Mac Moments

Photo: My two babies!! Back to work again, for Steve. I am busy packing for us to go to the dam for 3 days. Hopefully we will leave soon. I needed to go to the chiropracter this morning as my neck is out again. He was happy to give me injections to help with the pain.... I must say it was not as sore as I thought it would be.

Photo: Frog Sunday walk around Emmarentia Dam, which was fun. the kids are enjoying it more now, although Jess still complains that her legs get sore. Went to go and see Marcus about selling some properties for us. All will be revealed....

Photo: Chameleon Went shopping with the kids for humidifiers as it is really getting very dry and wintery up here in Joburg. Then we just chilled for the rest of the day.....

Photo: Sean playing in the water A very slow weekend, which is what we needed. Had the Debbie, Dave, Robyn, Lesley, Cameron and Lauren around for a braai. Power outage that evening only for an hour, so we could watch our hired DVD's!

Photo: A painting I would like to paint sometimein the future. Playdates with Kevin and Sammy, a rather wild bunch together and I am sure I turned a paler shade of gray!!! and added a few more to my head.... Went to the Spur for dinner with the crew: Debbie, Dave, Ashley, Robyn, Lesley, Paul, Cameron, Lauren, Helen, Barbara, Steve, Kevin and Jenny and then us...

Photo: Another beautiful sunset Playdates with Cameron and Lauren, then on to OT and gymnastics for the afternoon, a pretty boring day all round.

Such a beautiful photo, I love the leaves in the foreground with Jess still in focus! Being home has been wonderful. As much as we enjoyed every minute of our trip, we have just loved being home!!! Jess and Sean had playdates with Cole and Josh, we also chatted to Gail about a course she has been on which is life changing, we are really interested looking into it. Very similar concept to "The Secret", but with more visualisation concepts.

Photos: The road home So on our way back home, isn't it amazing how wonderful home sweet home is??? No matter where you live or the country you stay in, wherever y0u make your home it is always great to go back home!!! The kids were very sweet as we drove into the house and were so happy to be home, see their cats and give Betty a great big squeeze and hug! They also went back to gymnastics and were happy to get back into the swing of things.

Photos: Pilgrims rest and the Jock road map, and just loved the sign!! We spent the day exploring the area in Pilgrims Rest and Graskop, stopping at a couple of the landmarks. It is a beautiful part of the country, we loved Pilgrims Rest with it's old buildings, but having been there before we stopped mainly for the kids to experience the feel of the old miners. The area is changing though and the authenticy of the place seems to be loosing it's charm. Graskop was filled with a couple of old shops and of cause Harry's Pancakes, the best pancakes this side of the equator and our best place to stop when in the area!! We also frequent the bookshop in Sabie which is a treat as they have loads of 2nd hand and very old books. We always tend to buy far too many books but we do love to!!! The shops seem to be less quaint than they used to be, but I suppose that is due to development and local trading. All in all a lovely day, with the mist and rain peeking through the forests again...

Photos: Buzzard, Jock memorial, Back to the rat race!!, view from our place just outside of White River So our last day in the park and we saw a couple of fantastic final creatures!!! It was a great holiday and really relaxing, we will do this again! Back in the rat race we realised the drivers in Mpumalanga are awful, we were going at 60kms and a bus and taxi passed us, go figure! The trip through Hazyview was nothing to write home about, our accomodation just outside of White River was really lovely. A step up from our accomodation in the park, quite new and pristine with a beautiful view. When we got there a storm came through and it was a stunning feeling of renewal and cleansing, of that fresh smell you get just after the rain.........

Photos: Beautiful baby baboons, really cute; and at last the elusive lion was found about 1 km from our camp We at last saw the elusive lion after searching for days, but we were so lucky to actually see him. We were told by some British tourists that they had spotted a lion up ahead, so off we go looking - eventually we saw tons of cars parked watching the elusive lion. He just lay there for about 10 minutes and I figure he must have been thinking : "oh let's give them something to look at", and stood up and moved. The kids loved it and we were so happy that they had been given the opportunity to see all Big 5! We also came across some French tourists who had come across eles in the road, some were on the right (the babies) and the mom was on the right. These poor guys reversed to our car to let us know that "it was very dangerous up ahead". We waited for the cow to cross the road and the French guys still did not want to go, so I had to forge ahead to show ...

Photos: Wild Dog, Rhino, Hippo, Croc Dave's birthday today, we saw our 4th of the Big 5 - Rhino. Then we were lucky to see Wild dog, 5 of them with one of them pregnant, there are only 350 in total in the park. And lots and lots of ele again with loads of babies!!! Made our way down to Berg-en-Dal, into a nice cottage, but I must say that the Kruger needs to clean up their accommodation. It was very dirty even though it was one of the better places we stayed in, lots of cockroaches. The best part of the stay was seeing 3 babies just outside of the camp, feeding in the dam area.

Photos: Another beautitul sunset, yellow billed hornbill, The family at Olifants rest camp Debs birthday!! Another day of game viewing: Saw lots of eles again, hippo and buck. Stopped at Olifants rest camp on our way to Lower Sabie. REALLY awful accomodation - stayed in what they call a HUT which is just a room with beds in, no bathroom or kitchen. So we did our washing and ate in the restaurant which cost an arm and a leg for a very basic meal. Won't do that again..... Kids are really enjoying the trip and it is great without tv and we have had to entertain ourselves with games and reading, we have loved it!

Photos: Buffalo, Sunrise in the Kruger, The kids playing together We spotted another one of the big 5 - buffalo. Actually we saw quite a few bufallo while we were in the Kruger, along with wildebees, zebra and buck. Drove through to Satara, had wonderful new rondavel for the night and met one of Sean's school mates there and were told another one was also in the camp. A popular destination. Went looking again for the elusive lion on the S100 which is renowned for definite viewings - never saw any!!!

Photos: More Hefalumps, Rondavel and Sean learning to drive! We spent our first night in the Kruger at the Letaba Rest Camp, we spent 2 nights there. We were lucky enough to get one of the "rondavels" (which are round huts with a bathroom inside and kitchen outside the unit), right on the edge of the camp overlooking the river. The river was probably 10% full, in 1994 it was in flood! We had a wonderful view of an old bull who spent most of his time eating and drinking from the river while we were there, with a couple of buck joining him every now and then. Today was the day we saw the Cheetah, couldn't tell you if it was male or female but it came walking straight across the the road. I thought it was a baboon at first (going blind in my old age), the shadows cast across the road were darkened the whole scene and as he came out of the shadows into the sun we all screamed with delight as we realised it was a Cheetah! Really lucky as both Cheetah and especially leopard a...

2000 year old Baobab Tree Our first sighting of the big 5 Day 3 - Phalaborwa Gate entrance We reluctantly left Magoebaskloof and headed out towards the Kruger National Park via the Phalaborwa Gate. On the way we stopped to see the Baboab Tree (one of many in the area). It is 2000 years old (not one of the oldest ones) and enormous. The kids were at first a bit too scared to explore the inside but we coerced them to see where all the fairies and pixies lived. They loved it. We all climbed to the top of the tree and you only realise just how magnificent it is when you are standing at the top looking down at the world. We then headed on to the Phalaborwa Gate and slowed down... the car, our minds, you could almost feel the world coming to a standstill. Scanning everywhere for any sign of wildlife we ran into one of the big 5, a couple of km's into the park. An old elephant ambled into the road and the kids were breath taken by this gigantic seemingly gentle creature. We however were...

Photos: The Plantation as it is today The plantation in the beginning days - very colonial Our holiday break-through - Sean reading to Jess, isn't this just too cute. She loved every minute of this closeness and he loved reading to her. We spent the 13th exploring the Magoebaskloof area, it has winding twisty roads, with beautiful forests everywhere. The mist creeps through these trees like fingers carressing their branches and streams through onto the road to make everything seem mysterious. The perfect place to write a book with long afternoon walks or alternative for a bloody scary movie to be filmed.... We went along the road that takes you past the Magoebaskloof Dam where Letele Northern Water is managed from, onto Tzaneen and then to afternoon tea at the Tea plantation. We met a lovely couple there, he went to school with a Farmers son and know the area very well as most of his holidays were spent in there. He told us of places to go and areas to visit in the Kruger to see...

View from Magoebaskloof hotel Day 1 - Magoebaskloof, Limpopo Region Off on holiday we go, the trip was quite far but with the 2 screens and DVD player in the back it makes the journey a lot shorter and easier to contend with. The kids take turns in watching their DVDs which means that while the one watches the other one is happy to read or chat to us and then they swop around again. The best part of the whole experience is that it keeps fighting down to a minimum. It took approximately 4 hours to get there, once we reached the area just past Polokwane (old Pietersburg) the scenary became unbelievably beautiful. As we travelled through the forests it began to rain and the mist coming up from the forest and road made the whole trip feel surreal. It was incredibly majestic. On arriving at the hotel the kids were so excited about being in a hotel that they didn't want to do anything else, other than go up to the room and stand on the balcony with the binocs and take the whole view in....

Photo - kids on holiday Busy busy day, fetched Aline from the garage where she took her car in for a service. Then to Yoga, then to Ron to hand in my tax form, back to drop Aline at home, my home, shower, check emails and website, back to Sandton to pick up Sean from school, home, dropped Sean off at Cameron, then off to Jessica's school to fetch her and her friend Jade, to the Spar for milk, back home.... did some work, Meeting with Craig, then off to have a leg wax, fetch Sean, chat to Les and home again. you have to understand we live about 20 minutes from Sean's school and 10 from Jessica's on a good traffic day, so it was just a day of travelling in the car, trying to dodge the load shedding areas (no electricity no robots)..... Positive sentiment, I have a car!!! Still need to pack.... off to Magoeboeskloof in the moring, then to the Kruger National Park and then to the Graskop area.... yay for holidays!!! So I will only blog again on 22 April but with lots of photos...

Photo, Steven is shock as he is blown over by my photo surprise Great art class, met Jo's older sister who is fabulous (Trudi). What an artistic family...... Hectic day otherwise, back to gymnastics and OT and homework, but only for today, then on holiday on Saturday... Yay

The picture is of our very busy little fridge, not just inside but all over it!!! We like to keep all the information, pictures, photos, and special family things all over it! Testing testing testing the website, driving me crazy, but we are almost there.... we have just added in the section where people can repurchase....

Electricity blackout for us last night, so I could not do an update!! boohoo. I must say on a positive note, the blackouts have been great for the family, we played boggle after dinner last night and it was rather fun. Also a great excuse to open a bottle of wine and chill. They have definitely brought back a sense of family togetherness. We did not rush to get the kids to bed so that we could carry on working on our PC's. Don't get me wrong we did work, but on paper and discussions, once the kids were all tucked up. I managed a 9 km run in the morning which I was very proud of as my back and sciatic area are still injured, but I will persevere and eventually run a 21km race again!!! Kids had a great day back at gymnastics and Sean is very keen to get his homework over and done with as quickly as possible now....hurray!