Meandering in the Midlands…

The drive through the Midlands was truly stunning! Such a contrast compared to where we’ve come from so far… rolling hills and so much water everywhere, not to forget cows far and wide everywhere you look, LOL!!

We found a beautiful little place tucked away near Rosetta where we ended up staying a few more days than planned. Wow, what an amazing place to stay! We parked right on the lake’s edge and caught the fly-fishing bug, Andrew even got himself a free casting lesson from the resident ‘Springbok’ fly-fishing champ. Ha… now all we have to do is catch the $*@!% fish!

We did the tourist thing going into the nearest ‘village’ and found some stunning odds ‘n ends to add to the collection of memorabilia. Best of all though was basking in the nature of it all with the mountains in the background reflecting clearly in the lake, the birds doing their chirping thing and once again the fish mocking us!

We met a fabulous dog – an Australian Cattle Dog and his name… you guessed it, Bruce. An intelligent dog of note and stunning looking – we totally fell in-love with him! His body is like a 'wild' dog, staunch & strong with giant paws.

Weather was a little unpredictable with one day changing so drastically from the next – the one morning we woke up to a rainy highlands looking day. It was so surreal as it just came out of nowhere as the day before was super-hot! Everything was covered in frost, was a beautiful sight but not so wonderful when I remembered I left Andrew's pants on the washing line, oops! The thing about getting lost in the mountains is you lose all communication with the outside world … bliss.

Erin finally finished up with her Term 3 work and can now begin putting in the hours getting ready for exams, which should be a good indication on how well she is adapting her school with the travelling. Obviously it has taken a lot more focus and motivation from her to maintain her school schedule, especially in this holiday environment but she is doing well and blossoming into a confident and intelligent young girl.

Daddy's girl

camera-shy

Sterkfontein Dam @ Harrismith

This dam goes for miles...

looking out from our door

Well we had fun at Sterkfontein Dam with the wind and the wide expanse of water filled with dam fish that taunted us and made complete fools of us as we huffed and puffed up and down the hill to the muddy bank. (we looked on google earth and didn't notice the hill).  Look, I really don't blame the fish for not coming out, heck the icy wind was coming off the snowy mountains and taking no prisoners.

friendly ferret

However we were rewarded with a visit from a zebra, a ferret and we saw springbok and if seeing camels at a petrol station counts then we saw the wildlife! It looked like almost touch and go for Andrew and Erin coming down with the sniffles and possibly flu so we decided to cut our losses and leave the fish to someone else. We packed up & found our electrical outlet and plug welded together (power surge?) oh crap! such are the challenges of moving house every other day of the week... LOL! I know Andrew will make a handyman-plan, that's just what he does. So the great pioneers that we are we crossed the mountain(s) into the Midlands and headed for Glengarry outside Mooiriver, as we heard a rumour there might be some warm sunshine and even fish there.

Andrew kiting

Ice Blue

Jhb to Sterkfontein Dam

bright-eyed & bushy-tailed

Tsonga meets a monkey

[Sarita]

It was quite a surprise to realise that we had already been in Kuruman for 12 days before we started getting itchy feet again; geez time flies swiftly there as one day flows so easily into another! We decided to make a dash for Joburg in one long haul…

Fallow deer - Kuruman

Oh my hat! The N14 is a hectic skinny long road with ‘stop & go’ road works most of the way, even forced to a detour that was surely fit for 4x4s, which took us down to Carletonville.  Needless to say with all the road works we started losing time and it became inevitable that we were going to arrive at the new site in the dark,… again! LOL

Driving Miss Peppa

Potholes of note!

The last hour of the journey was so hairy – potholes everywhere!  There we were in the dark with peak traffic pushing our asses – it’s been a while since we drove these roads so we put our trust in ‘Garmin’ and the stupid bitch led us onto some old back road!

Eventually we pulled in to Hennops Pride and cold does not describe the air blowing right through my body to every internal organ and ultimately freezing my bones. That was nothing compared with what was to come! Rain, Wind, Hail !!!

at Hennops

The cool thing about arriving at camp sites in the dark is the next morning you are presented with so much more than you expected, especially if you’ve chosen a shitty spot & you gotta move! Seriously though it does have a certain charm to it camping out right on the river’s edge and fishing, although not catching anything. Hanging out at Hennops for a couple of days gave us the opportunity to meet up with some family members and see our very dear friends and make some new friends. A fabulous time was had which went well with a bottle of ‘chocolate russians’.

First drink 1/3 of a bottle of good quality vodka, then chop up at least 400g of Diary Milk chocolate and put into bottle as best you can without eating the chocolate. You should then put the bottle near the fire to melt the concoction to a thick silky smooth yummy nectar and drink with friends.  Soon you will develop a Russian accent!

the view at hennops

Seeing our dearest friends Colin & Avril, as always was brilliant –' we love you guys, stay strong and we believe in you our friends'.  Erin looks so awesome with her shorter haircut, thanks Av! Erin got so excited at seeing such a hectic hail storm, it was a joy to see her enthusiasm.  We haven’t seen so much hail in ages, ‘not something you see around Cape Town bro’.

Erika, Sarita, Erin & Andrew

Thank you so much Erika for the opportunity to clean up and sleep in a bed (in a house) for a couple of nights and even catch up on some washing ... priceless!

We decided to start heading south and marked our 1^st stop for Sterkfontein Dam and will give Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Kruger Park a proper chance next year.  As it turned out today was a super day, everything just fell into place and went smoothly. 

Even the cats are getting the hang of it and settling down quickly for the drive.  I’m so amazed at how well they have adapted to this change in their lifestyle. So after sleeping for the better part of 5 years they have awoken and developed a personality. Amazing! 

Sterkfontein Dam

Snow-covered Mountains Harrismith

So we’ll hang out here with the

dam and the snow-covered

mountains in the distance

for company.

It shouldn’t be that difficult even though it feels below zero – it probably is!!! The view is pretty wow and this will be our spot for a bit, or at least until Sunday.

From Kuruman to Jhb

(Andrew) So, its been a while since we have put anything on... we left Kuruman in the morning and headed to Joburg... Should have stoppped at Barberspan Dam as we think about it afterwards. The drive was a little too long for the day; we dont allow for errors much (who does?) There was a detour off the N14 before Krugersdorp which took us to the outskirts of Carletonville, then looped back to N14. I took a wrong turn in Krugersdorp and we ended up going through the town - came up the back on R28/N14 to Pta. Damn Garmin jumped us off the highway about 20km before we needed to get off, so drove a real bumpy potholey road in the dark.... that was crap. Headed for Hennops Pride on R511. That road is the main road to Hartebeespoort but is worse than the dirt road to Bulshoekdam in Clanwilliam. Gauteng sucks.....! Arrived at Hennops Pride in the evening and set up. Wake up in the morning and found a better site, so proceeded to pack up again and move over to it.
We met up with friends and family all weekend, and we let our hair down (spelt pissed) for the first time since leaving CT. We let our hair so down that we forgot to take any photos...lol. Stayed for the weekend, and on Sunday we packed up and went to Erika's house, which she graciously offered so we could do washing and charging of batteries etc.
It has just finished hailing - Erin has never experienced hail, so there's another new experience for her. Way cool..

Red Sands

Deeper into the cave

the earth is round...

Entrance to Wonderwerk Cave

Rock Art - Wonderwerk Cave

Looking back to the entrance from half way

(Andrew) Its been a while... We have been at Red Sands outside Kuruman for a week now, it's really cool here..there are monkeys,buck & horses here among the campsites..staying until after the long weekend. Then we gotta hit the road for the way to Jhb... Not totally looking forward to it as we have been checking the weather reports & Jhb looks very cold compared to where we are & have been.
Its a bit windy here, the night before last blew so hard we had to wind our awning in.. theres loads of paper thorns here, so they have been getting everywhere..in the carpets, blankets, our feet and asses..lol. We went to have a look at the Moffatt Mission the other day(forgot the camera) - it was built around 1850 and is still there as a museum heritage site etc. David Livingstone stayed there for quite a while as well and married the minister's daughter... the church was hand made totally...the beams for the roof are rough-planed, the stones were taken from the surrounding ground & they dug a canal 5km long from The Kuruman Eye(20million litres of water a day from this Eye) to the mission. These were strong, tough people....
Yesterday we went to Wonderwerk Cave..45km south of Kuruman. This natural wonder has been lived in for 800 000years, there is archaealogical digs there with the string grid markers like you see on tv. It used to be a river pouring out of the hillside but the landscape changed and it is underground, possibly linked to Kuruman Eye.. Ancient tools and weapons have been found here.. you can see the surrounding countryside for miles around... the world is round, I saw it curve...lol.
Watched All Blacks cream the Wallabies on Saturday... they looking good for the world cup.

tough work ...

places you never heard of ...

icy Springbok awaiting the cat!

flowers starting ...

one of the massive weavers nests (?)

gives new meaning to 'playing in the traffic...'

this golf keeps following us?

us at a layby to Kuruman

augrabies - low season

hiding out in augrabies

Erin

best friends

Andrew & Erin - Augrabies Falls

Monkey at Red Sands

Sarita & Erin - Augrabies Falls

see ya later...