2 weeks ago it was the last day of a long week before our 10-day holiday. I was looking forward to it for a long time

Saturday my parents came to visit us at our apartment and we had a braai. To bad the weather wasn’t so good, it was cloudy and rather cold
After the braai me and my parents left for Pretoria East to sleep at Ted’s Place (a nice Bed & Breakfast). The guys stayed in the apartment and they left on Sunday to Kruger National Park and Swaziland.

After a good nights rest at Ted’s we went to see old Pretoria. The center isn’t that big of a deal I learned. BUT! We found a café where they had Stella Artois, draft!
We visited the ‘oud raadsaal’ and city hall. Two very nice buildings. I don’t have any pictures of that but my parents do, I’ll try to upload them when I’m home

On Monday we went to Blyde River Canyon, It’s a big trip but the toll roads are good so we didn’t have any problems (except for that speed ticket )

The canyon and the thing around it where absolutely amazing! The potholes, waterfalls, God’s Window, the rondavels… It’s a very nice piece of nature, enchanting even…

After that long trip we slept in the Westlodge (another Bed & Breakfast in the old Victorian style).

On Thursday and Wednesday, Kruger National Park! It’s like Pilanesberg, but a bit bigger
The first day we were very lucky. We saw warthogs 10m from the gate, we were off to a pretty good start. After a little driving we saw some elephants, baboons and giraffes.
But after a few hours I think it was to warm for the animals so we saw nothing! To bad, but we kept on driving and by the end of the day we saw a hippo ore two and some zebras.

Day two in Kruger Park was early! We arrived at the gate at 6u15, and as we expect to see many animals who were still active, we saw nothing! We drove and we drove, but the first few hours we saw nothing!
But at around 9 we came across some people who told us that there was an elephant who just gave birth. We had to see it so we continued on our route. It was an amazing sight to see the mother protect her newly born. We didn’t go to close as the mother looked quite upset.
The rest of the day we did some more sightseeing and at the end we got lucky again, some buffaloes were lying in the shade, it was great to see these beasts.

The two nights we went to Kruger we slept in a hotel of which I don’t remember the name, sorry

Thursday we took it easy we left at 11h in the hotel and we drove to Pretoria, to Ted’s Place. We took our time and believe it or not, we saw 3 giraffes standing next to the highway…
Once arrived in Pretoria we went for a drink, we changed and we had something to eat. Nothing special

On Friday we visited Cullinan. It’s a town were diamond miners live. In this diamond mine, situated in this town, the found the larges diamond EVER! We took a surface tour of the mine and you could see the hole where the miners are still working today. The hole is 500m wide, 1000m in length en 450m deep, a pretty large hole

After the visit we had a look around the campus and my parents brought me back to the apartment.

The wait for the guys could start. They wouldn’t return until Sunday at 14h. But I was in need for some rest so it was  not a waisted Saturday

So I hope you enjoyed reading up on me and I will try to post more often now

Bye!

I will try to post more often now and give you an idea of what I have been doing the past few weeks.

See you later!

Saturday we left of at 10h and we arrived around 13h. After that we set up our tent, that we had just bought in the Makro. At 15h we went for a ride on the quad. It was quite an adventure and it was lots of fun.
In the evening we met some South-African guys and we had a drink with them.

After a good nights sleep we got up at 9h and we started the braai. We had some sausages, chickenwings, ribs and some beef steak.

After the braai we sat on the grass by the lake for a while and at 15h we left for home.

We won’t be doing anything special this evening because we are all exhausted

Pictures can be found at Mike’s or Tom’s blog (I forgot the camera again )

For the map: Click here

Saturday evening we went to O’Haggins to drink something, we also went to the café next to it to play some pool. We had a great time and it was a cheap night out

Sunday we had a ‘braai’. A braai is actually BBQ but much more relaxed than in Belgium. We started at 18h and we were ready at 22h.

Monday we went to snake and animal park we hoped it would be interresting, but it wasn’t. At first it was cool; snakes, monkeys, … but when we got to the lions and tigers we were all a bit angry about the way the animals have to live there. Little cages, nothing to do.
Also the seal and snake show was a disappointment.  It felt like a complete waist of time…

I’ll upload the pictures sometime this week.

We took off very early in the morning so we could get there in time to see most of the park in 1 day. The traffic on the roads was CRAZY! People just walk on the highway, or they take their bike for a trip on the emergency lane, you name it!

After a 2h30 drive we arrived in Sun City. This is a city on the south side of the park. People here are poor and it’s a good idea to stay in your car

To get in the par you had to pay 45 Rands per person and 20 Rands per vehicle. It was also good to have a map there, because it’s a big park (200km of roads) so thats another 15 Rands. The total we paid to get in was 215 Rands because Jan didn’t go with us, he was sick again

We got in the park at the Kwa Maritane Gate, one of the most southern gates of the park.

After driving for 15 minutes in a beautiful landscape we some zebras and some wildebeests. So we were off to a good start
But then things became a little boring (apart from the nature of course). We didn’t see any animals for another 15 km (1h with Elvis). After that we saw some more zebras, a herd actually.

The trip continued to Manyane Gate, there was a chance we could spend the night there but the were fully booked. So off we go!

Next in an act of desperation we drove to the water because we hadn’t seen any animals for hours now! And it paid of! We saw some giraffes, an elephant, an more zebras! But this time the zebras were in the middle of the road, so Tom could make some nice pictures

After that we drove and we drove but we didn’t see any other significantly exciting animals, but after 16h we got lucky! All the animals came out! We saw hippo’s, giraffes (closer by this time), rhino’s (we call the big one Gino ) and elephants (lots of them).

The only thing we didn’t see are lions and leopards but I hope I see them in Kruger national Park so I can complete my collection of the big 5 (now I only got 3).

For pictures I would like refer you to Toms blog, because I was driving all the time

See you!

If you like to see where we went on google maps: this link should help you I’ll keep it up to date.

We will be spending the night there so check back tomorrow or the day after for pictures!

The 22nd I have to go back to test some of the features for mobile mail. In the meanwhile I will be finishing my work in the new classroom on the campus.

Today we also went to rent a car Its a golf 2 with a 1.4 petrol engine. It’s a very nice car.

We reserved it yesterday an today Jan and I went to Pretoria to pick it up . It was a bit strange to drive on the other side of the road tough… But after a drive of nearly half an hour, Jan and I got back to campus safely We will be making a little trip with it this weekend I think

I’ll keep you posted!

Today I went to the embassy again but I couldn’t quite finish my work. I have to go there tomorrow and I hope to make things work then.

After a hard days’ work we went to grab some food in the spur, a big restaurant with a big meat-menu I had spare ribs (400g) and so did Mike, Tom and Jan (yes he is coming around now). Bert took a T-Bone steak (about 500g) and we all had a very good meal

Finally, I just want to say happy birthday to my aunt Ria!

See you tomorrow!

Once I arrived at the office where I had to work the problem was very clear. One of the services wouldn’t start! So I tried a reboot of the system. It took an HOUR to reboot!!! That is not really normal.

After we fixed the problem of the service, we faced an other problem. A few email addresses had to be collected by this mailserver from only 1 email address (this is called mail spoofing) but this is easier said than done…

Well tomorrow there is another beautiful day in sunny South-Africa