xmas day

We arrived at Ian & Jess's house on xmas eve to a very excited and bustling household. Fortunately the cats settled down nicely considering we were parked on the big grassy sidewalk outside their house, those cats are truly amazing! We were a little worried they would wonder into someone's garden, pulled by the memory of the good ol' days of a house in the suburbs with a bed in the sun...

The first thing Erin did was jump in the pool and that was the last we saw of her until xmas morning! It was so freakin' hot that the beers went down steadily and the next thing I knew the festivities had begun, way cool.

We were woken at the crack of dawn by the children with a cup of suspect 'tea or coffee' ...(I couldn't tell LOL ha ha) - but we were so finished from the previous late night, so an hour later & 2 cups of kick-ass coffee down the hatch and we were almost ready.


We had a fun morning watching the kids (and Ian) enjoying all the presents, it was brilliant. It was lovely exchanging gifts and we were loving the joy being spread around with all the laughter and joking around.

The way society is 'evolving' and big business is milking every known holiday to the advantage of making money, and Christmas being the biggest of the year, I think the significance of xmas is lost on most of today's kids, which is sad because it is really about giving a part of yourself, your time and most of all your love. I know we all give in different ways, our hearts, in gifts, donations, favours, to the poor or whatever suits our nature at the time of giving but ultimately it is to give with unconditional love and 'without' expectation. The happiness of this festive time has quickly changed to the happiness of 'getting lots' of gifts. Come on parents, lets go through a xmas without a 'gift list' and so many gifts... ja right says dad! LOL

Oh man we had some stunning laughs throughout the day!

Of course, we had a beautiful lunch which we ended up having for dinner... after a couple of rounds of shooters (that bottle didn't last long heh guys!?). It was well worth the wait though, Jess and I cooked a wonderful feast! We had such a blast swimming and lounging round the pool the whole day, that I totally forgot to take pictures and these are just a few that were snapped. They really don't do justice to the really cool day we had.

Needless to say by 8 o'clock we were pretty worn out and already one casualty down for the night - even the kids voluntarily went to sleep! Oh my hat, by the time Andrew and I tidied up and finished showering were like walking zombies to our van.











By the next day we were already getting itchy feet and were ready to hit the road, although we knew it was not going to be an easy one ahead of us... 30kms of harsh dirt road awaited us and no electricity for 4 nights! So Andrew instead played Wii golf with Ian all day, he insists it was only one game however 18 holes goes a freaking long way especially only after practice... LOL

Ian and Jess thank you for your genuine hospitality and the continued use of your washing machine, you guys are fabulous!

Bulshoek Dam... again

So we decided to take the back road to Clanwilliam, a very slow journey to say the least but then again that's the whole point!
There were times we couldn't even see the golf trailing behind us, there was so much dust.




Along the way we came across an oasis with a waterfall coming straight out the rock...




From the road we travelled we were able to get the full view of Clanwilliam Dam, it's a lot bigger than one would expect and we travelled (very slowly ... on a dirt road) along it's length.

Clanwilliam Dam

 

We arrived to a very hot and empty campsite, awesome! We settled right on the waterfront under the trees, and felt right at home. Shortly after that people started filtering in and the place filled up at a steady rate and getting rather full towards xmas. We set up tent and all the odds and ends that make up home and of course had a lekker braai...

It was amazing weather, some days were a little breezy but with the heat it was a relief as opposed to a bother.




On our 1st day there we caught 5 fish between 2-3.5kgs, it was so exciting! Erin got the big one that day of 3.5kgs and Andrew ended up getting a 4kg about a week later.

the 1st of many...

 

all bright eyed with adrenalin

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in the middle of the night... sleepy eyes

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they just kept on biting...

 

... and biting

Every single fish that we caught was safely released back into the river.

This friendly herd wandered through the campsites and grazed across the river, so often we were entertained by their antics and the sounds of them lowing to each other - it was quite a hoot!

We really had a lot of fun in the 2 weeks we spent there and had so many laughs.

such a good sport ,,, LOL

Erin passed Grade 5 with an 82% total average! Oh wow, we are so incredibly proud of her and if I had any dwindling doubts about home-schooling, well they are so a thing of the past - so bring on Grade 6! She is walking around like a Cheshire cat who just caught the canary - fantastically well done Erin.

Erin made a friend while we were camped at Bulshoek, which was really cool as it gave us plenty of time off. In fact we explored the river with a little blowup boat and we met some very interesting people, so with all the fishing, swimming and beautiful weather we got rather tanned.

We found a rope-swing hanging from the oak tree up river and Andrew had some fun swinging into the river. It was so fantastic playing in the water like little kids, floating down the river though a channel through the reed beds to our campsite. Erin even learnt to ride a long board standing up with a paddle, she called it 'subbing', and I called it 'standing on a surf-board while paddling'.

cool-cat

The cats absolutely loved this site and Peppa adopted this fishing boat as her chill out spot! She even abandoned her water bowl for lapping it up fresh from the banks of the river.

Peppa & Tsonga friends at last!

Unfortunately it was time to leave as we had made a commitment elsewhere for xmas. The place was buzzing the day before xmas when we left with the last of campers pulling in, I think we're going to miss this place.

I reckon we'll come back soon, and hopefully spend a bit of quality time - it's a great place to spend some time fishing and getting through school.

On the road again back to the city didn't much appeal to us, but heh it's xmas - a time of merriment and days filled with love, laughter and plenty of good food... also summer decided to drop by Cape Town. LOL

Cederberg Mountains

Finally our time in Cape Town had come to an end, with a lot of last minute rushing around and eventually the mountain saw the back end of us trailing up the N7 on 1st Dec.

We were glad to be on our way again even though it was only a skip away into the Cederberg, and as soon as we hit the mountain pass we lost all cellphone signal... what bliss! It was then I remembered my sis was going in for an operation, so Jo you were in our thoughts;-} As we were driving along we passed Algeria, LOL this was funny for us because when we lived in Cape Town we always wanted to spend a weekend in Algeria, but 'it was just too far off the beaten path'... now we were going further into the mountain!





It was rather cool that we could set up the hammock and dart board, and in all the time we were there we could only make use of them on 1 day - because of the wind!


Although the wildlife was pretty cool, plenty of birds, lizards, frogs and loads of spiders!

This was one of those places that looked more spacious in the brochure... but we made the best of it, which was easy as the place was relatively empty - so simply chilling and relaxing as hard as possible was on the agenda, well the wind didn't give us much choice.
So much for escaping the Cape Wind.

Eight days later we made our way out the gates taking the scenic route to Clanwilliam. This meant a long and slow trek through the mountains on a little dirt road, and we were rewarded with such incredible beauty. It seemed as if we were the only people on earth.

Exams are Over!

Finally Erin's exams are over and all the studying and stressing has come to an end!

I'm fairly sure she has done well and given her best.

Well done Erin and let's keep up the hard work for Grade 6 next year!