THE ROUTE HOME ON ROVOS RAIL

All aboard 

We always intended going on Rovos Rail with Buck and Di - and our return journey home was done with this in mind. Rovos Rail is the ultimate in luxury and we started in style at Cape Town station when we were shown to an elegant waiting room where we were offered champagne, coffee and dainty sandwiches while being entertained by a violin/guitar duo. And then we were shown to our very comfortable larny compartments. A far cry from the sort of trains that I caught to school at the end of each holiday.

Rose petal hearts! Compliments of Rovos Rail

The compartments and shutters are polished mahogany and the dining car, lounge and observation car have that old fashioned elegance of a bygone era. Our meals were delicious - the four course meals perfectly balanced and complemented with the best wine.

Fine dining

We arrived in Worcester during lunch - and that's where we remained for the next day. The copper cables had been stolen and so eventually our trip was very different from what was intended in our itinerary. We visited the KWV brandy distillery and found ourselves sipping aged brandy through chocolate at 11 am,  and then after lunch the following day, still at Worcester station, we were bussed to Zandvliet wine farm in Robertson - a trip down memory lane because the last time Conal and I were there was to attend a wedding shortly after we were married. 

The train was eventually re-routed via George where we said a tearful good bye to Di, and flew to Johannesburg to connect with our flight to Sydney. It was an ill-fated flight though. Delayed 24 hours for technical problems, we were bussed to a strange gated conference centre near Boksburg for the night.  We returned the following evening, and this time were kept waiting on board for 5 hours while two faulty tyres were replaced. At this stage I was convinced that it was a mistake to be on the flight at all, and when after take off we hit a storm that flung the plane around like a kite, I thought my misgivings were correct and that the flight was doomed. It was with a sigh of relief that we touched down at 10 pm on Friday at Sydney International - and I burst into tears when we walked into the arrivals hall to find Anton and Nicky waiting for us. What a welcome home!

NYARHINI

The bush in November was a very difference experience from Punda Maria  in August where the bush was dry and tawny with dashes of green along the river. Now at the end of November, after the first rain, the bush turned a lovely light green with the migratory birds returning and the excitement of seeing the newly born impala kids.

Alastair the game guide and Rayka the game tracker

Breakfast in the river

We were guests of Andrew's mother, Francie who not only invited us to her game farm Nyarhini, but also provided an extremely knowledgable guide Alastair Kilpin who enriched our bush experience immensely. It was definitely Conal's idea of heaven on earth. On the first morning Conal was sitting on his bed looking out of the window when with a yelp - "there's a rhino" - he shot out of bed in his pyjamas into the Landrover with Alastair to follow the fast moving hunk down the river bed.

We arrived on a perfect day and then the impending rain was announced by increased activity – the call of the monotonous lark and that of a frog – and yet there were very few clouds and we were beginning to think that the signs of the bush had got it wrong but suddenly as we were having dinner with a flash of lightening and a roll of thunder the rain arrived.

Nyarhini 

The lodge is our idea of a perfect place to be. Thatched roofed, it hugs the Klaserie River and one could spend days just in the shyeesha watching the game coming down to drink in the river. At night the way to the bedrooms is lit by paraffin lights and candles light the bathrooms - although we did have a bedside light for reading.

Sundowners - Alastair, Conal, Phillip, Barbara & Rayka

Francie and Wendy on game drive

And so we draw close to the end of our holiday - 

STELLENBOSCH AND PLETTENBERG BAY

We had one of those Sunday lunches that leaves one groaning at Graceland, the lovely wine estate owned by my cousin Paul and his wife Sue. Sue must be the most glamorous wine maker in South Africa and her red wine is delicious - she has now added a light pink called Strawberry Fields

Sunday lunch at Graceland- Paul, Sue, Sara & Alec

And then we packed our bags yet again and hitched a ride with our friends David and Kate to Plettenberg Bay where we stayed with Conal's Irish cousin Richard and his wife Pamela and we all joined in to celebrate Monica Pickering's 70th.  Plett is as stunning as ever and although we only had one good day and the rest were sombre and overcast it didn't dampen our enjoyment.

Central Beach Plett - summer yet to arrive

Pamela and Richard in front of the Beacon Island Hotel

THE BEAUTY OF THE CAPE

Our days in the Cape have been filled with nostalgia – days spent re-visiting our favourite areas.

Hermanus from the cliff path

We spent a few days in Hermanus with Diana It was a time warp being in her lovely house where we've had so many good times. We walked along the cliff path and oohed at the whales and their babies, marvelled at the luminous light on the mountains and had a good sticky beak at the house that's replaced our precious holiday house, Avonduur. Ironically the architect has used many of the elements of Anna's design with the lovely wide verandah and the view from front door and passage to the sea.

Alec treated Aunt Amelia and I to the Paul Cluver Wine Estate for lunch and we drove along the tree-lined road to have a delicious lunch and good wine in a cosy restaurant surrounded by lovely gardens with iceberg roses in full bloom contrasting with the lime green trees and tall cypress trees.

Alec and Aunt Amelia

Our visits to our friends Thucki, Ruth, Mags and Kinki in Hermanus were far too fleeting. There's somehow never enough time but we're so grateful for the time that we've had with so many of our friends – friends from Holy Trinity Church, book club and those that we've known for a lifetime. We are reaching the end of our epic journey but we continue to find reasons to pack our bags yet another time.

CAPE TOWN CAPERS

Our holiday just keeps getting better. Cape Town has put on it's best to stun us again: whales wallowing in the waves below us, mountains decked out in spring finery and the most lovely weather.

Cape Point - Miles of beach

Death by chocolate - Grace, Francis, Stuart, Sara and Alec

We've stayed in Constantia with Alec & Sara in their lovely Cape Georgian home and have taken their Toby for walks along the Alphen trail. We also went to a packed opera house to see La Traviata where I bumped into many familiar faces. It's fantastic seeing the new South Africa in action: the chorus was almost exclusively made up of large African women dressed in unusual costumes with the most lovely voices and it certainly made for a very different and refreshingly African La Traviata.

Conal has as usual managed to fill our social calendar with his usual energy and we've been busy dashing around at a steady rate catching up with family and friends this time we've been at a more leisurely pace.

Symphony in white - flowers in Cape Point

Alec & Sara invited us to Betty's Bay where we celebrated Sara's birthday – Kate, Francis, Grace and Stuart, Leon and some of the neighbours joined us for tea and the most decadent Black Forest cake. Death by chocolate!

NORTH TO SOUTH in 3 Days

Dinner with Glen & Andre - and Nicholas in Johannesburg

 We drove from Punda Maria to Cape Town in three days - the northern border of South Africa to Cape Town - through the most lovely countryside spending the night in Johannesburg and on a marvellous farm in the Karoo near Colesberg.

Kuilfontein, Colesberg

The journey took slightly longer because we chose to do a detour through Graaff-Reinet where Alec, Leon and I were born, to avoid the road works on the national road driving through the Karoo where space seems infinite.

You can see forever

KRUGER NATIONAL PARK - Punda Maria and Pafuri

We drove from Johannesburg to Punda Maria in the north of the Kruger Park on Tuesday arriving mid afternoon in time for a late afternoon drive. The northern part of the park is great for bird watching and usually not as good for game as further south, but we saw lots probably because it's the end of the dry season and the game hasn't  dispersed yet.

Guess who has come for coffee?

World Cup supporters

We drove from Punda to Pafuri the next day to Wenela Camp perched on top of a hill and stayed in a house belonging to the Chamber of Mines - a house straight out of colonial Africa.

 Pafuri Camp was built in 1918 on a low rise surrounded by mopane scrub overlooking the KNP to the west, Zimbabwe to the North and Mozambique to the east.  Harold Mockford spent 47 years (1937 - 1985) at Pafuri as recruiter, “temporary” customs and immigration officer and Special Constable of the SA Police. He was a dedicated conservationist. 

In the middle and late 1890's the supply to the Wits mines could not meet demand resulting in high wages, illicit recruitment and poaching of labour between the different gold mines. The illicit recruitment was carried out by unscrupulous individuals who “sold” the labour on to other traders before the recruit reached the mines all of which added to the already high costs.

By 1900 the RNLA was formed and Wits Native Labour Assoc (Wenela) was set up. Recruitment was done by runners from Mozambique – from 80 bases – recruits marched or travelled by ox/donkey wagon to the nearest rail head connecting to Jo'burg. Pafuri was one of the staging posts.

The area was favoured by opportunists, mainly diamond smugglers,  and our favourite view site on the banks of the river is named Crook's Corner where the infamous Barnard nicknamed "The Swaggerer" slipped across the border to evade the law. The banks of the river is lined with huge yellow evil crocodiles so it must have been a difficult choice - crocs or cops!

Zebra crossing