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Hi all howzit? Things are great. I have just finished my first Backpacking trip. It was really awesome. However most of you don’t even know that my time at Tshukudu has finished. My last three weeks were about the same as the rest. I was out in the bush the whole time which was wonderful, I was out getting dirty J Checking fences, feeding Lucerne, patrolling, erosion work, feeding lions, bone collection. Whatever needed to be done. Just after New Year a baby bird was found. It had fallen out of its nest, I was the hostess therefore having the most time on my hands so I was given the job or trying to save it. It was a max of 5 days old, its eyes were open and we figured out that it was a Weaver Bird. We had Pro Nutro that I mixed up and feed it. I really did not think it was going to live at first but it did. After about a week and a half it was starting to fly and I could not leave it in the cage for fear of it hurting itself, so as all mothers have to do I had to let my baby go. Naturally I cried but that afternoon it returned very hungry and looking for food. Needless to say as of the day that I left he still come in regularly to be fed. I did not do a very good job with the manners but what can you do. There was also a baby monkey that was found, and we all took turns with it for about 5 days and then gave it to a lady who specializes in rehabilitation of monkeys. He was very cute and adorable and hard to part with. They gave me off my last two days at the reserve so that I could go on the game drives and pack. It was really hard for me to leave all of my friends. I had really fit in with them and since it was an older crowd I did not have to deal with the petty high school problems that come with my exchange student friends. At least Mariann left the day before me for her week off so my crying was cut in half. She and I had bonded quite well and as soon as she moves back to Cape Town in June I will be visiting her. I left Tshukudu on the 28th, and this bus trip was quite long. I did not have anyone to talk to on this trip so things were basically boring. Ian picked me up from the bus station and took me to meet the Reeds who was the Rotary family that I was to spend my next two nights with. They are lovely people, have four children who are all grown but they have had plenty of experience with exchange students. Friday morning I was to leave early and set out for my backpacking trip on the Otter Trail. Elbeth was one of the Rotarians who was going on the trip, and she had bought the food so I was to help her pack and get everything ready. Friday morning Ian picked Jo, the exchange student from Arizona who had spent the night with me up and then went to get Thomas, and Hugh up. The five of us were driving down. Ian had planned a scenic route for us spending the Night in Kimberly. He took us to the largest whole in SA at a famous Diamond Mine there. We spent the night in a Hostile. The next day we had a very long drive. All the way to the Garden Route, which is the only natural forested area in SA. We stayed Saturday night at the house of one of Elbeth’s friends who was coming along on the hike. The house was beautiful; of course it was her summer home that was just outside of Platt. It was located right on the waterfront and is bigger then my own house. I just about died when I walked in then standing on her deck I watched dolphins surfing in the waves. I knew at that moment the trip had been worthwhile already. The house was about 20 min drive from there to the TSITSIKAMMA National Park, where the head of the trail was at Storms River Head. We left Sunday from Storms River and headed out for our next adventure. There were 12 of us in total. The other 6 were all some Elbeth’s friends, older women with most of them having grown children. The trail is planned out ahead of time for all of the hikers. You can only travel a set distance each day, which really make the hike a relaxing one. If you did not do this most people would rush through it. The trail is a total of 44 kilometers. There is only one day when you travel over 8 km, and that is when you have to cross a major river. Everything that we wanted for the week was in our packs. Food, water, cloths, sleeping bags, cameras, stoves, and anything else that you wanted. Most people’s packs weighed around 15 kilograms. At first you might not think that it is a lot but after hiking 44 km you can think of lots that you could have left out to make it lighter. We would fill up with water at running streams and they had taps at the cabins, which we spent the night in. There are also flushing loo’s (oops sorry toilets) at all of the cabins. The sleeping conditions were wonderful; each night was spent at the specified cabin. Each cabin had 6 bunk beds, so our group took over both cabins each night. The view from them was absolutely stunning to, most of the time you could walk right down to the beach or bay and have a wonderful swim. There were two nights when it was not best to swim, and there were showers provided, the water was cold but clean so it was able to wash away my tan The terrain varied through out the hike. It was always along the coastline, but some days were full of rock climbing, others were steady up and downs in the trees and sometimes is it was flat along the top of the cliff. The best part was to see the adults and how excited they got being in the natural forest. Some had done the hike before but they all really appreciate, the native plant life and understand how rare it is in their country. The flower buds were just coming out on most of the plants so whoever hikes the trail in the next two weeks is going to have an even more beautiful hike. The first day I took the trail pretty fast and kept up with the Thomas and Hugh, but then I was talking with some of the ladies that night and they had been told to take the trail slow. I did this from then on and I had a much better time then if I had tried to keep up with the boys. Most of the time I walked with one or two other ladies or Ian but sometimes I was on my own which was fine by me. I was able to stop when I needed and rest or take pictures of whatever I wanted. One day I was walking along a cliff and I saw some dolphins fishing in a small cove. I watched them for about 15min and then moved on. The great thing was so did the dolphins, I was about 100 meters above them but they were swimming in the same direction that I was going. It was a beautiful site. The weather was absolutely wonderful, it only rained one day. Sadly it was the day of our longest hike so it made things a little more difficult. This day we had to travel 14 km, normally that wouldn’t be a problem but we had to cross the biggest river 10 km into the hike. This river and our crossing time is affected by the tides, you can only cross it in low tides. Our problem is that our low tide was at 9:08 am, which meant we had to get up at 3:00am so that we could travel the 10 km in time. When we woke up it was raining so that made the trail slipper and we traveled the first 2 to 3 hours in the dark, but it was so worth it because the rain stopped and the sunrise was so beautiful. I got to the river at 8:45 am so I was able to get across fine, and luckily so was everyone else in the group. We did have some slow travelers and we were all worried as to if they would make it to the river before the tide started to come back in. The boys and myself carried some of the ladies packs across for them, so that everyone would make it to the other side safe and dry. The trip was the best. It was my first backpacking experience, and the terrain was not to bad. I found out that Ian is 73 and if when I am 73 and I can walk half of that distance without a pack I will be happy. I was looking at some statistics showing the numbers that travel the trail each year and it is amazing to see that most of them are international. Some of the ladies who were with us had done it before but besides that I only know of 2 other South Africans who have hiked the trail. If anyone ever has the chance to do go for it just make sure you are somewhat in shape. We finished the hike by walking on to the Natures Valley Beach. It was a wonderful site to look down from the cliff and see the beach. However when I got to the bottom, I was like “ Its over already?” The time really passes quickly when you are having fun. Again we spent the night in the “Palace” had a little celebration party. The next morning Ian, Thomas, Hugh, Jo, and I got up early and traveled 2 hours to visit an Ostrich Farm and then the Congo Caves. The farm was interesting but I have to say that I enjoyed the Caves much more. They are so divers, exquisite, old yet young at the same time. I took pictures but there is no way that I was able to capture the true splendor of them. We then drove back to the “Palace” and spent our last night there. Saturday morning we got up and cooked Elbeth a Champagne Breakfast for her birthday. It was just 7 of us, the rest had left Friday afternoon. After the breakfast we packed up and headed for Jeffries Bay. For those of you who don’t know it is suppose to be a major Suffers Beach and Hugh being a highly active (5 to 7 hours a day) suffer in Australia was very excited to go. Unfortunately the wind was up and ruined all of the waves, but at least we can all say that we have been there. We then set out to drive as far as we could get that night. Ended up staying at a guesthouse in Middleburg, which was very nice. Then got up early Sunday morning and set out for the rest of the way to Joburg. Arrived about 2:30pm, Ian dropped us all off at our prospective houses. I spent another night at the Reed’s with Elbeth and Dunny who arrived late last night from their flight home. Today is a leisure day, I believe that Thomas and I are switching place to stay. He will come here to the Reed’s who live quite close to his school, and I will move in with Di for the time being. I have not heard yet if I am going to start work tomorrow or not but I think so. It is nice to be back in the city but weird in a way to. I have gotten lazy about what I wear and doing my hair and makeup (hard to believe right Erin J) My hair has gotten quite long and needs a trim which I am terrified about since Rose has cut it my whole life, but the split ends will get bad since I will not have it in a ponytail the whole time. I miss the bush a lot but it is nice to be back in the real world, even thought I would rather just it be a visit. Okay don’t know what else to say, except that I can be a better friend now that I am back in Joburg, since I can get phone calls and can return emails. I hope all is well with everyone. Take Care. Cheers, Love, Katelyn
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