Shingwedzi Trip - Day Eight - Welcome Relief!

Wet! Wet! Wet!

Slipping and sliding, everything saturated! Relief had come at last!

What was powder yesterday had turned into thick chocolate mousse! Who knows what the road would be like? We could only wait and see.

Walking anywhere was a precarious affair and poor little Sean had found himself in the same situation twice in a row, in the same spot. Shoes, feet and legs, if not all working in harmony, can be a bad combination when it comes to sludge and the poor boy had decided that, after his two slips and thuds, he doesn't like camping anymore.

I told him it was just a test we were all being put through. That it can't always be dry and sunny. That we have to learn to deal with different situations and we can, when we have to. When I asked him how long he had been camping for his little eyes lit up and he said since he was three years old. He said he has been to many places and partaken in several field courses so he knows quite a bit about the great outdoors. Just imagine, he may very well grow up to be an inventor of equipment for people who haven't mastered the art of mud treading! Watch this space over the next thirteen years...

Shingwedzi - Day Six - 1 April 2010

06:00 Up and ready to face the new day.Rain had poured briefly again during the early hours of the morning leaving chairs with wells of water, which dried off quickly enough in the humid air and bright sunshine.

We packed up, enjoyed breakfast and hit the road at 09:00.

We had a very smooth-sailing drive and in an hour and a half covered 17kms. The terrain changed from sandveldt to rocky with long grass and thousands of tall trees.

Enjoying the soothing strains of  The Byrds quietly playing ...