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Well, this is it, the end of our trip. We arrived back in the UK on Saturday morning to grey skys and drizzle. I cant remember right now where we last wrote from, so I'll work my way backwards and when you come to somewhere you recognise, you can stop reading!
We spent the last week in Johannesburg
staying with a friend. We hired a car for the week, making
it so much easier and cheaper to get around. We went out
to a couple of animal parks in the Gauteng region, and saw plenty of
deer and antelope, and more lions and rhino. We also
wentot another cheetah research and breeding centre, this one better
organised and funded than the one in Namibia. But we didnt
get to play with the cheetah here! We went on the tour to
see various enclosures with cheetah, wild dog and brown hyena,
and down "lovers lane", the breeding area, full
of cute babies. We visited a couple of sites in the
"Cradle of Humankind", but not a lot is open to the public
yet. We also visited old caves where there used to be huge
lime stalagtites and mites, until they were plundered by miners,
leaving huge bare caves.
We took a trip round Soweto and out
to the Apartheid Museum, both very interesting.
Two weekends
ago we were in Pretoria for the Springbok game against the All
Blacks, we won 52-16. Great game, and good atmosphere, we
were surrounded by bok fans slowly losing their party atmosphere, but
never becoming rude or abusive to anyone apart from their team.
We
had a couple of days in Swaziland, enough for a quick tour of the
area and a days walking in one of their parks. The walking
was great, one of the hottest days in an already freakily hot winter,
but some lovely scenery. Not many animals though. The
bus tour took us round some of the local craft centres, beauty
spots, the old kings memorial, King Sobhuza, and to a
reconstructed Swazi village for a tour and dancing. A
beautiful and friendly country.
St Lucia, along the Indian
Ocean coast from Durban, was fantastic. We did a great
night drive through the park there, no leopards unfortunately, but
loads of zebra, antelope, a bushpig, chameleons, birds... The
guide was really knowledgeable, and interested in what he was talking
about. We also did a day trip through the Umfolozi Park,
again great. Saw a cheetah, got stuck in the middle of a herd of
elephants grazing along both sides of the road, plenty of antelope,
including the Nyala which we hadnt seen before.
Staying up in
the Drakensburg mountains on the border with Lesotho was freezing
cold and night, but plenty of good walking during the day. We
saw some more San paintings, and loads of good views. We would have
loved to have time to do the hostels day tour into Lesotho, but the
Baz bus timetable (and the approaching AB's game) didnt permit
it.
So all in all, we had a great trip. but
we are glad to be back home now. We've been round getting
quotes for having 63 rolls of film developed (not cheap!), and are
trying to find work for Colin and shipping companies for me so we can
ship all our gear back to NZ. Thanks for all your letters
while we've been away, please dont stop them coming now we are
home.
previous travel blog entry
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