Catching Up With The Family

2018-06-04 | puppy1952

On Friday after enjoying a delicious breakfast at our favourite coffee shop, The Earl said, “I feel like going off somewhere for the weekend.”

“Where do you want to go?” I asked. It was cold and I didn’t relish a caravan excursion.

“To the kids in Plettenberg Bay!” came his reply. Well – why not! It’s a whole six weeks since we saw them last. And the novelty of having them only five hours away hasn’t yet worn off!

So we rushed home, phoned our son-in-law, packed a bag and hit the road at 10:30 am!

The drive from Struisbaai to Plett is an easy one. There is very little traffic and the roads are in good condition. But when we passed through George there was a congestion. What could be wrong? The Earl began to get anxious as the traffic police were not handling the situation very well. The road was blocked and the two officers didn’t seem to know what to do. They were letting a few cars through and only when we got close to them were we told that if we were going further than Victoria Bay we wouldn’t be able to get through. A truck had lost it’s load of beer on the pass. Sooo we had to turn around and take the narrow, windy Seven Passes Road. At one point there was a single lane bridge to cross and this caused a huge congestion. It took us two extra hours to get to our kids. But such is life and it was all part of the adventure. Imagine if we’d been in a hurry! We still made it to Jubilee Farm by just after five pm.

Lauren was teaching when we called our son-in-law so she and Simon only found out we were coming at the end of the school day. Allan cooked us a delicious lamb curry and had a fire going. It was, to say the least, a happy reunion.

A warming curry for supper

Grandpa and Si in front of the fire – Gramps has the extra warmth of Roger round his neck

Saturday was a much warmer day. The sun shone, the sky was blue and there was not a breath of wind. I was delighted to find that yellow-billed ducks now visit the pond in front of the house.

This duck called out his joy with gleeful quacks

Cheddar the cat likes hunting in the long grass and reeds next to the dam

We took the family to town for lunch. The Table is a lovely Italian restaurant with seating outdoors.

The Dolphin Statue in Plettenberg Bay

Lauren and Allan at The Table

Lauren and Allan had delicious pizza, The Earl and I chicken and avo salad and Simon a Blue cheese salad. Desserts were Creme Brulet and Fruit on sticks dipped in dark Belgium Chocolate. Yum!

Our granddaughter, Shannon, who attends Glenwood House in George, was not home for the weekend as she had choir rehearsal all Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. So on Sunday we had a leisurely late breakfast and enjoyed the morning with the family before setting off to George. Shan was with family friends for the day and we visited her there before taking her back to school. It was lovely catching up with her and The Bakers. It was also lovely to see Shan’s school and to meet her roommate. I am so proud of my well-adjusted granddaughter. It wasn’t easy leaving her much loved St John’s in Pietermaritzburg at the end of last term. But after only five weeks she is fitting in so well at Glenwood. You go Shan, Girl!

Shan and her roommate, Onika

After dropping Shan we went to Great Brak to see more family – Diane and Carey who live on a small holding in the mountains called Rondomooi. For my overseas readers Rondomooi means All Around Beautiful.

And all around where they live is truly beautiful!

Carey has a workshop on the property where he builds Motor Homes. They also grow veggies and keep chickens. Diane is going to start an orchid nursery.

Eggs from the Free-Range Hens

Diane collecting eggs

Kitty keeping an eye on things

Lettuce growing like trees!

Carey showing me the garden

We spent a lovely evening and morning with Carey and Diane and at 11 this morning headed back to Struisbaai. We stopped in Swellendam to refuel with diesel and coffee!

It was a lovely sunny day and we even stopped to snap this lovely rock kestrel

IMG_6924_InPixio

What a lovely little get-away that was. When you retire you can do these spur of the moment things! How lucky we are!

Struisbaai Day 7 – Agulhas and Arniston

2012-12-21 | puppy1952

I got to bed after midnight last night – due to having consumed too many cups of strong coffee, all the excitement of the day and blogging till late! However, I finally fell asleep but was wide awake by 5:30 and 6:30 found Earl and me on the beach. I wanted to run while the tide was still low enough not to have too much soft sand. Earl does not do running but enjoyed a brisk walk.

When we returned the Vet Viets Vriende started emerging in stages until all were up and eating and ‘Early’ breakfast by 8 o’clock. They were super appreciative and a pleasure to feed.

We then headed to Cape Agulhas to do the touristy things – like stand at the Southern Most Tip of Africa and climbing to the top of the light house. We created a special seat for our extra passenger.

Princess Kate in her exclusive part of the vehicle

Please note there is controversy as to where the Atlantic and Indian Ocean meet – We Cape Townians sincerely believe it’s at Cape Point. But the purists believe it’s here at Agulhas. The sea is the sea – Man gives the ocean names – so I stick proudly to it being Cape Point – and proudly to the fact that Cape Agulhas is the most southerly point – no argument there!

The Vroeg, Vriendelik, Vet, Viets Vriende at the southern tip of Africa

Die Mees Suidelik Egpaar

We then took a drive to Suiderstrand, had a quick look and history lesson about the wreck and spotted a bird or two.

Rock Kestrel

Then it was back to the lighthouse. I decided not to do the climb for the umpteenth time and Earl quickly went to collect the laundry. The kids, however, enjoyed the experience.

The southern most Lighthouse

VVV at the top of Agulhas Lighthouse

Next we made our way along the dirt road route to Arniston. We handed out binoculars and bored our guests silly by stopping for every little birds. They were too polite to complain though.

Capped Wheatear

Red Bishop

We also detoured to Die Mond but were not allowed to go onto the suspension bridge without paying the entrance fee – silly really we would only have been in the reserve for 10 minutes.

At Arniston we visited the original Fishermen’s village and popped into Kassiesbaai Crafts. Here local crafts are sold from the front room of a private home.

The original Fisherfolk village

It was now lunch time and we tried to get a table at the hotel – no chance but they took our cell number and said they would call us when a table became available. The VVV bought us ice creams and soaked up some sun until the call came through.

It was very busy and they did not bring all the food at the same time – but it was good and reasonably priced. The meals were ordered were calamari, burgers, Gypsy Ham club sandwiches, toasted sandwiches and everyone seemed to enjoy what was presented.

Me Katy Tim (hidden) Nico, Francois, Marianda, Riaan

Katie, Tim, Nico

Our next adventure was to Die Grot – The Cave! It required a short walk from the dunes and then a descent to the beach – a sign warned that the embankment was dangerous and that we should take the steps – so of course the boys went down the embankment. Earl the girls and I were more cautious. The tide was not quite out so we had to negotiate incoming waves and slippery rocks until we entered the first cave and crawled through a low hole into the bigger cave that looked out to the sea. It was awesome. I would love to bring the grandchildren again next week – hopefully when the tide decides to be low at a more reasonable time.

The adventurous boys take the tricky route

The sensible ones take the safe steps

Gingerly negotiating the rocks and surf

Looking at the VVV from the tunnel into the cave toward the sea

Enjoying the cave

The whole gang

An oyster catcher we spotted outside the cave

Nico

Katie

Marianda

Francois

We were pretty whacked and ready to take the trip back to Struisbaai but when we got to the car Tim, Francois and Riaan found some sand surfing boards and dashed up the sand dune like they were doing a 100m flat sprint. Their aim was to ski down but the boards did not work that well!

We stopped at Bredasdorp to pick up supplies and while we prepared dinner the kids went off to the beach for a swim. The girls tried to make a peppermint crisp tart but as I lacked the correct utensils the cream did failed to do what it had to so had to be discarded. Instead they got creative and made us a chocolate mousse/peppermint crisp/tennis biscuit dessert. We named it VVV Pudding.

We enjoyed a dinner of Weber roasted chicken, stuffed butternut, sweet potato and salad followed of course by the VVV pudding.

What a stunning two days we have spent with these 6 fantastic young people. Francois you are an amazing young husband – its great to see how much you love and appreciate your wife – good luck with your future in civil engineering and with your Masters next year. Marianda – Francois is right – you are a wonderful wife – a go for it kind of girl – not many non-cycling wives would have agreed to a holiday of this nature – without fluffy white towels and comfortable beds – you are going to be a stunning teacher – good luck with the rest of your studies and your future career and may all your problems be gorgeous tiny ones like you and your husband. . Nico – the quiet, mysterious, creative one. You have born that aching knee with such fortitude. I’m glad you had a chance to rest it today. Good luck enjoy Greyton and your career in architecture – I would love you to design a home for me! Riaan – My name is Cloete – Riaan Cloete – You are an amazing James Bond – You are the number cruncher with a difference – All the best for your future too! Tim – Marketing Engelsman – what an adventure on a borrowed bike – to undertake all those kilometres – wow – you are super impressive. Good luck to you too with your future studies. Katie – the princess who just take everything in her stride – that smile tells it all – you just love life. What a gem you are! Well done for taking on this amazing challenge and giving it everything you’ve got. The memories will last you a life time! I know you are going to be fabulous in your career – you will be fabulous in whatever you do!

To all of you – Earl and I have so enjoyed the privilege of meeting you and sharing two days of this adventure with you. Sterkte – Go well our new friends.

Fortune and Misfortune – A Fortuner Adventure – Day 5

2012-07-14 | puppy1952

1 July 2012

Earl was still not feeling good this morning. He did not have a temperature but he complained that his body was aching. It sounded like a dose of influenza was on the way! I left him in bed while we got up and packed and in spite of his ails he insisted on driving.

We were enjoying the early morning drive, snug and warm in our vehicle, no cars in sight and just the odd springbok and gemsbok about, when just up ahead we saw a car stopped and wondered what he had seen. We soon found out. Right in front of him, on the road was a young male lion. Eyes forward we got our cameras ready. We were thrilled to be only one of two cars and did not have to fight for position. Suddenly someone in the car ahead gesticulated to us and we looked around to see a lioness in the distance. She was slowly making her way toward us and we didn’t know where to look – at the lioness or the lion who was really close. I insisted that we wait for the lioness to get closer. “She’s going to join her husband,” I said. And he did keep looking behind him to monitor her progress. Of course, I was right and eventually we were rewarded when she came up right next to the car.

Lioness

After snapping many photographs we slowly overtook the car in front of us and past the male so we could turn around to get more than his back view.

Looking for his wife

: Happy that she’s following her lord and master

It was a great start to our journey to Nossob!

Close by a jackal expressed what he thought about his king and queen

We don’t often see kudu in Kgalagadi so it was great to find these beautiful males at the waterhole.

Kudu

A passing tourist alerted us to cheetah around the corner. We took our time as we’d seen cheetah in this spot before and knew they would be far from the road and not in a hurry to move on.

On the way we spied these two perched high up and surveying the scene.

White-backed Vultures

We could not resist snapping this kestrel either

Rock Kestrel

And then as we rounded the corner we saw a few cars looking over the wide grassland and soon caught sight of cheetahs on the move.

Cheetahs

We wondered where they were headed

Just to a shady tree where they could sleep for the rest of the day!

We continued on our way, delighted to have had 2 cat sightings in one morning. There was not much excitement for the rest of the way but we did stop for birds and enjoyed seeing all the springbok, gemsbok, kori bustards – we counted 97 in one day – there must have been a Kori Bustard convention that nobody told us about. Usually it’s very exciting spotting one but we had become quite blasé about these magnificent birds.

Our plan was to stop at a picnic site and Earl would cook breakfast but by the time we got there he was feeling dreadful so we settled for cereal and coffee.

Isn’t it amazing that you can be 1000 km from home in a reserve where you seldom see another soul on the road and then you can randomly turn up at a picnic site and you recognise the only other people there. Yes – we met Sean and Isobella, members of our bird club, who just happened to be on their way to Mata Mata where they were exiting to go to Namibia! What were the chances!

There was a lot of bird activity but this was the best photograph I managed. This little chap is a black chested prinia. He is in his non-breeding feathers hence no black chest!

Black-chested Prinia

We made Earl as comfortable as possible in the passenger seat and I drove the rest of the way to Nossob. He had the shivers and was not a happy man.

It was after 1:30 when we arrived. We needed to refuel for our trip to Gharagab the following day as there would be no place to do so between here and there. We had also been warned that Nossob was running low on diesel but there was no point on filling up at Mata Mata as we were close on full. It was a Sunday and the petrol pumps were closed till 2! Earl got into the queue while I went to check in. There was some delay at reception too as there was only one attendant who could deal with us and she was busy dealing with a gate and key crisis – not too sure of the details. I got chatting to young woman in the queue who was checking in to go to Gharagab. There were two vehicles and three people in her party and they’d driven all the way from Twee Rivieren and were heading straight for Gharagab 160km away on a 4×4 track. I wished her luck as I was sure they wouldn’t make it before dark! We would not dream of driving from Twee Rivieren to Gharagab without an overnight stop at Nossob. You never know how often you are going to stop for animals, whether you’ll get a puncture, how bad the roads might be etc. etc. But they were young, thought themselves invincible and didn’t have a care in the world. Do I miss those days? No, I don’t think so!

Luckily there was enough diesel, we stocked up on fire wood and mineral water – no drinking water at Gharagab and checked into our bungalows. Earl went straight to bed. Heather, Peter and I, after some lunch and unpacking walked to the hide which overlooks a waterhole.

Wildebeest taking a drink

There was quite a lot of bird activity and we watched a lanner trying to catch doves but he was not successful.

I managed to snap a pale chanting goshawk just as he took flight.

Earl remained in bed and Peter braaied our supper. We debated whether we should abandon the trip and try and get to Upington and a doctor. I had a well-stocked first aid kit with flu medication but no antibiotics. Earl’s fever was over 40 degrees C, which worried me. Once at Gharagab we would be settled for three nights – no driving around as the only road is the one-way, round trip on a 4X4 track between Nossob and the wilderness camp. Travelling to Twee Rivieren would take forever and then it would be another 250 km to Upington. I thought Earl would be more comfortable staying put and decided that he might as well be sick there as anywhere else. So the plan was for me to drive the 4×4 track and see how things went.