Rural South Africa

Whilst we were at the truly wonderful Hog Hollow Lodge - most definitely our favourite hotel of anywhere, in any of our travels so far - we scrambled over the crag a) to burn off a dozen of the excess calories we've been taking on and b) to visit the monkey sanctuary. It sounded a bit Disneyish but not a bit of it and we saw eleven species of their rescued monkeys. Some very cute:

We visited Plettenberg and Knysna which had been recommended to us by several people. It was a nice enough town, for sure, and we ambled about for a while before driving to The Heads. From there we got magnificent views inland, across the lagoon, to the town and to the ocean where we saw dolphins way below us in the bay.

Sadly it was time to move on and we drove to Port Elizabeth, in the rain, and took the flight to Durban in the smallest plane we've ever travelled in. Next car picked up we headed to Isandlwana, stopping over night at the Granny Mouse Country House. The rain was torrential, the trucks on the motorway were sometimes three abreast and I was at the wheel of a Polo Sedan fitted with a lawn mower engine. It wasn't an easy drive but we arrived (in the dark) to be shown to our pretty thatched cottage. 

When we left the next day for Isandlwana we paused at the Nelson Mandela Capture Site. I won't put a picture of the memorial on here: I'm saving it. It was terrific.

We had a long, long drive to Isandlwana but it was through deepest rural South Africa and we loved it. We were really off the beaten track.

The Lodge at Isandlwana was stunning. And the view from our room is across the battlefield and Isandlwana Mountain.

We have spent the whole day today being guided round the battlefields of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift by the resident and, apparently, leading scholar on these Anglo-Zulu wars. Not normally my cup of tea and my attempt to watch 'Zulu' had resulted in my desolving into fits of giggles at the haminess. 'Carry on up the Rift' sprang to mind. But today was fascinating. 

Tomorrow we tour the village and visit a school.

Two passing and general observations: first the number of people we see walking. Just walking. To and from work or school, going shopping, foraging, hitching lifts. Walking across fields, along the hard shoulders and the central reservations of the motorways. Just walking. And always slowly.

Second the children everywhere. Playing, going to and from school, hanging about. Lots of them, from tiny tots playing on the hard shoulder or the railway or in the fields, to teens loitering, just like the world over. But so many. Where will they find work when they finish school?

The tour of the village was fascinating and we did indeed visit the school. The Principal sat behind his desk, looking important and doing nothing - how much I related to that, before any of you say - whilst apparent chaos rained in the classrooms. Dozens of smiling children sang The Wheels On the Bus and If You're Happy And You Know It to us, while their teacher ate her lunch at a desk to the side, seemingly, and disappointingly, totally without interest. The children had just come in from play so we assumed they were about to restart lessons at about 10.45, but no. They all went back outside, lined up and were dismissed for home. Even our guide didn't seem to know why. 

And off we went to the Fortune Teller's (Witch Doctor to you and me) house, while some of the kids began their hour and a half walk home, just three hours after they'd arrived after their hour and half trek to get there.

The Fortune Teller (a trainee we understood) did his dance but I really didn't fancy having an intern tell me how long I have to live. Our guide just explained the process.

What a strange mix of modern and traditional, religious and 'pagan', if that's the right word. Mud brick houses with satellite dish and cell phone. Strangely, of course, they've skipped one generation of technology and missed out landlines and gone straight for mobiles. But you feel somehow that a mother and baby have walked about these lands in exactly the same way for millennia. 

The weather has been ideal for what we've have been doing here but cloudy and windy. The sun is out now and we will spend a lazy afternoon at the lodge before heading for Ballito tomorrow. We plan to meet up with Brian and Ann there, a really delightful couple we met here and spent the afternoon touring Rorke's Drift with. 

Footnote: our guide here was one Rob Gerrard, by all accounts a leading scholar in the Anglo-Zulu wars. I didn't sleep well last night and, rather than count sheep, I scripted in my head a spoof Gerrard presentation, delivered in his plumby, army officer, Paul Whitehouse voice. Well it made me laugh but I guess you had to be there.

And another: Colonel General Sir Lord Gerrard instructed us to spray up to the knees and between the toes with the bug spray provided in our rooms before our tour of the battlefields. Following some rain there may be grass ticks. We knew we were going to a malaria area, now we learn we're in a grass tick district!