After the game reserve of Madikwi I really could not imagine my trip getting any better, in fact I thought that this was the complete highlight... How wrong I was. Dad and I made our way down to Welkom in the free state, to stay at a International Police House. we were met by a guy called james who was a rather interesting character. In fact dad had warned me about the free State guys opinions of women and of course i was not disappointed when we had got lost, the first thing he says to me is "Well no wonder you went the wrong way, shes a woman and blonde!" I nearly hit the roof! It did get better from then on in and we were invited to a Braai with James family, who were all lovely. As Dad is ex police we also went to a police station, dad was in heaven. I was rather thankful that there was not a police van avaliable to take us around the township, the police officers had tried to ressure me that it would be perfectably safe, as I would have a bullet proof vest! What the hell, no way was I going to go anywhere were there is a possibility of being shot at! I was really rather suprised and a little shocked at how many guns are around, I have heard so many stories about the awful things peoples have had to do here its quite unbelievable.

After persuading Dad that one night was definitley enough in Welkom we drove onto a place called Kimberly, a place famous for its Diamonds. We had booked a very lovely hotel to stay at and were welcomed by a awesome guy called Richmond. The main attraction of kimberly is the Big Hole, which is the old mining hole that has been filled with water. Pretty cool to see as you could walk out onto a platform over the top. Apart from the main attraction we headed off to the mall to get some lunch, where we met a guys called JRP. Not actually sure what his name is, this was how he introduced himself. I was now desperate for the internet, it had been a week! JRP helped us out, a great guy!

I found the internet the next day, so everyone was happy! We were then heading off to our next destination a place called Graff-Reinet. Dad has managed to learn how to pronounce this village, much to the amusement of everyone else as he got it wrong for about 2weeks! We were very pleasently suprised whenwe found the hotel, as the lady shoed us around the room, the bedroom was nice and big, witha huge bathroom... she then showed us the next bedroom and second bathroom... the place was enormous! After listening to Dad snoring for the past few days i was very pleased to have my own room and sleep in silence! hehe

Graff-Reinet was just gorgeous, a very small town with huge mountains surrounding it. After the nights stay and meeting some local South Africans, Dad has a way with befriending everyone and anyone, we drove off to see a place called the Valley of Desolation. The Lonely Planet says and I quote, "a geological Phenomenon!" It was pretty impressive, one of the most impressive things I have seen however is Dad doing all the walking and climbing of hills! During this little drive we saw about 100 monkeys and lots of other cool beaver looking things! Oh and I got to drive on a dirt road, I thought that this was pretty awesome until we came across a man who had flipped his car, I didn't drive so fast after that! Next stop Prince Albert and The Karoo!