A long day but not much to report. We got off early and drove 4 hours to Durban to catch a flight to Port Elizabeth via Johannesberg. Tomorrow we begin touring the Cape provinces in the south and west of South Africa. The area we have been touring in the north and east is suffering one of the worst droughts in decades. Only with irrigation can agriculture survive at all and the water supply is running low. Many farmers are beginning to sell off their stock. ...

Today was our day to tour some of the museums and battlefields of the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). The first was Talana Hill at Dundee, the site of the first battle of the war on October 20, 1899. From there we drove to Ladysmith, the site of a 118 day siege of the town and the British forces by the Boer. Good museum which covers not just the siege but much of the background and history of the war. The last site was Spioenkop, where the British suffered a hu...

Another early morning start. Saw a number of animals as we left the Park. The land north of Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park is quite barren. There is some subsistence agriculture and a few cattle, but little else. Unemployment is quite high here. As we moved further west, we ran into more plantation forests. Around Vryheid grazing land was prevalent and cattle were numerous. A major stop of the day was the Blood River battle site which was a decisive battle in t...

Today started out cloudy and in the low 20s but, after several days of 40+, we welcomed it. Our touring day started with a cruise on the Saint Lucia estuary. Plenty of hippos, a number of crocodiles and lots of birds. After the cruise we spent a few minutes touching our toes in the Indian Ocean. Water is quite warm here, even in their winter. By noon, we were back to the 30s. We left St. Lucia at 1:00pm heading to the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Park. On t...

Left Reilly's Rock and made our way to a candle craft place. Great workmanship. As we proceeded east and south the landscape changed. A great deal of sugarcane and the associated sugar mill operations. The whole area (both Swaziland and this part of South Africa are experiencing extremely dry conditions. Rivers are very low. The drought is quite noticeable. The owner of the B&B we are at says it is the worst drought in over 25 years. Even the planta...