emmelinemay | Amakhala - the journey there...

So I have been back from safari for a day, but have SO much to say and so many photos, i've been putting it off!

The update is going to be in bits to try and get it straight, and for my memory's sake, and also because each day is going to be tl;dr even with breaking it all up!

I am currently waiting for my 275 photos (i deleted about 50 that were fuzzy or crap or just horriby unflattering) so i can illustrate my entries!

The day after I arrived, we had plans, but the weather (and my level of tiredness after the flight) had other plans, so instead of going to Bontebok National Park or on the death slide, we picked up Beauty, mum's houskeeper, and met her baby. We drove to see one of Mum's friends, whos daughter is going to take me horse riding today (despite my allergies...) and i played with her 3 dogs and 2 of their cats. My allergies came out in force despite takign an anti-histemine and i was covered in a rash for a few hours afterwards, all up my arms and on my face! We went to the pub in Swellendam, looked around the small number of shops, and bought some dinner. I got a copy of Sense and Sensibility in the charity shop for R5, which is about 40p. We watched the criket for a bit.

Baby Nosiposhile (i've probably spelt that wrong...):

Dogs and cats:

We were due to head off to Amakhala (which means 'many aloes') on the 23.45 bus from Swellendam, due to arrive in Port Elizabeth (PE) at about 6am. The plan was to meet up with the transport we'd hired from Amakhala, go and pick some family friends up who were in SA for 3 weeks, and a visit to Amakhala was their last event before they went home, at the airport. We weren't meeting them until 11 though, so had a fair few hours to kill in the HUGE shopping centre in PE.

There was ALMOST disaster, when at about half 10 when mum and i had just finished packing and were ready to go, Dave (step dad. AKA Step-Dave) asks mum if she's double checked the time of the bus on the tickets. Rolling her eyes at him, she goes to get the tickets to show him. At this point, we discover the bus leaves AT HALF PAST TEN and not half 11. Mum starts to fret, we grab our bags and rece to the bus stop (only 5 minutes away by car). Fortunately, the bus was late, and arrived minutes after we got there.

It was very dark when we got on, and mum and i managed to find a double seat each. She promptly began to blow up her travel neck cushion thing - which sounded horribly loud in the peace of the sleeping bus. We got the giggles. And couldn't stop. Trying to stifle our giggles so as not to wake anyone just made it harder to stop. She managed to blow her cushion up, then passed me mine, and the whole thing started again...

The reason the bus was late became clear after about 5 minutes. It was broken. The compressed air thingy that keeps the door open was broken, and the tiny stewardess lady had to hold the door open as we went along. She could only physicaly manage this for about 15 minutes, so every 15 minutes the bus stopped to give her a break. 2 hours later, we'd barely gone anywhere, and it seemed less likely we'd need to kill 5 hours in PE. Eventually, we reached a rest-stop, where some mechanics fixed the problem, and then to make up for lost time the driver went at breakneck speed for the rest of the journey. In a double decker bus, on rather bumpy roads. It felt like we'd be shaken to bits, or turn over, any minute.

We got there unscathed, if tired, due to various other inhabitants of the bus having smelly feet, snoring loudly, playing music and games on their phones, or occasionally going 'LAAAHHHH!!' for no reason. Perhaps he was sleep-opera-singing.

The time was about half 7, so we still had plenty of time to kill. So we wandered around the shopping centre for a few hours, and i managed to spend a grand total of R100 (£7.50ish) on 4 pairs of pants which were black and pink with skulls on.

I also saw a shop that made me think of

andyknifton:

and this interestingly named shop which is a christian bookshop and is full of bibles:

We mt up with the Transport, a lovely chap called Malcom, who prived to be the very epitome of friendly. As we drove to the airport, he more or less gave us a guided tour of PE, and told us many interesting things, very few of which i can remember. We met up with Phil and Gill, and their sons, Will and Robert. And off to Amakhala we went.

Mum had told me very little about Amakhala, and as i wanted to be suprised, i'd not looked at the website too closely. And suprised i was.

We arrived just in time for lunch - they went out of their way to make sure i'd be fed well and i had the most excellent fresh salad ever. We were shown our rooms, and found out that within the hour, we'd be taken out on our first game drive...

the full photo gallery so far...