Saturday 30 April

Happy birthday Quintin

Slept in until 07h30, coffee and rusks in the caravan before taking the H2-2 (The old Trading road between Delagoa bay and Lydenburg) to Afsaal for breakfast.


Jock Memorial

Visited the birthplace of Jock.(S25.19564 E31.32812). Sat there for a while and thought about our 3 wonderful Staffies, Taurus, Duchess and Gucci, who have all now passed on. What wonderful pets, companions and protectors they were.

Returned to camp and did the maintenance that was required, fixed the bunk which had nearly collapsed due to overloading.

A little rain around, not enough to stop us having a little braai. Early to bed in preparation for an early start to Lower Sabie where we spend the whole month of May.

The first "spot the animal" is up, Click here to see the page.

Pretoriuskop KNP

Co-ordinates S25deg. 10.120min  E31deg. 16.080min.

Picked up caravan at storage at 08h00 steadies up and on the road, arrived at Pretoriuskop after a short tow of 18Km. By 09h30 we had a site and started packing our clothes and groceries into the van, transferred the meat from the portable car fridge to the caravan fridge. Charging battery and and filling water for loo etc.
Went for a short drive, the grass is very long, in an hour we saw only 4 mammals. Impala, Giraffe, Dwarf mongoose and a Baboon. Microwave dinner as to lazy to make a fire for a braai.
Having trouble uploading photos, not sure what the problem is so please be patient until I solve the problem.


Hooking up the caravan at storage facility



Temporary camp site at Pretoiuskop



Long Grass difficult to spot, need a double decker bus to see over



Cape Town to Nelspruit

Hex River Valley



The Road from Cape town

 Left CT on Wednesday at 07h00 on a cold morning, my winter arrived quickly, Snow on the mountains in the Hex River Valley, beautiful. Travelled through to Kroonstad, arrived at 19h00 at Oppi-Koppi Guest house, an old favourite of ours to be welcomed with a traditional home cooked dinner. Early to bed, cold as the front had come through.
Departed at 07h30 after a hearty breakfast for Nelspruit. Arrived at Bundu Inn at 13h00, another old favourite, where we spend the night ready for an early start to collect the caravan and head for Kruger.
What a difference it makes (time wise) by pushing on to Kroonstad instead of staying in Bloemfontein.


Letties new friend Coco at Oppi Koppie



Departing (at last)

ONE MORE SLEEP

All packed, check list gone over and over. We have extra luggage as Kim and Stella are flying down to join us for the last week of June before Pete and the rest of the gang arrive. So we have a Baby seat, extra disposables, blow up mattress etc. which Kim can't take on the plane. Just as well the seats can fold down as the X3 is full.
Departing at 06h00 27th, sleep over in Bloemfontein or Kroonstad,  depending on time, Thursday, straight through to Nelspruit (I think it is now called Mbombela) sleep over, collect caravan Friday morning and into Kruger.

Chat later

Fracking bids continue despite moratorium (Cape Times, 26 Apr 2011, Page 1)

---

Fracking bids continue despite moratorium
Melanie Gosling
Cape Times
26 Apr 2011

Environment Writer JUBILATION over the cabinet’s announcement last week of a moratorium on fracking in the Karoo is premature: it does not stop existing applications from going ahead, but applies only to new applications. This means Shell’s fracking...read more...

Tech Tags: Cape Times newspaper Front Page