29 Monday 2011 - Cape Town

Hi there all - please do not let anyone tell you that getting internet - wifi- or any connection is easy - we will be in Cape Town until the 05 September and will not be updating until we start our journey on the 06 September - be good - be in touch - we would love to hear from you
Chris and Sandi

At long last - have internet - please see update from 13 August to date below

August 13, & 14,  2011

Well 10 days ago I managed to get something down in writing and the reason for this is that I stupidly managed to leave my charger back in Malawi but thanks to Ed Halse, I now have it back and have managed to get myself back up and get going.

We had a brilliant stay with Charlie and Fran in Gaborone – just far to short. Only 2 nights – we saw Jemma for a day, which was lovely although she and her family were going through a very traumatic time with the sudden death of her stepfather – Martin.  On our way out of Botswana we stopped in to see Mumzi again far to short but we had to get to Johannesburg to hand in our Passport for the completion of our Visa’s.  Mumzi is looking fantastic and it was great to catch up with her and the Frazer’s  – it was truly lovely to catch up spent with family.

Our trip to Johannesburg was extremely uneventful – we stopped off in Zeerust to get some KFC (Chris’s all time favorite fast food) for lunch and then straight through to Wild Bill and Karen Bramley.  Rebecca (daughter) was there to meet us and had a wonderful hot dinner waiting for us.  Wild Bill and Karen arrived back after watching a dance show – it was lovely to catch up with them

August 15, 2011

Monday morning was a frantic rush to get the Carnet de Passage for the clearance of our car through all the countries, passport dropped off at Visapak and getting a set of new tyres placed on vehicle plus 2 spares with wheel alignment and balancing done.  Everything was done by lunch time – I have to comment on the weather we had hail (small but hail never the less) it was freezing freezing cold – the wind seemed to go straight through you, there was loads of snow on the Van Reenens Pass – exactly where we were supposed to be going the next morning and the road was closed – so decisions on which way to go had to come into play.  The afternoon and evening was spent at the Bramley’s.  Thank you so much Wild Bill, Karen and Rebecca for looking after us – its lovely to catch u with friends.

August 16, 2011

Tuesday morning – freezing cold with high winds, we made a decision to take the scenic route through to Muden – not paying toll road fees and seeing the snow on the mountains in Kwazulu Natal – a decision I wish we had never done – we travel through the Free State – absolutely nothing to see – flat, brown and bloody boring, through Reitz and Bethlehem, and then down towards Harrismith – down the Van Reenens Pass (it was open) to Ladysmith and then back on the old road through Colenso and Weenen towards Muden.  I must comment that this trip from Johannesburg to Muden should take no longer than 5 hours we did it in 9 hours – I was just about to loose my sense of humor.   When we eventually arrive, my frustrations flew out of the window on seeing and being with my wonderful sister (Lee) and her husband (Bolt).  We had a wonderful evening just the four of us – catching up with all the family news – sipping lovely red wine and eating a lovely roast lamb - mmmmm

August 17, 2011

Wednesday - A Lovely quite day spent with the family, Chris jacked up Volvo and sorted out a problem with leaking brake fluid from the back right hand tyre – he then potted around getting other smaller details fixed.  I spent the day mooching around with my sister.

August 18, 2011

Thursday – I was off to Pietermaritzburg to collect Emma and Josephine (Bolt & Lee’s younger daughters) from the Wykham Collegiate School – Perfect timing as they were on their long weekend break – which meant we could have time with them – The day seemed to pass by very hectically – with rushing from one place to the next and we still managed to have lunch with my brother Robert and his wife Michelle – really lovely to catch up and find out what has been going on in their lives and their children’s lives – when you do catch up like this you quickly realize just how fast time is going and just how bloody old we are getting – where does the time go and I am sure children are growing up quicker  these days – Are we really getting OLD????

August 19. 2011

Friday – a lovely day spent in the warm sunlight with family – what a treat

August 20, 2011

Saturday – Chris was up and out by 07h00 – Bolt had arranged with my cousin Douglas Fletcher a day of shooting  - now this sport is something Chris absolutely hates with a passion – so he did go shooting with his brother in law but he shot with his camera and was their driver – when asked to assist picking up a dead impala on the back of the truck – he even refused to do this – you shot it you do what you have to do with it – it was the look of shock and horror from Bolt about this strange predicament – how could someone not even assist to pick it up the dead buck???  We joined the men at lunch time – Aunty Tammy had arranged a wonderful lunchtime meal  - it was time to catch up with my mothers side of the family – can not describe how wonderful the whole day was and how magical it is to be with family – I know family can sometimes drive you mad but living in Malawi we just so appreciate everything about them and so love being with them.

August 21, 2011

Sunday – I hate saying goodbye to my sister and every time this happens the departure gets harder and harder – so it was farewells – with a few delays to get going – we were supposed to leave at 07h00 but eventually pulled out of the Muden Farm – with knives been sharpened, Pecan nuts packed for our trip and home made rusks any excuse to delay the farewell.

Chris made me repack our clothes, as we seemed to be carrying to much weight.  Its interesting to note that we have to diminish our clothes to a mere set of 4 days worth whilst the boot and all other nook and crannies of the vehicle has spare parts for the trip – I guess its okay to wear the same clothes but not so okay if we break down in the Sudan and do not have the parts to fix the car?  So lots of washing!!!! What have I let myself into?   We literally left behind 2 full suitcases of clothes.

With farewells done by 09h00 we departed for my mother, in Durban – no great shakes about the trip it was a mere 2 hours and we were in Durban.  My mother has just recently moved into a wonderful town house in the Rolling Hills Complex – we literally spent the rest of the day with Mother – catching up – lovely and just precious time.

  

August 22, 2011

Monday – a early start to get a few things done in Durban – Mother went in the direction of getting us a MTN starter pack mobile phone – you are unable to do this anymore for security reasons – so thank goodness my Mother knows the people and managed to get us a phone that we could use locally in SA.  We went off to get our Garmin sorted out – although we did manage to use it on our way down – the vehicle never was on the road but at least 500 meter’s off – anyway that took a while – back to Mothers for lunch and then off to Pennington to spend the night with Dad.

We spent a quite afternoon in Pennington with Dad – he had arranged for another cousin Brian Pickering and his Daughter plus his in laws to come and have dinner with us.  Dad and Chris managed to have a little bit of a party.

August 23, 2011

Tuesday -We were supposed to leave by 05h30 – but luckily for Chris (as he was nursing a bad hangover) we had somehow managed to gain a day – we were literally running a day early – so we did not have to drive through to Port Elizabeth – we decided to break the journey and go through to Kidd’s Beach in East London.  We eventually set off at 08h30.  The drive through to Kokstad was pretty through all the forest and up and down the hills of Natal – I took over the driving through the Transkei – the police (traffic) department through the Transkei is known to be extremely unpleasant and harsh on speeding – so slowly slowly does it – Extremely dull drive with nothing over exiting happening – I have just spoken about the police force – well there are a lot of road works the other side of Umtata towards East London with loads of “stop starts” we were parked behind a car waiting for the GO sign when the car in front of us was surrounded by police vehicle’s – a lot of shouting – big stones were put in front and behind of the tyres – guess they were going nowhere – and we were instructed with hand movements to pass them – well we have no idea what the poor car had done – or what the inhabitants had been up too – we were more than thrilled with the GO sign being visible and us getting the hell out of the place.

We arrived in Kidd’s Beach at about 16h00 and found ourselves a really friendly B & B – if you are ever in the region do yourselves a favor and go and Stay and The Breeze Inn you will be welcomed by Malcolm and Terry – fantastic hosts and we believe new friends. 

August 24, 2011

Wednesday – a early start with a lovely long walk on the beach front – the wind was pumping – pushing hard whilst walking into the wind and almost having to put on breaks whilst walking with the wind – the Eastern Cape the wind blows??? – A big farmhouse breakfast with lots of chatting to Malcolm and Terry and then off to Port Elizabeth to spend some time with my daughter Casey and her wonderful family.

The wind was unbelievable – the vehicle was moving and quite difficult to hold her on the road, then it started raining again the wind was blowing so bloody hard that it was unnecessary to put on the wipers and it merely washed of the windscreen – we arrived in Alexandria and then all hell break loose – we lost the exhaust silencer – the poor car sounded worse than a tractor – we literally could not hear ourselves talking – with a few calls to members of the Triumph Club Members – we managed to get exhaust fixed??? – Casey Met us in PE and Mr. Exhaust or some place similar – I have not seen my daughter for 3 years – so it was just magical to see her.  The Exhaust did not take that long to get fixed and then we went off to her lovely home.  We picked up Tamicah (5 Years) and then met Liam (9 months) yes a granny of two wonderful, beautiful grand children.  Pierre (Casey’s Husband) arrived home and the party began – we had invited Deon and Yvonne (Triumph Club members) to join us – a very long braai with loads of drinks and good music. I do not have to say much more.  Bed at 02h00???

August 25, 2011

Thursday - Pierre did not make it to work – it seemed he had eaten bad oysters that made him very sick (not a oyster in sight and certainly none were served for dinner) - we left him asleep whilst we had to do a few more shopping chores, we all had to have a little afternoon sleep – are you surprised.  We were woken up with a telephone call – which nearly had us having heart attacks??  Vispak the company that was doing our visa’s and therefore had our passports had handed them to a courier company – the courier vehicle was hi-jacked in Johannesburg and our passports stolen???  Bloody hell – no passports - no visa’s - no trip is what we were thinking – after many call to MDS Visapak a plan was set in place – all extra costs to be borne by MDS – we had to go to the Department of Home Affair in Port Elizabeth the next morning – delaying our trip to Cape Town by one day, loosing our time share etc. etc. etc.  A terribly frightening heart retching time.

August 26, 2011

Friday -A bright start after early to bed – we were at the Department of Home affairs by 09h00 – well well well – we nearly fell over backwards – we were treated properly, everyone was so helpful, we handed in the new applications for a emergency travel passport and a new passport.  Chris managed to get a emergency travel passport within 45 minutes mine however has a slightly different problem as I seemed to not have been registered in the system – so mine will be ready on Monday – Casey will collect it and MDS couriers will send it to me in Cape Town.

After all the bad thoughts of how long and what we were expecting to experience it all turned out so well.  We spent the rest of the day with the grandchildren and Casey.  Packing up to ensure that we could get an early start the next day.

August 27, 2011

Saturday – The alarm went off at 05h10 and up we jumped – a cup of coffee and tea with Pierre and Casey and off we went – Today was the prettiest drive we have had so far – the country side is green with rolling hills of winter wheat and fields and fields of bright yellow rape fields – everything looked clean as if it had been washed – beautiful sunny day with beautiful scenery.  We arrived in Cape Town and found our way to our time-share – Jemma arrived to spend the evening with us – just a perfect day and rounded off with our beautiful daughter.  We spent a quite night with Jemma.

Saturday 13 August 2011 - Gaborone

Thank goodness - we are not going anywhere - a day of relaxing and hopefully getting up strength to tackle the trip to Johannesburg tomorrow - will speak tomorrow - need to relax.

Friday 12 August 2011 - Bulawayo to Gabarone

A Dreadful night - a late start - exhausted - and we had to leave to get to the next place - the drive was awful - Poor Chris had to do most of the driving, I tried for a short wee while and all I wanted to do was sleep. The borders were no problem what so ever - entering Botswana we had to go through 5 Foot and Mouth controls - where you are expected to get out the vehicle put your shoes and all other shoes onto a wet hessian pads - take your suitcases out for the police to check - and then go though a water bath - the road to Gaborone is long straight, busy and bloody boring?  we seemed to have taken for ever to get to Gaborone.  we eventually pulled in at 17h45 - 9 hours in the vehicle. we were so happy to get to Charlie and Fran - I managed to get straight into bed.

Wednesday 10 August 2011

Our intentions were to leave Kumbali Lodge by no later than 05h30, however after cups of coffee and going through some vehicle check list we established that a small piece of hose pipe had not been packed.  Critical piece of equipment as you need to sifen people, a littke walk arund the garden and finding a perfect piece of hosepipe a piece was cut off s- we are ready to leave departed at 05h45.  The Dedza Border Post was a walk in the park – both side being exit Malawi and enter Mozambique took a mere 35 minutes.  The trip through Mozambique is usually full of horror stories of how police stop and ask questions, try and fine you, advise you that you are speeding and you have no way of proving differently, you naturally drive through Mozmbique waiting for a fight in a language you can not understand – makes it all that more interestesting.  Well NOTHING of that – nobody stopped us, nobody even wanted to see our beautiful car – staright through Mozambique through the exit border at Nymapanda and into Zimbabbwe.  I think Chris had been brewing for a decent shouting match or merely waiting with pent up frustration to get it out on someone – as the Zimbabwean Border Police advised us we were not allowed to sit on the left hand side of the steps leading up to the border post to complete our entry forms howevever  we could sit on the right hand side – what is the logic is this???  Chris thought he should try and find out how this worked you can imagine who won with some fantastic piece of logic ‘Nooo yooou must seat on t theees side’.  Again absolutely no incidents straight through both borders and arrived at Mike and Boo’s home in Harare at 16h20 – a good 11 hours of being in the vehicle.  A pleasant drive with a few smokes breaks etc.

Ready to Rock & Roll

Its early hours on Monday 8th, I hope I have set this up correctly and will now be updating you all on our wonderful trip which starts tomorrow morning.  The car is ready wish we could say the same about us - Sandi has not been well - so the performance of the car will definitely be better than hers at the moment. keep well and will keep up dating. what we need to do is work on the appearance of this blog over the next couple of days