Felixton Lodge And Conference Centre Empangeni

... town to check on emails and to do some shopping, the town was quite busy. The weather was quite cloudy and there were lots of new arrivals on camp, mainly fishermen many of who brought boats with them. By midmorning the camp looked quite crowded as there were so many arrivals and although the pitches were marked out you can have up to 8 people on each pitch. So that meant on some of the pitches there were 3 or 4 units and ...

... Hi there. I would like to know the result of my visa application please?' "When did you apply?" I can hardly hear the lady as the noise in the familiar office engulfs the phone. People shouting, annoyed probably. People laughing, employees probably. I am already wondering why she even bothered to answer the phone. 'May 19th', I say - ready for a battle. It has definitely been more than 30 working days! "Ok. Name." 'G....E....O....' "G...E....O..." And so it goes on ...

... for South bound boats unless the wind is blowing a gale from the south, when the conflicting combination causes huge violent swell. This was just the case on our first attempt to Ilha. We weren't really prepared for this type of weather and had to quickly reduce sails while fighting the 35-40 knot wind on our nose, and the consequent 4-5 meter tall waves slamming into our bow producing the effect of whamming a concrete wall again and again. We quickly decided to turn around and return ...

Beautiful days. Simple days. Braais, rivers, alcohol and some poker. What more could a girl want, apart from a leopard or two to walk past. I can't help but feel happy when I am sleeping outside on a raised platform. All the world seems near. And to share it with two skaliwags like T and G - well, that's just special for me. Thanks guys!

... somewhere. It was a very busy road, and around 4 or so I have found that South Africa gets this wonderful light, putting a golden hue on everything its really quiet beautiful, great for photos. The next day we headed off to Hluhluwe Imfolozi park, we drove ourselves around but it would have been a bit easier with a higher car since the bush was rather high. We saw wild dogs, giraffes, white rhinos, warthogs, elephants, baboons, zebras, lots of impalas and wildebeest. It ...

... t especially action packed but it was great to see them in their natural habitats. The Crocs (on a fascinating tangent) have no predators, no cancer or autoimmune diseases and can survive at temperatures between -30 C and 60 C- at freezing they can slow their heart to 1 beat every 16 mins and live to the age of 140+ (see what stress-free can do for you)! Our next stage was up to Kosi TO see Matthew Gibbs at Manguzi Hospital.

... they get to know your vehicle they will take it from you. We are escorting the health workers and teachers and electricity companies here. We are borrowing vehicles from other areas. It is very serious here at the moment. It is not safe, and you should not be here and should not stop." I looked at Rob. It simply wasn't worth the risk. We were two white people without a knowledge of Zulu driving a highly ...

... to the diesel fumes and don't run right away. We missed the giraffe by twenty feet. Today we crept up on a sleeping rhino. We have a great picture of the elephant staring down another jeep. Alternatively, it is really hard to get close to zebra who spook like horses. Yesterday afternoon, we went on a bush walk. Since we were walking, we couldn't get close to any of the animals -- even with a 12x optical zoom lens. Apparently ...

Nothing more than a pitstop - albeit a late one, after I couldn't find the first two towns allegedly on the N2, and Hluhluwe just looked damn scary. It has one thing going for it - its a 2.5 hour drive from Durban, which works for me. Other than that, there seems to be some dirty big mineral facilitiy there - looks like an aluminium smelter - although the Woodpecker Inn was perfectly pleasant.

... certainly didn't want to be any closer. They look like tanks, only sharper. The rest of the morning gave us some great views of giraffes, buffalo, wildebeast, warthog, impala, nyala, springbok, grey monkeys, hyena, and many more but it's hard to remember. It was a fantastic day. We took a short walk from our hostel (which has warning signs about hippos wandering through the backyard at night) to the mouth of the estuary. Here is where all the ...