Travelog for: Banyo

Hi folks.
I am a little bear wanting to travel the world and meet other bears.
I have had a fun time at home over Christmas with lots of other Toy Voyagers, but now it is time to travel the big wide world.

Christmas was fun, but New Years Day was even better.
We all went to the beach.
No swimming for the toys, but we got to paddle and play with the kids.

I have arrived in Johannesburg... it rains a lot! I was expecting nice summer sunshine... no such luck, not this year.

I feel like I have been here for months... actually I think I may just have been here for months....doing absolutely nothing, nothing at all. It has just rained and rained and rained.

Finally, one day Fi told her husband she had had enough, she was taking us and the kids in the car and going down to the coast. He said if she could wait just one more day then he would go with because he was busy with month end... so we waited and watched the rain a bit more.

He of course got home late from work, so after supper we piled into the car and set off! It took us over an hour just to get out of Johannesburg because of roadworks on the highway. We reached our destination at three in the morning!!!!

Four hours later the children were bouncing around and demanding to go to the beach, Fi and her husband were still trying to have a sleep after the marathon all night drive.

Guess who won?

Here we are at Thompson's Bay. This is called the 'Hole In The Wall', very imaginative... it is a hole in the wall!



There is a narrow little ledge through it that gets you to another beach.. but if you sit there too long and the tide comes in...well, let's just say we took no chances and stayed on THIS side of the hole...

Here we are sitting in the tidal pool.



The tidal pool used to be quite full of water. A year ago, there was a terrible storm and part of the wall was torn down. Nobody has bothered to fix it. This is not actually a bad thing, because the small children love it.... it is now a small walled off sea for them to play in.

The one side is rock pools...where you can fish for crabs and tiny fish...



It is filled up by big splashy waves like ...aaargh... run for your lives!



Oh, that wasn't that bad...



The other side, where the wall is broken, has nice waves coming in where the children can body board without fear of being washed all the way out to sea. It is calm now but a bit later on, the tide got quite strong and a bit rough.



In the middle is a nice beachy bit where you can build a sand castle!



I have a really stupid song stuck in my head now...

Let's go surfin' now
Everybody's learning how
Come on and safari with me

I can't believe it! It is raining here too...man...

Well, I guess the beach is out then. Fi found out that it was not raining in Durban, so in the car we went...

Miserable isn't it?



Ah... 43 kilometers to Durban...



There is the Durban skyline just ahead of us...



This is the stadium that they are building for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.



There are lots of old colonial style buildings in Durban.



The people of Durban are in an uproar as someone decided that all the street names needed to be changed (don't get Fi started on this subject... it is one of her bugbears!)

Here you can see that Winder Street has been renamed to... can YOU pronounce that? I can't....



We eventually got to uShaka Marine World. We missed the seal show, so we went straight into the aquarium. The whole aquarium is designed to look like a shipwreck.



This tank shows the reef fish...



Yikes! Sharks! If you sit in the restuarant on the other side of this tank you can see the sharks while you eat...



All of these fish lying about in here looking like rocks are very poisonous. The purple one is a scorpion fish, the other ones are stone fish.



Ooh... rays...



Their faces look funny!



Can you see the sea horses?



We went outside to see the dolphins...hang on a second...





Better hurry up or we will miss the real dolphins....

Here they are!



One...



Two...



Three... Four... of them leaping about...



We went back into the aquarium so Squirt could see a turtle face to face....



He was so excited!

We ended off the day by signing the guest book.

Yay! No rain today so we went back down to the beach....and built a few sandcastles.....





We were a bit scared of swimming but Fi said there were life guards on duty. We even met one! (And an ice cream seller....)



When it started getting too hot we went back to the flat...actually we were in a penthouse. This is the view from the balcony. The complex is in an eco estate so there are lots of dams for the bird life and small animal that wander around (lots and lots of very noisy frogs in this dam!)



To the side you can see the sea!



Oh yes, this is the life! Hmmm - I smell lunch...bye!

Today, at the children's insistence, we went to the Flag Animal Farm. It is along a dirt road in amongst the sugar cane fields. No trip to Ballito is complete without a chance to feed and pet the animals.



We found a sleepy little calf...



We sat down for a drink at the little cafe. Nice view....



A pig wandered over....



We found some ducks...these are the ducks Fi says she will have in her garden one day (one day when she doesn't have huge big bird chasing dogs!)



We saw loads of animals, pigs, goats, donkeys, horses, tortoises BUT the best fun was milking a cow! The lady said she had NEVER, EVER, EVER had toys milking cows before....surely not?



I see why the children like to visit the farm...such fun for city kids!

I found a nice tree to climb.... it is called a coral tree.



Here is a close up of the pretty flowers...



Hmmm... I must find some other trees to climb....

Fi has had to go back to work because of the economic crisis. Things are getting tough for the people of South Africa.

Sadly this meant that we didn't get out much, actually we didn't get out at all!

One day she had to go  on a bit of  adrive so she took us with knowing that the view from the top of the hill was quite spectacular.

The best view are on the road though and it is very windy, very steep, with no shoulder - so no photos from there. This was the best we could manage....kind of pathetic if you know what it looks like in real life!

At last! We get to go somewhere!

I got to sit up front so I could see where we were going. This is us going through the city centre on the highway...



It's very early in the morning and it is still a bit hazy.



As we head further out, it becomes more rural - quite a contrast to the city!



We have left Gauteng Province and have entered the Free State. Everyone always thinks of the Free State as a very flat part of the country.



But it isn't really. There are some very pretty mountains. We seem to be approaching a rather hilly area now.



We are in a town called Parys...not quite Paris, you pronounce is Pa - race. We drove through the town till we ended up on a dirt road.... Interesting! A world heritage site...wonder what this is all about then?



Apparently, 2020 million years ago (even Fi wasn't born then!) an asteroid, that was 10km (6 miles) in diameter, hit the earth at a speed of 30 000km/h (18641 mph). It left a scar of the surface of the earth 300km (186miles) wide! That scar is called the Vredefort Dome because it is dome shaped. It is currently described as the oldest and largest impact structure in the world. It can be seen quite clearly from space and if you look for it in Google Earth you can see it quite nicely too.



We stopped here. We may still have been in the Free State or the North West Province or maybe on the border between the two!



We weren't here for an archaeological excursion...though we did have a look at a few fossils and interesting bits and pieces...









...we were here to FISH!



On the banks of the famous Vaal River.  In the 'old days' Gauteng Province was called The Transvaal which means 'across the Vaal'.



Hmm… we have every magic fishing potion you can think of!



After all that fishing it was time for a cup of tea!



...and a nap!



Maybe if we try down this end we might actually catch something!



Well, we never did catch anything except for an old shoe! I thought that only happened in the movies....

After a long day of lazing around in the sun and eating to much, we signed the guest book and headed back for the bright lights of Jo'burg.

As anyone who lives in Johannesburg will tell you, one of the best things about Johannesburg is the weather.... It never gets too hot in summer (lies, lies I tell you!) and in winter it NEVER rains... the sky is blue, blue, blue and it isn't really that cold.

LIES, LIES and MORE LIES!!!!



...and this is only June, I can't wait for July when winter REALLY kicks in!

The children broke up for mid term break today. One of them brought a little guest home for the week.

Because it was RAINING again when we left school, her cage got a little wet and it smelled a bit bad so we cleaned it up....WOW! This is quite a lot of housing for someone so small...and quite a lot of washing and drying for me!



Right, better get some shavings in this....



I wonder if she would mind if I stayed in her house for a bit? I am sure I'd fit...



She even has a built in gym...hah hah hah...



This is quite a puzzle...I need a bit of help putting this all together...



Let me do a final check and make sure it's all dry and cosy in here.





All ready...where is she? QT! QT! Come on out and see your house!



She has quite a stack of food for such a small hamster! She hides it all away and gets VERY cross when her cage is cleaned out and her stash goes missing.



Isn't she cute? Hmmm... Maybe that's why they call her QT!





The first thing she did when she got back in her cage was hunt for her stash of seeds. She was decidedly upset when she couldn't find any!



Instead of counting to ten she went for a jog... once she had calmed down she set about hiding her seeds and rearranging her nesting material. Funny little thing!

Fi's friend, Amanda, had an overnight stay in the Pilansberg National Park. She stayed at the Kwa Maritane Lodge and took me with her.



It was pretty cold so we didn't really see many animals. We did see giraffe though! Can you see him? There, far in the distance...



How about now, can you see him yet?



I looked and looked... but I couldn't see anything else.



I had a friend help me look... but we just fell about laughing because we saw nothing...



We heard someone else laughing at us...how rude!



All the laughing gave this impala a fright!



After a while of driving around and not seeing anything, we decided to head home and found an obstacle in our path...

Today we met some friends at a place called 'Wemukelekile' - no, I can't say it either, but it means 'welcome' in Zulu. Fi says you pronounce it: weh - moo - keh - lee - kee - leh...whatever, my tongue is not dextrous enough to pronounce that!



It is a strange place. There is a five star restaurant, a coffee shop, a nursery, a children's play area and a farmyard all in one! And there are loads of carved stone statues all about like this one...



We found a very vain peacock in the farmyard section. He started strutting his stuff as soon as he saw the camera!



Not many flowers about at this time of the year, it is the middle of winter, but the pansies were in full bloom and made a nice splash of colour.



The aloes are quite a pretty sight too though these are past their prime.



I found a tree to climb!



I know it looks like another aloe, and I think it is one, but I PROMISE it is a tree!



We stopped for breakfast and warmed up with some hot chocolate, but after a quick turn round the play area we went home because it was so cold with an icy wind...3°C!

Well, the time has come for me to say goodbye...

I'm off to Finland. I wonder if they have any nice prickly plants there? Somehow I doubt it!

Bye from South Africa!See you soon!

G'day mates! I arrived in Finland! I met Gary Boldie and Leonard, another aussie. My mate Alfie spent a year here, so my host can't be a bad sheila  Can't wait to have a look around!