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Published: January 12th 2010
The weather since leaving Cape Town has become more cloudy and less sunshine, and all Hannah can say every couple of minutes is... Its warmer in bloody England!!! So onwards to Port Elizabeth we drive, or shall I say, Hannah slept and Brendon enjoyed the scenery. Eventually Han awoke and we started to play some car games, and she created a new one called roadkill. Now perhaps this isn't a “newly” created game, as all you have to do is spot road kill for 1 point and a bonus point for identifying what it was. So far its level at 3 points a piece.
Addo National Elephant Park We decided not to stop at Port Elizabeth and drive straight through to our Accommodation close to the Addo National Elephant Park. Its a very nice lodge accommodation with about 5 chalets, and upon arriving we discover that we are the only guest that evening. So once again our accomodation was upgraded to the Honeymoon chalet. After chilling out for a bit (the weather was fantastic at about 33 C) we decide to go for a game drive ourselves.
We didn't see that much apart from some Kudu (a large
buck) and some warthogs (pumba's distant relative) and no elephants, so we start heading home. Just before we get to the gate, Hannah spots a female close to the road's edge. We stop and soon we have a couple of cars stopping with us to look at them. We notice that she has a baby calf as well. Nd then It isn't long before daddy arrived as well to check out the commotion.
Our Lodge wasn't doing dinner that night so they booked a table for us about 10 mins drive from the lodge. We were both looking forward to some simple pasta or something without any meat for once, as I think at this point we both feel we're 8 months pregnant with meat babies. But to our 'surprise' the menu was meat. However we both found room for ribs and I had seafood platter, they were so good even the owners sausage dog wanted some.
The next morning we had booked to do an organized morning game drive at 6am. Which meant we had to get up around 5:15. I think it might be the 1st and only time that Hannah has woken up that early
hehehe. Our game driver was really good and explained loads, and we saw loads of elephants and buck, but sadly no lions. Apparently they had just killed a Kudu at around 6pm the previous night which was around the time we were checking out the elephants at the gate. We tried again later that night to find the lions, but their bellies were full so were probably not planning to move for the next few days.
The following night we had a lovely traditional VoorTrekker dinner with our hosts.
However we did learn...............
A) An African elephant can hold up to 17 litres of water in its nose
B) A Giraffe only sleeps between 5 and 25 mins a day
C) The name Kudu come from the sound its balls make when its running. (ok - maybe the fact was about its hooves- but balls sounds better.)
D) A Kudu can jump 2.5 meters from stationary and over 3 meters when running. That its pretty high!
Oh and also - don't piss off Elephant Bulls when they're trying to get to the waterhole, they do charge!! So what happened was...... We pull over and
watch a small herd of elephants (10 max) at a watering hole. We had been observing them for almost 10 minutes, and decided we'd had enough for the day. We start doing a 3 point turn and reverse the car, when out of nowhere in the rearview mirror, is a MASSIVE African Male Bull, ears flapping and everything charging at our tiny Renault. So other than shit yourself - what do you do!?
Well, we stopped and pulled over, and so did he thank god. He looks through our back window then decides we're no threat. He wanders off to the water hole, and we gave it a few minutes before starting our engine up again and driving the 75km through the park to Port Elizabeth.
Port Elizabeth Our tour of the garden route was starting to come to an end, and on our penultimate day we headed back to Port Elizabeth for 1 night. The weather was great so we decided to go for a walk on the beach and enjoy the sunshine.
The good weather carried through to the next day, so once again we head to the beach, but this time spend the day chilling around the beach pool. We waited for what seemed 2 hours for the 'Be back in minutes' sign to change on the ice cream parlour. She never came back, so we hit the beach bar instead. This is was the very bar where Brendon tried his flirting skills by hitting on some of the local Saffa MILF's!? Haha ;-)
So we arrive at the airport and we are a little embarrassed to hand the car back in the state its in, with 2 weeks or grime, but all's good. We check in and Brendon gets hit on by one of the trolley dolly's at the airport. Both of us feel a little uneasy :-)
Our flight gets delayed by a couple of hours, but based on our track record we were both just happy that Brendon had managed to book flights for the right day this time!!!
Jo'Burg We're back in Jo'Burg to spend the Christmas period with Brendon's family. Allan and the pair of us get some last minute christmas shopping in at one of Jo'Burgs shopping malls. Ok so in 5 weeks of being in South Africa I experience the most Saffa thing of all. A shopping mall hold up, haha. Kidding - but I thought I was going to die for a moment when approximately 200 people came running towards in a Jumanji style stampede. It turns out there was a holdup in the centre and some gun shots had gone off and the gunman was taken down by security and the special police unit. Brendon promises to me that he has NEVER seen that in his life. He was my hero!? If you call running 5 long strides ahead of me a hero. Hehehe. (i've just been called a bitch for typing this sentence - but its staying in here)
Hannah prepares herself for her 1st hot christmas. Brendon's brother, Allan does most of the cooking whilst the family enjoy a great dinner followed by Santa delivering the presents much to the kids surprise! “He does exist!!!”. Only the parents know that its Brendon, and apparently the dogs don't like Santa neither as he got chased back to his sled very quickly.
Next we head to the Drakensburg for 5 days to chill and enjoy some fresh mountain air. We were joined by Brendon's brother Allan and his girlfriend Sandy and his best friend Darren and his girlfriend Taetim.
On the first day of sunshine the boy played golf, the girls tagged along! Hannah almost wrote the golf cart off within the first 2 minutes. She drove straight into the wooden fence. Oops. Brendon won his first game of golf against his brother in like EVER (ok in 3 years)! Hannah learnt how to drive the golf cart and take it off road. Darren in the end opted to walk. You know what though, its pretty random just seeing wild baboons on the golf course and they make a lot of noise when the boys are trying to putt.
The next day was Sandy's (and daddy fordham's) birthday and the boys played some golf, whilst the ladies enjoyed a 4 hour spa session (What a gret way to spend your nye). The NYE party was great, with shots, a couple of bottles of Spiced Gold (we asked for a bottle in the end as I think the waitress was getting tired of walking to and from the bar) and some good grub. The party then moved to the pool bar we had some good but also soome dodgy music, but Brendon was leading the locomotion train when Kylie came on... (who would have guessed??)
Sandy and Hannah were then doing what most girls do when around a pool being drunk, and try and throw the boys into the pool, one thing lead to another, Sandy, Brendon and Hannah all fall over backwards, and very unfrtunately Sandy bashes her head on one of the sun oungers. Big ouch! But at 1st we thought it was okay, so we checked it out in the bathroom and her blonde hair was starting to get covered in blood. Ahh shit! So Sandy ends up in the hospital escorted by Brendon and Allan, turns out the closest hospital was 180km away. She was so brave when she had her head glued back together, and has a great war wound to show everyone. We like to leave our mark.
New Years day was spent chilling and sleeping off some hangovers, and chilled with some dvd's.
The pair of us enjoyed a 2 hour hike into the mountains the following day. We met up with the other 2 couples in the afternoon, and played some pictionary, Han was like “Damn Brendon is USELESS at this game.... THANKS!” Funny enough for the 1st time ever we won! So that then just made the boys more competitive and Crazy golf followed (Brendon got beaten by 2 girls, well not physically at least), 30 Seconds which is a lot like Taboo and Hannah managed to hold her own in the game even though alot of it was South African words/places/people in them. Luckily no relationships we're harmed during these games.
That was the last night in the Drakensburg (we were planning to migrate there for those who have seen the film 2012) and we left early the next morning back to Johannesburg.
The next couple of days we spend with Brendon's family catching up and starting to plan the next leg of our journey. We go out for a nice restaurant (recommended by Allan and Sandy) to celebrate both Brendon's and his mums birthday. ,;
The first leg of our trip comes has come to a close, and both of us have had a great time in South Africa, partularly spending time with Brendon's family, thanks for the great full board accommodation. Next time please can we please have mints on our pillows at night.
Don't worry Mummy Fordham... we won't be moving there...:-)
Whats next... Asia but more of that later!
Hannah & Brendon
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Elsie
non-member comment
WOW
Hi Bren and Hannah Hope you had a nice birthday. Thanks for all you kindness and all the presents, we were all very spoiled. We miss you and we are sorry that you won't be moving here. We will do more than mints next time. Be good and enjoy, looking forward to your next update. Fondest Love Elsie, Dion and Andre