Diamonds are small, hard, valuable minerals that are a natural element made of carbon.  They come from deep under the ground.  

Diamonds are the hardest mineral known to man. They have a hardness rating of 10.  Iron's hardness is 8.5.  

Diamonds are very useful when it comes to jewellery and saw blades and even super sharp surgical scalpels.

To mine diamonds you need to find kimberlite pipes or you could try looking on alluvial river gravels or even try looking on marine deposits like off the coast of Namibia.

The largest exporter of diamonds by value in the world is Botswana, then South Africa.  I've seen many diamond mines in Botswana and South Africa so there must be lots around.  

Many countries in Southern Africa mine diamonds.  Namibia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and even Lesotho export diamonds.  

Diamonds are mainly clear but you can find red, yellow, black, white, green, grey and vivid blue.  

When we were at the Capetown Diamond museum our guide showed us a picture of this blue diamond called the Hope Diamond.  

There is a legend it was stolen by a French archeologist from a statue eye and whoever owned it was cursed.  

At Pomene I went scuba diving again and saw tons of fish.  

My instructor's name was Altus and he was a really good instructor.  

We went to see an old land-rover that got stuck on the mud flats and is now under the sea.  Under the land-rover there were puffer fish, porcupine fish and even small tropical fish like lion fish and banner fish.  

But my favourite fish was the spotted grunter which can grow 1.5 to 1.9 metres.  

One scuba diving day the current was pumping so Altus and I had to go to the platform and look down at all the fish.  

There were batfish, banner fish, clownfish, red snapper, barracuda, needle fish, crocodile fish, flounder and lots more.  

But on the first day I got my PADI Discover Scuba Diving (DSD) certificate.  

Now I can equalise under water and finish my Open Water diving certificate anywhere in the world !

Greater Flamingos are the largest flamingos on the planet getting up to 140 cm tall but some males get up to 190 cm tall and weigh 4.4 kg.  

It is closely related to the American Flamingo and the Chilean Flamingo.  It lays one chalky egg on a mud mound.  A group of Flamingos is called a 'Flamboyance' of Flamingos.  

Most of the bird’s plumage is pinkish white with black secondaries (tips of the wings) with red sides.  You can see the black secondaries in the following photo.

When I went to go bird watching in Pomene, I saw cool birds like Herons and Sand Pipers there was even a Least Bittern there were also Water Thick-Knees in the area so I had to be careful of their eggs and protect myself from bird shaped missiles!  

But the Greater Flamingos were my favourite.  They stir up the water for small fish and filter the salt water so all that happens is the flamingos eat the salt and that’s why they turn pink otherwise there would be white and brown flamingos. 

Servals are my favourite cats in the feliidae family including the carcals, wild cats and black footed cats.  

Servals are a pale yellow colour with black spots.  They have long legs and big ears for good hearing.  

Servals stand 60 cm tall.  Males weigh 9 – 14 kg females weigh 8 – 12 kg.  

Servals feed on rodents, reptiles, small antelopes and birds.  According to our awesome guide at Machaba Lodge, they take down baby kudu. 

Servals live in tall dry think grass near water.  They share their habitat with cane rats and reed buck.  

The name serval is derived from the Portuguese name for the European ‘lynx lobo cerval’.  

Servals are good tree climbers and often hide their babies in trees away from lions and hyenas.  

Sometimes they try to get tree agamas (lizards) but like leopards, they sit and relax in trees.  

Servals are very good at jumping that’s how they get to the main layer then they jump for the canopy.  

I haven’t seen a serval in the wild yet, so these pictures are from the Maputo Natural History Museum.  

Last night I went on a Tuk Tuk ride.  We left from our hotel (Hotel Cardoso) and left for the famous Maputo train station which was almost the same as the Wellington train station.

After Dad took a few photos we went to a restaurant and had some dinner and went to a movie festival.  Me and my sister Sarah caught 7 frogs and a lizard.  

Then we went to a recording concert (it was being recorded) for a band called 'Transito' and it was great.  

A man played bongos, drums, sansa, bottle and a sand snare.  The other man played bongos, flute and saxophone.  The other man played guitar and the other man was just hitting a suit case.  We left and took a taxi home.

Nelson Mandela might die soon so I thought it would be nice to write about him. 

He was born on the 18th of July 1918.  He might not make it to 95.  He was a member of the royal house of the Thembu tribe. 

His birth name is Rolihlahla.  It is an isiXhosa name.  His clan name is Madiba.  It is polite to use someone's clan name.  It is also his nick name.  He got his Nelson name from the British school on his first day there by his teacher Mrs Mdngane.  Madiba has a spider and a flower named after him.

The schools Mandela attended were modelled on the British system.  He once said he was "schooled to be a black Englishman" not a black Africa man.

He became a lawyer and tried to make the black people free because he didn't like the way Africaans people were treating them with their system called Apartheid.  He didn't like the way it worked so he tried to do something about it which the Africaans people didn't like so they sent him to prison.

When he was arrested in 1962 he was kept on Robben Island for 18 years and kept on the mainland for another 9 years.  In 1984 the song "Free Nelson Mandela" by Special AKA became the song of the year all around the world.  In 1990 Nelson Mandela walked out of prison.

When he came out of prison he was representing the ANC with negotiations with the government that led to the first elections open to South Africans.  In turn this led Nelson Mandela winning the election in 1994.  He became President of South Africa.

In the 1995 Rugby World Cup final in Ellis Park, South Africa Nelson Mandela ran on to the field in a springbok jersey and cheered for the springbok team.  The crowd chanted "Nelson, Nelson, Nelson".  South Africa won the game beating the All Blacks.  

Now he is the warm, wise, father, master of his own fate, Madiba or Nelson Mandela.  I hope he makes it to 95.

Steenboks are cute little antelopes that stand 52 cm tall.  They live in dense forest and feed on mainly leaves.  However steenboks have no glands to hide their scent from predators so they are an easy target for lions, carcals, cheetahs, pythons and even marital eagles.  But being a fast runner the light weight steenbok can run faster than a jackal.  

They only weigh 9 - 13 kg but have a short life but for females, their gestation (6 months) is 1/12 of their lives (6 years).  Steenbok don't need water they get enough from food but they will drink when water is offered.

The photos are of a male.  You can tell because he has horns and females don't, but females are heavier.

Poaching is when people want what animals have like a rhino’s horn or an elephant’s tusks.  

Just like blood diamonds people forced children to find diamonds and they used those to buy weapons.  With elephants now in some places its blood ivory not blood diamonds.  

But that’s not as bad as the rhinos.  Their horns are worth a fortune.  In Vietnam they make medicine and use that to cure illness.  To stop this people have started poisoning the horns so the rhinos aren’t affected but the people that take it die.

Now the horns of a rhino are the same as your toenails.  A lot of people in Africa sent their toenails to the Vietnamese embassy.  But people that shoot them get about 50,000 Pula / Rand which is a lot of African money.  People have to get into the parks by air so some people are kind of addicted to killing elephants and rhinos which is pretty stupid.

I would do anything to save rhinos and I’m pretty sure my sister Meg would do the same for the elephants.  In a few years rhinos might be extinct but rhino parks and nature reserves will keep rhinos safe I’m sure they will do all they can to keep the rhino species around.

Right now we are in the Okavango Delta.  The delta is where the Okavango River expands then sinks into the Kalahari saltpans.  Saltpans are huge patches of salt.  Some forms of salt get up to one meter thick.  Imagine having that on your food.  I have some smaller ones about 1cm.

Okavango Delta is the largest inland river delta on this PLANET.  It covers 16,000 square km.  This is where lots of wildlife lives.

Today we went on a river cruise and saw baby crocodiles and king fishers and coucals.  We went to a swimming hole and a village.  We saw fish eagles and hamerkop nests.  There were fish and lizards and at the end we saw a rock monitor.  It’s a type of lizard about two meters long.  

And Muffin the gecko got out of the car finally.  Muffin is a gecko I caught and released and found him and he crawled on my back.  I didn’t see him until two weeks later (he travelled in the car from Namibia to Victoria Falls to Botswana).  Now he is the campsite mosquito spray !