Don Arcadia II

... shipped home. It should get there before Christmas - we hope. We also bought our bus ticket with greyhound to Maputo, Mozambique - our next destination. We originally had an overland tour booked to take us from Johannesburg to Mozambique and also up to Victoria Falls via Zimbabwe. This was unfortunately cancelled because of the political troubles in Zimbabwe, so instead we decided to see Mozambique for our selves.

Stephanie & I decided to meet in South Africa & do a whirlwind trip through southern africa. We had a rough plan of where to go, but not many exact details. My first surprise on arrival in JHB was that the ****** little VW Golf that I ordered from the car rental company was 'upgraded' to a monster Nissan Double-Cab 4x4!! This bakkie turned out to be exactly what we needed cos we took full advantage of the 4x4 option later in the trip!

... could hear the noise of vultures on the ground and then we could see them thru the bush - about 20 vultures - and then a jcakal ran off. We circled round the area absolutely silent, heads swivelling like in the Exorcist responding only to hand signals given by Bea. For the first time on a bush walk I was thinking "I must be nuts!! I'm willingly walking towards a kill where there are vultures, we are 5 completely unarmed women with nothing more than a water ...

... stomach was grumbeling. We arrived to find the museum desolate and unoccupied. It was like attending a theme park in the winter when nothing was open and running. Apparently, during their 'on' season, people make bread from scratch, craftsman stretch and shape leather, tractors are always buzzing about, and everyone is 'in costume.' Preoccupied by the earthquake going on in my stomach, I didn't really care about the poor status of the museum. I did walk around and ...

After cramming all the winter wear I owned into a small 20kg bag and scrambling around work handing things over to whoever was in the near vicinity, and a few speeding tickets later, I finally made it to the ORT Intl. Airport in smoggy JHB. Ryan and Ruan were there to see me off (or to make sure I was actually leaving!) and with no major probs I was off on my way to the Emerald Isle.

... had to decide between taking the sheep with us on the bus or having it killed for lunch (because he clearly couldn't refuse the gift) so he decided to have it killed. Though many on the trip wanted to watch the ceremony, we were told not to ruin the sacred ritual. Instead, a couple of Zulu men took the sheep in the woods and about an hour later they passed around a pot of cooked sheep. All in ...

... tales of his near death experiences in the world of fly fishing- one time he was almost crushed to death by an island of reeds colliding with the mainland! Their family is so lovely! Monica's mom and dad really funky! They made me feel so welcome! Most of my girlfriends often try to 'help' me get over my kidophobia - and Monica is no exception. The next day she took me to the pre-primary school where she teaches to help out for the day. I ...

... which detailed the life that black people in Soweto led under Apartheid, and explained what the riots were sparked off by - the government decreeing that all instruction in school would be in Afrikaans, which would mean that black people would be massively disadvantaged educationally. It was very interesting and very powerful. After lunch we went to the Apartheid Museum which was incredibly good and definitely something we would recommend people visit if they are in Jo ...

Na een nachtje langs de kant van de weg en voor onze laatste nacht (dat wisten we op die moment nog niet, daar we er nog niet uit waren of we 't Kruger Park zouden aandoen of niet, maar goed) in Zuid Afrika was deze camping een ware verademing! De dag erna ging het door de Drakensbergen richting de grens met Mozambique!

After the lion park, the following evening I went out for dinner with 2 friends from Pretoria. These girls get 10/10 for patience, as I managed to embarrass us quite a bit. Oh, ok, I managed to embarrass myself quite a bit. Through no fault of my own, i somehow managed to fall flat on my face when walking up the steps to the restaurant. "I'm so sorry", said the manager, with a hint of " Oh it's such a shame.. she's an alcoholic", in his voice. I would like to stress ...