Parks made for popular outings especially when they had a seesaw – Holly and Ella on the upside! 
Keith and Colleen’s friend Val and her grandson Lucas invited us to a picnic tea in Kirstenbosch Gardens
No rolling pin we had to make do with a chilled bottle of beer to roll out our dough for ‘ginger-boys’. Ella & Finn happily stood guard when ‘Gogo’ took them out of the oven just in case they ran away...Holly had a pre-arranged morning with old friends at the Victoria Waterfront. Always a beautiful setting, Lea couldn’t resist the opportunity to revisit this busy docklands centre with the children, dragging George along.
For his endurance, Holly stood us to fish & chips. Finn lost chips off his plate to a cheeky seagull!
Leaving George to work away on his renovating jobs around the flat Holly drove us out to Stellenbosch to meet up with Talya and Lauritz at the Slow Food Market. We rapidly shed warm clothing- just as well, as in next to no time Finn demolished a massive, beautifully decorated cup-cake - daubing himself and his Gogo with icing and crumbs much to the delight or horror of the market-goers, depending on their degrees of cleanliness! Furthermore, he took it upon himself to devour her waffle beset with berries and cream. Fortunately the heat of the day soon reduced him to being shirtless, hence clean!
Horribly, our week with Holly was over and she returned to work.
Treasured moments captured... Great Aunt Holly had thought to have 40 winks but Ella had other ideas.No vehicle, kept us flat-bound not helped by the notorious South Easter making an appearance which made it pretty unpleasant to play in the gardens most days. Thankfully we were kept occupied in other ways; an early braaivleis with our kindly downstairs neighbours, who’d kept a benevolent eye on our welfare – David, Leigh and their children Josh and Kirsten. Cousin Ruth Mathews came over for a day bringing some exciting family material and when we discovered there was more, she returned a couple of days later with boxes... and spent the afternoon helping George scan it all into digital copy. Our niece Sally took the afternoon off work and came round with her son Chad. Over a year since his big operation and he has come on in leaps and bounds although he is still beset with breathing problems and his tracheotomy has to be cleared frequently. As if this wasn’t enough for his parents, delays in their new house have been compounded by a builder in financial trouble forcing the family to make do and move into their garage. Ella & Finn were delighted to share their bath and supper with Chad that night, to briefly make the evening a little easier for his Mum.
Making plasticine birds with Chad, Ella & Finn. Lea’s old school friend Hilary Rushworth came over for a quick morning tea before having to collect her grandchildren from school in Fish Hoek – too quick to record her visit on camera. Ella’s ‘Sally Worm’ had shortened to two segments denoting TWO SLEEPS LEFT! Excitedly, we began preparing for the return of exhausted parents – welcome home signs and balloons for the front door and landings. It was more than overwhelming for two little souls when suddenly the taxi was at the gate and the ‘long time’ was O-V-E-R.
Once again two days of jet-lagged madness followed, as Keith and Colleen prepared to return to the bush. Broadlands Guest house welcomed us back each night for unbroken sleep in peace and quiet. The precious time spent with our little Bushies had been of such intrinsic value to us that when Keith and Colleen mentioned never coping with their children in San Francisco – we silently prayed this would be... an annual ‘happening’. It was with such heavy hearts that we watched the taxi depart with our Begg family- strong bonds forged with those two little folk that it was as well we returned to the flat to clean and replace dustcovers for the ensuing months that they are in Niassa, as it took our minds off the sadness of their departure. Further helped by Cousin Bev calling in for a quick cuppa and catch-up before her music lessons began close by. When we were ready to leave, George turned off the ‘mains’ only to have the wall clock fall. Its glass face splintering around him as the main gate bell resounded... that’s Murphy for you!
Louise and Guy Mitchell had arrived to transport us away to their home in Grotto Bay where all our cares and woes were cast off with their five star treatment. Kariba friendships have driven deep roots within our lives. Come evening, Tika the dachshund ‘sang’ her way into our hearts with her ‘walking song’ to each of us. Taking the paths tucked well into the thick renosterbos along the wild coastline was balm to our spirits. This was followed by a delightful conversation over skype with Louise’s Dad, Elfie and wife Chris in Greece, with our shandies in hand. Keith and Colleen have long eyed Grotto Bay for a home base set as it is within a nature reserve and in close proximity to Cape Town. Guy was able to show us over some of the holiday homes in his care and others up for sale.
‘Sundial’ and its inmates, Guy and Louise with Tika, did so much for our wellbeing... Louise drove us back into the city along the familiar Blue Route to Diep River where we were to spend the next two nights with Cousin Ruth. That evening she took us to walk in Cecelia Forest up in the Constantia Mountains. A beautiful setting giving us views in all directions as sections of the pine forest are steadily being taken out to allow the original fynbos cover to re-establish- a coup for conservation. The effort required to load Ruth’s aged dog into the car had George decide a ramp was very necessary to assist her.
Considering all the years that have passed, the bonus was to finally meet and became acquainted with the first, albeit the youngest of Ruth’s three children, Elizabeth, over dinner that night. Names and history swiftly became meaningful. Next day while Ruth was away running her twice weekly clinic, George busied himself making a ramp, keen to check its working order on Ruth’s immediate return. A peculiar braying sound alerted Lea that something was not quite right – it turned out to be Sacha the dog! The grousing was something to be heard, to be believed!
Old dogs DO NOT want to learn new tricks, even if it’s to their benefit.Holly collected us in readiness for our last weekend in the Cape. Bion, Talya, and her boyfriend were joining us for our favourite ‘Greek Lamb” dinner against the backdrop of the Helderberg that Friday night. Next day George was off early to share time with his brother John who had fortunately come down from Prince Albert up in the Karoo. Holly had a wedding to attend so Lea was happy to recline alongside Werner’s swimming pool and read. Doing nothing was an absolute pleasure...
By evening Holly and George were happy to ‘chill out’ too although he had to photograph the falling light over the Helderberg.
Our last day in the Cape was a truly magnificent one that we found ourselves ready to rise early for a Sunday and battling to decide whether to go Franschoek or Gordons Bay to enjoy the views that surround Cape Town in every direction. In the end we drove along the coast and stopped in Rooi Els to check out a strange building in construction out on the point.
En route down the little settlement road of Rooi Els we spotted two baboons sitting on a high pitched roof and promptly paused. Good omen according to George!
The engine was soon switched off as we observed a troop of at least 35 baboons of all ages and sizes creating merry hell around this house. No windows open although a partially open fanlight had us holding our breath at one point. Much as we gained a kick out of watching these cheeky primates, kept riveted by their antics for well over an hour, we could see the owner did not appreciate the romping that went on across her roof and verandah. Thereafter, we were to notice that no one had windows or doors open. Obviously these devious troublemakers are a major problem to residents and holiday makers.
Returning to Gordon’s Bay we were thrilled by a whale gently wallowing close off shore. We willed it to be more active but being a lethargic kind of day we had to make do with the pleasure of our closest sighting ever. Early bed followed by airports and long flying hours took over the remaining hours until we were back in Perth.
Ten days rapidly sped by with George and Saxon – two birds of a feather, accomplishing a million and one jobs as Gees prepared to exchange houses. Lea kept two small girls and a dog from being underfoot or hindering the tight schedules. A slick program as the Removalist simply arrived to cart out the heavy items and as October drew to a close, the juggling and sorting of possessions began within the house - dog, girls and granny explored the property and collected up thousands of chick-pea sized stones ad finitum!
Aerial view of ‘Sunset Ridge’Darwin’s humid embrace welcomed us back Saturday night as we found our way back to ‘The Sentinel’ and Jo Vandermark via the airport shuttle bus. Rain during the early hours cooled Sunday down for us.
Jo and George settle to breakfast on the balcony overlooking Darwin harbour- a well remembered calming start to the day...George was anxious to be on his way – keen to check out Getaway’s wellbeing although a big shop to restock the caravan had to be done before leaving Darwin for Coolalinga. Rapid Creek Markets lured Lea in for mangoes and bananas en route for the major supermarkets in Casuarina. Our hearts lurched when we found the Oasis Park office closed on arrival and heard that Gary and Rose had taken leave. Fortunately we found the ‘stand in’ and were able to go and collect ‘Getaway’ a few blocks away. We find ourselves taking a deep breath after time away from our rig - wondering what surprises lie in store after seven weeks of standing. We found an ant nest within the stairwell and battery light flashing red! We had thought Darwin solar power would easily keep our fridge ticking over. It hadn’t... cloud cover had obviously caused the deep freeze to bounce between defrost and refreeze over the weeks. This required an urgent connection to electrical power and a cleanup before we could think of packing in our new supplies.
Mango madness! Nothing was to be wasted... As fast as Lea sliced up a box of mangoes in readiness for the road, she was gobbling up the remnants from pips and skins scraped off with her teeth, juice oozing everywhere!
Finally we were setled in, air conditioning on and feeling totally relaxed and ALONE – after being busy worker ants for all these weeks the tune of ‘Pink Panther’ hummed through our heads to the words of Dead Ant, dead ant.... leading us to the mutual decision to ‘rest up’ before taking up tracks west, across the Top End Outback.
