Map of our travels+221.jpg)
Lemur!!+210.jpg)
Table Mountain Shaped Wine Bottle- ohh to be a tourist+185.jpg)
Our very own beach+168.jpg)
Roburg+162.jpg)
+158.jpg)
Plett Beach+157.jpg)
Adorable Kitten at Cat Sanctuary+140.jpg)
Marina Petting Chester+137.jpg)
Chester the Cheetah+120.jpg)
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Knysna Heads and ocean+085.jpg)
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The Knysna Lagoon (taken from the Knysna Head)+061.jpg)
Me walking with elephant+058.jpg)
Marina, Heather, Louise, Roxy and Chelsea with Elephant+039.jpg)
Marina and Chelsea walking with Elephants+018.jpg)
Great White Ape+008.jpg)
A favourite monkeyHello all diligent blog readers,
We are back at school after a fantastic school holiday. Today is the first real winter day here in Cape Town, really windy and rainy with a max temp of 15 degrees. We are all rugged up and luckily Derek’s package arrived yesterday so I was able to have a warm cup of hot chocolate this morning. I am also having a weird craving for flannelette sheets.
Luckily winter has only begun since we got home so we had a lovely week in Knysna complete with beautifully sunny days. We ended up leaving Friday morning rather the intended 11pm Thursday night departure. We were able to get a lift with Sean, a friend of Louise and Ryan’s (Marina’s family friends who were stayed with) who was also heading down for a visit. It was so nice to go in a car rather than the bus- not to mention he had a huge Kombi which allowed us 3 seats each. The trip also takes about 3 hours more in the bus so we got their much sooner and even had a nice stop at Steers for some excellent burgers and chips. We first visited their beautiful B&B called Elephant Hide. It is situated on top of a hill that overlooks the Knysna lagoon and has an infinity pool on the front deck which makes it look like your about to swim over the edge into the lagoon. We also had a tour of the rooms which were all beautiful with amazing views- huge, warm/comfy looking beds and giant bathtubs. That evening we headed to the Friday fair that is held at the kid’s school (Louise and Ryan have two little girls- Chelsea (age 6) and Roxy (age 3) both very sweet.) There were food stalls set up all around as well as play structures, some dodgy singer women and a bar. We had a nice evening meeting their friends, munching on pizza, pancakes and homemade doughnuts (yumm) and playing with the girls. That evening marina and I took advantage of their absolutely huge tv (with satellite- what luxury) and then headed to bed in Chelsea’s Barbie bunk bed room which she was generously lending us for the week.
On Saturday we went to Mugg and Bean with Ryan, Sean and the Girls for breakfast. We had delicious waffles (definitely not a breakfast options at St Cyps) and realized one of the best parts of eating with small children- there are always leftovers. That afternoon we accompanied Louise and the girls to a “Mad-Hatter” Birthday party for their friend. It was held at a performance of Alice In Wonderland and extremely well decorated for. There was food galore (including oysters) and the table was amazingly decorated. Once the play started the kids headed to the front so the adults were able to sit at the table and eat cucumber sandwiches and drink Pimm’s. We felt a little like “birthday crashers” sitting at the front singing “happy birthday dear mmgmmgmm” while eating cupcakes but luckily we were very helpful in the set up/clean up so the host was very appreciative. That night Louise and Ryan had a braai with a bunch of their friends so we were able to meet them and their kids and then head out for a night on the town. Very interesting partying with plus 30s- the music taste discrepancies were hilarious.
On Sunday we were able to have a day with Louise and the Girls since they were off both school and work. We drove to Monkeyland (not to be confused with Monkeytown in Cape Town) where African monkeys are kept in a giant nature reserve area and you are able to walk among them in the forests. Although our guide was very, very strange we did see some really cool monkeys- including a great white ape and many cappuccinos. My favourite was this great big grey monkey with glasses-like marks around his eyes and the black lemur who was so accustomed to people (he was formerly owned by people) that he walked over my foot. Next we headed to The Elephant Sanctuary where we were able to do the trunk-in-hand walk along with petting them and feeding them. All in all soo cool except you get loads of snot on your hand when they hold it with their trunk but the “elephant breathing on you” sensation is pretty awesome. For dinner the girls all hit up Spur- a kid oriented restaurant famous for low prices and good beef which Marina and I had on our list of things to do. They had a deal for practically a whole cow worth of ribs plus chips and onion rings for only R44.99 which Marina and Louise took advantage of.
Monday was a bit more of a quiet day- Marina and I walked into town and checked that out and then somehow managed to find the waterfront where we met up with a coworker of Louise and Ryan’s. He took us to the Knysna Heads- the two mountains (ish) that almost close off the Knysna Lagoon to the sea (20ish m gap in between). We (well.. I) took some amazing shots of the lagoon and the rocky areas around the heads not to mention the amazingly huge houses from the lookout area. Then we headed down to the coast where we hiked among some of the rocks and sat out and watched the sea. He also drove us around the Knysna area showing us different parts of the city. That afternoon we headed down to the cinema and watched Step Up 2 with all the of 12 year old Knysna population- pretty amazing film. For dinner we all met up at ocean basket (probably one of my favourite restaurants) for prawns and chips.
Tuesday after a sleep in (8:30 wahoo!) we headed to a wild cat farm just past plett. After an unsuccessful attempt to get in as students we got to go on a tour of all the wild cat areas. The first couple basically looked like regular house cats although they were wild African cats. We also saw some really cool spotty ones and ones with the cool ears. The last pen was of cheetahs. We were able to pat them and have them lick us. One genius on our tour even grabbed its tail… unfortunately it didn’t attack- scary to think he is going to the Kruger next. Afterwards we headed into Plett where we had lunch, visited the beach and then did a hike in Roburg which is a beautiful bit of land that juts out into the ocean. It was very pretty, especially with the mountain ranges in the distance and the beautiful beaches surrounding. We headed home and watched some excellent tv with the girls- including high school musical 2.
Wednesday morning we headed to George (biggest city around there) to do some shopping. Marina and I bough these beautiful coats (yes they are the same but hers is black and mine is red… “friendship coats” if you will). I has been looking for a coat ever since the temperature started to drop and it is really nice and classic and will be good for Canadian fall (and winter in england). That afternoon we headed out to a farm to go horse back riding- payback time. It was really nice since it was just the 2 of us and a guide (who LOVED marina and her horsewhisper-ness) so I didn’t make a fool out of myself in front of too many people. The walking through the forest part was fine. The trotting was quite painful. And then there was the cantering… the guide assured me that I would be fine since the horse would just follow the others and all I would have to do is hold on. Unfortunately the horses took it upon themselves to race on a small footpath suitable for one horse not three. Mine decided to take the undergrowth so I was being smacked into trees and bushes and screaming for dear life. The guide was trying to make the horse stop but was completely unsuccessful and I could hear marina laughing the whole time. Luckily we managed to get back on the path and I didn’t fall off (everyone was quite impressed) but needless to say my horse lost the race and I couldn’t sit down for a couple days.
Our last day was spent doing a hike to a waterfall in the Knysna forest. Afterwards we headed to Plett where we had a nice lunch and then a quick visit with Gail (from my Joburg visit) who has a house in Plett. We spent the late afternoon relaxing and has pizza with everyone after they returned from golfing.
Friday we hopped on the bus to Stellenbosch which was a pretty uneventful trip. When we arrived we were picked up by our co-worker Sonia and her brother Matt and taken to their parents beautiful house on a golf course in Stellenbosch. After dinner and a little wine sampling we headed out on the town and got to experience some of the Stellenbosch nightlife (pretty decent considering there is a huge university there).
Saturday morning we headed to a beautiful outdoor market with tons of free samples- including some killer brownies, pesto and pomegranate smoothies. We also took advantage of all the wine farms there doing their free samples and ended up buying a bottle and sitting out in the sun eating baguette and pesto. Next we headed to a couple other wine farms to do some tasting and finally to a store that sold wine for super reduced prices. We managed to do some damage there. That afternoon we had a great big nap, watched some rugby and had a terrific braai.
Sunday was raining like crazy so we hung around the house all morning and then went into town for an amazing pizza lunch. Then after doing some clean up for the return of the parents we headed back to school.
Now we are done our second day back and it has been a little difficult adjusting back. Sad to think our school holidays are over. Luckily we have a pretty good week. Today is both Kady and George’s birthday so we are headed out for dinner for Kady’s tonight and then tomorrow for George’s. Then on Friday we are heading out to town to celebrate George’s birthday- it is themed “P” so everyone has to dress up accordingly. I am being a pirate. Then this weekend we are heading up to the head of sport- Sarie’s cottage on the coast which is meant to be beautiful. Will take pictures. Kady also leaves next Wednesday- hard to believe its time- when I first arrived I remember thinking it was ages and ages away.
In other news- hotmail has recently been blocked so please e-mail me at my school account: hartleyh@stcyprians.co.za if you want to get it touch- it also does not work very well so it could take some time. I however did find a proxy so maybe send all e-mails to both accounts and then i will get it one way or another- Thanks!
Much love to everyone- Thank you for those who continue to comment!
Xx Heather
We are back at school after a fantastic school holiday. Today is the first real winter day here in Cape Town, really windy and rainy with a max temp of 15 degrees. We are all rugged up and luckily Derek’s package arrived yesterday so I was able to have a warm cup of hot chocolate this morning. I am also having a weird craving for flannelette sheets.
Luckily winter has only begun since we got home so we had a lovely week in Knysna complete with beautifully sunny days. We ended up leaving Friday morning rather the intended 11pm Thursday night departure. We were able to get a lift with Sean, a friend of Louise and Ryan’s (Marina’s family friends who were stayed with) who was also heading down for a visit. It was so nice to go in a car rather than the bus- not to mention he had a huge Kombi which allowed us 3 seats each. The trip also takes about 3 hours more in the bus so we got their much sooner and even had a nice stop at Steers for some excellent burgers and chips. We first visited their beautiful B&B called Elephant Hide. It is situated on top of a hill that overlooks the Knysna lagoon and has an infinity pool on the front deck which makes it look like your about to swim over the edge into the lagoon. We also had a tour of the rooms which were all beautiful with amazing views- huge, warm/comfy looking beds and giant bathtubs. That evening we headed to the Friday fair that is held at the kid’s school (Louise and Ryan have two little girls- Chelsea (age 6) and Roxy (age 3) both very sweet.) There were food stalls set up all around as well as play structures, some dodgy singer women and a bar. We had a nice evening meeting their friends, munching on pizza, pancakes and homemade doughnuts (yumm) and playing with the girls. That evening marina and I took advantage of their absolutely huge tv (with satellite- what luxury) and then headed to bed in Chelsea’s Barbie bunk bed room which she was generously lending us for the week.
On Saturday we went to Mugg and Bean with Ryan, Sean and the Girls for breakfast. We had delicious waffles (definitely not a breakfast options at St Cyps) and realized one of the best parts of eating with small children- there are always leftovers. That afternoon we accompanied Louise and the girls to a “Mad-Hatter” Birthday party for their friend. It was held at a performance of Alice In Wonderland and extremely well decorated for. There was food galore (including oysters) and the table was amazingly decorated. Once the play started the kids headed to the front so the adults were able to sit at the table and eat cucumber sandwiches and drink Pimm’s. We felt a little like “birthday crashers” sitting at the front singing “happy birthday dear mmgmmgmm” while eating cupcakes but luckily we were very helpful in the set up/clean up so the host was very appreciative. That night Louise and Ryan had a braai with a bunch of their friends so we were able to meet them and their kids and then head out for a night on the town. Very interesting partying with plus 30s- the music taste discrepancies were hilarious.
On Sunday we were able to have a day with Louise and the Girls since they were off both school and work. We drove to Monkeyland (not to be confused with Monkeytown in Cape Town) where African monkeys are kept in a giant nature reserve area and you are able to walk among them in the forests. Although our guide was very, very strange we did see some really cool monkeys- including a great white ape and many cappuccinos. My favourite was this great big grey monkey with glasses-like marks around his eyes and the black lemur who was so accustomed to people (he was formerly owned by people) that he walked over my foot. Next we headed to The Elephant Sanctuary where we were able to do the trunk-in-hand walk along with petting them and feeding them. All in all soo cool except you get loads of snot on your hand when they hold it with their trunk but the “elephant breathing on you” sensation is pretty awesome. For dinner the girls all hit up Spur- a kid oriented restaurant famous for low prices and good beef which Marina and I had on our list of things to do. They had a deal for practically a whole cow worth of ribs plus chips and onion rings for only R44.99 which Marina and Louise took advantage of.
Monday was a bit more of a quiet day- Marina and I walked into town and checked that out and then somehow managed to find the waterfront where we met up with a coworker of Louise and Ryan’s. He took us to the Knysna Heads- the two mountains (ish) that almost close off the Knysna Lagoon to the sea (20ish m gap in between). We (well.. I) took some amazing shots of the lagoon and the rocky areas around the heads not to mention the amazingly huge houses from the lookout area. Then we headed down to the coast where we hiked among some of the rocks and sat out and watched the sea. He also drove us around the Knysna area showing us different parts of the city. That afternoon we headed down to the cinema and watched Step Up 2 with all the of 12 year old Knysna population- pretty amazing film. For dinner we all met up at ocean basket (probably one of my favourite restaurants) for prawns and chips.
Tuesday after a sleep in (8:30 wahoo!) we headed to a wild cat farm just past plett. After an unsuccessful attempt to get in as students we got to go on a tour of all the wild cat areas. The first couple basically looked like regular house cats although they were wild African cats. We also saw some really cool spotty ones and ones with the cool ears. The last pen was of cheetahs. We were able to pat them and have them lick us. One genius on our tour even grabbed its tail… unfortunately it didn’t attack- scary to think he is going to the Kruger next. Afterwards we headed into Plett where we had lunch, visited the beach and then did a hike in Roburg which is a beautiful bit of land that juts out into the ocean. It was very pretty, especially with the mountain ranges in the distance and the beautiful beaches surrounding. We headed home and watched some excellent tv with the girls- including high school musical 2.
Wednesday morning we headed to George (biggest city around there) to do some shopping. Marina and I bough these beautiful coats (yes they are the same but hers is black and mine is red… “friendship coats” if you will). I has been looking for a coat ever since the temperature started to drop and it is really nice and classic and will be good for Canadian fall (and winter in england). That afternoon we headed out to a farm to go horse back riding- payback time. It was really nice since it was just the 2 of us and a guide (who LOVED marina and her horsewhisper-ness) so I didn’t make a fool out of myself in front of too many people. The walking through the forest part was fine. The trotting was quite painful. And then there was the cantering… the guide assured me that I would be fine since the horse would just follow the others and all I would have to do is hold on. Unfortunately the horses took it upon themselves to race on a small footpath suitable for one horse not three. Mine decided to take the undergrowth so I was being smacked into trees and bushes and screaming for dear life. The guide was trying to make the horse stop but was completely unsuccessful and I could hear marina laughing the whole time. Luckily we managed to get back on the path and I didn’t fall off (everyone was quite impressed) but needless to say my horse lost the race and I couldn’t sit down for a couple days.
Our last day was spent doing a hike to a waterfall in the Knysna forest. Afterwards we headed to Plett where we had a nice lunch and then a quick visit with Gail (from my Joburg visit) who has a house in Plett. We spent the late afternoon relaxing and has pizza with everyone after they returned from golfing.
Friday we hopped on the bus to Stellenbosch which was a pretty uneventful trip. When we arrived we were picked up by our co-worker Sonia and her brother Matt and taken to their parents beautiful house on a golf course in Stellenbosch. After dinner and a little wine sampling we headed out on the town and got to experience some of the Stellenbosch nightlife (pretty decent considering there is a huge university there).
Saturday morning we headed to a beautiful outdoor market with tons of free samples- including some killer brownies, pesto and pomegranate smoothies. We also took advantage of all the wine farms there doing their free samples and ended up buying a bottle and sitting out in the sun eating baguette and pesto. Next we headed to a couple other wine farms to do some tasting and finally to a store that sold wine for super reduced prices. We managed to do some damage there. That afternoon we had a great big nap, watched some rugby and had a terrific braai.
Sunday was raining like crazy so we hung around the house all morning and then went into town for an amazing pizza lunch. Then after doing some clean up for the return of the parents we headed back to school.
Now we are done our second day back and it has been a little difficult adjusting back. Sad to think our school holidays are over. Luckily we have a pretty good week. Today is both Kady and George’s birthday so we are headed out for dinner for Kady’s tonight and then tomorrow for George’s. Then on Friday we are heading out to town to celebrate George’s birthday- it is themed “P” so everyone has to dress up accordingly. I am being a pirate. Then this weekend we are heading up to the head of sport- Sarie’s cottage on the coast which is meant to be beautiful. Will take pictures. Kady also leaves next Wednesday- hard to believe its time- when I first arrived I remember thinking it was ages and ages away.
In other news- hotmail has recently been blocked so please e-mail me at my school account: hartleyh@stcyprians.co.za if you want to get it touch- it also does not work very well so it could take some time. I however did find a proxy so maybe send all e-mails to both accounts and then i will get it one way or another- Thanks!
Much love to everyone- Thank you for those who continue to comment!
Xx Heather
3 comments:
you look like you had such a great time and so many adventures... we love your blog!
we are still laughing about your horse ride....
i have had one of those experiences... hummm.... terrifying would be a great way to describe it.
uncle g and i are in victoria right now marrying 2 people we used 2 work with... very fun... AND my first time out in western canada. we are staying right on the water. it is so beautiful.
lots of love heathie
a cathy
You are a fantastic blog writer. This totally makes up for the long break in letters (and in fact puts me wayyyy behind you).
I'm going to Ottawa Friday...weird, first long weekend since I started competing that you won't be forced to find some time to see me ;)
Keep writing and posting such beautiful pictures!
xoxoxooxoxoxox
fantastic pictures as usual!
That elephant looked like it was getting very frisky with you. ;-)
I was appalled on your behalf that you couldn't get into the wild cat farm as students. How does it feel to be old?
Keep up the great writing. Hope we get to see some pictures of you as a pirate.
ttfn,
Cheryl.
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