At Home

Now that we are back at home and have access to a computer I thought I would post a few pictures. The trip was great - a beautiful country! Thanks so much to Laura, Tracy and Ian for convincing us to go. Ken has put a few more pictures on facebook and anyone that wants to see more pictures come on by for a slide show.

Les and Ken

We are officially back in Canada. We arrived in Toronto today after a long trip back. Ended up spending about 33 - 34 hours on planes and in airports since we got to Johannesburg yesterday morning. We flew from Joburg to New York then on to Toronto. Not much sleep for any of us either so we are all pretty tired.

We fly back to Thunder Bay on our originally scheduled flight Thursday. Thus we got back here a day earlier than we had first planned. Who would have thought a volcanoe in Iceland would have such an effect on world travel. Since we couldnt get to Portugal for the final leg of our trip we ended up heading back to the beach areas about 100 km west of Durban. We figured since we were planning on just relaxing on beaches in Portugal we may as well do the same in South Africa if we couldnt get to Portugal.

We had a great time playing in the surf getting pounded by the waves and just relaxing. The waves were awesome! Bryce and Calum also got a taste for scuba diving by doing a little session in a tank (no fish etc. present but an experience breathing underwater nonetheless). Actually the place we stayed in and the area were very nice (Wild Waves in Shelly Beach).Probably one our better accomodations although I wouldnt complain about many of the places we stayed. The accomodations for the most part were quite nice and clean. Better than what you would expect when you think of Africa.

All in all it was a fabulous trip. We are all dissapointed we didnt get to Portugal but other than that everyone enjoyed our time in South Africa. We try to think of the place we liked the best but it is hard to pick just one. We each say we really liked it here or there but then think of somewhere else we were and say oh yeah that was really nice too. So it is really hard to pick a favourite. South Africa has lots to offer. We enjoyed the rugged beaches, diving with the sharks, fabulous vistas and scenery around the cape(not to mention the penguins), great parks and awesome game drives (the animals are amazing), hiking in the Drakensberg mountains to name some of our favourites.
Sorry we didnt get many pics on the blog pages but it was often hard to find somewhere to use the internet and then often couldnt get the pics to enter. We do have hundreds of pics so when we are back home those of you who are interested will have to come over to have a look.
Still cant believe how fast the trip went even though I was expecting this. You are getting on the plane getting ready to come home and all you think about is wow, I cant believe its over! It was a great experience especially since the whole family was there. Believe me there were times when it would have been tempting to toss a kid or two to the crocs but I wouldnt have wanted it any other way. Those moments occur at home also so it was worth the occassional screaming match to have the kids there to experience all the wonders with us.
Cheers now. See you all soon!

stuck in Africa

Well we are officially stuck in Africa until next Monday. We spent the last 2 days at the airport waiting around to see if flights would be leaving to Europe but decided it was a waste of time waiting so booked on a flight next week to just go straight back to Canada via New York. The airport was nuts and there were so many people stuck in difficult situations we just decided to take the loss (missing Portugal and losing all our prepaid accomodations etc) Apparently the insurance probably doesnt cover volcanoe erruptions - who would have thought! We are now back in the Drakensberg area (one of our favourite spots) and heading back to the beach south of Durban. Unfortunately the phone service here isnt great and we havent been able to check internet so missed the contact to Rod's brother in Joberg - too bad it would have been nice to have a place for the night - maybe on our way back.
All is well - boys are disappointed about missing Europe but we will just have fun here and do Europe next time I guess.
We arent too stressed about the whole thing - hope everyone is well. We fly home next week April 26 - S.African airlines - via New York. We are coming into Toronto a day early
Cheers - sorry again about lack of photos - we are borrowing computers and dont want to take much time and the internet cafes we have used are very slow and ports for cameras dont seem to work well
Love ya
Les

Hazyview

Hello
All is well. We had a terrific time in Krueger. Saw a whole lot of amazing animals, rhino, elephant, lions, hyena ..... and so much more. The park is amazing. We are now in a nice cottage on the outskirts just relaxing and getting ready to head to Portugal on Monday. We just heard of volcanoe erruption and may have to deal with delayed flights... we will see. We could use more time here anyway. not able to post pictures today - sorry hope to soon.
Les

Hluwe-Hluwe

Yesterday we visited the Hluwe-Hluwe/Imfolozi Game Park. It is a huge nature reserve where animals roam freely and are protected. We drove our landrover through the park and saw some amazing animals. Giraffe, Huge Rhinos, Bontebok, eland, Nyela, wart hogs, zebra, buffalo, wildebeast, kudu, impala and many more. We spent the whole day driving around and hoped to find lion and leopard. We are heading to St.Lucia - just down the road and will be seeing many hippos and crocs as it is on a river estuary. At night the hippos apparently roam the streets. Ang - we were all singin -"I want a hippopatums for Christmas" yesterday. And dad we were calling the lion - "here lion,lion,lion" but couldnt see them through the grass. Calum said this moring that you would be out "exploring" if you were here with us. It has been a wonderful trip so far and none of us can believe we only have 10 nights left. I will have to do a slide show when we come back as most places only have dial up and the internet is slow... I hate to take too much time on the computer to download the photos.
Sorry I am the only one posting - the kids dont seem to want to come to the computer (what a switch!)
Hope all is well - wondering about the mill? Nat and Rob did you win the bonspiel??
Cheers on the job Beth - the student is lucky to have you.
Les

Drakensberg

Today we left the Drakensberg mountains - beautiful - google it. We went for a few hikes and saw a troop of baboons and many eland. Internet is expensive so will post photos later.

Chintsa

Just a quick note to say all is well. Addo elephant park was an amazing National Park. We drove all around and came face to face with huge elephants, many elan and duikker (? spelling) - all like big deer and moose. Saw warthogs, lots of turtles and big tortoises. We did not see the lion although we looked everywhere. We did see the Cape Buffalo (2 of the big 5 so far) We are staying in West Chintsa - back on the coast and the ocean is beautiful. Cant download from this computer so will post pictures later. We are at a backpackers place and I feel a little out of place. Karson fits in better at the bar than Ken and I. Brings back memories of our travels to Australia 20 years ago.
Cheers Leslie

So far mostly we have been near the coast. I do love the ocean. Last place we stayed had amazing waves crashing into shore. Bryce and I saw an octopus. Now we are more interior. This is more how you would picture Africa. More rural, grasslands etc. Hope to see elephants and other creatures tomorrow. This will be ou first safari experience.Looking forward to it.
I included a pic of the family in case you forget what we look like and the other pic is our newest family member. We thought he looked a lot like Calum so we wanted to adopt him.

Addo Elephant Park

We are now in the Avoca River Cabins near the town of Addo. Tomorrow we are heading in to the Elephant Park which is a National Park to do a self drive and check out all the elephants The place we are staying today is quite neat - a bit off the beaten track and we are in a neat Castle like place I will try to post a picture. Ken, Bryce and Calum are off for a paddle down the river. Karson and I are just relaxing. We spent the last 4 nights camping and the parks were amazing. The sleeping tents were tight but it was nice outside. We saw our first baboons on a hike.
Everything is good - I am borrowing the computer in the check in place and it is busy so I am going to sign off and will try to add photos soon.

Gansbai

Well we are in Gansbai now and we went out on a shark cage dive today. It was very cool and we felt quite safe although the sharks were huge - about 3 m long. The waves were huge rollers and our boat not so big so many people were seasick. Not the Blackwoods - guess all the practice on Lake Superior helps. When Bryce and ken were in the shark cage a big one rammed the cage chasing after the bait and bumped right into Bryce. The company we went out with is trying to promote the safety of sharks / lessen the commercial sale. When we were in the aquarium in Cape Town we read that 950 people were killed by toasters in Africa last year, 9 by sharks! An interesting stat. Our cottage here is quite nice although we have some kind of giant mouse living with us. Our landrover is nice but drives like a bus - Ken is glad when we are on the Hwy and he doesnt have to shift much.
Yes we did swim right with the penguins - they don't get really close but swam between the boys - you can't pet them because of their razor sharp bills. The weather is great - pretty hot but not unbearable. Tomorrow to hike at the Nature Reserve.
Gonna try a few pictures of the sharks.

Cape Town

Well it is Saturday and we are pretty settled in at the beautiful B&B we are staying at. The weather is hot today and much less of a breeze. We went to the penguin colony yesterday and literally swam with the penguins. It was very neat. Driving around is a bit crazy as the streets are narrow - but Ken is getting the hang of it and is good at shifting with his left hand. The beach is awesome - surfing and sailing but the water is just as cold as Lake Superior. Bryce wants to surf but right in front of our place a man was "taken" in December by a great white so I think we will make him wait for a different beach.

Made it

Well after 2 very long plane rides we made it to Cape Town last night. We are staying in a suburb area called Fish Hoek in a neat apartment that has an amazing view of the bay (Atlantic) All is well - get the rental car tomorrow and are going to go to the penguin colony and nature reserve.

1 week to go

Just checking to be sure that I know how to post and add pictures. Hopefully we will have access to internet once in a while and will post pics for everyone to enjoy.
Les

Getting Ready

Trying to get technical and set up a blog page so that we can share our holiday with family and friends. Only 2 1/2 weeks until we head out on our trip. Landrover booked with tents on the roof... should be a neat way to travel.
Cheers Leslie