Being a Tourist

I’m over two months in to my year in South Africa and I had a visitor!

Chris flew down to visit his family and I got to sneak in a couple visits too!

I flew up to Durban and Chris and I drove up to Drakensburg to do some hiking. The temperature difference between King Williams Town and the Drakensburg area was incredible – went from rainy and cold to 29 degrees, sunny and humid.  The first day there was so hot we were ready to cool off after about an hour of hiking. We stopped at a creek and jumped in a pool, cooling off under a little waterfall. It was a gorgeous setting and we enjoyed lunch sunning on some rocks while we dried out. The walk back was really pretty, and I was busy thinking about the flowers, mountains, trees and chatting with Chris when off slithered a black snake! GAH! UH! Yeh!  I did a little snake dance and hoped along the trail to get away when another longer snake squiggled away from the center of the trail. AH! Noh! OH! ... this time I backed off and pushed Chris to the front! Chris got a kick out of my squimishness  as they were ‘just like gardener snakes’ back home. I grew up in the country and never saw a snake at home. I have been here for two months and have seen three, and they have all been close to my feet! I do not like snakes!

We drove up to Sodwana Bay to camp for a couple days with his family and chill at the ocean. The camp site was really nice with a gorgeous tree canopy full of curious little monkeys! Within ten minutes of being there they made off with one of Chris’ pineapples and earlier in the morning they had snuck away with the milk. Camping was great: Monkey watching, beach walking, snorkelling, card playing and best of all scuba diving.

Chris, Leola (his sister) and I took a discover scuba diving course and it was so great! We had a two hour lesson in the pool and the next day at eight we headed for the ocean. We all piled into the zodiac and zoomed off! The ride was great, the ocean was calm and the water so incredibly blue. We got to our destination two kilometres off land and our guides jumped in to secure the buoy and we began to gear up ... rocking to and fro, nicely floating on the water, rocking side to side... my stomach was churning, my face was getting pale, my mouth was going dry, I couldn’t concentrate on getting on my gear, I was going to be sick... “Leslee, look up!” Chris reminds me to look up... Right! okay, I start feeling a wee bit better and am able to gear up. Weight belt, vest with oxygen tank, goggles, flippers, check check check. The driver yells, “over on three. One two three” – over we go! We all flip backwards off the zodiac. I come up thinking, "wu-hoo I did it! This is so great!" and I look over to Chris to see him holding his head with a confused / mildly worried look on his face. His head is completely covered in blood, his hand is covered in blood and he’s saying something about 'wait a sec, I might need some help'... The waves are moving us all apart while the guides are yelling for us to swim up current to the buoy while another already has Chris in the boat. People are telling me, "you're super pale, are you alright?" Am I alright... yeah I think so... I still kinda want to throw up, my boyfriend is gushing blood from his head, the waves are bashing me and the spit in my goggles isn’t working as they are totally fogged... but yeah I’m good! Let’s go down! I was a little freaked at the top feeling like I couldn’t breathe but once I put my head under water – everything was calm – all was still and I could breathe. Down periscope. Swimming down the rope to the bottom was probably one of my favourite parts. It was amazing swimming down down down to the sandy bottom and being able to look around at all the fish, coral and fellow divers. Such a different world. At the bottom they gathered us all together until everyone was down and we had to kneel on the sand so that they didn’t lose us. "Okay, I can chill here no problem... Woh, woh! wait, don’t leave me alone. I think I’m having a hard time breathing, oh gosh, what if I get water in my goggles, oh – I’m having a hard time breathing, yup, I’m scared I can’t breathe!" A guide asked if I was okay and I did the ‘no, I’m having a small anxiety attack 15 meters under water’ reply and he came and got me settled down, making me look him in the eye and actually making me breathe... turns out I could breathe – I just didn’t like sitting still 15 meters under water - so off we swam. Mmmm, so nice! We swam up and over, around, and between the coral seeing purple, blue, yellow, orange, and pink fish. Striped fish, dotted fish, thin fish, and long fish. We also saw big schools of yellow fish, two long eels, and one lonely star fish. Then it was already time to go back up! Forty minutes under water felt more like twenty and I really wanted to explore more. Up we go! We swam up a ways and then had to stop for a couple minutes to let our self adjust, just nicely floating in the water, back and forth, swaying in the water, looking around, not much to see at this level, just swaying in the water... Hmm, I don’t feel so good. Can you throw up under water? How long do we have to stay here for? Seriously I am going to be sick! Thumbs up sign from the guide, ‘thank God!” Up I swam.  And then I threw up... yup, I sure did! Who knew you could get sea sick under water? Not me! That part was horrible, luckily I only had tea and a rusk for breakfast.  Off to land we zoomed and then up to the beach where we found Chris getting stitched up in the ambulance. Aww, poor guy! Turns out the man sitting beside Chris on the boat hesitated when we fell into the water, so when Chris was swimming up he fell in and cracked Chris on the head with his oxygen tank - giving Chris seven stitches. Ouch.

Chris was able to dive the next day and even came back with bragging rights after seeing two sea turtles that I had been talking about wanting to see.

Sodwana Bay was gorgeous, the weather was amazing, the beaches and sand dunes were stunning, and the company I kept was fantastic.