Sunday, October 15, 2006

Weekend in the lowveld

Just got back from a weekend away in the lowveld. We stayed at Sudwala Lodge - the site of the prehistoric caves just outside Nelspruit. K and I headed down on Friday evening, along with Frank, Gail and Trevor, Patrick, Joanna and Richard.
We took a walk up to the caves on Saturday morning - really impressive. I didn't realise how big the cavity was - there is a 6 hour cave walk that you can do, that includes walking, climbing, crawling and swimming...that should give you an idea of how big they actually are. This is an image of the oldest column inside the cave - it has been formed over the past 200 million years, and is still growing.

The place that we stayed in was more than adequate. Played some volleyball with the guys on Saturday afternoon - did a bit of swimming, and just generally chilled out as much as possible.

Oh, did I mention that we were surrounded by peacocks? As Patrick said, what nature gave them in terms of beauty, they were definitely short changed on their vocal ability. These things are noisy and loud...and just don't give up.