A Once in a Lifetime experience!

We arrived in Durban on Saturday and found our bed and breakfast.  We checked our e-mail and saw that Michelle had sent a last minute SOS that due to a terrible snow storm in New York their flight plans had changed and they would be arriving at 10:00 PM Sunday night rather than Sunday afternoon.  We were just grateful they were able to change their flights to Washington rather than New York so they could come.   Sunday morning we attended church at the Berea chapel - the first large ward we have been at in 8 1/2 months.  After church we drove around Durban a bit to get a feel for the city and then after a nice visit that evening with Elder and Sister Olson we headed to the airport to meet Rod and Michelle. They were very tired, but excited to finally arrive in Durban.  Needless to say - so were we - excited that is!  I kept watching for them through the doors as they opened and closed trying to get a preview as they waited for their luggage to arrive.

 Monday morning we took them right to the beach - the India ocean so they could get their feet wet and - stay awake!  They had a fun time playing in the waves and gathering sea shells for Rod's kids. 

 Michelle found this beautiful little creature and wanted to take it home, but was afraid it would be confiscated at customs.  So we left it at the beach for another day.

 We enjoyed looking at the amazing sand sculptures on the beach and buying "unbreakable sunglasses" from the beach vendors.

 Now that's a sandcastle!

Monday afternoon we headed back to the airport to pick up Brittany and Spencer.  It was so great to finally have our children altogether again.  They were also very glad to be together.  We got the rental van loaded up and Wayne drove the rental van and I drove the bakki and we headed to the Pinetown chapel where we were going to leave our bakki while we took our family around the country.  When we got there we found a bunch of missionaries playing volleyball and basketball in the church parking lot.  To our great surprise and delight many of them were elders that had been assigned to our area at the beginning of our mission.  It was such a glorious reunion.

 Rod and Spencer played a quick game of pick-up basketball with some elders on their p-day where we left the bakki.  We met up with Elders Gold, Ndivo, and a bunch of others.  We were told that our bakki would be safe at the back of this gated chapel, however, when we got back our bakki had been broken into, our radio/CD player had been stolen and all of the tools from the back of our bakki.  Very annoying.

 Meet Ted!  He had a friend named Bill.  These were roommates of Rod and Michelle's at the B & B.  Michelle tossed a bar of soap at Ted from the shower and Bill met his demise.  I guess this is a part of Durban I will become very familiar with.  We have not had cockroaches in Ladybrand - gratefully.  I guess there is something to be said for cold winters!

 In spite of making reservations for our Durban stay a month in advance - they messed up our reservations and they did not have room for all of us at the same place so Spence and Britt got moved to another B & B a ways away.  This is the indoor patio where they stayed. 

Our first supper altogether!

Durban has a very large influence of East Indian culture.  For supper that night we decided to try some East Indian cuisine.  Rod loves it - the hotter the better!  Dad likes his hot too.  The rest of us not so much.  However the bread that accompanies a meal is delicious!

 Durban is famous for its "naughty" monkeys.  These brazen little monkeys will find their way into any opening.  If you leave a window open they will be in your house and will help themselves to any food they can find.  A closed container is no deterrent.  They are very cute to look at - however they are very mischievous.

 We were up bright an early on Tuesday morning and headed for the Victoria market.  Wayne very quickly had enough of that and soon found a chair to wait out the true shoppers.  He was very good about carrying and holding the packages however.

We found some great bargains and fun trinkets at the market - Rod bought some beautiful "big five" replicas, Spence & Britt bought "Geoffrey Giraffe" and a fancy cow, Michelle bought some beautiful butterfly wing pictures.  Needless to say a good time was had by all. 

 We then headed down to the Ushaka beach where Spence and Britt had a chance to put their feet in the ocean.  As you can see - Britt almost got more than her feet wet!

Two brothers enjoying a moment at the India ocean.  What a great memory.

We tried two times to get to the top of this famous stadium for Rod and Spence to jump off.  One time it closed early for a soccer game and the next time it was too windy and they wouldn't let anyone jump.  Rod - you just have to come back when its time for us to come home and try again!

That night we headed to a mall to try to find some supper as it was late and we were getting a little hungry.  Everybody but Rod decided they just wanted some "Gelato".  Rod decided to try a little South African Sushi.  Once it arrived he dug right in - only to spit it out and throw it away.  He didn't realize that instead of wrapping the raw fish around rice they wrapped it around "Pup" (pronounced Pap).  This is a staple of the South African's diet.  It is kind of the texture of mashed potatoes, but it tastes very different.  I think it is an acquired taste.

 Wednesday morning we checked out and headed out to Nambiti Plains for our Safari.  We spent two beautiful days there and saw some beautiful animals up close and personal.  We were treated like royalty at this beautiful place and the food was delicious.

We loved the giraffes.  They are so beautiful and graceful.  The last day we were there we saw a "tower" of giraffes.  (thats a large group).  We did 4 game drives in total and with the help of Geoffrey (our guide) and the expert spotting skills of Rod (he was amazing at finding the animals) and even Spencer added his share of spotting, we managed to see all the "big five".
We had beautiful weather and a glorious time at Nambiti

This little friend was in Rod & Dads room when we got back to the room.  Rod tried to pick it off the netting to "dispose" of it when it bit his fingers.  First a crab in Victoria and now a cockroach in Africa. 

 This was the sunrise that greeted us on Thursday morning at 5:30 AM as we headed out on our 2nd drive.

 We had been following these cape buffalo's tracks for quite a while before Rod finally spotted them.  We got up close and personal to them as you can see.  They can be very cantakerous if they are crossed. 

 The elephants in this preserve have been very naughty.  They have been pulling up trees all over the place.  On Thursday morning when we came out at 5:30 to go on our drive the path to the Wyatt's room was blocked with branches that the elephants had knocked over during the night.  The staff had to clear away the branches before the Wyatt's could get out to the "vega". 

That afternoon we went to the Cheetah preserve.  Cheetah's have become an endangered species and they are trying to breed, raise and release cheetah's to keep them from becoming extinct.

 We were very fortunate to see lots of lions.  This is a young male lion just starting to get his mane. We were fortunate to see many lions that morning very close to our vega. 

A swim in the pool to cool off after a hot dusty game drive.  They had a great time.  After, Rod and Spence laid out in the sun. Unfortunately, Rod fell asleep and got a little toasted - to the very well done point.

 A beautiful African sunset!  It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful the African skies can be.  Morning or night - each has its own beauty.

 Zebras are very plentiful here and we enjoyed watching them. 

The Hippo's were performing well for us that morning.












Just before we left on Friday morning this herd of elephants came right up to the swimming pool where the kids had swum the day before and got a nice cool drink of water.  Look at the trunks of the little baby elephants barely reach over the pool to get a drink. Rod got some great movie footage of the baby elephants blowing bubbles in the water.

Alas, the time always comes when we have to end a good time. Here we are heading back to our van to leave.  Brent (left front row) is the manager of Nambiti Plains and did a great job of taking good care of us.  Geoffrey (between Michelle and I) was our game driver and did an excellent job finding the animals and getting us up close.  We enjoyed his great sense of humor and his willingness to teach the boys how to do the animal sounds.  We will always remember how he told Sister Wyatt how to tell the male Rhino from the female Rhino - right!

 We have had a great start to our time together.  We enjoyed playing games at night, sitting around talking and laughing and seeing the beauties of this country.  As this part of the blog is getting quite large I am going to end it here at this logical point and pick up the "rest of the journey" on another blog.  Tune in for the 2nd half of the story.

The Holt Clan!