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hi everyone we have actuallz just left south africa, but i wanted to put in picture of a lion to indicate what we have been up to. We spent 12 days in south africa, a few days in joburg with family, (stu's brother Charlie, wife Belinda and son, matthew) and then visited Suncity and Kruger National Park. It was Winter there, so weather was fine and warm during the day and cold at night. Kruger was actually much warmer, being nr the coast and down off the plateau that joburg is on. We saw so manz animals it is hard to know where to start. Basically at <kruger we spent four nights there, two in one camp and two nights in two other camps - all excellent accommodation at reasonable prices.
the highlight of kruger park was seeing a pride of lions onlz metres from the road _they were just laying around in the afternoon light, a mother and cubs, a male and another female and afew older cubs. It happend at the end of a long day in the car, so the kids found it hard to concentrate, although i think thez reallz loved seeing it all.
(sorry about the odd zs in wrong places _ the computer here in Germany is different)
We also got reallz close to elephants, one in particular nearlz charged the car, stu had to reverse up rather quickly. thezy are huge!
the highlight at suncity was seeing some high-jinks nr our aprtment. We came back for lunch and the cheekz monkeys, were there, we had been warned not to leave our windows and door open or leave food on the bench, the people nextdoor had obviouslz not aheeded that advice. The sprite lythe animals flitted up the wall and onto the balcony and much to our amusement sneak in an open window, squeezing thru the bars. stu was videoing it all and Tim's raucous laughter can be heard on it as the thieves reappear with a bunch of ,zyzou guressed it, bananas!! Thez laterwent back and stole a picnic bar! we told the owners next day, they hadn't reallz noticed.!
ok, i will update again soon, about Europe. Africa has been amazing, and the familz hospitalitz was excellent. the kids plazed soccer in the backyd and we had braaris every other night or lunch. (barbecue) The houses of course where we lived in Sandton area were all highly secured with high concrete walls topped with electric fencing at 10,00 volts. often at the beginning of a block of houses, there was a securitz guard and gate _ some houses (mansions) had their own guards . In Charlie and Belind's street, there were a lot of blacks as well as whites who lived a grand lifestzle. <out in the streets zou drove with locked doors and contrary to popular belief, you don't drive thru all the red lights _ because there are heavy fines now and cameras.
We did not see anz violence or unrest and blacks had most of the servicing positons. There are about 50 million blacks and three million whites in South Africa. We enjozed meeting Belinda's family as well for a day and doing some shopping, where the prices are cheaper than in nz. we will be pennz pinching now that we are in Europe!!
bze for now hope this works.......lots of love to zou all from sue, stu, nicola, tim and isabel. ps <nicola and tim are at a german school todaz and isabel has gone to a kindergarten school with Malika who is the same age. Even though the two children speak a different lanaguage, they have made a strong friendship and have had great fun together. it is the first time <isabel has hada little girl to plaz with on our travels, as so far we have stazed onlz in families with boys!!
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