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The morning we
checked out of Flamingo Rocks we were invaded by Vervet monkeys who have
nearly as much bravado as Baboons! They were into the breakfast room and
pinched the food before proceeding to pinch the food straight of the
plates of some other guests!
A quick 142
kilometres and we arrived at Shakaland, home of a working Zulu Cultural
Village. We have been to Shakaland a couple of times before, but never
stayed overnight. Instead of a whistle-stop two hour tour around the
village this time we got to take our time and spread the various
activities out. These included walking around the village and having
various different traditional customs explained, trying different types of
Zulu food and enjoying the music and dance in the Grandmother's hut.
In the morning we
went to see the Sangoma, the Medicine Man and the Spear Maker, as well as
get confronted by an "it's easy to see why you're divorced" Afrikaans
woman!
A very short trip
of only 56 kilometres took us back to where we got married, Thula Thula.
Shortly after we arrived a vehicle arrived and much to our surprise Mabona
was driving! When we first met Mabona in 2001 she was a very timed, shy
girl. In 2002 when we got married she was still quite shy even though she
gave birth to Junior five days after we got married! In 2003 she was a
lot more relaxed, although having a one year old little boy meant she had
to be on her toes! This year the change was amazing, the lady that drove
up to the gate to greet us gave us a huge hug, chatted away and beamed
with confidence. Mabona was now the Lodge Manager and from what we could
see showed the true meaning of girl power, along with Jabu who was now
Assistant Lodge Manager!
When we arrived
at the lodge Françoise was waiting for us and could not wait to crack open
the champagne! After a couple of sips I passed my glass over to Angela,
who loves Champagne, whilst I was furnished with something I love, a
beer! We then proceeded to drink way too much (for 11:00am anyway) whilst
we caught up on all the gossip with Françoise and Mabona. Later that
evening we caught up with Lawrence and again enjoyed a few drinks, before
tucking into Venison presented the only way it should be, French Blue!
The food was as awesome as always and sitting around the Boma fire
afterwards, enjoying a drink and having a chat under the stars is a great
way to relax.
The game viewing
was reasonable, as well as the "usual" stuff, we saw "Heidi" the White
Rhino, so called because she is good at hiding, we saw the Ellies several
times both at the lodge and in the reserve and a couple of huge Marshall
Eagles. At the waterhole down by the lodge we also saw a Bush Pig and a
pair of Reedbucks, a species of Antelope that we had never seen before.
The final evening
Mabona brought Junior to see us and we met Lawrence's two lads for the
first time, Dylan and Jason, who had come up from Durban on business.
Our next
destination was the Hluhluwe iMfolozi Game Reserve, but first we stopped
by a local village pre-school to drop off some presents we had got them. |