daddy accidentally rode over a brown stick that turned out to be a snake (heard him say he thought it was a brown mole snake) that he saw writhing in pain when he looked in the rear-view mirror. He didn't stop to investigate.

Valentino by the Crocodile River

The ride over the mountain roads near Barberton was really scenic and the passes are just made for riding with a Harley. Most of the other road users seemed happy to allow the chrome bedecked Harley past, but there are always one or two drivers who feel the need to show their lack of maturity by trying to take the rolling thunder on. Their accellaration is no match when there is traffic around, but when they start doing stupid speeds over 140kmh on public roads, Daddy just backed off and let them do their thing. Usually went past them when there was traffic around a bit later on anyway.

We got to the Rio Vista Lodge where we were going to be staying in Malelane (right next to the Crocodile River that forms the Kruger National Park border) at 3.15 p.m., 9 and a quarter hours for a 840km trip with 5 stops for petrol and leg stretching (and a few hateful toll road booths).

This is me outside our bungalow with the Crocodile river and the Kruger National Park in the background.

This is my Mommy n me outside our bungalows front door (the door has a Lion carved in it).

We saw (and heard) some hippo's by the river, as well as some Waterbuck (rugged and robust animals with conspicuous white rings - Daddy said they look like they sat on a painted wet toilet seat - on their rear ends). There were also lots of noisy ducks, guinea fowl and many different, beautiful birds.

Our bungalow was very comfortable, with the biggest luxury being the air-conditioner, which gave us welcome relief from the dry heat outside.

Where's the food?

We also saw Kudu, Impala and Bush Buck from the lodges grounds. Meals are served on a deck with a thatched roof that has wonderful view of the river and park. This is a picture of me at breakfast.

We didn't go to Malelane only to see the animals - my Granny (on my Mothers side) lives around the corner from the lodge, and we visited her and met lots of the family. Daddy was allowed to make lunch for the family (Pasta Bolognaise - Yum) in Granny's kitchen, something that men in this family don't normally do. We learnt that food tastes a bit different at altitude and Daddy hoped that it was ok. While it wasn't as good as at home, it couldn't have been too bad.

Here is a pic of cousin Michelle, Granny and Danielle, one of Michelle's three lovely, charming daughters. Granny was very funny and unusually had some Champagne and some red wine with the Christmas Dinner. Surprisingly, she was able to read the Christmas cracker message easily without her glasses after this, but the next day needed her reading glasses to read anything. :-)

The next day we travelled to Nelspruit (60kms away), to visit some of Daddy's family - one of his favourite Aunts - Aunty Sally and two of her daughters, cousins Beau and Mandy - all wonderful people with good memories revisited or shared.

More on this trip tomorrow!!