Bulungula Lodge Umtata

... Hut ab! Es gibt aber durchaus jene, wie neulich erlebt, denen anscheinend erst morgens um fuenf Uhr in der frueh wieder einfaellt, dass sie ja abreisen und so wird man mit einem 10-minuetigen Klangfestival von rucksackstopfenden Lauten, 20 (keine Uebertreibung) zuschnappenden und wieder oeffnenden Reissverschluessen sowie raschelnder Plasticksaecke aus den Traeumen geholt.... Aber so ist man wenigstens wach und hat etwas vom langen Tag ...

... for 5 pounds a night!! So had another very chilled couple of days by the beach and finished it off yesterday with some horseriding along the beach, god do I ache today!! After getting off to a bad start with my horse i did ok in the end, although cantering across the beach became a little scary especially how all the horses just followed each other and if one decided to make a run for it they would all follow!! It was hilarious though ...

We drove back to Joburg today and flew from there into Umtata. We had severe thunder and lightening storms and had difficulty landing. It was a very tiny plane and the flight attendant was afraid to fly. She said the fire alarm was going off and kept asking my siser ...

... it. I'm so glad I landed here and not at Coffee Shack, which is more of a party place. There is a cute green outdoor parrot who inhabits a dead branch just outside the restaurant and seems to be quite friendly. Drums and melody are in the air, there is a chill bar area, a few nice chairs and benches with soft mattresses to rest on with your feet up... and a brat that took one of the books I was going to look at and pretends to be reading it...

... Went surfing - Touch rugby on the beach - Went for 'sun-downers' on the cliff top - Saw a local tribal dance group - I won the pool competition :) - Had a crazy valentines night where i painted everyone's bodies - Had a very strange 'Lets draw on each other with permanent marker' night (you have to see the pics, very funny - Had a 'Brie' (BBQ) next to a log ...

... click at the beginning. We are still trying to master this. They have been one of our favourite African tribes that we have spent time with. They are very friendly people and of course we love to hear them talk and listen for the clicking noises. They put white clay on their faces and bodies at times. Quite often you will see the woman wearing it on their faces as a sunscreen. The long journey here had ...

... and realise we were approaching areas with a lot more humans than we had seen for the past few weeks. Just before lunch we crossed another river, but this was being ridden by the incoming tide. It was essential to time your crossing of the deepest part with the ebb and flow pattern, or risk a quick dunking. I didn't realise quite how close we were to significant numbers of people until we started up again after lunch and scrambled up the cliff to see lots ...

... had some lunch and watched the water pour to the depths below. After a while it almost seemed that the water was stationary and the rocks were moving, and at this point we decided it was time to move on. By 2:30pm we had found our spot for the night. Initially trying to cross the smaller waterfall with the large backpacks on sent me falling down to the river, clinging on while others helped haul me up to the top. Again, it would sometimes really ...

... Did some more hiking and got accosted by the largest baboon alive ever. Unfortuatnely we were too afraid and busy running away to take any pictures. That pretty much brings us back to Pretoria. We've had a great trip so far. Southern Africa is really beautiful but we can't help but get a little bit of a bad feeling about the place in light of the social inequalities and the visible hatred between the races. Having said that we really have enjoyed our time here. Off to China!