Summer is officially here :)

Well this is my first Durban summer in 5 years and man is it hot... i'd forgotten about the humidity in this place! I am also officially sun burnt for the first time in 5 years... i look like a tomato lobster... ouch! :) well at least i have some colour in me!!!

This month has been pretty crazy, finished exams finally (still waiting for the results) and have been working so much i can't remember the last time i had dinner at home (it reaps rewards tho, got the highest turnover for Nov... bonus)! My shifts for Dec are also insane... think of the money Robyn, every bit counts towards getting me back to the states!!!

I am now off for 4 days tho... jetting off to Cape Town tomorrow... yay! :) Going for my cousin, Cindy's wedding... it's gonna be an awesome weekend, i'm really looking forward to seeing all my family again! :)

Look out for fotos next week and i haven't forgotten about the to be continued story! :)

PS some exciting tourism news... 'Tourism growth in SA double that of the world'

Adventures of an American in SA

Aug 26th... Steve walks through the doors at Durban International, after a very long 6 weeks of anticipation and excitement! All i will say about his arrival is that my heart skipped a number of beats! :)

We spent the first 2 days in Durbs. Landed up at Warwick's (my flatmate) parent's house in Ballito the first night and a fantastic evening was had by all, esp Steve, who was introduced to the great hospitality of a true South African family and a braai... i kicked ass at pool as well! The second day's activities were dominated by a Cessna flight down the south coast to Margate and back piloted by the cousin, Shannon! It was a beautifully clear day and we could see for miles... amazing stuff! :)

Greatest house bar in the world!

On the Monday we picked up our rented car, Super Tazz and made our way up the north coast on the N2 towards Hluhluwe. We stayed at Isinkwe Backpackers Bushcamp... a beautiful setting and location right in the bush! That afternoon was spent at the Emdoneni Cheetah Project up the road from the hostel to watch and participate in the feeding of Cheetahs and a few other wild cats... it was wild!

5am wake up call the next morning... safariing we shall go! After a very cold 30km ride on the back of an open safari truck we arrived at the entrance of Hluhluwe Game Reserve for a full day of wildlife watching! Within the first hour of the safari we saw Rhino, Zebra, a variety of buck, Wildebeest, Buffalo, Giraffe, Baboons and i'm sure there were many more! Steve was loving all the photographic opportunities as he is a very keen photographer and very good at it i might add! The rest of the day was a bit of a disappointment, all the wildlife seemed to go into hiding and our tour guide (nicknamed potato head by Steve and i) seemed to go to sleep! As the afternoon rolled on, the clouds rolled in and so did the rain! Another cold 30km ride back to the lodge lay ahead of us but this time with a few rain drops. It was a great and tiring day, great photos were taken and every animal except Lion, Leopard and Elephant were seen! We spent the evening enjoying a few drinks, a good meal and a game of darts (which i won... again!)


Wednesday morning dawned, we packed up the Super Tazz again and made our way to St Lucia! I was really looking forward to this part of the trip because i'd never been to St Lucia! We arrived and checked in at Bibs with gale force winds blowing us to all parts (later heard that the Durban Harbour had been closed because of the wind and swells). Because of the winds all 'normal' St Lucia activities had been cancelled so after enjoying a cup of Illy coffee, much to Steve's delight, we took a drive up to Cape Vidal! What a beautiful beach, even with the wind blowing like it was it was amazing! The drive up to Cape Vidal is made through a game reserve, we saw a few buck and a lonely Rhino. On the way back Steve decided to take the now famous 'loop road' which just seemed to be this endless road of nothingness... you had to be there!

Me outside Bibs in St Lucia

Cape Vidal... ain't it beautiful

Our night in St Lucia was spent with the fellow travellers staying at Bibs, we spent the evening drinking beer and whisky, watching the local church group sing a few traditional songs and then made our way in the pouring rain to the local pub, i think it was called the Cheeky Monkey... an awesome evening was had by all, hanging out with fellow travellers rocks! Next morning we awoke to pouring rain and headaches! After another cup of Illy coffee and a delicious breakfast we took a drive down to the estuary and watched a large group of hippos and a couple crocs frolic in the waters... very entertaining! :)


We arrived back in Durbs later that afternoon and Warwick took us out for a good ol Durban curry! It was another early morning the next morning as we made our way to Cape Town! To be continued... :)

Just to end off, I have to apologise for the over use of the word 'and' and thank Steve for all the great photos!

Down to the Hibiscus Coast

I was invited to join Sandy (my god mother), Graham (Sandy's husband), Hayley (my best friend), Jack (my god son and Hayley's son) and a friend of Hayley's down the south coast this weekend in a holiday town called Margate where they have a holiday house! I arrived there on Saturday morning to rain and grey skies! Anyway, not to waste an opportunity to relax we took a drive into the hills to scout out Hayley's wedding venue and then spent the rest of the afternoon around the braai (BBQ for the foreigners) drinking wine and tequila :) I feel asleep pretty early after working a 15 hour shift the day before!

My godson, Jack... just learning to stand on his own!

Sunday dawned and so did the grey skies! Never-the-less, we took a short walk down to the beach and trundled among the rocks and i spent a good 15 minutes watching the waves crashing on the rocks... can't think of many better sights! Later that morning the skies changed to a brighter shade of blue and we made our way to the very famous Waffle House... it's an amazing little restaurant specialising in... you guessed it... waffles, yummy!!!

After filling our tummies full of waffles, we made our way back to Durbs! It was a great weekend... just what i needed to de-stress and relax in the company of great friends. Before returning to my flat we stopped off at a family braai on the bluff which looks right over the sea, only to spend the afternoon watching whales frolicking in the sea... amazing! :)

Well that was my weekend... i have today (Monday) off as well but it's back to the grind stone tomorrow for a 6 day week!

I'm back

Well i've finally fought my way out from under the piles of notes, textbooks and study material i've been hiding under for the last 2 months or so! Wrote my last exam for the year this morning... if the results go my way, i'm now half way! :) So, let life begin again...

It seems i have quite a bit of catching up to do, i'm a bad person for leaving it this long... a few trips i've taken, a special visit and general goings on in my life at home are all to come!

Ok, to catch up on the general stuff! I've now been back in good old durbs for 4 months now... wow, time does really fly! It hasn't been the easiest 4 months of my life, lots of adjusting and sole searching has been done and a fair few tears have been shed! Anyhoo, i'm living in an awesome flat with a very good friend of mine... thanks Budg for putting up with me for this long, so from that point of view i'm pretty settled! After job hunting for about 2 months and coming up with nothing that would pay me enough or allow me enough time to get my studying done i finally gave in and got a job at Billy the B.U.M.S ... any of you that live in Durban, i expect a visit! So i'm pretty much back to my student life... study all day and work at night and somewhere in the middle i try get some sleep and see my friends! Now that exams are over i have a little more time to do stuff!

I'd forgotten how much rain we get at this time of the year... the sun has finally come out after 4 straight days of downpours and flooding all over the place. Apparently we had over 80mm of rain in 6 hours yesterday... i'm sure the ducks were delighted! :)



That's enough info for one post... more to come very soon, but just to give you a little taster, i'll leave you with this photo! :)

Oh and one more thing... i'll be adding a few new features, mostly interesting news tidbits and articles about travel and tourism... since it is my 'thing' and line of study and anything i find funny and entertaining so brace yourself! :) there are way to many 'ands' in that sentence!

Here's the first... SA attracted 2.7mil tourists between January and April this year (reflecting a 16% increase from the same period last year), not bad at all! :)