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A Lady - Sailing around the World ( presently in Richards Bay , South Africa )



FRIDAY    12 th   NOVEMBER   2010

 
06.30hrs, Skipper heard noise in the Saloon, and thought it was Terry having something to eat, well thats what it sounded like,  But, BUT  it was not Terry,  Our neighbours later told us that they saw a Monkey running off the back of the boat with a bananna in one hand and a bag of crisp's in the other,   Well, did you ever !   cheeky little thing.
 
09.00hrs  Skipper had a visit to the Doctor again, to be told that he has osteoparisis in his right hip / joint. Gawd , what next ! Of course , Skipper has now a heap of tablets he can take to relive the pain,
 
11.00hrs S,A Terry and Collette piled into the car and took off for the " Hluhluwe " game reserve This place was located up north by St. Lucia, except further inland,  so it took us about 1.5 hrs to get there.............. Sign posts are scarce , so it took us a bit of time to find, but it was well worth the effort.
 
Once we paid our money and went inside the game reserve, we were now driving on dirt tracks ( mind you, in good condition ) The first things we saw were Rhino's, away in the distance, and we were thrilled with ourselves. These reserves are soooooo big, that many visitors never see anything, and a lot depends on the weather and a bit of luck.
 
Then we spotted a " Large spotted Genet"  about the size of a cat , but had a long tail standing vertical as it ran across the grass. A short time later, se saw a " Giraffe" , then two, and then three,  Wow ! this is getting good, and they were close to us as well. At this stage, we were low on fuel for both the car and ourselves, so we drove to the " Hill top " hotel where we got petrol for thr car and then a light lunch for ourselves, This place was located within the Reserve and neatly designed to blend in with the landscape, ie, it had a low profile with a thatch roof,  all very pretty.
 
After the lunch, we drove south along and got real lucky, The first thing we saw was a great big Elephant, standing quite close to the track, of course we had to stop and take lots of photo's ,  click,click, Then we saw a Lion, an Eland, ( type of deer )  more Rhino's and buffalo, and then Zebra's It was great to see all these in their natural surroundings and going about their buisness as usual. These parks / game reserves are massive, about 24,000ha and was inhabited by local tribes as far back as 1,800 years ago.
 
We were in awe of the whole schene, and really enjoyed the day.
17.00hrs  We left the reserve, and travelled back towards Richards Bay to have dinner on the boat, Terry suggested having the dinner  on the boat as it was their last night, they go back home tomorrow.
 
Dinner consisted of a couple of roast chickens, silver side beef, creamed potatoes , and carrots, plus plenty of wine, We had lot of visitors wishing " Bon Voyage " to our guests...................... It was a late night in the cockpit. but we managed to hit the scratchers eventually...  zzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz
 
Thats all for today,
 
Signed  :-  Stephen Hyde   ( Skipper )


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