Months ago we began searching for a new tricycle for Jed. He
gave his tricycle to a special friend when we left Cyprus and we have been
looking to replace it. Unfortunately, tricycles don’t feature at all in South
Africa – a real pity for special needs children especially! We did manage to
find out about a man who modifies mountain bikes and turns them into tricycles,
but they are not as stable as a Jed is used to.
Grampa has been searching with us. His search has been in
Asia and we eventually settled on a bike from China. The whole import process
was a HUGE learning curve for me, but it all went quite smoothly! After a month
at sea, the shipping vessel docked in Cape Town about 2 weeks ago and we
travelled about 450km with a small trailor on our car to fetch it and bring it
home.
We also arranged to spend the weekend with some special
friends from Cyprus. The Shokkos family lived quite close to us in Nicosia when
we first arrived in Cyprus. They moved back to South Africa about 15 months ago
and live in Somerset West, a short 30-minute drive from Cape Town.
Armed with enough ‘padkos’ (an Afrikaans word, which
directly translated means ‘road food’!) to feed us for a whole day, we were
very excited about our little adventure to the Cape! 5 hours after leaving
George we collected the bike from the importer and I was very surprised when it
was an easy and pleasant experience. All in all, our importing experience was a
very positive one! We took a trailer with us and weren’t sure whether the bike
would fit in or not and so we were pleasantly surprised when the neat little
wooden box fitted in very easily and only took up about a half of the trailer!
We couldn’t stop staring at Table Mountain! It really is a
beautiful sight, and a confirmation that our dream trip to Cape Town had indeed
become a reality. I found the masses of cars on the road and busy traffic very
daunting, we really are spoiled living in George where it is much quieter! It
was also really good for the children to see other parts of South Africa – we
are living in a very beautiful country! The Shokkos family live in Somerset
West and the view from the slopes of the Helderberg mountains from there is
absolutely breathtaking. False Bay is a beautiful place and the combination of
mountains and sea really is amazing.
We experienced heavy rain storms and wild winds during the
weekend we spent in Somerset West! It was frigid but that didn’t stop the
children from having a fun swim in the pool! Brrrrr! It was lovely spending
time with the Shokkos gang and the children had a lovely time together playing.
It was very relaxing and we enjoyed the break from our usual routine and
opportunity to do very little and enjoy good company. Jacky did show us some
great catering wholesale shops and also took me to a packaging company one
afternoon, but a lot of our time was spent at home cooking and enjoying great
meals together, watching movies and catching up.
On Saturday it stopped raining for a few hours and we used
the opportunity to take a drive down the coast from Muizenburg to Simon’s Town.
It is still one of my favourite stretches of coast around the Cape. We thought
of the Lange’s a lot and looked out for the YWAM base but never did find it ….
Missing them lots! There were road works around the little harbour and there
was a stop-go system in place to allow cars from both directions to take turns
to use the one lane on the narrow road around that area. It did slow things
down quite a lot, and we took a while to get down to Fish Hoek but fortunately
traffic was in our favour in the direction we were traveling both ways. There
were lots of fascinating things to see along the way and we made a few stops to
get out and walk and explore. At lunchtime we stopped in Fish Hoek and bought
some hake, snoek and slap-chips. (Slap-chips are vinegar-drenched potato chips
that are usually also well salted – the flop about and aren’t crispy, and are
delicious!) We found a nice spot on the beachfront and sat on some wooden
benches in front of a kiddies outdoor play area. We had to fight the wind as it
blew sand on our chips and the seagulls that tried to take the fish outoi of
our hands as we ate (I won!), but we worked out the logistics and thoroughly
enjoyed our fish and chips (thanks to Grampa!!!)
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| Windswept and chilly .... posing infront of the colourful wooden houses on Muizenberg beach |
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| Our precious crew |
With very full tummies we then drove along the coastal road
that spans False Bay to visit some friends in Gordon’s Bay. Jessica is an
ex-pupil of mine and she lived with us during our last year in Butterworth. We
haven’t seen her since her 21st a year later, and that was nearly 14
years ago! She got married a few years ago to a really nice man and they have a
little son who is 2 years old. It was wonderful to see Jess again after all
this time and meet her very special family in their home. They spoiled us very
much and we enjoyed a lovely afternoon tea together in between much chatting
and laughter! It was lovely to catch up again!
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| Matthew, Andre and Jess together with us6Nomads at their home in Gordon's Bay |
We stayed an extra day and went to church with the Shokkos
family on the Sunday morning. It was the first time we’d ever been to a
Hillsongs Church and an interesting experience. It was lovely to have an extra
day to spend with them, and we had a relaxing time together. I found myself
remembering Cyprus and other friends there as we spent time with Jacky and Aki
and at times reminisced about Cyprus-memories. It wasn’t easy, but it was very
good connecting with friends with whom we have a bit of common history and
friendship.
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| Jacky and I |
Our 5-hour trip home on the Monday went really well and we
only stopped once to put in some petrol and empty our bladders. I’d made some
more ‘padkos’ that we enjoyed eating in the car and got home by mid-afternoon,
in time for Ethan and Ryan to go to soccer practice.
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