No swining and then an evening in toy town

Raining again! Jo and I went to Khlua village where we were the only tourists. It's a zula village where you can walk around with a guide. We had to enter the gate by shouting something in zulu. The boys and girls are always kept separately and sleep on straw mats. We were showed the boob tree which is supposed to encourage your boobs to grow if you talk to it, Jo did ;) Jo did some weaving and then we went into the main house and played a love song on an instrument. Jo dressed up in traditional clothing of goat skin skirt. We watched zulu dancing and then it was our turn to join in the wedding dance but we already had first witness of that dance so off we went trying to kick our legs above our heads.

On our way to our next destination we saw a song for 'no swinging'. I kid you not, it was a sign of keys going into a bowl on the side of the road. En route we have never seen so many spar! SA is obsessed! We had power spar, kwik spar, super spar. We visited Shaka land which is the king of the zulu's. We had a tour, balanced water on our heads, drank root beer, stood in the kraai which is the central place to keep animals.

We drove to the nearest town with Eshowe and tried to stay in the George Hotel complete with mould on the walls and beds that felt like they had been slept in so we moved and drove around looking for somewhere to stay. We found a garden centre that had huts like toy town with very kiddie like decoration!

We drove into Eshowe for dinner but alas there were none so we had a picnic from a petrol station. Very early night of 7pm.

And our Austrian stalkers strike again

I had a good chat with the owner of the B&B over brekkiw. We drove to Cape Vidal, through a game park and then saw the magnificent beach of cape vidal. We had snorkelling gear but the weather was awful so the waves were huge and just pushed us over to the point of not being able to stand up. We went to the crocodile centre in the afternoon and stayed for the feeding/ talks. I even met a Kehla! Meaning old toothless one. I learned a very interesting fact too becuase the temperature in incubation determins whether a crocodile is a male of female. We even got to see them mating.

For dinner, guess who showed up? Our german stalkers that are actually Austria. They even joined us for dinner becuase there were no other tables.

Our German stalkers

Another early morning start and a very sad goodbye to the others. Jo and I now had no plan of where to go next. We drove to St Lucia on recommendation, past lots of signs of beware of hippo and beware of elephants. We took a recommendation from the lonely planet and stayed ina B&B that feels like with live with the owns. Jo and I had a walk around the town and sat on a jetty in the river that has hippo and crocodile so we didn't dangle our feet over the side, just in case.

We saw our German stalkers! The same couple has been in Ithala, Hluhluwe and now St Lucia! We had a boat tour to se the crocs and hippo and there they were again! I didn't know that hippo graze on shore! We saw a gorgeous sun set and then went for dinner.

My cheetah fight

Another 5.30 start in the pitch black. We saw hyene, white rhino etc and I learned a great fact. Hyena poo is white becuase they digest everything apart from bone. As we were driving along, a branch caught on someone's coat, whipped my head and caused me to have a whip mark on my ear and a scratch that went from my forehead, into my head. God it made my eyes water as the blood was going down my head. Keith thinks I should say it was a cheetah scratch but alas.

I had brekkie with a warthod family wandering around me. On the way to our next camp we saw a cheetah lying in the sun and stupid us got out of the car! You would never walk out of a car in a safari park where there are lions! We also got caught up in a group of zebra and just walked along with them in the car. We even got to see a lion, a hell of a long way away but as we were advising all jeeps where the lion was, I was cheeky enough to ask for one of their guests binoculars!

We arrived at Hilltop camp in Hluhluwe and had an elephant walk straight into the hilltop resturant! We had a drive in the evening and got caught up in a herd of buffalo, close enough to touch them which was quite scary.

In the evening, we had our last drinks as a big family

"Key, go turn the light on"

We planned to go to the beach in the morning but it was still raining so we packed up the chalet and hit the road. Just as we got out of Sodwana, I was stopped by the police carrying a huge gun! I had to get out of the car, panicing, find my licence in the bottom of my huge ruck sack, show the police man it while he was holding a gun and then told him while i was here. Ahhhhh, we aren't used to seeing guns in england!

At Hluhluwe (pronounce shishlooey), we got petrol and changed a travellers check in a bank with guards and a strange door that only lets one person go through at one time. It was strange being a minority for a change but made me reflective. At Hluhluwe game park we saw Water buffalo, black rhino etc etc. At the Mpila Camp in the Imfolozi game park, we stayed in a tent with an outside kitchen, a bathroom. We had to be in our tent at sundown (6pm) becuase the camp had no fence around it when there are deadly animals in the park! It somehow reminded me of early explorers.

I went on a night drive that almost made me freeze to death and then we had a braai

As we got to the tent (we had to drive from one building to our tent cos we aren't allowed to walk in case you are eaten, a bit f canvas must made a world of difference!). Time to get out the car and then Jo came out with "Key, go and turn the light on". And stupid me got out the car, walked half way along the path and then chickened out and Jo and I had to walk together to get into the tent :)

Cabin Fever sets in

Still feeling pooly and starting to get cabin fever in the cabin, I went for a walk and then to the market place for a look around and ended up buying loads. I even had a pineapple lolly and then suffered with a numb mouth for the rest of the day. In the afternoon, most of the group went quad biking but we went to the market place again and then sat on the beach putting the world to right. Rachael and I then walked along the beach definitly putting the world to right as we do. It was pitch black by the time we left the beach. We had dinner in a resturant that took 2 hours to bring the dinner but what the hell, we were on holiday.

POW camp

Today we had an early wake up and an early brekkie looking over Ithala park. We then drive for 2.5 hours on the strightest road in the whole world. God, I thought texa was a boring drive but as we went over a hill, there was yet another straight road! When we got to Sodwana Bay we drove into the wrong camp by mistake and then when we finally got to ours, we were never so happy to see Jackie and Matt.

This time we were staying in an 8 berth cabin with some of the lads. We had a walk down to the beach with Conor and Kate but alas, we went the wrong way and followed a fence for quite a while reminding me of a prisoner of war camp, we only wanted to see the sea!

We finally found the right way and then walked through a swamp that has crocodiles in it and then down a huge sand dune. As you can imagine, I didn't love going back up it after the sand blasted our legs becuase the weather was horrid.

In the evening we celebrated National Braai day with guess what? A braai (BBQ). I was even manly and turned a sausage on the BBQ becuase there was a distinct split in womens and mens roles so I turned a sausage and then it was completely turned back again cos i got it wrong!

After the braai we had a singsong of irish ballads and any random song that came into peoples heads. I was still ill at this point so i could not hear my tune or hear much else so when it came to my song and picking the bare necessities, I was very grateful for Kate next to me for taking over.

The start of my first honeymoon

The morning was a comedy of errors as we waited in reception for a bush jeep that never turned up! A trip on the 4 wheel track in our hire car then proved fruitful and we turned up to brekkie, 1 hour late :) Don't tell the hire company! We then relaxed by the pool, had a wander around and then watched the sunset while sat in the middle of the road. People were looking at us a bit strangely but you know what I'm like with a sunset. We had wedding cake at Rachael and Keiths mansion (each of the cakes were a different flavour and shaped like zulu huts).

The spontaneous wedding

After yesterdays very early start, we had a lie in and a leisurely brekkie. Jo was so leisurely that she went to brekkiw in her PG's! We drove to the church and then hid in the shade away from the sun. It was a very spontaneous service seeing as the preist didn't seem to want to follow the order of service. We had a 45 minute drive back to the camp and it didn't start well because I drove down a one way street. On entering the park we saw our first water buffalo and monkeys. After drinks by the water hole, we had a display of zulu dancing by children from the local school. Jo, Gloria and I certainly sat int he right seats becuase everything was aimed to us and gosh it was scary when they were running towards us, stamping the floor and singing. At the reception we were on the jackals table and had traditional South African food. The speaches went really well with all 3 best men but the best bit was that it was speeches before food. The dancing that followed comprised of somes elected by all of the congregation and the compulsory time warp from me. One thing I will never forget is the lads doing an impersonation of MC hammers 'can't touch this' while having their trousers tucked in their trousers and jumping side to side :)

Go hunt for snakes!

What better when you have only had a few hours sleep in a couple of days, to get up at 5.30 am to go on a game drive. I was so excited that I actually swung my legs back and forth in excitement. We saw giraffe, white rhino, black rhino, kudu, wildbeast, rock dassie, warthog, impala, Tessebe, Ostrich and Zebra. The view at that time in the morning was amazing. We spent the morning by the pool and actually venturing into the freezing cold pool. After a siesta, we had a sunset drive and saw elephant this time. In the evening we had a braai (BBQ) and tried millie meal for the first time (maize) and then a sea of green rugby shirts was transfixed to the tv as ireland were playing rugby. One problem in going home was that we didn't switch the light on and Jo is scared of snakes so what does she do? She stands by the car while I go and hunt snakes by walking on them. Yay.

My birthday, I forgot!

You would have thought that I would remember that it's my birthday but I honestly forgot and didn't actually remember until 3am, 30,000 feet up in the air so I woke Jo up to tell her :)

We met Adam in the terminal with a sign for 'Shackwell' :) The traffic in Jo-Burg would be described as 'interesting'. 6 lanes of traffic and aggresive drivers had me to take on, when I only had 2 hours sleep all night. We passed many a township 'shanty town' and drive and drove and drove for 7 hours to Ithala game park. Along route we discovered that Adam is one of the few people we know who can say supercalafragalisticexpealidociuos backwards! Everytime I got tired, DJ Jo would put disney on so we entered the game park to Lion Kings Circle of life.

We met warthog and zebra along the route and then entered the camp and saw our amazing lodge that has no locks on the doors. To my shock, we were the first to arrive! In the evening after dinner I had a birthday muffin and bottle of champagne delivered to me and the staff sang happy birthday in zulu.

Family Leaving Committee

What a suprise, to start our holiday in South Africa, we had a leaving committee consisting of Mum, Jo's mum, Liv and Sal. What better weather to leave the country in but torrential rain. To our suprise, we arrived at Heathrow 3 hours early but couldn't sit next to each other! My problem with flights is there is just too many films that i want to watch so after 2 films, I had to sleep for a mamouth day ahead.

My 28th Birthday!!!!