When I have been in Africa I've gone to fun places.  Dad said we should write down our favourites in order of 5.  Mine are South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Durban (even though that is in South Africa) and Namibia.

1. South Africa
I liked South Africa because it had Durban, JBurg and also all the national parks, Mountain Zebra, Addo Elephant and Kruger National Park.

2. Botswana
I liked Botswana because it had Machaba Camp, Big Five Lodge and Okavango River Lodge

3. Mozambique
I liked Mozambique because it had Tofo, Maputo, Pomene and it was also where I had my birthday.

4. Durban
I liked Durban because we stayed at Ronnie's house with the dogs and Erin and Matthew and I got a build-a-bear.

5. Namibia
I liked Namibia because it had Etosha National Park and the big sand dunes and Ais-Ais Camp

Yesterday it was Phoebe's birthday.  

At the start of the day we woke up in our tents and I forgot it was Phoebe's birthday until Stan said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHOEBE" then I said "Happy Birthday Phoebe".  

I got out of my tent and went in to Phoebe's tent then we all came out and opened up the presents.  

The first one was a dress with a matching hat then she got a cat made out of beads and it was the actual size of a real cat.  The she got a painting that was on a piece of material and it was two giraffes.  Then we gave her a wildlife book.  After that we went for a drive and we saw the whole 'big five' in one day.

Then we got to another campsite and we had birthday cake.  The cake was awesome it had ice-cream cones on it and different colour icing to make it look like ice-cream. We also had chips and marshmellows and we had her last present which was little pet shops and hair clips and she got a neckless and a matching bracelet and Phoebe got really excited and she said "eeeeeeeeekkkkkk!".

Today I was playing in my hotel room with Sarah, Stan and Phoebe.  Then the phone rang and mummy told us to come in to her room.  So we did and she told us that we were going to the market. 

When we got there lots of people were asking us to buy their stuff.  

I went to a spot that I liked and they were selling little animals made out of beads and the man that was selling them wanted to sell them for 70 meticals (NZ$3) each.

But I made him make the price go down to 50 meticals so I got five of them for 250 meticals but I can't say what animals they were because some of them will be presents.

I went to another store that sold helicopters made out of softdrink cans and there was a battery that you put the wire on it and it would start moving.  A man asked daddy if he would buy his T-shirts and daddy brought two white Mozambique shirts.  And then he bought two red Mozambique football jerseys.  Phoebe got a bit of material that had two giraffes hugging on it. 

Then a man sold us a mask that he made out of an old pot.  He had to hammer and hammer and hammer it.  Then we drove back to the hotel 

A while ago I got to Tofo in the Inhambane province of Mozambique.  

There was a fence next to the road that was for a campsite and just above the fence I could see Ammie's big truck and we went and stayed there when we got there Sarah and I jumped out of the car and ran to the truck to see Ammie.  

First Lauren walked out and then Ammie walked out and Sarah and I ran right to Ammie and gave her a hug.  

Then we started playing.  Then we went to the beach.  

When we came back I had a shower and had dinner then I went to sleep.  

When I woke up I had breakfast and then we made houses out of pillows and they kept falling down.

Ammie has a friend called Leah.  She was really nice and she had a big sister called Sarah who is also really nice.  They live in South Africa too.  Sarah always looked after Phoebe and Leah always played with me, Sarah and Ammie.

Then we left to go to Vilanculos and then to Pomene.  I went on a boat with Stan when daddy went scuba diving.  Stan and me didn't go scuba diving though but we still got to see lots of awesome things.  

Stan spotted a great big sea turtle floating in the water.  When daddy came back from his dive he said that he saw the turtle under the water.  When he was busy diving Stan had white stuff on his shirt.  I got some off for him and it was salt.  We started licking it off of his shirt.  

Then we saw a whale spout and then we saw a whale tale.  It was funny seeing daddy climb on to the boat.  He had to take his weight belt off and his air thing off, but he kept his flippers on so he could kick up to the boat.  I had to get off my seat because that was where daddy climbed on.  He got it all wet.

Pomene was really cool and there was an infinity pool and a bridge going across the pool so you could go to the restaurant.  The pool was freezing !  

Our chalet was basically outside so mosquitoes could get in.  

But the mosquitoes could not get us because we had mosquito nets around our beds.  

We stayed four nights and then we went back to Tofo which we just got here now. 

My birthday was really fun.  First when I woke up I was in my tent and I said "happy birthday Meg" then Stan said "oh yeah, happy birthday Meg" and then my friend Ammie came up with her older brother Mitch and Ammie gave me her presents which was a bag that Mum really loved. 

Then Bryce came up and I got the rest of my presents which was 2 suckers, a bracelet and a card.  Ammie and Bryce couldn't put the bracelet on so Mitch had tried and he got it in a knot and then he undid it.  

Then we went down the ladder and the adults started singing "happy birthday to Meg" and then I went to the restaurant to have breakfast with everyone and I had pancakes, fruit salad and ice cream!   

Then Mum gave me her presents which was a pretty flower dress and a jewellery box shaped of Africa.  Then after that she gave me a sarong (a dark blue one) that had elephants and giraffes on it and I also got a book and daddy gave me a Japanese golfing shirt.  

Then we had a birthday cake that Ammie’s mum Lauren baked.  On the cake there were little lolly pops.  They were all caramel flavoured except for one that I had. It was pink. I got to cut the cake and I got the biggest piece and Stan really wanted the biggest piece. They were all basically the same size.

I was going to go horse riding but the weather was bad so I got to go horse riding the next day which was fun because my horse was really high and I did cantering, walking and trotting on the beach.  

Cantering was really fun.  Daddy nearly fell off his horse because his stirrup came off.

Today I am not feeling well because I had a high temperature and I vomited in the night so I had to go to hospital which is also the Doctors.  Daddy took me there but no one spoke English so it was hard for daddy.  I could have had malaria.  

Malaria is a sickness that comes from mosquitoes.  You can’t pass it on to any one else, only mosquitoes can.  It is the most deadly disease in Africa.  We all take malaria tablets everyday.  

But I didn’t have malaria and the doctors didn’t know for sure so I had to have a malaria test and they had to test my blood so they put a needle in my finger and it really hurt because they put hand sanitiser on it and that made it sting a lot. 

Then I was given a form and they spelt my name wrong, they spelt it MIG.  The result of the test was “Negativo” which means negative in Portugese.  

We walked back to the hotel and there was a big wedding for the Mozambique President’s daughter.  We bought some cashew nuts from this girl.

Today I just got to Durban from Botswana and I’ll be staying at my mum’s best friend’s house.  My mum’s best friend is called Ronnie.  

Ronnie has two kids, a boy and a girl.  The boy is 11 and called Matthew and the girl is nine and her name is Erin.  

They have two dogs, one is called Mojo who is only one but he is big.  And the other one is called Fergus who is kind of old and really fluffy. 

Erin has a really cool room.  She also has her own pet kitten named Google.  

Then Erin took us outside and showed us her grandparents house.  

At the grandparents house they also have two dogs one was called Sasha who is really fast and loves balls, she would do anything to get a ball.  

The other dog is a small dog that has fluffy ears who is also really old and doesn’t like kids so she growls at them and me too.

Erin's grand father is called Colin and Colin took Stan and I to the Beach.  The water was from the Indian Ocean.  The water was really warm.  Colin had brought Sasha too.  We also brought Sasha's ball and Colin threw it out really far to sea and Sasha swam, swam and swam to get the ball.  Then Stan threw it out to sea.  Sasha and I would have a race to get it but she wants her ball so much she goes fast to get it.  

After that Stan and me got to go snorkeling.  I had a pink snorkel and pink goggles because I am a girl.  Stan's goggles were blue and he had an orange and blue snorkel. Then we got dressed and then we drove back to Colin's house.  

Then Colin got the ball out of the trailer and he showed what Sasha would do in the freezing cold pool.  Stan, Colin and I all got a turn throwing it.  When I threw it, I threw it close to the edge accidentally and Sasha tried putting her paw into the pool and making it come closer to her but she made it go further away.  So then she had to jump in and get it.  When she got out of the pool she shook off all the water and she splashed me.  

Then Stan and I went back to the granny flat where we are staying and washed all the sand off.

Last night I went for a night tour and I saw lots and lots of wild animals.  When the tour was over we went driving back to the camp and on our way back we saw a big bull ELEPHANT!!

We went to our beautiful tents and inside we have really, really, really warm beds. Then we went to the restaurant and for dinner we had meat and vegetables and then we had a chocolate mousse for dessert.  I fell asleep on the couch so a man had to carry me back to the tent but I woke up when we were halfway there.   

Then we had to wake up at 6:00 in the morning to go for another tour so then we went to have a breakfast around the big fire.  I had some fruit salad and a hot chocolate.  Then we went into the land cruiser and Comic gave us a poncho each. 

Then we started driving by a river and we saw lots of HIPPOS.  Then we saw something moving in the bush.  Then out popped two little lion cubs that were play fighting.  Lions are really fast to me.  

Then we drove to a watering hole and there were elephants there and that’s where we had our milo, coffee, tea and yummy cookies we stood outside the Land cruiser and some elephants walked past us which was awesome ! 

Dad wanted to see a leopard so we ended up seeing one that was about 10 months old.  Then it started going to sleep so we just left and went back to the camp. 

Then after that we went for another night tour and first we saw a mother leopard and after that guess what?  We saw one leopard cub and it was super cute !  

Then it got dark so we went back to the camp.  We had the same thing for dinner.  When I sat down at the table.  I looked at my wine glass and inside there was a cloth napkin shaped as an ostrich.  Then for dessert, we had roasted marshmallows with chocolate sauce and some crackers which was super, duper nice !!  I didn’t fall asleep this time so I had to walk back myself.  

Then we had to wake up early again.  

For breakfast we had bran flakes and a carrot muffin but I didn’t like it so I gave it to Phoebe.  I said to her it will make her cute so she just ate it and said that it was nice. 

We didn’t see anything on the first half of the tour we saw nothing just some impala.  But on the second half we saw ….AFRICAN WILD DOGS !!  

They were sleeping in a big pile with some keeping watch.  And I saw baby ones.  African wild dogs are very rare.  

On the first half all we saw was some elephants and hippos drinking.  Then on the second half we saw hyenas and baby hyenas and an adult came up and started chewing on the spare tyre.  Hyenas have really sharp teeth.  Nala kept on calling out "Hi hyena" and when we left she said "Bye hyena" lots of times.  She really likes hyenas.  Then we went back to the camp.  

We went to the restaurant and we had the same thing for dinner and a tiny dessert which was a tiny piece of cake and custard.  Stan, Sarah and I finished ours quickly then ran to the couch and me and Stan jumped onto the couch and Sarah put blankets and pillows on us and we were warm.  Then I fell asleep so I got carried back.  

In the morning I had breakfast and I had the same thing then we went for another tour.  

We saw some leopards, elephants, impalas, springbok and ZEBRAS.  This was the first time I’ve seen a zebra in a long time.  When we were finished we just drove back to the camp.  

At the camp we had brunch and then Shaun showed us a snake.  It was really small.  We all got to hold it and it really liked Phoebe’s hair.  You know that the snake was actually venomous but its mouth was too small to harm any people. 

Then Shaun took the snake away.  Then it was time to leave Machaba.  

Comic drove us to the bridge.  But before we got there we got stuck in the sand and Dad towed us out with Mr Bumpers the land rover.  He asked me to put this in.  

We had our photo taken and then we had to go in our own car.

Today I met a girl called Ammie from South Africa.  

She had two big brothers one was called Mitch and the other was called Bryce.  

Ammie was 8 years old Mitch was 10 and Bryce was 12.  

They had an awesome BIG truck that had their beds in it and a kitchen and two TVs and it had a ladder in it and you could go on to the roof.

Today we arrived at Victoria Falls and now we are staying at a place called Shoe Strings (its a camping ground). 

And then we went for a helicopter ride and it was really fun and at the end they showed us our movie and it was really funny because Sarah's dress flew up.  

Then we went for a river cruise with our New Zealand friends.  The next day I got my hair braided and I look different, kind of.