Safari Time

NOTE

Due to the lack of WiFi I am mixing the days into one entry here and hopefully can get the whole lot out in one shot. This particular entry will not be too well edited as it has taken a while to put it together

An early start this morning, only because they stopped serving breakfast at 08:00, what do they think we are…… tourists???

We headed straight into Durban, no real reason other than it was there, as you should know we are not city lovers. The main motorway that we were on ran straight into the city centre and the continuing road ran straight to the beach. Durban is fairly unique in the cities we have visited in that there are beaches right downtown and stretching for many kilometers.

Below are some sand sculptures

After our brief city stop we headed north along the coast to Umdloti where the guide books suggest we will be able to see many dolphins, I believe the author of the guide book was unable to tell a dolphin from a container ship, as there were plenty of those waiting to enter port!! We stopped there for a coffee, but still not a dolphin to be seen.

Typical of housing along the route

We headed further north to Dilinza Forest where there was a boardwalk set up in the tree canopy. Again, nature eluded us as it appears that all the birds were having a siesta! However, we got a good walk for our daily exercise.

As we walked underneath the tree shown above, it was just like walking in a rain shower. At first I thought the tree had someway of shedding excess moisture, a solution I could live with. However, further questioning led to the truth, it is a rare occurrence where a spitting bug ingests too much sap and has to er……… get rid of it!

These multi trunked trees are Natal Milk Plums

What is it?

After a chicken curry pie from the local Spar store we headed off to our destination for the next 3 nights, Hluhluwe. Phonetic pronunciation attempts to be sent as a comment…. No need to be shy!

The drive was through picturesque rolling hills and we arrived after about 3 hours. Unfortunately, the driver, the navigator, the map and the GPS could not determine where we had to head to for the final 30kms. We finally found a gateway to the park where it should not have been and after a lot of discussion we were allowed in! Not the warmest of welcomes but what we saw within a few minutes of entering made up for it!

Accommodation in the distance

We finally made it to the lodge where we were checked in, again not with out difficulty as it appeared we had a number of reservations, one for 3 nights and one for 2 nights plus one night!!! Finally, we got to out room which was great with fantastic views right across the open spaces. Next problem occurred about an hour later, after we unpacked, Lyn went to close a window as the wind was very strong and blowing the curtains all over the place. Window closed fine but the wind continued……. Window had no glass. Lyn went back to reception who apologised profusely and gave her a new room. New room was fine, except for the view, it consisted only of trees about 10ft away. My turn to visit reception, most of you know how diplomatic I can be in these situations (!!), but I behaved really well and walked out with the key for our third chalet. The view from here was infinitely better than the second offering and about half as good as the first. It was also a stand alone 2 bedroom full catering chalet about twice the size than the one we had paid for, I just feel (slightly) sorry for the people who had been upgraded to this chalet and were given our second choice instead.

All the above took a couple of hours to sort out, after all this is Africa! Evening meal is included in the deal so we headed off for food, then back for an early night as we had to be up by 0430 (yes half past four) the next morning.

Next morning we fell out of bed at the appointed hour, got ready and presented ourselves at the pickup point. All went smoothly with the bureaucracy except for one elder English couple who forgot to bring their ticket (they could easily have passed, in looks and voice, for Lord and Lady someone or other). When the guide asked (tongue in cheek) why they had forgot the ticket the husband answered in loud, perfect Etonian English “because we’re bloody stupid!” They got on the truck with no further problems!

Below is a series of pictures from the trip.