Tuesday 15th After my 4 day weekend this was the day to start getting things sorted. Cecelia and I went to the Teachers Development Centre, which is attached to St Peters school and waited for Mr Ngwale. He was late and I got frustrated so started to go through things with Cecelia. St Peters gave us a list of the resources they are short of and we went through seeing which ones need money and which can be made at the workshop. Mr Ngwali finally came and the Head teacher was also there. I looked in the teachers book to [View Full Entry]

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Sunday 6th I wandered down to the lake at 8.30 as I had arrived in the dark the night before. I just happened to come down to the lake next to Cecelia’s house where she was washing in the lake. We went to look at the self-catering quieter Anglican chapel that they thought I could stay in. However I asked to stay at Cecelia’s as I didn’t want to be by myself. They thought I wouldn’t want to be at Cecelia’s as there is no electricity or water and it means bathing in the lake and a long drop squat [View Full Entry]

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Friday 4th Steve, Leen and I set of at 8.30 in the hostel taxi to the market as this and the auction house are the 2 things to see in Lilongwe we though we better visit it before leaving. We left our bags in the car and entered a walled market where we were met by a maze of streets selling fruit, veg, fish, plastic bags, soap, clothes, nails, screws, timber, anything you could need there would probably be someone selling it (except ice cream!!!). I bought some peas, peanuts and doughnuts. Then the taxi driver helped us find the [View Full Entry]

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Sorry so much in one go. This is the first internet I’ve had in a month and for that reason I am going to let dad be solely in charge of the blog so he can do it when he gets back home. Sun 29th It was 11pm by the time I’d left Paul going through security and I went outside to phone the airport backpackers for my free pickup. I’d clearly woken her up and there was some confusion over where I was supposed to meet the pick up. Eventually I had to walk to the domestic flights area [View Full Entry]

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Sat 28th Woke up at 6 for the 6.30 dive to find the dive wasn't happening due to bad weather :( We were quite relieved to be able to go back to sleep, but on the other hand it was a bit annoying as it was only reason we'd come to Ukamas. With nothing else to do in Ukamas we headed to Durban where we would say goodbye to our our car companions, Gary and Nicki before heading on to Pietermaritzburg. Got quite lost trying to find accomodation in Pietermaritzburg and when we found it, it wasn't that great. Luckily [View Full Entry]

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Wed 25th A big drive today heading to Cyntza. We stopped at Graham's town for lunch and stocked up on things for T's washbag that was left in Swellingham (we think). Arrived at Cyntza to a really amazing backpacker place. We had our own apartment next to the beach. We were really suprised to meet up with Gary and Nicki from the wine tour (and T's trip round Africa), so we went and had a few beers with them. We invited them to travel the next part of the trip with us as we were going the same ways as [View Full Entry]

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Tues 24th (Paul still guest blogging) We headed to Knisner for the wreck scuba dive. It was my first dive since the training course in freezing cold Portsmouth (England). The water was cold compared to what Tamsin had been used to, but it was more than warm enough for me. The wreck was cool to swim around but I was concentrating so much on swimming and breathing that I didnt take as much of it in as I'd liked. Tamsin told me afterwards that she was watching me most of the time as she was worried I was going to [View Full Entry]

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Mon 23rd Today we went Kloofing. Kloofing was walking through the forest with our own guide, Stephen, then walking and climbing over rocks in the river. When the 'safe' rocks ran out we had to swim in the river. The water was cold-ish and supprisingly had no animals in it. We were asked if we wanted to do jumping off rocks but both decided against it (T:It was really really cold and I didn't want to get my hair wet!!). After lunch we drove to a look out point where you could see that the river made the shape of [View Full Entry]

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Sun 22nd Left early to head to Ostrich mad Oudtshoorn. We visited one of the farms there that gave a tour of their farm, including a look at their feather palace - a semi-grand house (compared to UK castles!) that were built when money was pleantiful from the sale of white feathers plucked from under the wings of male ostriches. The money stopped rolling in when feathers went out of favour because ladies struggled to get in and out of the recently arrived motor cars (so they say). Facts: Ostrich eggs are comparable to eating 20-24 chicken eggs. They can [View Full Entry]

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21st Today we travelled to Cape point after picking up our hire car. Cape point is the bit we all learnt about at school. To the right of the first picture you can kind of see swirls in the water - this was where a ship wreck is under the water (i think!). It was well known for sail ships to be deliberately crashed/ran aground so that the ship owners could claim on insurance when sail boats went out of fashion. Stayed for lunch (a BLT for Paulie and a quiche for T), then zoomed off to Swellingham. Was pleased [View Full Entry]

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