Karkloof Canopy Tour

On our way back from the Drakensberg we stopped in Karkloof for a Canopy Tour in the mountains. As you can see above, this consisted of about 8 zip lines suspended in the trees and we started at the top and zipped from one platform to the next until we were at the bottom. It was pretty awesome and we had great views of the forest below.

The Drakensberg Mountains

This past weekend we went to the Drakensberg mountains. We stayed in this isolated little B&B (above). Our room had a walk out door to the back patio and I woke up early one morning and sat outside to watch the sun come up. There were tons of birds flying around and singing all their different songs and a one of "africa's deer" came frolicking up to the pond in our back yard. It was my favorite morning by far. It was so peaceful there as we were away from pretty much all noises except for nature and an occasional car that drove by. If you look at the last picture on this post it shows the view we had from our back patio.
Saturday we went for a couple of hikes. The picture above and the two below show some of the beauty we say while on our first hike, The Blue Grotto trail. It took us through a very dense rainforest-like area of the mountain and we pretty much followed a stream the whole way until we got to the "grotto" (picture below). This area was absolutely stunning. There were two waterfalls (the one in the picture below) and another bigger one. The water was ice cold, however, so we could not swim in it. After we left the grotto we hiked up for a little ways and came out of the forest on the top of one of the mountains (much, much smaller than the Rockies) and had a spectacular view of all the mountains surrounding us. Our hike back down was through a field and was not our favorite part. We did almost have a run-in with some baboons towards the bottom but we made it back without incident. We went on one other hike that day to a gorgeous waterfall but the hike itself was not too exciting unfortunately.
We went back after this and had a glass of the most delicious wine and took a dip in the pool as the sun was setting. It was lovely. That night we went to a buffet dinner at one of the golf resorts nearby. They had some great food and a huge selection. They called it a mega buffet. While we were eating we met some people from Cape Town who were there for a conference. They invited us to have a drink after dinner so we hung out with them all night. It was fun to talk to them and to learn more about South Africa from another perspective.

Weekend Adventure

This weekend we are heading northwest to the Drakensberg Mountains. We are staying in Champaigne Valley in a little B&B called River Crossing. We are driving up today and leaving Sunday. We plan in doing some hiking, maybe some abseiling and on our way home we are going to do a 3-hr canopy tour in Karkloof. More to come after this weekend! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend too!

St. Lucia and Cape Vidal

This is a lake behind the ocean at St. Lucia. We took a weekend trip north of Durban to St. Lucia. We rented a car to get there and had our first experience driving on the left side of the road. It's actually not that hard. St. Lucia in a beautiful little town situated along the Elephant Coast in a nature preserve. Friday we went to Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve and went on a day-long safari. Saturday we drove up to Cape Vidal and did some snorkeling and then drove back in time to go on a boat tour on the St. Lucia Estuary. We didn't in our day there. After grabbing a bite to eat, we went on a night safari. This was pretty awesome. We used a spot light to find animals. Our tour guide was so good. I don't know how he spotted some of the things he did. On sunday we got up early and went on a kayak tour of the esturay. Its amazing how close you can get to the crocodiles in a kayak. Apparently they are scared of them and will leave you alone. We did get rained on while paddling but the rain brought out the most beautiful rainbow, so it was definitely worth getting wet.

Cape Vidal. Directly North of St. Lucia along the Elephant Coast.

St. Lucia

This the ocean at Cape Vidal where we did some snorkeling. The reef wasn't very pretty but there were some cool fish.

Cape Vidal beach
South African sunset over the St. Lucia Estuary

The "squirrels" of St. Lucia. These little monkeys were everywhere!

This is not very easy to see but can you make out the cars on the shoulder? This 2 lane highway was usually a 4 lane highway. Apparently in South Africa, people who drive slower, drive on the shoulder so the other cars can pass. Even Semi's do this. We had no idea what was going on at first but it is actually pretty awesome because you don't get stuck behind the "sunday drivers".

African Safari in Hluluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve

This is a croc we saw while on a boat tour of the St. Lucia estuary

While on the same boat tour, we floated over this hippo that was hidden under water and he shot out from under the boat right in front of Lindsay and I. It was like a tidal wave and scared the pee out of us. Definitely was not expecting it. This is the hippo staring us down afterwards. Soon after this he marked his territory by pooping in the river and swinging his tail like a little motor back and forth making the poop fly. It was quite hilarious and I'm sad i didn't get it on video.
Warthot basking in the cool mud.
Warthog mom and her baby grazing after soaking in a mud bath.
White Rhinoceros- These are the nice rhinos. They are very docile while the black rhinos are very territorial and will charge at you. Both the black and the white rhinos are gray but the white has a flat "beak" while the black has a pointed "beak". This is due to the foods they eat.


Mom and baby elephant cooling off in the water. At this age, the baby doesn't know how to use its trunk properly and just uses it as a toy.


Gnu (not sure on the spelling)

Turtle in the road! Our driver had to move it out of the road or he said it would get run over because everytime a car passes it turns around and starts heading the other way. It is too slow to get across before the next car comes so it turns around again to go the opposite way. You can see how he might get stuck there forever.
Herd of Cape buffalo (not water buffalo) cooling off in the river.

A little baby Zebra! Doesn't he look like he should have rockers on the bottom of his feel and be a child's toy rocking horse?

Our only cat sighting of the whole safari. A couple of Cheetah's just chilling in the grass.
This elephant was on the hunt for a woman. You could tell by his aweful smell and the secretions dripping from his "you know where" letting the female elephants know he's ready to mate.

A herd of Elephants we spotted on our way into the park

Our first animal spotting was this hyena.

Pediatric Resuscitation Unit

This is the Peds Resuscitation Unit that we have been working at the past 2 weeks.

King Edward Hospital

These pictures below are of King Edward Hospital where Lindsay and I are working. As you can tell, it was built in the 1930s and has had few updates since. This is where the poorer families go to receive their health care when a hospital is required. It is considered a tertiary care center. Most people must first be seen in their primary care center before coming to the hospital unless it is an emergency. South Africa is trying to establish more primary care much like the USA.

This is the Pediatric Outpatient Department. There is usually a huge line of people waiting to be seen.



Notice all of the pipes that are running outside to and from all of the buildings. Must not have much of an underground system.

uMlazi

This picture above is a bunch of shacks built along the street of uMlazi. These were built to function as the stores of the area. There was even a working dry cleaners in one of them!


We toured the township of uMlazi on Sunday. It was a very eye-opening experience. It is the biggest township in Durban and it is separated into different areas which are named with the letters of the alphabet. It is so big that they had to start using aa, bb, cc, etc. There are about 750,000 people living in this "small" area (small for the population). Everyone is very poor but certain areas are worse than others. There is an area called 17 section which was nicknamed "Uganda". People on one side of the land support the ANC (African National Congress) and the other side supports the IFP (Inkatha Freedom Party). Those that support the ANC live in this area:
They are extremely poor and have built shacks out of dirt, wood, and metal to live in. Most have no electricity or running water. The people on the IFP side of Uganda will literally shoot anyone in their area that comes through wearing or saying anything that supports the other parties and vice versa for the other side of Uganda. That is why it acquired that nickname. Very, very dangerous.




These pictures are of a home that we were able to go in to see what the living conditions were like. This family had electricity but it was very dangerous because they have a very leaky roof so when it rains the electrical cords get wet. Often the people have to cover themselves with plastic when they sleep to keep dry.
Here is their kitchen. You may notice the chicken in the blue tub. That is their dinner for that night.
Here is their kitchen sink. When the bucket gets full the drop a tablet into the water to purify it and they use that water for other things so that they don't just waste it.
This is the toilet were everyone from the home goes to the bathroom. They use magazines as toilet paper.