After a couple of quiet days at Gecko Creek, I was off to Cape Town today (Saturday) for Rhino and Katja’s housewarming party. It was a beautiful morning. The sun was shining and the sky was blue. Although I had planned to set out early to get to Cape Town and do some shopping, it […]

It’s Wednesday and I am off to spend the day at the “Fee paying school”. It is called “Augsburg Landbougimnasium”. It is a Grade 1 – 12 school with a huge catchment area. There are approximately 550 students here with 150 or so staying in dormitories. The school is specifically geared to agriculture and part […]

After my amazing day at the school I headed home to Gecko Creek. Because the bridge is still flooded out, I headed out of town on the old, mountain road. Just beyond the town there was a cut-off to the left with a road sign indicating it went into the Cederberg. I remembered that Ingrid […]

Today (Tuesday) is a day I have looked forward to with much anticipation. Today I visited the first of several schools in the area. Sederberg Primer is a very large school within the town of Clanwilliam. It is what we would refer to as an elementary school, teaching Grades 1 – 9 and it is […]

Monday was an absolutely spectacular day. The sun was shining and it was mid-20’s. Perfect T-shirt weather. After the last several days of rain the river is running very high with the runoff from the higher altitudes. Sampson, Linton’s hired man, was coming home from the city and phoned for someone to come and pick […]

Saturday gave me a taste of real winter weather here in South Africa. The rain lashed down accompanied by wild winds that bent over even the mature trees. It was wet and it was cold. In fact, if it had been snowing it would have been exactly like a Huron County snow squall. South Africans […]

Friends of Ingrid’s have arrived at Gecko Creek to spend the weekend with us, as has John’s girlfrend Monica who lives in Cape Town. Such warm and wonderful people and such fun! After a lovely afternoon getting acquainted in the lappa, the men began to prepare supper. (Yes! That’s right ladies. We are insanely spoiled […]

On Friday morning, Ingrid and I again ventured over the mountains, through Uitkykpas and beyond to the amazing Cederberg Winery. The ingenuity of these people to think to start a winery high in the mountains in the middle of nowhere astounds me. I cannot convey to you strongly enough how remote it is here. I […]

Thursday morning, Ingrid and I set out to explore the spectacular mountain road into the Cederberg. This gravel road is an experience to say the least! (Lenore you will remember it.) The road is extremely narrow and the recent rains have left it rutted and corrugated, although Ingrid said it was in not too bad […]

Ingrid has just pointed out to me that I did the rand conversion the wrong way round when I was talking about the cost of hospitalization here. If that detail interests you, please feel free to go back and re-read the Clanwilliam Hospital post.

Sorry folks.

Well, I did it! I climbed Leopard Rock! And as high as I may have been on top of that rock formation, my spirits were soaring so much higher because of all that that symbolized for me. Wednesday dawned a beautiful sunny day. I awoke at 7:00 and set out on my morning walk. I […]

After my great afternoon at the Clanwilliam Hospital I spent an hour or so in “downtown” Clanwilliam. I parked at one end of the town and wandered along the storefronts enjoying the sights, people watching for a little while, and even doing a little bit of shopping. The experience would not have been complete without […]

Tuesday dawned cold but clearing. No rain but still overcast. There is a tour group in the camp today so Ingrid led us all on a guided tour to Elephant Rock this morning, complete with her running commentary on the native plant life. It was a very interesting group of people, some from Sweden and […]

Today was another cold, rainy day so it was a perfect opportunity to go into town and do some errands. After a lazy morning of reading my book, Ingrid and I loaded up the cars and headed off. We took two vehicles as we both had different things that we wanted to do and then […]

Did I tell you all it is winter here? Well … it’s winter here! Yesterday (Saturday) it was a beautiful day. Bright and sunny and very comfortable temperature-wise in just a T-shirt … until evening came. The temperature dropped drastically throughout the evening necessitating a fleece jacket done right up to the top. By the […]

About mid-afternoon I turned onto the road leading into the Cederberg and to Gecko Creek. As I stopped to open first one then the second gate on the drive into the Lodge, I stopped to drink in the landscape. Still not what you would call “beautiful” in the traditional sense of the word, I was […]

I arrived in Cape Town late on Friday night. Our delay in Amsterdam meant that we did not get into CT until after 11:00 p.m. We were the last flight in and they wanted to close the airport so they rushed us through customs which was just fine by me. Much as I love Cape […]

Remember me saying how everything was going along smoothly with no unforeseen delays? Well … not quite. Here I sit at Schiphol (Amsterdam) waiting for them to bring us a new plane as the one we were expecting was hit by lightening. The good news is a) they are bringing us a new plane (I […]

Ah! Is there anything like an airport? The anxiety of unanticipated delays, the lineups at the check-in counters, the multi-national staff that you have to strain to understand, then … finally … the departure lounge. Everything has been right on schedule today with a good trip through to the airport, no delays or problems, which […]

Can it be? Only one more sleep until departure day finally arrives. But will I sleep? Now there’s a question. After six months of anticipation I am almost afraid to go. Afraid that the actual trip cannot possibly live up to the build up. Can it be as good as the last trip? Will it […]