Promenade Hotel Nelspruit

My main goal right now is to get my computer fixed, or buy a new one, or die trying. Going a month without writing, or using only paper (God forbid!), is not much of an option. Neither is abortion. To cut my trip in half would cost me as much or more than the price of a new laptop. Go figure. So I'm hoping to find something in Nelspruit. I’m also hoping to find a place I can connect with ...

... found in Africa. To the west of the Kruger an area we travelled through quite a lot is a mountainous and very fertile area covered with forests farm land small townships and a lot of SA modern history of their settlement and later on their armed strife with the British army. I very much recommend a visit to this corner of the world, it's not off the map it's not wild open places but all the same very beautiful and interesting.

... Boulders Beach. Oh well...I wonder where it is". I'm a little surprised by the obvious solution...so I say "ummm...check our map in the glove compartment maybe?". While Jo is looking at this map, I spot a penguin image on a sign, breaks come on, 180 is done and I head back....Jo meanwhile is saying she can't find Boulder Beach on the map and I mention the sign I've seen and that I'm positive my manuscript treasure map points out a Penguin Colony. Lo and behold ...

Hi! Today has been our last day in Cape Town. Tomorrow we're going to Stellenbosch and staying overnight, then we fly back to Jo'burg on Friday and onto Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe on Saturday to start our three week trip that finishes in Nairobi. We bought our sleeping bags today - they cost about a third of the price that they would at home! I'm quite excited about ...

... River Canyon overmorgen en zullen weer snel bed in kunnen kruipen! Om morgen op safari te vertrekken, moeten we immers om 4u30 al vertrekkensklaar zijn... Morgen is het de verjaardag van An en omdat we dan niet in de Funky Monkeys zullen zijn, maar blijven slapen in een tentenkamp in het Krugerpark, besluit ik al maar het verjaardagscadeautje te geven dat ik voor haar bij had. Sinds toen hebben we dus ook eens af en toe Machiavelli kunnen spelen!

... closed. Aha. I ask whether we can apply for a visa at the Mozambique border. The answer is: 'sometimes yes and sometimes no'. Can we get it from her the same day? Yes. Tomorrow as from 8h and it is 600 Rand per person. Which is about 60 Euro. It looks as if we have no choice but staying in Nelspruit. Since we are in the backpacker's mood, we go and look for the Funky Monkey, at hostel in one of the guides we got this morning. We find it and it looks ******. AND no ...

... about it. Unfortunately, not much else happened after breakfast. We saw a family of warthogs, a hippo, a dung beetle, massive termite mounds, and a rare antelope called the Sable that managed to give Johan, our safari guide, goosebumps. "I don't know which sighting made your day today - perhaps it was the lion, the leopard, or maybe one of the other big 5. But seeing a sable today certainly did it for me." Wow... they're that ...

... Can we go back', 'I'll wait here for you' - she made it in the end though and I have to admit it was much harder than any of us expected and coming down wasn't much easier! It was well worth it in the end though, the views were spectacular. Next was car hire and driving time, i'm getting a little bored of typing so will keep this short and sweet. We spent 3 days driving around, first was a proper wine tasting tour which was class. We went to 4 wineries and tasted 20 ...

... the Garden Route [another prime must-do in S.Africa - basically think highway 1 in CA, Africa style]. Our intended destination was roughly 4 hours longer that we were advised - hence we will forever hate Mossell Bay, which was our ditch location once we realized that we were a million miles from where we wanted to be. For those of you who know Derek, don't mention the Garden Route to him, unless he is tied down.). For continuation, see the Nottens entry!

... have lived to tell you about it today. Pictures of this will be posted on my flickr account soon, so check them out when you get a chance. So much other stuff has happened since I've been here. I went to a play called "truth in translation" which was about the translators of the TRC (truth and reconciliation committee that granted amnesty and forgiveness to would-be-criminals of war at the end of apartheid). And I saw a Malay Choir competition with ...