After 3 days superb diving, we headed off to the middle of Zululand to visit Graham and Janine –Dave’s cousin. It was quite an eventful road as we were stopped thrice by the police (obviously we were looking too local in our VW Chico!) and it poured with rain again – this wonderful Natal weather we had been used to - I don’t think we had seen the sun for nearly a week!
Janine and Graham live on a game farm (once a cattle farm) literally in the middle of Zululand, lush, green rolling hills on which many a battle had been fought against the British – to this day they are still finding battle relics. When we arrived we were not sure we got the right place (although the map was very accurate) and boldly, and somewhat foolishly, got out of the car to be greeted by “The General” - a huge South African breed of dog whose name I cannot remember.......luckily his guard dog skills had not quite been honed. Luckily Janine came to the rescue and soon we were having tea and biscuits in the farmhouse kitchen sheltered from the cold and damp. For two days we walked (in sunshine!) the farm, up to our waists with long grass and ticks, spotting wildebeest, zebra and various types of antelope, helped in the garden, caught our last glimpses of our favourite little weavers busily building and rebuilding their nests to perfection and enjoyed Janine and Graham’s stories and hospitality – we had a super time an were glad to be Janine’s third Australian visitors in the last 20 odd years.
Our final leg in South Africa - it was a long hard 7 hour slog to get to Jo’burg. We were relieved to get to that supposedly crime ridden city, which was smiling with its green tree scape and azure sky. We were greeted by a relaxed Peter and Eva who had just arrived from Dubai. They were staying at a friend’s house in Parkwood, which was an unusual 3 storey structure built on an old tennis court comprising showroom, office and home on the top floor. In true Peter and Eva style we were greeted with a glass of wine and three and a sumptuous BBQ, a couple of incontinent Yorkies and 3 cats. After much chat, much wine and too much food we wearily retired before 10 o’clock!
The next day we met Kendal, the elephant researcher from Addo, and visited the Apartheid Museum – an education to us all and a shock that such an inhumane segregation system could be born after the Second World War, and that the world chose to do nothing about it until the 80s!!!. Nelson Mandela was, for me, an even greater man when I walked out than when I walked in. Emotionally tired we only managed lunch (with face painting!) and craft shopping in the afternoon before we headed out to dinner qith Peter and Eva. Dinner was in a chic restaurant in a residential area just up the road that resembled Primrose Hill or Melbourne in summer – outdoor seating, a mixed trendy crowd. Where was this horrid dangerous Jo’burg that everyone warned us about where you got car-jacked or held up at gun point? We are sure it exists but not in the streets that we saw (and we did not just see Parkwood!). I certainly decided that if one was to work in South Africa, Jo’burg is the place to be – it has a great vibe and somehow seemed a little more integrated – but then what can you base on one day!
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