Hi All,

Well we've reached the end of our south african adventure and are packed up in Pretoria waiting to go to Johannesburg (sp?) airport to fly to Perth overnight tonight. We have driven 3,500 km from Cape Town in a now-filthy 1.2 Corsa, slept in 12 different places and polished off countless strawberry milkshakes (Liz).

Durban Thurs & Fri

We last updated the blog in Durban, which was fairly uneventful, apart from maybe when we took our lives into our own hands to walk along the sea/harbourfront. I dont think we would have felt any more conspicuous or nervous in t-shirts saying "Mug me, I'm a tourist" - but thankfully we lived to tell the tale :) It was still raining in for about the 4/5th dsay, which didn't do anything to lift our spirits!

Central Drakensberg (Champagne Valley) Sat & Sun

Things improved on Saturday when the rained stopped and we drove up through the beautiful Valley of a Thousand Hills (yep, you got it) and 'Midlands Meander', stopping off at the incredibly quaint Granny Mouse's Country House for a drink. Despite the sun shining, this was all done up for Christmas with log fires, trees etc and preparing for a wedding, very strange for December!

We then enjoyed two nights in the Inkosana Lodge, a remote backpackers set in beautiful indigenous gardens under Champagne Castle, the 2nd highest peak of the Drakensberg. We were lucky to stumble upon a festival taking place at the Drakensberg Boys Choir school, and attended a 90 minute show featuring their hightlights from 2008 including classical, pop and African music. It was incredible. The following day we hiked to a huge waterfall in the mountains, which was amazing.

Nelspruit Mon-Thurs

On Monday we drove for 7 hours to Nelspruit, which was fine until we hit countless roadworks, stuck in the intense heat in the car (no, we didn't fork out for air con....drrr). As mentioned, Tues-Weds we went on safari in Kruger National Park (game reserve) with 'Crazy Dave', seeing all of the Big 5 including a family of Rhino meters from the car and a chain of 9 elephants (including babies) crossing the road meters in front of us during our night drive. During the day we were treated to a very close encounter with a cheetah, which strutted along the road in front of us and jumped onto a rock at the side of the road where it sat for about 15 mins - pics to follow.. amazing. We went on 2 morning drives and 1 night drive followed by a braai (BBQ). Weds we visited the stunning Blyde River Canyon, the 3rd largest in the world and natural bathing pools, where Phil patiently queued with all the 10 year olds half his size to jump off the rocks, very amusing.

Thursday we visited the Botanical Gardens to make my Dad proud :) and have since rested, quickly swatting up on Perth before we get there tomorrow.

On reflection, major highlights include:

Cape Town, Kruger, also our time in Storms River Village and the drakensberg for the beautiful scenery.

And miscellaneous memories will be:

Women carrying an array of items on their heads (the record being about 20 6ft logs), lone children playing or selling at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, strawberry milkshakes and muffins, 'threesome' chocolate bars, christmas decorations featuring lobsters, Liz completely missing the sign for a level crossing whilst driving..., hippo roadsigns, listening to Grant and Anele on Five fm, rampant male elephants with wet thighs, guestimating the number of people we would see urinating at the side of the road at the start of each drive, finding loads of cockroaches in the pan cupboard- having already used the pans to cook with, the owner of the Inkosana lodge ringing a bell at 8am to wake everyone up (Butlins anyone?), the seals jumping in the waves during our Mossel Bay ice-cream break, Chameleon spotting on the night safari and receiving an invoice for Miss Elizabeth Noodberg - the best take on Hoodless yet :)