Wow, I can not believe it is already October! September was EXTREMELY busy for us...we had Hunter's birthday party, Claire had a ballet recital, went to the Hermanus Whale Festival, Franschhoek, and went to Zambia!
Claire as a sleeping butterfly, being awoken by the fairies!
Butterfly and fairy dancing!
Skinny little feet...doing it!
Hermanus is a small town on the Indian Ocean in South Africa; during whale season this is one of the best viewing spots for the Southern Right Whales! Every year they have a whale festival, and we decided to go with our South African family (our American friends, The Bells) this year! We stayed in a house overlooking the sea...gorgeous! 4 adults plus 5 kids equals great, but very wild fun! We spent 2 days in the town of Hermanus, and you can really see tons of whales! One day we ate at a restaurant that was built into the side of a hill on the rocky shore of the water....within feet of whales! While there, we tried a bottle of wine that had been buried in sea water for 10 months....Very salty! We had a great time in Hermanus...viewing whales, eating, drinking, craft shopping, and just spending time with friends all while surrounded by the most gorgeous scenery! At one point on our last day we where all sitting on a hillside watching the whales; and we (4 adults) all said what an incredible gift this ISP assignment has been for all of us! It will be so hard to walk away from all of this, especially my friends....it is amazing the bonds that can form in such a short time! Here are some shots of Hermanus...it is IMPOSSIBLE to capture what an incredible sight the whales are, as most times it is only their backs or tales that come out of the water...and so very hard to take pictures of!
Our Crew!
Cameraman Pat catches a few whales!
Hunter and Claire at lunch!
Restaurant by the sea!
After Hermanus, we went and spent the day in Franshhoek......it was so gorgeous and quaint! We visited 3 wineries, and each one was beautiful; then finished off another great day with a great meal at an Italian restaurant!
Gorgeous views of Franshhoek wineries...
We were home for two days from that trip and then off to Zambia! To be honest, I was not thrilled about going on vacation again; but wow was I in shock when I got there! We were greeted at our hotel with authentic African Warriors, and then we were shown around the resort....beautiful! Our first day there we settled in and took a quick trip to the Falls, only a 5 minute walk from hotel! Our resort was in a national park, so there where animals everywhere; no predators as this is one of the smaller national parks. We saw zebras, giraffe, monkeys, hippos and elephants(these two where seen on kids safari walk from across the river)! We saw the Victoria Falls and we were amazed, what an incredible site! The next day we took a much longer walk around the Falls, Hunter and Claire stayed behind in the kids camp at the resort! Unaware of what we were doing we went on the actual side of the Falls; and a local asked us if we wanted a tour, we bit! He was awesome and walked us through the top of some of the Falls,and then walked us up to the side of Falls where we got a bird's eye view of the Falls, we actually overlooked the Rainbow Falls! There is always a rainbow there! We hiked through the Zambezi river, it is not rainy season so the water is very low and there are many dry spots...during rainy season where we walked would have been completely impassable on foot! Pretty Cool! After our awesome hike, the boys signed up to ride Segways; they were in heaven! The rest of the day was lazily spent sitting by the pool enjoying some down time!
The next day....well let's just say at least we survived this day! Pat and I went White Water Rafting on The Zambezi River, an experience of a lifetime! We set out at 8:30, we met our "fellow" mates for the day! Let's just say Pat and I were by far the oldest, only three other people close to us...all the others were college kids and most of them from the States! So we get suited up... life vest, helmet and oar and we walk down to the "boiling point"! We had six in our boat and our guide, Tenga! Amazing, fun, crazy, scary, intense, laughable, hard and Memorable...that is how to sum this up! We rode through or paddled through 10 rapids ranging from category 3 to category 5! We did awesome our first few, and then the first cat 5 comes...our boat goes straight down into the rapid and flips! I came up and could not find the boat, I swallowed and ingested half the Zambezi, thought I was done; but put my legs in front of me(in case you collide with a rock) and finally a kayaker came to my rescue and we finished the rapid! So basically not only did I go on a boat through rapids, but I went through a category 5 rapid SOLO! We continued going through the rapids, we dumped on one more category 5 rapid, but we all managed to keep a hold of the boat! Yeah, we survived! At the end of our 1/2 day tour, they let our group out at the BOTTOM of the mountain, same size as what you see the Falls go down; and tell us to hike up! What, we had to go straight up on a man made ladder, made out of tree limbs...thought I was going to die...but again we conquered!
Our resort greeting committee!
Victoria Falls at sunset.
Local who walked us across Falls.
Looking down into Falls, notice rainbow!
Does not look like much, but that is our first rapid, category 3! The bridge is linking Zambia to Zimbabwe...while rafting, there was a point that we were actually on the Zimbabwe side!
Boys on Segways.
Pool!
Pool bar!
So that was our September, exhausting and wonderful! Now we are in October, planning for Claire's birthday party, Wizard of Oz, and our annual Halloween party! Time goes way too fast!
