Kruger National Park, The Dow Family in Africa and Projectile Vomiting on Whales

Hazyview/Kruger

So being reunited with the family was great! Mum cried, Dad had tears and as expected Ross showed no emotions what-so-ever cause he’s ‘hard’ now... but god is he HUGE.  I’ve been away from them for almost 10 months now, but as soon as we were all together again it didn’t feel like we had been apart for any time at all. Especially when we were all packed into the hire car, driving to Hazyview and arguing over the Sat Nav... it felt just like old times, some things won’t ever change.

Now that the parents are out it’s time to be treated! After weeks on end of travelling around different countries on unreliable public transport lugging a gargantuan backpack, sleeping in bunk beds and surviving on instant noodles it was a lovely change to be staying in an actual Safari Lodge! We had luxuries such as a double bed, a shower that we didn’t share with 30 people, a maid who MADE OUR BED and fancy meals to introduce the family to such as crocodile tail. FYI, if you ever get the change to try crocodile tail I strongly suggest that you do it, it is amazing.

Our first day of our ‘African Holiday’ together was spent driving around the Panorama Route; a beautiful scenic area that boasts some of the most breathtaking views you could imagine. We visited waterfalls, potholes, God’s Window and even had pancakes at a pancake house – fantastic! We even saw elephants by the roadside a mere 5 minutes drive from our Lodge, which was surreal but a brilliant way to get us ready for the main event of the next day... SAFARI IN KRUGER PARK! Wooo!

Route to Blyde River Dam

Kruger National Park is literally the creme-de-la-creme of nature reserves, it is the size (if not bigger) than the United Kingdom and is home to many of the Big 5. Ashley and I have been wanting to go to Kruger ever since we arrived in Africa as it is a MUST SEE of this continent, however on our mere backpacker funds and limited transport we were struggling to make it happen – so thank god the Dow’s did come out! ;)

We hauled ourselves out of our warm beds into the freezing cold morning at the ridiculous time of 5:00am for the sunrise safari; this made the first hour or so slightly bittersweet as my excitement was tainted by my body rejecting the early morning! Amazingly we were only 20 minutes into Kruger before we saw a pack of wild dog and two lions by the side of the road, which really boosted my spirits and got everyone into the spirit of the day and ready to spot some animals.
The safari day was absolutely amazing; we saw millions of impala, kudu and nyala (as expected, they are as common as pigeons in London), bushbuck, waterbuck, mongoose, buffalo, wildebeest, hippo, rhino, warthog, hundreds of herds of elephant and then 4 more lions!(Rubber dingy rapids bro.) Never in my life has 11 hours sat in a vehicle gone past so quickly.

Safari! Driver Bernard :)

LION IN THE WILD, LION IN THE WILD!

The next day saw us on yet another scenic drive to the dam at Blyde River Canyon; I’ve never been to America so I don’t know what it is really like, but driving on the roads up to the mountains made me feel like I was in an American movie on my way to summer camp or something!
The dam was a vast sparkling pool of blue, the place was untouched and one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited. It’s so untouched that the wildlife are free to roam around as they please, so it’s safe to say that Ross was more than surprised when he went to investigate the woodland and stumbled across a group of fully grown baboons... he ran back to us pretty sharpish! Don’t blame him really.

Swaziland  

Having the family at the projects was brilliant but surreal at the same time; this place is home for me now but it is brand new for them, and seeing them actually there in the flesh meeting the people we’ve been working with for 10 months was absolutely crazy. I imagine that it was just as strange for them because they’re so used to seeing photos of the places and the children, and then all of a sudden they’re there at the preschool getting mobbed by 30 kids all at once! Mum brought out some gifts for the children at Injabulo; new books and a parachute! Safe to say that they enjoyed the stories we read to them, but they absolutely bat-crap crazy when the parachute came out! It’s a fairly small parachute, and for some reason all they wanted to do was to stand underneath it and scream... which is exactly what they did. So I think they are very pleased with the new addition to activities that they can play, and it’s my mission to actually make them understand how the parachute games work, instead of just gripping onto the material and screaming for 10 minutes.

As we’d just got back off holidays there was no hostel food to cook for soup kitchen, so Mum and Dad bought 10kg of rice, beans, gravy and chackalacka so that we could make the children a lovely fresh meal. They also decided that they wanted to donate loads of fruit to the kids so we ended up taking with us about 100 oranges, 100 apples and 150 bananas! It was one of the best meals we’ve ever served at soup kitchen, and every child walked away with 2 bananas, an apple and an orange which left me feeling ecstatically happy because it’s not often that we are able to take up treats for the kids and I love seeing their faces when we do!
However, the biggest surprise of the whole day was that Mum didn’t cry at the projects; I was slightly disappointed because I’d been looking forward to seeing just how open the flood gates would be! Round of applause to her for keeping it together though.

I think they all really enjoyed spending time with the children, and the only downside of the whole thing was that Ross wore a white wife beater vest and it got dirty... and we ALL heard about it, quite a lot. May that be a lesson to all for the future; when people tell you not to wear white clothes around mischievous African children, DON’T DO IT. Especially if you’re going to complain about it afterwards ;) Told you so.

Lovely candid shot there. Sorry, re-uploading a different one takes too long, waa.
But AUNTY VINAH!

Durban

Hotel view of casino and stadium.

We spent two days in Durban as a pit stop on our travels after leaving Swaziland; our hotel was a stone’s throw away from the Moses Mabhida Stadium and Ross took advantage of this and signed himself up to do the Big Swing! Basically he climbed up to the very top of the stadium and then threw himself off it again. Standing with Mum and Dad watching him do it was torture because Mum was freaking out the whole entire time, and all I could think of was how glad I was that she hadn’t been with me all this year while I had been doing bungees, gorge jumps etc! She’s such a worrier.

Moses Mabhida Stadium Sunset

Durban Beach!

Buzzing after the jump!

St. Lucia

A tiny titbit of information that I have failed to mention in this blog so far is that ever since my family came out my body decided to swap its ‘fight or flight’ response. So far I had been cruising through day to day life absolutely fine (because I had to), but when the family arrived it’s like my body decided to crash and it needed a rest. Unfortunately that meant that I was pretty ill when they were out visiting, so we had to change our travel plans from going to the beautiful Port St John’s and we stayed a little closer to Swaziland... St. Lucia to be exact. This wasn’t a total disaster as St Lucia turned out to be absolutely beautiful!

We drove ourselves through a gorgeous savannah nature reserve (a completely different experience to Kruger, which is dense bush land and you don’t really see much scenery) to Cape Vidal. Cape Vidal is a breathtaking beach that reminded me of the Mozambican coast, and from a viewpoint we were able to see rhino at a watering hole in one direction and then breaching whales in the Indian ocean in the other!
Driving back to the lodge Mum finally did her first stint of driving the hire car; everything was going fine until we came across 2 huge rhinos in the road! All of a sudden Mum was a quaking mess, forgetting how to drive, unable to put the car in gear and screaming all sorts of obscenities at us for just sitting and laughing at her. So we now have two funny stories about Mum on safari; the other being when she expressed her opinions on how there weren’t many people on bikes or motorbikes in Kruger National Park “surely it would be a nice place to have cycle routes”, yeah sure it would Mum, if you wanted to be eaten by a lion or trampled by elephants!

Cutest baby monkey next to our car!

 In St. Lucia we also fulfilled one of Ross’s African Dreams; to play with some wild cats. We went to a cat project that introduces cats back into the wild and we got to play with cheetahs, servals and wild cats. They were the cutest things ever!

Caracal

Cheetah

Drama Queen of a Cheetah, not wanting a photo.

Baby serval! BFF's.

Since we saw all the whales breaching at Cape Vidal we decided it would be worth it to go whale watching, so we hurtle out towards the whales on the boat through the surf with Mum screaming her head off and gripping onto her seat... so loudly that the captain turned around and said “well I hear that we have a screamer on board”. Seeing the whales was absolutely amazing, they came up so close to the boat, went under the boat and were even throwing themselves straight up out of the water. We even had one singing whale, however it was too quiet for me to hear on the top deck, but Mum and Ross apparently heard it. As amazing an experience as it was the whole 2 hours at sea was overshadowed for me by gut wrenching sea sickness, during this period of being ill I’ve obviously broken my sea legs too. Luckily for me this was the first day  I had been feeling a little bit better, yet unluckily for me this was just another day where I ended up chundering everywhere. This time it was from sea sickness rather than sickness, but it doesn’t change the fact that I hurled luminous orange chunks overboard (thanks for that Vitamin C tonic Mum and Dad) and ended up waiting for Mum to find a tissue while I stared at the water moving past my eyes with salt, sick and hair plastered to my face. Probably not one of my most dignified moments.

After the whale watching we were issued with free tickets for a crocodile and hippo boat tour – fantastic. It was on a barge type boat and on an estuary so luckily my stomach stayed settled and I didn’t end up expelling any more bodily fluids overboard.

Our last evening in South Africa was spent much like any other, going to a restaurant to watch Dad and Ross eat massive steaks. I really don’t think they’ll be happy leaving the meat behind when they leave this country, they’ve basically eaten fillet steak everyday for 2 weeks and been as happy as the cat who got the cream. The butchers back home isn’t ever going to be the same again.

Swaziland

I returned to Swaziland to find that I had been thrown out of my room at hostel; not the best welcome home surprise that you could wish for. A high school in Swaziland closed down so now all the other schools are taking on their students; Sisekelo took on too many students in the hostel than they had room for so we (the interns) caught the short straw. We’ve now been squished into one box room, which isn’t so bad if it is what you arrive to, but after 10 months of having some space to actually stand on the floor of your room you start getting a little bit nostalgic for what you lost.

I can’t believe that it is only 6 weeks until I see everyone again! Six weeks left of Africa means six more amazing weeks filled of memories, but it also means that there’s only 6 weeks until I will suffer the worst heartbreak I’ve ever felt... leaving this place will be like tearing off a plaster that takes a chunk of my skin with it, there will be pain and the scar of Swaziland and everyone that I leave behind will be an experience that will remain with me forever. The amazing memories will never leave me, but neither will the ache of turning my back on the people and children I have come to know and love. Being here has changed me as a person, and these are the people who have taught me the lessons; they have taught unknowingly and I have learnt unknowingly. I just hope that these changes will always stay with me and keep on influencing the person that I am and the person that I am still to become.

Kate xx

FANTA GRAPE

Time to explore further than the borders of Swaziland! On Monday we hopped on a kombi to Manzini full of excitement for our holiday travels; we then reached Manzini and sat in the Durban kombi for over 2 hours while they waited for it to fill up. Angry, cramped and annoyed we finally set off – so 4 ½ hours after departing from Big Bend we found ourselves passing the exact spot we got the kombi from that morning... Damn Swaziland and its one tar road!
The excitement started kicking in again and I’m pretty sure we might have been those annoying people at the back of buses who make more noise than is actually necessary... oh well.
We had a lovely surprise at the border gate; a man with the world’s longest and dirtiest fingernails came to stand at our open kombi door asking for money. The front of his jeans was also non-existent; they might as well have been crotch-less chaps so we had a lovely view of everything hanging out. We all failed spectacularly when it came to keeping a straight face, so we left pretty promptly to walk to the border gate to hand over our passports to be scrutinised and questioned.

Entering South Africa wasn’t what we expected at all; the kombi was getting pummelled by torrential rain and thunderstorms, visibility must have been down to about 20% and we were getting nowhere fast... which is very surprising for a kombi!
Due to the slow going we were due to hit Durban at night... in the dark... not knowing where our backpackers was... with no alternate transport. F**k. Living in Swaziland we’ve been quite sheltered, but we’d been told that South Africa was much more dangerous, so we weren’t looking forward to wandering around Durban at night carrying everything that had any importance to us on our backs.
Luckily there was a couple on the kombi from Durban and they offered us a lift with them – thank god! The four of us crammed in the back of their truck with our massive backpacks and watched the Durban city lights pass us by. I felt like a fish out of water in the city; after being in Big Bend for 3 months the bright lights and large buildings felt overpowering and daunting. We drove past a huge casino complex that was lit up with LED lights and looked like it had been brought straight from Las Vegas, this felt more like America than Africa!
The couple entertained us on our travels with comforting anecdotes about living in Durban; “Yeah, I’ve been mugged twice, once with a knife to my throat and once with a gun in my face”, “Damn this area is risky, s**t, I don’t have my pepper spray either...” Great first impression of Durban.

We hit uShaka Marine World for the first tourist day of our holidays; dolphin shows, seal shows, the biggest aquarium EVER and a water park. uShaka boasts the tallest water slide in the Southern Hemisphere, so we were all buzzing for that! It was pretty high as well; you shoot over the edge at what I swear to be a 90 degree angle and by the time you reach the bottom you need surgical assistance to remove your bikini bottoms from unknown places.
That night we bought meat, rolls and ingredients to make a kick ass potato salad, and we set about having a braii on the roof of our backpackers. It was awesome. We had some spectacular views of the Durban lights, a few drinks, braii and some intelligent conversation with Jacob, a Canadian and the fifth person in our five person dorm.

Unfortunately for the next 3 days Ashley fell really ill and we had to cancel our plans to carry on down the coast and stay in Durban until she recovered; we took her to a private city hospital and after waiting for 4 hours we finally walked away with 5 bags of drugs that would hopefully pull her back around to reality!
Thankfully the medicine did its job and Ashley felt well enough to travel, so we each begrudgingly parted with E2500 (£180) for a Baz Bus ticket, and we set off for Port St John’s on Saturday morning.

Getting on the kombi was eventful in itself; Ashley and the Sam’s were already on the bus and I was trying to sort out a ticket problem with the driver outside. Then an actual kombi driver comes over and starts grabbing the Baz Bus drivers’ clip board, starts pushing him and is shouting for him to move the bus. “You need to learn how to respect another person” the Baz Bus driver keeps yelling, he wants to stand there and sort the tickets out before we set off... but this is getting pretty serious. There’s now an audience of people on the backpacker balcony watching the scene unfold below and I do not want to be involved in a street brawl between two fully grown African male kombi drivers. I politely tell them both to calm down, stop pushing each other and get the Baz Bus driver back on the bus to sort out the ticket problem when we have driven away.  Good call.

Port St John’s is beautiful and Amapondo backpackers has to be the most amazing backpackers in the world. Port St John’s itself looks like Brazil rather than Africa; large hills covered in dense jungle foliage make up 95% of your view, and just on the coast is a perfect bay with crystal blue waters. The backpackers itself is perched on the side of mountain, and you can see small homesteads everywhere, they look like Brazilian flavelas or small villages from a Pirates of the Caribbean film.  

That night we eat an amazing homemade Thai green curry, which turns out to be free because Sam Rutherford gets chatting to a guy at the bar and because Sam is Scottish he offers to pay for our meal!
Later on that night two ladies light up the firepoi and there’s a mesmerising impromptu fire show; it’s possibly the coolest thing I’ve ever seen so we all decide to have a bash at it! Not with the fire obviously, just with the practice ‘sockpoi’. Sam Thomas picks it up straight way and makes us really jealous with his skills; this infuriates me even further because I’m so uncoordinated and my left arm and hand are pretty much useless. Everyone goes to bed and I’m still stood there failing spectacularly but not willing to be defeated by these sock balls on string, it finally takes a flaming sambuca burn to the hand and I can’t carry on – so I call it a night and go to bed. 

Sunday brings English weather, so we hitch-hike into town to buy some food, and yet again have another KFC. I’ve eaten more takeaway food in Africa than I ever have in England – who would have thought.
Back at Amapondo I finally crack the sockpoi and my skills are on par with Sam’s, so I’m pretty chuffed with myself. We can’t do much though as a crazy thunderstorm lights up the whole valley, rain comes down in sheets and the power goes out. So we chill in the darkness and listen to the phenomena outside.

One week into travelling and I’ve seen some of the most beautiful places I may ever see in my life. Can’t wait to see some more!

Love Kate xx

(P.S. The way Ashley says fanta grape is really funny, so us impersonating her is now a running joke we have. So that’s the title for you. It’s not funny if you’re not here, sorry!) 

“Remember, it’s a racist dog. It bites white people.”

This week has been a pretty uneventful week for us; some local news from this week is that on Monday a leopard had been spotted running around on the loose just outside of Big Bend. It had been having the time of its life on a cattle murdering spree, so apparently the local farmers were pretty angry.

We've also been introduced to Wandile, the son of Siphewe a teacher at Moriah Centre. Siphewe is rather fond of the idea of Wandile marrying Ashley, and is now always telling her that she can’t wait to put red paint on her cheeks (something Swazi to do with marriage I'm guessing!)

Ashley received her first packages from home this week (so I'm really jealous because mine are still nowhere to be seen), so we had a stroll up to the Big Bend Post Office. In Swaziland nothing gets delivered to your house or homestead, you have to go and collect it yourself; packages, letters, bills... EVERYTHING. Her Mum had sent out footballs and football strips for the kids, so she counted them out and set about the hard task of picking who was going to get one.
Getting the kids into their new football strips at soup kitchen was actually hilarious; this one poor lad was trying to pull on his new shorts over the top of his trousers, which then prompted Aunty Vina to go over to him, keg him in front of everyone (wasn't wearing any pants, bless him!) and pull the new shorts onto a now very embarrassed little boy. They all looked so happy in their new kits though!

All week Ashley and I had been looking forward to this weekend because the plans were to have a weekend away in Durban! We’d been forward planning on the internet what we were going to do, and were excited (and apprehensive) about visiting the boys at the Boys Town project. Unfortunately the plans fell through and we couldn't go in the end, which is probably for the best because on Thursday night I became ill for the first time of being here in Swaziland; this included sleeping on the hostel toilet floor because it was too risky being in my room as I didn't fancy clearing sick up off my things the next morning. 

Ashley managed to go to Injabulo by herself on Friday to teach with Nelsiwe while I was sprawled out in bed trying to keep my stomach inside my body. I also woke up to a really cute phone call from Ashley and the kids at Injabulo; she got them to shout “Hallo Aunty Kate” and “get better soon” which put a little smile on my face!
As well as being told to drink lots of water, take rehydration packets, drink energy drinks and drink lots of black tea, Aunty Rose concocted some disgusting mixture of water, sugar and salt for me to ingest. Apparently it’s some sort of home-made rehydration drink, safe to say it didn't taste too great; but feeling as bad as I did I downed it with the same enthusiasm as downing a dirty pint and then went back to sleep. Some weekend.

I’m looking forward to this coming week though, hopefully my package from home will arrive (I check our pigeon hole for the Post Office slip in vain every day), and on Wednesday we’re having a Halloween themed day with the kids at Injabulo! We've been collecting apples for apple bobbing, oranges for drawing pumpkin faces on, printed off Halloween masks, ghosts and gravestones and we’re going to cover the windows with black bin bags! Unfortunately we’re not too sure that the kids will understand what is happening, even though it is apparent that there’s a lot of superstition over witchcraft in Africa, no one actually seems to have heard of Halloween. Aunty Rose assured us that she understood... “I know Halloween, when the children’s all do a play, yes. I know I know!” We’re pretty sure that she doesn't understand, and I think she’s going on about a Christmas Nativity... so it looks like it’s time to introduce some Swazi’s to the concept of Halloween! 

This currently includes Ashley putting on the masks we printed off for the kids, calling hostel girls to her room and scaring the crap out of them. It’s pretty damn funny, and we've already had one girl drop her carton of juice all over the floor only to end up down there herself milliseconds after!

Trick or Treat

Kate xx