Uncategorized – Page 15 – wee little lovelys

Southeast Gauteng Trip – Part 2 of 4 (Harties Cableway)

September 29, 2013

Offering panoramic views from the top of the Magaliesberg Mountains, Harties Cableway was our next destination. Thankfully, the somewhat overcast weather burned-off lending us hope and excitement for the views to come.

After a nail-biting ascent (Deanna) we reached the top of the mountain. We walked around finding a pizza joint -always a favourite (Jimmy) and a well placed playground got some mileage (Claire & Rhys). It’s safe to say that the playground may own the best view of any playground anywhere!

Having spent an hour at the peak running amuck, getting sun baked and snapping photos we felt spent. We then made our descent to start our drive to the more educational Southeast region of Gauteng Province.

Jimmy channeling his inner Fabio:

Tired monkeys enroute to our next destination:

Southeast Gauteng Trip – Part 1 of 4 (Elephant Sanctuary)

September 24, 2013

In a past blog entry we profiled the monkey sanctuary located in Hartbeespoort. That particular visit to this area was a short one and we quickly realized there was a lot to do in this town. A resort nearby had a skatepark and that roused curiosity, an elephant sanctuary promised pachyderm interactivity and a UNESCO Heritage site were both close by. The Cradle of Humankind certainly sounded scientifically intriguing. With this all summed up, we started planning an eager return trip.

Our Jo’burg doctor recommended staying on site at the elephant sanctuary as opposed to staying elsewhere. She praised her own experience doing more with the elephants as a result of sleeping there. Although it did end up nice for us, it turned out we were the ONLY guests on our specific night of stay. This meant our customary “fend for ourselves” style got overwhelmed by over eager (tip-hungry) employees. Shrugging off our keen staffers we settled into our sundowner drinks and met our guide. After a walk up some breathless hillside stairs we earned our reward; for the adults a nice view of the Magaliesberg Mountains, for the kids blowing bubbles in their water glasses through “elephant trunks” (straws). Prior to sunset we dined at a fire-lit Boma meal which was nice but the kids’ patience wore thin due to the long day so we called it a night.

We woke the next day for breakfast then onto the touted elephant activities; a brush down, a trunk-held walk around, feeding, and learning all about them. It was a fulfilling two hours albeit Claire and Rhys did scare at times due to the elephants overwhelming size. We enjoyed our time at the elephant sanctuary and we were excited for our next stop on our three day adventure…..

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Flea market enroute to The Elephant Sanctuary

Hiking to have sundowner drinks on our overcast arrival day: Dinner at the Boma:

yes – the elephant scared me. It kept moving around and these things are huge!

A scared Claire only barely lasted the ‘hand hold’ walk:Rhys hiding under our bags partially due to Claire’s response: Feeding the elephants:

Claire’s stamina held while Rhys’ waned:

Tunney Industrial Area

September 19, 2013

Prior to being a terrain-hungry skateboarder, urban industrial areas attracted my attention. As a child my Mom would take me to greasy spoon restaurants in these areas. I think she liked the early-hour start and hustle and bustle of it all.

Recently while scouting around, I discovered a massive dump truck bed that had just been manufactured. It lay lonesome on the roadside awaiting transport to its buyer. I can only imagine the cost of it; as monstrous as its size I’m sure. Taking mental note of the location I promised myself I’d bring the kids back to check it out. Like most boys, Rhys loves trucks and machinery. Claire enjoys them too. Our visit was obviously a hit!

Manufacturers website: http://efficient.co.za/

– Jimmy

Art on Four – family funday!

August 19, 2013

As we’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, we drive A LOT here in Jo’burg. On our travels we often pass an art studio that appears too cool not to visit. Unfortunately, every call we’ve placed ends up unanswered or with no booking spots available. Not this time though!

Art on One is a unique place for families where you paint for social fun rather than instruction. You pay by canvas size and are given two hours to complete your painting, drink coffee, eat treats or go outside and play on their great playground.

It turned out to be a beautiful and warm sunny day for our visit. Claire & Rhys love being creative so we knew this would be a big hit with them. Jimmy even joined in the painting fun. We spent a very fun and leisurely two hours painting several canvases, leaving us plenty of time to run around outside with the kids while the paint dried. What a great Saturday!

Gold Reef City

August 14, 2013

When it comes to family fun time, a visit to a traditional amusement park is near the bottom of our to-do list. The thought of enduring long line-ups and rude people, etc. is not appealing to us.

Recently, my company’s CEO showed me pictures of HIS visit to a local park and it looked really fun, in contrast to our preconceptions. Knowing he brought his daughter and she enjoyed the rides coaxed us into giving it a go.

Built upon an old mine site, Gold Reef City offers a glimpse into history as well as traditional amusement. Restored older buildings still stand, mine shafts can still be toured and a museum touts vintage equipment, etc. Nestled between all the education are rides suited for both the tame and the daring. An adjoining little kids area proved perfect for avoiding energetic hordes of thrill-seekers. The line-ups were manageable and although Claire & Rhys were timid at first they ended up having a lot of fun testing out rides just their size… even a roller-coaster. Our kids are becoming quite courageous in their adventuring! We imagine we’ll end up visiting Gold Reef City again as the kids sure enjoyed it –maybe even as much as us adults.

Best Friends:

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Rhys and his many funny faces:

Claire tired & ready for a break:

Mid-Point of our African Adventure

July 28, 2013

Here we are half way through our African Adventure. It has been quite the trip so far full of ups and downs. Years from now I am sure we will reflect on how amazing this opportunity was for our family.

We have successfully found public access parks and other neat destinations around the city.
We have navigated ourselves around a heavily populated and huge city (27th largest in the world in fact) – Important to note that Jimmy just received his drivers license one week prior to our departure from Canada. He is the one who does all the driving in Johannesburg. Go Jimmy!
Jimmy has done an amazing job at finding himself some cool skate spots and is always on the hunt for pools to skate.
We have found a rhythm for our family in a strange new place.
We have become accustomed to living with very few personal belongings. We each brought one bag of clothes and have not bought very much during our time here. This has been very freeing for me. It puts more focus on what is really important in life.
We have learned to cope with my frequent departures from the family to work in Botswana.
Claire & Rhys have developed so much while we have been in Africa in physical and emotional growth. They are very adaptable kids who are wonderful travelers. Like Jimmy and I, the kids enjoy the excitement of travel and adventure; wanderlust. They both like to colour and draw. They are little artists indeed! They love spending time outdoors and using sticks to draw in the dirt or drive their monster trucks and diggers through the dirt. We have running races everywhere and they are very competitive with each other. They love kicking around a soccer ball and going on walks. They attend preschool 5 days out of the week for 1/2 days. This was something new for us as in Canada they attended a preschool 2 days/ week for 2 hours.
We have had some amazing day and overnight trips. The Safari in Madikwe was a definite highlight.

All this said, we do look forward to returning home. We miss our friends and our family. We can live a free life in Canada that isn’t really possible in Joburg.

We have a few more fun adventures planned which will be really fun so stay tuned!

My Time in Botswana

July 20, 2013

When I accepted this 6 month expatriate position with my company I knew a lot of my time would be spent in Botswana while Jimmy & the kids were in Johannesburg. My work schedule is 1 week in Johannesburg and 12 days to 2 weeks in Botswana. It doesn’t leave us much time to travel in Africa. I would love for Jimmy & the kids to come to Botswana with me as it is a beautiful and very safe country. Sadly, Visa restrictions prevent me from having any leisure time in Botswana as I am only allowed 90 days per calendar year to do business in this country.

Botswana has had the highest average economic growth rate in the world. The government runs things very well and there is no apparent corruption that I have seen. Very different from my experience in Sierra Leone! The Botswana people (Batswana) are very friendly and I see so much wildlife which is great.

The flight from Joburg to Maun, Botswana (see map below) is only over an hour. Once I arrive someone from the company meets me and we drive 3 hours on tar and sand roads to our project site which is next to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve main gate. The farmers don’t have a lot of money so they do not fence in their farms. You will find cows, horses and donkeys frequently crossing the highway. When we left Canada in March we just finished with a Canadian winter only to arrive in Africa for their winter. It isn’t nearly as cold and the sunshine most days which is fantastic. It is however very cold and night and in the mornings. Our camp has generators which shut off at night so you wake up very cold and have to wear tonnes of layers.

Many locals are employed on this project. I was brought out for a 6 month term to complete some geological 3D modelling and to train a local geologist to run the software that I use for this modelling. Also, to assist with the management of the drilling and anything else they need me to do. I work with a great group of people and everyone works very hard to push this Copper-Silver project forward to a successful mining operation.

Here are some photos from my time in Botswana:

The village of Somelo- Donkey carts are a popular form of travel for villagers:

A lady from the Herero tribe – In the 16th and 17th centuries this Bantu group migrated from the Zambezi River Valley to Namibia. The women cover themselves from neck to ankle in a Victorian style dress and a large hat in the shape of a cow’s horn. Someone told me that the more cattle they own the horns on the hat are longer. The fashion comes from contact with the German missionaries at that time.

To get from Maun to our project site we have to cross a veterinary fence that bisects Botswana. You have to take all our shoes and press them into a mat soaked with disinfectant and drive through a dip or wait to have our tires sprayed. The fence was put in place to stop foot and mouth disease. If Botswana wanted to sell their beef to the EU they had to install this fence. It has had a huge effect of migratory animals.

A great book to read on this area of Botswana is: The Cry of the Kalahari by Mark James Owens and Cordelia Dykes Owens.

The sand road heading towards our camp – a very bumpy ride:

Hana Main Camp:

Our offices at site:

Typical 4×4 vehicle we drive in the Kalahari to get to drill rigs, into town etc:

Sighting a new drilling site:

Drillers setting up their rig:Our core storage area:Drilling for water:

African sunsets are gorgeous and the local geologist who I am training told me he found it funny how anyone from North America or the UK always stop to comment and take photos of every sunset.

Animal tracks. I believe it includes a giraffe print and a jackal:

Social weaver birds nests:

Thamalakane River in Maun:

Jaci’s Tree Lodge- Madikwe Game Reserve

June 30, 2013

When most people think of Africa they think of the vast wildlife and the impressive safaris. It isn’t everyday that someone has the opportunity to experience African wildlife, so we budgeted on doing so. We decided to do a luxury safari rather than a self-drive type as we have never been on a real family vacation and it has been challenging living here in Africa with all my work rotations to Botswana etc. We deserved a well earned break. After searching for child friendly lodges we decided to do a safari in the Madikwe Game Reserve which is a 4 hour drive from Johannesburg and is located in the North West province of South Africa where it borders Botswana to the North. It is a malaria-free reserve so it makes it a great kid-friendly choice.

We found the perfect place, Jaci’s Tree Lodge. They gave a us a stellar deal for two nights as it is Winter in South Africa and not the high-season for them. The lodge was built into the trees which was very fun for the kids and Jimmy (it reminded him of the Ewok Village in Star Wars). The staff were great and attentive. They were so good to the kids. It did get cold in the evenings and the lodge was mostly open air so we stayed cozy with lots of layers and hot water bottles. The food was very yummy and very English with tea service and brunch rather than lunch. I suppose it reflects back to British Colonial times.

Day 1- Arrival:

We had a very slow start to our departure from Johannesburg- our vehicle battery was dead after we loaded in the luggage and the kids into their car seats. My companies CEO lent us his company SUV and we left it sitting in our parking garage for a month without starting it. Oops. That was frustrating for us but we managed to get going and after a long four hour drive we arrived in time for the first night safari drive. Seeing as Jimmy rarely has time to himself while we are here in South Africa I was happy for him to go solo on the first drive (as kids are not allowed on the 3 hour safari drives so I stayed back with the kids). He had enough time to unload the SUV and give us quick hugs and kisses. This left the kids & I plenty of time to wonder the trails and check out the lodge. We met Jimmy for a late dinner where he told us his stories from his drive and showed us the amazing photos he captured. We made plans for the next days early morning game drive which was to start at 6:30am. We all fell asleep that night to the sound of crickets, monkeys and other animals that lived around our tree house.

A Jackal takes a cautious drink:

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Day 2:

The safari guide woke us up the next morning with a light tap on our door. While the kids slept Jimmy was able to make it to the lodge to make some coffee and bring it back to the room for me and snacks for the kids before he departed on his morning safari drive. The amount of animals he saw during his drive was really great. They had a mid-way rest stop at some caves where they enjoyed coffee outside. We met for a late brunch which was so nice. They hosted us on the large patio that had stairs leading down to some trails. Brunch was a long affair so the kids were able to go down the steps and safely play while we sipped coffee- bliss! Our safari guide informed us that the kids jungle drive that we booked wasn’t necessary as we would be the only guests for the afternoon game drive so they would allow us to bring the kids along. Yay! Rather than a 45 minute kids jungle drive we would be able to experience a 3 hour drive with the kids. Lucky us! After brunch we visited the amenities at the lodge- a pool and a look-out over a water hole. We headed back to our room for an outside showers and a little nap before we had to depart on the game drive. The evening drive was great. We saw a herd of elephants!, zebras, lions, kudu, impala, giraffes, etc. The kids did wonderful even though the ride was very bumpy. Half-way through the drive we had a rest stop with drinks and snacks which recharged Claire & Rhys for the rest of the drive. On our way back to the lodge for dinner Rhys fell asleep in my arms. The had such a great day 🙂 Dinner was yummy yet again and our safari guide joined us this time so we were able to ask her plenty of questions. A perfect day.

C/W: Lilac-Breasted Roller, Crested Barbet, Red-billed Hornbill & Southern Carmine Bee-eater:

Claire asked us to take a photo of her here so she could ‘remember it forever’:

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Day 3- Departure:

On our last day at the lodge we woke up early again but this time with the kids in tow. We dressed in several layers as it is freezing in the early morning before the sun comes out. It was just our family again in the game drive vehicle as we drove to the southern portion of the park. Our mission was to find some Rhinos. Jimmy saw two on his first game drive but I have never seen one in the wild so I was excited. We didn’t see a lot of animals prior to our mid-drive break. It was so nice to get out of the safari vehicle and run around with the kids, have some coffee & hot cocoa. It re-energized us all and the sun was out so it started to warm up. Shortly after our break we located a Rhino! I was so excited. After watching it graze for a long time we headed back to the lodge. Claire & Rhys both fell asleep in our arms and Jimmy & I soaked up the sun and marveled at how great this trip was for our family. We had a nice brunch when we arrived back to the lodge and packed up our SUV for the long ride home.

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The trip was amazing and one we will never forget 🙂