Pilgrim's Rest & Kruger National Park

Pat's mom, Randy, was in town visiting, so we all took a long weekend trip to Pilgrim's Rest in South Africa. Pilgrim's Rest is an old gold mining town about 4.5 hours drive from Jo-Burg.


We stayed at Crystal Springs Mountain Lodge. Our bedroom...
the girl's bedroom...

living room and back patio with braai....


The first full day we were there we did a self drive through Kruger National Park...

The girls spotted an elephant - Isabel's favorite!
zebra...

We found some endangered wild dogs, they are normally VERY hard to find! yea!
Baboons...Lillie loves the baby!
Hippo...
Giraffe...



...and a cape buffalo's butt...he would not turn around for me!
stopping for lunch...
The next morning we drove into Graskop to go to Harries Pancakes!

This is what Pat ordered!
This is what Randy and I ordered....yes, we were a tad bit healthier!
Then off to the town of Pilgrim's Rest to learn how to pan for gold... first we had to buy tickets...
...and wait...Africa Time you know...
Tents that the golf miners slept in. I'd sleep in that too for gold!

We couldn't leave without doing a Donkey Cart Ride!!


The girls got to pet and feed the donkeys.

Nuts anyone? I swear between Pat and Randy they bought 50 bags of nuts...we still have bags sitting at our house. At least they were supporting the locals.

Back to Crystal Springs to play on the playground and play some putt putt!

...and that was our trip in a nut shell!

On our drive home we spotted the site that Pat has to go to some times for work. It's the power plant they have been working on out here.
"Construction has begun on the Kusile power station, the second coal-fired power station being built by South African state company Eskom as part of its multi-billion rand expansion, with completion scheduled for 2017.

The new base-load power station, which will consist of six generating units generating a total of approximately 4 800 megawatts, is situated close to the existing Kendal power station near the town of Witbank in Mpumalanga province.

The first generating unit is scheduled for completion by 2013, followed by the completion on an additional unit after every eight months."

http://www.southafrica.info/business/economy/infrastructure/kusile-110808.htm