New Year's Eve with a Difference

I've never been one to have the need to wait up till late just to observe one day tick into another, especially not on the last day of the year. This year was to be oh so different...

My friend Leon who does pyrotechnics and special effects for movies had asked me to join him at the New Year fireworks display at which he was doing in Durban. Due to a venue change he was doing an indoor event at the Convention Centre, so we decided as there was limited access I wouldn't go.

So I settled in at home to watch a very drab lineup of programmes on TV. (I think TV lineup organisers purposely keep all the best programmes off New Year's Eve because most people are waiting up to usher in the New Year with a bang and much drinking!!)

At about 10 pm I had a call from a neighbour to say another neighbour's 2 dogs had arrived at her back door in a state because of fire crackers which were being sporadically let off before midnight, and what should she do. Now these dogs are not really my favourites, the one has a rather irritating bark and barks loudly when it sees me walking around in my own garden, despite me going up to it to say hello. I knew the owners were away and the house sitter was also out, so I climbed over the fence to look for the 3rd dog which I found still at home. It followed me to Jan's house to join its siblings and Jan was quite happy to keep them there for the night. I went home only to find the 3 dogs had followed me a little later. I found them a spot to sleep in my outside laundry room. They settled down on the floor, but were suddenly disturbed and went thundering out across the garden, chasing my cat. She disappeared up a tree somewhere, 2 of the dogs ended up in Jan's yard again, and the other was still with me.

By this time it was getting close to fireworks hour, but I managed to get the dog to calm down and believe it or not, from sheer exhaustion, it fell asleep. It didn't even hear the cacophony of exploding fireworks at 12 o'clock. They're supposed to be banned, but people ignore the rules as usual.

I tiptoed out the laundry at about 20 past 12, wished it a Happy New Year, and went to bed. My thoughts of having a good night's sleep before getting up at 4 am to go flying had been dashed...

Monday Morning (attempted) Flying

Apart from spending Christmas with friends in such a wonderful setting the other reason I went up to Underberg was to assist with some filming of the Umzimkulu River for the organisers of the Drak challenge canoe race in February. They'd asked Jeff to film the river for them to play at the start of the race.

The day broke calm, but not completely clear, so at 5 am we went off to the airfield in Himeville anyway. Both windsocks on the field were blowing in different directions. A whisp of mist rolled over a near by hill... not really encouraging signs.

Then the windsocks hung limply for a while so we took off in the Bantam. Once a few hundred feet off the ground the Berg wind bumped us around so we decided not to risk the low level flying in the stew along the course of the Umzimkulu and landed again. We'll give it a try next weekend. The long term weather forecast shows partly cloudy, but light winds. That's what it said for last weekend!

I wasn't looking forward to the hour and a half drive home, then on to work....

Thanks Jeff.

PS. We eventually got round to filming the Umzimkulul River. See Monday, 5 January 2009

On the Mountain

Jeff's learning to fly a Robinson R22 helicopter. He did some mountain training recently and gave me the pics he took.

(Click on the pics for a larger view).

Mountain training involved landing in some tight spots, like on bridges and small hills. More about that later.

We took the quad bikes up a farm road to the top of the mountain behind the farm house... just because it was there... and... the views from the top are awesome ... etc.

We rode around on top taking in the vast open grasslands and were lucky to spot a few buck, a Cape Vulture, Stanley's Bustards, and a pair of Secretary birds.

Colourful mountain grasses

We drove the quads up a 45 degree hill to see the spot where Jeff put the R22 down during his training session. The hilltop, now called "Helicopter Hill" wasn't very big as can be seen from the pic on the left. We stopped here for a bite to eat, relax and soak in the Berg scenery. A very strong northerly wind was howling up here and one had to brace oneself against it.

Iris on the Mountain

Lazy Saturday

We didn't do much today. We contemplated gutting the fish caught the day before for supper, but neither of us were too enthusiastic about that, so eventually Jeff decided take the fish to his maid's house. She stays on the farm too, but a short distance away.

We took the quad bikes (ATV) and spent nearly two hours out riding. We delivered the fish after having a battle with one of the young girls living in the compound who was being blatantly unenthusiastically unhelpful about finding the woman we were looking for. The gate to the compound was locked and this young girl was being so stupid!!! Typical! Finally after much explanation from Jeff, she reluctantly took the fish and went away. Whether dear old "gogo" (isiZulu for grandmother) got the present or not remains to be discovered.

We went off the farm and down the district road to a small quarry and tried to play around there for a bit on the quads, but there'd been so much rain the night before it was a bit slushy, so we drove around in the Polela river to wash all the mud off the quad bikes!! Boys and their toys!!!

We drove back to the farm, scratched around for something for lunch, stared out across the dam from the veranda, then had a 'power nap'.





Later in the afternoon we watched a storm travelling past.

Another hard day in Africa!!!!!

Boxing Day - Day of Goodwill in South Afirca

On Friday morning Jeff had a booking to take a family of Dutch visitors down the Umzimkulu River on inflatable rafts. Of course I went along too! Although when we left the farm it was cloudy and chilly. It was a 3 hour trip down a section of the river with a few gentle and 2 tricky rapids and some nice gentle stretches of water. We all enjoyed it, I got quite sunburnt! Yes, the sun came out and it warmed up. Forgot to put the sun block on!!!

That afternoon we all (Robbie, Louisa, Jeff and I) went fishing for bass on one of the farm dams near by. Well only Jeff and Robbie got their rods out, I sat huddled on the shore in the grass because it was so cold. After trying differnt spots around the dam, Robbie gave up and took his family back home, Jeff managed to catch one bass. We'd been invited back to Robbie's bungalow for roast pork supper. Mmmmm, much better than fish!

In the mean time they'd had a family drama of some sort, and we never found out what it was about except that the girls (10 and 12 years old) had been cheeky... a magazine... and were given a lecture and sent to their rooms. Without enough clues, Jeff and I couldn't decipher what it was all about!!!!

By the way, we didn't let the rabbits out today, so we didn't have to race back home before it was dark!

Christmas 2008

I drove up to the farm at Pevensey near Underberg in KZN early on Christmas day. I arrived to find Brigid, Jeff's wife in tears because some animal, probably a civet cat got into the rabbit hutch and killed 1 rabbit, and 2 guinea pigs. All that was left of the 1 guinea pig was it's nose. The rabbit was draped over the roof of the hutch with a bite out of its neck and blood everywhere. Brigid said the rabbit was very old and sick and full of sores, and she was going to take it to the vet where she was working over the Christmas weekend in Durban and put it to sleep.... sniff, sniff. So she wasn't too happy as she drove down to Durban on her own, minus the bunny.

Jeff and I joined another of our microlight flying friends and his wife and 2 girls for lunch at the Bushmans Nek hotel. They were staying in a bungalow near the hotel for a few days on holiday. So that was quite nice - the food was pretty ordinary though! We went back to their bungalow in the afternoon and left quite late, in a bit of a hurry too because we wanted to get back to the farm before it got dark because the other 2 remaining bunnies were still out of their hutch!!!!

I had a call from my sister in Canada, wishing me happy Christmas as we were racing back to the farm on a dirt road trying to beat the clock. I can't believe a year has gone by since I was with them. See Visit to Canada 2007/8. While driving an owl took off from the side of the road and flew in front of my car and I hit it. I felt rather bad about that.

When we got back to the house, Jeff went in to unlock and I drove the car round to the back to see if the rabbits were still there... alive. They were thank goodness. Both huddled inside their house. I fed them and shut the door.

Flying Victoria Falls - Zambia/Zimbabwe

Surfing the web today I came across this video...

(For an even better viewing experience, after clicking the play button, click the HD IS OFF icon and click "watch this video in high definition on Vimeo". Full screen view is awesome.)


The Smoke that Thunders from 'Flying the Falls' from Free to Adventure on Vimeo.

From my window...

Summer in the southern hemisphere brings hot sunny days with the temperature rising above 30ºC some days. Most days this past month have been overcast with drizzle and mist. Today is lovely. The Christmas beetles (cicadas) are singing - the sound of Christmas. It's my day off work today and I'm enjoying the day, because the forecast from Wednesday to Friday is rain again. Clear on Saturday so I may go flying if it's calm.

A mini tornado as part of a very fast moving thunderstorm swept through Hillcrest, Forest Hills and Molweni leaving a path of destruction in its wake. Low-cost houses in Molweni were flattened killing 8 people.
In Hillcrest and Forest Hills, tiles were blown from roofs and branches snapped off huge trees, some even being up-rooted. The storm took 7 minutes to cause this much devastation.

Battlefields Fly-In

Trikes from Light Flight field were leaving at 7 on Friday morning (Hmmm, I'd beleve that when I saw it!), I was going to fly with them. The route was via Estcourt Ultra City and Ladysmith, about a 3-4 hour flight. André, Jeff and Brigid were also going. On the way to the field I got the jitters about the flight and didn't want to go, in fact I didn't want to fly at all... never. I got quite emotional about it for some unknown reason. I SMSed Jeff to say I wasn't going and Brigid phoned me back and said I had to go, I could fly with André. By the time I got to the field I was feeling a bit better, and Robbie was there again to see us off. He didn't fly with us as he was leaving for Paris that afternoon on business with Louisa-squeesa. Jeff and I took all our baggage to Light Flight to be taken by the wife of one of the guys. They were nowhere near ready. What did I say about them leaving at 7??

They finally flew over Grass Roots after 8, and we followed at about 8.45. We flew through a bit of Maritzburg airspace to save some time, then routed over Hilton and Mooi River and caught up to the trikes at Estcourt. We landed on the lawn in front of the Shell Ultra City north of Estcourt for breakfast and refuelling, which as always caused quite a stir to people filling up at the pumps.

The trikes took off first and we followed a bit later and headed for Ladysmith where we caught up to them again. We landed at the field and chatted to the guys there for a while before taking off for Dundee which was about 40 minutes further on. André let me fly again to Dundee and I handled the aeroplane very well. It just floats over any turbulance, is easy to correct when it gets bumped and settles back to flying again, not like the trike which tends to get knocked around and usually scares me. I felt really at ease with the odd thermals we encountered.

We skirted the town of Dundee and headed for the Battlefields Lodge out of town which has a landing strip. We had lunch and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. During the afternoon a group of about 7 Quick GT 450 microlights arrived from the Johannesburg area. These very fast and expensive trikes took about 3 hours to fly down from Gauteng. Jeff and I went out for a late afternoon flight over the vast flat farmlands north east of Dundee. We came across a farmer driving home in his bakkie and came down low next to him for a race. We won!!! Supper was potjie - quite nice. No pudding!!!

Saturday morning the GT 450's headed for Ballito on the north coast for the day. We heard later of a microlight crash on the north coast from someone who'd heard it on East Coast Radio. We were wondering if it was someone from that GT bunch, but found out later it was someone else. They crashed into the surf, were badly injured, but in hospital and ok. A flying tour of the local battlefields was on the schedule for Saturday afternoon, and the briefing and flight was brought forward BECAUSE OF THE RUGBY!!! Jeff and André were in Dundee buying 200 litres of avgas (yes a whole 44 gallon drum - which they used up by the way) so missed the flight briefing - they were not amused! By the time they got back the battlefield tour group had left. When they got back from the battlefield flight and were all watching rugby, we went for a local flight. We didn't have the co-ordinates of places like Isandlawana, Rorke's Drift, or any of the other places of interest, so we just headed in the general direction of Vryheid to see what was there. André gave me the controls again and I had a wonderful time flying. Even with the odd humps and bumps. André said I'd have no difficulty doing a conversion on a Bantam because I'd flown a 3 axis plane before - my MAC CDL was a 3 axis fixed wing plane, so there was little difference. We headed back to the lodge before sunset.

We'd decided to return home on Sunday morning and not Monday which was a public holiday because there was a change in weather predicted for Monday. Our baggage was leaving at 6 so we had to get up early to get that loaded. (The bakkie didn't leave until after 8... AGAIN!!) We left at about 9.30 and headed directly for Estcourt Ultra City, but decided to turn south before Estcourt because our fuel levels were still ok and the wind was slightly behind us. On entering Pmb airspace the air traffic controller asked us to fly above 4000 feet to avoid the Comrades helicopter traffic. I didn't get any pictures of the Comrades runners as my camera battery had gone flat!!

I was going to fly my trike on the next good day, but sadly we haven't had many of those since I got back. The first few days were wet and cold, Thursday, Friday and Saturday were too windy. See what Sunday offers. A light SE is predicted.
André asked me the other day when I was going to order my Bantam. Hmmm... a bit of a dilemma here. To do my building additions at home or buy a plane...??Building can generate extra income if I let the house... the Bantam will just cost more money with the rising cost fuel....???? (SIGH)
See www.microaviationsa.co.za/pages/bantam.htm

Margate Flying

As the Kalahari Bundu Bash was cancelled for the 3rd year in a row because of a lack of registrations we - ie. Jeff and André decided to do something else instead. Last year they (Robbie, André and Jeff) flew down to Margate in their Bantams. This year André, Jeff and I went again.

We left early Tuesday morning, heading for the Umkomaas River mouth. Just as we got over the very broken ground of the Umkomaas valley Durban tower called us on the radio telling us we were "encroaching on the Durban TMA". André told them we were aware of the TMA boundary but were outside and below it, heading for the coast at the Umkomaas mouth. We were told to descend to 2500 feet which took us right into the Umkomaas valley making finding a safe landing spot in a hurry if the engine failed very difficult. But we supposed it was just the air traffic controller doing his job because he had a 737 approaching to land.

Once we reached the coast we flew about 1000ft above the beach to Margate, then turned inland to the airport. André has a cousin who owns a holiday penthouse in a block of flats on the beach at Margate. We also had access to his car, but they couldn't get it started, so we hired a car for the 3 days we were there.

The next morning, we all went flying south along the Wild Coast to spot sardines which were making their annual migration up the coast. They had already reached Ramsgate, and there were more further south. I took some aerial video footage and was amazed to see the sharks swimming around in the shoals, particularly in those right on the beach where people were catching the sardines!!! They had no idea sharks were just a few metres from them! André let me fly the plane back to Margate. It's a very easy plane to handle, must easier than the trike. All the steep turns while I was filming left me feeling a bit airsick, so I stayed at the airport while Jeff took his mom for her flight.
I had contacted a colleague at work to tell her about the sardines, and her and cameraman were already on their way down to do a news piece for that night. They came to the airport to collect my tape with the aerial shots on it. Later André and Jeff flew further down the WIld Coast and saw many more huge shoals of sardines and thousands of sharks after them. I was still feeling a bit sick, so I stayed at the airport. Later that afternoon we asked a young pilot to take us for a ride in the twin engine Cessna he was flying for aerial surveys. It had an enormous Leica camera mounted in the floor. I have never seen a camera so huge, about half a metre square with another large memory cabinet for storing the digital photos. Because it was a company plane, he only took us for a 12 minute flip, which was enough, just for the experience. It was so funny how we got the ride... André asked in a loud voice who the pilot was who was flying the Cessna parked on the apron at the airport. And as there was only one other person on the deck with us, he said he was. André then just asked him to take us for a flip. I don't think he could say no. We had also asked a helicopter pilot for a ride they day before. He was checking Eskom power lines and said he'd take us when he returned form the inspection. We waited on the deck until the sun set, but we didn't see him again!
During Thursday night a south wester buster came up and we were worried we wouldn't be able to fly back to Grass Roots in the morning... well not that worried!! It subsided by day break so we had a nice light tail wind home.
Back at Grass Roots we washed the planes and got ready for our next adventure - the annual Battlefields Fly-in at Dundee.

Sani Pass Hike in the Drakensberg

“Why did you walk up the pass?” was the question asked by the young Lesotho border post official when I filled in my entry permit at the top of Sani Pass.

“Because I’ve driven up many times before and this time I wanted to do it on foot.” was my simple reply, but the look on this man’s face indicated that I was perhaps daft. He wasn’t the only one who thought that. Somebody passing us on the way up called out their 4X4 that they had "pills" we could take to rid us of this madness.

Like many people from KwaZulu-Natal I’ve always been drawn to the Berg. I’ve hiked the foothills in the Underberg district (and other sections) many times with new residents of Underberg Bill and Lydia Bailey and our friends. We’ve slept in caves, done the Giant’s Cup trail and camped at Cobham. I was visiting them about a month ago and saw the Sani hike on their hiking calendar and decided that this was one of those “have-to-do” things in my life.

And so I joined a group of enthusiastic hikers on what turned out to be a very memorable hike. The weather was kind to us, with a bit of mist as we set off from the South African border post. The lower section of the road is relatively easy, and the steady incline gradually eases one into the walk. Only at the hairpin bends in the upper reaches of the pass does the pace become slow with a bit of a rest at the bend, followed by gradually longer rests at the remaining corners. It becomes a matter of one foot in front of the other until one reaches the crest of the last straight at the top - 2874 metres (9400 ft) above sea level.

Giant's Cup or Hodgson's Peaks
 from Jeff's microlight

After border formalities were over we headed for Sani Top Chalet for a well deserved drink and lunch. Our overnight accommodation was at Backpackers and was simple but very comfortable in a very well converted old trading store building about 100 metres from Sani Top Chalet. I opted to remain there for a shower and a sleep while the others headed off to Black Mountain for some more exploring, by vehicle, not on foot. While they were out one of those sudden Berg storms broke over Backpackers. The others commented on the huge dark clouds and beautiful rainbow they saw from Black Mountain Pass.

The sun greeted Sani Top on a cloud-free and surprisingly mild morning. There was much scurrying around as Sue our leader had planned a hike to Hodgson’s Peaks of the Giant's Cup before we descended from Sani later in the afternoon. We sloshed through very wet ground across the wide valley behind the escarpment on the way to Hodgson’s. Then the land began to rise and the legs took strain again. A shepherd with an oil tin guitar came past playing “The Lesotho Song”. Whenever I hear one of the Basotho’s playing a guitar it seems to be the same song – an eventually monotonous five or six notes after hearing it for five minutes as he stopped to pose for photographs. I don’t think people should offer money for doing that. In my opinion that action may at some future time have a possible negative reaction. Think about it.

Anyway, my opinions out the way, we reached the crest of the saddle and beheld the breathtaking view of the valley dominated on the horizon by the north and south Hodgson’s Peaks. Our intention was to climb the south peak first (the right peak in the pic alongside) then do the north peak (left in pic). We walked on with the sound of sheep bells in the valley below. Stopping and looking down into South Africa  at the Masubasuba Pass was inevitable. This pass by the way which goes down between the two peaks, is said to be one of the major dagga routes into South Africa. This was another breathtaking view which was only slightly spoiled by low cloud in the Polela valley below and rapidly rising mist at our level. Sani Pass is gentle compared to this foot path descending down the mountain side, although I wouldn’t mind giving it a go some day.

We pressed on up the very steep slope of the south peak, each step harder than the preceding one because of the altitude - we were just over 3000 metres or 9800 ft here) and stopped for breakfast just below the final rocky transverse to the top. It was warmer in the lee of the mountain and the rest felt so good that I almost decided to skip the final assault on the summit. Perhaps I did need those "pills" that passer-by offered! No… when reaching the top and looking back over one of the flattest parts of Lesotho and seeing as far south as Drakensberg Gardens and Bushman’s Nek it was all worth while. The icy wind had suddenly ceased and the mist rising up the face of the escarpment was amazing to see.

After soaking in this beautiful sight for a while we headed for the very precarious little chimney gully and a rather exposed climb down off the 3 256 metre south peak and head for the slightly lower 3 244 north peak of the Giant’s Cup. If one thought the ascent was hard, the descent took its toll on the knees and quads.

The mist was rolling in quickly now around the north peak, so a unanimous decision was made to leave it for some other time. Quite honestly, I don’t think my legs would have liked to climb up another mountain, so we headed for the saddle and back into the valley of one of the tributaries of the Sani River which would lead back to the lodge.

Walking back, one of our party, an incredibly fit 82 year old man took a tumble off a rock and remarkably the only damages were his ego and a few cuts and grazes on his arms and legs. This turned into a very welcome lunch stop while 2 IC Ian attended to his wounds.

As we arrived back at the border post a group of leaderless (or so it seemed) Belgian  tourists with day packs were eagerly, and in our opinion, foolishly, heading off in the direction from which we’d just come. It was already past midday with a lot of mist rolling over the edge onto the Sani plateau. This is how incidents happen in the mountains.

After another well deserved supping in the pub at Sani Top Chalet we decided that the 3 hour walk down the pass would also be left for another time. Nobody admitted it, but I think we were all too exhausted.

When driving down the pass I’m always amazed at the engineering feat that went into building the road all those years ago when David Alexander first took supplies up by truck to Mokhotlong in Lesotho, and wonder what huge construction would be necessary when they eventually get round to tarring the road as is proposed. Whether it be good or bad is debatable, but the erosion will have to be curbed very soon before it all washes away and the mountains once again becomes an impenetrable barrier of spears.
Update 2016: The tarring of the pass road has stopped at the Sani Pass Hotel for now.

Saturday, 9 February

It's been a while since I posted here.

This is the view from my window today. Overcast but warm.

I've started to settle back into life at home now, which hasn't been easy. The daily load shedding power cuts have sort of become nothing to be too concerned about and the public seems to be getting used to them, although this week there have been none, so obviously the demand for electricity has been less. Eskom and municipalities have started to install switching devices in homes which can shut off the geysers. A bit of an intrusion I feel, but they seem to think that will reduce the use of electricity. Eskom will be able to send a pulse down the line which the unit will receive and activate the geyser shut off switch. Big Brother???? I only switch my geyser on about an hour before I take a shower and switch it off again later. (Update: this scheme didn't seem to take off)

An interesting situation at Durban airport last week. The tow bar broke on the aircraft tow vehicle, and to get the plane out the parking bay, about 12 ground crew pushed the SAA Airbus back.

Someone sent me this the other day...
National Party = White Power
ANC = Black Power
NOW = NO POWER!!!!!!!!

(Credit to My Space Blog at Mweb)

Sunday, 20 January 2008

You know you're in Africa... .

...when electricity load shedding (I still don't understand the purpose) happens on a daily basis and will do so for about 8 years until new power stations are built. According to Durban City Manager if Eskom decided to cut the power for 2 weeks we won't have electricity for 2 weeks. I would have thought this would have a negative impact on the economy, but Durban Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer, Prof. Bonke Dumisa said "(power cuts) will not affect the economy substantially because Eskom has been pro-active in alerting the public as to when there will be power cuts. Business owners will have adequate time to prepare themselves..." (Quote from Forest Express newspaper, 18 January 2008) Hmmm.

...when your neighbour tells you the people next door who moved in about a month ago have had 2 burglaries. The first was about a week after they moved in, and they ran away when disturbed. The second was about 2 weeks ago when the wheels of both their luxury cars parked outside the garage were removed. They even propped the cars up on tree stumps from newly felled pine trees.

Oh Canada!

I must just add something funny from the same article in the Forest Express newspaper about the power cuts: "His (Eskom spokesperson) opinion was backed up by eThekweni electricity department which said ordinary faults sometimes occurred at the same time as the load shedding, as well as by the city's Municipal Manager, Mike Sutcliffe."(Sorry Express reporters, but this read as if Mike Sutcliffe was also a cause of power cuts.)

Anyway enough. I contacted my relations in Canada on Google Talk this afternoon. The wintry weather's returned with a vengeance. The view from the lounge window and a snow-covered tree. It does have a beauty all of its own though.

Saturday, 19 January 2008

The flight from Heathrow took off almost an hour late because of the crashed 777 at the end of one of the two runways. We had to slot in between landing aircraft on the north runway. Our pilot told us we'd probably catch up time en route because of the jet stream over Europe, and in fact we got to Johannesburg exactly on time the next morning.
I realised I couldn't waste time getting my connecting flight because I still had to go through passport control and check in. I managed to get to the plane door while people were still getting their bags and things. I raced ahead through the confusion at Jhb airport to passport control where the woman at the desk was a bit confused about the flight I was going on, she thought Canada... er... back in SA you know... After I explained I had COME from Canada and Heathrow in London she stamped my passport and told me I had come to the wrong section, and I should proceed to the correct section and pass through permit holders and diplomats entrance and not queue with the other passengers as she'd already stamped my book. Ok I was pleased about that as I could get moving again. Another passenger and his wife from Germany I think, was also concerned about his connecting flight to George which was boarding in about 15 minutes. He said he'd follow me. I explained I had already gone through the entry process and he had to queue with the other hundred or so passengers. I left him with a look of panic and despair on his face, and ran to the domestic terminal which is only accessible by leaving the international terminal and going outside for about 200 metres because of on-going build alterations. I ran! Then it was up about 3 floors to the check in desks. I got through fairly quickly and went to the departure gates and couldn't find my one as it wasn't clear on the boarding pass. I found what I thought was my gate which was actually the flight boarding to George and told the attendant there were people still in immigration wanting to catch the flight. He thanked me for informing him but didn't think the flight would be held that long. Well, I tried. The worst was they'd go on standby for a later one.

In the meantime my flight was about half an hour later at another gate upstairs.... aaaaaagh!

The approach to Durban was the most spectacular I'd ever had. Unfortunately my camera wasn't at hand to take a picture. We arrived at the coast way north of the Umgeni River and flew about 3 km out to sea, did a downwind leg at about 2000ft along the coast, still quite far out, then turned very low over part of Umbogintwini, I heard the throttle open quite a bit as we turned onto a rather short final, with the ground very close!!! Quite interesting!

I think my brown suitcases should go back to the Goodwill Store in Canada where they came from as I think they're jinxed. They didn't arrive on my flight. I wondered where on Earth they had gone. I found out from the Baggage Desk they were in Johannesburg because I never collected them there as I didn't go through customs!!! A woman at the desk piped up that we were told on the plane before we got out that we had to collect our luggage. I said this was not the case. Her next comment really p'd me off. She said there were signboards at the airport. I told her that Jhb airport is such a mess with building alterations and there was no such sign. That kept her quiet! In the mean time the guy attending to me gave me a form to fill in an said my bags would be on the 13:20 flight which was about 3 hours from when I arrived.

Leon took me home and I would return to the airport myself as they wouldn't deliver to my home because they didn't loose the baggage, I had not collected them. OK, OK! Well to cut a long story short I got my 2 suitcases later, and even complimented the old bat at the desk for remembering my name.

Friday, 18 January 2008

A different view from my window today...

Big Ben at just after 8:30 this morning.

We got to the airport at about 3:30 pm which gave me plenty of time to say a quick and tearless goodbye outside the airport and get settled in the departure lounge. Only after the plane was airborne did I shed a farewell tear or two, and I’m sure my sister did the same in the car leaving the airport. By the way I couldn't believe my luck, the seat next to me was not occupied so I could lie down across 2 seats, which is a first for me. The 6 hour flight across the Atlantic seemed shorter because they woke us up at about 4 am GMT for breakfast, so I only got about 2 hours of dozing, but better than nothing.

I arrived at Heathrow, London at about 6:25 am local time, checked one of my bags in for safe keeping and took the tube into the centre of London. I emerged at Westminster Pier to rain and temp of about 10°C. I took some pics of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, bought a ham roll and some coffee at a shop opposite the clock tower and stood out of the rain to eat it. It was too warm inside to sit there!

Because of the rain I felt there was no point in hanging around or going anywhere, so I caught the tube back to the airport. I read in one of the papers left on the tube that a British Airways aircraft had crashed at Heathrow last night. A Boeing 777 was on final approach and lost power about 500 feet above the ground. The plane crashed 16 metres inside the airport perimeter fence, ripping the underbelly open, damaging both wings and 2 wheel units were ripped off. None of the 136 passengers were seriously injured. Officials aren’t sure what caused the loss of power.

I’m sitting at the airport now entering this log. After lunch I found a place I could have 40 winks and now feel quite refreshed and ready for the next 12 hour flight to Joburg.
Not holding my breath about vacant seats though!

I don’t think there’s anything more to add here for the time being except to say thank you to my sister, her husband and two delightful boys for the wonderful time I spent with you. I love you all very much.XXXX

Thursday, 17 January 2008

The view from the lounge window on this my last day in Canada on this trip. As usual it's been a wonderful time, being with my family, meeting new people especially the Hiller's and the Hind's. We spoke about South Africa, and we gave the negative views but more importantly the positive ones. I found it quite amazing how many people I had spoken to knew someone or knew of someone who was either South African or had been to South Africa. Africa is too far away from Canada for Canadians to visit for a vacation, preferring the southern American states, particularly Florida and South Carolina and the Caribbean.

My bags are packed and I'm ready to go.

See you all again next time.

Wednesday, 16 January 2008

The view from the window today is pretty much like Monday. The snow is piling up as the temperature sits at -7ºC. Last night we took a short walk round to our neighbours parents for drinks at about 7pm. The sky was clear and the moon was shining. We left at about 10pm and it was still clear and around -1º, so there was some hope of blue skies today... I see on the Weather Network much more snow is forecast for tomorrow, the day I leave for home.

After the boys went off to school and my sister had done a bit of housekeeping, we set off for Tavistock about half an hour south east of Stratford to look at a furniture shop. We weren't going to buy anything, just look at a multimedia centre with built in electric fireplace. We saw some we liked, and have left it to my brother in law to go back to decide what he wants to replace the almost 18 year old TV cabinet they got when they got married in Scottburgh on the KZN south coast. Has it been that long? We had a Tim Horton's coffee and cookie and I bought a 12 pack of ground coffee to take back home. I hope it's allowed through customs. Just checked, coffee is not on the list.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and packing. I'm ready to go.

Tuesday, 15 January 2008

The dinner was an eat as much as you like noodle affair at Gene's Chinese Restaurant in town, and the restaurant had been closed to the public for 3 sittings - we were the last sitting at 7pm.

This morning it was snowing lightly when my sister and I went into town to visit her work and go for a walk along the T.J. Dolan Trail along the Avon river. Down near the river among the bare snow-covered trees it was quite pleasant and were almost unaware that we were near the centre of a small city, with a main road passing nearby. Not quite dead centre of town, although there was a cemetery on the other side of the river! :-)

We were dressed as usual for the weather in boots, coats, hats and gloves, and spent about half an hour walking along the path. We saw a squirrel and some small birds at a bird feeder. Kind folk put seed in the feeders for the birds. The squirrels aren't able to get to the seed because of cone-shaped barriers on the poles, but are able to eat seed which the birds spill onto the ground.

We drove into town for coffee at Balzac's which the neighbour said was the best coffee shop in Stratford. The coffee was very good, and we sat at the counter facing Ontario street hoping to people watch, but the window was fogged up. The seed cookie (biscuit) was also good and filling.

After sitting talking for a while we strolled through downtown Stratford, down the Avon River where it runs through town, took some photos and walked back to the car and went home.

Monday, 14 January 2008

It continued snowing overnight and this morning the winter wonderland look had returned.

The little 1 metre high cypress outside the front door had its Christmas covering on it again.

My sister and I went to Kitchener about 40 minutes drive northwest of Stratford to look at a hobby shop which seemed to be in a private residence, and I didn't like the look of the place so we didn't get out the car. Instead we went on to another one on the otherside of town, but they didn't have anything which would have been of interest to my friend Leon at home. We went on to Canadian Tire which I would compare to Game in South Africa and bought a snow mobile suit which would do the perfect job when flying my microlight trike to Underberg in the winter. Windproof and very warm! I'm going to test drive it later. I'll get my brother in law to take me for a high speed ride on the back of his pickup along one of the country roads, just to make sure it can handle the wind chill factor as well. Oh... I've subsecuently found out a person is not allowed to be on the back of a vehicle unless all the seats with seatbelts are occupied. Hmmm. Canada and its regulations! Oh well, I'll have to believe the labels on the suit that say it's windproof etc.

Trees along the highway to Kitchener

Tonight we're going to a fund-raisers dinner for some poor African village. I know it sounds strange. That reminds me about the story my brother in law has told me of someone he knows who found his brown truck tailgate had been swapped for a white one overnight. I thought I was in Canada!!!?? At least it was a straight switch... now that's probably the difference!?

(Update: The snow mobile suite is perfect for flying the microlight. I've been using it regularly since I got back home.)

Sunday, 13 January 2008

I was a bit slow in posting this today, so people in the Eastern Hemisphere will only read this on Monday.

There was a tiny bit of snow overnight and I thought the sun was going to come out today (see pic left), but the clouds are too thick again. The snow has melted off the roofs and the temperature remains at 0ºC. The wind's shifted to blowing from the east today, and it looks like another grey day. The Canadians apparently don't like this "in between" weather, preferring either below zero with lots of snow or sunny and snow to this rainy damp weather we're having now. I'm inclined to agree. When there's lots of snow about and the sun shines, it really is a pleasant sight. The snow so white, and the sky a bright blue. Yes, it's blerry cold, but with the right clothing, being outside (although briefly) is bearable. We'll see what this my last week in Canada brings.

When the boys parents came back from Collingwood this morning we drove to London to visit Masonville Mall, just to get out and walk around for some exercise and a Tim Horton's coffee and donuts. As we arrived back home at about 4:30 pm it began to snow. Maybe this is the snow they're predicting.

Saturday, 12 January 2008

Well, the sun has tried to come out today, and it also tried to snow and rain. Temp just above zero Celsius outside (21 inside). The dog doesn't stay out long when she gets let out to do her business.

Looking out now I don't think the sun's going to get a chance today. People are still talking about this definitely unseasonal thaw and the news has issued warning to people not to walk on ice as it's thin and dangerous. People drill holes in frozen lakes, dams and rivers to fish in winter.

Life in winter here in Canada is so different to winters in South Africa. Some people leave their cars idling in the supermarket car parks so they're not cold when they get back! Can you imaging leaving your car idling in a car park in South Africa? It would be stolen before you walked away from it! But leaving the car running in Canada is not a thing that is done much because according to my sister, the Canadians are becoming more eco aware now. In summer big shopping centres and supermarkets only have about half their interior lights on in an attempt to keep electricity usage down. Home owners are encouraged to turn off lights when they're not in the room, and the municipality supplies different crates to each household for recycling e.g. plastics, paper tins, glass. South African should take a leaf out of their book. Drive through any city or large town in SA and see all the highrise office blocks a blaze of lights. (See the comments on 11 January) I think we must write to our city managers to get them to look into this situation. I know I'm going to speak to the general manager of my work place about turning office lights out at night when there's nobody there. Sometimes I go around the building turning passage lights out during the day. It's a pity other people don't care about these things too! Oh well.....

Babysitting my nephews is an easy task because all day and every day (in winter) they're at their computers playing video games (except when they're at school, and I wonder if they sit there longing for home time so they can get back to the games!!) They get on well together and I don't have to be referee of any fights.

Friday, 11 January 2008

The day started off cold (do I need to mention that?) and wet. It rained off and on, then about 2 pm light pellet snow fell for a while. It stopped just before we did the newspaper delivery route, but the wind was icy as usual. It was strange to see the neighbourhood without the 30cm covering of snow there was when I walked with the boys 2 weeks ago. Green lawns everywhere. The grass is snow resistant and retains its green colour.

The weather forecast says light snow overnight, some Saturday and Sunday and they expect about 1cm over the next 24 hours. If it continues to rain as well, the snow will melt again.

So that was Stratford today.

Thursday, 10 January 2008

I've sorted out the Comments problem - you can send them now.

Well the basketball game last night was enjoyable. It was a friendly house league game and my nephew shot a basket and was really chuffed. So were his dad and I.

Well done Buzz!

The sun shone for a while today, but it remained around 0ºC. Only small isolated bits of snow remain in some sheltered spots in gardens around the city. Now that my sister's off her night shift stint, we're going to get around more in town.