Three months away from our comfort zone sure makes you appreciate the little things in life, like our own bed, pillows and our space, aside from the fact that constantly living out of suitcases is not fun!!
Having said that, it was a truly wonderful experience and it was awesome to spend quality time with the family.
We had an uneventful trip on the 7th December, after shutting down the house, clearing out the fridge and switching all the utilities off. Mum and Dad met us at O R Tambo, and the Johannesburg ratrace began! After "four cars is a traffic jam" here in Hungary, we felt rather like hillbillies, in Johannesburg, having forgotten how crazy it is, and how badly people drive! We went straight to an Ocean Basket and treated the folks, Prawns and Mussels oh yes!
Then to a huge butchery where we bought some decent Porthouse steaks, borewors etc for future Braai's BBQ's).
The sun was shining, and the weather was absolutely wonderful for the entire three months we were in Africa, aside from the fact that there was an awful drought, and the odd day of 40 degrees plus, we could not complain!
Mum and Dads place is still an absolute hidden jewel, with the Blesbok and Springbok wondering around their golf course, with a plathora of many different birds, and the delightful gardens painstakingly cared for by the residents.
Mum and Dad, still look fit and well, they are both still very active, playing golf, bowls, and taking an active part in the running of the resort.
We had a lazy two weeks in Magaliesburg, playing golf, swimming and shopping for some new clothes.
The resort held a dance before we left, which was good fun.
Then the four of us made the trek to Kei Mouth to spend Christmas and New Year on the coast with the family.
KEI MOUTH CHRISTMAS 2015 AND NEW YEAR 2016
And what an absolutely wonderful time it was. Kim And Dave are just the most fabulous hosts, their house is organised chaos, with people coming and going, and Kim makes everything look so effortless!
Christmas 2015 has to go down as one of the best of my life! We had such fun, playing games in three teams of seven, the competitive spirit rearing its head at every turn!
Darts competition, Quiz, bingo, golf and most fun of all was the water pistol shoot out to find the hidden Santa, we were all drenched exhausted and thought we were twelve again!
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| Christmas Day 2015. |
Then there was the wonderful spread, heaps of delicious food, lots to drink, in short, a very memorable day, thanks so very much Kim and Dave - we love you!
Of course every day during the two weeks we were there, activities abounded. Dave took the dogs to the beach every morning, and crazy cricket was played, swimming or just lazing in the sun.
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| Tails the crazy dog in his element! |
We went to two live concerts as well, very good South African bands, Prime Circle and The Parletones played at The Bushpig pub, both were brilliant!
A few more pictures of Kei Mouth.
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| Dave. The most Awesome Cousin and host! |
New Year past with copious amounts of alcohol and more games played at the pub we went to, I could see other groups of people looking on enviously at our table of crazy laughter and frivolity, and 2016 came to be, 2015 passing into history, with my dear parents jiving and staying to the midnight bell!
There is nothing like being surrounded by family and loved ones to make these the special moments in life.
2016
January passed in a slow lazy haze of doing very little, lying in the sun by the resort pool, taking the folks golf cart for evening game drives. We spent a week with Louise and Hugh in Pretoria, which is always a good laugh. Also great hosts, we had fun catching up with these good people.
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| Hugh! Intrepid Barman. |
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| Bliksum! Cheeky noisy African Grey. |
FEBRUARY 2016
We decided in February to hire a car and do a bit of touring, as we could see we were getting under Mum and Dads feet a bit in their little house.
Here is the red beast! The power of a lawn mower, and about as comfortable!
We collected the Chery QQ (Chinese revenge on the west?) from a domestic airport close to my parents house, Lanseria Airport, said goodbye to Mum and Dad, and drove to Pretoria and
dropped a suitcase at Louise & Hugh's place, borrowed a cooler box, and various other essentials from them, and began our road trip!
Again we took advantage of Dave & Kims great hospitality, this time in Swaziland.
What a great place Swaziland is! The people seems happier, the place is litter free, and of course the weather is awesome.We spent a great week in Melkerns with the cousins, eating too much, drinking too much and doing the touristy thing around Swazi.
We then booked five nights in the Lubombo mountain region to the East of Swazi almost on the Mozambique border. We booked a very private cottage called Leadwood Lodge right on a river frontage.
It was gorgeous!
Right in the heart of the African bush. Far from anything and anyone!
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| Leadwood Lodge. Paradise right there. |
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| Steve in his element. |
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| Almost open air shower. |
More photos of our five wonderful days.
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| View from the deck. |
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| The only neighbours we encountered. |
All too soon it was bye bye to Leadwood Lodge and Swaziland, and onto White River in the Lowveld.
I discovered this website called Airbnb, where normal people offer a spare room in their homes, to guests for a fraction of hotel/B&B prices.
And we met Rob and Daelene, who opened up their home to us, we had the most amazing stay, with their dogs and son providing entertainment and Rob cooking up a storm with Braais (BBQ's).
Airbnb also provided a further stay in Johannesburg in a small self-contained cottage in Kempton Park. We also then made contact very old friends that we have not seen for 20 odd years. Gary and also a friend of Steve's, Anthony, that he hadn't seen for at least 25 years.
Frequenting a pub in Edenvale - Our Place, we stayed with Ronnie and Adri. But then our troubles began, with Steve contracting food poisoning, and us both discovering some vile looking bites on various parts of our bodies which we found out to be a Sac spider! A particularly vindictive spider which rots the flesh.
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| One of three really bad bites I contracted. |
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| Steve's bite. |
Also hooked up with Don, who is living in our house in the UK. It was wonderful to catch up with him. Nice to see you Don, lets try to do it more than once every three years!
That really put paid to February! We flew back in March, which I will leave to the next blog, Its enough for now!
