South African Postcard

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Hi Everyone

Here we are at day 8 of our photo tour and this is the first opportunity we have had to stop and look through our photos and upload them.
Day 8 has seen us drive from Johanesburg to our lodge "Misty Mountain" and it is certainly living up to its name - rain, mist and cold - though what can you expect at 2000m above sea level.

We've had a great time so far - our 3 tour companions are fantastic people to travel with - they are as mad about birds and animals in general and are as click
happy with their camera's as we are. They have a great sense of humour and as American's they have taken great delight in using some of our terms such as "bop" for birds of prey, noccies for binoculars and "sozzled".

Charley our guide (an Englishman now living in SA) is has a great knowledge and he freely admits that his job is just a whole heap of fun - he just loves chasing birds. Though we have been giving him heaps as we travel around the "Cape" area of South Africa as it seems to us that every new bird, animal or critter is a "Cape something or other"!

We've had some great laughs and the South African people extremely friendly - we soon learnt that you can't have a short conversation right from the time we were picked up at the airport.
Both blacks and whites enjoy talking about their country and take a great amount of pride in serving you no matter whether their job is waithelp or the person who keeps the toilets clean.
Their hospitality service is friendly though maybe not that fast. Since our tour guide is vegetarian I'm having a much better time foodwise that I had thought possible.

The highlight of our accomodation to date is a B&B called Klein Cederberg (see photo). Miles from anywhere in a semi arid region called the Karo with no electricity and the sharing 100l of hot water between 4 adults for showers that was heated by the sun during the day and dribbled out of the shower head. Quaint as it was I'm not sure that the Americans enjoyed the experience.

Tomorrow we are off to Kruger NP to chase the big animals - lions, elephants etc and of course birds for the remainder of our time away.

Not sure that we will have any internet connection so this may well be the only message we get to send you.

Hope all is OK for everyone back home.

Bye for now Jules & Bob

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Comments

[Dad & Mum]

To the travellers
Hi, thanks for the note and the blog, loved the penguins and the B&B at Klein looked interesting. Bet the shower brought back memories of Cowra!!!!! Look forward to seeing you shortly, have a great trip in Kruger.