Our Travel Blog

Well the ()^^&%^% cough / cold seems to like me and has intensified, however it is more of an annoyance than anything else, my energy seems to be there which is just as well as we have been doing a fair bit of walking / hiking.

Today was another voyage of discovery, we headed out towards Pilgrims Rest but stopped to find a geocache on the way, we found the geocache and got two new converts in Robert and Mollie. We found two more geocaches through out the day, with Robert discovering one of them.

Pilgrims Rest was one of the first gold discoveries in S. Africa, in the last 100 years they have mined 500,000 ounces of gold. Many of the early gold mining towns were company old, but in Pilgrims Rest the miners owned their own properties. These properties remained pretty much as they had been 100 years ago and the local tourism authority have started to promote the town.

While we were there we watched one of the locals making beaded wire ornaments from small Christmas tree ornaments to 3ft tall giraffes. Mollie commissioned him to make key chains with her charities logo in it. Fifty key chains to be picked up in 48 hours for 6 Rand (50c Canadian) each!

General pictures of and within Pilgrims Rest are below.

Next stop was the Mac Mac falls, entrance here was the outrageous price of 50c Canadian! Pictures below.

A few Kms down the road were the Mac Mac pools, a series of small pools along the Mac Mac River where we went swimming and had lunch. (Un)fortunately no pictures of swimsuit clad tourists!

After lunch we took a circuitous route back to the resort over the Long Tom Pass up at 7100ft AMSL. Long Tom Pass got its name from the fact that it was the location of the last shell fired from the Long Tom Gun at the end of the 2^nd Boer War in 1902. For its time this was a large gun with a barrel of 7m and a range of 9kms.

Long Tom and some shots of the trip home follow.

For those wondering whereabouts we are, we are very close to the Kruger Game Park.

Today we headed out to see some of the local sites. As we left the resort we met a herd of zebra at the side of the road.

Before we left Robert was speaking to one of the neighbours about where we were heading, and he was given a short cut to save going all around the mountains. The road was in desperate need of maintenance, but we survived despite the cows refusing to move off one of the bridges. We also managed to see a troop of baboons off in the distance, but they were gone before I could get the camera out! Below are some views of the shortcut.

A quick plug for a volunteer organisation that Molly has started. I guess the name says it all?

Once back onto the paved road we headed for Bourke’s Luck Potholes, these potholes were a little different to the ones we had spent the last 30 minutes avoiding. They have been created over time by whirlpools in the water eating away at the rock. Again a few photos

Even found a Monkey

Next stop was the three Rondavals, a rock formation name for their resemblance to the round native thatched huts.

View Down the Gorge

Small Ant Hill

Lyn and Robert to add Scale Guess What Lyn Found?

Last stop was the Berlin Falls

On the way home we saw these remarkable acts of balance in one of the towns

Many thanks to Robert for driving and Molly for catering!!

This morning we were up at the crack of dawn, well 08:00 as we were heading off with Robert and Molly for 5 days at the Crystal Spring Resort, about 5 hours North East of Jo’burg. After an hour or so we stopped for breakfast, did I mention we liked the prices in this country, less than $18 Cdn including tip for a full breakfast for 4 people.

The scenery became more mountainous the further along we got. A coffee stop was required after a couple of hours where we finished up trying the delights of the local pastry shop. Thankfully calories work the opposite way in the Southern Hemisphere, the more you eat the more weight you shed!

We arrived at our destination at 16:00 just at the right time for check-in. We were greated in the parking lot by a group of monkeys, who unfortunately can present problems if they get into cars or accommodation as they love to trash them.

The resort is up in the mountains close to ………. nothing. There is a club-house, pool, small store and restaurant so we should be able to survive! The apartment was great with excellent views as well as a patio with a braai. The only thing missing is internet access. Actually it appears my phone has no access, Roberts does and as he has a 50Gb / month plan he has graciously let me use it as a hotspot.

The Apartment

The View

The Braai

Shortly we are off to the restaurant to celebrate our 41st Wedding Anniversary!

Well, after yesterdays partial recovery it seems a cough may want to come and bug me (pun intended!) Also the camera started to play up, I could take pictures and they would show up in the camera preview mode, but I could not download them. That’s still work in progress!

Last night as Robert was halfway through cooking on the braai we heard thunder in the distance, this slowly moved in until we had a full blown thunderstorm, luckily most of the food was prepared in time! Unfortunately the pictures of the braai and the storm are stuck on the camera.

Today we headed off to Pretoria, one of the 3 capitol areas of S. Africa.

Our first stop was the Voortrekker Monument (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voortrekker_Monument), as I’ve done before I’ll leave references for some of the sites we go to rather than write out all the history)

Robert and Lyn at the Memorial

Close up of the Memorial

The Memorial Commemorates the treck of the Afrikaans out of Cape Town after the British got upset with them, this led to the formation of the modern S. African nation. The Memorial was finished in 1949.

The Trekk is depicted in both stone carvings around the inside of the building and

Tapestry panels.

Looking at the Union Building from the Memorial

We headed down from the Memorial, through Pretoria to the Union Building. which is the administrative centre of government.

Centre Part of Union Building

Statue of Nelson Mandela

Voortrekker Memorial in the Distance

Union Buildings Gardens

Pretoria is famous for its jakaranda trees. we were lucky and caught them in bloom.

Tomorrow we are heading of to the wilds, rumour has it we will be without WiFi or cell phone coverage for a week. If I can post I will, if not I’ll try to put a single entry in when we get back.

This morning at our outdoor breakfast we were greeted by a flowering cactus plant and a nearly completed “new” nest.

Robert and I headed off to the Military History Museum and the girls headed out to do a variety of “girlie” things (shopping????). The museum itself was interesting covering from the first Boer war to the Second World war with plenty of exhibits, including a large number of aeroplanes

One of my favourite aircraft, the Dakota

German ME262 Radar Plane, first jet in use in WWII

A field gun after the shell detonated and blew the barrel.

That’s it for now, it’s braai (BBQ) time. No South African (even Scottish implants) would ever consider using a gas powered BBQ!

This will be a short entry, hopefully it will serve as a marker and I will add more detail in a couple of days. Reason for this is…. I am either suffering from being too long in the dry atmosphere of the planes, picked up some sort of bug or have become victim of South African allergies. That combined with  being pretty busy during the day and socialising at night leaves little time to write. That should change when we get settled down next week.

Items for this blog entry will be the progress of the weaver bird in building a new nest, our visit to the Cradle of Humankind, where the first humans evolved, a trip underground to where the remains of these first humans were found and a meal at a Pub where the owner has a Rover 3500 car.

As usual, if you don’t appreciate the misspellings, poor punctuation, poor grammar etc you can always stop reading.

OK, one day later and feeling a little better with a bit of time to spare. Normally when we travel there is just the two of us, so finding time to write the blog is not a problem, but when staying with family we are on the go a lot more.

Just to set the picture we are staying with Lyn’s brother and wife (Robert and Mollie) in Henley on Klip about 50Km south of Jo’Burg. When we arrived one of the first things we noticed were nests hanging in the trees. These nests were made by a weaver bird, the picture below shows a completed nest, and it should show why the bird gets its name.

The bird builds the nest to attract a mate, should no mate approve of the nest it will be destroyed by the builder and he will start again

Above is the start of a new nest and below is the new nest about 8 hours later.
This morning we headed about 90kms north(ish) to Maropeng which roughly translates to Where it all Began and the exhibition at the Cradle of Humankind (http://www.thecradleofhumankind.net).

This is the area where the remains of the first human type species were found. Being a total failure at Latin 90% of the words in meant nothing to me. I did get that the previously thought oldest human remains found in Ethiopia were named Lucy because Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was on the radio when they discovered her. Also the oldest remains were named Mrs. Ples, but later on they proved she was an adolescent male!

Despite my comments above, the trip was interesting and the exhibition was well laid out. As we were seniors, for the outrageous price of $6 each plus free parking we also got free access to the Sterkfontein Caves. This is the underground cave system where the remains were found. The trip through the caves gave us plenty of exercise. Unlike many cave structures where the stalactites and stalagmites had been well preserved from discovery these caves had been used by miners to recover limestone required for the extraction of gold in the early 20th century. Guess what is made of limestone?

Above is one of the few remaining pillars, where the stalagmite and stalactite meet.

Above shows where the limestone has been broken off. Some of these stalagmites and stalactites were over 10ft across. Again a well laid out and interesting tour.

In the evening we were taken out for a meal at the local pub, good food at an excellent price. The owner drove up to his pub in an old Rover 3.5, a British car from the late 60’s.

After visiting with our friend Barbara she drove us to T5 and we settled into the lounge for a snack and a drink prior to boarding the “Whale” aka the Airbus 380. The passenger load for the flight was just under 500 so it was bit of a zoo with the boarding so everyone was “entitled” to board first. We were on the upper deck and as it turns out despite the size of the aircraft we were in a small sub cabin of 25 seats.

The aircraft was remarkably quiet, and comfortable enough for an 11 hour flight. The food and service were pretty good, but nowhere near the levels we got from the Chinese airline we flew last year.

We landed in a warm Jo’bur on schedule at 07:10. We were out of customs with our suitcases in about 20 minutes, not too shabby. We were met by Lyn’s brother who drove us about 40 kms south to the village of Henley-on-Klip.

After a quick snooze and shower we headed out to get some of life’s essentials, wine, beer, S. African to N. American electric connector and Data SIM card.

The temperature climbed to 32C, but there was little humidity, we then spent a pleasant afternoon drinking some of life’s essentials and catching up on life since we last met.

Jet lag now calls, but hopefully a more interesting blog will appear tomorrow.

Well my first problem was remembering how to log in and write a blog entry, I think I have that sorted now. Last night we left Ottawa on the overnight flight to London, England. We were all set to arrive about an hour early, but those evil Air Traffic |Controllers at Heathrow made us go around the holding pattern for about 45 minutes!

Luckily we were able to check our baggage right through to Jo’burg, so we don’t have to lug it around Heathrow for 9 hours.

After landing we headed to the arrivals lounge where showers were available, always a good way to feel better after a night flight. We are now wasting a little time before heading off to meet a friend for a couple of hours before heading back to the airport for our next flight.