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Bhanga Nek

warrenpfo

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2010
Messages
2,895
Most of us have a bucket list which can best be defined below,

a number of experiences or achievements that a person hopes to have or accomplish during their lifetime.
"making this trip is the first thing on my bucket list"

For me one of those things is to witness either the laying or hatching of turtles and so last year June we decided to book for Feb 2017 and see if we can tick off one of my bucket list items.

In deciding to go we had a few things to keep in mind the first being that Bhanga Nek is in a malaria area and our daughter who was 4 at the time of booking had to be 5 in order to take the medication and that the hatching and laying of turtles is not guaranteed and there are many factors which influence both laying and hatching so a successful trip was not guaranteed not to mention we would choose the only weekend that Mozambique would be battered by a Cyclone.....

For me the preparation and planning of a trip starts months in advance and my role is to make sure we get there and back safely which covers the vehicle, navigation, recovery and sleeping/camp arraignments. As I am blessed with 2 female traveling companions (wife Michaela and daughter Mia) I need to make sure that all eventualities are covered for otherwise the next trip may well be on my own.

On the other hand Michalea looks after food, clothing and those small things I like to call critical non essentials that us men forget or dont thing are important like sun screen, 2 ply loo role, nail clippers and salad. Mia...well she looks after Mia and makes sure her dolly named squishy is ready and that she has enough to keep her busy in the car for the trip which includes but not limited to everyone listening to her music not once, not twice but 5 times on the way up and playing eye spy and "i went to the moon and took..." until you run out of things to take or she drops off for a nap.

I am fortunate to work from home which enables me to pop into the garage at lunch and get my list of jobs complete days...no hang on weeks before we are due to depart. Michalea on the other hand works 500m from home comes home for lunch and yet still manages to have very little done the day before we are set to depart.

Stepping back a bit our party consisted of 10 adults and 3 kids all of whom where going to camp. Our booking was facilitated by Jenny Koen from Extreme Nature Tours whom I can only say great things about.

Jenny Koen
Reservations
Extreme Nature Tours
Tel: 082-857 3363 / 079-373 5461 all hours
http://www.extremenaturetours.co.za
http://www.extremenaturetours.co.za/camp.htm
http://www.bhanganek.co.za

The Monday before we left news of Cyclone Dineo broke and its safe to say the party just about wet themselves. Now I am no Indiana Jones but do like adventure and like to think I can asses a situation and make an informed decision. So after many emails amongst the party and a few to Jenny it was agreed that those who wanted to go and made it to Bhanga Nek would do so and those who chose not too would be able to move there booking to another time.

In my mind it was never even a question as to if we where going, the holiday was booked I wanted to see turtles and you only have 2 small windows in a year to do so and so let the group know we would be departing as agreed at 6am to meet at Manguzi Total Garage for 11am. A call late on Wednesday night to Kosi Lodge to find out about the weather there where having and to be told it was a beautiful evening cemented the decision for me.

Come Thursday morning i was up at 5 with a beautiful sunrise
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But the car was only half packed
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Now I dont like to point fingers and I hope there are others out there who can feel my pain but as much as Michaela likes the outdoors she also likes city life and so leaving for a holiday where there is no power and only very brak water to wash in we decided it would be a good idea to now wash and blow dry our hair before we left.....and to make things worse I dont know what food was being taken so I could not pack the cooler boxes and dont get me started on toiletries. We have 5 bags yes 5 of those bloody flowery little bags filled with toiletries. I have body soap which I use for my hair when we go away so god only knows what the rest is but I have been told it all needs to go.

I do my very best not to get irritated and frustrated but jeez it gets my blood boiling but I am working on it and appreciate we are not in a position to have 2 of everything so we take what we use at home and even the bedding has to come off the bed and get packed which all adds to the delay. So here I am ready to go and the 2 woman in my life are still faffing. 45min later than planned we leave which brings me to my next irritation...traffic

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Which we hit and sit in for an hour until we pass the airport and get up to 110km which is the speed i like to travel at.

On the plus side the sky is blue and I am on holiday with the family so life cant be that

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We pass Richard Bay and keep going only to hit some very heavy rain

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It was funny because as we where approaching the rain I did think to myself did we make the right decision but time and time again is was only for 3km or so and then we where back into clear skies and this happened 4 times.

We arrived at Manguzi at just after 12pm and filled up ready for the last 30km of sand track to camp. Manguzi is a bustling town with everything you need and very friendly people we found.

Once off the main road and onto the sand i stopped to air down

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Part 2 to follow shortly
 
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Its quite easy to get lost if you dont have T4A and the directions given although accurate in turns are out by some way when it comes to when to turn so glad we had the satnav.

I should have mentioned by this time we had been informed that no one else from our party was gong to come as they either felt the storm may still hit us or that not having got away when planned meant one less day and they would rather delay and move there booking.

This was felt most by our daughter as being an only child she does like to have other kids around her to play with and so although saddened she put on a brave little face and we all agreed it would be great to have some family time anyway so we could all "play" together.

The track to Bhanga Nek is just great and the next few pictures give you a good idea of what to expect.

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There are a few small axel twisters and a bit of soft sand but nothing the cruiser battled with to the point where i would try and find the hardest lines in the hope i would get stuck but nope it did not happen.

Before arriving you pass the last little "shop" to get a cold drink and some matches.

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Called God Only Knows

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On arriving you are greeted with the Bhanga Nek sign and a glimpse of what awaits you

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Part 3 to follow shortly...
 
You drive through the gate and 200m down you get to the community run campsite 10m from the beach behind a windbreak of vegetation. Its a small site with 6 two sleeper tents on a platform but the zips are buggered from the sea air and they are very basic so in my eyes not worth the extra cash if you have your own tent.

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If staying at the tented camp you have use of a boma and communal kitchen/dinning area

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But everyone still used the same loos and showers.

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There are 2 loos and 3 showers with hot running water from a donkey but bot great tasting even for brushing teeth so we took 45l of fresh water.

We very quickly set up camp and made ourselves at home.

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And then made our way to the beach to investigate. Needless to say it did not disappoint.

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That evening there was just us and one other chap from Pretoria who left the next day and to our surprise we got news that friends of ours and their folks had left to join us. Which was great only concern was he was driving a Santa fe and would they make it.

Surprise surprise they got to us with no problems and the next few days was spent on the beach enjoying the sun and the super warm water with 30m+ of visibility.

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This was sadly spoilt by my daughter being stung by a blue bottle only just as she was getting confident in the shallows.

But a bit of dads wee some face paint mother love and a sparkler later all was well. (sorry no picture of the wee)

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Plus there was the promise of a turtle hunt that night, not to get confused with an easter egg hunt.

Part 4 to follow tomorrow this uploading a picture at a time is painful sorry

EDIT: What the hell one more as I am the only one up in the house and nothing better to do so give me 10min.
 
I must at this point add a disclaimer as Michaela (wife) insists on having these filters put on pictures so the ones where the weather looks kak is actually the filter and not a depiction of the day. We had great weather with only 2min of rain one evening.

Now where was I....oh yes turtle hunt.

You have to hire a local community guide who was very knowledgeable and one hell of a nice chap. It was R150pp and R75pp for kids. We all met at 6:30 for a briefing and then a fast march up the beach. Now I am not the smartest of people but one the guid tells you that there are 3000 nests along the stretch of beach we are visiting and that this year has been a good one your expectations are set quite high. So with head torch off and daughter in tow literally it was off we go.

4km later yes 4km on a beach in pitch dark with soft sand and a slope the whole way to contend with we finally get to a nest that would seem is about to hatch. I dont know how but the guide seemed to know and is in constant contact with the research station on the beach who have a 4x4 quad that they use late at night and early in the morning to go out and do check ups but no we must walk.

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Its the most amazing thing to see baby turtles coming out the ground like ants. They are very sensitive to light and will change direction and head for it so as long as your light was in front of the turtle guiding it down to the sea you where ok.

The guide was very good and gave us loads of info on the number and conditions required for the turtles to hatch etc and it seemed only 10min but it was all over and 80 or so turtles had hatched and made it to the sea.

It was an experience that was hard to describe and must be experienced to be believed unlike the 4km walk back with 22kg on my shoulders falling asleep in the pitch black. It was a 2h30min round trip and over very quickly but well worth it.

Our last full day was once again spent on the beach relaxing and talking about the night before. Not to mention recovering from the walk.

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Not to mention we bought a grass mat from the local children for R100 which we thought was cheap and had plenty laughs around the camp with friends.

We made use of a local to look after camp as there are monkeys and he did the dishes and swept up all for R80 a day, his rate not ours.

On the last day we got up, packed up and headed home only to talk the whole way back about when we may return and drive the coastal route and go to lala nek and do a tour of the lakes and maybe see turtles laying.

Its a great place with lots to do or nothing if thats what you fancy. The fishing is good (i never caught a thing but saw plenty in the water) and its away from the crowds.

With all my chirping and frustration i came away knowing i am a luck chap to have a family that dont only want hotels or b&B's but are prepared to make sacrifices and "rough it" a bit and for that I am grateful but I also learnt that I need to make some changes to the way we pack and the volume of stuff that comes with.

1kg of dry ice is not enough for 4 days but rather only last 2.5
1 stick of mosquito repellant lasts 4 days if applied twice a day to 3 people.
The old coleman coolers only keep ice for 24 hours and warm beers are not nice
I do like 2 ply when in the bush

and I still might not know what is in those 5 bloody flowery bags but if it keeps her looking like this after 4 days in the bush then who am I to question.

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I'm going to set aside an hour soon to read this properly Warren. In the meantime, photos are just displaying so something not rightee. :-)

Looking forward to that hour.
 
Photo's not working for me, which is a shame because it sounds like it was an amazing trip.
 
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How funny they where working last night and now i can see photos up to the end of part 3 and then they not working. Not sure will take a look my side
 
:( no photo's for me, but I am in the back of beyond! I had a similar problem before our hols last year, except mine involved the purchase of a chemical toilet that never got used!
 
This is odd as i can see them.

I copied the link of the photos from a report i did in the cruiser club SA forum and then inserted them here let me try another work around
 
I do love your trip reports Warren, but sadly no photies for me either... PC nor iPad... :(

On the PC, if i select "open photo in new tab" it takes me to your cruiser club SA but says "no authorisation to open" or some such.

So close, but ....
 
Sounds like you had an amazing trip Warren and have ticked off an item from your bucket list :icon-cool: :thumbup:

Shame about the pics - hope you (or Cris) can sort it soon.
 
@warrenpfo because you posted the photos on http://landcruiserclub.co.za/ we would need to be registered and signed in on that forum to also see them. Which is why you can see them but no one else can. I did have an account on there once ... but it no longer seems to work :(
 
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