Today is our 26th wedding anniversary! We enjoyed a relaxing morning, again watching the wildlife in our garden. This morning the monkeys came to visit, about half a dozen of them. They were eating the bird food from the bird feeding trays! Cheeky wee things… one even came up to the kitchen window to try its luck at getting into the house! Luckily, when we saw them arrive, we had secured all the windows and doors. It was a pleasure to watch them just making themselves at home in the garden.

We were able to check out later as there is no-one booked in after us, so we left just after 11am and headed to our next stop, “Africa on Foot” in Klaserie game reserve. All went well, and it was easy enough to follow the directions they had given. The dirt road, once we left the tarmac, was rather challenging, but we made it!

We arrived about an hour before lunch, and Paul tried the (unheated) swimming pool (albeit a very brief swim!)

Lunch was lovely and we got speaking to the other guests and some of the staff. Everyone staying here tonight was from Europe – UK (us), France, Switzerland, Germany & Italy.

At 4pm we started our evening game drive, using 2 vehicles, so it was only 6 people per vehicle which made for easy game viewing.

During the drive we passed through a herd of elephants; they were grazing on either side of the road.

Our driver got a call to alert him that some lions had been spotted, albeit about 45 mins away. He headed out there at speed, which was a bit crazy – over lumps and bumps on the roads.

Finally we got to near where the pair of lions had been spotted. We had to wait for a while as the policy was to only allow 2 vehicles. When we got to the lions they were mating, which is apparently a pretty rare thing to see. We felt very lucky. We got to watch them for a while, before heading back to camp. Our sundowner drinks were taken whilst driving, as we had lost a bit of time heading out to see the lions (this was of course no hardship!)

Dinner was served, like lunch, at one big table. It was nice and sociable to chat to the other guests. We finished off with drinks around the campfire. Tomorrow is an early start, 6am wake up for a 6.30am bush / safari walk.

We had a fantastic day today; it was both relaxing, yet exciting. During the night we heard what we thought (and later confirmed) were monkeys running along the roof of our bedroom. We had to get up and double check that we had secured all the doors, as apparently they can reek havoc if they get indoors.

We awoke early and enjoyed watching the birds and squirrels in the garden. We even had a visit from a deer and one of the warthogs!

Our room has both an indoor and outdoor shower, so we enjoyed showering outdoors, a novel experience.

There are several kilometres of trails within the reserve, and as there are no dangerous animals, you are allowed to walk, cycle or drive. We chose to drive to cover more ground. The trails are just dirt tracks, and you get very close to the animals. We saw antelopes, zebra, monkeys, giraffes and more. At one point there were 2 giraffes, we think they were doing some kind of mating, right on the roadside. We waited ages to see if they moved, but they didn’t. So we tentatively got out and took a walk towards them; they were not bothered by us at all. Eventually we decided to risk driving past them to continue onwards to the zebra we could see just a couple of hundred metres on.

In the afternoon we relaxed in the garden, and dipped out feet in the swimming pool (it wasn’t heated, so we didn’t brave going fully in!) Its such a beautiful place to relax, we really love it here.

As evening came we lit a camp fire in the boma; it was serene.

We were recommended to give ourselves a good 6 hours for this journey with stops. The actual driving time is around 2 hours, but there are many scenic places you can stop en-route. None of the walks to the view points are long.

It’s a bit difficult to find out exactly where the Panorama Route starts and ends, different websites tell you different things. I would say it is fair to say that from Sabie to the Three Rondavels is about right. Had we done as originally planned and travelled to a Sabie via Dullstroom and the Long Tom Pass, I’d say it starts on the Long Tom Pass. However, yesterday we were so tired after the flight, and locals had said that both the route to Dullstroom and the Pass was very pot-holed, that we ended up driving on the main highways, so we missed that bit.

At almost all the stops, including view points, you have to pay an entrance fee. These varied from 10 rand to 64 rand pp for the stops we made. Had the Graskop Gorge glass lift and nature trail been operating, this would have been 190 rand pp plus another 20 rand conservation fee. However, it was closed, so we didn’t stop there. Some places were worth paying for the view, some were most definitely not.

If you come from a country which has plentiful waterfalls, I would not recommend paying to stop at all of the falls on the route. Probably Mac Mac Falls was best, although you can only look from a distance and you can’t get to the bottom of them, but the view was pretty. That said we are here in September, at the end of the dry season, so it could be very different at other times of the year.

In our opinion, we’d say definitely give Mac Mac Pools a miss, unless you want to swim in them. This was the most underwhelming stop we made.

We would recommend the following stops – Mac Mac Falls, God’s window, Bourde’s Luck Potholes and the three Rondavels.

For lunch we went to Potluck Boskombuis, a lovely spot by the river. You kind of feel as if you are driving towards nowhere on the way, but it was a nice spot. Most of the food is barbecued as you order, but they did have a vegetarian dish on offer, which I had.

On arrival at Hoedspruit we were met by the manager of our Airbnb lodge (we booked to stay at Pangolin Lodge in Hoedspruit Wildlife Estate). This is a beautiful place, and we would highly recommend it. Have a look at the link here.

Now we are chilling on the veranda. It is warmer here than in Sabie, and a comfortable temperature for sitting outdoors in the evening.

It finally came the time to pack up and get ready to leave North Uist on the ferry from Lochmaddy to Uig on Skye. We were fortunate that we had a nice clam dry day and no wind, so packing up was a fairly easy, albeit lengthy process. The problem with having the bigger tent and electric hook up, is all the extra gear you take to make it more comfortable, and on top of that we had our inflatable canoe.

So once we had managed to squeeze everything into the car, we had about 40 minutes spare on arrival at Lochmaddy for a look around and to enjoy a little bit of sun that had come out. The water was incredibly calm, and a couple of canoeists were out, we thought it would have been a great place to canoe had we had time.

The tiny village has a tiny yacht marina, very cute, with maybe about 6 or 8 yachts in. As we left on the ferry, the clouds rolled in, but this time we were heading towards the sun!

The trip over to Uig was beautiful, the views extended far out to all the surrounding islands, the Cuillins on Skye were clearly visible from miles away and the sea was so flat!

We were super excited as we neared Uig (about 20 minutes out) and a pod of around 15-20 porpoises were enjoying themselves in the water right beside the ferry! One of our fellow passengers said they would likely be fishing. It was such a treat to watch them!

Driving through Skye & Glencoe on the way home was a rare treat, with hardly a cloud in sight. We made a few stops for photos and drone footage.

As we neared Fort William we also got lovely clear views of Ben Nevis. It was a great end to the trip, to enjoy such a beautiful drive back home.

We hadn’t made dinner plans, so a stop at our local Wetherspoons pub for pizza sorted us out before we finally got home. Half our stuff is still in the car needing to be unloaded tomorrow & sorted for our next trip, wherever that might be….

Well, Friday was once again pretty dull and very overcast, with quite a lot of what we call “Scotch mist” that rolled in from the sea. Time was running out waiting for good weather to see the islands at their best, so we chose to head to South Uist and Eriskay, and save North Uist and a return to Berneray for Saturday in the hope of getting brighter weather than we got that last time.

The day started out not too bad on Friday, but quickly the mists rolled in. We managed to see quite a lot of Eriskay (where we headed to first) before the weather got really bad. It’s a small but very beautiful island, with some gorgeous white sand beaches and turquoise seas typical of the Outer Herbrides. Unfortunately one of its most famous beaches, the one where Bonnie Prince Charlie landed, was almost completely wiped out with a sea mist, so we had to use our imagination as to what it would be like on a nice day.

We took lunch at the Politician pub, it’s a lovely place in a lovely setting. The pub is named after the ship “SS Politician” which went down off the coast of Eriskay, along with, among other things, several thousand crates of whiskey – if you have seen the old movie “Whiskey Galore” this is what it was based on!

After crossing the causeway back onto South Uist, we spotted some of the semi-wild ponies, a beautiful sight, just as if they were posing for us to take their picture!

Further into South Uist, we had planned to visit a few of the 20 kilometre worth of beaches along the islands west coast, however after visiting the first couple, we realised there was really nothing to see (yes, the good old “Scotch mist” was still lingering…) We took a small detour towards the east, which is mainly moorland and lochs, and although still very overcast, there was at least something to see.

Back at the campsite we had another night of having to keep reinflating our aerobed every couple of hours, as the duct tape unfortunately didn’t work!

On Saturday, finally the weather picked up! Yippee! We actually had a reasonable amount of sunny spells during our 2nd trip around North Uist and Berneray. Better still, we managed to get out in our canoe. We were both surprised that the water wasn’t actually that cold. However, the air temperature / wind chill was, so we were glad of some warm clothing as we canoed.

Clachan Sands aerial shot from drone

Canoeing, Clachan Sands

A couple of beaches we think are particularly worth a visit are Traigh Ear (walk up to the big sand dune that you can see in the distance for beautiful and far reaching views) and Clachan Sands (coming from the south wait to take the 2nd sign to the sands, the one that goes past the graveyard). Clachan Sands was where we chose to canoe. The only annoying thing there (and in quite a few places) were the flies that keep landing on you (and it felt like some had bitten) and flying into your face. However, during our 8 days we have seen NO MIDGES AT ALL…

On Berneray the West Beach is a must, 3 miles of white sand and dunes. Watch out for the bull in the field that you cross to get there!

We had dinner at the Westford Inn on our way back as we wanted to just chill out for our last night, and also pack away a few things to make it easier in the morning. Their fish and chips were very nice! No room to try a dessert though…

Now we are just sitting in our tent with some wine, partially packed, aerobed now (hopefully) fixed with a bicycle repair kit that Paul found. No WiFi from the tent as we took a quieter out of the way pitch, but I will try to get this posted when we venture up to the facilities block later on.

Tomorrow, we go home the long way, taking the ferry to Uig on Skye and driving home from there. The ferry time was much better doing it this way (11am check in as opposed to something like 6am!) We didn’t fancy trying to pack our camping gear away when it was still dark, so it seemed like the best idea.

At last we have an improvement in the weather, not exactly summer sun, but dry and the odd sunny spell, so we are happy enough for now.

We asked at our campsite for recommendations for good places to take out our canoe, and opted for Kallin on Grimsay, which has a slipway into the water, so nice easy access.

Bit of a rip tide to watch out for, but we were fine. There are lots of small islands to canoe around, and after a wee potter about, we had a lunch of freshly caught fish & chips at Namara seafood cafe at the harbour.

To add to our trip, we took a short drive around Benbecula (its a small island sandwiched between North and South Uist).

Finally we had a chance early evening to sit out in the sun with some Prosecco and nibbles. After our big lunch we are too full to have a “proper” dinner.

It has clouded over again, so we are not sure that there will be much, if any, of a sunset, but we shall see….

Oh, and we found out the problem with the aerobed, a small nick on the base of it, just as well we always take some duct tape with us, let’s see if this works as a temporary repair! Otherwise, it’s back to re-inflating it every couple of hours….

The weather has continued to deteriorate and we have not had the best couple of days weather-wise. Rain was heavy on Tuesday and we waited until quite late in the day to pack up, then headed to airport cafe for lunch (yummy Thai squash soup!) The flight that was due in was late, so no landings or take-offs to watch this time.

Our ferry was not until 3.45pm, we had obviously hoped for better weather and to have done more with the morning / early afternoon on Barra.

The crossing was fine, and the sea smooth despite the poor weather. We saw many seals on the rocks as we left Barra.

It was a fairly long drive from Eriskay to our campsite (Moorcroft) on North Uist, unfortunately the “Scotch mist” stopped us from seeing the islands at their best as we drove through.

I suffer from occasional back spasms, which often last at least a week, and we were very unlucky that my back had a spasm as we were packing everything away on Barra. At least now I have diazepam and I took a few pills along with my liquid magnesium, which helped enormously and I managed to help (at least a bit) to pack away and get things put back up later on Uist.

The new campsite gave us a choice of pitches, and we chose the quietest one. The downside, especially given the weather, is that it is about the furthest away from the facilities. Well, at least we have out toilet bucket (a godsend for camping!)

Our campsite is nice, helpful owners, good facilities, if a bit lacking in toilets & showers for the number of campers here. As far as the view goes, well it’s fine, but we were spoilt for sure in Barra at Scurrival.

Dinner was late, we made paella in our tent as the rain poured down. But at least we were warm and dry. I still can’t believe how such a thin tent material can keep you dry! We don’t even use the inner except in winter (but we have been using our electric blanket!)

Overnight, our aerobed, which we had been so pleased with, finally let us down. We aren’t really sure what went wrong, it was fine for the last night in Barra, but last night we woke up feeling like we were in a hammock! The bed had started to lose air, sink and deflate. We needed to top it back up every 2-3 hours. And that will be us for the rest of the holiday. Whoops! We shall see when we be home if Amazon or the seller will send us a replacement. We bought it last Feb or March and can’t remember what the warranty is on it.

The next day (Wednesday) started with pretty heavy rain showers. These continued, but at least mostly as lighter showers, throughout most of the day. So it was pretty dreicht, however we still got out and had a drive around both North Uist and Berneray, which we hope to do again if we get better weather later in the week.

We visited many beaches which we know would have been stunning in better weather, but still were lovely. We saw some more seals, took some drone footage, and looked for any places that might be good to take the canoe out if (when!?) the weather picks up again.

Nobody warned us about the flies though! Midges were non-existent, we haven’t seen any yet, but in certain places the flies come after you in their hundreds! Only in Kalbarri in Australia have we ever experienced anything like this before!

Clachan Sands beach would be just perfect for canoeing, but it was by far the worst place for the flies, so probably not going to happen….

Anyway, here are just a few recommendations for places to stop (from our campsite heading east to west) … Clachan Sands beach (but beware of the boards of flies!), West beach on Bernaray, Hosta beach, Balranald RSPB reserve, Baleshare beach (an island reached by a causeway).