The Weekend 28-29

First off I want to say that I'm doing all this blog from memory and going over my pictures. I had tried to journal the first few nights I was over there, but remember I said how high the humidity was? Well the book I had put together with all the info I thought I would need, was actually falling apart because of the moisture. The stuff I had glued in was actually falling off the pages and the paper was so moist that then pen would hardly write on it. It was truly amazing . So, there's probably a lot I'm missing or leaving out, I'm sure. When I was visiting Nikki he had pulled out a couple of the letters I had written and I could see that all the pictures I had imported into the letter were not even legible anymore, the ink had run so bad on them! I had made him a calendar with cow pictures, which was on the wall and the cows looked like something out of the twilight zone, all morphed out of shape and running down the pages! The last week and a half I have been putting together a book on Canada: size, maps, info, animals, etc. plus the pictures from my visit, that I am having printed up for him and Fundiswa the little girl that I am also wring to over there. Hopefully it will last longer, at least that's the idea. So that's what I have been busy doing all week. Did I mention I'm doing a book as well full of all the photo's of the trip? I've been waiting for the rest of the group to send me their pictures and I only have one person left. Figuring out what pictures to put where and stuff has taken a lot of time; making for the lapses in keeping up to date here.
Now onto the weekend.... we were asked if we would like to pay our way and go on another safari this weekend, which of course everyone agreed to. It was quite a distance away, as seems everything in S. Africa, probably 2 hours there at least. Ian was kind enough to drive us, yet again, but wasn't quite sure if we were on the right road at one point. We said 'well, let's pull over and ask someone. Look there's 2 fellows over there.' Ian's reaction was one of almost total disbelief! 'Oh NO he said, we're driving a van! You never ask for directions in a van, their liable to shoot us all to steal it!" Now you have to understand that over there just about every van is a "TAXI" so that those who own them, earn a living. Everywhere you go you see people standing on the sides of the roads and when they see a van they hold up their hand in a kind of L sign, which is the sign for a taxi. I think that's the way just about everybody gets around. I heard someone say you can get 23 people, 3 babies and a small pig in a 12 person van. I think probably more! And I heard they charge extra for your groceries too! Anyway, a little further on he saw a lady he must have thought looked ok, so he stopped and asked her. I also remember him making some comment about one of the fellows who was quite short, something about him being a Pygmy and they are violent. I was sitting towards the back and didn't catch it all, wish I had! We made it to the game park, by around 11 and headed out on the game drive. Bad time of day for a game drive though, as it is the hottest part of the day and of course most of the animals are deep in the bush keeping cool and resting. We did manage to see elephants, giraffe, zebra, baboons, 2 rhino, way off in the distance (that's the difference between the national parks and places like Ngala, where I was later....Ngala you are off road and closer to the animals) It was a great time though and we all enjoyed it. There was a gift shop at the entrance which we stopped at, but guess what! Power outage! Something about us and gift shops. There's was another at the main area where you caught your jeep, but there machines weren't working properly. I bought something ok, but Carol's card wouldn't work, so I was going to pay for it for her, only mine wouldn't work that time either. Carol and I were having an awful time trying to get money or charge things. The cards wouldn't work half the time and we were told not to go to the banks because of either muggings or the fact that it took hours of going from one cashier to the next to get the cash. We were getting rather desperate towards the end of the trip. That made short work of our Saturday. Sunday Carol, Ev, Andrea and I went walking outside Zinkwazi. Another bad move on my part. High temp., high humidity, uphill. What more need I say? There was a very nice beach along the road that the young 'uns had found a few evenings earlier, so we wandered back that way and Carol and Andrea stayed to swim. The surf was really strong there, all the time, so it wasn't for me. You could hear the roar of the waves at our lodge. Ev and I wandered back and hung out for awhile. The lodge owner Peter and I chatted at every meal and one day we had been discussing scones. So we decided that he should do a high tea for us (instead of lunch) on that Sunday. Turned out to be really nice, but that was the worse day I had seen for flies! Everything had to be kept under netted covers. It was the worst I had seen them and neither Peter or Linda knew where or whence they came. They were gone by dinner. Ev and I did some laundry in the evening and that was the end of the weekend.