The Little Roadtrip

After some very generous donations from our companies we were delighted to announce at Tenteleni’s 10th anniversary event this weekend that we have raised ….. drum roll ….. £9777.56 including gift aid/HMRC relief. We are so pleased and want to thank everyone who has been so kind to donate to www.littleroadtrip.com. An incredible trip that will have a lasting effect with this kind of fundraising. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Here is just a taster of the hundreds of photos we’ve brought home. When we’ve got the photos together from everyone we’ll do a proper gallery!

Landed at Heathrow to a chilly, overcast Blighty welcome. Now home for tea, medals, and fond farewells. It’s been an incredible trip, with memories to last a lifetime. Looking forward to sharing more photos & stories soon. Phil, Sa, Anna & Gareth. x

We wanted to use a precious blog post to say a huge thank you to our sponsors and Larry-providers… Roving Rovers! Despite a couple of teething problems, our faithful Landy has been the fifth member of the team and a fantastic way to see the roads (and non-roads!) of Eastern, Central & Southern Africa.

If anyone’s planning a similar trip in the area, please consider using them for your self-drive vehicle hire needs!!! They can be found at http://www.rovingrovers.com/. Thank you to Patrick, Larry, and the rest of the team!

and counting …. Larry reached the 4000 miles mark yesterday but we’ve still got a few to go …

Our road trip seems to be going back in Tenteleni history and we’re now coming to the end which means we’re arriving back at the start. We’ve spent the day visiting Pienaar and KaNyamazane – both of which Sarah didn’t recognise because of the development, buildings and brand-new shopping centres! We’re ignoring the fact that we’ve got to head to Jo’burg tomorrow and are spending the last few hours in South Africa drinking a toast to old friends and coaxing Larry into one last journey to take us safely to the airport. Phil is a little too attached to our dear-Landy friend these days and is considering finding Larry 2 when he returns to the UK.

Happy days.

Gareth & Anna here – So, the kids were allowed two days on their own….so we thought we would ‘pop’ over and see Kirsty (Anna’s mate) who lives a mere 5 hrs away. Off we went, in our little car, Harry and it was amazing, we had steering and the ability to drive more than 50 mph! Eventually at 10.30pm, we arrived in the CBD of Vaalwater……..yes, you guessed it’s a very small town with a lot of “Steve Irwin’s’. We stayed with Kirst and took in some of the beautiful scenery on horseback during the day and at night,
hung out with the locals in Boot and Barrel! The music was ‘awesome’ and Gareth impressed the locals with his pool moves.

Sunday, we cruised back at met Mum & Dad for a quiet drink and early to bed. (oh and Gareth looked human again, and shaved..but we won’t mention the single malarone drop!) Thanks to everyone at Vaalwater & Horizon for making us so welcome.

Phil and Sa here – After a lazy Saturday start we headed to the Kruger to hunt down those pesky cats but unfortunately they wouldn’t come out to play. After sightings of giraffe, elephants, buffalo, hippos, warthogs, baboons and one or two impala we headed out to an Elephant sanctuary called Elephant Whispers. We had the chance to interact with the elephants and even go for a ride – awesome. On Sunday we got up early and headed to church with the Maseko’s and the Khoza’s. On arrival Sarah was asked to speak during the 2 hour fully-Siswati methodist service! We were given an incredibly warm welcome, or at least we thought we were because everyone was laughing and smiling at us throughout most of it. The speech went ok as well. Afterwards we had a wonderful day with lunch at the Maseko’s house and a great afternoon with Ethel, Sam and Mbuso Khoza. It was as if it had been 10 days since we had seen them, rather than 10 years!

A windy dirt track over the mountains led us to the Swazi-South African border early this morning and we headed into the new Tenteleni project in Barberton that were celebrating their Heritage Day. 19 schools dressed in traditional dress from different tribes were celebrating their dance, food and culture – many kodak moments! We met the force of nature behind the new project, Mrs Khoza, who has also welcomed the volunteers into her home as a home stay mother. After a quick visit we headed to the Matsulu projects, only to discover that Gladys had arrived in Barberton 30 mins after we left – oops!

At this point the Little Road Trip team divided for the first time so far with Anna and Gareth heading to the wilds of Vaalwater while Phil and Sarah headed to the Kruger and to hang out with the Maseko and Khoza family……

An early morning of the first South African project visits in Nkomazi East. Leah and Dennis gave us a great tour visiting schools and then meeting the wonderful Francina, mother and host of a homestay placement. Francina is incredible she now gives most of her life to the local orphans, she has adopted two children and continually fundraises (and has a second job) to provide food parcels and blankets for around 50 local orphans. Feeling inspired we headed towards Swaziland to catch of glimpse of those projects even though the volunteers have gone home, and spent the night in the Mlilwane game reserve with several warthogs and Cindy the ostrich!