Friday 11^th July, 2014…..A great fire and barbecue last night…the guides cooked Kudu meat…very lean and very gamey as one would imagine…..and so we were on the road at 6 am this morning…..and it was sugar cane as far as the eye could see….all the sugar cane is irrigated as everywhere is so dry…hard to believe their rainy season finished in May when it looks like they have not had rain for months….after the sugar cane, where the country side got more rugged it was private game farms and lots of them…big business here to breed the animals on private farms for those that pay big money to come and shoot the animals…..also some more forestry…then lots of private farms, big holdings and very much like the South Island…..you can’t run many stock to the acre here as it is so dry…..lots of haymaking in progress too (big round hay bales like in NZ)…..also small settlements of natives with their few stock…they seem to use concrete block to build their little square boxes more than they use mud and dung today but still lots with thatched roofs…..one is very much more aware of the poverty in SA than what we have experienced in other countries so far on this trip…we stopped at  Pongola to stretch our legs….quite a township and some really nice homes and gardens….and they didn’t even have the razor wire on their fences…..our next stop was at Still Waters which even had palm tree lined streets and again nice homes and gardens…..we did our usual supermarket shop here and again a good variety of fruit and veges so cheap and of course cheap wine…we seem to be drinking Pinotage….what amazes us is that KFC is everywhere here but hardly any Mc Donalds….and then on the open road again it was more big farms,  irrigation giving patches of green in this golden brown landscape…irrigation for all the other animal food crops they grow…..our next town was Dundee (so many Scottish, Irish and English names here) but coming into Dundee there were all these battlefield signs…I questioned it and it transpires that we were in the area where a lot of the Boer War was fought in 1879 (I think that was the date)……then onto to Ladysmith where we stopped in a nice municipal park area for our picnic lunch…this time it was fighting off the cats, not the monkeys…..we were the only tourists there as seems to have been the case since Joberg…..lots of locals in the park having a barbecue as there are always lots of barbecue set ups in these sort of places…..it transpired that Ladysmith was another battlefield site also…then on to Mooi River….another sizeable town and still no foreigners however we never felt threatened even though we do stand out a little in our red truck and everyone stops and looks so they obviously don’t see too many tourists through here…..and so to Lotheni in the Drakensberg Mountains, a World Heritage site…the last 50 kms of road was metal, rough, windy, dusty  and talk about remote but the view out the window from our chalet you would swear we were in the South Island…..we are at 2,000 metres here but it doesn’t seem to be any colder and not a hint of altitude sickness like we had in Ethiopia!!  We are sure it was the altitude pills that made us sick!!  And so the guides cooked us Impala meat for tea tonight so we are tasting lots of the wild animals we have seen….it was a very good game meat shop in Pongola and obviously the guides shopped up large!!  I commented to one of the guides about how you see a village on a mountain side miles from anywhere and what on earth do the people do to survive……..we have seen so many situations like that and he said his sister works in Joberg whilst her children are being looked after by the grandmother back in the village and his sister sends money back for the children…..he said that this is the case in these local settlements but we don’t believe it is all extended families in these miles from anywhere native settlements……they are so remote and in areas where nothing grows as it is so dry and barren….I reiterate, the haves and have nots are much more in your face in SA….also our guide said he is from one of the tribes in the Kruger  Park area and they have land claims lodged with the government as they believe they have had land taken from them!! Interesting we thought as we think we know about that!!  And so today was a long drive through Zululand,  used to be known as Natal…….from Swaziland border to the Drakensberg Mountains….nearly 600 kms today in the truck…….M & F.

Saturday 12^th July……8 am and we were hiking in the Drakensberg Mountains…..I could have been on the Kepler Track in NZ…..just not the trees here in this very barren landscape……a beautiful day so we are lucky yet again to have a fine day for our walk in this area….I even had to put the sunhat on!!  Unfortunately Michael has diarrhoea again so he had to forgo the walk…..we probably went to about 2,500 metres above sea level and walked about 8 kms but I really enjoyed having a day out of the truck….this afternoon is free and so we’ve both just had a bath (no shower here!!!) and washed clothes……we only have lights from 5 pm to 10 pm….still no internet….Michael talked to the guy in the shop who was on his computer but he said the signal is very weak as the tower is on the other side of the mountains….if they put it closer they would lose their World Heritage rating……we have a little oil paraffin lamp for a night light…..going to be fun in the morning as we are leaving at 6 am for another long day in the truck so it is a matter of trying to have everything ready the evening before as there is no daylight usually until about 7 am….this is life on the road in SA…..M & F