Well I am slowly catching up on my blogs...

July 27th -- 4th day

Today we took about an hour and half drive to St Lucia Estuary. I still can’t get over the amount of people that walk along the highway. Then add onto that it is legal to drive on the shoulder of the road. If someone wants to pass you, you pull over and drive on the shoulder of the road. Here I was afraid of lions, when I should have been afraid of driving in South Africa. I think they just hand out licenses at the grocery store. I am fairly certain \they are not required to take a test.

When we got to St. Lucia, I took a boat ride on a small portion of the estuary. There are all type of birds and animals that inhabit the area. I did not see many birds, but did see several cfocidiles, and finally saw quite a few hippos out of the water. Up to this point, they have all been in the water. These guys are not afraid to attack if they are thrertened. More people are killed by hippos than any other animal. There are several pods of hippos that live in the area. There is one hippo that is around 3 years old that the town has named Sandy. Sandy has quite a few scars on her, and they believe she got in a fight with her pod, and basically got kicked out. She has comes out of the water late in the afternoon, and roams the town. They have been unable to get her back in the water because they think she is scared. We didn’t see Sandy roaming the streets, but what an unusual sight if you did just see a hippo walking down the street.

After lunch, we drove to Cape Vital. We got lounge on the beach of the Indian Ocean. It was just amazing. I love the beach and the water, and this ranked up there w/ the beaches in Hawaii. The water was a pretty blueish/greenish color. As I walked up the beach there were several sand dunes which were of pretty good size. You could get a pretty good work out trying to climb these. We stayed for a little over an hour. We all wanted to stay longer, but unfortunately we still had a drive in front of us.

It is amazing the appetite you work up just sitting in a car looking at animals or just going from one point to another. And it is only several hours between meals. We have become spoiled with the meals at the Zulu Nyala. Every meal is a wonderful buffet. There is some yummy grub here. There is always at least 3 desserts to choose from. Needless to say we all make several trips. Here I thought I was going to loose weight. Well that is not going to happen at this rate.

July 28th – 5th day

Today we went to a craft market. It was not quite what I expected. It was more touristy than I wanted it to be, but still managed to buy a lot of stuff. Fortunately, we were able to ship stuff. There is no way I could have got all of that stuff in my bag. We then went to Hluluwe market where the locals shop, but there really was nothing there. It is just for the locals. I walked down the street a little ways, but did not get very far. It was quite quite crowded and a little intimidating. And being too that our guide didn’t really like it that we were there. I think he was a little concerned about our safety although he never came out and said it.

We then went out on our afternoon ride, and got to see another beautiful sunset. This time Sandile brought a cooler and cheese and crackers. So we had a couple of drinks, snacks, and watched the sunset. We then went on a night drive. Sandile had a spotlight and we used that to find the animals. It was cool because you could see the animals eyes glow in the dark. We also heard the elephants make noise. Which is a little disturbing at night since you are not sure where they are at.

July 30th – last day

Today was a relaxing day. The week had been at packed with activities. It was nice to sleep in, just lay around by the pool, and enjoy the sunshine.

After lunch, I went to go set on the deck of the dining hall. This sits up high and as sweeping views of the rolling hills. While sitting there, I saw a mama warthog and her kids. These things are so ugly they are cute, They kneel down to get closer to their food. So they just scoot along on their front knees eating. It is pretty funny to watch. Then just a little later, several monkeys were running up on the roof. One looked like he had a cigarette in his mouth. You could tell they were up to something. I walked inside and was talking to some people then we glanced over to the front and there was a monkey in the doorway. The coffee bar just happens to be by the door. The monkey looks both ways to ensure no one s close by, and then hops up on the table and grabs a handful of sugars and then jets out the door and up the pole. We run to the front, and he just looks down at us like HAHAHA!!!! The monkeys love the sugar!!

One last drive, and we finally got to see mama and baby elephant up close and personal. Up until now, they have been blocked by trees and brush. It was bigger than the on we saw Hulwlue. At one point mom just stood right in front of the truck and stared us down for a minute. They are know to charge if they feel the baby is threatened, but then she just moved on to the other side of the road.

The last supper. I never knew I would eat so good on this trip. I am going to miss not having a buffet for every meal. The food was just great.

We were very fortunate to have a great guide, and our group really got along with one another, and we had a really good time. Which made things even better. Because some of the other groups looked pretty boring!

July 31st – Off to Zambia

Well another all day flying. We had to leave at 5am, which I was not a happy camper. The place we are staying at is great, and I finally have mine own bed!! No more getting kicked by Kyle. I thought the buffet at Zulu Nyala was good, well it is even better here. And they have okra. One thing I have noticed about food in Zambia, is they eat somewhat like the people in South. Well more like the people in the South eat like in Zambia. They had this one dish, which was kind of what I thought was like a polenta. I don’t remember what they called it, but the cook said this is what the Zambian people eat. Then the other chef it was similar to grits in the states.

August 1st

The day was pretty lazy. We then went on a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River. It runs between Zambia and Zimbabwe (which we got to see) We saw crocodiles and hippos on the ride. We met a South African family on the boat. The woman Annie is traveling with her parents. Her mom was pretty crazy. She kept singing. It was pretty amusing. Plus I believe she was quite interested in Kyle. It was nice to talking to Annie. She has traveled all over the world, but was very interested in the US.