29/10/11
Arrived at Thomas River Historical Village. How lucky was this. We arrived on the same day that our hosts Andrew and Michelle were thowing a "Halloween Party" More lucky was that we discovered this unbelievable place while browsing the Internet as we had coffee in Cathcart wandering where we going to stay that night. Wait for more on this veritable village of antiquity as the owner Jeff takes us on a guided tour tomorrow , Sunday.
28/10/11
Talk about planning ahead. We arrived in Queenstown during Friday rush hour looking to book into one of the many caravan parks a city of this size was bound to offer. Our thinking was, as we were only "over nighting" there, let one of the locals direct us to the best available. Big mistake. Turns out this city does not have one caravan park. We spent the night eating Steer- burgers at the Ultra City. Slept with one eye open on the Chana.
27/11/11
Over nighted at "The River of Joy" caravan park just outside Bloemfontein. This camp is situated on the Modder River and offers great views and river swimming. It is owned by Flouris and Berta. Flouris, who is an electrical engineer (retired) has devised an engenious irrigation system using river water to keep the beatifully lawn sites in immaculate condition. A very well run camp, fabulous people and well worth a visit fellow campers.
23/10/11
Arrived at Bergwoning Adventure Farm near Clarens in the FreeState. A very pretty setting at this small park which has camping for 25 people. Only problem here at the moment is they are still building the ablution block so one has to scale Kilamanjaro to use the facilities at one of the chalets. For us "Silver Legends" thats the risk of a coronary every time you go for a pee. At an average of 4 pee's per day thats a 40% chance of dying sitting "on the can", How embarassing would that be.
22/10/11
Left Hlalanathi and arrived in Harrismith at about 1pm leaving plenty of time to get to our intended desination in Clarens. Filled up with diesel at the 1 Stop and hit the road. About 8 kms outside Harrismith I noticed the temperture gauge rising. Stopped to clouds of steam coming from the engine compartment and water ecsaping from a small hole in one of the radiator pipes. Spent an hour on the road while it all cooled down, refilled the radiator with R32 worth of purcased spring water I was saving for my scotch and limped back to Harrismith. It was too late to do anything more about it, so we spent the night at the truck stop at the 1 Stop. Not too bad had a Spur on our doorstep so after dinner I spent a good proportion of the night feeding listening to the sad stories of our fellow travellers a group of hobo's
.17/10/11
Arrived at Hlalanathi Drakensberg Resort.
To the many hundreds of readers of Caravan and Outdoor Life and Getaway magazine who are following our blog and with whom we have now become friends and fellow travellers .... FORGET everything you have read here. I realise that we are only into month 6 of our minimum 12 month tour of the country and that we are going to visit and stay at many more camps, but Hlalanathi Drakensberg Resort is thus far definitely the most stunning, the most spectacular and well situated camp site we have encountered on the 3,542 kms we have travelled. What ever lies ahead is going to have to be "off the scale" to beat this.
One could not wish to be in a more beautiful and iydelic setting. It's greatest assett has got to be it's geographical position. The site allocated to us has, as do all the front facing sites the best uninterupted180 degree view down a magnificent valley with the mighty Tugela River meandering its way through to the majestic Drakensberg in all it's splendour including the most photgraphed mountain in Africa "the Amphitheatre" .... man it just takes your breath away. The pics that we will be posting cannot to justice to what we are seeing. You have to come and see it for yourselves..
In fairness to some of the other great camps we have stayed in Hlalalanthi is not perfect, nothing is, and there are areas in which other camps excel, but the overall package here is superb.
Besides the tremendous views from both the camp sites and the chalets on offer, there is a most picturesque golf course with water features, a very warm clubhouse with pub and resaurant where beakfast, lunch and supper are available. A well appointed shop that supplies all the basics and more, a large swimming pool and most importantly being so well situated within the Northern Berg, easy access to many many hiking trails and nature parks.
We made a point to visit other resorts in the area including Drakensville, The Cavern and Mont aux Sources and I'm afraid to say they were all left behind in the starting blocks when compared to what we have seen and experienced here at Hlalalanthi. Our only regret is that I have to be in Esat London on 3rd November for a corporate show and can only stay 6 days. We will be back.
14/10/11
Wont bore you with all the "tourist activities" undertaken during our stay at Dragon Peaks suffice to say that it has been fantastic. We were due to leave today but have decided to stay the weekend kind courtesy of Peter to do a show that comemorates their anniversary weekend here. They invite all their "regulars" back for a vastly reduced price "party weekend". Should be fun.We leave for Hlalanthi Drakensberg Resort on Monday 17th
24/09/11
Went for tea and scones at Champagne Sports this morning. Have to mention this because Christel claims it is the best scones she has ever eaten.
22/09/11
Had dinner at Champagne Sports Resort last night with "me auld mate" and general manager Phillip West and Vanessa. I have done many corporate shows at this venue including one more recently with The Bats and the Buffet on offer was as brilliant as ever. Stunning meal, company and venue in general. We waddled out of there at about 11.30pm to the throse of "You'll Never Walk Alone" sang as lustily as only one well oiled on the finest Sauvignon Blanc can
21/09/11
Did many hikes along the mountain and river trails this week. Absolutely stunning views. Jack was accosted by a Zebra this morning who decided to cut off his path along the dam. In true "Russell" fashion he sold the Zebra a dummy that would hae done Brian Habana proud and arrived safely back with us.
Also visited "Scrumpy Jacks" (Don't miss buying a pot of their homemade Orange and Whiskey marmalade) and Valley Bakery for the best Rye Bread second only to La Bon back in Cape Town.
15/09/11
Arrived at Dragon Peaks.
Be it by chance or sheer providence we seem to be hitting all the great camps. Dragon Peaks is yet another. It is situated 28 kms from Winterton on the R600 and nesttled at the base of Cathkin Peak. Great facilities including a tremendous swimming pool and water slide, restaurant, pub, trampolines and playpark for the kids, a couple of Bass and Carp filled dams for fishing and tremendous array of function rooms, including one in the middle of the lake. There is also an airstrip from which Westland Aviation offer scenic helicopter flips into the Berg.
We have decided already to stay here for a month
14/09/11
There is not much that we have not seen in the Midlands, The last 3 weeks were spent doing the "tourist thing" To all you "couch potatoes" out there remeber this area is well worth a visit.
We move tomorrow 15th, to Dragons Peak in the central Drakensberg. Our thanks go out to David and Jullie who have made our stay in their beautiful caravan park memorable, we will definitely be back again in the future. Write this one down ... GLEN SHEILING CARAVAN PARK in Nottingham Road ... a veritable Garden of Eden.
01/09/11
We have been at Glen Shieling for a week today. I do a show for my mate Robin Boltman at the Argyle Hotel in Mooi River on Sat night. We have taken in a lot of the sites here during the week including The Nottingham Road Brewery (but of course) Swissland Cheese, The Ugly Duckling, Chocolate Heaven, The Junction Eatery, Gunthers Sausages, The Bierfassl, Linga Lapa (A great butchery and steakhouse) and the Spar (I forget what that was)
Next week we do "The Battlefields" Karkloof Falls, Umgeni Valley nature & game reserve and something I am really looking forward to Karkloof Canopy Tours. What this is, is more than a kilometer of what is essentially a "Foofie Slide" made up of 8 sections high above the canopy of the Karkloof Nature Reserve Forest. You get driven by 4x4 to the starting point from which you launch yourself off a platform down the "foofie slide" to a platform in the trees sometimes 175 meters away. Like Tarzan & Jane. The trees themselves are enormously tall and sometimes you are more than 100 ft above them. Quite exhillarating they tell me. If I have a heart attack I hereby bequeath Bernie's new hat to my mate Pieter Kroucamp to do with it whatever he wishes. You end the trip with a glass of champagne and a meal. (and a valium)
24/08/11
Arrived in Nottingham Road. What a brilliant setting and area in general. There is so much to see and do here we could be here for a month. We are within 40kms radius of the battle fields, Madiba's capture site, rock and cave paintings, Albert and Tugela Falls.. The area reminds me of Greyton. It is filled with arty people, great pubs and restaurants, arts and craft markets and scores of quaint home industries. This time is going to be special.
The camp itself is pretty quiet at the moment in anticipation of the Sept spring season. It is run by Julie and her dad David an ex Zimbo who has been here for more than 40 years. He is 83 years old and unbelievably active, doing all the maintenance while fitting in a bit of trout fishing in his spare time. Even at 83 I would not challenge him to a rowing competition across the lake it would be embarrasing.
24/08/11
Left Illovo Beach today enroute to Glen Sheiling Caravan Park in Nottingham Road. Very sad indeed to leave people with whom we have had such a great time, but I'm sure we will all meet again some time in the future.
11/08/11
I know we have been VERY SLACK here in Durban with updates. But with all the fishing, hang gliding, shark cage diving, para-sailing and just plain coolin-aff here, what can one do. All will change however when we hit the road again on the 24th. Our ittenary has changed somewhat--- here is the latest. We are having problems getting "Jack the Russell" into a camp over the December holidays. That combined with the fact that camp prices soar to a minimum of R20,000 for the month over December has made us to decide to head north from Durban, then do the Drakensburg. From there we will go into Lesotho and down the garden route back to Cape Town to spend Xmas with friends and family. Expect us back in the "mother city" at the end of November. In January we will head up the West coast and do the rest of our trip in reverse.
18/07/11
Ok I know we have been a bit slack, but we've been doing the tourist thing for a while. My brother Lenard who lives in Durban paid us a visit at the camp with his computer and added another 27,000 songs to my "Karaoke List".... very nice indeed.
Christel is currently in Johannesburg until the 23rd looking after Lilly and Maddy while Byron & Nikki are off on a ski-trip.
06/07/11
Heard from Bernie yesteday. He was about to leave for Illovo Beach to join us and slave cylander packed up. Fortunately the owner of the backpackers where he is staying is in Port Shepstone at the moment. He is going to try to a kit there and take it back wjth him. John from The Mountain View Inn where Christel and I stayed is amoungst his other talents also a diesel mechanic and has kindly volunteered to fit it for him. Very lucky indeed cos Port St Johns is not a place you want to break down in.
03/0711
I have been very busy preparing for a series of shows and not been too busy with the camera. My appologies. Did a show at SPLASHES in Glen Ashley, this was sold out so we did another one the folowing night also a full house. Still waiting for Bernie who has now got Coffee Bay out of his system and moved to Port Sr Johns. I'm sure he will have great pics of his trip as well when he arrives.
25/06/11
Had a tremendous surprise visit today from Peter and Lillian, old school friends of Christel who are out from Australia together with a great couple, Bob and Chris en-route to a Hoegspruit game farm. They took the time and a few extra kilometers no doubt to pay us a visit.... great stuff. Got dragged over the coals a bit by Bob about assuming because they live in Oz they are Australians... turns out they are Kiwis ... well they all sound the same to me dammit!
24/06/11
Arrived in Illovo Beach just 33kms South of Durban. Not a veiw site camp but very affordable given we are at start the Kwa Zulu Natal season. Great facilities and a stone throw from beautiful beaches. It is run by Chista and her family who are very gracious hosts and very accomodating to one's needs. Sometimes the view is not everything, its just nice to support and be around very pleasant people. As far as ablutions go it is the very best we have encountered yet... very well thought out
We will base ourselves here for about a month as I have a series of shows to do in and around Durban. Christel also has to fly to Johannesburg on the 12th to baby sit the grandchildren while Byron and Nikki shoot of to Lesotho to ski for a week.
Great news is that my star son-in-law has landed a peach of a mechanical engineering job in Cape Town. We are very, very proud of him in the way that his career has flourished since obtaining his degree. They are looking to buy in Welgelegen which is great. The down side to all of this is that this is what we have been dreaming about since they got married and now that it has happened we are on the Frigging Road....... sigh ...but not forever.
23/06/11
Arrived in Port Edward and overnighted at the Pont Caravan Park. I supposed we have been riding our luck by finding exceptional camps up to now. The Pont is not half as nice as where we've been and charge more than 3 times the price. R360 to camp over night (thats the off season price) and wait for it ... no less than R60 per night for elecricity. What an incredible Rip-off. No wonder we were the only people in the camp.
20/06/11
Arrived in Port St John's and spent the next 3 nights in the company of John and Sheryl Ferriera at The Mountain View Inn. They turned out to be superb hosts. We can highly recommend a value for money visit to their very quaint establishment. John has been there for 20 years and has an incredible knowledge of the Wild Coast. He can hook you up with deep sea charters, 4x4 trips down to The Hole in the wall etc.
20/06/11
Left Gonubie reluctantly en-route to Port St John's. Stopped in Qunu the birth place of Nelson Mandela to visit the museum. Parted ways with Bernie here temporarily as he wanted to go and see Coffee Bay. I was worried about the condition of that road, and just as well according to Bernie, it was quite rough on the Kombi. We will catch up with him in Durban once he has got Coffee Bay out of his system
19/06/11
Celebrated Christels birthday in style. Bought a feast of magnificent fresh prawns and did them in garlic and lemon butter on the skottle. Washed the whole lot down with plenty on chilled Sauvignon Blac
14/06/11
Ordered the shocks from an East London company. It arrived late a week later the day we had to leave for Port St John's. Will have to courier the shocks up to Durban to have it done.. gotta move on
13/06/11
Monday - Left Kleinemonde en-route to Cintas Bay just North of East London. Heard a noise on Gertie's right front shock. Decided to stay a little closer to East London to get it replaced and ended up at Gonubie River Resort at the river mouth. Another great camp charging only R105 per night for all three of us. Big bonus is they don't even charge laundry fees, the machines are there to be used for free.
I have landed a couple of confirmed gigs in Durban. While that is all very good, the only problem is that we have to get there by the 29th June. This means that I cannot take on any shows in East London and not spend as much time on the wild coast as we had hoped. We leave of Port St John's on Monday 20th
10/06/11
Did the show last night, a great turnout considering it was chucking it down torrentially. Heard that the Medalino Cravan park was flooded when the 2 dams on the Royal PA golf course broke. Caravans were washed away and flooded half way up up to their roofs. We would have been there if they had allowed Jack in... so he is the hero ! "The Russells Rainy Revenge"
It is raining all the way up to Durban so we've decided to stay in Kleinemonde untill Monday morning when we move to Cintas just north of East London
08/06/11
Preparing to leave PA tomorrow for Klienemonde where I will be doing a show. We leave for Kidds Beach in East London on Friday morning.
07/06/11
The heavens opened up today and pummeled us with a deluge that had to be seen to be believed for the whole day. The wind bent the main stut of our tent but other than that everything stood up to the test excellently. Having survived today we will survive anything.... Bring it on !!
06/06/11
Woke up with a jolt at 4am this moring to the soung of static radio and rumbling. Went outside to find Bernie already up and the NSRI which is alongside the camp launching their rescue craft.
A "Chokka" boat some 5kms from us had been struck by lighting and lost all power. The skipper aimed the boat towards the beach where it capsized in the waves with 9 crewmen trapped inside the hull. The skipper made it to shore and walked 10kms for help. The NSRI responded and went to their aid. They had to cut the hull open and pull the men out. Sadly one crewman drowned. The morning was taken up with helicopters ferring the men to the hospital which is also diagonally opposite the camp. Very sad.
05/06/11
Bernie met Barry and Karen for lunch at Barmuda Pub on the Kowie to-day. Some joker who had stole something came running down the river bank pursued by 2 burly policeman. On seeing that he could'nt outrun them he decided to launch himself into the swiftly flowing river and do a Mark Spitz to the other side. The cops simply drove over the bridge to the other side to wait for him. After much changing of direction and being swept further down the river "Einstein surrendered.
04/06/11
The Fish & Chips stood up well to their claim at the Royal PA Ski-Boat Club yesterday .A great setting on the Kowie with unbelievable prices. A 500ml Kowie Gold draught, 2 Dry whites and 2 dry lemons only R26. R35 for a piece of Hake doing "Great White" impressions and an array of salads, rolls and sauces. Brilliant.
03/06/11
I landed a gig at Lala Lapa Thursday 9th so we decided to stay another week in PA. At the risk of severely testing Mariannes friendship we decided to move back 15kms to The Willows. Jack the Russell is in his element here with his own private beach. We have dined at The Highlander, a truly great pub and C'est La Vie a superb little cheese shop run by Karen and aided by Barry who comutes between PA and Uganda with his job would you believe it. Today Friday we are meeting Marianne for Lunch at The Royal PA Ski-boat club for what is claimed to be the best Fish & Chips in the country. Watch this space.
JUNE 2011
30/05/11
After spending a relaxing weekend with Marianne, we did the tourist thing to Bathurst. Had a great local "Pot Pie" at the Pig & Whistle. Licensed in 1832 the owners claim it to be the oldest pub in the country. I have no logical reason to doubt them but find it a little hard to believe that a colony of obviously tea-totting dutchmen who arrived in the Cape in1652 some 180 years before the 1820 settlers, waited so long to allow the "Poms" this honour.
Monday night we drove down to Kenton on Sea to catch The Bats show. Had a truly great night with the lads who never fail to impress me with their talent, professionalism and obvious love for what they do. A Bats show is always so cleverly constructed to display all members obvious talents, and this one was no different. I was particularly pleased to see that they brought back some of the memorable songs that one remembers them for, some of which they left out when I toured with them. "Love is Blue", "Herd Boy" and perhaps in my humble opinion, one of the best songs never to have been a "worldwide hit" "Who's that Girl".Their show was duly rewarded with a standing ovation from the appreciative audience. They are true "Silver Legends". I believe that Edwin Eckstein will recieve the "key to Kenton" to-day.
26/05/11
Arrived in Port Alfred at 1.30pm. We will be staying with Marianne, thats Byron my son-in-laws Mother. What a beautiful home she has overlooking the Kleinemonde Rivers and the sea. Don't know how long we will be staying. At least till I have the aircon cover replaced on Gerties roof or Marianne chucks us out, which ever comes first.
24/05/11
Did the Addo park today. Again we were blessed. Another couple in our park saw only one Elephant, while we saw herds of them. Camped for lunch in Jack's (no relation) picnic area in the camp. Got back to the Homestead at 4pm. Bernie and I went to The Africanos Inn to take the powerball where a local lady of the night fell in love with him or his wallet i'm not sure. We are here for another 2 days before we leave for Port Alfred. At this rate of progress we will need 2 years to complete our tour... so what!
23/05/11
Reluctantly we gotta move on this Monday morning. Thanks to all at The Willows, its been a great stay, especially to Lindsay and Liza. To Mark anf Jeff "the chef", dish washer, manager, bouncer (he throws them in) at Munkee Buzniz, thanks for all the great evenings spent there. We leave this morning to ADDO Elephant park and Crocodile and Lion Ranch for 4 days. I managed to convince the manager that Jack the Russell was no threat to Leo the Lion nor indeed Ethel the Elephant.
Arrived at the Homestead B&B and caravan park at 1.30pm. Another great park to stay..man we been lucky. Thurston and Magda are truly great hosts. They been married 52 years and really live in a garden of Eden here.
17/05/11
Woke up this Tuesday morning to a glorious day We've been in PE 10 days and had a jol. I think its time to think about moving on. We are getting a little bit bored with our front gardens sea view and need a change (sigh) Going to start looking for a river.
I am getting a little worried about Bernd. He finished off his evening with a coffee last night and was up before me tihs morning. Gonna have to keep an eye on him ....its just not normal.
08/05/11
Borrowed a ladder from some well appointed camper, only to find I had NO RIVETS. Weathers good, I'm going to leave it for another day.
07/05/11
Arrived in PE at 3pm with continual rain all the way. The only plus on the day for us was our arrival at The Willows Resort. What a great camp it is with superb facilities for all. A tremendous suprise was that the management of the Willows on finding out we were old "toppies" more than halved our quoted camp fees.
We are sure going to play the "pensioners card trick" again. "Jack" was also welcome and stayed for free. the lucky swine.
9.30 pm - Like an absolute idiot I parked "Gertie" with her rear facing the sea. The wind came up and ripped the Aircon cover off the roof. I found it half way back to the city. No problem, get out the rivet gun, only to discover that I've left the light weight ladder at home leaving me no way of getting up to the roof.
06/05/11
Took the "scenic" R62 en-route to PE. Big mistake! The weather closed in and we were forced to drive at a snails pace in torential rain and fog. We saw nothing at all. It became apparent around 4pm that we were not going to make PE at our current speed so we over-nighted in Joubertinia
05/05/11
We left Cape Town at 11am. Drove straight through to Ronnies Sex Shop en-route to our 1st stop over in Vanwyksdorp. The hospitality shown us at "Ronnies" was superb. We can see just why it has become such an institution. At Ronnies insistance we could easily have camped there for acouple of days. This however was and will be the only schedule we were forced to adhere to as Derek had to fly from PE to Durban on the 9th for a corporate gig.
Arrived in the dark in Vanwyksdorp and was put up at Bernie's mates Solly's place. He has a great small holding on which he grows pommegranets, apricots, and lemons amoungst many other sorts of veggies. Some rich dude is trying to finance the tarring of the 33km access dirt road himself much to the consternation of the locals who mostly don't want any part of it. They want to retain their little town as it is and we can see why. Had a great night with Solly "sucking on some local wines. So great was it that Bernie decided to stay an extra 2 days. Christel and I along with "Jack the Russell" pushed on to PE the following morning. Thanks Sol, we will definitely spend some more time with you again.
MAY 2011
