On Sunday morning the photography group loaded into the Quantam and drove to the Drakensburg for a four-day photography and hiking trip. It is a 7-hour drive from Thanda and so the first and last day of the 4 were mainly attributed to travelling, but it was nice to get off the reserve none the less.

The photography is a mixed group of which I think I have given details before, but as a refresher we have:

Betty - 72, American - an amazing lady who has clearly had work and doesn't look a day over 65! Always hunting for exotic animals on the game viewer including tigers, flamingo's and bears and always provides hilarity to every situation.

Linda - 66, American - despite being over 5 years younger than Betty regularly gives the impression of being the oldest on the trip.

Sandra - 45, Dutch - wants to take a photo of everything and spent at least 15 minutes doing it, even if it is a tree!

Noa - 25, American - a spoilt Daddy's girl who thinks that she can have her way and is sure that the world revolves around her.

Michelle - 20, American - a delusional girl who thinks she wants to be a wildlife photographer but screeches at the smallest bugs and god forbid if she thinks she has a spider on her.

Philippe - 19, South African - an individual. Wouldn't say boo to a goose when he arrived, but is slowly coming out of his shell. Has a real interest in plants and wildlife and has some great knowledge about our surroundings.

Emma - 27, Portuguese - our photography coordinator who works for African Impact.

Emil - 32, South African - professional photographer who is also quite the mountain goat who has a passion for the Drakensburg and for photography.

We got to stay in 2 lovely lodges on this trip that both had an abundance of not only water, but also hot water! We all felt like we were in heaven - again it is the small things that make us the happiest.

On our first day after our long drive we hiked to see some cave paintings which was about an hours hike. Emil admitted that this also gave him a general idea of our fitness levels and how he thought we may fare over the coming days. It was quickly obvious that Linda and Sandra were not at the height of their fitness. Betty however powered through everything with her very heavy professional weight camera.

On our second day we started the day with a sunrise shoot that saw us out of bed at our now normal time of 4.50am. We were in position and got some shots. I am just praying that after a bit of blending in Photoshop that I managed to get one or two good shots at least. Back to the lodge for breakfast and then we were out for a day of hiking. We had a small waver when the weather decided that rain was a good idea, but thankfully the sky cleared and we had good weather for the afternoon. We ended going on a trail to some pools, which were not exactly pools and a little disappointing, but it was nice to be out walking and getting some fresh air. We ended up doing about 12km today with camera bags, cameras and tripods. Am quickly realising that you need to carry a lot of equipment to be a serious photography. Am starting to realise why they all like to have assistants.

Our second day also started with a sunset shoot, but I decided to sleep that one out. Betty, whom I was sharing a room with, was feeling a little lethargic from our hike and I thought I would be nice and allow her to sleep and not disturb her by rising at the crack of dawn. It also had the added bonus that I was more rested generally J

Our second day saw us do a 14km hike and we went in and out of a gorge. This had the added bonus that if you felt tired you could turn back at any time and retrace your steps back to our lodge. This meant that about 2 hours in Linda declared her desire to head back. This was before we started clambering over rocks, through streams and across narrow muddy paths. We had gone over a few tree roots and down and up a few muddy crossings, but to be honest, we had been on the tame section of the path. Wanting to keep your shoes dry was futile and it was only a matter of time before someone slipped. It ended up being Betty who was sitting in the middle of a stream with her tripod taking a waterfall shot who ever so gracefully simply slid off the rock she was sitting on into the water. Thankfully her camera was safely above her head, unfortunately the vest she had stuffed the pockets full of her stuff did not fare so well and her beloved macro lens got drowned. It was a saving grace that Betty's photography equipment advisor had her buy all professional standard gear and so the swim her lens took didn't actually harm it thankfully. We were rewarded at the mid point of our walk with being in the middle of the gorge and having a massive hanging boulder sitting over a stream with a waterfall behind it. The photos simply can't be bad… surely! Watch this space for some evidence soon.

We ended our Drakensburg trip with a hike to yet another sunrise. We had some rain overnight, but when we came out in the morning it had stopped so we hiked the 500m up a steep slope behind the lodge to a sunrise spot. It seemed the higher we got the denser the clouds got. As we reached the top and set up our tripods as a final wake up, it started to rain. We sat in the miserable drizzle for 20 minutes waiting for sunrise, but as the clouds continued to close over at 6.15am we decided enough was enough and we headed back to our lodges for a hot shower to get warm and ready for our day of driving back to Thanda.

On Thursday I went back to the crèche for the last time. It was such a lovely morning. We made Easter baskets with the children and gave them ring suckers that Betty bought with her. We only had about 8 children due to the rain, but actually it was easier to focus on basket making and decorating and so was a slight blessing that all 32 were not there.

Our last game drives on Friday were a little disappointing as once again due to rain this week the animals decided to hide and take cover so we unfortunately did not see very much. We of course saw Lions, even though we are apparently the first group in history to specifically ask our guide not to see Lions. Basically Lions, whilst being the kings of the jungle are also the laziest which after the first few snaps of them chilaxing are really rather boring! We were hoping to see the Elephant herd again, however these extremely majestic beasts really cover some ground each day and can be quite difficult to locate despite their enormous size. We were not to be blessed with another encounter of being in the middle of the herd.

My final night at Thanda was spent packing and leaving half my bag for the kitchen staff to split amongst themselves. Despite trying to be less materialistic, I still seem to amass a great amount of goods to be donated at each major stop. The kitchen staff scored shoes, clothes, toiletries, a towel and other random stuff that seems to have made its way into my bag. Sometimes I think my bag came direct from Mary Poppins express as it is still heavy and yet half unloaded!

We headed to the airport bright and early on Sunday and 2 of the volunteers learnt the price of too much partying. Noa and Becca were woken at 6.45am and it was discovered that despite our 7.30am leaving time they were yet to pack. We waited until 7.45am and a decision was made that they would need to catch a cab to the airport. It transpires that they spent the evening drinking into the night and waking with a horrible hangover to discover that they could barely lift their heads from the pillow. Hopefully the 300USD cab ride will teach them to perhaps pack prior to drinking or deal with their hangover a little better the next day. This was a blessing in disguise for us though as we had 2 extra seats in the mini bus so could stretch out a bit more on the 3 hour journey.