Warthogs and Whale Sharks

 Drakensberg Mountains;  ten thousand year old Bushman paintings....the guy in the middle is an Alouettes fan.We had a 6 hour hike to get to these.

      Here we are climbing up the Sani Pass for our visit to Lesotho. Note the switchbacks in background.

  In Lesotho we visited a sheep shearing station .Cath, one of our group, is busy trying to rescue a rejected thirsty lamb. All the shearing is done by hand with a very sharp pair of scissors...the sheep have learned not to move.

 Our team and truck number three , which is the one that will take us all the way to Cairo.
 Turns out to be a pretty good team of travelers.

 This warthog visited our campsite in Swaziland. We went for a couple of selfguided walks in the nature reserve. the most colourful wildlife we saw were a couple of old hippies from Oregon.

                                                           Jane and Mike...one month in.

                                                  Look closely . Hint: Southern Right Whale

    A small orphanage in Swaziland that Mike and I founda few kms from our campsite. These kids are mainly orphaned by Aids . Before the picture was taken they had to run and get their bike.

We have entered Mozambique ( 84 dollars and a long wait) and are spending three days at Tofo Beach. Mike was hoping to build on an earlier surfing lesson but settled for a boat trip to swim with a young whale shark ( 4 meters long, they grow to 15). He was one of the lucky ones who actually was within arms reach as the shark swam by. I settled for a long walk with a truck mate.

We should tell you our posts will not be often as it is difficult to find a connection when we have time to write. We're told that this part of Africa is better serviced ..with fewer opportunities ahead.
 
 Happy 88th Birthday Dad!

Penguins at Rocky Point - a few (very few, there were a lot!) of the residents.

At Cape Agulas - the most southern point of Africa - will we get tothe most northern?  Where is that anyway?

Addo elephant

The cooks (and dancers) at Coffee Bay.

The round house which was where dinner was served.  Bring it on!

Fyn-something or other - the South African flower.

We are sitting in our campground reception tapping away at the computer - whic is about 8 inches too high - this entry will be brief!  We have been pretty busy so I'll just cover the more memorable bits.  Our first semi-major glitch has happened as our truck is at present having the brakes repaired.  Should be good to go tomorrow, other wise, as Nancy Sinatra said, "start walkin'".  Addo Elephant Reserve was outstanding.  We went on a couple of game drives but the est bit was the blind about 80 meters from our tent where we could watch a steady procession of elephants arrive at the water hole.  Highlights would include a stately (and enormous) old bull (drove off a young male "not ready yet dude"), several mothers and young to very young babies, and a fairly young male who took offense to a bird and tried to drive it off (to no avail).  The elephant put considerable effort into trying to swat the bird with his trunk.  No luck. 

Tsitsikamma Coastal Park was perched right on the edge of the sea, with large rollers crashing on the rocks.  What really made that special was when night fell, each roller was lite up by an erie green glow, that would run along the wave as it broke. 

Front page story, 1st impressions, and tv soaps

Our first day saw us buy a local paper - mostly not very revealing to a Canadian but there was a front page story you will like.  An apartment dweller a few km away from our hotel found a Cape Cobra in her bathroom.  By African standards it was not such a big deal - only a meter long and way way down the list for most poisonous.  I'm quite excited about the Black Mamba - 15 feet long, able to reach speeds of 23 km/hour and able to raise itself 1/3 of it's body length.  A bite allows you to reflect on eternity for about 30 minutes.  They are fairly common from here to Ethopia.

The first impression of our group was a bit misleading.  They don't look too much different to the crowd at Jane's storyfest.  About an even split between "mature" and "young".  Fortunately we didn't start to talk big - they make us look like kindergarten travel-wise.  One guy has 95 countries under his belt and between the lot they have been just about everywhere.  And are very good campers I may add.

We also had the chance to watch a few South African soaps.  Alot of sex and every once in a while someone gets bitten (or threatened) by a snake.  I'm not too familiar with American/Canadian soaps so don't know if that is a global pattern.

We've toured a couple of wineries , which are set in the middle of miles and mles of grape vines on sloping hills .The wine industry is huge and provides something like 6 percent of the worlds total production.

Highlites of our tavels along the east coast include Cape Agulas , which is the southern most point in Africa; the Rocky Point penguin colony  and in Hermanus a pair of southern right whales. They were moving along the rocky shore lineonly a few meters out and did that tail thing ( and we think we have some great video).

We're now into beach area and are debating surfing lessons.

Cameleaon (sp?)

Workers at Stellenbosch wineries (Jorden Wines)

Day 3 in Capetown

We have a couple of days under our belts now and I think have pretty much moved into Cape Town time.  The city is quite beautiful, what with the sea on one side and the mountains on the other.  Very modern and very western feel to it.  We were up Table Mountain a couple of days ago and yesterday took in the botanical gardens and a winery by way of a very handy city tour bus.  It isn't all that big a city, but is quite spread out - awkward with 2 mountains (and we are not talking Mount Royal here) smack in the middle of the city.  Reminds us of Vancouver but there isn't much space between mountain and sea!  We meet our group tomorrow, and get under way the next morning.