Blogs from South Africa, Africa - page 544

Sheffield Beach Area ... read more

I know it's taken me forever to post this (there is still heaps to come) and for exactly that reason I won't write much (otherwise it's never gonna happen). Just as much as this: Mont-aux-Sources in Royal Natal National Park (Kwazulu Natal) is probably the best day trek you will find in South Africa. And don't get fooled by all these greedy tour operators - you CAN go by yourself. In fact, it's an easy one, provided you are free from fear of hight since you have to climb a vertical chain ladder (guess that's the most tricky part), but other than that if you're reasonably fit you won't have any trouble. Get a lift to Sentinel Car Park - it's kind of far away from the Amphitheater (2 hrs one way), so you're better off ... read more

Day 5 of habitat house 1 was crazy, we had to catch up all of the time missed due to the wheather, first we had to do the roof which was so much fun. We were hammering in planks while balancing on beams, we got to work with really nice community members/builders and broke a habitat record by finishing and entire roof before lunch. this was probably the most dangerous day of the build but luckly nothing went wrong, so of the volunteers where very scared of hights though. After lunch we then did the internal walls but I had to leave early again for work. Today we had to go through to the community hall in order to have a last bit of training, and to find out if we were crew leaders or not ... read more

On Monday we flew from Cape Town to Johannesburg, where we're staying with a friend, Renata (we worked together in the OT dept at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, about 18months ago) - has been lovely catching up with her and her boyfriend, Nuno, who also worked at the JR, in the Physio dept. We managed to time our arrival well to coincide with Renata's Birthday, so went out for dinner on Monday night with some of her family and friends. We've also seen around Wits University (where Renata studied), survived driving through the Central Business District (despite Renata being unable to promise us that we wouldn't be shot), and seen the Neslon Mandela Bridge. Yesterday we went to the Apartheid Museum - took a long time to get round, but very interesting, and then spent ... read more

Next stop was just outside Beaufort West. The Karoo National Park is a lovely site, really 5 star and they are still working on it. We arrived in the pouring rain so waited for it to stop before starting to set up camp. We put up the gazebo before deciding that actually that site over there looked better, so we started to move but on second looks decided that the site opposite looked even better. It really is true that the longest part of setting up camp is agreeing where to put the tent. Eventually we set up, you note that I don't say pitch the tent because we have decided that sleeping in the cab is very comfortable, and why bother with canvas when we have everything we need including radio, light, air conditioning (yes ... read more