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Well, we are finally here - Africa. Lindani to be precise. It’s mid-day-ish a few days before Christmas and I am sitting under a tree (already a tad red from sitting by/in the pool this morning), and blogging. I am writing this in Word as internet connection here is intermittent to say the least. Actually, we are not that far from civilisation. This is in effect a farm, with game, and very nice accommodation in the form of cottages. We have a cluster of 4 of them between 18 of us. There are others around but who knows where. Nowhere near here that’s for sure. The nearest town (take the word ‘town’ with a pinch of salt, we are not talking anything as big or flash as Matamata here) is about 30km away.
To describe where we are, and by the time I post this the photos will accompany, the accommodation area is a mowed area of grassland surrounded by hills of African bush, i.e. scrub and thorn trees. The cottages are spaced out and look out to mowed grass with a pool dotted with huge red rocks around it and a native looking fence and shade area. Then it is longer grass, through which a small herd of around 50 springbok strolled 30 minutes ago, and then the hills. The farm has farm tracks along which you can drive (we plan to do that later this afternoon) and walking and cycling tracks.
This morning Eric woke about 5 and I was up about 5.30am. Outside the cottage were lots of impala (smallish, elegant buck), and I think Eric saw a kudu. Mark saw a herd of buffalo but we missed them. Harriette, Eric and I did a short bush walk about 7am but didn’t see anything.
I guess I ought to start at the beginning. When we went to the UK in 2007 we said we would meet Trish (Eric’s sister) and Simon out here for Christmas 2008. They live in the UK but have built a house in Wilderness (on the Cape Coast), I think to retire to. We therefore planned for that trip but in 2008 they said they would not be out here that Christmas so we re-arranged for 2009. We managed to wangle 6 weeks leave somehow. So, we left NZ on 17th December, so exhausted after a hectic (I mean more hectic than usual) 3 months and arrived in Johannesburg on Friday morning (6pm NZ time). We spent a 7 ½ hr stopover in Singapore airport, leaving at 2am local time. Two 11 hr flights. Lynne collected us from the airport and we battled through traffic jams like I cannot remember, to their house. Lynne and Vaughn are amongst our dearest friends. Lynne and I met in 1984 when we both did our ICU training in JHB. During this time Lynne and Vaughn dated and finally married some time after I left SA. They have 3 children; Michael (15), born the day after Alice, Stephanie (10) and Daniel (9). Vaughn has his own mine consultancy business and talks in billions of rands (the local currency – R1+NZ$5) in his dealings. Lynne assures me she is very busy, but does not work and has a full-time maid and gardener. You can imagine how I tease her . They live in a gorgeous house in crime ridden JHB. Their house, like all others, is behind a high fence topped with 5 electric wires entered through a huge remote controlled gate. Once inside you are not really aware of the security, it just feels like a nice secluded garden.
We managed to stay awake all Friday but did not see Vaughn. He left for work at 6am and returned at 3am Saturday morning for a few hours kip. I saw him when I went for a run at 6am as he headed back to the office. (Just as well really as I had no idea how to exit the property!) They were just finalising a mining feasibility study for some Indian clients and right on the deadline. I am not sure if that was the projects deadline or Vaughn’s as he was heading off on holiday. He said he’d be back about 12. Naively I thought he meant mid-day. He finally got home at 11pm Saturday night! I’ll never complain about Eric working in the evenings again! (It’s all gone very quiet here, the children have left the pool and I think everyone that can is tucked up in the shade reading or snoozing. Eric’s asleep in our bedroom).
Saturday, still in Johannesburg, we went to Fourways to collect our car. We had booked a small people mover, a Toyota Avanza but they upgraded us to a VW Kombie. Now Alice dreams of owning a kombie and nearly burst into tears of joy when we met back up with the girls and told her she would be cruising round Africa for 6 weeks in one! Later that day we went to Monte Casino HYPERLINK HERE , a very impressive Tuscan style mall, I guess you would call it, but rather than shops it is mainly entertainment and food orientated. We had a late lunch/early supper there at John Dory’s and bought tickets for Cinderella on Ice, which Lynne has seen and said was unbelievable. We go on 2nd December and will take Steffie, who missed out on it first time round. We then headed home for another early night.
Sunday we, and Steffie, went to a Sandton mall shopping for last minute Christmas presents. You cannot believe the shopping here. I have never seen so much wealth, and contrasted to such poverty when you move out of town. Everywhere there are car dealers for Lotus, Aston Martin, Bentley, Lexus. It never stops. And the shops!!!! I have never seen so many. It is quite a culture shop after NZ. Cheryl (as in Mark and Cheryl) is in NZ at the moment visiting Mark who lives there (Yes an odd set up but the plan is that Cheryl will eventually move out there), asked me a few weeks ago if I missed proper shopping living in NZ. I said no, not really understanding the question as I had everything I needed in NZ, but when I was in Sandton I thought of the question again, and understood! I think I prefer lack of choice (most of the time. How on earth do you find the time to shop here. You could go on forever!!
On Sunday afternoon we went to Alberton to see Anna and Ginty (Ouma and Oupa to Harriette and Alice). This elderly Afrikaans couple ‘adopted’ me when I lived out here after I supported them in caring for their son, my friend, Alex. Alex had motor neurone disease from the age of 21. He was their only son and an incredibly gifted guy. He died after about 6 years living paralysed and on a ventilator at home. It was terribly tragic. I admired and loved Alex and cannot imagine what Anna and Ginty went through. Anyway, they are both very dear to us and it was an emotional visit. We will try and get over there a few more times while we are here.
Monday was shopping and packing for this trip. We spent a small fortune in Fourways Woolworths (R4,500 = nearly NZ$1,000), Lynne also left with 2 trolley loads of shopping. When it came to packing up it was such a good thing we had the Kombie. I am not sure how we would have done it otherwise! We finally headed out of JHB about 3pm (which was the time we had planned to arrive!). We had to drive through a township and had strict instructions from Lynne on about approaching the 2 sets of traffic lights slowly if they are red so you are not actually stationery for too long. Lynne drives like a madman (the girls said they would never complain about my driving again) but assured us that we were not in a hurry and it would be a leisurely drive. We averaged 130km/hour all the way there!!!!
PHOTO’s
To describe where we are, and by the time I post this the photos will accompany, the accommodation area is a mowed area of grassland surrounded by hills of African bush, i.e. scrub and thorn trees. The cottages are spaced out and look out to mowed grass with a pool dotted with huge red rocks around it and a native looking fence and shade area. Then it is longer grass, through which a small herd of around 50 springbok strolled 30 minutes ago, and then the hills. The farm has farm tracks along which you can drive (we plan to do that later this afternoon) and walking and cycling tracks.
This morning Eric woke about 5 and I was up about 5.30am. Outside the cottage were lots of impala (smallish, elegant buck), and I think Eric saw a kudu. Mark saw a herd of buffalo but we missed them. Harriette, Eric and I did a short bush walk about 7am but didn’t see anything.
I guess I ought to start at the beginning. When we went to the UK in 2007 we said we would meet Trish (Eric’s sister) and Simon out here for Christmas 2008. They live in the UK but have built a house in Wilderness (on the Cape Coast), I think to retire to. We therefore planned for that trip but in 2008 they said they would not be out here that Christmas so we re-arranged for 2009. We managed to wangle 6 weeks leave somehow. So, we left NZ on 17th December, so exhausted after a hectic (I mean more hectic than usual) 3 months and arrived in Johannesburg on Friday morning (6pm NZ time). We spent a 7 ½ hr stopover in Singapore airport, leaving at 2am local time. Two 11 hr flights. Lynne collected us from the airport and we battled through traffic jams like I cannot remember, to their house. Lynne and Vaughn are amongst our dearest friends. Lynne and I met in 1984 when we both did our ICU training in JHB. During this time Lynne and Vaughn dated and finally married some time after I left SA. They have 3 children; Michael (15), born the day after Alice, Stephanie (10) and Daniel (9). Vaughn has his own mine consultancy business and talks in billions of rands (the local currency – R1+NZ$5) in his dealings. Lynne assures me she is very busy, but does not work and has a full-time maid and gardener. You can imagine how I tease her . They live in a gorgeous house in crime ridden JHB. Their house, like all others, is behind a high fence topped with 5 electric wires entered through a huge remote controlled gate. Once inside you are not really aware of the security, it just feels like a nice secluded garden.
We managed to stay awake all Friday but did not see Vaughn. He left for work at 6am and returned at 3am Saturday morning for a few hours kip. I saw him when I went for a run at 6am as he headed back to the office. (Just as well really as I had no idea how to exit the property!) They were just finalising a mining feasibility study for some Indian clients and right on the deadline. I am not sure if that was the projects deadline or Vaughn’s as he was heading off on holiday. He said he’d be back about 12. Naively I thought he meant mid-day. He finally got home at 11pm Saturday night! I’ll never complain about Eric working in the evenings again! (It’s all gone very quiet here, the children have left the pool and I think everyone that can is tucked up in the shade reading or snoozing. Eric’s asleep in our bedroom).
Saturday, still in Johannesburg, we went to Fourways to collect our car. We had booked a small people mover, a Toyota Avanza but they upgraded us to a VW Kombie. Now Alice dreams of owning a kombie and nearly burst into tears of joy when we met back up with the girls and told her she would be cruising round Africa for 6 weeks in one! Later that day we went to Monte Casino HYPERLINK HERE , a very impressive Tuscan style mall, I guess you would call it, but rather than shops it is mainly entertainment and food orientated. We had a late lunch/early supper there at John Dory’s and bought tickets for Cinderella on Ice, which Lynne has seen and said was unbelievable. We go on 2nd December and will take Steffie, who missed out on it first time round. We then headed home for another early night.
Sunday we, and Steffie, went to a Sandton mall shopping for last minute Christmas presents. You cannot believe the shopping here. I have never seen so much wealth, and contrasted to such poverty when you move out of town. Everywhere there are car dealers for Lotus, Aston Martin, Bentley, Lexus. It never stops. And the shops!!!! I have never seen so many. It is quite a culture shop after NZ. Cheryl (as in Mark and Cheryl) is in NZ at the moment visiting Mark who lives there (Yes an odd set up but the plan is that Cheryl will eventually move out there), asked me a few weeks ago if I missed proper shopping living in NZ. I said no, not really understanding the question as I had everything I needed in NZ, but when I was in Sandton I thought of the question again, and understood! I think I prefer lack of choice (most of the time. How on earth do you find the time to shop here. You could go on forever!!
On Sunday afternoon we went to Alberton to see Anna and Ginty (Ouma and Oupa to Harriette and Alice). This elderly Afrikaans couple ‘adopted’ me when I lived out here after I supported them in caring for their son, my friend, Alex. Alex had motor neurone disease from the age of 21. He was their only son and an incredibly gifted guy. He died after about 6 years living paralysed and on a ventilator at home. It was terribly tragic. I admired and loved Alex and cannot imagine what Anna and Ginty went through. Anyway, they are both very dear to us and it was an emotional visit. We will try and get over there a few more times while we are here.
Monday was shopping and packing for this trip. We spent a small fortune in Fourways Woolworths (R4,500 = nearly NZ$1,000), Lynne also left with 2 trolley loads of shopping. When it came to packing up it was such a good thing we had the Kombie. I am not sure how we would have done it otherwise! We finally headed out of JHB about 3pm (which was the time we had planned to arrive!). We had to drive through a township and had strict instructions from Lynne on about approaching the 2 sets of traffic lights slowly if they are red so you are not actually stationery for too long. Lynne drives like a madman (the girls said they would never complain about my driving again) but assured us that we were not in a hurry and it would be a leisurely drive. We averaged 130km/hour all the way there!!!!
PHOTO’s
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