Michelle's adventures around the world
South Africa – As you can imagine it has taken me a very long time to upload these photos to my Flickr site. So there are no photo titles or tags yet. Hope you like them. I have lots more…..
It’s taken me a couple of months but I now have Mauritius photos. Not as many as South Africa.
Enjoy 
Mon 12/10/09
Started early lots of driving today to start the tour. Got stuck in peak hr traffic before heading out of Pretoria and into the beautiful countryside. Went via Panorama Route up to the Blyde River Canyon, spectacular scenery. Stopped at some fantastic viewing spots: 3 Rondavels, God’s Window and Bourke’s Luck Potholes. Stunning scenery, took some photos but with a point and shoot digital can’t do justice, but so awesome! Stayed at Hippo Hollow - 3 star, but to Rod and I felt like 5 stars, absolutely beautiful place! There are real hippos in this place. They come out at night up onto the river bank. We had guards to keep us safe as they can kill us! So amazing, we saw a few but very difficult to take a photo. Tonight we had a special dinner – we were welcomed with banging drums, the Chief and singing and dancing. We had a typical SA BBQ for dinner – the food was glorious! So yummy. Awesome first day and night on tour!
Tuesday 13/10/09
Today was Kruger National Park today – up very early! 5 am start, but well worth it. We travelled to KNP by coach and the swapped over to a jeep with 9 people in it. Open windows on the sides with a roof. Absolutely amazing day. Overcast and stormy to start off with but got to about 36 by 12 noon. We just drove around for 8.5 hours with our ranger, trying to find animals. We didn’t see the big 5 but we did see a leopard up close and personal and there aren’t many of those left in the park even the ranger was imppressed! We saw zebras, giraffes, elephants, deer, water buffalo all quite close, got some ammazing photos. We also saw crocs and hippos in the water, plus lots of bird life. Both Rod and I were in heaven. It was such an awesome day! Safari rocks! In the arvo arrived back at Hippo Hollow, swam, relaxed, drank mojitos on the deck watching the hippos- what a life hey! Had dinner in the restaraunt, it was superb, felt like 5 star dining to me! Added bonus to mkae it even more mysterious the power went out and then the back up generator failed too, but no one cared. Was an awesome day and a fantastic evening. This tour is soooooooo good!
Wed 14/10/09
Today up again early, left HH at 8am. Buffet breakfasts all included everyday, so yummy, trying not to eat too much as we don’t have much of a chance to walk around. Drove south east towards Swaziland. We have comfort stops along the way. We stopped in No Man’s Land and had a guided tour thru a traditional village, more singing and dancing and then another spectacular buffet lunch with a croc in the pond. We drove into Swaziland, beautiful country, has the BEST scenery in the world. So relaxing driving on the bus and watching the world go by. Everyone everywhere is so friendly. I feel very safe here and in South Africa! Visited a glass blowing factory where they make things out of recycled glass. Finally bought something for ouselves. Then onto our hotel, Luggogo Sun - I’d say 10 star man! 3 hotels on one site and you have access to all 3!!! Not hot enough for swimming, but we walked up to the top hotel, superb views yet again. Rod did some bird watching while I came back to the room and updated my blog.
We are having the BEST time! I hope that you can see my photos when I get the Flickr account sorted……
