The elephant in the room.

I don't want to speak too soon but I think my automobile curse might be lifting. Not without the final blow from the insurance company that our car is to be written off (some sort of internal bleeding apparently) and that they won't discuss payment until we produce a Swazi police report, which is tricky to get as they need a written request, don't have e-mail and their fax is broken. They suggested that I drive the 3 hours to the police station to request it and then back 4 days later to collect it, but I pointed out that that would be tricky, having no car and all.

However, this weekend, I managed to go to Tembe Elephant Park and go on a game drive without any vehicle mishaps at all. Well, there was the mock charge from a female elephant, cooly dealt with by Tom our driver who ignored our pleas to reverse and sat there as she stamped around, flapping her ears and trumpeting before finally walking off. He summed it up "she's just a young girl, showing off". We all felt she might be young but she was still pretty big.

The weekend was organised by one of our neighbouring hospitals, with a discount rate for doctors working in local hospitals to stay at the 5 star resort. It was a lovely weekend; relaxing and fun, and it was really good to meet other local doctors and compare notes on our experiences, some scarily common. It was also good to have hot running showers as we have yet again returned to a waterless Ingwavuma. The joys of rural SA.