Southern Africa - Part9: Manzengwenya - Thonga Beach

After breakfast we went to the airport, however, this time not straight along the shortest route but a route through the bushes in order to look for animals. After 2 hours of seeing lions, cheetahs, elephants, hyenas, and giraffes we arrived at the airport where we again cleared custom and immigration to leave Botswana today for South Africa. Since the other Germans with their safety pilot were leaving with us to fly to Thonga Beach in their C206 we decided to fly in formation to our first stop - Polokwane. After a formation takeoff, we headed in 1000ft south to Polokwane trying our best to stay in formation, however with the C206 being faster than the C182 we soon split up. Polokwane is a major controlled airport with asphalt runways where we refueled and cleared custom and immigration into South Africa. Since poaching is a big thing we had to get all our bags this time to the terminal where custom and police checked them and followed us afterward even to the airplane to check the aircraft itself for illegal goods. Since everything was fine we paid landing fees and could take off again within an hour. ** We left Polokwane heading east towards Krüger Nationalpark via the 3rd biggest canyon in the world Blyde River Canyon. We followed the canyon low level, however, we had to be careful since the temperature was near 30 degrees C giving us only marginal climb performance and the terrain along the canyon was rising steadily. Since the canyon is a so called blind canyon with a dead end we had to exit it over a mountain top with a steep cliff giving us a spectaculiar view across the landscape. The next stops were a few bushstrips to practice landings on sloping runways. Simple rule: land uphill and takeoff downhill. The first one was Graskop, an airfield on top of a mountain, however, some Zebras crossed the strip just after touchdown forcing us to brake heavily. The second strip was Sabie a small strip along some houses in the middle of nowhere. The takeoff here was downhill again with a sinking turn into the valley to gain speed. The third strip was called Bagdad Cafe and looked more like a small road than an airfield.** ** After some lunch at Bagdad Airfield we took off for our last flight today. This time we changed safety pilots with the other couple so we got to fly with the owner of the company. The takeoff out of Bagdad was tight since we had a lot of tailwind combined with an altitude of 2000ft and a temperatur above 30 degrees C. We managed to climb just above the trees where we had to level off to gain speed before climbing any further. After surviving the takeoff we turned direct to Thonga Beach overflying Swasiland and descending low level again as soon as we were clear of the mountains. As we got closer to the sea the landscape changed to a bright green with lots of waterholes in between. At the shoreline, we did a short scenic flight before turning onto final approach of Thonga Beach Airfield. The strip lies directly in the forest which leads to a sudden breakdown of the wind as soon as we flew below the treeline. Both planes landed safely and a guide of the lodge already awaited us with some cold water we happily drank. The next days we relaxed at our lodge which was situated directly at the beach.**