i got home today after a HARD day at work and i was in good spirit. Our kids are(finally) on the way back from Margate and i was looking forward to seeing them. Lefty, Ilse and myself were sitting having a relaxing drink and i thought it would be a good idea to do a blog on Lisa's (poepies) matric farewell. My little baby is growing up!!!!!!! We are getting ready to take her to Pretoria next week.I have to leave my baby there because she is studying there. My baby is off to university.
I had the whole thing planned out, stories about her when she was young, photos from baby to lady, and then the big dissappointment. I have now learned the hard way that trying to blog on a lap top and using a mobile service provider is not a good idea. NO PICS TODAY sorry. Thank you to MTN. I have used 85mb so far and have not managed to load a single picture. 3 hours, 85mb, 15 cigarattes, a lot of swearing and now finally, me having to vent my anger and hopefully get this post onto my blog before 2020.
Enough of that for now. No actually not..... why do we always just accept that when we get bad service that we sit back and hope that it gets better. Crap man. i pay for the service and then i have to sit here and struggle because (according to their call centre person who remained nameless) they are experiencing high call volumes? Do they not plan for this type of thing? Imagine going to the hospital and the doctor telling you " sorry Mrs Hepburn, Just hold the little baby in there a little longer because we are experiencing high patient volumes right now." Don't think i would accept that. Tomorrow i am switching to Vodacom and i am really hoping that they are better than MTN.
Sorry for having to listen to me venting but i feel better. Now i am going to relax and hope that tomorrow i can post my baby's matric farewell story.
Until then, safe travels and keep well
Cheers
George & Celeste
Wednesday 4 January 2012
Monday 2 January 2012
Christmas in Dullstroom
I know that i am working slightly backwards here, but hey, what would life be if we all moved in straight lines everyday.
I was just thinking that i need to share our christmas aswell. so here we go.
All in all it was another good week end and one more good memory to add to the list. Little Troutbeck would definitley be on my list of places to visit if you were looking for some seriously good trout fishing, peace and alot of walking. Just one piece of advice(ok 2) take games for the kids and if you fish, the "Black Fritz" is the hot fly.
It was a good christmas and we hope that all of you had a wonderful time over the festive period and stayed safe. I will adding some of our previous trips within the next few days to share some of our time in the kruger park, Komatipoort, Jozini and a few others.
Until then, keep well and safe travels.
Cheers
George & Celeste
I was just thinking that i need to share our christmas aswell. so here we go.
Dullstroom, a small drinking town with a fishing problem. That is what the sticker on the back of Suzy Q (our land Rover) says. We booked place at Little troutbeck and duly decided that the best route would be to travel to Roosenekal and then take the dirt roads through Tonteldoos to Dullstroom. It was wet wet wet. Rained all the way there and it was a fun drive. Suzy Q was truly loaded (myself, Lefty, Ilse, Lisa and Jared) and alot of cooler boxes and groceries. We arrived in Dullstroom and "accidentally" found ourselves parked right in front of the Dullstroom hotel. This was the hotel where the first Finders Keepers game, in the sunday times if you can remember, hid the first 1 million rand. Sort of mad the place famous??? Don't know about that one. We had to stop for a glass of port/sherry due to the icy cold weather. This is really one of the nicest pubs i have been to and the fire place was an added bonus. It really was cold. Just remember that in Burgersfort we have temperatures of high 30 to 40' celsius. We warmed up and stopped further in town to stock up on some flies for our big fishing week end that lay ahead. Stopped in a little fishing shop and met the owner, John, who happened to manage the place we were going to. After huge amount of advice and a huge amount rands spent on equipment, we left to find our home for the week end.
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| A warm port enjoyed in the pub in Dullstroom |
We arrived and the big unpack was sorted in no time at all. Rods were set up, beers were packed into the fridge, hard tack was readied on the counter and Christmas officially began. Of course myself and Pieter (father in law) (will be refered to as DAD in all my blogs) could not wait to get down to the water to start the fishing. A quick bit of free advertising for Little Troutbeck coming up....... There are 9(?) dams to fish on the property and all are well stocked. Some are a distance to walk but certainly worth it. Loch Logan is the biggest dam and just happened to be the closest to our house so we headed over there. Dad had huge strikes but couldn't land any on the first day.
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| The view from our verandah over Loch Logan |
I had managed to get one little one (about 800grams) landed at around 19h00. The first catch of the week end. On christmas eve we opened the pressies, had a few drinks and spent a little quality family time together. When the woman went to bed, dad and i spent the rest of the evening getting our tackle together for the next days fishing. We were joined by Oom Booi and Tanie Kowie on christmas day and enjoyed a feast of home cooking and laughs. We spent a few hours on the water but due to some serious wind (natural, not ours) couldn't really get any decent fishing done. But atleast the sun was shining and we made the most of it.
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| Ma, Dad, Oom Booi, Tanie Kowie |
It has been rumoured that the area we were in gets snow in the winter months and is pretty cold. I am trying to convince Lefty that we need to go in winter because trout like cold water so the fishing should be easier.
One thing i discovered over the christmas week end is that it doesn't matter where we go for our get aways, i always feel that no other place can compare to the one we are at on that week end. The ladies were bored but we had a ball fishing walking, playing ball, drinking and more fishing.
The fishing was difficult and even John was having a hard time landing one, then his wife stepped up and caught one on her third cast. Must have been very lucky. Anyways, the time was flying and we still had some serious fishing to do so we spent another evening retying leaders, checking flies, doing knots and doing the abligatory fish talks. The last day was a glorious day, even though there was a slight wind and i decide to walk up to the top dam. I broke off my line 3 times trying to land some big ones and realised that i need to work on knots. Not a good feeling but it comes with the sport. I finally managed to land a decent size trout about 2 hours before we were due to leave. I was exstatic. This was the first "big" trout i have ever caught and i felt proud of myself. Dad and Jared joined me and we were just starting to get on the fish when the cell phones started ringing and the wives started nagging that it was time to leave. The luck of the Scottish i suppose.
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| Dad and Oom Booi returning from the water |
One thing i discovered over the christmas week end is that it doesn't matter where we go for our get aways, i always feel that no other place can compare to the one we are at on that week end. The ladies were bored but we had a ball fishing walking, playing ball, drinking and more fishing.
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| Jared enjoying the sun and space to play a little ball |
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| At last...the big one |
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| our little stow away. Lisa with baby, the little rat dog |
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| alot of rain in the area |
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| The christmas feast |
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| Suzy Q needed a good wash |
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| Lefty enjoying the sun |
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| 3 ladies relaxing (Ilse, Lisa and Lefty) |
It was a good christmas and we hope that all of you had a wonderful time over the festive period and stayed safe. I will adding some of our previous trips within the next few days to share some of our time in the kruger park, Komatipoort, Jozini and a few others.
Until then, keep well and safe travels.
Cheers
George & Celeste
new years at Buffelsvley
We spent new years at Buffelsvley guest farm, 25km outside Burgersfort. This is our local waterhole and it just seemed that it was the obvious choice to celebrate the start of a new year. It was decide before hand that we should book a room as i did not want to be driving home at 3 in the morning after a party. Good choice!!!!
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Jackie and Wikus |
Being in the Limpopo province we couldn't hope for a white christmas or new years, but we most definitley had a wet new years. It was raining when we arrived and our hopes for a nice big fire and braai (barbecue) seemed to be on the rocks. But, a few beers later, the skies cleared and the people started arriving and the party started catching some speed. Our hosts, Wikus and Jackie, had expected about 50 people but i estimate that we must have been closer to a hundred (seemed like 300 by 12 o'clock but i think the drinks had something to do with that). The fires started burning, the music was playing, the drinks were flowing and the new year spirit was getting on.
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Oros with his dance |
Alot of our friends and family joined us and one highlights was getting to see our mate Oros doing his party trick. He has an ability to balance a glass on his head (FULL) and do a dance that i can't even do when i don't have a glass on my head. I have tried this a few times (at home with an empty plastic glass) and can't last 3 seconds before it falls off. Not a trick to try if you have not practiced alot. Oros lives up to his name is both size and personality. Affectionately known as the "manne", Oros and Smithie are larger than life in all ways. You can be sure of many laughs, quirky jokes and, from Oros, constantly wanting to call me "dad". This has something to do with him meeting my daughter a while ago and him believing that he will be a good son in law. (hahahahahaha)
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| The "Smittie dirty dance" |
There was a live band called "Let there be rock". Not bad but they were slightly over powered by the music from the bar where most of the people decided to spend their time. It felt like in no time at all the count down was on and it was time to reflect on the past year, dream about the new one and start wondering what is install for us now? The bubbly was passed around and kisses and well wishes were dealt with. And then suddenly it was 2012. A few die hards stayed till the wee hours but most people started dwindling off and Lefty went to bed at about 2.
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| Just before 12. Last dance of 2011 |
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| Dad and Ma |
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| The Van Heerdens |
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| JP and Mienie |
I think that the night was a great success (no fighting, no troubles and good company) and i really hope that all the people, friends and family that enjoyed the night with us will be blessed in the new year to come.
My mother has been visiting my sisters in Australia and New Zealand for a while and she was lucky enough to be in Sydney for new years. Not a cheap excercise to get a call through to her but eventually managed to say a few words before being cut off.....Thank you MTN. Now its time to get ready to go back to work and get into the hum drum of what we call our lives in the week. Once again i am already sitting with the latest issues of Getaway and Driveout and already we are trying to work out where we will be going on my next week end off.
Happy new year to all and safe travels
Cheers
George & Celeste
The first introductions
Lets start with the introductions before we jump in get going with the real work of telling our story to anybody who might want to listen.
My name is George. I am 38 years old and have been married to Celeste for almost 19 years. We have 2 children, Lisa (18) and Jared (15). We are outdoor people and have spent many week ends in and around the area on fantastic and "not so fantastic" week ends. My hope is that we can share our experiences with people out there to encourage them to get out of the house and into the world.
Living in a small town like Burgersfort can be good but can also be very bad. The fact we live, work, party and do just about everything else together can lead to some serious tension and bad friendships. This was one of the main reasons that we decided that getting out of town when ever we can will be the best solution.
Lets go back about 3 years when i first moved to Burgersfort to start my new job on the mine. We left Kempton park and arrived in Burgersfort at 11 at night with the moving truck. The kids were not impressed with the town and it took a long while to get them to understand that things will get better. Luckily things did. We met new people, started seeing the area for what it was and slowly but surely started getting used to the small town life and the fact that you do not have much of a choice when it comes to shopping.
3 years later things have changed dramatically and even the kids admit that it was a good move. You will get to see that i am a HUGE Land Rover fan and we recently purchased a Defender 110. This is our wagon on our travels and you will see it often in our pics. We are not very particular when it comes to what we do and where we go but i do try to be honest about the places and the people. If anybody should read this and feel offended, then please click the "X" in the top right hand corner and go back to knitting or what ever you want to do.
Please also feel free to leave comments and suggestions. If you know of places we can go and experiences you have had, please tell us all. I will try to get our experience across in the best way i can and would love to get to meet new people and places, so please let us know.
we will start to get the word out that holidays do not have to be expensive but can be enjoyed by anybody if you put your heart into it.
Thank you for reading so far and please come back often and share our times with us.
Cheers and safe travels
George and Celeste
My name is George. I am 38 years old and have been married to Celeste for almost 19 years. We have 2 children, Lisa (18) and Jared (15). We are outdoor people and have spent many week ends in and around the area on fantastic and "not so fantastic" week ends. My hope is that we can share our experiences with people out there to encourage them to get out of the house and into the world.
Living in a small town like Burgersfort can be good but can also be very bad. The fact we live, work, party and do just about everything else together can lead to some serious tension and bad friendships. This was one of the main reasons that we decided that getting out of town when ever we can will be the best solution.
Lets go back about 3 years when i first moved to Burgersfort to start my new job on the mine. We left Kempton park and arrived in Burgersfort at 11 at night with the moving truck. The kids were not impressed with the town and it took a long while to get them to understand that things will get better. Luckily things did. We met new people, started seeing the area for what it was and slowly but surely started getting used to the small town life and the fact that you do not have much of a choice when it comes to shopping.
3 years later things have changed dramatically and even the kids admit that it was a good move. You will get to see that i am a HUGE Land Rover fan and we recently purchased a Defender 110. This is our wagon on our travels and you will see it often in our pics. We are not very particular when it comes to what we do and where we go but i do try to be honest about the places and the people. If anybody should read this and feel offended, then please click the "X" in the top right hand corner and go back to knitting or what ever you want to do.
Please also feel free to leave comments and suggestions. If you know of places we can go and experiences you have had, please tell us all. I will try to get our experience across in the best way i can and would love to get to meet new people and places, so please let us know.
we will start to get the word out that holidays do not have to be expensive but can be enjoyed by anybody if you put your heart into it.
Thank you for reading so far and please come back often and share our times with us.
Cheers and safe travels
George and Celeste
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