23.02.07 Garden Route, KwaZulu Natal, J’burg, St Lucia, HluHluwe NP, Kruger NP, Pilanesberg NP, (SA) ………HOME! HI there, how is everyone? Still keeping to your New Years resolutions, or have they fallen by the wayside already! Well here it is our last blog entry – for this trip anyway! It’s a touch woefully that I write this chapter, we have been having such a great time that knowing that our time is almost up is a little sad. However, what is great is that we’ll be home to see everyone and that more than makes up for it! So how have we been spending our last few weeks? Actually it’s been a bit all over the place due to the fact that we have had to incorporate selling the landy in to our itinery. We didn’t want to have to hang around in one place trying to sell it, so we put adverts on the web and in the national version of Auto Trader. This meant that we had people calling us from all over SA, and as you know SA is a very big country, so meeting up with interested buyers resulted in driving all over the place. Nevertheless, we still got a lot of other things done too! Firstly, we left CT and headed along the Garden Route (the East coast) which was a very beautiful area. We met up with some friends that we had met in Tanz, Cedric, Luc and Maria (the guys travelling in the 1949 landy), in a backpackers in Cintsa. It was great to see them again and exchange travel stories. They had done very similar routes to us, but had stayed in Moz for longer and had several typically African nightmare tales to amuse us with. Cedric is SA’n (from Durban) so knows all the great places to go around these areas and took us to some fab places. I mentioned it briefly last time that we were camping on beaches looking out to see the dolphins swimming around off shore, very nice! We stayed in some really lovely campsites that were totally off the beaten track. One in particular was near a place called Coffee Bay, called Bulangula. It took ages to get to and the last 10km was 4x4 vehicles only and we could easily see why. It was rocky, hilly, and very muddy (lots of rain recently) and there was no way anything other than a 4x4 would get through. The campsite has obviously taken this in to consideration and has it’s own transport link that picks people up from a village back on the easily accessible dirt road. We hadn’t done any real off-roading for awhile so Jas was very keen to get the landy dirty again and put the landy through its paces again! We managed to get a little bogged down, acouple of times, but nothing she couldn’t handle. Whilst staying in the various campsites on our trip, we have encountered many different ways of having a shower. Mostly it has been our great fortune to have your usual standard shower type, varying only in degrees of water pressure, and degrees of temperature. Some had hot and cold taps, which did indeed provide hot and cold water. Some had hot and cold taps, that provided cold and cold water! Some didn’t beat about the bush and just had the one cold tap, and some not surprisingly didn’t have the luxury of a shower at all! Sometimes great torrents of water came out, sometimes a wee trickle. Quite a few places used a ‘donkey’ method of heating up the water. This is where there is a wood burning furnace-type contraption that very efficiently heats up the water. The only thing is it takes a long time to get going and so you have to plan in advance when you want a shower and get the fire going plenty of time beforehand. There is a reason for me boring you with our bathing options and that is that at the camp at Bulangula, we were introduced to by far the most interesting and dare I say exciting mechanical shower that we have ever seen (trying not to sound too mad!). Apparently they are quite common around Africa, but this was the first time we had encountered them. They are rocket showers and are quite brilliant. It consists of a big metal pipe that the water runs up to the shower at the top, nothing amazing so far, I hear you say, but it’s the way that the water is heated that is cool. There is an opening at the bottom of the pipe where there is a pad of gauze. At the side of the shower is a bottle of paraffin, a measuring jug and some cigarette lighters. So you measure out some paraffin and pour it in to the opening so that it is soaked up by the gauze. Then you light the gauze and as the paraffin burns it heats up the water flowing up through the pipe. It makes this very funny rumbling rocket noise as it works and the whole bottom of the pipe lights up. The water is heated up instantly and you have to get on and shower pretty quickly because it only lasts 7 minutes before the paraffin burns off. The only down side is that the paraffin smell does get up your nose a bit! I thought it made the whole ‘going for a shower’ routine a little more exciting than usual, but you might of course say that I’ve been travelling for too long now and I really need to get a life! Anyway cleanliness aside let’s get back to other things! From there we made our way to the Southern end of the Drakensberg, which is an extensive mountainous area that is very stunning and is right on the border with Lesotho. We stayed at Sani Lodge BP which is at the bottom of a road that goes up to the top of the Sani Pass and in to Lesotho. We had planned to drive up there for the day, but the unpredictable weather was messing us around and the idea is to get to the top and see the great views, but we wouldn’t have been able to see much with all the clouds! Instead we went for some lovely walks around the BP, and enjoyed the views from there. Whilst we were there it was Jas’s birthday; we had a nice relaxing day and Jas spent it doing his most favourite thing……photographing! In the gardens of the BP were lots of lovely wild flowers which attracted some very pretty sunbirds, so Jas was ‘happy as Larry’! As luck would have it nearby there was an English style pub, so no prizes for guessing where we went in the evening to celebrate. The five of us had a slap up meal and the boys savoured properly brewed beer, a rarity in SA! On from Sani Pass we went to Durban. Cedric and Maria were at the end of their trip and going back there to settle down for a bit and get jobs again. We met up with some of his friends and stayed with them for a couple of days; a nice break to have a bed to sleep in and all the creature comforts of home again! By this time we had been contacted by a couple of interested buyers for the landy who were both based in J’burg. Knowing that we didn’t have a huge amount of time to spare, we only stayed in Durban for a couple of days and had arranged to meet the potential buyers. So after saying farewell to Cedric, Maria and Luc (who was now going on travelling by himself) we headed up to J’burg to see if we could get the landy sold. On the way to J’burg, we found another campsite to stay at in a different part of the Drakensberg. It was called Glengarry and was one of the nicest c/s we had stayed in on the whole trip. Beautiful setting, excellent views and very relaxing; there was only Jas and me there! We went out for some more walks and lounged around by the lakes, it was lovely. There was a 9 hole golf course there which we could use; for the small fee of £4 each we hired clubs, balls etc and could use the course as often as we wanted for the whole time we were there, pretty cheap eh! Jas likes the odd game of golf, and I have never played in my life, so here was the perfect opportunity to get me started. I wasn’t bad, but I wasn’t brilliant either! I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would and Jas was very impressed that I lost only one ball during the 3 rounds we played. We had a lovely few days there and really enjoyed the Drakensberg area. In J’burg, Dean, was very keen on buying the landy, but wanted to have it AA tested before he definitely said yes. That meant staying in J’burg for a couple of days and gave us time to get around a bit. Near J’burg is a World Heritage site called the ‘Cradle of Humankind’. It’s essentially a large cave that is millions of years old and was years ago used as a limestone mine. There were lots of gold mines in times gone by and in part of the processing of the gold, limestone was required. Therefore there were just as many mines for getting the necessary limestone. In this particular mine they found some skeletal remains and a after lots of investigating they turned out to be remains of Austrolapethicus africanus (don’t quote me on the spelling!), ie. our relations from about 1.8 million years ago. Then further inside the cave they found more bones that were even older, 3 million years! As you can imagine these were quite important discoveries and now the site is devoted to telling the history of those ancestors from the information they gained from these remains. Along with other bits and bobs they dug up from other sites around this area, they also found proof that people were using fire about 1.2 million years ago. It’s a very interesting place and they have done a very good job of presenting the information and taking you for guided walks through the caves to show you where things were found and tell you all about it. It was whilst we were in J’burg that we realised that we didn’t have too much time left and we decided to extend our flights. We were still in negotiations with Dean about the landy and were hoping to get to a few other places before coming home, and that clearly wasn’t possible if we stuck to the original date! With still a bit of play on our credit cards, we thought, ‘why not stay just a few more weeks’ and quickly sorted it out with the airline. So now without such a close deadline we left the bustling city and went back to the coast to an area of wetlands called St. Lucia. We knew that Luc was heading that way too so we arranged to meet him there and spend a couple of days exploring the area. There are lots of hippos and crocs around there and the usual signs warning against walking around at night are apparent. Sometimes the hippos even get on to the roads around St. Lucia, and I thought that would be quite fun to see, but no luck this time. Not far from St. Lucia is the Hluhluwe NP which is reputed to be the rhino capital of The World! It contains half the world’s population of rhino, which is quite impressive, and was definitely on our list of places to go. We were not quite sure how well it would live up to its name, but after two days driving around, it more than lived up to its reputation. Throughout the first day we saw 19 rhino, all up close, no that was a good start! There were a few of the usual other animals, but the rhinos really did steal the show. The next day we were sure we couldn’t beat 19, but would you believe it, we counted 24 rhino and at one point the landy was surrounded by a group of 10! As we drove around we saw to the left of us a rhino mooching along. Stopping to get a few pictures, and scanning around to see if there were more, we spotted two on the other side of the road. Two then turned in to four, then six, seven, and then before we knew it we had counted 10 rhino! They were casually grazing and plodding along, not in any rush. After a while they came closer to the road and began to notice we were there. It was amazing, they weren’t bothered by us, but just very curious and came right up to the landy to sniff us out! I was a bit concerned at how close they were, while Jas was just snapping away, saying ‘its OK they no going to bother us’, ‘easy for you to say’ I thought! However, he was right, they got bored with us and started to walk on. A few of them got a little feisty with each other and began to have a bit of a tussle, which was cool to watch. They eventually wandered off and were quickly lost in the scrub and you could easily believe that there was nothing there at all. From our short visit I think we can vouch for the rhino capital 100 per cent! As you can tell Jas and I do very much enjoy visiting the NPs here and there. So you won’t be surprised that during our last couple of weeks we have been getting our fill of them before we come home. We don’t know how long it will be before we come out to Africa again, so we’re making the most of them now. As we really enjoyed our trip to Kruger NP and we weren’t a million miles away from it, we decided to pop there again for a few days. The easiest way to do this was to drive up through Swaziland, which we thought would be good. I think quite a lot of people do this because it was by far the easiest border crossing we have ever had; the shortest time and the cheapest fee. It doesn’t take long to drive through Swaziland, only about 3 hours, and it’s a very pretty country. It’s not particularly different to other parts of Africa, but despite only being there briefly it was nice to have a quick look at it. Back in Kruger NP, and we had more excellent animal sightings, plus a few tremendous thunder storms. It seems that whenever it rains in SA, it doesn’t just rain, there is always thunder and lightning. One night the lightning seemed to be right over head and I have never heard such loud cracks of thunder. I was thankful that the landy has an aluminium body and was (hopefully) not going to attract the lightning strikes! When in the NPs we always keep an eye for the small things as well as the big. For example, there are lots of tortoises in Kruger which cross the road and we always stop to make sure they reach the other side in one piece – some of the SA’ns speed along the roads like nobody’s business. And if you happen across a really fresh lot of elephant or rhino poop, there will inevitably be several dung beetles getting stuck in to it, literally! They are great to watch and work extremely hard to get the dung nicely moulded in to round, easily ‘rollable’ sized balls. They can move the balls remarkably quickly and sometimes move them impressive distances. It was quite funny one time when we found some hard at work, and could see one trying to move a ball that wasn’t well rounded at all and rather squished on one side. He was struggling to move it around, putting in Herculean efforts, but every other time he almost rolled it over it would fall back on top of him! It was comical to watch, but also very admirable as he kept on trying and was slowly but surely moving the ‘odd’ ball to its destination. If only we could have told him to take note of his fellow dung beetles shaped balls (no rude comments please!), it would have saved him much time and energy! Another time we could see lots of birds in the sky and were surprised when we got closer to find that they were lanner and peregrine falcons, and kestrels all flying together catching insects. There were probably over a hundred of them swooping around altogether. It was spectacular to see especially as to see any of them in England is quite a rarity, let alone in such large numbers. There is also a very nice bird called the woodland kingfisher, that looks quite ordinary at first glance, but when it meets another one displays its beautifully coloured wings. Jas was determined to get a picture of one displaying and it was proving a little tricky. We could find them easily enough, but getting them to stay still let alone display was near impossible. To make the task easier, Jas had taken to mimicking their distinctive call in an attempt to get them to display and when we were anywhere near one would start tweeting out of the window! To his credit we finally got one to show off for us and Jas got some great photos, however, whether his bird impression was really the instigating factor or not is highly disputable! Amongst some of the other amazing things we saw were hippos play fighting in the water, hyenas chasing each other, a leopard eating a vervet monkey, wild dogs playing around, lions lounging in the sun, 4 cheetah cooling off under a tree, elephants strolling through the bush with very young babies, a buffalo having a heavenly mud bath (totally covered in mud), and plenty of zebra and giraffe. At one of the river crossings, there is a dam and the track follows the edge of the dam so that the water is about level with the windows of the landy. On one occasion there was a crocodile in the water right next to the edge of the dam and when we drove next to it you could almost touch it, it was that close. Jas took some photos, but not without firstly closing the window enough so that the croc couldn’t reach across for a quick snap! The next few days we had to go back to J’burg again to sort out the landy business. Dean and his girlfriend were definitely buying it and we needed to sort out transferring the money and ownership. This we thought was going to be a fairly straight forward process, but we were still in Africa right, and although we thought SA was a little more user friendly, we soon found out that was not the case! Basically to cut a very longer and arduous story short, the SA’n banks don’t like the idea of sending hard earned money out of the country for someone else to enjoy. Dean and Toni were having real difficulty getting the banks to authorise a transfer, and it was beginning to become obvious that it was not going to be easy to get the money. We discussed all sorts of options; giving us all of it in cash (not really a sensible idea, don’t want to carry around that much money), arranging for us to have it in travellers cheques (banks wouldn’t let Toni buy the cheques and then us to sigh them), us opening a SA’n bank account and then transferring the money later (still the problem of getting the money out of the country) and the ideas went on and on! Finally we realised that the money would be easier to move if it was going from a business account. So we contacted the people we bought it from in CT and asked them if they would act as go between. Toni would put the money in their account and they put it in ours. It seemed to be possible and so we arranged all the details and off we went. However, we know that things never run as smoothly as you want and so as I write the last bit of this blog (on the day we fly home!) we still have no money and now no car! We have to trust things will go through but we won’t know for sure until a couple of weeks time! It has all been a bit of a hassle for our last few days, but that’s Africa and we are used to it! Back to being in J’burg and knowing there isn’t much we can do here other than sit and wait, we made a last trip to another NP called Pilanesberg, only 2 hours away. It’s a much smaller park than Kruger, but is very nice and has all the animals there. We were very lucky to see 2 black rhino one day which was excellent. The black rhino are endangered and are much shyer than the white, usually staying hidden in the bush. But this morning they were wandering around a grassy area and we had a perfect view of them and Jas got some great pictures. We had a really great last few days safari’ing and saw more lions and leopards, elephants, rhinos, and everything else, a lovely way to end our stay. The campsite was very nice, swimming pool, restaurant and all that, but one thing it had that was not so good was a really naughty troop of baboons! They were constantly emptying the bins and trying to get food from the camps. We have a spare tent that we put our stuff in while we’re there so that the landy isn’t full up whilst we’re driving around. You remember from the earliest blog that we have several big black boxes to put all our things in, and these were in the tent too. Late one morning on returning from a drive, and find that not only have the baboons opened up the zips of the tent, but they have gone through some of the boxes and generally thrown most things around and made a huge mess! Luckily they didn’t find (or rather couldn’t get in to) the food boxes, ‘phew!’, but did scatter all our clothes around and tried to eat some soap! We have found that most of the campsite in the NPs we’ve been to have one particular animal that hangs around during the day and could be called the camp’s mascot. For example in the Kgalagadi there were lots of ground squirrels, and in Etosha lots of mongoose (we’re never sure what the plural of mongoose is; mongooses, mongeese, mongi, we haven’t ever found out), in Liwonde it was warthogs, Kruger had vervet monkeys and lizards, in South Luangwa it was elephants, in Chobe there were buffaloes, and in Pilanesberg there were ostriches. We were quite amused when we suddenly noticed two ostriches casually wandering around the camp, eating and drinking, not at all bothered by all the people and cars around them! It’s a nice little feature and we have very amused by the way they are totally relaxed by our presence and it makes walking around the campsites much more interesting! So now here I am on our very last day, finishing off this blog and thinking, by tomorrow morning we will be back in London and trying to get used to being cold again! It has been an amazing trip and we have done and seen so many things it’s hard to believe that we have done it all in just 10 months! It was a sad moment when we watched the landy being driven away, it has been our home and we have loved having it. I never thought I would enjoy sleeping in a rooftop tent so much! We love Africa and already know that we will be coming back again sometime in the future, but for now we have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and are very happy that things have gone so well. We are really looking forward to coming home and seeing you all, and thank-you all for all the messages and emails you have sent us along the way. We loved hearing from you and sharing our tales with you, and hope that you have enjoyed reading the (lengthy) blogs and seeing the photos as much as we have enjoyed putting them together. Now I must end this chapter of our travels, bid you farewell from Africa and say this is the last blog for now, we’ll probably begin to plan our next trip in the not too distant future and we’ll be back on the website sometime soon! Bye for now and we’ll catch up with you soon! Love Kate and Jas xxxx

16.1.2007!! Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Gansbaai, Arniston, and Cape Town again (S. Africa) Hello All! A very warm welcome to the first blog of the new year! We hope you all had a great time over Christmas and New Year, and hopefully it doesn’t feel like a distant memory just yet! Jas, Tor and I had a fantastic festive time, although probably just like yours, it felt as if the time went by way too quickly and we ate and drank way too much! Now that you are getting over the shock of having another blog to read so soon, I’ll crack straight on with the news. We were waiting for Tor to arrive and remembering past experiences with previous visiting friends and their flight problems, we were also waiting for the news that the ‘curse of Kate and Jas’ had reared its ugly head again! Surely the chance of delays happening again were not really statistically possible, but Jas and I have learnt always to ‘be prepared’ and so we had found a nice campsite which we were happy to stay in for a few extra days if it was so required! It was only when we had a text from Tor saying that there was really bad fog around and many internal flights were being cancelled that we really did want to stuff the phrase ‘third time lucky’ down the toilet! Getting ready to pay for some extra nights and then put our feet up, we were very relieved to get another text to say she was on her way, no delays! Well that was music to our ears and once Tor was here and we discovered that other international flights after hers were cancelled, there were great sighs of relief that the curse had been broken this time!. We had already put together a plan of what to do whilst Tor was here and the first visit was to Stellenbosch wine region for a few days to stock up on some seriously tasty tiples for us to enjoy during her stay. We weren’t really in a rush to get there as it’s only about an hour from CT. So we were perfectly happy to stop off in a place called Strand first to spend the afternoon on the beach and warm Tor up a bit, knowing what temperatures she had been enduring only hours before! Nothing like sun, sea and sand to get you in to the holiday spirit, and that’s precisely where we were headed! Now Stellenbosch is definitely a more salubrious place than some we have seen. It is the second oldest European town in SA, and has many beautiful houses, lots of gorgeous estates where the wineries are, delicious restaurants, bars and boutique style shops. All this and it still manages to maintain its ‘quaint’ feel and has fast become one of my favourite places in SA. Obviously the main draw to St. is the numerous (and I mean that!) wineries/vineyards (which ever you prefer) that grace the land in and around it. You can literally be tripping over the different estates, which are found from merely a few kms from the town centre, to all the way in to the next district. Each one offers and comprehensive selection of wines, champagnes and some ports to taste from their collection, for the smallest of fees; I don’t think we paid more than £2.00 in any of them. I offered my services as appointed driver for the visits, as any of you who know me well, are well aware of my aversion to wine. I hate to admit it, but my wine appreciation extends only to cheap white wine that I can mix with lemonade to enjoy the odd white wine spritzer. I apologise now for such appalling taste, and my only justification of this uncouth behaviour is that I’m the perfect pal to have around when you are in the mood for wine tasting escapades; for a small fee, I’ll happily drive you anywhere! The next couple of days were spent selecting a range of wineries to cruise round and then deciding which were good enough to purchase from. I’m sure you can imagine, it wasn’t at all difficult for Jas and Tor to find several tasty whites and reds, which at their pleasingly low prices meant that on several occasions, two or three of them made their way in to the landy! I did have a little sip of a couple of roses and Bruts along the way, and amazingly enough I found that after a while even I was beginning to appreciate the subtly different flavours! All hope is not lost! So with a good selection of reds, whites and sparkling, we felt very content. Some of the estates have incorporated a few other things in to their repertoire to add to their lure. Quite a few have craft shops, farm shops, art work, and even offer beautiful settings for weddings. One we went to was particularly in touch with the ‘more the better’ concept providing all sorts of entertainment and aiming to appeal as a complete family day out. There were several craft shops, a deli shop, picnic grounds, the usual wine tasting, cheese tasting, market stalls for locally made handcrafts, pony rides for the kids, and to top it all off a cheetah park! Well you can immediately see the attraction for us. Tor enjoys the wildlife as much as we do, unfortunately on this trip we didn’t have enough time to drive to a national park, so this was the next best thing. They had several adult cheetahs each in their own enclosure, and by the main viewing area was an enclosure with 4 cheetah cubs in. For only 50p you could walk around and easily see the cheetahs, but if you were prepared to pay just over £5, you would be taken inside the enclosures for a totally ‘up close and personal’ treat where you could actually stroke and pet the cats! How’s about that! We were happy just to view from the outside, and although it was lovely to see them all, we each have to admit that it’s much nicer to have had the chance to see them in the wild and much prefer to see them that way. Another winery had its own selection of antelope; wildebeest, eland, springbok, oryx, and zebra, which we found were kept by the owner purely for his pleasure, not for the local restaurants! So Tor did have a bit of a safari after all. As I said, St. is a very up market place and it seems that this had influenced many things including the backpackers that we were staying at. We were staying right in the heart of the town, in a very nice flat with a TV, kitchen area and private bathroom! Much more classy than some of the backpackers we have stayed in I can tell you! It was only a short walk from there to some very nice restaurants which we felt duty bound to investigate! One evening we had a very nice Indian meal; it was quite an experience as it was apparent that Indian cuisine is a new thing to SA. The waitress took a great deal of care in explaining what the different types of food were, in particular what a poppa Dom was! We went along with it, not wanting to put her off by letting her know that Indian food is pretty much the staple diet of us English these days! Another place we went to was offering different types of ‘bush’ meat which we had been wanting to try for a while. On the menu was warthog, kudu, springbok and wildebeest as well as the usual steak. Jas settled for a conventional steak when we were told there was no warthog that night (we had been reliably informed that warthog is excellent meat), but Tor and I had the game meat platter that consisted of kebabs of springbok, kudu and wildebeest. Initially we were put off by eating the meat of stunning animals that we have loved to watch in the wild, but all too quickly our interest of finding out what they tasted like took over and the orders were made. The food was really tasty and excellently cooked, even Jas was disappointed that he hadn’t plumped for the platter as well. We savoured each of the meats and came to conclusion that of the three, wildebeest came in at number one, followed by a draw between kudu and springbok. From then on I think we were always looking out for more wildebeest on the menus! From St. we went back towards CT to spend Christmas on the beach in an area called Simon’s Town. This is an area just close to where the penguins are and we took Tor to see them. Even second time around for us it was still strange to see them hanging around the beaches and swimming in the sea. When we came to see them before, in SA’s winter, there weren’t many people around, but now with the beaches full of holiday-makers. So to see penguins sharing the beaches and sea with humans was very entertaining. They were happily moving around without any worries of all the people that were there, it reminded me of the ‘ppppick up a penguin’ adverts (and old one I know, not sure how many of you will remember it). We were staying in another backpackers here, in a room for the 3 of us, another nice place. Down the road we found a good old English style pub and needless to say we spent a few nights there. One night we were treated to live music (a guy with a guitar) which was very good, we were singing along to all sorts of things, even making requests! We spent sometime lapping up the sun on one of the lovely little bays round the coast, and we checked out which beach was going to win the vote for ‘Christmas Beach 2006’! Yep, the trauma of having to lie on the beach and swim in the sea on Christmas day was deeply ingrained. It was a constant worry, this beach, or that one? We chose a spot and as it was now Christmas eve, all that was left to do was get the food for the day organised. By now it was becoming quite clear to us that SA’s don’t work up to Christmas with nearly as much enthusiasm as the Brits do. It is a very casual affair and if we were worried that everything was going to be shut on the day and difficult to do things, we couldn’t have been further from the truth. It’s almost treated just like any other day of the year. That suited us fine as a key concern of ours was being able to keep the wine and bubbly cold on the beach throughout the day, and knowing that the garage on the corner was ‘open all hours’ selling ice was a real winner! So we were all set; lots of lovely food and drink, a nice beach to plonk ourselves on, a few presents to open (courtesy of Tor and Mum and Dad) and all we had to do was hope the sun shined! It did and I can say that we had a really fantastic Christmas Day! After a suitable lie in we started off with a little breakfast bubbly and Danish pastries to put us in the mood for present opening. Just before lunch we gathered up all the food and drinks, popped to get some ice to keep it all cool, and jumped in to landy to get to the beach. It was still a bit of a mystery as to how SA’s spend their Christmas Day, but it was soon apparent that they were planning exactly what we were. Luckily due to the vast amount of beachy coastline they have on their door steps, there was no need for fighting for a spot once we got there. There was just the right ratio of people to beach and we found a good spot in the sun and set ourselves up for the rest of the day….. lovely! In the evening we went pack to the pub, as we had been told it would be a busy night there. Jas, I have to say, had enjoyed rather a lot of red wine during the day and politely retired early, but Tor and I went for a couple more drinks and actually ended up staying until the early hours of the morning! It was a great day! On boxing day, again there was not much sign of it being Christmas, only the banks were shut. We came to the conclusion that as this is their summer holidays, the fact that Christmas and New Year fall occur during them, is almost coincidental. They treat them like any other day in the commercial sense because it is the holidays and no one wants to shut anything down and lose any money. We weren’t complaining! Now we had a couple of days where we hadn’t booked anywhere to stay and were going to play it by ear if Tor had anything she particularly wanted to do. You might or might not know that this area of coastline is excellent for whale watching and that another big draw is ‘Shark Diving’. This is where you go on a boat out in to the bay area, anchor up, chuck lots of mashed up fish’s guts and stuff, called chum, to make a ‘chum slick’ and wait with excitement for great white sharks to show up. There’s a good chance they will and when they do, you can put on a wet suit and mask, then get in to the cage that’s attached to the side of the boat and have a very close encounter with them! Tor told us about this crazy caper, saying she’d heard about it and fancied having a go and we were more than happy to oblige. So we found out where to go, a place called Gansbaai, which is not far from CT, and took a leisurely drive along the coast to check it out. Whale watching and shark diving is big business in that area, in fact it seemed to be the only business! The little town was totally geared up for that and not a lot else, but that was no problem, we knew why we were here! It didn’t take long to get us booked on a boat for the next day, and they reassuringly told us that there was no obligation to actually get in the water with the sharks, we could admire them from the boat if we wanted to. That was nice to know! I already knew that I was not at all entertaining the idea of getting in the cage, call me a wimp, but seeing the sharks from the boat was definitely going to be more than enough for me. Tor and Jas were more tempted by the idea, but each were leaving their final decision until we were on the boat and they could see exactly what it involved. That night at the campsite we were all quite excited about the prospects of seeing big, scary sharks, it’s not your every day kind of thing! Next morning we arrived for breakfast, courtesy of the trip, had a briefing about sharks and what we would be doing and seeing, got our life jackets and headed to the quay and our boat. The weather was sunny and clear, if a little windy as we set off, and there was about 20 of us, plus 5 people from the company on board. We only had to go about 5km from the coast and there we dropped anchor and the ‘chum slick’ was started. It took about 20 minutes to get there and in that short time the wind had really begun to pick up. The boat was rocking all over the place in the swells and suddenly I began to feel a little as though I would be seeing the scrambled egg I’d had for breakfast again, oh dear! I’ve not been seasick before, but I was having first hand experience of it now! Fortunately, embarrassing as it was, I wasn’t the only one and several other people were feeling a bit ropey, but we tried to not let it distract us from the reason we were here. The guys from the company did emphasize the point that as with all wildlife, they couldn’t guarantee the sharks would come, or if they did, how long it would take. So we had to just sit back and wait. They did catch a couple of smaller sharks for us to look at; the marine biologist who was with us, would hold these and tell us a bit about them before returning them to the sea, which was cool. However, there was no two ways about it, the big sharks were not coming out to play……. so far! Jas and Tor was happily messing about on the deck, enjoying themselves, but I was in a considerably less jolly state, sitting quietly on the very front of the boat, out of everyone’s way, trying very hard not to be sick (again, no other details will be given, I have my pride!). By now nearly half the tourists on the boat were reeling with seasickness, which had resulted in the crew radioing back to shore for a rescue boat to come and take those who’d had enough back to dry land. After a couple of hours there were still no sign of any sharks and many of the passengers just wanted to get back to dry land. I was determined that although I didn’t feel good, I wasn’t so bad that I needed to be ‘medivac’d’ off the boat, and I was stubborn enough to say that I had paid the money and was going to stay the distance. There was no way I would leave the boat early and then have Tor and Jas come back saying, ‘wow you missed some great sharks!’ Then out of nowhere, someone shouted ‘shark!’ and everyone moved to the side of the boat to see a great white chewing on some of the bait. It was an amazing sight and really took our breath away to see it so close. There were three of them swimming around, two were about 3 metres long and one was about 4! Well that set off a whole series of actions on board the boat. Some people already in wet suits and masks started to get in to the cage, Jas got his camera ready, Tor and I positioned ourselves in a perfect shark spotting spot on the side of the boat, carefully holding on as it was still really rocking, and the crew were making it their mission to keep the sharks around us. Oh it was all very exciting, and all thoughts of me being ‘green around the gills’ were gone in a second; nothing like great white sharks to the focus of your thoughts! It was at this time that the rescue boat turned up and about 10 people go off ours and on to it, which was no mean feat in itself considering how choppy it was. Not even the fact that the sharks had now turned up was enough to stop them going. I remained on board, my spirits totally lifted by the possibility of more sharks turning up! The people in the cage were having a real show, whenever the sharks got close the crew shouted ‘dive’ and they took a deep breath and went down under the surface to see the sharks get right up to the cage. It looked really amazing from on the boat, so I can imagine it was absolutely fantastic from in the water! Tor and Jas had already decided that they were more than happy with the ‘out of water’ shark experience, so the three of us were avidly watching and enjoying the show from where we were. Unfortunately it was so rocky on the boat that it wasn’t easy for anyone to get any photos of the sharks, so we can’t show you what we saw, you’ll have to use your imagination. We watched them for about half an hour and then, sadly it was time for us to return, other tours were booked for the afternoon run. It was fantastic to see them and we were all very happy that our long wait had been rewarded, me especially! From Gansbaai we made our way to another spot on the coastline called Arniston, which Tor had also heard was a particularly nice place, where we could have a relaxing day on the beach. On the way were stopped at Cape Agulhas, which is the actual, really really, no kidding, most southern point of SA, not the Cape of Good Hope, as we previously thought. So we had a look at where they indicate that the Indian ocean meets the Atlantic ocean, and where many ships have meet their rocky end. We had a look but couldn’t quite see Antarctica! We made our way to Bredasdrop about 20km from Arniston, where we found a campsite with space, and used that as a base. Arniston proved to be as lovely as the reports we had heard and we had no trouble spending the day there soaking up the sun on the beach, popping in to a very nice hotel for a couple of cocktails before enjoying a great meal in a little restaurant run by a ‘Londoner’! On the subject of food, we had planned to do a bit of cooking ourselves when we were camping. But we couldn’t drag ourselves away from all the nice restaurants we kept coming across; they were such good value that it actually seemed criminal to make the effort to cook our own food! Suffice as to say we enjoyed eating out throughout Tor’s stay; steaks, seafood, bush meat, we had it all and our gas hot plate never made it out in to the open once! After our little jaunt up the coast, we headed back towards CT to have a few days in the big city and get ready to celebrate the new year. We stayed in another campsite that jas and I had been to before when we first got to CT, called Ou Skip in Melkbos. The idea was to do a bit of the touristy bits in CT and also lounge around on the beach as well. Typically, the weather put pay to some of our plans! And you thought that was only an English problem! The skies became cloudy and rain reared its ugly head, bad news for us! This was the start of a short period of ‘things not quite working out our way’ beginning with us deciding to go to Robben Island, then getting to the ticket office to be told that it’s fully booked up until 9th Jan! OK not great but no problem we’ll go on the cable car up to Table Mountain, that’s a good idea. Not so! We get to the cable car station and I ask an official if they are shut any time over the Christmas period, and she confidently replies ‘No ma’am, we don’t shut for anything’. Excellent, we’re in luck here, and although it is a bit cloudy, showing true British grit and determination, we go to get tickets. We walk up to the same official I have just talked to and are about to move towards the ticket office when she stops us and says ‘Sorry, we’re shutting the cable car today because it’s too windy to run it’, I grimace, so much for not shutting for anything!! Feeling slightly dejected, and not sure what to do now, the beach option out of the window for that day, we ended up going out for more food and then going to the cinema to see ‘The Departed’ (Scorese film with Leo Di Caprio and Jack Nicholson), which we found to be very good, and so the day was not a wash out after all! New Years eve began with more of the same cloud and bits of rain, but thankfully it cleared up in the afternoon and whilst Jas did some photo editing, Tor and I wasted no time in getting beside the campsite pool and catching some rays. We were taking it easy before we headed in to the heart of CT for the evenings celebrations. To see in the New Year we were going to go to the ‘Waterfront, Victoria and Albert Quay’, where there are quite a few bars and lots of people go, with fireworks etc. Just 15 minutes walk away is the Big Blue Backpackers where we were staying at for the next two nights, so we checked in there and got ourselves glammed up the night. We made our way to a pub called the Ferryman’s, one of the few establishments that serve the kind of ales that Jas really likes, got ourselves a table and got ourselves a drink. It was only about 7pm and we set up for the evening. The quay got steadily busier, but the atmosphere started to really lift quite late on towards midnight. Again we got the distinct impression that SA’s are just as casual about NY as they are Christmas. There was not a huge buzz about, like in England, no large numbers of merry people wishing each and everyone a Happy NY and no ceremonious count down to midnight. At midnight everyone rushed out on to the quay to see the fireworks, which were really good, but only lasted about 10 minutes! The three of us wished each other a very good 2007, and then we back in to the pub! Well little did we know that soon we would be having a fantastic time and rubbing shoulders with a particular British rugby star that I hear through the grapevine has been entertaining you all with his fancy foot work! Shall I go on? ‘Please, please…’ I hear you cry, ‘don’t keep us in suspense!’ OK, calm down, here’s the lowdown. From the pub, by now it being about 1am, we decided to walk back up to the Big Blue. Tor remembered that someone in the backpackers had said they were going to go to a Cuban bar around the corner from there that evening. It’s quite an out of the way place, but Jas and I knew where she meant because we had eaten there a couple of times, and so we thought, hey lets go and see what’s happening there on the way home. That was ultimately one of the best decisions of the whole holiday! We went up to the entrance and casually walked in to find the whole place really buzzing with cool Cuban music, everyone dancing and the atmosphere was brilliant. A guy stopped us and said ‘Do you have tickets?’, but we didn’t really have time to answer before he said, ‘Ah go on in, no worries’ and without any hesitation we were at the bar! We think that it had been a private party type thing, with tickets only, but as it was so late on in the night they were happy just to have more people buying beer in there. It didn’t take us long to get in to the swing of things and we’re having a look round, enjoying the music, when I see someone across from me who looks remarkably like Matt Dawson a.k.a. England Rugby player and more recently star of Strictly Come Dancing! Right, remember I’ve had a couple of drinks and have only seen Matt myself on an occasional, ‘A Question of Sport’, (we’ve been away whilst Strictly has been on) and at this point I’m not convinced it’s not just my imagination. Knowing that Tor has far more knowledge in this field than I, I quickly inform her of my suspicions, and leave her to confirm or deny the identity whilst I go to the bar again. Well it doesn’t take a detective to see from the look on her face as I return, that I have indeed spotted The Matt Dawson, partying on with the rest of us! What a result! Obviously we (Tor and I that is, Jas is not at all fussed about some guy he doesn’t know of, but is also feeling the effect of more than enough ales and a double whiskey!) spend the next half and hour or more trying to get more of a view of him without acting like complete groupies (well me more than Tor!). The place is not very big and it’s easy for us to dance not too far from where him and his friends are sitting and dancing. Cool eh! We were amazed that a spur of the moment choice to go there, means we end up sharing the rest of the evening with a celeb! I did notice that although his friends and girlfriend were happily salsa’ing the night away, he was more interested in the drinking side and I put that down to the fact that he had probably had enough dancing for awhile considering his TV success! Anyway, Jas stayed for a while before his bed beckoned him home, but Tor and I stayed til the end and even then found it hard to drag ourselves away from the MD experience! I am very sorry to say that although we tried we had very limited success trying to capture the proof on camera. Tor did manage a picture, but aside from a funny looking Jas, it is very difficult to make Matt out in the background, however, I’m sure that employing the powers of police surveillance technology, we can enhance the picture to good effect! Watch this space! On NY’s day we again enjoyed a champagne start with pastries, and then whilst Jas was recovering from the night before, Tor and I went for a stroll around one of the hip’n’happening streets in CT. We were expecting shops and cafes etc to be open as usual, as has been the case so far, but this time we were caught out and not much was open at all. Typical! There was a very nice café that we found to have some lunch at, but not much else to see. As it was Tor’s last evening we went back down to the waterfront and had a meal in a really great restaurant that Tor’s Mum recommended to us, which she had been to when she holidayed in SA. So it was a treat for the end of the holiday and completely lived up to its reputation, and we had a very nice last night. Sadly it had already come around to being time to take Tor to the airport. Fortunately her flight wasn’t until later in the afternoon so we squeezed in a last spot of sunbathing and sea-swimming before her flight, a great way to finish the holiday off. It’s always sad to see people off home after we have had such a good time with them. Tor had a great time and we really enjoyed having her (thanks Tor we had a fantastic time, we’ll see you soon!). Having got in to the last month of our trip, we are now in the process of getting the landy serviced and in good order for selling it. We’ve stayed in CT for a few days to organise putting adverts up and around. Then we went up towards Durban for a bit to meet up with some friends we met in Tanz. and do some last minute touring around that way. We followed the coast along the Garden Route, which was very lovely, particularly Knysna and Plettenburg Bay. We've stayed at a couple of lovely backpackers which are right on the beach, we have been watching dolphins from the shore and also watching another couple of spectacular thunder storms. So that’s all for now, I’m sure this last few weeks is really going to fly by and we’ll be packing our stuff to come home before we know it! Obviously there’ll be a final African Adventure blog to come, but for now, cheerio, hope you are all well and it won’t be long before we’ll be seeing you in person! Bye bye, love Kate and Jas xxx

20.12.06 Mulanje (Malawi), Mozambique, Kruger NP (SA) Hello there, here’s a little pre-christmas blog for you to read whilst you are sipping another glass of mulled wine, eating yet more chocolate, or having that ‘it really is the last one’ mince pie! Happy Christmas to you all, and best wishes for the New Year! We hope you have a lovely time and Santa spoils you all! We left you last time enjoying the fantastic hospitality of Morag and Lindsay. Suffice as to say, our bellies are a little more rounded than before and by the time we left, the rooftop tent hadn’t seen the light of day for 3 weeks!!! In our defence, one week of that 3 was spent up the mountain where our food was greatly limited and our beds were the floors of wooden huts! So whilst we were in Mulanje we spent a couple of days visiting the hospital where we used to work and catch up with our old work colleagues and friends there. It was really lovely to see everyone again and they were very happy to see us after 2 years! They were so welcoming, it was quite emotional being back again and many of them wanted us to stay and work there again! The laboratory seemed to be running well and had stayed fairly much how we left it. This was a great relief, as we were wondering if it may have lost a bit of it’s momentum after we had gone. We were very pleased to find that the 2 newly qualified lab staff that took over from us, were still there and with Mr Kanyoza (our counterpart during our placement) they were maintaining a good standard of lab work. They experience the usual problems with getting reagents, lab materials, and having to work with very old and poorly maintained equipment. However, they manage remarkably well and can always look on the bright side of their situation! We asked them to make a list of things that they really need at the moment, and hopefully when we get back to the UK we can get some things to send over to them. We also gave the hospital money to contribute to their ‘Sponsor a Bed’ scheme with money that was raised at the L&D lab that we worked at before we came travelling, (thanks again to everyone who bought raffle tickets and donated money!). The scheme works by enabling you to (as it says) ‘Sponsor a Bed’ for a year by donating $500, which the hospital puts in to a fund. The money is then allocated to whatever particular expenses are required at that time, eg. it may pay for some new mattresses, or the electricity bill, or nutritional supplementary feeds for the paediatric unit, the list goes on and on. The key is that the money can be distributed in exactly the way the hospital needs to keep the whole place running on a day to day basis, rather than being earmarked for one thing in particular. This is an invaluable fund for the hospital and the money that we raised for the hospital was very gratefully received by the new hospital medical director, with many thanks. The next stop in Mulanje was the mountain! I’m sure you all remember the very large Mulanje Massif that we could see from our front garden, which we used to climb up. Well a trip back to Mulanje would not have been complete without us reliving the hard 4 hour slog up to the plateau, and a few days staying in the huts and climbing the odd peak. In fact we had loved being up there so much that we arranged to stay up the mountain for 8 days, visiting 5 different huts and climbing the illusive ‘Sapitwa’ (‘don’t go there!’ in Chichewa) peak. Of course the whole experience is made much more bearable by the fact that you hire porters and guides to go with you, and more importantly carry all you stuff!! So with Fred and File (yep that was his name), brothers that we were recommended to take up, we set off on our great hike! Like I said, the first day hiking up the steep slopes to the top of the plateau is pretty difficult going to say the least! I would describe myself and Jason as reasonably fit individuals, who, having been up and down the massif several times before, would find it fair going. Well, probably due to the fact that we have spent the last 7 months doing little more than sitting in the landy driving from place to place and spending more time sitting in there on safari, I should have expected the climb to be a bit more of a stretch on the old muscles! Admittedly we were going up in the hottest part of the year, but still I can tell you that the first day hiking was a slight shock to the system and we had a strenuous work out! Nevertheless, it was completely worth every drop of sweat, as the views and the scenery were even more stunning than we remembered. Once up on the plateau the walks between the huts are much less demanding, fortunately, and the extra exertion up one or more of the 25 peaks is entirely at you discretion! We went up two other peaks, but we saved the biggest, Sapitwa, til last. It stands at 3,000 metres (remembering that you’re already at 1,500m on the plateau, so you’re already half way there, thank goodness!) and the climb is mostly over large boulders and through little wooded areas. There is no pathway as such, you are utterly reliant on the guides you’ve got with you knowing the way. Without their knowledge it would take you forever to get to the top! It was tough going (well not so much for Jas, but I needed the occasional hand or push up from Fred!) but we made it! The sky was clear blue when we set out, but 3 hours later at the summit, sod’s law, we couldn’t see a thing as the clouds had gathered all around us! Hey ho, that’s life, and we had a good laugh about it. So we stopped up there long enough to eat some peanuts to restore our energy, have a quick photo and then off we went to make the journey down again! It was a bit easier on the way down, only taking us 2 hours! By the time we got to the hut again, my legs were definitely telling me they had had enough! It was excellent though to have conquered the highest peak on Mulanje which we hadn’t done before, and we felt suitably pleased with ourselves, despite not being able to experience the tremendous views from the top! The huts on the mountain are pretty basic. They each differ slightly in design, but generally have a room with a fire in for cooking and eating, and another room to sleep in. Quite often, however, it gets rather chilly at night and so you end up sleeping next to the fire. There are guys at each hut that are paid to stay there and make sure you have enough chopped wood for the fire and clean water available. If you’re lucky some of them have had the brainwave of having a few bottles of beer and soft drinks there too for sale, which does go down well after a long days hiking! There are lovely views around each hut and you really feel as though you are miles away from anything, without a care in the world. We loved our week up there and each days walks were through slightly different surroundings, all of which were very beautiful. I think we could have easily stayed up there 2 weeks or more! Back down we came though, straight back to the luxury of Morag and Lindsay’s, which was more spoiling for us. We went back to the hospital for a last visit to the lab, and to take some photos of everyone. Although we didn’t actually pop and see our old house, not feeling it was polite to intrude in someone else’s home now, we did manage to track down our old day worker, Arnold and night guard, Headson. It was lovely to see them again and they were very pleased to see us. They were both very well and we gave them a bit of a Christmas present, a big bag of maize meal which they use to make ‘nsima’, their staple meal, to help them through this time of year, which is called the ‘hungry season’. We were very happy to learn that our night guard’s dog ‘Tiger’, that we looked after as well, was also fine and still strong! We didn’t see him though, which is a shame, but just knowing he was OK (dogs have a pretty rough life in Malawi) was as good as we could have hoped! After spending a few more days in Mulanje (by this time we had needed to go to Blantyre to extend our visas, because we had already overstayed our 30 days!), we caught up with everybody we used to know there, who still lived there. It was a great time and it felt just like when we lived there, and as if we had only been away a couple of months. We truly enjoyed our return to VSO place, and I certainly could have easily stayed there for another 18 months, working in the lab again, and living with the mountain so nearby! Time was ticking on by now and we really did have to leave Malawi. We thoroughly enjoyed visiting it again, and we are practically certain that we’ll get back there again sometime! But for now we had to move on in to Mozambique, and we’re sorry to say that as a result of spending much too long in Malawi, we had to abandon our tour of Moz and reduce it to a whistle stop trip through to get back in to SA. We did try and work things out to stay in Moz longer, but after much deliberation we agreed that despite hearing very good reports on Moz, there was much more that we wanted to see and do in SA, so we preferred to get on down there again. We took 4 days to get through Moz and along the way we did find some very nice beach-side campsites to stay in. So at least we did get to swim in the sea and sample the great seafood a few times on the way through. Firstly we stayed in a little coastal town called Quelimane, which was quite nice, but a bit run down, not on the tourist route really. Then on to Vilankulos, where we had the best seafood so far, so we stayed for two days! Although on the way there at 7pm at night we were lucky to get anywhere, due to a ‘blow out’! Now before you start panicking, it wasn’t at all the sensational blow outs that you hear about. In fact, thankfully, as it was dark and the roads weren’t the best, we were going quite steadily, so there was no huge bang as the tyre burst, nor any skidding around in an uncontrollable landy! Actually quite the opposite. The tyre was getting a bit rugged around the edges, so we were planning on changing it in SA anyway. But we had gone over just one too many potholes and it decided ‘enough was enough!’ On the next bumpy bit we heard an unusual noise coming from the back of the landy and when Jas peered out he could see the tyre was no more! I could tell something was wrong and had already slowed right down and so we gently pulled off the road and came to a very graceful halt. It wasn’t at all like in the movies, no massive screeches, no slamming on of brakes and no somersaulting vehicles, I’m very glad to say! All kitted out with our high lift jack and spare wheel, we were sure we would soon be on our way again. Not quite so, as it wasn’t at all long before several Mozambiquians (not sure if that’s the right word) had found us and were hastily offering their assistance. Now, unfortunately we can’t say that our Portuguese is up to scratch, and their English was about the same, but through the universal language of hand gestures we were soon communicating reasonably well and the guys were happily helping us. They seemed to know what they were doing, but it wasn’t long before we were having a couple of problems, but we persevered and after an hour or so, we were back on the road and waving back to the very contented guys, (a little monetary thanks had been given in return for their hard work!). Arriving at Vilankulos a little later than expected, we found a campsite and could relax at last! From there we went to Praia de Xai Xai, and the most gorgeous beach of golden sand and blue sea that just went on and on and on! That evening we could see the weather was getting a bit stormy, and later we were watching the most amazing thunder and lightning storm I have ever seen. The lightning was flashing all across the ocean and really illuminating the whole sky. We could see it all coming closer towards us, and it eventually reached us and the rain just kept coming and coming, with such strong winds that I was sure the tent was going to get blown off the top of the landy! It was really cool to watch it all and it actually provided some much needed relief from the extremely hot temperatures we were having to endure in Moz. I know that Africa is hot, but really, the heat in Moz was absolutely incredible, the hottest we have ever been! Sweat, boy did we ever, especially as we were mostly in the landy driving. The landy was getting so hot that you couldn’t touch parts of it for fear of getting 3rd degree burns! Of the little that we did see, Moz looked a very nice country, and with the Portguese influence (from when they colonised it) it was quite different from the other countries we have been in. We would definitely go back to explore it properly, we’ll just have to use it as another excuse to travelling again! It was a quick and painless re-entry in to SA, and as soon as you are across the border you can tell you are back in a developed country again. There are shops everywhere, selling everything, and now the roads are full of other cars, not bicycles, kids, goats and donkeys! Our first port of call was Nelspruit, a city about 100km from the border. We planned to stay there a couple of days to do some of the more mundane things, get money, food shopping, laundry, oh and getting a new tyre to replace the spare! Now we were back in to a big and bustling city, we couldn’t resist a bit of a treat and so we went to see the James Bond film. I’m not sure how long it has been out in the UK, but it has only just come out here. The next day we didn’t waste any time in getting back on the road and going up to Kruger NP. It is such a famous park that we didn’t know whether it would live up to the hype, or it would be too commercial and too busy. After all the great parks we had been to already and the amazing ‘bush camping’ that we had done, we weren’t sure if being in a proper campsite with shops and restaurants, swimming pools and large numbers of people would be as rewarding. Going in with slight apprehension, we were soon to be very pleasantly surprised. Yes it was totally different from the very basic camps we were used to, and there were tarmac roads, with quite a few cars on. Nevertheless, the actual game viewing was outstanding and we never thought that we would see as much as we did. In the 8 days we were there, we moved around three different areas of the park (the size of Wales) and 5 of those 8 days we saw the ‘Big 5’ (lion, buffalo, leopard, elephant and rhino), plus hyena, giraffe, crocodiles, hippo, baboons, vervet monkeys, wildebeest, warthog, many types of antelope, many birds of prey, bee-eaters, sunbirds, oh the list goes on and on! But by far the best sighting for us here, only because we have never ever seen them before and were really hoping to find them, were packs of wild dogs! Might not sound particularly amazing, but they are quite rare and we were very happy to find them and watch them for long periods, on several occasions. With the wild dogs, groups of 5/6 rhinos at time, leopards eating impalas in trees, lions eating zebra and giraffe, huge herds of buffalo, and some of the biggest elephants we have seen, all in all we found Kruger to be as good as we had heard! It was 8 fantastic days and a place that we would definitely return to. Not overlooking the smaller animals that we enjoyed seeing as well, plenty of tortoises, chameleons, mongooses, tree agamas, terrapins, baby impala, baby warthogs, monitor lizards, dung beetles (in full dung rolling action), baby eagle owls, and last but not least glow worms! As you can imagine we had a hard time leaving there, especially Jas! Now we are heading down to Cape Town to met Tor, my friend from uni, who is arriving on the 21st and staying with us for Christmas and New Year. It’s going to be a busy 10 days with visits to Stellenbosch, De Hoop nature reserve, Table Mountain and Robben Island, plus lots of other things in and around Cape Town. On top of which we have to fit in Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve!!!! We can’t wait and are sure Tor is going to have a great time, as we will and we are really looking forward to her arriving. All that’s left for me to say, apart from ‘what a short blog this is!!’, is we hope you have a brilliant Christmas and New Year, and enjoy yourselves where ever you are and whatever you do! Take care and we’ll be in touch again in 2007! Best wishes from us and our love to you all. Love Kate and Jas xxx PS. We’ll do our best to put up with having xmas on the beach in lovely sunshine!!! PPS. I know that on the blog there are no paragraphs. This is not me being very slack, but for some reason when you up load on to the blog it gets rid of the paragraphs and I haven't as yet found out how to put them back in. So sorry that it's all bunched up in to one big sprawl, you'll have to imagine there are paragraphs there!

24.11.06 South Luangwa (Zambia), Liwonde and Senga Bay (Malawi) Hi there to you all! How’s things? Sorry it’s been a long time since our last entry, but the internet is not very reliable here in Malawi, and we’ve had a bit of trouble getting access to the weblog site. As I began uploading this blog I was shocked to realise that we are already almost in to December. It’s difficult to imagine you are probably getting in to Christmas mode, whether you want to or not, with xmas music, decorations appearing and all the rest of it. Out here there’s not a sniff of the festive season, which, along with the increasing heat, ensures that we have almost completely forgotten about what time of year it is! Once we get back in to SA I’m sure the Christmas preparations will be well under way, and we’ll get in to the swing of it a bit, although it will feel a little odd having Santa come in the middle of the summer! Anyway Santa thoughts aside, we hope you are all very well and the shortening nights are not making you too depressed! So we were in Malawi spending for a couple of days by the lake before going back in to Zambia to pick up Kev and Zoe. We had also popped down to Liwonde NP for a few days beforehand, and while we were there we had a very lucky encounter with one of the rangers who worked in the rhino sanctuary there. Jas bumped in to Dzimba in the men’s loos and got chatting to him about the various joys of animal tracking. Jas asked what animals Dzimba spent most of his time tracking and he replied ‘Rhinos’! Obviously Jas was very impressed and couldn’t begin to hide his excitement. Dzimba was so delighted with Jas’s interest and enthusiasm about his job, that in no time at all Dzimba was inviting us to join him and his fellow ranger Christopher the following day for a trip in to the rhino sanctuary to track the black rhino, on foot!!! Well what a result! Not only do you normally have to pay to go in the rhino sanctuary and we were going in free, but more importantly, the general public can only drive around the sanctuary, and we were going to have our own personal walking safari to find the rhinos! We tried not to get too excited just in case it didn’t actually happen, after all Dzimba wasn’t supposed to take any old people in there. But when we bumped in to Christopher later on and he quite confidently said, ‘Ah you must be Jas and Kate, you are coming with us tomorrow, we will find some rhinos for you’, we started to get very excited! At 5.30 the next morning Dzimba and Christopher arrived in the campsite ready to set off in to the sanctuary. If there were any remaining doubts at all that we were going to be walking with rhinos, these were immediately dispelled by the presence of the assault rifles they were carrying with them! No messing about there, they were ready for any trouble the rhinos might throw at us. We found out later that the guns were also for use against poachers. The rhino sanctuary is dedicated to rearing black rhino, and other endangered species in Malawi, and the Malawian government is so dedicated to this mission that they will not tolerate poachers in there at all. Poachers are still a problem in Liwonde and if they are found in the rest of the park they are arrested and sent to jail. However, such is the concern that they will try to kill the rhino, that the rangers are given a ‘shoot to kill ‘ policy if they discover poachers inside the sanctuary. The hope being that the possibility of this drastic action will stop the poachers going in there. So in to the sanctuary we go, the back gate just to keep a slightly lower profile, with Christopher searching through the windscreen of the landy for any signs of the rhino. There are 7 rhinos in the sanctuary at the moment, 4 adults and 3 young. Dzimba and Christopher have over 38 years experience of rhino tracking between them and having worked at Liwonde for 23 and 15 years respectively, we had every faith that they new whereabouts they should be looking! It wasn’t long before Christopher had us park the landy and start walking through the bush. They gave us a little pep talk before we started so we knew how to conduct ourselves once on foot, and although I knew they knew exactly what they were doing, it was still a little nerve racking as well as being very exciting! It was fascinating how they tracked the rhino, following sounds, smells and tracks that half the time I couldn’t make out at all! They were always taking in to account which way the wind was blowing so that we were downwind of the rhino, and our smell didn’t give us away. We spent quite a long time walking around, but were steadily getting closer to one rhino and her calf, finding spots where they had slept the might before, stopped for a drink and even areas they had been playing. We came to an area where Dzimba and Christopher were sure the rhino were very close by and told us to stay at one spot while they circled around to check. They hadn’t moved more than a few metres either side of us when we heard a loud rustling of bushes about 10 metres away, along with a definite rhino sounding snort. Jas and I looked through the bushes and low and behold there in front of us was a mum rhino and her calf! They gave us a little scare by making a small mock charge towards us, getting our adrenalin going and our feet moving to the sides of Christopher and Dzimba, and the safety of the guns! But they are very shy animals really and were not at all interested in getting close to us, and after only a few moments they ran off in the opposite direction leaving us no chance to catch up with them. Wow, what can I say, it was really fantastic to get that close to black rhinos on foot! We were very lucky to see them on our first walk, it was a very special treat for us and one that we might never have again. After that we went back to the landy and drove around the rest of the sanctuary to see some of the other animals they have in there, which aren’t found in the rest of the park. We saw zebra, hartebeest, roan, sable, and eland, a full house as far as we were concerned. It had been an excellent morning! Dzimba and Christopher were very pleased we had seen everything too and had enjoyed showing us around and telling us all about their job. They asked us if we wanted to go in again with them the next morning and needless to say we didn’t hesitate in saying ‘yes please!!!’ We went in again and as quickly as the day before we had found fresh tracks and were hot the rhino’s trail. Luck wasn’t with us this time and although we got close to where they were, we scared them off way before we could see them. Dzimba and Christopher we very disappointed that they hadn’t got us closer, and wanted us to go in a third day, but we had to explain that we couldn’t stay any longer this time, but would be back in about 10 days with our friends. As Kev is the one who got Jas in to his tracking, we asked if there was any chance that they would take us in when we came back. They were absolutely thrilled that we were coming to Liwonde again and said that they would take us rhino tracking as many days as we liked, as long as it wasn’t on a Saturday when their bosses from Blantyre came! So all was set for a great treat for Kev and Zoe. We met a nice Australian couple (Mike and Julie) in Liwonde, and they joined us in the landy for some drives. They were planning to go up to the lake next and as it was on our way we said we would give them a lift. They had been travelling around using public transport and were very happy to squeeze in the landy with us and all our stuff, as a break from the minibuses! We also found out that Christopher (our rhino man) was going home for a few days and his house was in a village called Sharpvale, also on the way to the lake. Seeing if it was possible to get him in as well, lots of luggage manuovering involved, we offered him a lift too, much to his delight. As we neared Sharpvale we asked Christopher how far from the main road his house was. He told us it was only 1/2km and would we like to come and meet his family. We said that would be lovely and so we drove right to his front door and were greeted by his wife and 7 children, plus numerous relatives and what seemed like half the village! Christopher was very keen to show us his home and fields, and share some home grown pawpaw with us. We stayed for awhile and all the children found us very fascinating, and when Jas did some juggling and a magic trick we were a real hit. Unfortunately we still had a way to go to get to the lake, so we said our goodbyes and off we went with the whole village waving us off. We took Mike and Julie to Cool Runnings and stayed for 2 nights and then it was time to go into Zambia again to pick up Kev & Zoe from Lusaka. It was a 2 day journey which we had done several times now and the border crossing in between. No problems there we thought…….little did we know! We arrived at the Zambian border and for the first time EVER, we were asked to show our yellow fever certificates. It was quite a surprise and as we hadn’t been asked to show them before we had to think about where they actually were. Luckily I had mine with me, but we realised that Jas’s was in amongst some luggage that we had left at ‘Cool Runnings’ (by the lake) until we got back there with Kev & Zoe, so we had a bit more room in the landy. We began to explain this and say that we had been in to Zambia before and never been asked to produce the certificate previously so did they really have to see it this time. Unluckily for us, the official had decided that he was not going to be at all helpful and told us that without it he had every right to refuse us entry in to country. We suddenly were left with the options of a days drive back to the lake to find it, or go back to Lilongwe and find a doctor to give Jas a new vaccination with a new certificate! Neither of these really appealed to us, plus we had to get to Lusaka the next day for Kev & Zoe. This was becoming a real problem and we suddenly realised that we were at this man’s mercy if were wanted to get across the border now, which we needed to do! It dawned on us that the way to go was be a nice to the official as possible, profusely apologise for our stupidity, beg for his assistance in the matter and offer any other grovelling that might help. We even contemplated slipping him a few dollars! After a good half an hour of ‘sucking up’ on our part and ‘showing whose boss’ on his, we were eventually allowed through without the certificate (any thankfully no money was required). After we thanked him many many times, we crossed in to Zambia and breathed a huge sigh of relief! Kev & Zoe were arriving at midday on the 20th, so were had plenty of time to get to the airport that morning. Remembering the hick-up with Helen’s flight we thought it was best to quickly check the email to make sure all was well this time. Would you believe that we had a message from Kev & Zoe’s son, Joe, saying that their flight had been cancelled!!!! Now as you can imagine we were gobsmacked, this surely wasn’t happening again! They were trying to get another flight the next day, but it wasn’t confirmed yet and they would email as soon as they knew. Well Jas and I spent the next hour sitting in a café with a drink just trying to get this news to sink in. We just couldn’t believe it. Obviously we had no problems waiting around Lusaka until they arrived, but we knew that they were tied to coming whilst it was the school’s half term, and had things arranged for looking after their kids and dogs. So if they couldn’t get another flight straight away, it might mean that they couldn’t come at all! That would have been awful for them and us as were we all looking forward to the trip. All we could do was wait and check the email the following day. Eagerly we logged on to the internet the next morning, praying that they had managed to get a flight already, and much to our great surprise, and total relief they had. Fantastic! They were on their way now and fortunately were only a day later than expected, so it wouldn’t affect their time here too much. Off we went to the airport to await their arrival, and seeing them come through the doors was great, considering that 24 hours ago we weren’t sure if we would! Now we were a little behind time, we had a quick shop for food etc in Lusaka and then wasted no time in getting on the road to go up to S. Luangwa NP. This time we choose to go via the ‘back roads’ as it were. A few people had said that it was a much nicer route and fewer kms, although it took the same amount of time because it was a dirt road and had some 4x4 only bits. We thought Kev would like this as he has a landy and would appreciate being able to do some proper off-roading. It was possible that along the way we would see some animals too, as the road went up the side of the NP and they roamed freely around this area. The journey was long and very very hot, but it was worth it when we bumped in to some buffalo, giraffe, warthogs and elephants as we got closer to the park! We stayed at the lovely ‘Flatdogs’ campsite alongside the Luangwa river (this being mine and Jas’s 3rd time here!), ‘flatdog’ being the local name for crocodiles. Over the next 3 days we went for drives in to the park, and saw lots of animals, and as this was Kev & Zoe’s first time on safari they thoroughly enjoyed it. One morning we were told that there was a dead buffalo in one of the watering holes that was being eaten by crocodiles. We made a beeline for the place hoping that it was still there, and were amazed to find the buffalo being pushed around in the water by a group of very large crocs, with many more smaller ones hanging around the scene as well, we counted about 25 altogether. Finding a nice spot to park in the shade and enjoy the show, we sat there enthralled as the crocs played around with the carcass for awhile although not making much attempt to eat it. Then to our utter astonishment several hippos from a nearby pod came and scared the crocs off and started to move the carcass around themselves! It was quite odd to see the hippos doing this and we were trying to work out why they were, they are herbivores so there was not intention of eating it, but they wouldn’t leave it alone and were determined to keep the crocs away. Eventually we concluded that the hippos thought the buffalo was another hippo and they were trying to protect it, but we’re still not really sure. After some time the hippos decided to move away and immediately the crocs were back with avengence! This time they were straight in with their teeth and they attacked the carcass without hesitation. All we could see were masses of crocodile bodies writhing around, tearing bits of meat and snapping their jaws, with an occasional buffalo foot or ear popping up in to sight. It was incredible to watch and totally absorbing, so much so that we didn’t even notice a herd of elephants come out of the trees behind us and start to drink and have a mud bath in the same waterhole, only a few metres away!!! There was so much happening we didn’t know which to look at! It was really fantastic. We went of a couple of night drives from Flatdogs, and were hoping to see a few of the nocturnal animals like genets, porcupines, mongooses, civets, plus of course hyena and leopard. However, much to our disappointment, they kept completely out of our way and we didn’t see much at all. It was a real shame for Kev & Zoe, but they knew that you can never guarantee to see wild animals and were more than impressed with all that they had seen so far. We also tried very hard to find some lions, but these too were not on our side this time, and K&Z decided that it just meant that they had to come back another time! From S.L. we went back in to Malawi, no troubles with yellow fever certificates this time thankfully! We stopped in Lilongwe for fuel and a few bits and bobs, then started on the rest of the journey to Liwonde, stopping only to buy a small handmade wooden Landrover, expertly carved by some guys by the side of the road. A must have for us landy enthusiasts! Towards Balaka (thinking of you Rach and Jas!) which is only 30km from Liwonde, we noticed that it had been raining recently, and we had seen some rain clouds along the way. But it was only when we actually reached Liwonde township that we found it still drizzling, and not thinking anything of it we carried on to the NP gate. Admittedly we were rather later than we had planned and when we got to the gate it was already dark. We should have stayed outside the park for the night, but we really wanted to get to Mvuu Camp that day, as we were running a day late (due to the flights). So we asked the guy who had just closed the gate if we could go in, as we knew the park very well we knew we wouldn’t get lost and it would only take about 30 minutes to get there. He was not really happy to let us, but we convinced him by saying we had to meet Dzimba and Christopher that night because we were ‘working’ with them in the rhino sanctuary the next day, which was almost the truth! You are not supposed to drive around by yourselves at night through the park, but we thought that we could think of some good excuse to give when we got to Mvuu if they were not happy about it. Little did we know that soon we would have the best excuse we could possibly need! Everything started off OK, we had our extras spotlights on and there were no animals about. But after a few kms I found that the road was quite wet and getting a bit slippery. No worries, we just slowed down (ie. from 30km/hr to 20) and carried on. Then suddenly I felt the back wheels go and we were in a full on skid, which I managed to hold without too much trouble and get us to a halt, now straddling the road! It took my breath away for a minute, not having skidded in a car before, but still we didn’t think to much of it, had a laugh and went on. It wasn’t long before we realised that in fact it had been really really raining in the park and this normally straightforward road was now a quagmire of clay fairly rapidly our progress along it got slower and slower. We kept getting stuck it ruts along the side of the road, and as soon as I managed to get out of one and back in to the middle of the road, the landy would slip down in to the rut on the otherside! It was becoming apparent that getting to the camp was going to take considerably more time than we had anticipated! Jas took over driving to give me a break and was having the same trouble, but having lots of fun at the same time! At this point we weren’t too worried about things, we just accepted that we wouldn’t get to the camp for awhile, but at least now we had a ‘real’ good excuse for being late! There were a couple of times when we really thought we were stuck and would have to get out and use the high-lift jack to help us out. But the landy kept up her perfect ‘not stuck yet’ record and kept on going, just got completely covered in mud! We were only about 10km in to the park when we saw some tail lights ahead of us……not moving……someone else was in this mess and by the looks of things STUCK! We managed to get to them and found 2 American girls (Mai and Hope) who work for Wilderness Safaris (the company that own Mvuu Lodge and Camp) who had been stuck for 2 hours! They we so pleased to see us, especially as they thought the gate had closed and no-one else would be coming that late at night! We conveniently forgot to mention that the gate was closed, we just persuaded the guy to open it again for us! They had phoned Mvuu to tell them they were stuck, but now had lost mobile coverage and didn’t know what to do. Plus they could hear strange animal noises and were getting a little nervous about being there. Kev offered to drive their Toyota Landcruiser (a nice new one) and see if he could get further, as they we very quick to say they didn’t have any experience driving in these conditions, or in a 4x4 car. So Kev set off and we followed, still at a very slowly pace and sliding all over the place. We came across a few large puddles and Kev and Jas we happy to wade in to them to see how deep they were! And before you ask, we were all keeping an eye out for the animals whilst they were doing this, luckily Mai and Hope had a couple of big torches with them. So far it was all still a bit humurous and Jas and Kev were having a great time rally driving their way through the park. The progress was slow but steady until we reached a really big puddle, well a mini lake really, across the road. Kev and Jas went to assess the situation, and after awhile came back looking less happy. This ‘lake’ was really too wide to try to drive through without knowing how deep it was or what was on the other side. They were also seeing several large spiders and scorpions and were rather more reluctant to traipse through it to find out how deep it was, which we could all appreciate! So following much deliberation about what to do next, we decided that perhaps the best plan was to stop there for the night and wait until morning before doing anything. It was not a particularly good idea to keep wandering about in elephant country in the dark – we had heard them around, and noises of what we thought were a hyena – and once it was light again we would be in a much better position to determine how to tackle the lake. It was now about 9pm and we were all getting very tired since we had started off from SL at 8am that morning and been in the car most of the day. So having to skip tea, although none of us were that hungry, and having watched an episode of Red Dwarf, to keep spirits up, we tried to get some sleep. Jas and I clambered a little less gracefully than usual in to the roof-top tent and Kev and Zoe struggled to find a half comfortable spot in the landy. Surprisingly quickly we all fell asleep and were remarkably refreshed when dawn arrived the next morning, considering our predicament. What a difference light makes! Now we could see all around the lake and found that we could cross it in two stages by going off the road and through the trees. It was still going to be tricky and it was all hands on deck to gather up some big branches to lay in front of the tyres to try and give us some more grip. Kev was still in front and although he looked as though he was getting badly stuck at one bit, managed to get through without too much hassle. Jas followed his route and also made it through, again wheel spinning on a few parts, but not getting completely stuck. We were all very relieved to have got past the lake and knew (now that we could see where we were) that it was only another 4 or 5km to the camp. But just as we thought the worst was over we came to slight hill where the rain had cut very deep ruts down each side. It was going to be very tricky to stop the cars slipping down on either side and getting well and truly wedged! With a bit of slipping, a lot of manoeuvring and some hairy landy 40 degrees leaning moments, we made it (full praise to Jas’s driving here)! Eventually we got to the camp and were met with apologies from the staff for our ordeal, and explanations of how they tried to come and find us (once they knew that Mai and Hope were stuck) but couldn’t get very far from their end and had to turn back. We assured them we were all fine and that the whole thing was actually quite an adventure which we would enjoy telling all our friends about! Indeed we told them that some people pay a lot of money to bush-camp in a national park! As a thank-you for rescuing them, Mai and Hope insisted that we joined them for breakfast at the camp which the company would happily pay for. Since the last time we’d had a proper meal was more than a day ago, (we hadn’t ate much on the journey, planning to cook a big tea when we got to the campsite, but we never made it!) we accepted very gratefully and each ate a hearty breakfast! We had two lovely days at Liwonde (finally!) and met up with Dzimba and Christopher again, who were very pleased to see us as they had heard we were stuck in the bush for the night! The rain didn’t come back which was very good because we were afraid it would prevent us from doing game drives and going in to the rhino sanctuary. So the next morning they took us rhino tracking and although they both put in their best efforts, we didn’t get to see them this time, but we saw most of the other animals in the sanctuary which was great. One morning we went on a boat safari and saw some very large crocs and some elephants right up close, along with loads of birds and hippos, it was all very good. A spot of swimming in the pool was also very good, and is undoubtedly the best way to keep cool in between game drives! As a thank-you for Dzimba and Christopher for taking us tracking, for free, and being so helpful, we wanted to get them something to keep rather than giving them money. They had previously told us that one aspect of their job was to monitor all the herds of animals in the sanctuary to ensure there were no problems with health or poaching amongst other things. However, as the sanctuary is 50km sq, and they have no means of transport, it was quite hard to do this efficiently on foot. It would help them a lot if they had bicycles, but the government and private organisation involved in the sanctuary project hadn’t provided them with one. Jas, Kev, Zoe and I thought it was a nice gesture for us to buy them each a bicycle to say thank-you for their hard work, which would be something they wouldn’t be able to afford themselves, and would make their day to day jobs a little easier. So we suggested this to them and they were over the moon with the idea, and were so pleased that we would do this. After the morning tracking, we drove them to a nearby trading centre, near but still a good 2 hours drive away on dirt roads, with the intention of getting a couple of strong mountain bikes. What was essentially a straight-forward mission ended up being a complete round the houses goose chase, in true Malawian style! We couldn’t find any mountain bikes in the shops, but found a man who said he had two at his house, which we could buy from him. We told him we wanted brand new bikes and he assured they were and once we had agreed a price, he said we should take him there. So another hours drive and we arrive at this village in the bush and he says he has to go and get the bikes. ‘From where?’ we ask, as we were expecting them to be at his house, and find out that his has hidden them elsewhere so that nobody steals them. OK we think and Dzimba and Christopher are happy that things are fine, so we wait in the village, gradually attracting the locals attention and soon becoming the centre of attention ourselves! We wait and wait and wait! Then after an hour we’re beginning to have some doubts about the actual existence of these bikes. Dzimba was very apologetic, and was trying to find out exactly what was going on, to no avail! As we were just about to call it a day, luckily no money had changed hands yet, one guy turned up with an obviously second-hand bike with a broken saddle. We told him that we were expecting brand new bikes and two of them, not what he had produced! So we told him the deal was off and unfortunately after a whole afternoon of searching and waiting, we had to go back to the camp empty-handed! It was a real shame, as we had wanted to be able to get the bikes before we left Liwonde and have a photo of us with them. Nevertheless, it is Malawi and we remember from living here that you never assume things will run smoothly. Our hastily put together plan B was to buy the bikes from Lilongwe when we took Kev and Zoe to the airport, and then return to Liwonde with them later, we didn’t have any problems with coming back again to one of our favourite places! We left Liwonde with Dzimba and Christopher looking forward to our return, and drove up to the lake to stay at Cool Runnings, another of our favourite Malawian spots. We had a couple of nights there for Kev and Zoe to relax in the sun and swim in the lake before their flight home from Lilongwe. We went out in one of the boats there to Lizard Island, not far from the lakeshore and did some snorkelling to see the ciclids which are famous for being endemic to Lake Malawi. It was a very restful end to the holiday and we enjoyed lovely food and drink, in a great setting. Sadly the end of Kev and Zoe’s holiday arrived too soon! We all had a really wonderful time and were very sorry that it couldn’t have been longer. Still we managed to fit a lot in and have some great memories of all the things we got up to including the odd unplanned adventure! (Thanks K&Z, it was excellent having you here, look forward to catching up back in the UK!). Now that it was just the two of us again, we had a tentative plan to spend another few days at the lake, then head down to drop the bikes off to Dzimba and Christopher. After that we were going on to Mulanje where we used to live and see our friends and work colleagues there in the hospital, and climb the mountain. But our plans are always likely to change and this again to be the case. Whilst we were in Lilongwe, Jas thought he would go to Wilderness Safaris head office and show them some of his photos and see if they would be interested in using any of them. We met up with Mai (who we’d rescued in Liwonde) and she introduced us to Mike another guy there. He was very impressed with the pictures and said that he would tell his managing director, Chris, about them and get him to give us a call. By the end of the afternoon we had a meeting with Chris arranged and Jas was busy putting together a slide show of his best stuff for it. There was no way of knowing how it would go or what would come of it, but it was very exciting anyway. Jas obviously made a very good impression because Chris was very complementary of his photos. He said that although he already had a photographer working for him, he was happy to put us up in Mvuu Lodge (the really posh part) for 3 days, and Jas could try and get some particular shots for him which he made a list of. What a treat!!! Not only would we stay in complete luxury, we would have wonderful meals morning, noon and night, and we would having our own guides to take us on drives and boat safaris whenever we wanted! Can’t get much better than that eh! It didn’t take long for Jas to accept this wonderful offer and all we had to do was phone up the lodge and arranged when we wanted to be there. All that we had to do was provide some pictures at the end of it and give them exclusive rights to use them if they wished. Well as we were already planning to go back with the bikes we couldn’t have timed it better and when we called to arrange when we could stay, they said the next few days were fine. So quickly we collected all our things from Cool Runnings, and went straight back to Liwonde! When we arrived (this time well before dark and not in the rain!), we drove past our usual campsite area and on to the very discrete lodge, reserved for only the more wealthy tourists. As we were shown to our chalet, we couldn’t believe how lucky we were and how lovely it was (hopefully the photos show you a bit of what it was like)! Then we found out that they had put us in the honeymoon chalet, which is the best of the best; it was a really special treat for us, and a far cry from our ‘top of the truck tent’!! But we didn’t forget that we were there to work as well (well Jas was!) and we went out as much as we could to get some great shots for Chris. In fact we were up at 5am every day to go out on the boat! Not too much of a hardship when you get a hamper of coffee, hot chocolate and nibbles brought to the chalet to help you get out of bed, and then have a full breakfast of whatever you want when you get back at 9am! We had time to relax in the chalet during the middle of the day, and could arrive for lunch at any time between 12 and 1pm. Then after a little snooze, back out on the boat or on a game drive at 3.30, after tea and snacks on the veranda. To finish the day we had a fantastic dinner under the stars at 7.30 and a few drinks with the other guests and then off to a luxurious bed to sleep off all the food! What a life, it sure was hard to put up with!!! So we had 3 days of being utterly spoilt and it was fabulous. Jas did work very hard to make sure he got some great pictures for the company and we’ll go back to Lilongwe to show Chris in a week or so. After our luxury stay we went back to the campsite for a couple of days to catch up with Dzimba and Christopher and to give them their bikes. They were ever so pleased with them, the pumps, locks and mirrors that went with them and couldn’t thank us enough. It was so nice to see how happy they were, and we got some nice photos of us with them and their new set of wheels! We had become very good friends with them in a short time and it was sad to say a final farewell to them both, but we have promised we will stay in contact with them, and will of course come to see them when we come back to Malawi again some day. Now we are in Mulanje staying with Lindsay and Morag, a really lovely couple who live and work on one of the tea estates here. Tomorrow we are going to stop in the Mission Hospital where we used to work and say hello to all the people we knew and worked with, which we are really looking forward to. It will be interesting to see if things have changed much and how the lab is getting on these days. Then we’ll climb the mountain for several days, something that we always enjoyed doing when we lived here. So that’s as far as we have got to now. Thank-you for logging on to the weblog again and taking the time to read my mammouth entry, which is the longest so far, sorry about that! We send you all our best regards and hope that you are well and everything is going fine. Take care and we’ll be in touch again before you know it! Love Kate and Jas xxx