Whiteriver South Africa

I’m sitting in Whiteriver, South Africa with Mark, Mum and my aunt Frances playing card games, drinking too much wine and eating biltong with Mum making me feel bad for not updating the blog. Whoops, one of those things that get away from you, or I’m lazy... Yeap, I’m lazy.

So what has happened since the last blog update. Wow it was sooo long ago. We left India and parted ways. Mark spent 2 months hiking in Nepal, for a while with Chris and Allen. He hiked up to 6500 feet, did some of the hardest hikes you can do without equipment and guides and managed to finish weighing FIFTY THREE KILOS!!!!!!!!! (That’s 116 pounds for you strange imperial people).

I went to South East Asia for a month, enjoying Kuala Lumpar, Bangkok and then Laos, which has to go down as my favourite country ever! I managed to time it so that I hit their new year festival, which is basically a giant water fight that included the entire village for 10 days!!!! While I was there some friends we had made in India, Ollie and Ben as well as Will, Cameron and Paul where in Laos at the same time so I had friends to run around with attacking locals with water guns.  I shared a room with another friend met in Laos, Allison, who helped cut the testosterone a little.

After Asia I went back to Perth for a month of guaranteed comfortable bed, working shower, no bed bugs, fridge full of food, plus my mum and dad and my baby sister. Perth was great it was so nice to spend time with my family and enjoy some stability. I also managed to be there for my youngest sisters 21st, I don't think she would have forgiven me if I hadn't been there.

I left Perth and meet up with Mark in Delhi. Poor Mark had his camera stolen on the way to meet me so our happy reunion was somewhat marred as he’d lost some of his favourite Everest photos.

We spent two days in Delhi and then flew to London for a short trip to see family and a very few friends, and then flew to Rhodes, Greece to spend two months sailing in the Greek Islands with Mark’s parents on their boat. It was soooo nice. I was left in charge of the galley (happy days) while we both helped on the deck. Mark managed to catch a fish (singular, tehehe). It was great to spend time with Mark’s parents as well as the visitors who came to join us, including Mark’s cousin and a couple of friends from London. While we were there Mark turned 30, so we made sure to get a few photos of him in stupid party hats.

After Greece Mark and I flew to Stockholm to see his Swedish family, which is always great because they spoil us rotten. This time we were there for their fresh water small lobster season, so ate more seafood than most people see in a year! Yum!

We said good-bye to Mark’s family and met up with Anton, whose family has known my family in Africa forever! We hired a car for ten days, filled our car with cheap food from Sweden (by Scandinavian standards anyway) and drove through fjords, and amazing Norwegian scenery for 10 days. We finished in Lund, in Sweden, where Anton studies, and caught a train to Copenhagen to meet one of Mark’s Maltese aunts and her children which was fantastic! I’d not meet Josianne, and was happy to find she was one of those people who just made you feel welcome and at home!

We said good-bye to Copenhagen and flew to London for a few days of some more family and friend action including a surprise 30th party for Mark and plenty of dim sum and noodle time!

Yesterday we arrived into Johannesburg to spend time with MY extended family and are now on an indepth tour of my maternal family history in South Africa. Poor Mark, his eyes do seem to glaze over a fair bit after a few hours of stories of which cousin married which person and where they lived and how many children they had, and the the types of plants they grew... but I’m excited!!)

So now we have three and a half months in Southern Africa, which should include South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana and Namibia. I promise to not take so long until the next blog update!!!





(is anyone reading this apart from Mum???)