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.

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.

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.




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.



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.

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.







Jared enjoying the sun and space to play a little ball

 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.

At last...the big one



our little stow away. Lisa with baby, the little rat dog



alot of rain in the area





The christmas feast



Suzy Q needed a good wash





Lefty enjoying the sun




3 ladies relaxing (Ilse, Lisa and Lefty)

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