Wednesday, 19 May 2010
Wednesday, 05 May 2010
Cape to Kruger
Things have finally settled down once again for our little family after our successful trip to Cape Town and the Kruger National Park. Our visit to the Cape could not have gone better. After all the visitors came and left Johannesburg, it was wonderful seeing everyone again in Cape Town. Our jam-packed holiday began on Wednesday, by surprising my mom at work and, later that day, surprising Tim’s folks and brother and sisiter-in-law at Uncle Drew’s house in Pinelands. Thursday we visited Ian and his mom, Di, and enjoyed catching up with them over a cup of tea. For lunch, we went to Candice’s new home, where friends of ours from Jhb joined us. We spent the rest of the day there, where other friends came and went throughout the day to see us. We enjoyed a delicious braai and conversation with those who stuck around to spend more time with us. Friday we spent with my family at my Aunt Jacky’s house. It was a full house with the cousins, aunts and uncles all trying to get their five minutes with the twins. That evening we celebrated Tim’s cousin’s birthday, where there were even more family members who had yet to meet the twins. Saturday, Tim and I prepared for Nicole and Jason’s wedding. To their delight, my folks babysat the twins while we were out partying, although it didn’t last too long. We were exhausted by 10pm and left shortly thereafter. The wedding was stunning and the bride looked beautiful!
Sunday was the day of the twin’s Christening. The weather was absolutely stunning! Tim and I were so proud to have all our closest friends and family members support us on such a special occasion. We too, are so proud of the Godparents, who stood by us and made promises with us. Thank you so much, guys! And a special thanks to all who traveled from afar to be with us and also to those who could not be with us, but held us in their prayers. We felt all the prayers and blessings! Sadly, that was the end of our visit to Cape Town, as we were on a 7:30pm flight back to Jhb. Tim and I always marvel at how easy it is settling back into our old routine in Cape Town. Seeing everyone makes us miss home even more.
We finally left for our highly anticipated holiday to the Kruger Park with Paul and Catherine Smit on Friday, 23rd April. The twins slept most of the way to the hotel where we spent the first night, which was an absolute blessing. The weather was a bit miserable but bearable. We left early Saturday morning for the Park. Once through the gates, my nerves were slightly on edge, knowing that we were entering wild animal territory! As we made our way to Satara, we spotted zebra, elephant and impala. We also saw such beautiful bird life, like nothing I’ve ever seen before! We were nearing Skukuza, when we made a brief stop at a watering hole, as Paul had spotted a hippo. I was driving at this point and as I was watching the hippo, I saw an unusual looking stork. It had the brightest beak I had ever seen! I took a picture of it but it was hiding in some tall reeds, so the shot I managed to get was just of its head. It turned out that the bird I spotted is a very rare bird. There are less than 100 in South Africa! It’s called a Saddle-billed stork. Tim mentioned, in passing that whoever spotted a saddle-billed stork would win an all-expense paid holiday. Before I even knew what a saddle-billed stork was, Tim showed me the competition pamphlet and on the front was a picture of this very bird that I spotted! Now, Tim did not know that I had spotted this bird because at the time he was sitting in the back of the car with the twins. Excitedly, I whipped out my camera and showed Tim the picture. Unfortunately, there were several stipulations that the competition had, like taking profile pictures of each side of the bird’s head, a full body shot etc. and all I got was a picture of the bird’s head peeping out from the reeds. Anyway, all I got out of it was a sore neck in my effort to spot wild life!
Each evening we braaied for supper and were visited by brazen bats. I am NOT a bat fan!!! Our second evening was spent at Skukuza, which was by far, my favourite campsite. It is situated next to the Sabie River, where there lived a large family of hippo. That evening as we braaied, a lone hippo decided to clean his teeth opposite our chalet! It was quite a sight and quite a noise! Our final evening was spent at Lower Sabie, which is also situated next to the Sabie River. Our accommodation left much to be desired but we were not hosting dinner that night anyway, so it worked out all right. We had a braai, once again, with the Smits at their chalet. It was a lovely evening, spent talking nonsense and eating great food! We were up early the next morning, wanting to make a head start on the traffic that we knew we would encounter. And wouldn’t you know, it turned out to be the best morning to spot wildlife! As we were leaving, we came upon a lion, walking on his own.
He was magnificent! It was very humbling being in the presence of such a large cat! We managed to see hyena, which we had not yet seen, and another elephant walking in the road. Three hours later, we were on the N4 driving out of the park, on our way home. After a wet and busy drive we arrived home around three o’clock and unpacked immediately. As wonderful as our holiday was, it was great to be back home!
As always, you are all close in our thoughts and we wish we could share so much more with you all. We miss and love you! Be blessed!
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