Dear Everyone,
Catching up from April / May 2018.
I landed in South Africa from Chicago a few days before Easter, Phil picked me up at the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.
Here's Phil with a statue of Mr. ORT at the airport waiting to greet me. :)
That's me, coming in from Dubai!
We planned a drive eastward toward Durban, where we would meet up with Davison, his wife Barbara and their two kids, before heading down the coast line and ultimately to a place called Colesburg, South Africa, to look at a farm growing lucern (alfalfa) before turning north, homeward bound to Botswana. About five days on the road, barring no issues.
First, we drove around Johannesburg for a few hours, searching for a Land Rover junk yard for a few spare parts - without luck. Eventually, we hit the highway for a town called Hilton an hour or so outside of Durban.
We stayed at a Protea Hotel, a chain in South Africa, which is now owned by the Marriott Group.
I am smiling because I am about to order a Large Glass Of Wine.
The next morning, we met Davison and family for breakfast before setting out for Durban.
It was Good Friday and the traffic was heavy, but we made it in time to explore the coastal city a bit before a pre-arranged business dinner for that evening.
The view from our hotel room.
There is a large population of Indians that reside in Durban, and the day we arrived there was a huge parade on the street right in front of our hotel. Sounded like Hare Krishnas, a branch of Hindus. Lots of colors and music from within this particular float.
Then, we hit the beach and the boardwalk. The water was VERY cold, we mainly walked and people watched. Very few people were swimming, there were some in wet suits surfing, though.
This is a group of young men performing a modern / traditional Zulu dance on the boardwalk.
After spending the afternoon walking around, we returned to our hotel to get ready for the dinner. As you can see, I am sporting my lovely handbag courtesy of Aunt Linda. Dinner over, we closed the hotel bar with a nightcap and a coke.
The next morning we had a ways to go to get to our second destination, Haga Haga. I know, I say it the way I would say, "Hubba, Hubba," too - it's not weird. At all. Unless you say it like, "Haga, Haga, Baby," then it gets weird.
On the road!
What church do you go to? You know, the little pink one down the road...so many things come to mind, Little Pink Churches for you and me...Church of Pink...House of Pink Floyd...St. Pink's...Pink Cadillac Church in the Wildwood...Little Pink Church in the Vale...
Let's take this road! Said Phil.
As per our usual, we arrived around sundown. This place was very special, and not particularly easy to get to traveling on a gravel / dirt / track road for the last few miles, but we made it in time to unwind right before an amazing dinner prepared by a real chef! The pics are a little dark, the light was set very low adding to the ambiance.
In the morning light, we got to explore just a bit of the surroundings as we had to be in St Francis Bay that evening. Miarestate has a private beach area. We could't leave without checking it out. Unfortunately, you can't just walk there, you have to be driven to the edge of a cliff, then walk precariously down a thousand stairs until you arrive at the secluded beach. I wouldn't exactly call it private as there were a few people enjoying Easter Sunday, but it was definitely beautifully exclusive. I know there are a lot of beach pics, but it was truly gorgeous.
Pretty cool, right? How do we top that?! On to St Francis Bay.
As an aside, it can be stressful to travel off the cuff, especially when your Google Map says that you will arrive in 5 hours and 34 minutes, but that almost NEVER happens! It is fun, it is adventurous, but when you're in a foreign country, you rely a LOT on previous traveler reviews regarding where to stay, IF you manage to get wifi along the way. Typically, I use Trip Advisor, or Hotels dot com because for every ten bookings you get one free (how we managed the Miarestates), but it doesn't always go well. I'll get to that in a moment. First - St Francis Bay.
We arrived at sunset, checked in, and ended up going to this awesome little fish joint for some great seafood. We had had a long journey, a bit harrowing through a tow called Mthatha, and we didn't leave Miarestate right away, so the evening was short. We decided to explore a bit in the morning, and our Dutch dairy neighbors from Lobatse were there, so we were meeting them for coffee. More beach pictures!
More trip planning...
Our dairy neighbors, Rob and Erica.
And, our next destination, Cradock - last stop before the farm in Colesburg.
I made a reservation on Hotels dot com for a little bed and breakfast called Albert House. Sounded very English, right? We usually don't pay a lot of attention to the fact that I'm white and Phil is black, but sometimes we are a bit leery. There are not as many mixed couples in Africa as there are in the United States, and usually it is the other way around, black woman, white male. I'm explaining this because when we pulled up to Alfred House there was a wrought iron fence surrounding the property, not unusual, but when I rang the bell, a man answered and said they were closed. So, immediately we were suspicious suspecting that he sees me, white, and sees Phil, black and is opposed. Well, long story short, we were very wrong. They really were closed. Apparently they had had a rough week with a large contingency of rugby players and fans for a national tournament and all of the B & Bs in town got together and decided to close down to recuperate over the weekend. Except...we had a reservation...I had already paid...Charlie, was his name, said that he had contacted all of the websites to make sure they did not advertise any availability but Hotels Dot Com must not have received the message. Being a very nice gentleman, he graciously offered us a little cottage.
The next morning, as we prepared to leave early, Charlie and Phil struck up one of those history/professorial/philosophical-type friendships, and we assured him we would be back, thanked him for his hospitality, and set out for a repair job on the Range Rover. We ended up getting way more than we bargained for...but first, Cradock: antique / junk store, coffee shop, and off we go!
We enjoyed a peaceful start to our journey to the farm in Colesburg.
And then, everything kind of went to hell in a handbasket. We have an air suspension in the Range Rover that lifts the entire vehicle, and all of a sudden, all of the air was released, the vehicle lowered, and it felt like we did not have any type of shock absorption whatsoever. Every bump in the road felt like we were doing seat-drops on a trampoline. Inside the car.
We finally made it to the farm, which was quite lovely, by the way. Our spines and internal organs firmly dislocated.
After a tour and a brief meeting, did a bit of under-the-hood checking on the Rover. Turns out, the shop where we had the exhaust fixed in Cradock, burnt the air suspension bag rear air spring, accidentally. Lucky us!
Now, instead of being able to head back to Botswana, we needed to head to the nearest city for repairs. We bounced and jarred ourselves on to Bloemfontein.
We booked a room at another Protea, and proceeded to find an auto repair shop. A guy at the main Land Rover dealership recommended another guy with his own shop and who would be considerably cheaper. He did not disappoint. Meanwhile, the Protea we were staying at was adjacent to a zoo and had their own back-door entrance. We waited for the Rover to be fixed and walked around the zoo. I won't bore you with a bunch of zoo pictures, except this gorilla. Because he would not stop following me. It was so bizarre! Seriously, there were other people gawking at the gorilla, but he did not pay any attention to them. The keeper said I was his new girlfriend...as if that was a thing.
As promised, the guy was a wiz with Range Rovers and had our car working in no time.
You would think after all this, no more road trips, right? Yeah... no. A few weeks later, we headed for a place called Maulmsbury in South Africa to look at a dairy. Because, you know, adventure!
xoxo
K
