Back from Holidays.......

Hi All!

The little adventure is over and I am back to the real world of trauma and Simon is off to Durban. There were tears this morning in the airport..............:(

Anyhow, we had a fab time!It just flew by!!However, our money would not have stretched much further.We have been struggling.IT IS NOT CHEAP HERE AT ALL!!!!!!!

Day 1 started with the vineyards!9 tasters!!!my god...i could not walk!!!It was amazing though.Theee most beautiful place in the world!!AND it was called the Waterford Estate!!Funnily enough the man told us that every waterford person who has been to cape town turns up at there door in waterford jerseys etc thinking there is some link.....but there isn't!However, they now use waterford crystal glassses. The name is simple; it is near a waterfall and his name is Ford.Anyhow, spent a fab they there. Was jsut gorgeous.

We then made our way down to the Tip of Africa. Played with some pigs and looked at the amazing coastline.
Next we headed to our gorgoeus B&B on the coast in Sea Point. It was a bargin!!We had booked this on expedia.It was unreal for the price and an amazing breakfast. Luckily, the sun shone for most of the holiday too. However, the day we left Sea Point they all got washed out of it and we saw a picture of it on the news with cars floating and people on boats etc. Proper flash floods!!We missed all of it.

Anyhow, moved on from there to Hermanus where the plan was to go shark diving.You will all be very glad to hear that we never went dicing with death due to the price.It was like 150 quid!!!!NO WAY!So we had to leave that.However, we did see a whale which was pretty cool. It swung its tail up but that was about the extent of it.
From here we moved onto a Game lodge which was brilliant!!We arrived late and spent the night by the fire and then retreated to our wooden hut. We were warned to watch for roaming animals but that they would not go near us etc. It was pitch black so we couldnt see anything but the next morning there were a few zebra chilling near our door which was random.
We went on an early morning drive (7am) and saw most animals. We had a rather scary encounter with Lions that I will NEVER FORGET as I had to pray to St Patrick that i would not be getting chewd off the bone!!!We went in......6 of us....in our little Land Rover that tended not to start very well......and of course the two females were having none of it. The both stood up and peered at us and the guide was like...."I'm just going to keep the engine running for now". he said that lions standing up was not good. (at this point the sweats start!) Then he goes on the radio and he is like, "Covered enclosed truck for feeding.....don't come in with the open top"!Here we are like sitting a few metres from them ...open as anything. As soon as the truck entered they ran down the hill...and he reversed out quickly to join the other two safari trucks who were all peering in on the other side of the fence looking at us. At this point we were surrounded by 3 Lions and I thought...."this is it". I actually nearly cried. Anyhow...it the end we made it out alive. PHEEEWWWW!!!

Saw some manky slithering snakes too.He wanted to get us to hold them.NO WAY!It actually ran off up the guys sleeve and up his chest and he thought this was funny like!!!??

Next day we went to Knysa were we went on a Township drive. This was with a man from the poorest areas where the people live in shacks with no water or electricity. It was really sad like. We went into this house and it was half the sixe of my bedroom for two kids, husband and wife. It had Spar posters as the roof like and the rain was coming in. I felt really sad and I suppose it reminds you how crazy South Africa is. There is a view from the township called Millionaires View and it looks down onto some of theeee most amazing houses. We had stayed there the night before and it just is such a stark constrast fromt he shack we were in with pigs running about. Having said that. new houses are being built and to be honsest what I have really learned is that charity starts at home and the South African Govenerment are building some houses, but like in this day in age, nobody should be living with no water or electricy in a country that is booming. I am not so sure people here want to help the people of the townships. I cannot understand how there is not more voluntary soup kitchens or educational schemes or more doctors helping there. The majority of the help comes from the more well -off people withing the township (who are by no means well off!!!). They have children in their houses so the parents can go find work. Or feed the poor or do what they can to help out they sick. A little kid came over to the guy we were with and he slipped him a few pence to go get bread. He said it was the school holidays now and both of his parents had HIV. Normally the children get fed in school but because they were on holidays the mother spotted this guide and he gave a few pence to him to go buy food.

On the other hand....the country is riddled with money. We drove on some of the best roads. There are speed cameras everywhere and random poloice checks for tax, insurance and your driving licence. People drive slowly and carefully and you would jsut never believe sometimes that you were in Africa.

From Knysa we went to Monkeyland...and then on to Tstisakamma National Park which was beautiful.AMAZING WAVES!!! From here we went zip-lining across waterfalls which was class. The longest zipline was 230 metres. Scary but brilliant.
We then stayed in the Armagh Lodge. (and yes this one did have an Irish connection) It was beautiful. Our room was amazing.The bed was HUGE. and they had a huge big fire lit which was gorgeous. (Clearly we have converted to the cold weather!)

From here we went onto Addo National Park. The town of Addo is theeeee weirdest oddoest place on earth. just weird. Feels like something from a horror film. It was also miles up a dirt road and there are just no light wat-so-ever. Eventually we found somewhere to stay; a mud hut!!no joke!it was actaully a mud-hut but a lovely one. We were surrounded by beatufiul orange trees and the breakfast was amazing. We stayed here for two nights. We went into Addo National Park yesterday which was brilliant. We decided to drive ourselevs around. BIG TIP COMING UP: Dont go on safari in a polo!!!!!man....you need a 4x4!!Anyhow, we were driving along and out come the elephants across this little path. Baby, mam and dad. Amazing!!The park is 120,000 hectares so it is pretty big like. We also saw lions which was scary, and loads of Kudu which is like a deer type thing. Also saw warthog which are TINY!!!Man, I thought they would be the size of Rhino...but they are like ugly dogs!!The Lion King clearly did not get their sizing right!We were so close to elephants it was brilliant. Also, on our way home....this massive heard of buffalo just came out of nowhere and crossed in front of us. The guide on the previous tour told us they were the most aggresive of the big 5...and so Kerr reversed very quickly back and we waited till they were passed. We then went on a night drive. IT WAS BALTIC!!!!!like i think i may have had mild hypothermia. It was class though. The amount of different random animals that come out and night is class. We saw the Lions also and we got rather close. This time they were thankfully not interested. The stars were unforgettable.

So that was basically the last few days. I am back in the hospital now to freezing wet cape town. We have had good weather for the past few days so it is horrible coming back to this.

Just on a random note....I can't remember if I said,but it gets dark here at 6pm. Like pitch dark. We have been asleep by like 10pm most nights. Really very strange. There are few hours of daylight here and you need to use them wisely because after 6pm..you cannot see a thing.

Right well that is all for now.

To the Kerr Family.....Simon is in Durban.He still has no working phone but will be back monday. He is safe and well.

To Sarah...HAPPY BIRTHDAY for tomorrow. I hope you got the card.

And to my family....HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN ABOUT ME?????????A TEXT?? A REPLY TO THIS????ALSO EH...THE MUNSTER FINAL???THE SCORE???

Love you all, talk soon,

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