South Africa Highlights

Nelson Madela's House Soweto

Little Boy, Soweto

Waterhole Kruger National Park

Lions in Kruger, they've been mating, that's why they look knackered!!!!



Mummy Hipo, keeping an eye on her baby!!



Enterting Swaziland

New friends on my South African trip

Walking in the Drakensburg Mountains

6.30am Drakensburg Mountains, its FREEZING

Zebras, Addo Elephant National Park

Whale watching at Hermanus

Trisha and I loving the Whale Watching

In CapeTown, 4500 km from Johannesburg

Happy Birthday Mum!

Nelson Mandela's cell Robben Island

Hello All

Goodness, this is the last update to my blog whilst I am overseas!! I can hardly believe the time has pasted so quickly.

The last 18 days has seen me travelling from Johannesburg to Cape Town overland, some 4500 kilometres!!! We stopped in Kruger National Park for game viewing, Swaziland for walking, Drakensburg Mountains for walking, Hermanus for Whale Watching and onto Cape Town for sightseeing and shopping, plus visiting Robben Island. Whilst in South Africa I have been reading Nelson Mandela's memoirs, The Long Walk to Freedom and I have to say I have found it a compelling and humbling read, bought alive by the fact that I was visiting many of the places he talks about in the book. Today (18th July and Nelson Mandela's Birthday) I visited Robben Island which is the Island and prison near Cape Town where he spent 18 years of his life behind bars.  This amazing man, in my eyes, is nothing short of a hero / saint!! I have very mixed feelings about being in South Africa, I really struggle with the terrible oppression the black, coloured and indian population suffered during the Aparteid years and how they found it in their hearts to forgive the people who treated them so inhumanly!

Anyway, enough of my ramblings, suffice to say that I have found South Africa a very eye opening experience. Have also suffered from a horrible bought of Sinusitus (my first real time of feeling poorly in 7 months) so I had a few days of just sleeping in the truck just opening my eyes every couple of hours (thank goodness for the anti biotics I bought with me :-) And today is my last day overseas as I fly home tomorrow afternoon arriving home in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Words can't describe how much I have enjoyed and appreciated my time away, maybe I'll be able to express it more accurately when I get home.

For the time being, thank you for reading and viewing my blog, I hope you have enjoyed it, its has been fun writing it and now I will have a permanent reminder of my adventures!

Bye for now

The past couple of weeks!

Lion Cub in Etosha National Park!



Little Namibian Chap - of course we had a cuddle



Old Bull Elephant having a drink in Etosha!

Cheetas at a Cheetah Santuary Namibia

Yes I even dried my hair at 6.30am in the open air on a campsite in Namibia!! One can't let their standards drop too much!!

A very very quick update today as I am in  the publci library in a tiny little town in South Africa! I have had very limited access and time on the internet for the past couple of weeks hence my lack of posts on my blog.  Hope you like the few photos I have attached!! Have spent alot of time on game drives over the past few weeks in Etosha National Park in Namibia and Kruger National Park in South Africa.  Have seens loads of amazing widlife but the elusive Leopard has not come into view yet!!

Only just over a week left of my travels now and I just can't believe how quickly time has flown.  better go the library is shutting ofr lunch and the beautiful wild coast of South Africa is calling me for an afternoon walk.

More when I have time and access.

A

A few photos from Namibia

Ali of Arabia - waiting for the sun to rise

The dunes at Soussevlei - stunning



The dunes at sunrise



Dead Valley  - absolutely amazing



Same sign, different people, different country, different continent!



Sun set a the campsite!

Couldn't resist the opportunity for a hotair balloon flight!

Bit of a bumpy landing!!!

I take any opportunity to cuddle a little one

Jesus its cold at night and in the mornings

Hi all

A very quick blog today and we have just stopped briefly in a little town.  Namibia is absolutely stunning unlike anywhere I've been before, choosing a few photos was really hard as have loads that I love, so have just put a few here!! I have to mention the cold though.... oh my god, at night its below freezing, no joke, sometimes there has been ice on the ground and when you are sleeping in a tent, its brutal.  I have about 6 layers of clothes and 4 layers of bedding and I'm still cold!! If anyone is considering coming to Namibia, I would definately recommend it, but definately not recommend camping in June, its just sooooo cold.  Thankfully I am staying a lodges and hotels in South Africa where I imagine it will be just as cold at night!! Thats all I've got time for for now. 

A

Bye Bye Teacher Ali ...

The girls sing a beautiful song!

Professional Ugandan Dancers!

Oh dear!! trying to copy the professionals!!

Receiving gifts

Me and some of the kids

The 4 children my friends and I are sponsoring!

Saying Goodbye to Justine breaks my heart!

Jonathan loves sunglasses!

Nakato aged 5

Junior aged 3



Rhoda, aged 7



Playing in the street!

I can't believe how quickly 4 weeks can pass! It literally seems to have flown by. Again I had a wonderful leaving ceremony, this time shared with a welcoming ceremony for 2 other volunteers and also a celebration of African Childs day.  We had a whole afternoon of singing from the children, dancing from a professional dance troup !!! (and of course the not so professional volunteers got roped in to embarress themselves, which the children LOVED) and as is the Uganda way, lots of speeches.  I think in every single speech the 'wonderful' generator was mentioned and hearty and sincere thanks given to me (and everyone who helped pay for it) It truly has made such a difference to the school.  I have taken a video of a fantastic speech that 5 of the girls gave, and they said thank you for buying us the very good generator, it was hilarious and I wish i could upload it to the blog as you would all love to see it and it would make you laugh.  I will try to circulate it when I get home.

Obvioulsy I was in floods of tears again and when it came to my turn to give a speech the words just wouldn't come out and every time I opened my mouth all that came out were sobs!!! I really must get a grip on these tears !!! haha

As I am sure you have gathered I have, once more had the most amazing time in uganda and been thrilled to be part of CALM Africa again. I must say the people I met and have spend quite some time with now are some of the most wonderful, generous and hospitalble people I have ever met! I am very sad to leave them. :-(

I have now moved on and am in Windhoek Namibia, having arrived yesterday afternoon I am struck by the complete and utter contrast to Uganda, so far I have found Windhoek to be thouroughly modern, all the roads are tarmaced andin excellent condition, there seems to be little (obvious) poverty though I expect this will change when we get into the countryside! It is also very sort of dead looking (wish I was better with words) What I mean is that is is such a contrast to Uganda which is so green and lush, where the grown here is very dry and arid looking and its also the winter so whilst lovely during the day, its FREEZING at night, last night I was completely frozen.... and I was in a hotel room so I can't begin to imagine whats its going to be like in a tent!!! So this morning I have been out and bought thermal underwear to wear in bed, a termal sleeping bag liner and a very thick hoody to try to keep me warm in the evenings!!! Wish me luck !!! :-)

Anyway, off now to meet my fellow travellers and to get a good nights sleep before starting off on our trup tomorrow.

Bye for now

X

YES, we had the power .... and now so do they!!!!

Inspecting the Generator

Testing it to make sure it works!

The money changes hands

The little girl in the shop kept me entertained

Traveling with the generator in the back of the pick up

Arriving at the school

Carrying it to its destination

Some of the little ones wondering what it is!

Is baby Paul giving me the finger??!!

Africa can sometimes be very frustrating!!!!!!!


I have now been at the internet cafe in Kampala for approx 2.5 hours and have tried to upload photos 4 times to my blog.  There is a massive thunder storm going on outside so the electricity has cut out (no big surprise there) and we are now running on a generator - which has also cut out twice ( this wont happen with the new flash generator we have bought!), so every time the photos have just about uploaded the power cuts out and I loose them again gggggrrrrrrr :-)

Anyway, I just want to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to my fund raising campaign, YOU HAD THE POWER and now, so do CALM Africa and the Jolly Mercy Learning Centre.

By the middle of last week we had reached the necessary target to allow us to go out and start shopping for a generator.  We went out on Wednesday morning and again yesterday.  We shopped around a bit to make sure we got a fair price and yesterday morning we found the ideal generator.  It is a Honda generator which is what the chaps at the charity had hoped for as it is the best brand on the market, it runs on Petrol rather than Diesel as in the long run it will be cheaper to maintain. So yesterday lunchtime we paid for the generator and transported it back to the School and had it all wired into place.  Until next week it will be stored safely in one of the offices when a secure area will be built and where it will remain thereafter. .

Once again, thank you so much to everyone who contributed, the chaps at the charity and the kids were absolutely over the moon and we couldn't have done it with you.  You have truly made a difference to their lives.

 

I am leaving Uganda once again this week and am sure I will be just as tearful as last time and am already dreading saying goodbye!! So I head to Namibia on Friday morning for my 2 week camping trip! so will blog again when I get the chance though I think it may be a little more difficult as we are staying in some quite remote places.

Thank you again to everyone and if you would still like to make a contribution to the 'Power' fund, its not too late, we are now collecting money so that they can buy enough fuel to run the generator for some time, so please donate all you like :-)

Bye for now