Family Vacations - the trips they take you on, so you can't get tired of them and lock yourself away in your room (^^,)

Family vacations have been end of the year traditions for as long as I can remember (I'm not even being cheesy there).

The first vacation I remember, was our tour of Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. There are whole albums dedicated to prized pictures (mementoes of far off places I have only vague, foggy recollections of). I, however, only took an interest in photography a few years back, and so, till I scrounge around for my expressions of Zimbabwe, Namibia and the UAE ...our last holiday to Port Elizabeth will have to do.

My four prized photographs will have to suffice, for what was a wonderful experience. It's true. You don't have to leave South Africa to have an amazing time. True, I didn't memorably skin my nose to amused on-lookers (in my excitement to be on a whole new continent), like I did in Thailand; or insist on pulling the chain at our bustop, but fall asleep and pull it long afterwards so we had to get off and trek a whole mile back in the middle of the night; or ride on an elephants back like in Singapore and be disgusted at it's greediness every time it reached it's trunk backwards for more banana's even when it had eaten all I had (I was 4 at the time, I had no notion or comprehension of just how much an elephant could possibly devour); or walk up hundreds of stairs to visit the golden Buddha's; or float on a raft of reeds wondering about those killer fish that might mince me up if I accidentally leaned too far over-board like my mother kept warning me not to do; or sat in a rickety little rick-shaw that threatened to capsize every time it turned a bend going faster than any of us imagined it could possibly go...

But, I saw the Hole in the Wall...and I played with Tiger Cubs and went on bumpy game-drives that jarred every bone in your body but left you in awe...and fell asleep (I won't lie) terrified because the full throated roar of a lion sounded as if it were inches from your doorstep, and a glass sliding door seemed a sorry excuse for protection against a 250kg+ killing machine...

(One of the Tiger cubs we played with. The Tigers, I must say, were far more daring than the little lions. Oh what FUN they were! This was the only one I got, because after he caught sight of me, up he came to investigate, and I happily handed away my camera in exchange for a roll in the grass with this little beauty).

(A Tigress at the Tiger enclosure at Kwantu Game-reserve. I will always be in awe of lions - thank Disney's The Lion King for that - but I still think that Tigers are the most regal of all big cats! I simply couldn't resist a click at such a classically imposing pose).

(A deer camouflaged in the bushes on one of our game drives - If I remember correctly, it's a water buck. I almost didn't see it as we drove by!)

(At the Beach @ the Hole in the wall, just before Sunset)

Yes, it is a pretty devious plot to force you to bond with them...but I have to give my parents credit - they have planned and successfully executed wonderful family vacations!