Out of the comfort zone into the adventure

Yesterday I had to say goodbye to Peter, Virginie and her seven doggies. Miss them already.
Had such a wonderful time in Blacknoll. That week went by too fast!
But that's the thing when you are having fun.

So, yesterday I flew from Hoedspruit to Jo'burg and than to Durban.
Hoedspruit is such a cute little airport! Reminds me of Deurne airport (well in the old days, guess it's a little busier nowadays)

I got to Durban around 4h30 pm.
15 minutes later I had my teenie tiny suitcase (ugh) and went looking for the shuttlebus to take me to the Happy Hippo Backpackers.
I just mist the shuttle so I had to wait an hour.
A lady also waiting started talking to me.
Apparently, here nobody speaks Afrikaans no more. Only English (and their tribe language which in most cases here is Zulu)
To bad, I just started to get a hang of it! :)

Arrived at the hostel a little before six and it was getting dark outside.
They locked the door.
Coming here I could tell some streets around the hostel look poor, a lot of homeless people, it's very dirty outside, smelling of urine.
I guess I know what they mean by 'be careful, it's not safe everywhere'
I was hungry though, didn't had anything to eat after breakfast but a bag of nuts on the plane.
So I asked reception where I could grab something to eat.
On the left, just about 25 meters there is a gas station with a little shop.
So I had a mushroom chicken pie for dinner. Wasn't bad.

Back in the room I was sweating my a$$ off! No AC. There was a ceiling vent which helped a little.
Took a quick shower (not that it made the sweating go away) and went to bed.
I put my alarmclock at 7am because I wanted to go for a run in the morning before it got too hot.
Being in Tzaneen for a week sure made me gain weight :D
So, I got up and by 8 o'clock I was at the beachfront to start my 5K run.
Boy... what was I wrong. It was already very hot! The sun was bright and it felt like 28 degrees already.
First 3 kilometers went well, but the last two were hard.
Oh well, I did it anyways!!!
After my run, I went to by shampoo. Everything here is a lot cheaper than Belgium. Besides shampoo I guess :) 52 rand for a small bottle (about 3 euro)
Oh well :) Better that than greasy smelly hair!

I got back to the Happy Hippo Hostel and went for a shower after my run, I could taste the salt on my lips.
I love travelling, and being in a hostel makes it easier to make contact with new people.
But the shower is sometimes a hassle.
You have the shower, a curtain and inside two little hooks to hang your clothes.
Of course, what do you think happened? My pant fell on the wet floor.
Good thing it's a quick drying fabric.
Had to check out of my private room, so dragged my bags downstairs. Went up again to eat breakfast, yogurt and a banana, as I saw a girl by herself sitting at the table as well.
Smiling friendly.
So I asked her: 'Are you by any chance joining the tour tonight?'
She said: 'Yes!!!! You too?? Oh I'm so happy to see someone else going on the tour'
Her name is Bonnie and she lives in Alberta, Canada. Beautiful Asian girl.
We talked a little and she also had issues with the luggage restrictions on this tour.
I guess here suitcase will be bigger than mine :)
She also said, that bringing a sleeping bag is taking up so much space!!!
Couldn't agree more.
She wanted to explore the city today, I wanted to go to the beach and enjoy the sand and water. So I'll see her again at the meeting in 1 hour
When she booked the tour there were only 6 people going. So I don't think it will be fully booked, which gives us a lot of room on the truck. I don't mind :)

I hope intrepid will fulfill my high expectations, since I'm used to Contiki tours which were awesome!

I'll try to start putting some pictures on FB as well. It' just, I already have over 1000 photos, it's hard to pick a few :)

Just in case you won't here a lot of me, I'll be in Drakensberg tomorrow:

Love,
Tania