The Land That Time Forgot

Apologies for taking so long to post this, and it will be a wee bit short i'm afraid. A move of 1,000km and completely uprooting your life can have a big impact on your blogging, but who cares, the story must continue.

So I had a car, no plans, and time on my hands. Free accommodation at a luxurious resort found in a crater filled with animals the likes of which no other continent can boast. While on the journey from Johannesburg to Pilansberg you are unlikely to see many wild animals other than dogs and goats, once you enter the park and drive the mere few hundred metres towards Kwa Maritane, the lodge, you are likely to pass troops of baboons, buck and even more if you are lucky. It's at this point you realise you have truly left the concrete jungle as though it were another planet. There's no Boost Juice, no KFC, only critters and creatures that you may have believed only existed in a David Attenborough series. Yet here you are, pulling over as a troop of 17 baboons cross the road, the babies oblivious to your existence, the adults casting a protective eye around the land, and a few adventurous souls sniffing your tyres where a few dogs from local towns on the drive from Jo'Burg decided to take advantage of the moments when you slowed down and claim the four wheeled vehicle as their own.

It's a complete contradiction being in a place like Kwa Maritane, much like many of the reserves in Southern Africa. There's such remoteness, yet such luxury. Untouched bushland, yet silver service and crisp linen in salubrious cabins. Five star dining with mother nature's hungriest guests as your neighbours. While you enjoy the luxury of swimming pools, table tennis and bars, you are also dropped straight into the middle of the land that time, and thankfully development, forgot. Kwa Maritane offers the perfect base for a self driving tour, the perfect place to forget wherever it is you came from and the perfect place to fall in love with Mama Africa!

Barefoot Bushman... the adventure begins (part 1)

(image by Barefoot Bushman - Leroo La Tau, Botswana)
A friend said to me recently that I should probably write down some of my Barefoot Bushman adventures of old, after all it is through these stories of the past that I adopted this name. My feeling to date had been to write about more current events and recent adventures, but then I realised that if I didn't write down where I had come from, these memories and tales may be lost and may as well never have happened. Besides, you need to know where you have been to understand where you are heading. Given that I am on the doorstep of major change as I pack up my life in Sydney and move on, I figured now would be an appropriate time to start.

So, where did the Barefoot Bushman all begin. Well I guess it started when I touched down at Jo'burg International airport in November 2004 having just spent three years living and working in Edinburgh, Scotland. I held the post of National Media Officer for a company called the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (www.rspb.org.uk/scotland) managing to combine my pasison for the outdoors with my journalism experience, it was my first taste of PR. My plan had always been, however, to head back to the Dark Continent where I was born and satisfy a dream that I had held on to since my school days. A dream of working at a game park as a guide.

Touching down in South Africa I was filled with an incredible sense of fulfillment. It was the beginning of a life long dream realised and the end of wondering 'what if'. It was like a door that had been locked until now had suddenly been barged open and what lay beyond was adventure of untold scale. I knew that from here on there would be limitless opportunity, danger and excitment, and that was just the airport!

I had very little in the way of a plan, just an invitation to work at a lodge called Leroo La Tau in Botswana. A lodge on the banks of the Boteti River, not that water flows there very often any more. It's a lodge my eldest brother helped to build, and a place where my mothers ashes are now scattered. Through this connection, I had been invited to come and work at the lodge, an opportunity too good to pass up. But it would be some weeks before I made it to Leroo La Tau.

I had just left a Scottish winter and arrived to an African summer. The sun finding parts of my now pasty white face to warm that hadn't felt such a glow in years. Having just stepped away from a full time job, I didn't feel like walking straight back into one, no matter how different it was to being behind a desk. Before heading north across the South Africa / Botswana border, I needed to scratch a few tourist itches, to 'ooh' and 'ahh' at Mama Africa's landscapes and creatures. I needed to explore and get lost before I could then set out to find myself again.

A few days in Johannesburg was enough to come to terms with the fact that my life had begun. A few days of gin and tonic on the balcony in the afternoon to watch the four o'clock storm roll in. A few days in a gated community, it was time to 'go bush'. The family friends I was staying with have time share at a lodge in the Pilanesburg National Park, a crater on the border of Botswana that boasts the Big Five (lion, leopard, buffalo, rhino and elephant). A quick phone call to a car rental company, and for little more than the price of a nice three course meal in the UK, I had a car for four days to explore this land that time forgot.

TO BE CONTINUED...

'The Beast' is dead...

I am heartbroken...

This gorgeous beast here was my only means of transport, my portable bed, my conversation piece, my weekend getaway, my shepherd over rocky roads and even though we fought - she was a lot of fun.

I think the relationship turned sour because I live in the big smoke - Sydney. It meant I didn't have the time nor the space to spend with 'Annie' a nickname owing to her unique registration AN00KN. Slowly, the cracks began to appear and without the proper love and attention she deserved, what started as a ripple became a tidal wave of problems. Now, my series III long wheel base troop carrier Landrover is out of rego and in need of a blue slip.

I did rush her to numerous emergency departments in the hope that a pink slip would buy me some more time to address the bigger problems we were having, but when I was told the bill would be $5,000 just for a pink slip - I knew we were finished. After all, she only cost me $2,000.

This however presents a problem. I am moving to Brisbane in two weeks, and I have an unregsitered vehicle that I need to do something with. Do I go for trade plates and take it to a nearby property as a paddock basher? Do I sell her for parts to an enthusiast, or just have her taken for scrap. I am not a fan of any of the options because it breaks my heart to see Annie go, but go she must. Anyone looking for a renovaters dream?

Well, it's better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. Farewell Annie, we'll always have Stockton...

Mountain magic...

Picture courtesy of: http://www.eagleview.com.au/

Life is not about how may breaths you take, but about the moments that take your breath away. I love the expression and at the weekend discovered just what it takes to truly take your breath away. I spent a night with my girlfriend at Eagle View Escape in the Blue Mountains, and can truly say, now I have lived. If it's not the stunning views down over Lake Lyell that leaves you breathless, it's the spa bath in front of the window, or maybe its the underground rooms with gas fire heaters, the impeccable service, or the remote and quiet location.

How amazing that you can go to a cafe back in your home town or city and order breakfast that takes perhaps ten minutes to arrive, and often it is not what you ordered, inedible or delivered with such lacklustre you have lost your appetite. Well, I ordered breakfast three days before arriving at Eagleview and it arrived exactly on time, exactly how I had asked for it and was absolutely delicious. Bacon, sausage and eggs on toast, yoghurt, fresh orange juice and plunger coffee. Not to mention jams and a plate of fresh fruit. All to be enjoyed on a private front porch with nothing but nature's best as your view.

This luxury hideaway is only about 20 kilometres out of Lithgow in the Blue Mountains of NSW and easy to find, but also easy to lose yourself in. The roads to the hideaway are winding country roads with kangaroos more often seen than other cars. There's wombats and horses, wedge tailed eagles overhead and a feeling that you have truly left most other tourists behind. You wind your way up on top of a ridge line on a private property to find a modest but very welcoming reception, complete with open fireplace and pool table. And, if you're staying in the Lakeside Spa Suites, you then head down through some fairy lit tunnels into your underground boudoir to soak away the outside world in your own twin spa bath. This place gets a well-deserved eight out of 10 on the barefoot bushman scale. Oh, and if you want complete privacy, check out their Wilderness Cabins. Use the web link above - it's worth it.

This is the place that I mentioned in my last blog. My one night booking was during a long weekend where the minimum booking is for three nights. Such is the nature of their service that they were willing to let me take one night only.

Another highlight was the Italian restaurant La Trattoria in Main Street Lithgow. Gorgeous and quaint atmosphere, brilliant service and the food was the best I have had in a long time. Despite being a full house and turning up with no booking, we received personal attention, perfect service and while I am no foodie and don't plan on blogging much about food, but this place deserves the credit.

I suppose today is the real test. It's the morning after having started something and it was either going to be a case of carry on, or let it slide and ask yourself 'what were you thinking'? Hurrah, i'm officially a blogger...

So this weekend, I am taking my gorgeous girlfriend to a place in the Blue Mountains (NSW, Australia) that looks pretty amazing. I won't give away the details just yet and I won't be able to blog probably until Tuesday, but when I do I will talk about the Jenolan Caves, the international jousting tournament - i'm not kidding, and the accommodation. From what I have seen so far though, it will be a big two thumbs up!

I have to admit I was very pleasantly surprised when I was researching places to stay in the Blue Mountains, there is no shortage of luxury cabins with a fireplace and spa bath, and all at very reasonable rates. I happen to be going on a long weekend where the minimum booking time for most places is three nights, but where I am staying, I asked if they had any vacancies for one night on the Saturday - ruining any potential for a last minute long weekend guest taking the place. After the weekend I will let you know where it was that has accommodated my wishes, but they have been nothing short of a delight to deal with.

Anyway, the world of PR beckons me and I suppose I must answer the call, until we chat again; you stay classy, planet earth! (Thanks to Ron Burgundy for that one).

Be gentle, i'm new to this

I can't remember how long ago I first heard the term' blogging', but to be honest I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard of. I mean really, it was never going anywhere. Mistake number one.

Then I heard about 'tweeting'. Who cares what you're doing right now? Well, apparently millions of people do - mistake number two.

So now, having learnt my lessons here and having decided not to become a trends analyst, I am writing my first ever blog. So why is that? Well, to be honest, it's for several reasons.

First, I have to because I am in communications and PR, so this wonderful world of social media is new and terrifying but it is also the way forward. So I love the challenge.

Second, I may be an aspiring writer, merely waiting to aspire. I have no shortage of stories having led a colourful life and taking each day as though its my last. So I figured daily or near daily updates may be a good way to go. So I created my fist ever blog. Ta da! Oh, and the name barefoot bushman, this is what I was called when I was working as a guide in Southern Africa - and I loved the tag.

I don't know how to get people to read this blog, what to write about and probably will forget my password within a week, but so what, i'm giving it a go.

I guess I will write about my observations, as a former journalist I do like to keep an eye on what is going on around me. And i'll probably write about my interests and passions which include travel, photography and the great outdoors. There will definitely be endorsements of locations, products and people I have met and approve of, equally so will there be a cutting down of those I don't. I will always welcome constructive feedback, but probably delete those I am not so keen on ; ) Such is the priviledge of the administrator.

So this, I guess, is just my introduction to you. I hope at least one person reads something I write one day, and if I can amuse, entertain, educate or persuade someone - then I will consider my job done.

Oh, and please excuse typos. It is not that I can't spell, it is simply that I can't type...

Looking forward to 'blogging'

Yours aye,

Barefoot Bushman