We trek on and on and....

30/11/2015

Back to Onrus campsite near Hermanus. We looked and we looked and we tried so hard to find a spot in neighboring Stanford Village again. It ticked all the boxes and we got excited about living "the village life" but just could not find a house. We became familiar with the area and folk there, but to no avail. 

Onrus campsite suited us and we smiled and put up with the ' Matric rage' parties ( our children never behaved like that) and enjoyed the proximity to the sea. 

4/12/2015

En route to spend a month flat sit in Cape Town, we stopped off at ex Richards Bay folk in Somerset West - the van Tonders. In one weekend they convincingly showed us how accessible all sorts of "fun" is from them and we left, more or less set in our hearts that we were coming back after Christmas to find a house and settle in Somerset West.

 

Two nights with Megan in her flat in Sea Point gave us a good feel of that end of the city.

Busy, vibey, cosmopolitan. Fun! But not for us.

11/12/2015

We moved into the flat in Claremont, CT and our job was to catsit two hairless cats! Needless to say by the end of the month we were quite fond of them and sorry to say goodbye.

They loved Rod!

 Cape Town is a one - of - a - kind city and we made good use of all that was on offer. Great to have the family in and out as well. It was also a good opportunity to realize that we are definitely not city people.

Never too old to swing and play!

 We met up with old friends - both visitors to the city and genuine locals from Claremont to Tokai to Hout Bay and back. Lots of looking at properties for both ourselves and Meg and Heath - we all seemed to be needing a spot at the same time.

Cape Town Company Gardens.

High Tea at the Mt Nelson. ( Girls only. )

The boys ( Heath and Rod) got to watch the Sevens rugby at the Stadium and meet up again with Rod's nephew, Liam Middleton, who is the Canadian coach for the Sevens. Festive times!

Christmas Eve was shared with Ian's  large jolly family - very festive. Christmas Day was just a Beckett affair plus Ian.....

....and the cats!

We did it in style by having a picnic in one of Cape Town's many green spaces.

Our planned and much looked forward to New Year's Orange river canoe trip with the family and other good folk was cancelled on Christmas Eve due to the continuing water crisis. Much disappointment but our faithful Langebaan friends, the Moffetts, came to the rescue and we joined them for New Year.

Jessica, Liesel, Sinjon, Julia, Heath, Megan, Struan.

Dave, Rod, Necia, Wendy, Wendy's Dad, Wendy's Mum.

Julia, Heath and Megs. 

11/01/2016 - we have now travelled 22,897kms since the start of our trek

Our cat sitting came to an end as their owners returned from holiday and so after a month of modcons we  packed up and moved to Mountain Breezes Caravan Park on the road between Somerset West and Stellenbosch. The search was now resumed in earnest to find a spot that " speaks" to us. March is around the corner and with that comes the start of the rains - won't be much fun in a rooftop tent!

Our home in the forest for a month.

We were so sure Somerset West was going to be it and we looked at house after house.

Somerset - Stellenbosch- Paarl - Stanford - Wellington - Durbanville -Uitzicht - Edgemead - Klapmuts- you name it.

 A loooong story short - we knew the Western Cape very well by now and were just not finding anything within the parameters that we had set. Distance from CT being the main criteria. 

Fun times were had too, exploring wine farms and markets and galleries and imbibing the Cape culture with friends, family and on our own.

So hot! And we thought we could take the heat. 

We realized we were almost being called "permanents" in the caravan park and had become part of the community - resenting invasions by weekend campers - we were nowhere near making a decision, tensions were running high and so we decided to roll again. 

14/02/2016

After another weekend with our good friends, the van Tonders, who implored us not to look too much further away, we left with the intention to go over Sir Lowry's Pass and have a look at Elgin as well.

A non - event, so we trundled on up the N2 and took a sho't left into Greyton. The thought was to spend a few days there and a few days in Stanford, and then make a decision! 

We stayed at the Ecolodge and got semi- involved in life there. Interesting people stopping by to volunteer, recuperate etc. Looked at a number of houses - "so much of choice" for us, at last. We were getting so close to making a decision. Then, a friendly agent from Stanford phoned - a house made for us. We went through for the day - offer put in within 12 hours! Now fate would decide - Greyton or Stanford.

 Greyton won!

 Offer signed and accepted on 19/02/2016.

We are so chuffed and cannot wait to move in and become part of the lifestyle and community. 

Check out www.xplorio.com/greyton for a look at our new village. Occupation date is set for 1 May.

You are all welcome anytime!

So, what to do until then?

22/02/2016

We pulled in to Kerrin and Shaun Marshall in Somerset West and Rod is now " project managing" the completion of their new house for 10 days. I am lady of leisure still and dreaming of Greyton.

It will be a year at Feb end since we closed our business, and he says it is quite strange but good to be getting up early and going off to site, "scoff box" in hand! 

4/03/2016

We will be road tripping up to the Midlands for a wedding and to see family, then to the Bay and back again after Easter. 

Our trekking days are almost over, for now, and we look forward to gathering a bit of moss again. 

The search begins!

19/9/2015

We woke up to another cool drizzly day in Hlane and decided it was time to move. We knew that Heath was in Hluhluwe game reserve doing the last of his research stints and we wanted to see him again.

First stop was at the Wimpy in Mkuze for breakfast! It felt so good, and easy, to be back in SA - I mean, one turns on a tap, and firstly, the water comes out, and secondly, it is clean and drinkable.

We bypassed the reserve and "snuck" into Richards Bay Caravan Park and set up camp in the pouring rain. We then took a drive to find somewhere to try and watch the Boks play Japan (haha!) and Cheryl spotted us and promptly did a U-turn and told us to go straight home and watch with her and Mike!

Very quickly we were back in the swing of Richards Bay life and it was a necessary period to get repairs done by people we knew, and catch up on unfinished business.

Josh and Abbi

The Liebenbergs came to braai with us in the park.

Necia and Shelly "catching up"

Our daily visitor - the Natal Robin!

The next part of our adventure is to find somewhere to relocate to. So we started to make our way south.

1/10/2015

A two night stay with Necia's brother and s-i-law in Cramond. Lots of reminiscing about Zim. When will we see these good folk again?

3/10/2015

A check in on the Camerons and Rod's sister, Bev, in Howick. So good to see folk that are pleased to see you.

5/10/2015

Unexpected detour to Leisure Bay to spend time with Andrew Marx and Sonja and the children at their beach cottage.

Now our dilemma started - why not just stop off at the South Coast and not go any further?

We soon discovered that this was to be our mantra all the way down the coast. Time and again we have seen how beautiful is this country of ours and it is proving difficult to choose a spot. 

Sunset taken from the car on the drive to Grahamstown.

7/10/2015

Makana campsite in Grahamstown. We immersed ourselves in academia and things historical .

Traveling on, we stopped at "JBay" for breakfast to see why Pat and Fred Beechey go all dreamy eyed when they talk about their retirement spot. It was "soo cooool, man", we could have stopped right there and become permanent beach bums!

Beautiful clean J Bay.

9/10/2015

We explored Storms River area from Tsitsikamma campsite and experienced gale force winds; paddled up the gorge on canoes and lilos; hiked and drank in the beauty of the Garden Route. 

Boardwalk to the Big Tree.

"The big tree" - behind him!

The campsite at Tsitsikama.

We paddled kayaks and floated on lilos up and down the gorge. Did some hectic cliff jumps too!

The boardwalks/ swing bridges were not Rod's favorites.

Could get creative with this lot?

How did they hang all these walkways?!

Start of the Otter trail - we hiked to the waterfall.

11/10/2015

Woodbourne campsite in Knysna. Just for a looksee. Very pretty , quaint, quirky and upmarket too but for us, nice to visit but not to stay.

Taken from The Knysna Heads.

Roderick is tired of doing "Circles in the Forest" !

So beautiful but no sign of the elusive ellies.

13/10/2015

That is, until Necia's College friend ( about 35 years of contact!) invited us to their dairy farm at Rheenendal! Oh my, we had such a good time on the farm with Ali, Hub, Rory and the dogs and were able to explore the area, relook at Knysna and surrounds, and fall in love with Sedgefield. We were able to visit our Malawian friends there, Gail and Douglas; and Delyse and Gerhardt treated us too. All good folk to get insight from and pros and cons to living in the area.

17/10/2015

We left the farm, almost confident that this was it and Sedgefield "ticked all the boxes" bar one - its proximity to/distance from Cape Town. We had other places to see but really felt that we would be back. Mosselbay Caravan Park for the next stretch was interesting but never an option. We enjoyed the beach, old buildings and the hikes, and learnt what it sounds like to be camped at the base of a lighthouse in foggy weather with the foghorn blaring relentlessly.

Visited Cango caves from Mossel Bay and sampled a Karoo wine farm on the same day.

21/10/2015

A quick look at Swellendam but we were soon put off by a coffee shop owner who told us we would never be able to start a business there - way over subscribed! We camped at De Bos at Montagu and were able to check out the area as well as surrounding towns. Montagu came close to being chosen and still might be. MacGregor was good for sampling grappa and Robertson didn't get the nod.

Beautiful Montagu - we could not get enough of the mountains and the flowers.

24/10/2015

And on we went to our good ex-RBay friends, Wendy and Dave, recently relocated to Langebaan, and luxury! It was so good to see them and be back in a bed again. We did a lot of searching and looking along the whole of the West Coast . It is pretty bleak and there are no trees as such, but it does have a beauty of its own and creeps into your soul. Velddrif, Jacobsbaai, St Helena, Darling, Yserfontein - we did them all. We found houses to buy, and running and squash clubs to join and started ticking the boxes. Yes -  Langebaan it is.....until we went inland to Riebeeck Kasteel!

The highlight of our stay there was being able to have our family under one roof again, thanks to Dave and Wendy.

Who is the biggest now?!

Sunday hike in Saldanha national park.

Julia, Heath, Rod, Necia, Megan and Ian.

Beautiful clouds.

Daughter and Mum. Love that girl so much!

10/11/2015

We had said we would still look at Hermanus, so off we went. A big surprise - no longer the little village we thought it was but a major tourist destination. We camped at Onrus and got to know and like the area. The 'champagne  air' is a huge attraction. Pringle Bay featured high on our list but Riebeeck Kasteel was still leading. Stanford necessitated a second drive out there - a time warp but a good feeling.

Betty's Bay in the background, from penguin colony.

 Baby blues starting to moult.

Betty's Bay Harold Porter Botanical gardens.

We breakfasted and whiled a way a good few hours there.

Rod particularly liked this. 

17/11/2015

We reach a point and then just know, that it is time to move again. Now camped at Chapman's Peak Caravan Farm in Noordhoek, and we love it. So far we have explored the Cape Peninsular , and have found the traffic quite a thing to get used to which involves careful planning. We are doing all the sights and walks and everything that makes CT one of the world's top destinations but we are not city folk and will leave here on Monday 30 November. The search is still on!

Cape Point

What an amazing coastline this is.

Shew!

This has been a long one.

Yes,to all of you who are wondering, we are still holidaying/ traveling/exploring/ enjoying ourselves but we do realize that sometime we have to find a place to settle and put down a few roots again. Until such time a place "speaks" to us, we keep on rolling!