We're off to see South Africa! Merry Christmas!!!

Tonight is our last night at Mkoma Bay.  Its bittersweet in that we enjoyed our time here (doing not a lot of anything for a change) but are ready to see the sites again.  We leave tomorrow at 8am for a six hour drive to Dar Es Salaam.  The first 45 minutes will be on bumpy roads but after that should be paved and fine.  We hired a car again so we chickened out from using the public transport after hearing about two bad accidents in the last few weeks (that happened months/years ago).

This place was very nice (although Jen and the kids were afraid to go in the ocean because it was somewhat murky and you couldn't see the very occasional jelly fish).  We spent a lot of time with the hosts, Lisa and Ulrich and got to know them quite well.  They have led a very interesting life at most of the hot spots in Africa the last 30 years - including digging up mass graves in Rowanda.  Today, I also met a white Zimbabwean-Rhodesian farmer who had been booted off his farm twice (even though the second time he paid the locals for it) by maurading gangs with the blessing of Mugabe.  He moved here 7 years ago and is now working as a manager at a chicken factory in Dar Es Salaam.  A nicer guy you'd never meet.  A real prototypical salt of the earth kind of a guy.  He told me that Mugabe's main contender took over a farm next door to his (with Mugabe's blessing) and then somehow managed to turn into a human candle when his bedroom (with two separate exits) and an Asbestos ceiling burnt to the ground so badly there was nothing left.  You don't fool around with Mugabe.

I'm not real keen on giving him any of our money, but our tour starts in Vic Falls on the Zimbabwae side so we don't really have any choice.  I'll have to content myself that we are only there for a day.  From there, we leave for Botswana where we'll spend a few days in a game reserve before heading to the Okavango Delta which should be in full flood.  I'm really looking forward to that as I've seen David Attenborough rattle on about it countless times on the discovery channel and I've always wanted to see it.  Then on to Namibia to see the Kalahari Desert and the big dunes and on into Cape Town.

We've got a place just outside Cape Town booked now (706 Portico).  It's a nice 2 bedroom condominium over looking Platinum Beach and Table Mountain and the city.  We have a car for 22 days that we pick up when we arrive on the 6th and will return in Johannesburg on the 28th when we fly out to Singapore.  I've even booked the first two places along the Garden Route (Oudtschoorn and Knysha) and have the other 12 sussed out.  We'll drive about 3200 kms (after our camping trip... that's about the same) so will have seen most of South Africa very well.  We are staying on the outskirts of Jo'burg the last night (I booked that as well) at a nice little secure guest house.  Jen and I have no desire to see Jo'Burg or Soweto so we'll arrive there straight from Kruger and the Drakensburg Mountains.

Here's a few shots of the resort we've been at.  Its not like we've been feeling like we're in the third world or anything!

Our living area |and Night School!)

Our living area (and Night School!)

Our living area (and nightschool!)

Our view from the Swahili House

The Swahili house which we had to ourselves

The beach at low tide

Our beach at low tide

The "School"

The classroom

The view from the classroom

The Pool

Our bar!

The Tented Lodges we stayed in for the first 5 nights.  

I very much doubt we'll be able to post much between now and Jan 6th or will be able to make any calls/emails for Christmas/New Years so we wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and all the best in 2012!!!!