A trip Down Memory Lane…

Having left Nelspruit on Tuesday, we made our way through Swaziland Down to Piet Retief. IT was a particularly slow ride to get into Swaziland because my sister and I desperately wanted to go the scenic route! At one stage we had to go on the only dirt road we’ve been on thus far and boy was that a rough one for our poor second hand rental! Going along in second gear practically all the way for like 40kms. That stretch of road took us nearly 2 hours!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, besides the dangerous road to Swaziland, I learnt how to do hundreds of U-turns in illegal spots and then also to go into a taxi rank in Manzini (second city of Swaziland where we lived) and then decide this wasn’t the place to be and so had to reverse with hundreds of people milling around our car. At that point my dad told me to get out and so we swapped places! It was a bit embarrassing….all these people looking at you and hooting at you! Lol!

When we got to the border, the people there were pleasantly surprised to find out that my sister and I had been born there! They thought it was really nice that we were checking out where we had once lived and where we were born. In Mbabane (capital city of Swaziland and the city where I was born) we had a fun time driving around in circles to find the clinic where we were born. And as Murphys Law would have it, the first time where we had done a U-turn turned out to be where the clinic was. An hour later we found out that if we’d driven just 30m on we would have seen it! Lol! Anyway, I got some pictures of where I was born! Awwwwwwwwwwwww!

We also went to see where my father had once taught in Manzini, and not a lot had changed. We saw the houses where both my sister and I lived (though I had only lived in one of the houses for just 6months!). We drove through Swaziland in a day and just saw the most beautiful sunset!

So, mission accomplished: I have another set of stamps in my Passport! Yey!

On our way to Piet Retief from the Swazi border, it got dark and it threatened to rain, meaning that we had thousands of flying ants! These are oily things and when they splat onto your windscreen you should not wipe the screen unless absolutely necessary! Also, we were driving along a particularly dark part of the road when we saw a dark shape in the middle of the road. As we got nearer, it didn’t move which surprised. As we got very close we saw beautiful eyes and realized it was an owl! The crazy thing just stayed there! It was beautiful though!

We stayed in Piet Retief as some Inn, and got up early the next morning to go to Escourt. But before we left, we decided to go to a petrol station to get our window cleaned because of all the flying ants and also because we discovered that the car didn’t have a water tank! I mean! What the hell????!?!?!??!?! It was scorching (40 degrees Celsius) this day and boy did I drink a lot! I stayed in Escourt from the Wednesday night till the Monday morning to visit a friend of mine, Louise.

On Thursday and Friday Louise had to go to a conference on swallowing disorders (she’s a speech therapist) and so I thought it could be interesting to go and see what it was all about on the Thursday. I have to say, I understood a surprisingly amount of stuff and people: be thankful for being able to swallow properly! Because after seeing people struggle I’m really thankful! I also went shopping and just generally just chatted a lot!

On the Monday morning I took a coach from Escourt to Pietermaritzburg (about one and a half hours) because my dad and sister were staying at a self catering place there. We went to Ixopo (the town where I went to High School for two years) and tried to look up long lost friends and visit the school. But no luck! All the teachers that I knew and liked had left. It would have been nice to see them all!

So we left soon and drove to Ifafa Beach (south of Durban) where I went on a mission to give some parents a big hug for their daughter! (They really did appreciate that!). We left for Port Elizabeth going via Mthatha (previously the capital of Transkei during the apartheid era) and Grahamstown (where we stayed in a self catering place with no hot water!).

Today I’m in Port Elizabeth which is a lovely city. After my time has gone on this computer I will go to the beach and walk along these pristine beaches (and get my sister some lunch! Poor girl…..). We’ll be leaving for Cape Town tomorrow via some lovely places that we really want to see!

So far I’ve been very successful in being the only one of us three to have been stopped by police at road blocks to check for my license. My sister on the other hand got stopped for disease control! Lol! Apparently there was a case of “swine fever”(?!?!?!) and so we had to get out and have our feet sprayed with disinfectants….very interesting.

Well, time’s almost up! Need to post this and quick! Lol! I hope all is well with everybody! I will try and send emails soon but I hope I’ve kept you updated for now!

Happy Birthday for the 13th mum! LOVE YOU! XXX