Hello, we're now back in England with the rain and winds. We've had lots of adventures on route and no time to update the BLOG so you can guess it has been fun.
We did go to Mozambique, hiring a car in Nelspruit and driving straight to Maputo, the capital. Quite a shock as we had to dry through the city centre to reach the only road north going up the coast. The city appeared run-down with poor roads, traffic congestion and many traffic lights not working. We did try a road in the northerly direction along the coast but this petered out to a sand track, so a Nissan Almeria was not the ideal car for this. Then headed north to Tofu on the tarred coastal road and this was a long journey on some pot-holed roads and also temporary roads of sand and gravel. It took most of the day and the backpackers we had chosen was inaccessible without 4-WD so ended up at Fatima's Nest next to Tofu beach. Yes, the beach was magnificent, very quiet and blue sea and white sand for miles. We then found out the road further north was also a pain to drive and averaging 20 km/h so we decided to stay put and then return to S.A. To enjoy Mozambique you really need 4 WD as the tar roads north of Maputo are limited (coastal road) and so it is necessary to travel to and fro on the same road. The border crossings, even with the car were really easy and didn't take long as we had a visa already.
By 5 November, we were back in Nelspruit at the "Funky Monkey" BP that had been recommended by Bex. By coincidence a group of new Peace Corp volunteers were meeting there and partying so it was fun to hear of their experiences in Education in S.A. A lot sounded familiar and not so different from Namibia.
On the road again and this time actually travelling south towards our eventual destination of Cape Town. We had a great drive through the interior to the Drakensburg Mountains with the idea of camping and doing some gentle walking in the mountains. On route it had changed from sunshine to a cold dreary day so we were a little apprehensive about camping. However, we got ourselves some braii wood and made camp in the KZN Wildlife camp at Monk's Cowl. The next day it started cloudy but soon cleared to a brilliant day and ideal for walking. We went to Sterkspruit Falls and then on the Hlatikhulu Forest walk that took the rest of the day. We'll remember this as we passed some many different plants, many flowering and a variety of birds that were new to us including a black head oriole, red collared widow and double collared sunbird feeding on the nectar. I would have liked to stay longer and explore the area but again time was limited and so much to see. (to be continued).