Culture Shock

Well my first day in Colombo was just about being fed. The hotel just kept giving me food and you all know me not the greatest of appetites. They serve coffee and tea with mounds of sugar. Lunch at the hotel was a plate full of rice plus five different dishes. AT about 5 they asked me if I'd like an orange juice and along with it came a pastie, spring roll, samosa and a meat ball, he then asked me what time I wanted dinner.
The cost of living here is ridiculously cheap - I went to the local fashion store and bought a really nice skirt for 3 pouns

Anyway I survived the 6 hour journey from Colombo to Polonnaruwa and saw quite a bit of this very green country. Was welcomed by Ranjani and Nimal and their 2 daughters Nuwandi and Kamali, they are lovely people who are always smiling. There are 2 other volunteers here - Jenny and Rowena from Oban in Scotland.

Ranjani and Nimal grow most of their own food - there is rice in their paddy fields and Avocados,Mangos, Guava, Coconuts, Bananas, Jack fruit, Sour sop, cinnamon, curry leaves ginger tea and chillis all grown in the garden. Any fish we have for tea is caught in the local lake. They eat the main meal at lunchtime and they stand and watch you eat - it's very strange, though Rowena assured me it will wear off.

There are loads of mossies, ants and possibly rats (though I've not seen any of those)
A 3 striped squirrel eats from the rice table in the garden
You don't wear shoes in the house
They don't use toilet paper
There is no hot water so showers are cold and quite often you share the shower with the resident toad. The cold showers are welcome though as the heat here is so humid - I've sweated from every pore in my body.

Yesterday I wasn't feeling too clever - I think all the spicy food and lack of fluid and travelling so long gave me a touch of the runs but today I feel a lot better.

That's my update for now. Mam - hope you got on OK at the hospital.

My phone does work here but you must remember that I am 4 and half hours ahead of you and we are often in bed by 9.

At least I know I can get to the internet but it won't be as often as South Africa.

Love to all. Sue. xxx

Sri Lanka - First Impressions

Flight from Singapore to here was on time and seemingly quick (3 1/4 hours. It seemed to take ages through immigration and once again I stood in anticipation of my bag but no sign. Having asked for help we walked round to the other side of the belt only to find that someone had already taken it off (panic over!)

Was met and taken on the hour drive to the hotel. Well what an experience - Dave you'd love driving here - dodgems but no fairground. Traffic was nose to tail but not stopped - always moving - cars, motor bikes buses, 3 wheeler cars called tuk tuks - all weaving in and out at what I thought was high speed - horns tooting but apparently very few accidents. SOunds like Cairo Yas.

It's been raining heavily here and the river was high. Most of the buildings looked run down but amongst this 'poverty' stood the buddha statues in all their glory - immaculately clean and ornate.
Arrived in tact at the hotel which is in a tiny street next to the British High commission.
My room is small but clean and tidy with a dodgy lock which I couldn't open on first attempt - thought I was locked in for the night. I'm only here overnight and will leave for Polonnarawu at 6.30 tomorrow morning.

Haven't ventured out yet - the manager of the hotel has kindly let me use his pc. It's very humid here and I think I'll need to but some light clothing.

That's all for now as I don't want to take advantage

Hope you get on all right at the hospital Mam. Jeanette - have a great cruise

Love Sue.xx

In between destinations

Well left Johannesburg yesterday and its strange what you see on the roads. The shuttle bus stopped at the traffic lights and there were loads of street sellers coming up to the cars with dvds, leaflets and all sorts of things for sale. I'm amazed there's not accidents.
Anyway - caught my flight to Singapore and I must say I'm dead impressed with Singapore airlines. Air hostesses in traditional costumes, foot rests, hot towels when you're seated and several times during the journey for you to freshen up. Menus and the food was excellent, quality pillows and blankets, loads of overhead luggage space and I was lucky enough to have a spare seat next to me. A choice of 55 movies, 3 magazines, purple socks - what more could I ask for.

Arrived in at 5 am and on the way to the hotel there were loads and loads of joggers, I know some countries are keep fit fanatics but I thought this is ridiculous - nearly everyone I saw was jogging and this was 5.30 in the morning. Turns out there was a marathon going on.

Hotel is ok but when I arrived at that early hour was told I could not check into the room until 12 unless I was prepared to pay for an additional half day which is not worth it considering I have to leave by 4am tomorrow morning for my flight to Colombo.. As you can imagine I'd been travelling for 24 hours with little sleep so was not best pleased. Its the first time I've actually felt close to tears, but once I'd got the rude receptionist to let me in the room at 11 and had a few hours kip, I was ready for battle. Needless to say I've completed the feedback form which firmly reflects my displeasure.

Anyway - that's behind me now so I'm off for a bicardi and coke and an early night.

Love to all. Sue.xxxxxxxxxxxx

Farewell to Campfire and Hoedspruit

Where have the last 4 weeks gone? Campfire has been a totally different experience to Livingstone and I've met some more truly unique and amazing people.

Suegnette, Letitia, Adele and Bea are blessed to live and work in such a wonderful environment.

Thanks to them and Brass, Mark, Rita and her girls, Tanya, Tracey Matt and Rick who have all made my time with them such a memorable experience. Must not forget Sash, Bushveld and little lola (the dogs) who have sat patiently at the food table waiting for a mere scrap - same as Trigger and Buster really. But I won't miss the vervet monkeys who got more and more cheeky about taking food as you opened a cupboard door.

I'll miss Maria's singing and Bushveld chasing the gardeners at 7am

I think I'll be removing thorns from my body for several weeks to come. Hopefully one day I'll return to Campfire and check out how successful the work I shared with the other volunteers has made.

Karen/Yas - Yes this is still me - it's quite liberating not having to dress up or put make up and the high heels on. You should try it. I know Yas would love the moments in time

Am now in Joburg for the night and a touch of luxury before I move on to Sri Lanka.

I'll sign out now and will hopefully be touch soon

Love you Ceri and Dave and my Mam and all my family and friends too!!!!

Take Care. Sue xx

Time running out

People of Campfire

Thought I’d put a few lines down about the characters of Campfire.

Suegnette is the mum and has been away on holiday for the last 2 weeks. She is an amazing cook and tonight she made a beef stew and a potato and bean stew with rice and vegetable fritters, followed by apple pie and custard. It was superb. She’s a remarkable lady who’s been trying to hold things together since Tinus died last year.

Adele and Letitia are the 2 daughters and have both been married and have 2 children but now live with their respective partners – Bee and Sam. They have taken over from their dad and as Letitia puts it - She works hard and plays hard.

Maria is the lady who does the cleaning, and washing and she sings all the time – we think she doesn’t even realise she’s doing it. She will be 70 soon and is a real ‘Del-boy’. She’s always having people call to buy ‘things’ from her. She sells anything from cigarettes to air time

Uncle Tinus arrived this week to check that the camp is in good order. He’s of the old school that believes women cannot possibly keep the farm up to date and needs a man to oversee everything. I’ll give him his due though, he had a stroke 2 months ago and is having to cope with having to slow down. He arrived on Sunday and was out on Monday laying concrete on one of the roads. So Rubes there’s a prospective hubby here for you

Tuesday Afternoon with the Reptiles

Didn’t plan on doing this activity but went to the Reptile Park this afternoon and am so glad that I did.

We had a talk about the different types of snakes and their fangs and venom. We were then shown around the park and got the opportunity to:

• Feed some of the lizards
• Hold the bearded dragon lizard
• Held a scorpion and let it walk on my face
• Held a Golden Brown baboon spider which is a very rare one (looks like a tarantula)
• Got close up to a Baum Slung snake which is the most deadly in Africa – one drop of it’s venom can kill 12 people
• Got close to a cobra and puff adder
• Held a small python and then a 15 kg one too.

I’ve put some more photos on skydrive for you to see what I got up to.
Tomorrow I ‘walk with the wild’ so watch this space

Wednesday Morning with the Lions

Up and out by 5.30 today to ‘Walk with the Wild’
We went to a nearby lodge where they have a leopard and lion breeding project. We walked with a lion cub called Achilla and the Labrador dog called Prince who thinks it’s Achilla’s mum. We didn’t see too much game on the walk – only the tame Jackal who hangs around the lodge, and some buffalo but the breakfast we had on our return more than made up for it. There was all kinds of tropical fruit, fresh strawberry muffins, toast porridge, yoghurts and fruit juices followed by bacon and eggs with mushrooms fried with cream plus loads of fresh coffee. I could have stayed there all morning and just ate the muffins.

Afterward we went to see the Leopard and Lion breeding project and saw the lions and their cubs in their natural habitat. We were in the buckie so were able to get up really close and were even lucky enough to see them being fed. Expect more pics on the skydrive.

Only one and half days left here so soon I’ll be off to Sri Lanka for the next leg of the journey. I will still try and keep the blog up to date but may not be able to upload photos as often.
Hopefully I’ll get to do one more blog before I leave but if not I will as soon as I can.

Bye for now - Sue.xx

Thanks for all the comments

Hi All

Just wanted to say thank you for all your comments (you too Trish - I got yours too. It's great knowing that my blog is being read.

Today we saw over 10 giraffes at the waterhole - I said I wasn't going to take any more pics of giraffes but seeing them drink is amazing - they have to position themselves so carefully and it's when they are at their most vulnerable. We also saw 3 zebras and 3 Kudu too. It's the most we've seen at any one time

Tomorrow I may be going to a reptile course where we can handle snakes and spiders - not convinced myself to go yet - we'll see.

Will write more tomorrow if the internet is still working. Love you. xx

2 Days in Kruger

On Tuesday we did our usual bush walk but I forgot to mention that we did the Campfire Safari competition of who can spit the Impala dung the furthest!!. I can hear my mam saying ‘What are you doing putting animal pooh in your mouth??’ It’s apparently very safe as they only eat grass – so I’m told.

Wednesday we were digging sand at the dam and looked up to find the 2 house dogs – Lola and Bushveld just wandering across the bush without a care in the world. AT least it was a good excuse to pack up and take them home.
We went into Hoedspruit in the afternoon I lost my hat that I’d bought at the elephant ride which really annoyed me. On the way home we were commenting on what a quiet day it had been and how the bush seemed pretty quiet too. As we turned into the road that leads to camp there were 5 lionesses just strolling across the road in the sunset. They were huge beasts and we tried tracking them in the buckie but they wandered too far into the denser growth. Always a surprise in the bush!

I’ve just spent the last 2 days in Kruger and following the panoramic route home. We saw complete herds of elephants with their babies crossing the road in front of us. There were groups of giraffes and their babies too which couldn’t have been more than a few weeks old. At one of the watering holes were a family of baboons and day old babies and then an elephant arrived to drink and have a bath. There were Water buck, kudu, mongeese, njala and hippos. We even went to hug a tree which was over 1000 years old. It was certainly a memorable day – we would be just driving and suddenly Adele or Bee would say ‘LOOK!’ and there would be another amazing sight. We lunched at a nice lodge where the birds just came and sat on the tables waiting for you to finish. We stayed at another lodge overnight where we were greeted by the geese in the evening and woken by them in the morning. We had a BRAII (BBQ) and drank lots of wine.

On Friday we took the Panoramic route home through the Draagensberg mountains. They apparently stretch from Cape Town to Turkey!!. We stopped at several places where the views were stunning. There was a waterfall, then potholes, we stopped at the ‘BIG SWING’ where if we really felt mad enough we could have taken a 75 metre drop swing into a massive gorge or done it in tandem of done a zip slide. I was tempted but thought better of it. We climbed to God’s window and looked at the rainforest and then finally we drove up to overlook the 3 rondavels – I have never seen such spectacular landscape. I’ve taken photos but I know they won’t do justice.

Back at camp now and Saturday is always quiet unless we go into town on the Friday and stay over. Last night there was just me Tracy and Tanya left at camp and we were scaring ourselves with the noises we could hear in the bush and if you shone the torch out into the bush you could see eyes!!.. I laughed as none of us were brave enough to really find out what was out there. Good fun.

That’s all for now.

Glad to hear you’ve been out and about on your own mam!!. Just make sure you don’t overdo it – the dancing can wait a little longer. Love you!! Take care

Sue.xxx