On Safari

On Friday we left Zululand and travelled across Swaziland where we stayed overnight in a very nice lodge. Next day we crossed the border into South Africa again and headed for Kruger National Park. The scenery was very similar to that in Zululand until we came close to Kruger and the land became much drier. We have now had two excursions through the Park by land rover and have taken many fabulous photos of the incredibly diverse wildlife. No rhinos or lions yet but we remain hopeful.   The lodge we are saying in is awesome, however we are not allowed to leave our lodge without a guide.   There are impalas, elephants and other wild life around the area, so caution is best taken. You realise you are only visitors in this park when the ranger takes his rifle in the truck every time we leave the resort!   On the up side we have discovered a new South African drink.   It is similar to Bailey’s and is called Amarula.   Wow!!   It goes equally well over ic...

Ghost Mountain, where we are staying, was so named by the Zulu as a result of a mistake. In times past the area was inhabited by the Shangaan people and they used to bury their kings on the mountain. Even after they were driven out by the Zulu they would return at night to the mountain top and bury their dead kings with funeral celebrations that included fires and much loud ululation. When the Zulu saw this happening at night they did not know what was happening and assumed that the fire and noise was the activity of ghosts. Today we drove in land rovers into the hills and visited the house of a Zulu Man named Justice. He explained Zulu culture to us and we learned that life is heavily focussed on family responsibilities. Women do the housework and men take jobs and that’s it! If a man wants to marry a girl has to give her father 11 cows if he is an ordinary man, but up to 30 cows if he is a chief! How about a community financial system based on the cow standard! As before, we ...

On Wednesday we travelled north west from Durban through rolling countryside of farms, bush and trees and into Zululand where we are staying at the Ghost Mountain Inn.  The highlight of the trip was a drive through the HLUHLUWE iMFOLOZI Park (no, we can’t pronounce it either). The park is a game reserve but as we were just driving straight through on the main road we did not expect to see much wildlife. However we were in luck and managed to see rhinoceros, warthogs, nyala, zebras, monkeys and a very big elephant. Photos: 1. warthogs 2. zebras 3. elephant 4. Supermarket? Not exactly Woolies

So today we are in Durban and staying at a REALLY swanky hotel on the beach. We had an awesome dinner last night. Today we have been told to skip lunch and dinner as we are having an upscale high tea. We saw this yesterday as we found our rooms. Today we had a leisurely stroll around the Botanical gardens, a lovely spot to meander through. Enjoy the pics. Tomorrow we are going to our first game park. It is apparently small, but if we see animals we won't care if it is big or small!!! Keep warm. The next few days look damn cold!!!

Well we have had a busy few days. Yesterday we left Cape Town and spent most of the day getting to our next destination of Oodtshoorn. It was a long day but we do have plenty of stops. We spent time at the Cango Caves...or most of us did. Sue’s claustrophobia got the better of her, but Phil did them and took pics. It was really handy that there was a Super Rugby game live on the TV, so Sue opted for that. We got to our hotel, and I would call it rustic!! We had no internet, and the room was high ceilinged and bloody cold. Some rooms had a/c, but not ours. We had a tiny fan heater that didn't do much, so after talking to our tour director she managed to get us an extra fan heater. There was no tv in the room so it was reading then sleep. Today we went to an ostrich farm. We thought it might be a bit ho hum, but it was really interesting. The person who lives in the big house is the owner. The big houses were called feather palaces, as in the day a kilo of ostrich feathers wa...