10/03 to 12/03

Sunday evening and on the way back from Hogsback; 180km drive from camp.
Apparently JRR Toltkein was inspired to write the Hobbit/LOTR from staying here. It certainly is very beautiful

Chatted to some students from Rhodes uni on the Friday night, but they all went off to their tents at midnight, and we went back to the bar.

I don't know what happened but I blame Miriam as she started it with the tequila slammers, then AJ with sambuka shots, Ben with vodka shots, so I went and got shots of Jagermeister and a red bull type liquer.

The long and short of it is I eneded up going to bed at 6 am, when it was getting light and ended up sleeping in one place or anothe during saturday to recover ... I amd not 18/20 anymore! The view from the lawn is nice, see below


The weekend before last we did go for a stroll around camp, it's about 3000 Ha but fantisatic views as you can see.

Saturday night we also had a braai


And we do actually do some hard labour, alien plant removal, or three hours in the sun cutting out a foreign tree that's sucking the soil dry. We recycle the wood though!

09/03

Okay, better internet place so have now loaded the photo of the group
















Addo Elephant Park was fun too last Friday













Weekend was spent exploring the reserve around Esingeni, we even found leopard tracks so that makes sleeping in the tents more exciting!

Off too Hogs back tomorrow evening for the weekend. Must go as most my time was spent upgrading Wayne's laptop with a better virus checker and sorting out his OS updates ... somethings you can't escape! Hi to all how emailed me, more another time
Graham

25/02 to 02/03

Sunday 26th February
Well I got to SA alright. It was a bit touch and go at Joburg though for the connecting flight to PE. Basically a massive queue at immigration, but after 45 minutes I started to jump the queue, twice and begging to be let in I made it to the front. That was followed by a jog between terminals only to find amassive queue for the dometic flight. I was told to jump that queue in the end and finally made it onto the plane where I fell asleep.
Louisa met me at the airport and after a nice refreshing shower we went out for a late lunch. That evening after talking to one of the girls who worked in the backpackers I was invited along to join her for dinner and have a very pleasant evening 8-)

Monday 27th
Today was a bit of a wipe out as the other students arrived at various times, especially as one of them had missed his connecting flight. They are Miriam, AJ, Ben and Eamon. Seen here with Wayne Vos our lecturer.


Tuesday 28th
It was overcast and drizzerly and we had an introduction to AGCA and also met Craig the owner of the land we are staying on. Also a nature walk in the afternoon.

Wednesday 1st March
We all got up at 05:00 to watch the sun rise from tone of the ridges at 06:00. Had a knap and after breakfast it started to get warm. It was around 31C/34C so we did the nature walk first thing. We had three lectures during the day, talked about signing up for the FGASA level one qualification and did the paperwork for that. Then we headed out at 16:00 for some fence maintenance as warthogs or pushpigs were digging holes underneath a stip of it.

Thursday 2nd
Drive into Grahamstown, first of all to buy tickets for a lecture by Jane Goodall as part of the SciFest here in three weeks time. I was told about it by a girl I was talking to in PE and told Wayne I wanted to go, and all the others thought it was a good idea. It cost R7.50 so 75p !!! Went to ATM to get more money, luckily the second one worked as I was getting woried after the first one gave me a receipt for taking 0.00 out ?! And now as you can see writing this.
We're off to Ado Elephant National Park tomorrow, so that should be great. More as I get a chance, which may end up being only once a fortnight ... but keep your eyes peeled!