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Made it down to Johannesburg for the second time this week, and drove through the little town of Bethlehem on Christmas Eve! Continued on about 20km to Chris' brother's house in the picturesque Clarens. Paul, his wife Elaine, and their three children made my parents and I feel instantly welcome, and the mood felt surprisingly Christmassy for a hot country. By 7 am on Christmas Day, the house was abound with presents and the children opened all of theirs in about 5 minutes flat! Chris was very happy that my parents had bought him a bottle of real ale from England, so despite my small token efforts, my presents couldn't really top that! we all had breakfast in the bright sunshine on the verandah of their lovely garden, then Chris' neice Victoria saddled up her horse, Fancy, for Chris to sit on. I say sit on, as there wasn't much riding going on - Fancy needs a little more time with a saddle I think, so I was very happy just to watch! Chris made one attempt to help with the Christmas dinner by trying to stuff the turkey with pineapple instead of pie apple, and thereafter secured his banishment from the kitchen! Elaine cooked a fantastic meal, and we had all the trimmings you'd expect, even some M&S goodies!
My parents drove to Kruger national park early on Boxing Day, and it was a bit of a task getting there with roadworks holding them up, but get there they did, and in the end it was well worth the effort. They saw lions along with all of the big game you'd expect, and loved the experience. Meanwhile, we explored some of the countryside nearby, determined to prove we could ride a horse, went with Victoria and Thomas to the Boksport hills and had our first experience of galloping - in the thunder and rain which was a little more than we'd bargained for! It certainly got the adrenalin going, but afterwards we were very excited about a hot bath and bed!
Helped out on the farm a little, feeding the very pregnant pig (and seeing the very cute and stripey babies on our return two weeks later), putting up fences and getting a feel for the amount of work involved in maintaining the place. Chris and Paul's Dad and his partner Sue made their way out to join us on Michael's 70th birthday, and we all had a big meal out in Clarens to celebrate. My parents made it back late that evening, tired but excited after their numerous sightings that made me very jealous!
The following day, one of Michael's birthday presents was to go white water rafting. I had been put off after Victoria Falls, but convinced my Dad that this would be a more tame experience. My Mum, Sue and I drove out to watch them all coming down, looking very wet and worried! Chris had his usual enthusiasm but everyone else just looked exhausted, and the biggest rapid was ahead of them. They actually had to get out of the raft and look at what faced them, analysing where to go to avoid the big rocks and shallow water for fear of getting stuck or injured. We were very glad to be spectating, and I enjoyed taking pictures! Gladly, there were no injuries, but a lot of tired people by the end of the day!
Visited the beautiful Golden Gate park near Clarens watching a lone wildebeest running around, and taking in the view of the immense Drakensburg mountains in the distance. Chris meanwhile, wanted more action in the water, so had a kayaking lesson in the same river they rafted down yesterday. He was shattered at the end of it, having had to master the eskimo roll in the swimming pool in the morning, then have a go at the real thing.
After a civilised and relaxing Christmas break on a farm near the small town of Clarens, south of Johannesburg, South Africa, we had recharged our batteries and were ready for more exploring. We hired a car and drove down some of the garden route, with a week's stop in Jeffreys Bay; one of the top surfing spots in the world. Chris hired a rather sorry looking surfboard, but loved every wave on the point, getting up before sunrise several days on the trot to be the first one in the water. We stayed at the Beach Cabanas; self catering places where we enjoyed cooking a sunday roast and numerous barbecues. We loved the place and ended up extending our stay partly to look at properties there, but in the end we wouldn't have had the time to follow-up on it, so dragged ourselves away, but not before visiting the scary surfing museum in town, seeing evidence of shark attacks nearby. Chris had had the company of a seal one morning, but apparently this is not peak shark season thank goodness!
Continued South for the last few days, visiting the picturesque towns of Storms River, Plettenberg Bay and Knysna. Drove inland to Oudsthoorn and spent the morning at an ostrich farm, learning all about them, feeling slightly guilty riding one, and finally somehow less so eating a big steak - delicious! It was an absolute pleasure to enjoy great food and wine and not spend a fortune. Had a long drive back to Clarens, so stopped off at Jeffreys Bay once more to break it up - and of course so Chris could surf again!
Our last stop on the continent was Namibia, and we flew to Windhoek and hired a car to see this vast and sparse country. It is over three times the size of England and has a population of under 2 million. There are probably millions more animals, but that doesn't compensate for the empty feeling of the place, especially in the non-busy off season we were there!
Our first stop was Sossusvlei, the famous and bright orange sand dunes in the Namib-Naukluft desert. The climate is so hot and dry it's hard to imagine it ever raining here, and there wasn't a cloud to be seen in the sky. We walked up dune 45, the highest in two-wheel driveable distance, which was hard work as the sand slid from underneath your feet with any pressure on it. A few ostriches survived out here and some stange bugs that seemed to hover across the sand at speed, but that was about it. We also visited the Sesriem Canyon nearby, with a dry bed at this time of year, but where flash floods have apparently claimed lives. We could see how as we scaled rocks to get inside (although there are steps we didn't see at first!). The red of the dunes on the horizon looked amazing in stark contrast to the white of the sandstone rocks here. Few trees stood bare along the way and we sought shade under one to enjoy our picnic lunch of the infamous apple crumble from Solitaire, the 'town' we were staying in with one lodge, cafe and petrol station which has been the setting for a few TV adverts as a typical middle-of-nowhere place apparently. The night sky here exposed the most phenomenal array of stars I have ever seen, it was beautiful.
From there we headed to one of the biggest towns in the country - Swakopmund - it was like a ghost town!! This is the adventure capital so we booked up a few things to keep us occupied...the sandboarding has unfortunately sandblasted my camera so I now need to try and fix it! But it was good fun despite being slower than on snow.
Visited another sleepy town of Brandberg where there are lovely mountains with ancient rock paintings, and gem mines. The icing on the cake for me though was our last stop in the North at Etosha national park, where I laid eyes on several lions for the first time. As if on cue, as we pulled up to the watering hole, the lioness walked across to take a drink, and was followed by a big male, six cubs, and two other females - quite a spectacular site. The cubs all played around and didn't take any notice of us thankfully! Sadly, I could only use a disposable camera to try and capture the sight, so I'm hoping I'll have a couple of decent photos, but you'll have to wait until we get back to see them!
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