Kruger Park Mosaic

Lovin' the mosaic tool!

Weskus Mosaic

These are all from near my Dad's house. He lives in Saldanha, about an hour up the west coast from Cape Town ("weskus" means "west coast" and is the informal name of the region).



make your own...

Wedding Mosaic

Make your own!

South Africa 2008: Kruger Park and home

Last year Milord and I were in South Africa and we spent 5 nights in the Kruger National Park. This is a game reserve the size of a respectable country, where animals roam free with the barest human influence. Various tarred and dirt roads wind through the park and every couple of hundred kilometres there are rest camps: bungalows with a restaurant and shop enclosed in an electrified fence where you can stay the night. We had a blast – I’d not actually been to a game reserve before so it was new for the both of us. We drove many miles and saw oodles of animals, although we were disappointed not to spot a leopard – the only one of the “Big Five” that we didn’t see. We were very excited to be going back again for 4 days of our honeymoon!

It’s a fairly long way from Sodwana to the Kruger Park, so we left the dive resort by mid morning. For some reason I had no road atlas, so I had copied a few directions from someone’s Lonely Planet and we hoped that those combined with a compass would get us there! It was interesting navigating without a map, and the compass proved invaluable! Our route took us though the Zululand district, along the border of Swaziland (a separate kingdom which is apparently good for a visit too but we didn’t have time), over the Drakensberg mountain range, and into the Mpumalange province (have a go at pronouncing that… it’s mostly phonetic) where the park is situated.

Wow, what a drive! We travelled past dozens of little villages of grass huts huddling alongside tin shacks on bright green hillsides, and had to watch out for cows and goats and people in the road. It was fascinating – a side of Africa you don’t see when you stick to the big cities. I never felt unsafe, although I would not have liked to be driving there after dark (especially with the cows and people in the road!). The scenery was spectacular, especially as we climbed into the mountains. In the early afternoon it began to rain, getting harder all the while. We saw lightening and heard thunder getting closer, and then all of a sudden we were engulfed in rain so hard that we couldn’t see the road! I squealed and Milord coasted to a stop, and we sat there with the hazard lights flashing for several minutes until the storm moved off and we could see again! It was a bit thrilling!

Then onwards, out of the rain, out of the mountains, and finally into the Kruger Park. By this time it was late afternoon and we had been driving for 8 hours. Luckily I had assumed we’d be tired so we had booked into a rest camp just a couple of kilometres from the gate. We didn’t expect to see anything interesting in such a short distance, but as usual the Kruger surprised us… we came around a corner to find a huge elephant walking towards us in the road. And he had the biggest engorged willy you can possibly imagine – it seriously looked like a fifth leg! We couldn’t go anywhere, so sat as quietly as possible as this intimidating sight strolled past us, absolutely boggling at the appendage. By the time we got our wits about us and dug out a camera and followed him he’d, uh, calmed down and his willy was tucked away again. Not something you see every day, that’s for sure!

We stayed in a very nice modern bungalow in the Berg-en-Dal (Hill and Dale) rest camp. We bought steaks and salad and cooked over coals, then had an early night. The following morning we had a lazy start, and I relaxed in bed with coffee and my book while Milord showered. We’d left the screen doors wide open as there were no bugs and it was a glorious morning. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw a cat walk through the living room… a cat? I jumped up and scared the daylights out of several vervet monkeys who were silently helping themselves to our bread rolls on the kitchen counter.

One thing to remember about the rest camps: While the electric fences keep the big bad animals out, little agile monkeys can jump over, and burrowing animals can dig their way under!

From then on we always kept our screen doors closed! Another camp we stayed in (Orpen, very nice, small and newly built) had baboons and a honey badger raiding people’s food (we saw them at it!). If you forget to turn your fridge (always outside for some reason) to the wall to jam the door there is nothing to stop the buggers helping themselves, day or night! It was cool seeing the honey badger slinking through the rest camp though, as you never usually catch sight of one!

Our days in the park were excellent, and we managed to spot all of the “Big Five” in one day: Lion (lolling around in the distance), Leopard (eating a deer under a tree), Rhino, Elephant, and one lone Buffalo at twilight. We were very chuffed! Apart from that we saw warthogs and impala and kudu and waterbuck and jackal and eagles and vultures and mongooses (mongeese?) and baboons and monkeys and birds and more leopard and lions and yeah, it was very very cool. Awesome.

Then we drove 4 hours to BestGirl’s place, freshened up and went to a family gathering, had a good night’s sleep, packed, drove to the airport and flew home. Back to reality, back to job hunting and renovations and rain.

sigh

What a fabulous trip. Perfect, all of it!

South Africa 2008: Sodwana Bay

I’d always heard that the place to scuba dive in South Africa is Sodwana Bay. It’s about as close to the equator as you can get in SA, and the warm current travels south along the east coast bringing lovely warm water with it. To be honest that’s about all I knew about the place. When I started looking online for a place to stay there I noticed that the pickings were rather slim, and that the emphasis seemed to be a little, uh, rustic. For example, only a couple of the places offered en-suite bathrooms, and a few expected you cook for yourself over open fires. Yes, lovely if that’s what you want, but I was on honeymoon dammit!

I ended up choosing the Sodwana Bay Lodge, as they advertised a “honeymoon cabin”. They also had an on-site dive operator, and good sounding accommodation plus diving packages. I have to say, I was very happy with the place. Our accommodation included dinner and breakfast, and not the one-buffet-suits-all variety either. Breakfast had a bit of a buffet going on, but you could have your eggs or an omelette made to order, and toast and coffee is brought to your table. Dinner is a la carte, and very good too. They also have a good wine list, which while not included in the price was not expensive.


Our room was basic but nice, a spacious thatched bamboo hut with en-suite and veranda. We had a spa tub (I think that is what made it the “honeymoon” cabin) and plenty of hot water, and a kettle for coffee. Our bed was huge and very comfortable, with a decent mosquito net to drape over it (it is a malaria area so you really don’t want to be bitten by mozzies) – you need this as the bamboo isn’t exactly bug-proof! Or soundproof… our neighbours had a toddler and we could hear him whinging and wailing every minute he wasn’t asleep – a bit of a passion killer actually! The bay itself is a marine reserve, so the accommodation is several kilometres away outside the park boundaries. We were disappointed not to be staying on the beach, but our bush view was lovely too.


So, the diving… Milord and I have dived all over Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and in the Red Sea, and I have also dived in Thailand. We agreed that the diving at Sodwana was world-class, better than any diving we have done in Australia and the best we’ve had since meeting in the Red Sea back in 2005. The water is warm (26 deg C when we were there, we didn’t need wetsuits), the reef is close to shore and quite shallow (I didn’t go deeper than 20m) and teeming with life and soft and hard corals. But the best part had to be the service we received from the diving operator. I have never been so spoiled while diving… I didn’t carry a tank once! On our first day a lovely bloke called Thulani took charge of us and from then onward looked after our gear, hooked it up, loaded it on the boat, took it off the boat, washed it and prepped it for the next dive. On the boat the driver and dive master help you into your gear, and after the dive they take it all off you in the water and you don’t touch it again! What a pleasure! The dive boats are big rigid inflatable boats launched from the beach and you all sit in a row on the inflated sides, hanging onto ropes as the boats bounce through the waves to deep water. Great fun actually, and even more fun coming back to shore “surfing” the waves right up onto the sand at a million miles an hour with everyone whooping and screaming!


Apart from one white guy all the dive masters are young black men, and they’re very good. This is their livelihood and they’re thrilled with it. I’m really enjoying the younger generation of black people who have grown up post-apartheid. In general they’re friendly and joyful and don’t have any baggage with the white people, it’s such a nice change from the “bad old days” and gives me hope for the future of my homeland. It was Milord’s first brush with black South Africans and I think he was pleasantly surprised.


All dives are guided, which I don’t mind as long as they don’t rush me. Not a worry at Sodwana! The dive masters try to find the little funky creatures like nudibrancs and paperfish and ghost leaf pipefish (tiny little weird critters that divers get very excited about because they are hard to find). The group moves along the reef slowly, examining every crevice and coral and clownfish in its anemone. The fish life is abundant, and sometimes you can barely see the reef for the fish. Visibility wasn’t bad considering how close we were to the beach – about 15 to 20m I reckon. And of course we saw big stuff too – moray eels and turtles and manta rays and dolphins and a whale shark!

The whale shark was awesome! We had just finished our dive and surfaced when the dive boat came racing over. We threw our dive gear aboard and scrambled on, keeping our fins and masks on (that’s flippers and goggles for you uncool non-divers!), the boat dashed across the water a little way and we all rolled off… to find ourselves a couple of metres away from the biggest sea creature I have ever seen! Ok, everything looks bigger underwater, but this thing was easily 3 or 4 man-lengths long. It was huge! Milord and I took up position just to the left of its head and finned along beside it. It was a meter or so under the surface, just cruising along, and we kept pace with it for probably 20 minutes. Wow. I will admit that I was thinking “Do they call it a whale shark because it’s a really big shark, or because it’s a whale with a pointy dorsal fin?” and was a bit freaked out to be so close to it! It’s a whale with a dorsal fin by the way – it eats plankton!


That yellow snorkel is me!

We did 6 dives over 3 days in Sodwana Bay, and I totally recommend it for divers. There’s not much for non divers though – maybe fishing – as the surf is a bit rough for snorkelling and the reef is too deep. If you go, stay at the Sodwana Bay lodge and tell Ben Jones (the Liverpudlian dive instructor) the loud Aussies say Hi and buy him a beer on us, ok?

South Africa 2008: Knynsa, Ostriches and Caves

It has been about 15 years since I last visited Knysna. It used to be a sleepy quaint fishing village with rustic bars and an emphasis on oysters. It’s now really commercialised and touristy. I didn’t particularly like the place any more, but Milord and the others had never been there before and so still found it charming. Anyway…

Knysna lagoon looking towards the heads:


On Monday 7th April Milord and I woke up slowly. It was the first day in perhaps weeks that we hadn’t had to be somewhere or do something. We were startled to discover that we’d slept to late morning and had to rush to meet the others for brunch! In fact from that moment on I slept like a log for the rest of our trip – I was exhausted I think. Even though the wedding had gone without a hitch it is still a lot to deal with.

The others had been out for a boat trip to the Knysna Heads, and they met us for lunch in the Waterfront. Our table was next to a sort of porthole window looking out onto the marina.


My plan for the day was to take the Knysna Tjoe-tjoe (pronounced choo-choo), an old fashioned steam train, to and from the town of George. The train tracks follow the coast and cliffs, practically in the water sometimes, and I had heard it was fun and beautiful and had always wanted to do it. Sadly, once we got to the train station I discovered that the Tjoe-tjoe hasn’t been running for some years since a flood washed the tracks away. Gee, now what? Luckily everyone was also feeling a bit jaded, so we picked up several dozen oysters, raided the deli for nibbles, and went back to our balcony for a decadent afternoon and evening of food, wine, laughter and leftover “wedding-cake” cheese. It was actually wonderful to just stop running around for a day! I have no idea what time I went to bed, but I think it was early.

This seagull made himself at home on our balcony railing for most of the afternoon. Cheeky bugger.


I woke up refreshed on Tuesday, and we all met for breakfast. I had decided to take the Aussies to a couple of the local attractions: the Cango Caves and an ostrich farm! “Caves?” said one doubtfully… “Ostriches?” said another. “Trust me!” I cried. We drove a couple of hours inland to Oudtshoorn over the mountains, and I am sure they were not really looking forward to my planned itinerary.


We got to the caves mid afternoon just as a tour was starting and ran to catch up with it (the tour takes about an hour). I’ve been to the Cango caves a number of times since I was very small, and I think they are absolutely spectacular. Tourists are only allowed in about 5% of the caverns, and these areas are huge and spacious with awe-inspiring rock formations growing all around and through them. My favourite bit is where you follow this torch beam through the inky tunnels, and once they have you shepherded into a certain spot they turn on the lights and you discover you are in a massive cathedral of stone columns. Really wow. Luckily my Aussies thought so too!


Then we went to the Cango Caves ostrich show farm. Ostriches are quite a big thing in South Africa, and Oudtshoorn is the centre of the ostrich farming district. In the past people became millionaires through selling the feathers, but now it is the lean red (yes, red) meat that they are farmed for. It’s really good meat, and makes superb biltong! At a show farm you get told a lot about ostriches, and you get up close to them, and you get to feed them, and to ride them. Yes, you can ride them! If you’re under 75kg anyway – which excluded all the men, but a woman and a couple of kids had a go (not me, it’s not really my thing). It was hilarious. Other folk fed them, and Milord stood on some eggs. It was enormous fun, and my Aussies raved about the experience! My caves and ostriches were a hit!


And then back to Knysna again for our last night in town and our last night with the others. We were flying up the coast the next day and they were going to the Addo National game park. During the drive back I wasn’t feeling too good… “Too much biltong, I’m dehydrated” I thought, and drank some water. “Gas, this seatbelt is constricting me” I thought, and shifted about uncomfortably. By the time we got back to town I was feeling rotten, and went for a lie down. Then a bathroom visit. Then a lie down. Then a bathroom visit… The others summoned us for dinner but I wasn’t going anywhere and Milord decided to stay in and look after me – isn’t he grand? The rest of the evening was awful, but I started feeling better at about midnight. It must have been a fast-acting virus.

Milord started feeling rotten at about 1am… I’d given it to him! The poor guy got it worse than me too, and by 7am when we needed to head to the airport he could barely drag himself to the car. Luckily I could drive by this time, and we headed off to Port Elizabeth airport. During the drive the sun rose and the mist lifted and we were crossing deep chasms through sub-tropical rainforest. It was beautiful. Milord didn’t see any of it, curled into the foetal position in the passenger seat!

Our flight to Durban was uneventful. At the other end we picked up another hire car and drove to Sodwana Bay, the diving mecca of South Africa just south of the border of Mozambique. I still wasn’t 100% and I’d had hardly any sleep the night before – after an hour or so I began getting tunnel vision and begged Milord to drive for a while. By this point he was feeling much better, and he drove us the rest of the way. I think it took us about 3 hours to get to Sodwana Bay, and we reached the resort at twilight. I’m glad we got there in the light, as it is incredibly remote and rural. Milord got really jumpy at one point when we went through the little shopping strip of Sodwana and he surrounded by black people. He actually freaked out a bit and did a u-turn back on to the main road and I had to do a lot of convincing before he would take the (only) road to the bay!


We finally got to the Sodwana Bay resort and checked into our cabin, which was a gorgeous free-standing bamboo hut with a big balcony overlooking the bush and an en-suite bathroom with a spa tub! We had a bath, a quick light meal in the resort restaurant (excellent), and were asleep by 9 I think!

South Africa 2008: Cape Town to Knynsa

On the day after the wedding (Saturday 5th April) Milord and I had a light room service breakfast and champagne in bed, then joined all the wedding guests left in Camps Bay for a late brunch on the beachfront. Then after lots of goodbyes we hopped in the car and headed off on honeymoon… joined by 3 of our guests. Yes really. Three of the Aussies (Milord’s sister and another couple) didn’t fancy travelling on their own in big bad Africa, and opted to join us along the Garden Route for a few days. Personally I reckon they should have stayed on in Cape Town and done the tourist thing there as they hadn’t given themselves enough time to do so beforehand. But anyway…

We didn’t go far that day, as I’d expected us to be tired. We drove an hour or two to the Houw Hoek Inn (pronounced “ho-hook”) high in the mountains, which calls itself the oldest hotel in South Africa. We checked in and had drinks in the gardens looking out at the mountains, and then everyone went off for a siesta. It was surprisingly chilly up in the mountains – our room had an open fireplace, so we started a log fire and shared a hot bath with a bottle of wine before having a snooze. We woke up to rain drumming on the roof in the evening.



On Saturdays the Houw Hoek Inn has a dinner-dancing special, so we all glammed up and went over to the converted barn. The set menu was good, the company a lot of fun and the dancing a hoot. We ended up staying on the dance floor until after midnight before heading back to our room and stoking the log fire again. We fell asleep watching the flames and listening to the rain.

On Sunday we drove to Knysna (“nighs-na” with a silent “k”) via Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa. Folk tend to think Cape Point is as far south as the continent goes, but actually Cape Agulhas is a lot further south. The weather was wet and blustery, and as we hurtled along narrow roads deep into windswept scrub I began to wonder if I was doing the right thing. It was a lot further than I thought – more than an hour’s drive from the motorway. Luckily everyone was thrilled to be visiting the tip of Africa in spite of a freezing gale, and we had fun scrambling around on the rocks and climbing up to the top of the lighthouse. Then we found a pub for lunch, eventually heading off again at about 2pm.

At the tip of Africa:


Lighthouse pictures:






We were back on the motorway at 3pm, and I suddenly realised that we were still about 4 hours drive from our destination. This wouldn’t usually be a problem, but I needed to pick up the keys to our self-catering apartments before 6pm when the accommodation office closed. The timing wasn’t looking good! I rang ahead and was told that they could leave the keys next door, but that shop would also be closing at 7pm… which was cutting things a bit fine! I told Milord to step on it, and we floored the accelerator. Up to this point we’d been sticking to the speed limit as there was no rush and the police on the Garden Route love catching speeding tourists… I decided that as long as we slowed down through the towns we could fly on the motorway – like everyone else does. We zoomed along into the twilight, keeping an eye on the rear view mirror to that check our buddies were keeping up. Luckily we weren’t stopped for speeding!

We just made it before 7pm. By this stage everyone was exhausted and hungry, so we headed off to our various holiday apartments. I’d put our 3 friends into an apartment of their own so that Milord and I could have a little privacy, and they decided to give us a night to ourselves and we made plans to meet for lunch. Milord and I staggered into a very nice airy 1-bedroom self catering apartment in the Knysna Quays marina and dropped our bags before pouring a glass of wine and stepping out onto the balcony overlooking the water. After recharging a bit we went in search of dinner in the Kysna Waterfront complex, then had a much needed long sleep.

Mother of the Bride

Back in January I rang Mom to tell her the glad news of our engagement. She was thrilled of course, but then I believe that she went into immediate panic...

...about what she should wear.

Mom, the same as me, has struggled with her weight for yonks. She's never been huge, but she's been... mmm... well covered... from time to time. And being half a head shorter than me she can't get away with quite as much... coverage... as I can! So, faced with prospect of of a dress-up occasion she went into serious trim-mode. She did fabulously!

Plus she found the most amazing dress! Phwoar.

Mom has superb boobies. They seem to have skipped a generation (which I don't really mind, as I hear living with big boobies is not easy, but anyway). She rang me in delight wen she found her "mother-of-the-bride" dress. "It's blue, and sequinned, with shoestring straps! I'm looking for silver sandals to go with it!" she cried.

hmmmmmm....

But check this out:



Milord leant over to me during the evening and said "Where'd those come from?!". Mom doesn't often get her girlies out, she usually wears large shirts to disguise them, but I think they had a good outing that day. She was a show-stopper!

And Sis (in the sexy turquoise) looked fab too! Well done Saffa family! Of couse BestGirl always looks divine, and Kat totally works the lilac floral number.

You go girls!

South Africa 2008: Wedding Day

April 4th 2008 - I awoke just as it was getting light. For a while I lay snuggled under the duvet contemplating the day ahead... my wedding day! Was I nervous? Yes, but only in a school play / pre-exam sort of way. I was happy and excited and had butterflies, and I expect something would be wrong if a bride didn't have those!

I quietly left my room and padded to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee, which I took back to bed. Mom, Sis and BestGirl were staying in the same apartment and I didn't want to wake anyone just because I couldn't sleep (I found out later they were all awake too but were keeping quiet so as not to disturb me!). At about the time I emerged for my second cup of coffee BestGirl came out and joined me. She produced a tiara left over from the hen night, and cooling eye compresses which we played with for a while, getting into the spirit of the day. When the others joined us a glass of champagne helped too!


After a late breakfast Mom dropped BestGirl and me at the wedding venue - the 12 Apostles Hotel (it is named for the range of mountains behind it). We had massages and manicures booked in the Hotel spa, which delves into the mountainside in a maze of warm, dark and scented caves and tunnels. Apparently most of the spa facilities such as jacuzzi and sauna are free for hotel guests to use, but I didn't have a chance to try them out. BestGirl and I had a back and shoulder massage which was amazing! I knew I was tense, but when the masseur first pressed between my shoulder blades I actually jumped in pain! After an hour's massage I had no knots left and felt gloriously relaxed, fabulous, just what I needed. Then we both had manicures in the same room, lying on heated beds with scented eye pillows, gossiping with the girls... aaah.

I checked into my room at about 1pm and ordered a bottle of champagne from room service (of course). The 12 Apostles is a very posh hotel about 5 minutes drive away from anything, set up on the mountainside overlooking the sea. It is very luxurious, and I recommend it for a pampering getaway. It is very expensive in South African Rands, but quite reasonable if you are spending Aussie dollars - we would not have been able to afford a venue vaguely similar back in Australia. Their wedding venue is in a garden overlooking the sea, and the reception dinner takes place in a tented courtyard with the sunset over the sea happening behind the bridal table.


The hair and makeup girl, Ivana, arrived at about 1:30pm. The poor thing had been dumped by her fella the night before, and it was quite surreal to be getting ready for my wedding with a girl in the throes of man-hate... luckily it didn't affect her skills and she made BestGirl and me look like movie stars! She even gave us long false eyelashes which were stunning. My Dad arrived at the room at 3:30pm, the minister and planner and photographer popped by, and we were all ready to roll just before the ceremony time of 4pm.


At this point the hotel's own wedding planner took charge of me. I'm sure she's lovely, but I found her very odd... she got me to lift my skirt in one hand, and hanging onto every railing and banister with the other we slooowly walked to the gardens. Apparently most brides rush, and trip. I'm emphasizing this because after the ceremony I needed a wee and she made me run to do it! At what point does it not matter that the bride trips, hmm?

To the sound of a string trio playing the wedding march BestGirl preceded us into the garden, and then Dad and I walked across the grass to the red carpet, paused, and then walked to the front to where my beloved Milord was waiting.


The ceremony was lovely. Our minister is Christian, but as neither Milord or I are believers he left out all mention of God while still retaining a lot of the traditional elements. He also had a wicked sense of humour... having met with us earlier in the week he had picked up that we are not shy and enjoy a laugh, so he teased us and threw in a few memorable moments. Such as without warning asking BestMan and BestGirl to convince him to marry us, and making Milord go down on one knee when putting the ring on my finger!

I'm going to be soppy and put our vows here (we picked them from a large selection the minister gave us).

"I Saffa take you Milord to be my husband. All that I am I give to you and all that I have I share with you. I promise to be kind, trusting and understanding, to share in the good times as well as the bad and to bring happiness and laughter into this marriage. I promise to love you for the person you are, today and forever."

"You are my beloved and you are my friend. With this ring I marry you and join my life with yours."

They made me well up when I first read them, and they still do. Aaaah.


Then the blessing, and the kiss, and the greeting of friends and family, and champagne and nibbles and photographs... The weather was all over the place, sunshine in our eyes during the ceremony, then blustery with a touch of rain, then the wind dropped and the rain stopped and the clouds broke up to give us an amazing sunset.



We had a superb reception overlooking the sea. The food was excellent and the service perfect. Our soloist Jenie Oliver was amazing - her latest work sounds very Norah Jonesy, but she does covers like Annie Lennox or Beyonce, and half the time I didn't realise it was her singing because she was so good I thought it was a cd!

Dad, BestMan and Milord gave speeches. Dad's was awesome - he must have spent hours on it. He took the premise of a story in 6 words a la Hemingway ("For sale: baby shoes, never worn.") and managed to talk about love, family, politics, rugby ("Milord understands rugby. He's a keeper."), and me ("Tiny baby. Phenomenal progress. Proud Dad.") while throwing in jokes and innuendo, and ended with "We wish them luck and happiness". BestMan's speech was short and sweet to Milord's relief, and Milord ad libbed his which was brilliant. Some of the girls told me they'd never heard such a soppy groom's speech before and it made them cry... that's my fella! That's why I followed him around the globe!

Then cutting the cake and the first dance. Neither Milord or I are into cake, so we had a tower of cheese instead! Most of it came travelling with us on honeymoon... too many jokes about "wedding cheese"! Our first dance was to Jack Johnson's "Better Together", which Milord sent to me as an mp3 over email when we first started getting intimate. We hadn't really discussed the first dance, as I felt there was enough stress without trying to learn a routine, but after a bit of swaying and shuffling Milord took us into a few jive steps and turns and we had a lot of fun. He's fab on the dance floor!


The rest of the night we danced, and table-hopped, and chatted to people. The music stopped at 11pm and the minibus arrived to take folk back to Camps Bay, and everyone had left by midnight. Milord and I went to our room, tired and happy and sober, and that's quite enough information!

It was a wonderful day. Nothing went wrong, everything was perfect, and the venue was even better than I was expecting. My wedding planner Kirsty was absolutely fantastic - if you want to get married in Cape Town then I strongly recommend her. Nothing including accommodation and transport was too much trouble, she got back to me within a day every time I emailed, and her suggestions were always great. Don't be put off by the website (I was), they've used pictures of real weddings instead of glamorous models, so some outfits and weather conditions are not great!

Update 20/10/2008: Kirsty has left the outfit she was with when I used her and set up on her own. The new website for Weddings Out of Africa is superb - no longer offputting! I still strongly recommend her - it was her personal touch that really made my wedding experience so perfect. Well worth the fee (trust me - not being stressed is worth that much!).

South Africa 2008: Cape Town

After 4 nights at my Dad's house we moved to Camps Bay in Cape Town. This is an expensive suburb perched on the mountainside and beachfront of Cape Town's sunset coast. The beachfront strip heaves with bars and restaurants, and it is close to all the major local attractions. I have always wanted to stay there, but couldn't justify the expense until now!

On Monday the 31st March my Dad and stepmom drove us to the airport at 7am to pick up Milord's sister flying in from Australia. This meant we had to get up at 4am, and neither Milord or myself are morning people... we had every intention of snoozing all the way, but it seems my stepmom is a morning person, so she kept us chatting. Unfortunately the conversation consistently turned to suicide or diarrhea! No, I don't know why, but it kept getting back there.

After picking up Milord's sister we had to kill some time before being able to check into the villa in Camps Bay, so we headed to the Cape Town Waterfront. The Waterfront is a massive development of shops, restaurants and entertainments where working docks used to be. It is safe, touristy, and can keep you busy for hours if not days. We had coffee and champagne in the sunshine looking at Table Mountain and the bustle of the Waterfront.


We managed to check into our villa at about midday. My wedding planner organised it, and while I was hoping for something nice I hadn't bigged it up too much because I've been disappointed before. Well. What a stunning place! 5 bedrooms, 2 with sea views, 4 en-suite. Huge open plan living areas and a big pool heated to a perfect temperature.

This is the view from the deck. I spent a lot of early mornings sitting outside with a cup of coffee watching the beach, waiting for the villa to wake up - I struggle to sleep when I have stuff on my mind (after the wedding I suddenly began sleeping 10 hours a night!):


Looking back at the building, where Milord and his sister are partaking of a refreshing beverage:


Milord, myself, BestMan and ClownGirl (BestMan's new laydee, she's lovely but can't help clowning whenever a camera turns her way. I think she should get into kids tv) in the pool. The temperature was perfect, not cold but not too warm:


Over the course of the week we were joined by various friends and family members, until the villa was bursting at the seams. We had people around for drinks and nibbles, and I had a second hen night while the boys went out for dinner. Funnily enough I ended up wearing practically the same outfit on this hen night too. BestGirl and Kat had organised it between themselves (one in the UK, one in South Africa, organising the hen night for the Australian, amazing) and they laid on nibbles, cocktails, gifts and games. It was a lot of fun.


One item worth remembering was the list of questions about himself that they had sent Milord. I was asked the same questions, and if I got the answers wrong I had to drink a tot of vodka. After 10 questions and half a bottle of vodka everyone got a bit worried about me, and we canned that game - it seems Milord thought it would be funny to give false answers so that I'd have penalties! Naughty man.

The week was fairly relaxed, as Milord and I have done the tourist thing before. We caught up with people, met the planner, photographer and minister, and I had a hair and makeup trial. Saying that though, it still felt hectic - we didn't have any quiet read-your-book time, and every night was a late one.

This one tipsy evening I realised that if you took a photo without the flash and the subject jigged about you get an interesting "ghost" effect:


On the Thursday before the wedding I organised an afternoon wine tour, and we were picked up by a minibus and taken to the Stellenbosch wine region where we visited four wine farms for tastings. It was a glorious day and I had gathered 14 people which turned out to be a nice number to tour with, and of course it was great for our guests to get to know each other.


This is a typical Stellenbosch scene:


That evening, after the wine tour, Mom, Sis, BestGirl and I moved into a nearby retreat apartment to have a night to ourselves. We went out for a lovely meal, drank less wine than usual and had an early-ish night as the next day was my wedding day.

Father of the Bride

I think it was our last night at my Dad's house... we'd all had a few drinks and were sitting around chatting. As with most conversations in the week before our wedding, the subject came around to the event.

My stepmom had mentioned to me that she didn't know what my Dad was intending to wear. His suits didn't fit that well at the moment, and she hadn't been able to get him to go shopping... as our dress code was semi-formal this wasn't too much of a problem provided he had a nice shirt and pair of trousers.

So I asked Dad what trousers he had in mind. "I'll show you!" he said and dashed into the bedroom. When he came back, I can't quite remember what the trousers were like, but the rest of us regarded him in silence for a minute and said "um...". Milord went to our room and returned with his dark, pin-striped denim-type slacks. "Something like this would be better." he said, so Dad tried them on. They fit perfectly, and I'm not sure who was more shocked out of the two of them! So we decided Dad would borrow Milord's trousers.

"Ok, and the shirt?" I asked. Dad produced a never-opened wrapped shirt, pins and all, and opened it to show us. Another long silence ensued. "Are those epaulets? And two breast pockets? You look like you're about go to work!" So Milord fetched out his wedding shirt - a slim-cut crisp white collared shirt with french cuffs, designed short to be worn untucked, and Dad tried it on. He looked fabulous! Obviously he couldn't borrow the shirt, but we instructed them to try to match it.

I hear it then took my folks more than 4 hours of shopping to find a shirt that was acceptable! But on the day my Dad looked trendy, casual but well dressed, and he fitted the look of the wedding party perfectly.



Pretty cool, eh?

South Africa 2008: Sydney - Saldanha

We flew out of Sydney on the morning of March 27th. The entire previous week had been devoted to packing, cleaning, and moving out of our rented house. I left my job just before Easter and Milord and I packed up all through the Easter weekend.


I hate packing. This is me sorting all my clothes into storage, holiday, and will-be-needed-when-we-get-back piles.

On the Tuesday after Easter all our stuff got moved into storage, and on Wednesday I cleaned. And cleaned. And cleaned. My cleaner helped me for a few hours in the morning, but I was cleaning for easily 6 hours. And when I thought I was finished the agent came around and pointed out scuff marks on the walls so I cleaned for another hour. The carpet steam-cleaner turned up at 6pm (was supposed to be 3pm) so we only got away after 7pm, and at 10pm after a swift pub meal I was still carrying boxes down flights of stairs at a friend's house. Around about this point I thought I sprained my ankle and I had a complete meltdown - Milord doesn't see me burst into tears very often but he coped. He held me until I stopped crying, by which time my ankle had stopped hurting and turned out be ok thank goodness, and then I was fine.

On Thursday morning we flew to South Africa. There is a direct flight from Sydney to Johannesburg that takes about 14 hours, and as chance would have it our best man and his girlfriend were on it. Unfortunately they didn't check in with us because then we might have sat together, but they were only a handful of rows away. It was a good flight, I watched several movies (Juno is awesome!) and read a good part of the book Atonement (slow but excellent. I watched the movie on the way home and they've done an excellent adaptation). We got into Jo'burg late and missed our connection so had to hang around for a couple of hours before flying to Cape Town where we landed around 9pm.

My Dad and stepmom had come to fetch us and drove us the 2 hours back to their house in Saldanha Bay (a major port and fishing village an hour or two north of Cape Town on the west coast). Then we had nibbles and wine and stayed up chatting to 1am, when I suddenly crashed and we went to bed.

We had 4 nights at my Dad's. We went for long walks on the beach, long lunches in picturesque west coast villages, went kayaking on the bay and fiddled around in Dad's little sailboat. My jetlag slowly eased and we caught up on years of chat.

Kayaking on Saldanha Bay. What a stunning day, not a breath of wind but not too hot:



Dad's little sailboat. There wasn't enough wind to put the sail up so he motored along next to the kayaks:



Dad had made a three-pronged boomerang and we had a go at throwing it down on the beach. I was utterly useless for ages, then suddenly got the hang of it and it would circle back to me... and I'd duck! Them things are scarey when they come back at you! My arm and back hurt for days afterwards - you use unusual muscles throwing a boomerang. In his speech at our wedding Dad got a laugh when he mentioned he'd taught the Aussie to throw a boomerang!

There was this one patch of (knee deep) sinking sand on Saldanha Bay beach. What a creepy feeling:



One afternoon we visited an aunt and uncle who were caravanning in a town not far from us on the west coast. My uncle had a mussel collecting licence (30 a day) and let us use it. Milord picked mussels from the rocks for the first time ever (hard to believe as he's so into seafood) and cooked them for us that night with garlic, ginger and wine, delicious. If you do this remember to let the mussels sit in sea water for an hour or two to spit out their sand first - mussels picked from the rocks are full of sea sand. Don't put them in fresh water because they'll die.

Milord and my uncle picking mussels:



Arty shot of a drift of shells on the beach where my uncle was staying. I also have close ups of rocks and barnacles (Kat, I know you identify with this!):



Paternoster beach from a lunch spot. Many of the west coast villages have this feel, with brightly painted little fishing boats pulled up on the sand. Seriously pretty:



The weather was gorgeous, sunny and cool. We had a very relaxing few days, unwinding from all the stress of packing and moving. My Dad was around every day (he works every other month as ship's master) and my stepmom took time off to be with us too. I was very spoiled. I don't think I've spent that much time with my father in many years - luckily we get on well (hi Dad)! We admire each other and find each other's faults endearing... we moved out of the usual father-child relationship a long time ago and are close friends now. I am very lucky.