Before I forget want to mention 2 things 1) thanks to Nottley clan for the Plymouth Sloe Gin, we drank that with coke watching the Madagascan sunets and 2) when we were in Durban and jo’burg we noticed that all the elevators are built by a company called Schindler – we couldn’t believe it, i mean Schindler’s Lifts, what a great advertising campaign that must have been!
Well we arrived safely in downtown Mumbai airport, tired from the flight and Chris ironically already suffering from Madagascar belly, how cruel is that. Spent the next 2 hours trying to get some Indian currency, first time we noted the huge beaurocracy associated with any public service, forms in triplicate, entries into large bound ledgers and signatures across everything (just to change 50 dollars!). Out to our govt sponsored and allegedly safe taxi, which is shown in the photo. Place is full of ‘em, manufactured by the mechanically unsound and driven by nutters – crazy journey to the hotel 30km, the boot was so small the driver had to tie it up with string to get our rucksacks in. Did this way heavily on his mind when driving us, not a jot he absolutely barreled along. Scary journey through dark and grubs streets, saw shapes sleeping in doorways and on wooden carts propped against walls, thought initially they’d brought out their dead – still it was 26 degrees at midnight so you can understand why they do it, that and lack of housing of course. Into hotel which looked dirty on arrival but ended up being pretty good mid-range stuff. Asleep at 3, up at midday to venture out into Mumbai. Sleep interrupted by constant beeping of taxis and cars as they try and cream the pedestrians! As we walked through Mumbai to take a look at a few monuments, we witnessed two near fatal RTAs in 1 hour, amazing. It’s like one long game of chicken with people willing to risk their lives just so as not to lose face and actually move out of the way of a bus! Passed by the Naval base main gate, like the attitude, sat there smoking and playing cards all with a mass of gold braid and medals! Passed some beautiful Victorian buildings, a crescent like Bath and a catholic church all of which have not been looked after and are caked in grime. The atmosphere is something to behold, sheer noise and smell. As you walk you’ll get a whiff of inscents? which you breath in deeply, only to walk into a pocket of fetid air in mid breath, nightmare. It sticks with you the smell and we’ll be glad to leave it, it rests on your lips and fills your nose, horrible. Went to the station to try for a ticket to Jaipur and were fortunate to meet an American who told us some details (like you need your passport) and saved us waiting around. Next day we were all action, well up at 10 and out to post some parcels, interesting business. We sat with the bloke while he sewed our gifts in muslin before sending airmail. Took a while, but it was a beautiful piece of work, talked cricket with Jalpy, not sure what his role was but he shouted at the others quite a lot! Soph had been ogled pretty much from the airport, so decided to go native and buy long trousers and short dress. Looked lovely in her gear as the photo shows, but i did have to drag her away from the bazaar before she bought more (and more, and more). We also returned to the rail ticket office, where we laughed at the way all tourists have to queue together. It took HOURS and as we approached the front of the queue, we realised that time was running out atnd it was shutting soon. We saw some french girls being turned away, some Aussie girls pleading for the correct tickets, our hearts dropped this eemed so difficult. When we finally got to front with 8 minutes to spare, we basically started bowing at the waist and being as subservient as possible to the power crazed, non-english speaking old lady who was definitely ‘in charge’. We got the golden ticket though and sauntered past the poor germans behind us who were going to miss the deadline! (2 WWs, 1 world cup and a ticket, under our breath!). With that over with we spent a pleasant evening down by the water at the Gateway to India, british built they must have visited Paris first to copy the arc de triomphe, it was completed in 1924 and used by landing troops as an entry point to the Raj, ironically 24 years later they used it for the last time going in the opposite direction – poor old Pongos! The Taj Hotel was built just before by an Indian Merchant JN Tata, apparently he was turned away by a European hotel so he built his own, very cool. It stands today, overlooking the Arch and is still magnificent. We wandered in, but after a swift look at the menu prices, wandered out again pretty sharpish! The whole area by the Arch is being ripped up and a new park built leading down to it, but at the moment it looks like ground zero. Talked to a one armed Christmas Card seller for a bit on this day, he was deeply religious and said he would pray for Soph to fall pregnant which is nice, I asked him to delay that for a few months – he seemed harmless enough (come on, that was Soph not me). Soph did by some lovely China handles for our dresser and bizarrely I almost bought a sextant. Sunday was a traditional lazy day again for us, we had coffee and toast for breakfast and went for a bimble, streets seemed calmer and lots of families out and about. It is also obviously the day for young lovers, as we walked towards Chowpatty Beach (which for some reason needs to be pronounced with a Gordie accent) there were loads of courting couples. In India it is frowned upon to show public displays of affection so there are 2 results 1) young couples kind of hide from others, crouching next to some bins or behind a cart to escape prying eyes and 2) young blokes touch each other for some physical contact, this is ok with the hand holding and arms round shoulders, but come on fellas…sitting on each others laps is not going to get you a girlfriend surely? The beach area, like a lot of Mumbai, is decrepid but was probably nice once. As your eyes come back from the smoggy horizon, you see the grey/brown sludge of the bay and then the colourful muddy beach, bejewelled with a thousand plastic containers and plastic bags – horrible and people were paddling! Soph decided to combat the staring men by having a henna tattoo on her hand, this only served to increase curiosity (as she was having it done about 20 people gathered to witness it, the Indians are unashamedly nosey) it also served to ruin my t-shirt as it all came off on my back during our snugs. Although Soph seems to have picked up a cold and wanted to head for the hotel, we stayed around for the sunset along with thousands of others all sitting on the sea wall. Well, 10 minutes before true sunset, the sun set as it disappeared into the thick smog – let down. It pretty much sums up Mumbai though. Today we ahve posted some postcards and done a bit more sight-seeing, but we’re just waiting for the jaipur express to take us north at 1900. It’s a sleeper, so should be a real experience. Will let you know when we get there! Love to all and keep sending the comments, it’s not a competition, but make sure you send them under this blog!!
On the Sub-Continent November 26, 2007
Paradise found(between 9am and 5pm only) November 23, 2007
Originally uploaded by chris.warn
Hello all,
We are back in the land of the living after disappearing into Madagascar and beyond.
We left Marco in J’burg airport after an all night driving session.He had clocked up 5000 miles and we were sad to say goodbye to the fella.vw polos are great cars, I actually kissed him goodbye.
We flew that morning feeling pretty weary but very glad we had not been car jacked in J’burg. Arrived at Madagascar after a flight of 4 hours which we spent snoring and drooling on each other to catch up on sleep.Our french conversing began,lots of “pardon’s and ca va’s” with enthusiastic nodding and thumbs up signs.I do wish i had paid more attention in school instead of messing around now.I also blame my cousin Emma for hiding behind the cupboard with me during our french lessons.
Drove to our hotel through weaving streets lined with masses of people(not out to welcome us)and got our first glimpse of hectic island life,lots of people carrying things on their heads,carts,cows,huts,bikes.
We were staying at the capital of Madagascar called Antananarivo,very excited as booked posh hotel as top dollar treat.
Very nice you may say! We said so ourselves and we did discuss the advertised egyption sheets we were about to lie on and the welcoming fruit basket potentially on the cards as we journeyed towards it.
Things began to look a little less than brilliant when our “Sunny Hotel” looked very grubby from the outside and appeared to be above a car sales shop.And indeed as we walked through the car shop to go to our reception we began to feel the feeling every traveller dreads,the sinking heart if someone who has arrived at a really crap hotel!
We were greeted by a man ,looking a little annoyed at our arrival who had teeth like the ones you can buy in joke shops. We have talked about the teeth since and feel the best way to describe them is as having the colour of Sugar puffs with the structure of a Monster Munch crisp.
Not a great look for front of house we agreed and as he led us to our dirty,musty,ugly hotel room you could feel that moral was low.
A plan was hatched and we agreed to leave the island and hotel a.s.a.p for a cheeky jaunt to a nearby unspoilt island called Nosey Be.
We arrived at the airport at 5 in the moring and were still at the airport at 11 with the promise of a flight the next day.To sooth our souls we ate at what was described as “the best restaurant in Madagascar”,we later found out that we had gone to the wrong part of the posh hotel and therefore wrong restaurant. We tried the local wine and would recommend that no one else ever did.Chris perservered with it but only managed half a bottle,which shows just how bad it was.Grey wine as it is called is pretty grim,but very cheap.
Next day off to Nosey Be at 5 and landed on runway so close to the sea that you could nearly see the fish as you went in and yes i did think we were going to crash but didnt tell Chris as i am always making such a fuss!
Our paradise was a sandy concaved bay ,lined with palm trees,a few huts and an outdoor restaurant .The sea was warm and you had to walk for miles to get out of your depth,i personally prefered to run into it after standing on something that moved when i first went in,possibly a crab.Chris was greatly amused by my emergency running and generally jumpy state throughout the week and the highlight of his week appeared to be when he pretended to throw a big slimy sea thing in a shell at me.
The week was spent sunning and swimming and eating very basic food. We would ask for things on the menu and the waiter would just say “no”.our mornings went a bit like this
us”can we have an omlette.”
waiter “no, no omlette”
Us”can we ahve some bread and butter?”
waiter”no,no butter”
Us “can we have a bottle of water?”
waiter”no,no water”
Very funny and not a crisp,cheese sandwich or bar of chocolate passed our lips.
The sunsets were amazing but after 5 pm the paradise became a bit of hell hole,no electricity,no hot water at any time,mosquitos,bed bugs,no exciting meals and the room was so hot without a.c that we used to lay awake at night saying to each other”its so hot,how can a place be this hot?,”and various other moans and curses about it being hot. One night there was also a huge tropical storm which we could see rolling in, masses of lightening and scary thunder.
We later learnt to self medicate with coco rum punches which guarenteed you would sleep in a drunken bliss for about 4 hours before we had to have the “why is it so hot?”converstaion.
Great tan though and think we lost some of our large tummys. Women would walk a long the beaches in the morning selling fruits and i often caught them staring at my white pot belly with great curiousity when talking to us. One of them even prodded it when i was laughing at something.They also robbed us blind by charging Waitrose prices for pine apples and one would get in a right benny if we didnt buy mangoes(the same one who prodded me)
The local people were great and the kids were just gorgeous,all little water babies and very gobby! I had 2 full body massages from the lady in the photos, who was very skilled. Chris also had one, but turned down the second as it brought up his bites!
The taxi driver who drove us to our little beach came to pick us up on our last day , Meme was his name.He told us our plane had been bough forward and with choruses of “”Thanks Meme” and” well done Meme” we chatted all the way back to the airport and laughed together. When we arrived at the airport however we found out it was all lies and he had said it so he could get other fares.This meant the laughing fools that we are,we had to wait another 2 hours extra at the airport.We should have realised from his name that it was all about him.Chris and i spent the 4 hour wait saying to each other “Pour quoi Meme?.pour quoi?” Though it was pretty cheeky it was quite funny. It has also prepared us for the schemes of taxi drivers in India.
We weren’t sorry to leave Madagascar especially as we both have dodgy tummys and Chris has 120 bed bug bites that are driving him mad with itching.
Our beach was beautiful and indeed unspoilt, as was our hut on the beach. We saw that 2 new hotels were being built on the beach as the tourism is beginning to take over. Soon there will be loads of people,sunbeds,ringo rides and Chris and i talked about how it will change so much.We asked ourselves would it be better with more shops,air conditioning,electricity?And like true hardy travellers we agreed that ,yes it would be and a costa coffee would go down a treat there as well.
Glad we did it though and feel like we are a bit more rough and ready. We arrived in crazy India last night which feels like it is a completely new adventure!
Back dated Photos from Cape Town – C 13/11 November 13, 2007
We’re finally getting the hang of this, you will see a photo of us drinking a beer at V and A Waterfront in Cape Town but if you click on image you will see the whole set (hopefully) through the ‘FLICKR.COM’ web site.
Part 3 – Chris 13/11 November 13, 2007
Originally uploaded by chris.warn
The mighty hunter captures an image involving great danger, well snapped and ran!
Part 2 – Chris 13/11 November 13, 2007
Originally uploaded by chris.warn
Soph managed to capture this brills image of a giraffe, luckily he walked up to us!
The last blog from South Africa part 1 – Chris 13/11 November 13, 2007
Originally uploaded by chris.warn
Well we are back in Pietermaritzburg heading North to Jo’burg, with a night drive ahead of us to ditch Marco at the Avis near the airport in the early hours. So back to our favourite internet cafe come laundrette for the final time. The last two days have really been saving the best to last. After the last blog we stayed in the ‘gay friendly’ Prince Alfred Road Backpackers, run by a bloke called Andre, smashing fella, but I didn’t let Soph leave my side the whole visit. Clean and comfortable digs though and slept beneath a pink mosquito net hung above the bed and woke to light streaming through the pink mesh curtains – it was lovely! From there we left to explore the Gwahumbe Lodge near Eston, which had been recommended to us by the guy who ran the Blue Haze Hotel. We arrived in the outback and as we were driving up the very grand drive way through swaying sugar cane fields, we thought ‘this is NOT going to be cheap!’ and so it transpired, but by this time we had decided that we were going to go for it and pay regardless. Arrived at lunchtime and Ali the lady at the desk (from East Sussex originally) signed us in as we tried not to cry at the room prices. As we were led to our room, it became clear why we were spending the money, it was a beautiful place, all lush greenery, plunge pools and thatched terraces. Dumped the bags and then grabbed a map of the game reserve, we turned down the offer of a battery powered ‘rhino’ (like a heavy duty 4×4 golf cart with attitude) so we could walk the paths ourselves and get a feel of real Africa – well i turned down the buggy and Soph stared at me with some barely concealed venomous hatred (like the Drakkensburg hike all over again I’m afraid). Anyway we donned Merrells (shoes) and started the hike. 50 hard yards later we stopped so Soph could change back into her flip flops because her feet were getting all hot and itchy! The great explorers went forth! Anyway it was a hot but lovely walk down the track towards the lodge and waterfall area. On the way we saw giraffe at a distance, wildebeast (they scarpered as soon as they spotted our painfully badly chosen t-shirts, bright red and bright blue, ie just after we left the lodge), impala, zebra and springbok. It was fantastic though because there was no fence seperating us from them and although they didn’t get any closer than 50 metres it was fun. Anyway we waltzed down to the river, entering a wooded gorge, with towering red stone and granite cliffs on each side and birds cawing in real jungle stylee and spent a pleasant hour sitting by a waterfall which plunged into a pool, in which we were told that we could swim ‘at our own risk’ now what the hell does that mean? to us it meant crocodiles or sharks or piranhas or something grim, anyway no swimming for us! It really was straight out of the Tarzan movies, absolutely stunning and something we failed to capture on the camera. Not many animals in this part, but as we backtracked to go into the other area of the park, we met the ranger in his ‘rhino’ (i thought Soph was going to rhino-jack him and push him in the river) he said that if we saw the real rhino we should maintain a safe distance from them, without actually specifying what that distance was, hhhmm. Would you believe it but another 1/2 mile up the path we saw an adult rhino with baby probably about 200 metres away (and no fences) – it looked well hard! It was nerve racking, but using my Naval training I was able to tell Soph that they can barely see and rely heavily on their sense of smell and that we were down-wind so there was no danger…..you can imagine the reaction. Anyway had to try and get closer, so ignoring my wife’s sensible instructions I made like a bootneck and crept to within spitting distance, well about 100metres cowering behind a tree, but you get the picture (or you will in the next photo blog!) it was a great experience, but Soph still thinks i was foolish! we then went the long way round to avoid further interaction with the armoured beastie and went to a lookout post over the hippo pool, where with a bit of patience in the face of fast approaching black clouds we stayed around until, relief, a hippo surfaced and (using the Taylor-Simes present of the spy glass) we got a good gander at this massive pink/grey snorting animal, apparently one of the more dangerous in these parts. We only saw the Hippopotamus, we didn’t see his hippopota-missus! (come on, i laughed like a drain at that) It was a fitting culmination to our walk and we wandered back to the lodge well chuffed. We had a celebratory glass or two of the complimentary sherry (or similar) and had a snooze as the rain swept in, relaxed, happy and a bit drunk, what better way to travel. We woke expecting to have a standard sit down meal at 1900, but when we entered the main building the ranger was there, full khaki kit and ironed socks, and he led us out of the building and across the car park (where were we going, maybe he knew of Soph’s plans to steal his jeep-ette) he then opened up the doors of their spa area and they had set out a table for two with candles/fairy lights, all the food was pre-prepared (salmon salad, fillet steaks and choccy fondue with freshly cut fruit) and they had a huge bath filled with hot, soapy, pre-essential oiled water. Wow, you could have knocked us over, apparently whenever there was only one couple staying (lucky Soph strikes again) they did this as a special treat. Amazing, felt massively privileged. This pampering led to the perfect final night in a hotel in South Africa. Today we have been running around, suffering the beaurocracy of the Indian Consulate in Durban, but we didn’t really care because we were still on a high. Have got our Indian visas now and are going to do an overnight drive, straight to the Airport and sleep when we get there – cheap and back to the ‘real’ world of the budget traveller! Anyway South Africa has been a country of contrasts which has never failed to be exciting, interesting and unfailingly beautiful and suprising. We’ve met good people along the way who have been really kind to us (took pity probably) and eaten like kings without busting the budget or belts just, great place with the complications of being a society that hasn’t yet sorted everything out. Onwards and sideways to the East and Madagascar.
Chris Photo Trial 11/11 November 11, 2007
Originally uploaded by chris.warn
Trial run again for photos put through flickr site. fingers crossed this will work and I can repeat with more phots.
Drakensburgh is the stuff dreams are made of! 11.11.07 (Soph) November 11, 2007
Hello all you lovely people ,we are in Pietermaritzburg (yes i did have to ask Chris how to spell it) Great place.we have found a internet cafe where we can do our laundry and have a smoothie(98% fat free.)It’s brilliant ,so we are spending our Sunday lunch catching up with things in style.
We have just returned from 2 days in Drakensburg hills.This is probably the best few days for me as the countryside has been so beautiful and we have been treated to views that we normally only ever see on big blockbuster films.Glorious!
After our last blog we spent the night in a backpackers in Pietermaritzburgh.Quite a strange one as we camped in the owners back garden next to the compost and chickens(you have to take the rough with the smooth.)
They lived in a massive victorian style house that was full of art and ethnic throws.Quite hippyish and we felt a little strange being in their home.We were woken at 5.30,unbelievably it was not by the smell,but the sound of birds squawking.The birds here are really abundant and noisy. some of them are beautiful but some make a noise like an electric alarm clock.We don’t know what they are called but when we are talking about them at 5 in the morning in our tent,we give them our own special names.
Any way after an abrupt awakening and waking to find i could not turn my head to the right,my first camping injury, we set off for the hills,occasionally singing “run to the hills”Iron Maiden stylie.
Arrived at a stunning lodge named Inkosana lodge at the base of Champagne Mountain.we were sent up to the back to camp and put our little tent in one of the most beautiful settings i have seen so far.360 degree view of lush green mountains with rivers breaking up the space.No other houses,huts or people outside the camp.Amazing and massively vast and humbling.
We decided on a short yomp,i thought 2km due to severe neck injury,chris thought 5 km.We ended up setting off at midday,no mad dogs,just us in the midday sun.We walked in flip flops and when we had to fill in the form to enter the treking area we ticked the boxes saying we had mobiles,first aid kit,warm weather wear,2 bottles of water and topped in off by giving a fake telephone number to contact if needed.All lies and very irresponsible,sorry mum!
The walk was great and we walked to fresh water pools and a waterfall. Unfortunately, after over 2km in burning sun my hormonal temper spoilt the middle of the walk and i stomped as best i could wearing thin flip flops and my top on my head in a turban fashion.Poor lovely Chris avoiding my eye contact as he had sneakily moved us up to the 5km walk.However it was worth it ,the views were incredible and the greenery such a change from our previous desert trip. We looked out for baboons as recommended but did not see any,on our return we found out they were all in the cafe having a banana split(Wey hey!)
Back to the camp for a Braai with other walkers.We met 2 german men with strong jaws both fluent in english and french skills, who had walked for 8 hours literally up a cliff that day as well as spending the last 5 months in Madagascar completing stats at nature parks for their masters.Chris and i left the young talented,hansome ,kind men agreeing that the only reason they had accomplished so much at such a young age was because they were clearly telling porkies and that we were in fact as brilliant as them.
We met up with a lovely brother and sister for Chicago(great accents)over dinner and cackled over her story of being arrested in Belgium in the 70’s over a coffee spoon stealing accusation.Great fun!
After a bit of star gazing at a huge clear twinkling sky we slept like logs.We woke to hot tent tourture at 6, if the birds won’t get you then the sun will!
Off to discover the hills Spioenkop where the battles with Boers and English led to over 300 men being buried in 1900.Again amazing views in all direction and left very much like a cemetry,very nicely done,no theme rides of fancy dress!Special interest to the Liverpool footie supporters my husband informed me ,so boysie and Dave Beavis,this trip was for you.If anyone ever comes here bring a full body mesh suit because the flies are unbearable.
Short drive to Ladysmith where the well researched travellers that we are, discovered the museum was indeed shut on Saturday afternoons and we had just been half an hour too late.Chris then blamed this on the kind man at the lodge for talking to us for long, apologies Ed,that means you!
This in a way was a blessing(for me,) as we headed for a lovely lodge to settle early.I could tell instantly from the managers look of disgust when i asked if we could camp,that this was indeed a little up market.After a short powwow and some self congratulation on coming under budget 3 days running(Hurray!) we decided to treat our selves to a double room with ensuite.1 hour of cooing over the T.V ,towels,massive shower,a.c and kettle later and we had a swim in the most unbelievable swimming pool,set on a hill.The edge of the pool overlooked a massive green valley with a clear blue ripple free lake ,blue skies and birdsong.It reminded me of a gangsta video(not the bird song so much) when they do the dancing in the pool business.As un gangsta as we are, we spent about 30 minutes trying to put the camera on timer and get a photo of us with the view behind us.This mostly involved photos of one of us surfacing too late,not in the shot at all or posing with no photo being taken.
I guess it is one of those places where you have to be there to take it all in and we bobbed about soaking up all the beauty and agreeing we were very lucky people and wishing you lot could be with us to see it all too.
Not much has happened since that,lots of lovely food,big sleep in proper bed and a painful bill paid.Its now sunday and we are hoping to have another luxury night and maybe a rhinno and hippo sigting to tell you about.Thats if the visa card still comes good,we may be asking friends to sell our furniture for us soon.
With any luck we will get our visas for India tomorrow from Durban!
Love to you all and especially to lamb,thorpskie and karkett who have all been in touch.I love hearing from!
Mr Warn is blogging next and judging from stats(yes we are monitoring you)he gets more comments.So far we have had 1828 hits on our blogg!We are still working on the photos as its quite tricky to get them down loaded and it makes my husband swear alot,even on the sabbath!
Quick hello to Pat and Roger too as i know they would love the birds here.The birds sing like crazy and are stunning.We saw some that looked like goldfish and have seen,falcons,yellow birds.And when they are not singing the frogs and crickets take over.Its so loud some evenings you feel like you are shouting above it.The Garden Route was brill for bird watching too!
Well thats all folks!Thanks for looking at the Blogg we love doing it and get ridiculously excited when we get comments.Let us know of anything we could change!
BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Wilderness continued – C 8/11 November 8, 2007
Anyway, we missed the turning to ‘Hole in the Wall’ and continued to Coffee Bay, which was a beautiful beach with an estuary running into it. We really thought about staying until we met the space cadet running their Back Packers, she was just so VAGUE and we were already looking at each other doubtfully when she uttered the phrase ‘ well tonight we’re having a big fire and you can do free style dance and then we ‘re going to have a drum circle, it’ll be so cool’ – we resisted the urge to scream and punch her in the face, going instead for the more tactful, pretending to get our bags and just driving off. Back along the same roads to find the exit for ‘hole in the wall’ and this time successful. It was fantastic, white sands on the beach and a safe large back packers enclosed in the grounds of a hotel, much more our scene.
We tented the first night and moved to a roundel hut the second and apart from getting soem serious chewing off the local bug population everything was good. Met up in the poolside bar after an average steak dinner (sorry the hotel has run out of cheese and salad) and got talking to 2 SAs from Witbank Pretoria, Gary and Giselde and 2 brit foreign office civil servants Mark and Heidi. BRILLIANT night ensued, Stro Rum (80% proof), shooters, lots of rugby talk (soph loved it) and then suprise, suprise Mark and Heidi disappear and come back with a full cheeseboard (with European cheeses), red wine and PORT (Pete you would have loved it) don’t know where they got it from, but next day found out that they were travelling in a Landrover that was so well equipped it prepared their meals for them, awesome. Next day was scorchingly hot, why is that always the case when you’re hanging. Got up early as the tent heated up and our neighbours were shouting about ‘whales’ and we used their binos to look at a few of them frolicking (or whatever whales do) in the bay, now come on is that good or what (Soph has asked me to add that at Hermanus a week ago, we also saw about 8-10 whales in the bay there, jumping noses out of the water and slapping there tails, it was pretty brilliant, a couple of them sort of did a sail past the shore as well, show offs!. Went for a swim, sea still refreshingly chilly to sober up and had a nice day in the sun. Over to our new friends for further laughter and a braai (BBQ) with pap and steaks – lovely. Highlight of the evening was Soph being hit in the side of the head by a flying dung beetle, wow did she shout screaming ‘aaghh it’s a flying mouse’ – fair play to her though it was mahoosive! On road again next day after a short look at the hole..
Inland towards Durban, up Mount Frere where the weather turned bad again and we were driving in 30ft viz, but finally back to coast for an uneventful stay in the Marlin Hotel, not much to say about this Torquay of Africa, but apparently large chunks of the movie Zulu were filmed nearby – I for one didn’t see ‘fousands of ‘em’. Next day 0630 start, into Durban and with great navigational skill straight to the Indian Consulate to apply for visas, not as difficult as we thought, but we can’t pick them up for a few days making it tight with our flight to Madagascar, still we could have done all this in UK if more organised! After Consulate, we drove back south retracing our steps to Warners Beach for backpacker digs in the ‘Irie’ , lovely place and the sun shining again, so straight onto beach, where i used all my professional knowledge to help a kitesurfer lauch, fortunately although tempted did not go for swim as saw these flags as we were leaving beach – why didn’t we see them as we walked onto it??
Have tried for last couple of days to update blog, but internet access patchy and we’ve seen electrical cuts as well which knock everything out, so it has been a bit wild for sure. anyway all going well, still safe and now in Pietermaritzburg on way inland again to the Drakensburg (dragon mountains) which sond like they should be in wales. If any of you reading this haven’t made any comments yet in reply to the blogs, get your arses in gear and drop us a line, we love getting them!
Last point, soph is well but i think there may be something up with her teeth!
