Gosh it's a long time since I've even opened this blog. Since the last posting, composed in the BA lounge at Heathrow, I've taken 8 flights in 12 days, visiting 3 continents and covering approximately 30,000 miles. I've been to San Francisco, via London , and then back up to Nairobi, unsure what time of day or night it is, or even which way I'm flying. (Very disconcerting to fly 'backwards' in the BA club world seats). I got home last weekend, hoping not to get back on a plane for a while, and have succeeded so far. Off to Malaysia next weekend, but for now, a break from traveling.

Although I haven't done much except work this last fortnight, Neil and the girls have been enjoying the start of a new term. There are new extra murals on offer (athletics, mini cricket, drama and now choir for Lottie too), so everyone is kept busy. Most afternoons, the girls disappear over the garden wall to the neighbour's house where two little boys live, the big draw being their solar heated swimming pool. Our pool here is in a shaded part of the garden and so is still freezing. I braved it for the first time last weekend and could only stay in because I went more or less immediately numb from head to toe.

The last two weekends have been dominated by the girls' belated birthday parties. Lottie was first, inviting 14 friends to a gymnastics party at Gordon's gymnastics in Mowbray.





They all had great fun, enjoying free rein of all the equipment and then scoffing sandwiches and cake during a break. Health and safety is an interesting concept in SA - there is nothing like the compensation culture and as a result personal responsibility takes a far higher precedent. At school, Lottie and Elizabeth's gymnastics teacher encourages activities that make me gasp (with terror). The entire squad is preparing for the Christmas show now, and girls are cartwheeling along the beams and hurling themselves from the parallel bars. The teacher is a dragon, but she really knows her stuff and as a result Rustenburg produces some superb gymnasts. Fortunately our girls aren't quite at that standard, but they are still expected to cartwheel off the end of the beam at the end of their routine, ending with a perfect spot landing. Elizabeth managed to twist her ankle coming off the beam this week and went to school all strapped up on Friday.

Last weekend Elizabeth had a party here in the garden of Malvern House. We managed to track down Yolanda Yawa, a well known Cape Town singer and dancer who was willing to dream up a party for a group of 8 year old girls. The theme was African inspired and Yolanda and a friend dressed the garden to look like an African village and then taught the girls to sing and dance as if local African children. The whole thing culminated in a show for the parents at home time.

Finally, a wrap up of our holiday. Bit late to be doing this now, but I don't want to forget any of it and this will serve as a memory jogger when we look back in years to come.


So....After wonderful Tsitskamma, we headed along the coast westwards through Plettenburg Bay to Knysna and the elephant park. Unlike at Addo, these elephants aren't wild but rescued, usually as orphans, either from Krugger or the Kalihari. As a result they are very familiar with people and pretty tame. It was amazing to get up really close to these huge beasts - elephants have hugely long eyelashes, at least 10 cms long. We even did the touristy thing and went for a ride in the forest on the elephants, Elizabeth and me on a relative youngster, Neil and Lottie high up on a 23 year old giant from Namibia. Overall however, perhaps because we'd recently come from the wildness and majesty of Addo, the impression was of something staged and false. Having said that, the girls loved it, and regarded their ride on an elephant's back as an absolute highlight of the holiday.

From Knysna, we headed inland and mountain-wards to Homtini where we spent the night on a magical farm. We slept in a rather grand 'tent' - a huge safari affair with wooden floors, a hot shower and proper beds. But still a tent, in a field with the most breathtaking views of the mountains. The next morning, we were the the only guests on the farm. At the farmer's behest, we sent the girls to collect fresh eggs from the hen house. We were encouraged to help ourselves from the vegetable and herb gardens, and to taste the farm honey. It was idyllically quite and peaceful, so rather than rush off to Oudtshoorn, our next stop, we decided to linger and spend the morning around the pool.
The photo is of our breakfast spot, a braai circle right outside our tent.

From Homtini, we followed a dirt road through the forest, over mountain passes and across rivers to Oudtshoorn, the ostrich capital of SA (if not the world). There are ostriches everywhere in and around the town! The babies are surprisingly tiny, perhaps one -fiftieth of the size of a fully grown adult. We decided we could do without an overdose of ostrich related tat, and headed straight for the Cango caves, an astonishing underground wonderland. Depending on which route you take through the caves, around 15 huge caverns have been discovered so far, deep inside the mountain, each bursting with weird rock formations, stalagmites and stalagtites.

And so, with our holiday drawing to a close, we set off on Route 62 through the Klein Karoo on the last 300 kms or so back to Cape Town. Route 62 is an empty, high quality road that stretches endlessly ahead across a dry and barren landscape. This being the Western Cape though, there are mountains on each side of the plain, and the closer to Cape Town we got, the more stunning the scenery. We spent our last night near Barrydale outside Montagu, staying at Ravenna Mountain Lodge, a large and comfortable self catering cottage overlooking a lake. The bird life here was truly spectacular - sudden flashes of intense colour as weaver birds and sugarbirds darted past, and then a huge shadow over the breakfast table and a massive eagle arrived in a neighbouring tree. Reluctantly we set out on Sunday morning for home, calling in at the little village of Ashton en route to take a photo of the name plaque for Harry. Making good time, we enjoyed a final indulgence, calling in at Fairview wine estate just outside Paarl for lunch and the obligatory tasting. The girls got bored with the wine talk and went outside to play in the sunshine, watching the goats (Fairview makes cheese as well as wine) and climbing trees.

And now, three weeks on, Neil and I sat over a glass of wine this evening and discussed initial plans for a trip through southern Africa before we come home. Not sure what we'll eventually end up with, but 6 - 8 weeks exploring Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique is top of our list right now. In the meantime, back to work and school, with the imminent arrival of Mum and Dad on Thursday eagerly anticipated.

Lots of love to all our famiies and friends - we miss you all!

Holiday! Part 1

Warning! Excessive use of superlatives ahead!






We're just back from the most amazing week's holiday - the best ever according to the girls. We flew to Port Elizabeth, and then drove over 1,000 kilometres along the Garden Route and through the Klein Karoo on our way back to Cape Town.

We crammed a lot in to the week - almost too much, but not quite! We stayed in a different place almost every night, from luxurious B&Bs to mountain lodges and fancy tents. We passed through amazing landscapes: dry bush, plunging canyons, mountains and forests, pounding Indian Ocean coastlines. Rural SA is very different to the cities. Living in the countryside isn't aspirational: this is where the poverty is most grinding and the living standards lowest. In SA, a whole socio-ecomonic class is defined as 'rural' on the assumption that there will be no electricity, no running water, no amenities of any kind. Traditions and customs are still hugely important in the countryside too. Given there is no universal health system and visits to a doctor are expensive and could involve long journeys, witch doctors and sangomas (traditional healers) still hold sway. Plus a deeply held belief in, and respect for, the power of the ancestors.

Anyway, back to our holiday. Quick run through of the highlights.....

Day 1: Flight to P.E. on Saturday morning. Picked up our hire car, and headed to the sea front for lunch. Quite cool and cloudy, so after a walk along the promenade we headed to our B&B to get settled. Girls got straight in the pool despite the temperature, but didn't stay in for long!

Day 2: Off to Addo Elephant Reserve. The third largest game reserve in SA, it covers nearly 3,500 square kilometres. It's one of SA's national parks and teems with wildlife, including the Big 5. In the end we didn't see any lions, leopards, rhino or buffalo, but had some spectacular views of the elephants the reserve originally specialised in. We stayed in a cute and cosy forest cabin, and took two game drives, one a 'Sundowner' with the obligatory drink next to a waterhole. The highlight of this drive, apart from the ellies and the sunset, was the sight of 2 black-backed jackals howling at the moon. Spectacularly eerie!

Day 3: Morning drive at Addo, then a swim in the pool, as the weather is really starting to heat up. Great excitement when a cheeky vervet monkey ran off with one of Elizabeth's Crocs. We had to chase it over the fence to get the shoe back! We spent the afternoon on a slow drive through the length of the southern section of the reserve, spotting kudu, zebra, eland, elephant herds complete with babies, warthog (really cute, if very ugly). Stayed in Jeffrey's Bay overnight - the unfortunate Afrikaans word for town (dorp) just about summing up this unexceptional place, renowned only for surfing as far as we can tell.

Day 4: Quick get away from dorps-ville, and off to another national park, Tsitikamma. We stayed at the Storms River Mouth rest camp in another little lodge. The national park accomodation is excellent, and very reasonably priced. Amazingly located right on the edge of the sea with the surf crashing and banging on the rocks day and night.

Before we even got to the sea however we took the treetop canopy tour of the local forest. Right up in the tops of the tallest trees, amongst the forest buzzards, monkeys and snakes (none in evidence thankfully), we whizzed down 10 zipwires as we zigzagged across the forest. Lottie has been excited about this activity since we first suggested it, but Elizabeth was more reticent and started off feeling quite scared. (So was I, but I could hardly admit it to Libby). Our instructor was very patient and gentle and, as I had fully expected, after the first couple of 'zips' Elizabeth was declaring her love for the tour and how she didn't want it to end. She was left dangling a few times though on the longest wires - too light to really get enough momentum up.

Day 5: A second day at Tsitsikamma. We spent today walking and exploring the fabulous scenery of the national park. In the morning we did a short but fairly strenuous walk to the lookout spot high on the neighbouring hill. The views were stupendous. We returned via the suspension bridge across the gorge. The world's highest bungee jump is at Storms River, but we didn't see any mad souls attempting the leap!

After lunch we headed off on the waterfall trail, despite the scary sounding warning.



And so glad we did as it was a lovely walk, mainly boulder-hopping along the rocky shoreline, but with stretches through the forest. Unfortunately, due to the prolonged and severe drought (the worst in over 100 years in the Eastern Cape), the waterfall was underwhelming when we reached it, and the promised swim in the fresh water pool didn't materialise as a lack of running water had made the pool look a bit suspect.

We did however catch a glimpse of the Knysna Loerie, a bright red and green bird with a peculiar shield on its head, and a long tail.

Got home as dusk was falling, meaning Neil had to braai in the dark!

All in all an amazing first half to our holiday.