Well we arrived in Johannesburg and got picked up and taken to the hostel, which is pretty out of the way but has a couple of shops within walking distance - as no where in j'burg is really safe to walk esp for white girls.

We didnt do much on Tuesday when we arrived except sit in the sun and catch up on sleep we didnt have on the plane - even though we were lucky enough to get ugraded on the flight from Heathrow to J'burg - Thanks Barry!!

On Wednesday we went on an afternoon tour to Soweto which was a real eye opener! seeing all the shanty homes although the guy who took us on the tour was so prud on soweto and how it has progressed, he also took us to the Hector Pieterson museum in Soweto which is all about the demonstrations in June 1976 about the Afrikaan language in school. We also saw Nelson Mandela's old house (now a museum) and Winnie mandelas house and Desmond Tutu's house (on same rd as nelson mandela's)

 On Thursday we got picked up by Viva safari at 9am and met a couple of girls from Oxford (originally from Stoke-on-Trent) and a girl from Cork on the bus and so we set off up to the Kruger park. We arrived there about 4ish and so before we even dropped our bags off we saw behind the lodge a giraffe walk by so close which was amazing! We were taken on a sunset game drive in the grounds of the camp we were staying in.  We saw giraffe and an elephant really close that when the ranger tried to reverse closer so we could get better pics the elephant got very disturbed and mock charged us - which was really scary as he opened his ears full, trumpeted and stamped his feet and he was only about 15m away from us if that!! We also saw Nyala (antelope) and impala (small deer - v cute like bambi!).

Then at about 7.30 we were taken to our treehouse camp where we quickly dropped our bags in the treehouse which was v rustic but so cool!! and then had a 3 course dinner. The next morning we were at breakfast for 7.30, Nicola (girl from Cork) then had to nip down to her treehouse to pick up her bag before we set off, but while we had been at breakfast a group of 6 male adolescent buffalo had blocked our path way and were looking v aggressive at which point one of the rangers started to get a bit ansy which didnt help us, i was ready to dive in the swimming pool if they stampeeded!, luckily they didnt but Ronald (manager) had to drive nic down through the buffalo to her house. Once that was sorted we got on our way for our 1st game drive in Kruger, where we were in an open vehicle and saw elephant, impala, zebra, wildebeast, hippo's, 4 baby cheetahs sat in the shade under a tree only 50m from the road!! It's amazing how all these animals are just at the side of the road or quite often cross the road/path in front of you! We also saw loads of different birds - eagles and things, and different trees it was really cool!

Our 2nd full day on safari we went to Moholoholo Rehabilitation centre, where we saw rescued animals/ orphaned animals etc such as endangered birds like eagles and vultures, a honey badger - which i stroked (very coarse) and 4 lions which we saw so close up, there were also leopards, wild dogs, hyenas, and cheetahs, 1 of which we got to stroke and it was so cute!!

I am running out of time on the computer now but i will carry this on tomorrow when i buy some more internet time, i will also try and put some photos up then too!

Hope everyone is OK, let me know any news

Love to you all

xxxxx