Prickly pears

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Day two started with a difficult 7:30am wake up. We managed to drag ourselves out of bed at 7:55 ready for the 8:00 start so no time for breakfast. We went to collect the other girls from their night at the 5* lodge and were passed by 3 amazingly graceful giraffes. They seemed to gallop in front of us in slow motion! We then started our weekly task of alien plant control, chopping down and clearing areas of cactus/prickly pear plants. Despite being given gloves the spikes still came through! and worst yet the small hair-like spikes are really hard to see and get out! Iv got quite a few still stuck in my thumb which is fab. After lunch we went out to the AIDS orphanage/youth centre and made get well soon cards for Nelson Mandela. All the kids are so creative and had written their messages in Afrikaans or English or both! They loved having there photos taken with their finished cards. We then played football with them for I don't know how long, the sense of time out here is non-existent. I managed to score two goals! And it was just great to see all of them happy and smiling. It's the school holidays at the moment so not many children come to the centre, but hopefully more will be coming over the next few weeks. On Thursdays we make bracelets with them (I can't wait to do this!!) which they get 10 Rand (approx £1) for each bracelet they make and they are sold in the 5* lodge and the rest of the money goes back into the bracelet making project. There are so many projects going on to help the centre and the children they support, I will write more about them as I find out more about them. We went over to the pub next door tonight, it's so lovely and cosy with sofas by the fire. They also have a pool table and lots of leaflets about trips you can take. We definitely want to go to Addo elephant park at the weekend.

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Photos

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Opening the electrified gate- skill!

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Giraffes galloping across in front of us!

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yawn