South africa part 4

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A stiff 5 hours driving to Hluwahe in South Africa; we cross the border in a flash, no hassles whatsoever. We check in ‘Dave’s Place’, a small house with 7 rooms with view on a not-to- well- kept garden. Dave is an Africaner who likes his beer and a practical joker: in the patio we discover a huge basket with a lid… yep it’s like in Bluebeard, we could not resist to lift the lid et voila, a huge cobra! A second look shows this animal is stuffed.

The temperature is another 35 degrees. I start writing for my weblog in my spacious room

lazily on the twinbed, gazed at by a Gigantic wooden Giraffe in the corner .

In the afternoon a French girl, Aurore (26), has arrived: she is hiking from Tanzania & Namibia.

Her English is with the cute accent cause of dropping the letter ‘H’ in every word, writing her 3^rd book (in French).

Later joins a partly africaner, partly Russian named Leon; and 2 Germans, Stephen (31) & Stefan (33), make the gathering rather international.

Great fun, especially after a couple of bottles of wine, which is quite affordable and tasty .

Bedtime at 02.00 hrs, rise & shine at 05.00 for the ‘game’ in wildpark Hluhluwe – Umfolozi: a ‘game’ means driving around and spotting animals.

With our annual card we register our car at the entrance: for security reasons, while in the evening they can search for you if your not checked out as well.

We spotted almost immediately a hyena, who looks rather disdainfully at us,; couple of elephants; a beetle –just like in the movie Micro world- rolling over a huge round dung

His mate is just sitting at leisure on it, the beetle sometimes checks his direction by climbing

It and then changes direction if necessary. With 4 minutes he (or she, maybe beetles are emancipated ??) manages to cross the road, the other moves in approval of this huge achievement.

The roads are full of holes, so we moving zigzagging around; the off roads are more suitable

For 4 wheel drivers; one hill is so steep that the car stops before reaching the top; in first gear finally we arrive however safely; we are suddenly aware the motor can overheat this way, which would mean sending an SOS to the gate in order to rescue us.

Back at the hostel the 2 Germans, , look like they have been hit by a truck, enjoying their first coffee and cigarette at 13.00 hrs… The French girl decides for her first warm meal this day;

The Frenchies do that, even when they are hiking; she claims to have put ON weight during her 5 month trip ! truly amazing.

Dave invites the whole ‘gang’ over for the evening, but he cancells and he leaves the lodge in our care. An Argentinean and his friend form Latvia join our conversation, lots of fun with Blufpoker before we get serious about aging, life expectancies, setting goals, disappointments, the art of ‘letting lose’, individualism and religion.

In perfect harmony we break up; a look into the kitchen leads to the conclusion we created a ‘warzone’: dishes, plates, cups are piling up…. Since 02.30 hrs is no time for chores we decide to leave it that way. We just add 4 empty bottles to the already stacked pile…

No worries for the next day, every day faces its own problem, n’est ce pas ?

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