Speaking of which - the beautiful hotel we are going to stay in Knysna (www.falconsview.com/) is owned by a very nice couple who own a HUF house on the very chic island Sylt in the German North Sea. They are currently designing their next house in our German headquarters - and I cannot wait to manipulate their layout and tastes when we meet them in December ;-) Oh - and they also own a farm in Tuscany...as one does...well, good people to know I'd say ;-)
But back to us working-class people: so, Port Alfred is booked too, a nice B&B somewhere near the town centre (www.halsteadhouse.co.za/), and run by Wendy who chatted to me for about 20mins today - such amazingly nice people, those South Africans!
In the Drakensberg we will be spending a week somewhere tugged away in a little logcabin, with our amazing friends Neil and Caroline (+1!!! Neil - do NOT call him or her KLAUS, please!!!) and Caroline's lovely family. It will be such a fun and relxing week in the beautiful mountains, lots of sport, chilling in the pool, walking, playing cards, telling stories...CANNOT WAIT!
Originally I had planned for us to drive from the Drakensberg Mountains to Knysna (Western Cape) in one go, until the omniscient internet ever so kindly pointed out that only a mere 1,100 km of South African roads would be ahead of us...that somehow called for a stop halfways.
Oh - and I booked a car! Now - what happened to those good, cheap rates one was able to enjoy in SA?! Not only does the exchange rate suck (€1 buys you a ridiculous ZAR11!!!) but renting a car in SA costs a little fortune! Blessed were those days when I paid ZAR250 per day for a shiny 3-series BMW...so - Golf it is! Main and only requirement - aircon. I am very excited to see how my precious will take to African summer...last time we were there it was Winter, with heating on, blankets wrapped around and logfire burning! Will be a little different this time...
I love the challenge of finding our way around this huge country without the help of a SatNav - so '90s! But my cute little blond navigator will guide me around nicely.
So, what is next? Hmm...need to figure out what is still missing, what needs to be considered, purchased, thought of...any suggestions?
Silvia and I got our Hepatitis A +B jabs today - no tears from either. Two more to go, and we are invincible down there in Africa!
Well, dear diary, I will be back as soon as I found some new task for us to get over these next, ever so long weeks...thinking of it - today in 4 weeks we will have had our first sunny day in Mauritius, indulged on the local beach, sucked in Indian Ocean air, tasted some local cuisine and met our first Mauritians!!! 4 weeks, Silvia - 4 little weeks!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment