The Grants' African adventure

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A study in space and time

We’ve been trooping around in our Kombi-like vehicle for a week now, and while it is a fantastic, easy-to-clean, easy-to-drive eight seater vehicle, it’s still challenging to be cooped up with five of the male species for such a large part of the day (sorry guys, but I have to be honest!). Our wonderful nephew Lance has the unenviable chance to see our family at it’s best and it’s very worst – farts and all, you might say.

Driving The Garden Route has allowed us to see some beautiful places and we keep saying to each other that we wish we had longer at each place – that is when everything is peaceful and we don’t feel like wringing each others’ necks!

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Posted by  |  July 7, 2012 | Categories: Before | 4 Comments

Sharks and carts

Here’s a few more random photos from recent days. Joseph and Lance went diving with Great White sharks. We don’t have much in the way of photos but Lance took some underwater video and also bought the tour DVD so we have some great footage. The sharks came VERY close.

Also in this set are some shots of the Atlantic waves of Cape Town and the boys having a go-cart ride near Cango Caves.

Enjoy!

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Posted by  |  July 6, 2012 | Categories: South Africa | 2 Comments

Photo blog

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Cable car to Table Mountain

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Looking back the way we came.

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Posted by  |  July 6, 2012 | Categories: South Africa | 3 Comments

On the road (quick update)

Just a quick update (this morning South Africa time). We’ve been on the road the last few days, staying with long-time family friends of the Grants as we start to make our way east, and north of Cape Town. The main highways here are excellent – the N2 puts the Bruce or Newell Highways to absolute shame. So it’s easy and enjoyable driving.

Tuesday morning the tablecloth lifted and we were able to get up the stunning slopes of Table Mountain – recently named one of the new wonders of the natural world. The tablecloth had lifted but Cape Town remained swathed in a fog so it was a stunning view – you really felt on top of the world. Joseph and Lance missed Table Mountain because they were near Cape Aghulus, diving with Great White sharks. As soon as we get some cheap internet we will post photos and footage of both. On this holiday Joseph has ridden an elephant, fed lions and dived with sharks. He loves the adventure.

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Posted by  |  July 5, 2012 | Categories: South Africa | 1 Comment

A vicious penguin

We went from twelve people crowded into a seven-seater minibus with no seat belts (and more potholes than road) to a Mercedes minibus and a spare seat! Oh, but we LOVED Zimbabwe and wouldn’t have changed a thing!!! How could we thank Debbie Brennocks and her beautiful girls enough for helping us experience such an amazing ten days?

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We are now staying in a lovely place called Noordhoek in two cute little cottages, with Morag and Lance next door. It’s been fantastic having Morag and Lance to share the boys with. For the past two days we have done a lot of sight-seeing in beautiful Capetown. Yesterday we drove around to different places that Andrew, Morag and Lance remembered from their childhoods.

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Posted by  |  July 3, 2012 | Categories: South Africa | 4 Comments

Cape Town – photos

We we’re hoping to get up Table Mountain today but the tablecloth hung around all day so we will have to wait. Instead we went to the Scratch Patch to fulfill my Mum’s birthday wish for us. Then we went to Hout Bay and I got to catch up with a school mate from Henry Low Primary, Kerry Macdonald. We hadn’t seen each other since we left the school at the end of 1981. Fish and hips at Hout Bay were brilliant.

We spent some time at Sea Point and went on the ferris wheel (far helper than the one in Brisbane). Then we spent the rest of the day taking Lance to his childhood homes and schools. He is loving seeing the city of his birth as an adult!

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Fish Hoek Beach

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The place where we used to sit on our Fish Hoek holidays. We have several photos taken of us at this spot in the 80s.

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The Scratch Patch

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Noordhoek Beach

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Hout Bay

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Seals at Hout Bay

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Clan Grant and Clan Macdonald

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Going on the Ferris Wheel

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The Tablecloth

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Lance and Morag at heir old house in Kenwyn.

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Lance’s old playground

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Our ride for the next 12 days. A Mercedes!

Posted by  |  July 2, 2012 | Categories: South Africa | 4 Comments

Methodology

While we were in Zimbabwe we overlapped two international ‘mission’ teams who came in contact with the Sandra Jones Memorial Village. No names, nationalities or denominations shall be mentioned in this blog, but I wish to comment on their differing methodology.

We will start with Group A. They are in Zimbabwe for nearly a month, and in that time are spending time with only two places (I think). They spent two weeks with the Sandra Jones Memorial Village. In that time a lot of their contribution was practical service. They painted the babies home, they cleared a fire break around Willow Park and as some of them were in the medical field they spent a lot of time tending to the children’s health needs.

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Posted by  |  July 1, 2012 | Categories: Zimbabwe | 6 Comments