from Naomi

I'm so glad that we can all communicate via this blog! Kudo's Laura and Inbal.

Photos posted below

Pete, I loved the photos & stories from your South African road trip! I posted some of our pictures below.
Laura & Inbal

Photos from Cape Town

Photos from Zambia

Pete and Sinead's Amazing South African Road Trip

Hi Everyone,

So this is kind of old news, but it is more exciting than our new news. We had an awesome road trip through South Africa after we said goodbye to you all in Cape Town. We were really surprised to see how much the cultures and landscapes changed through the country. We started out in Plettenberg Bay, in the Garden Route, where we did a killer mountain bike ride through the forest and a beautiful hike around Robberg Peninsula where we could smell the sea lions (it reminded us of Cape Cross).

Then we headed for Hamburg, in the former Ciskei homeland, which is a lovely little beach town but we only had one night there. From there we drove through the former Transkei, which has an amazing landscape of rolling green hills dotted with colorful villages. We ended up in Port St. Johns, which is probably one of the most beautiful towns in South Africa, set among cliffs with rainforest clinging to them. Unfortunately the hostel was not so great there, as it was run by spacey people who didn't care much about their guests comfort. Still we went on a great hike to a Pondo village in the hills that was probably the highlight of the trip. Some pictures of the people we met are below.

Next we headed inland to the Drakensberg Mountains- another mediocre hostel in a fantastic location. There we did a hike to the highest waterfall in Africa (pretty exciting huh). We got hailed on and there was thunder and lightning all around, but still it was a great experience. This is Sinead climbing down a metal ladder on a sheer cliff face.
From there it was back to a warmer climate at St. Lucia Wetlands. We were really busy here, with a bike safari, a croc and hippo tour, and a night safari drive (where we saw the dwarf chamaeleon below). St. Lucia is full of tourists, but its easy to get away from them and it is a fascinating ecosystem.

Our last stop was one night in Swaziland- we didn't do much here because we were exhausted, but it looked beautiful and we both wish we had more time to explore. This is Sinead on a walk we took there.
The next day we drove on to Jo'Burg, where Sinead flew to Cape Town and I met up with Loren (we went to the Apartheid Museum, which was another highlight) for our flight back to the USA.

Since then we've both been enjoying spending time with our families, me in Atlanta and Colorado, Sinead in Cape Town and Dublin. Right now Sinead is busy trying to get a visa to come out here and get started at the Carter Center, while I'm not as busy trying to find a job for the next four months. Hope you are well and we are looking forward to everyone's posts.

Welcome

Welcome to our group website! Please posts your updates, stories, thoughts, and photos. Looking forward to hearing from all of you! If you want to post something but you can't remember how, e-mail me.

Laura S.