Blogs from Nelspruit, Mpumalanga , South Africa, Africa

"Look, I found Africa!" shouted Jake excitedly as he pointed to a picture of animals in the tourist information center in Nelspruit. Poor kids. I think after all the build up to Africa in the past several months, they were expecting to get off the plane and instantly see herds of wildebeest running majestically across the plains, and baby elephants playing in every lake! We are in the city for four days, so I had to keep telling them that the animals prefer to stay in the countryside rather than the city. Not sure they quite believe me! The plain ride went off generally ok but with a few hitches this time. Soon after take off, Jake had a screaming meltdown when I wouldn't allow him to continually kick the seat in front of him. Thank ... read more

Well, we shall have to come back again as Mrs Reeves still hasn't seen a lion. We have spent more than a week in the Kruger across our trips without ever seeing one--is that approaching the record, I wonder? Never mind, at least we have continued to see many other animals and birds. Today that included two (separate) leopards, quite a rare sight, as well as giraffes, zebras, warthogs, kudus, bush buck, Cape buffaloes, duikers, mongooses (two different kinds), crocodiles, hippos (several sightings), monkeys, baboons, fish eagles, storks (two different kinds) and many other bird species. Cameras were clicking all day--Charlie has passed one thousand photos now--and our guides were founts of knowledge about everything from related species (zebras are related to rhinos!) to the signs of gender differences, from elephant communications to rhino poaching, and ... read more

Geo: -25.4797, 30.9699This morning we had a slow start to the day. We started the day with enjoying a huge breakfast on the deck. Today was planned to be more relaxed than yesterday. On the way to the National Botanical Gardens we stopped at a large Cape Union Mart store. Here we bought few things that we would need for our upcoming camping trip to Mana Pools National Park. We arrived at the gardens at about 1pm. The next three hours were spent slowly walking around and enjoying various themed gardens. I really enjoy visiting parks and gardens, a very peaceful time. Among the plants there was a sculpture exhibition of large, metal bugs. At the Nels River viewpoint we could see where the Nels River meets with the Crocodile River. There were also many Strangler ... read more

So, at 6am the alarm sounds and it’s time for us all to get up and go to school. Its dark at this time. And cold. Although it very quickly gets light and by lunchtime we’re usually complaining about how hot it is. These early starts also entail very early nights, which greatly amuses us as students, for by 10 o’clock (sometimes even 8 o’clock!) we are desperate to go to sleep. We take it in turns to cook the vast amounts of food needed for nine people, we wash our clothes by hand and in the evenings we catch glimpses of the Olympics with hilariously haphazard commentary. It is hard to summarise our time here and our experiences of school life. Unlike in England where one can go through days, weeks or even months without ... read more

This little trip started few days before the flight with a little stress...who was going to take care of Leslie and Tiffany for 18 days. The problem was happily solved a week before my flight. Now that I'm back home, I can conclude that Tiffany and Leslie have gathered some more independance skills....these little guys are growing fast, and I'm an happy Dad! There are no problems, there are only solutions...I was going to apply this during my trip too! It all started with what should have been a little stop-over on the way to Congo. Few flights a week between Joburg and Lubumbbashi, fewer flights even between Bangkok and Joburg. Original plan was to stay for 23 hours in Joburg. I tried the new train direct to Sandton, the Gautrain, a pretty impressive ride. That ... read more