Durban – Megan and Peter; Nessie and John 14th - 20th July

Durban – Megan and Peter; Nessie and John
14th - 20th July

From where we were staying down to Durban is a 2-½ hour trip. We arrived at Megan (Timo’s cousin) and Peter Comrie at lunch time and met David (10), Nathan (7) and Nicholas (2). A regular visitor at the house was Matthew who lived in the same compound and also enjoyed the company of the girls. They live with a compound in a large area called Hillcrest just outside of Durban. The compound is large with around 200 houses and every house, though it can be planned internally to suit those living in it, the outside must have the same colours and decorative designs. The gate is guarded all of the time and requires a ‘key’ to be allowed in. If you don’t have the ‘key’ you must report to the office and they will contact the person you are visiting.
Jeanette (Nessie – Martje’s sister) and John live in a compound not very far from this one – though theirs does not have full time guards and appears to be designed for older couples.


On Wednesday we headed off in two cars for a look around the Oribi Gorge area in KwaZulu Natal, about 2 hours from Durban. We stopped on the way to have morning tea on the beach and then had lunch in the Oribi Gorge Nature Reserve. We found the longest long drop in Africa and a very highly stung bridge.

But the highlight of the day was when we found the "Wild Gorge Swing" that Tatiana, Tahlia and Lani all tried out. The swing involves jumping off the cliff at the Lehrs fall into a 100m arc. It was amazing to watch and the girls said it was "Awesome!!!!". It all happened very quickly and we only managed to capture Lani's fall and even that is not very clear. I was more worried about the ones who were not jumping, because they were hanging out over the edge trying to get a good view of the swing. The following clip of Lani's leap was taken with the camera side ways.

Nothing could compete with the gorge swing and we were all ready for a bit of a break, so the last few days in Durban were spent around the house and town.
The kids played 'Adventure Golf' jumped on the trampoline and played in the ceiling of the garage. We spent an afternoon at the beach, where we saw some amazing sand art, and a morning at the "farmers market", which reminded the girls of "The Farm Fair" - without the machinery. There were lots of traditional Africa things as well as contemporary creations.
Timo and Peter went on a bike ride one afternoon and we met up with them down in an area that is set up for riding. Some of us rode, while the others rested on a rug.


One night the Gobius family had a go at creating a Korean feast for the Comrie's and Nessie and John, with our version of Kimbap and bulgolgi and rice.









We spent some lovely time with Nessie and John at their house and on Sunday we had a picnic and a nice walk along the top of a gorge near home.


From Durban we caught a bus to Johannesburg, where we stayed the night before we headed out to Beira on Tuesday the 21st.

Cradock and the Drakensberg 10th - 14th July

Cradock and the Drakensberg
10th - 14th July

We headed off after lunch to the Mountain Zebra National Park in Cradock. In Grahamstown we stopped to experience the feel of the Arts festival. Both sides of the main street were lined with stalls selling both arts and crafts and everyday items. It reminded me a little of the markets in Korea. There was a group of girls busking - singing and dancing and a group of men playing percussion instruments, as well as ponies being ridden or pulling carts. There were some amazing metal worked animals in both two and three-dimensional form.

As we headed on from there we came across some very small towns and villages – each of them had a busy shantytown outside and then the shops and other houses. Some were colourful, others where just very sad
Our bus, a Toyota Quantum, is only different to the local taxi’s’ by not having a yellow strip down the side, so we are constantly being waved at to pick up people – which we have resisted to the disappointment of some of the girls. When leaving towns you need to be cautious with people waiting around for the taxi’s to take them from town to town. The only time I’ve seen white people in the taxis was in Cape Town. Anna said that her maid Poppy had recently been sent a young baby from a relative who had died. The baby arrived unaccompanied from the Transkei (up past East London) in one of the taxis and this was the first that Poppy had heard about this addition to her family.

We arrived at the gate of the park with 20 minutes to spare (large fines to open the gates late) and it was dark by the time we reached our cottage, which looked over a watering hole and was quite a distance from the other accommodation. The cottage appeared to be an old homestead and was beautiful inside – we all loved it. Each of the three bedrooms had its own bathroom with a bath, toilet and basin, so we all enjoyed a relaxing bath while we were there (after the ‘no hot water’ problem was fixed) and then sat down in the lounge together to watch a movie on the TV.

We had an early morning departure from there because the trip up to the Drakensberg was about 10 hours and we did not want to be driving in the dark trying to find our accommodation. Our trip took us up beside Lesotho and around the top of it.
As we traveled higher, the rocky flat-topped mountains made of sedimentary rocks again surrounded us. They have been eroded away over thousands of years and are amazing structures. We went through the Golden Gate National Park and then down into the area where we stayed which is called the amphitheater. The Drakensberg Mountains surrounded the whole valley
.
The place we stayed at was called Hlalanathi (Shla-la-nati) and our Chalet looked out over a small cliff further into the valley, with the mountains behind that - Very stunning and very relaxing. We decided that it would be great to spend another night so that we had two full days there (though we had to move into a different chalet for the last night).
On Sunday we went horse riding at a nearby farm for an hour. It was beautiful and quiet as we wandered up closer to the mountains. At one point Lani didn’t realize we were about to trot and so landed firstly behind the saddle on her horse’s rump and then on the grass as he bolted. Luckily she only hurt her elbow and her pride in the fall and was fine to climb straight back on again.
Lani decided that she wanted to buy an clay elephant from the kids who were beside the road on the way home - as soon as she opened the door we had about 10 boys holding up their animals.
We relaxed for the rest of the day and them Lani cooked us dinner.

On Monday we headed off to the Natal National Park. We took a guided tour up to some cave paintings, which sadly have been damaged by tourists before it was compulsory to see them with a guide. Our guide was a Zulu from the nearby village and he shared with us a little of the history of the area. The rock paintings were done by the small bush-people who no longer live in the area – they were nomadic and left when the Zulu arrived in the area with their cows and goats, setting up villages all through the area. The paint was made from red, yellow and white ocher found in the sandstone, and mixed with saliva, urine, animal fats and bird droppings. The higher the painting the less damage that other people have done to it. The paintings depicted everyday life, hunting as well as the Zulu people with their cows and goats. The cows were drawn as squares without heads, as that is how they would have looked most of the time eating grass.
After lunch we walked up to the cascades and the girls enjoyed a long play on the rocks and in small caves, while Timo went on a further walk up to the Tiger Falls.
On the way home we stopped off at “All Out Adventures” and had some fun on their equipment. Tahlia, Lani and Danya had some time on the quad bikes going around a track.
Tahlia swung on her knees from the trapeze and dismounted with a back flip and Tatiana and Danya zipped along on the two sections of the zip line.
Timo, Lani, Tatiana and I went on the ‘King Swing’, which is a 19-metre free fall and then when the ropes catch up, you then swing on them in a huge arc, until they lower you to the ground. Great fun was had by all!!!

This was the view I woke up to on our last morning.

The Beach with Paul and Anna 7th - 10th July

The beach with Anna and Paul
7th – 10th July
After lunch on Tuesday we headed off to the beach house at Kleinemonde (near Port Alfred). Paul, (Timo’s cousin) Anna, Georgia (13) Shannon (11) and Zack (9) were there, and so were their dogs Teddy and Sena. Sadly Sena does not like to be hugged by strangers and so sunk his teeth into Tatiana’s cheek within 10 minutes of our arrival. She was incredibly brave as the doctor gave her 4 stitches and a tetanus shot.
Tahlia also does not have fond memories of her first 48hrs at the beach house, but was fine once the stomach bug was gone.
Over the next two days we walked along the beach,
slid down the sand dunes, swam in the very cold ocean and the girls’ paddled in the lagoon in the boat. We walked down the beach to the three sisters, which are three flat rocky outcrops out into the water. We climbed up on the second sister that was covered in a mossy grass dogs and all. Sena enjoyed jumping in the rock pools and drank a lot of sea water. During the walk the kids collected shells, seaweed, coral, wood and stones and by our last night there had put together a wonderful masterpiece model of a house and garden, complete with foot spas, swing and a shell pond. They concluded late on Thursday night that the white paint that stained Tatiana’s T-Shirt and pants did not work as glue as they had thought it would to hold the sandy ground in place. There was not too much paint staining the garage floor!!!

On Thursday Pam and Steve came up to join us and they stayed on after the rest of us left on Friday. Paul and Anna left very early to get back to Franschhoek, where friends would be waiting for them at their house.