Midterm Break

The other weekend we were off for the midterm break so it was a long weekend which was much needed! We were off early on Thursday then back to work again on the Tuesday. We decided to venture outside the calm and relaxed Swaziland into the chaotic and noisy country of South Africa. Nonetheless you cannot stop yourself from falling in love with this amazing place. We thought we'd visit the quiet town of St Lucia to go whale watching first. During this time of year they guarantee that you will see a humpback whale or you get a 40% refund so we thought this was a must! This time I looked up the weather forecast when we were booking it and it said it's supposed to be sunny so we went with it. Then go further down the coast to Durban for a couple of days then back up to Swaziland.

We had a bit of a complication with the hostels because I was very tired when I was booking it. Since we were going to two places I accidentally booked the Durban hostel for the same time we would be in St Lucia. The funny part was when I was booking the days it came up with the Thursday which was when we got to St Lucia and I thought it was psychic for 'knowing'. Payed the deposit and everything and only realised later when we were looking at it and we couldn't stop laughing but thankfully it was pretty easy to sort out.

We traveled down to St Lucia with one of the Sisekelo teachers by public transport and took about 4 hours. We were with good company so the journey went quite quickly. When we arrived it was raining!! Typical us booking something which needs good weather and it to be wet and cold! The next day we found out that our trip was cancelled due to 'poor visibility'. We hadn't paid so it didn't matter too much but we were really looking forward to it. We decided to go on a hippo and crocodile boat cruise instead. It was a bit boring at the start because it was cold and we only saw boring things but then we came across 2 groups of about 20 hippos with their calves (which are adorable). It was pretty cool they were just chilling in the water though. Next morning we went on a kayak down the same river which initially sounded dangerous and exciting but was actually the opposite but was a nice row on the water.

About to kayak

Later on that day we traveled further down the coast to Durban. It was quite sad to leave everyone at the backpackers because we met some quite cool people there and don't want to sound cringey but inspirational haha. Took about 3 hours to get to Durban where we were hoping the weather would change and could spend some time relaxing on the beach in the sun. But no. Was still wet and cold. Durban was crazy though! A lot different than Swaziland. When we arrived in the kombi we had no idea where we were going and just kept on being transferred from one kombi to another. There was pumping music everywhere coming from the kombis and people randomly dancing. I loved the energy in this city so much. We eventually got to where we were staying after what seemed like a tour of the city.

We met the two boys whose project was just outside Durban in a place called Boystown which is a school where some boys are orphans, some are sent by court and some are sent by their parents if they're too much. Their project sounded quite tough but pretty cool. They invited us to a VIP event where loads of schools around go to which has fun things to do like sports, talent show contests, face painting, hair stuff and lots of other things. And also free food of course. It was amazing to see their kids and hearing about the stuff they go through. It was also nice to meet the Durban boys and get to know them a bit better.

A group at the talent contest at the VIP event

First time ever at the Indian Ocean!!

The next morning we had to get the kombi back to Big Bend. We left the backpackers very early at about quarter to 8 and was thinking we would get back at about 2 o'clock at the latest. We got onto our kombi and waited for it to leave the station. And waited some more. And more. Five hours later we finally left and didn't get back home until about half 6. The kombis have to wait until their kombi is full before they leave the station and alongside that there was a bit of a kerfuffle about luggage because somebody wanted to take a wardrobe and mattresses in the trailer but the driver wasn't sure in case he got stopped by the police. In the end he took the things and there wasn't a problem so it was all good. Overall although it was a very rainy weekend we both enjoyed it a lot.