Blogs from Free State, South Africa, Africa

Day 6-11 Hogsback-Drakensberg-Johannessburg. After a wet night in Hogsback, and Simon having a few wins on the pool table we set off back in our big yellow truck for Lesotho (pronounced Les suit too). Lesotho is a very small kingdom of 2 million people completely landlocked by South Africa with mountains and highland. It is a constitutional monarchy and unfortunately the 3rd poorest country in the world, with unemployment between 30-50%. After making it through the border crossing with no dramas, the drive into Lesotho, with beautiful mountain views and waving village people made us start to feel like we were in real Africa. Settling into our cute and picturesque campsite in the town of Malealea we decided to go for a run through the village. Not an easy run in the heat, altitude, general lack ... read more

As we finished early at KwaZulu Natal, we decided to fly to Bloemfontein to exlpore the city of Roses. This city is beautiful and the people are friendly, as we all know that this place is well known for its beautiful history and the Its also called the judiicial caoital of South Africa since 1910. Theres a lot of things to enjoy at this hostitable city, things like anglican cathedral, bonoyical gardens, fountain, antional museum, national womans memorial, sand du plessis theatre and the state president swart park,kings park and zoological gardens. like I said the Bloemfontein is full of history and a lot of old buildings with the history of our country. there is also an appeal court, which is the largest court in the country. People come and enjoy the bloemfontein in its free ... read more

Yippie......China ons is amper oppad! Busy making the last arrangements for our almost 4 week trip to CHINA. Hoop julle geniet die blog wat ek gaan maak van ons trip. Will keep you posted as we journey around China.... read more

The City Lodge Hotel is our "decompression" site arriving here. It is adjacent to the airport and is accessible via sky walk. It is quite new, modern, beautiful African decor and is very clean. The group comandeered a corner of the restaurant and held a dinner meeting there. The group is just under 25 now (13 of us flew together from Oklahoma City). There are landscapers, apiarists (bee keeping experts), nurses, doctors, builders, electrical engineer...all kinds of people here. As I understand it, we'll all be dividing up into various projects: a radiologist along with the electrical engineer is setting up a transportable x-ray system. This will be very useful as the high prevalence of HIV associated opportunistic infections includes TB. Our team of ophthalmologists will be helping Dr. Pons, the country's only ophthalmologist to deliver ... read more

My final destination on my big adventure was South Africa, where I had arranged to volunteer at a big cat sanctuary called Cheetah Experience :(http://www.cheetahexperience.com/) in Bloemfontein for 3 weeks. I have to admit it was quite a culture shock going from living the aussie life down under to living in Africa, more so than I could have ever imagined. After a few days though I settled in and within no time at all Bloem became my home and the other volunteers were my family. Each country I visited over the 3 months was so insanely different, it was a struggle to adapt sometimes, but it made life a lot more interesting! So, we were living in a volunteer house just down the road from the sanctuary, and wow it was such luxury after backpacking for ... read more

As you approach the Northern Drakensburg, you feel mesmarised by the dragon mountains covering the horizon. Baboons run wild across the road while african children burn the land while hunting with dogs. The smell of smoke lingers in the air, while you are met with beautiful lakes and misty mountains. At only 3482 metres above sea level, this place truely is a hikers paradise. While in Johannesburg I met a couple of lads that showed me some photos of the dramatic landscapes in the Northern Drakensburg. They warned me hiking in the mountains isnt cheap and getting there is difficult on public transport, but even on a backpackers budget, I knew the challenge was set and it had to be done. The Northern Drakensburg is a remote part of South Africa, close to the country Losoto. ... read more

Dawn and Sam have a very large cattle and sheep farm ( 4500 acres) in the Free State Province (about 4 hrs. S.E. of Joburg). Beautiful countryside with mountains and valleys and 6 ft high green African grass and Bluegum trees everywhere. Very remote area with the nearest town of Harrismith 40 miles away on rough dirt roads. They have 4 dogs, 1 timberwolf who thinks he's a dog , 6 cats , one of them is half African black footed wildcat, African Grey Parrot (named Fred), cattle, several horses, sheep, chickens, rabbits, 6 emus, geese. I may have left some others out .Ha Ha! Sam and Dawn also have several Zulu workers and their families who live on their farm in their own housing. They also have a full time Domestic (maid) named Maria. This ... read more