Battlefields, turtles and beaches

Time has flown since I last had access to a computer...I've lost all sense of the days of the week, I know today is the 29th because it is Richard's birthday- more on this later.

So first stop after leaving the mountains was Dundee and a Battlefield tour with our esteemed guide Evan Jones. Well before I did this trip my knowledge of the Anglo-Zulu war was limited to the film Zulu... I can now say that I know rather a lot more...in fact so detailed was Evan's tour that I know rather more than I would ever have thought possible, after the 5th hour when he pulled out a makeshift map, started role playing and bringing out props I had to reach for my Biltong to keep up my strength. 3 hours later at Fugitive's Drift he was still going strong, ordering me to clamber over rocks to get the best photo opportunity  and suggesting further reading for us ( I would be amazed if there was anything else left for us to learn). We felt that we got our money's worth. Isaldwena is a sobering place which is much more like the landscape feature in that film, Rorke's drift is surprisingly small and compact but very interesting.

We moved on from Dundee after a couple of nights to the North East Coast. Richard and I had our first row on the way....captive in the car, there was no escape and as is so often the case it was a map related incident ( I have history here!!). Things resolved themselves with a bit of shouting, sulking and flouncing...I am an unpredictable bitch and Richard is a pedantic grandad....situation normal.

We found a nice backpackers in Kosi Bay, right on the border with Mozambique. We has a rather nice chalet, a couple of kilometres from a deserted beach with saltwater lagoons used by local fishermen and fabulous snorkelling. The backpackers was run by Ken a rather smooth guy from Joberg who managed to pay some attention to us when he could extracate himself from his 'friend' Candice who was visiting him. We went on a fab boat trip, accompanied by KenCan ( they had by now merged into one, with arms and legs entwined) where Richard the snorkell virgin was persuaded to give it a go and then was the last one to get back inthe boat. We also went to an isolated, deserted beach to wait for turtles to come ashore and lay eggs. We were very lucky here and within minutes of our guide arriving a loggerhead waddled up the beach metres from where we had been sitting and began to dig and then lay for us.....a truely fantastic experience...I was quiet for about 2 hours it was that good. KenCan lost interest after about 20 minutes and we were slightly distracted by the stroking and slurpy noises, luckily it didn't put the turtle off. KenCan left early the next morning, leaving us with the backpackers to ourselves and Richard, now a real snorkelling afficionado came down to the beach with me to look at the coral reef and the fish....he also came face to face with a Moray eel which gave him a bit of a fright but has not put him off.

We left Kosi yesterday and travelled down to Salt Rock, just outside Durban. We found a beautiful B and B overlooking the beach which by complete coincidence and rather bizarrely we discovered that KenCan stayed at the night before...small world. We are both happy here at the moment. It's Rich's birthday today and after this internet fest, ( his choice of activity on his birthday) we are going to find a nice place for luch in Ballito Bay....then off to the Snake Park.