Nomads ............ free to roam!

Its nearly the end of July and we’ve spent all of this month (and a couple of weeks in June) up in the Northern parts of South Africa. At the moment we find ourselves at Mabalingwe Game Reserve just outside Bela-Blea (Warmbaths) in the Limpopo region. We’ve been blessed by some friends who have shared their Bushveld home with us for a few nights - and have thoroughly enjoyed the quiet, relaxation and game drives. We’ve enjoyed spotting the animals in their natural habitat, including nyala, bushbuck, heavily pregnant zebra, giraffe, buffalo, rhinoceros, monkeys, warthog and an awesome variety of birds.

This trip has been primarily a business trip. We came up north with a trailer full of the products we’ve recently imported from China, hoping to find customers in the big cities. We’ve spent many weekends selling our goods at one of the flea markets, have met with numerous hiking clubs and leisure clubs and also visited numerous retailers and end users. It hasn’t been as fruitful as we would like it to have been, but hopefully some of the fruit of our labours will still manifest in the months that lie ahead.

We’ve spent a handful of days doing ‘touristy’ things and have enjoyed showing our children the place where we grew up. Some of our highlights were a visit to the Oriental Plaza in Johannesburg and driving through downtown Braamfontein (with our doors locked and valuables well hidden!), a visit to the Pretoria Zoo and a picnic in the gardens at the Union Buildings and a handful of picnics with precious friends. We’ve enjoyed visiting with a handful of ‘old’ friends and also family, introducing our children to many folk for the first time. The children have made new friends along the way and loved the fun and adventure as we have gone along!

Jeana and her Mom .... 

Lunching with Hle (who is on summer holidays from Dubai) at Magnolia Dell

Enjoying a fun evening with the Turner clan

Pretoria is very unlike George. At the moment it is extremely dry (it is a summer-rainfall region), dusty and very brown. George is always green and we’ve experienced rain very often almost all year long! Pretoria hasn’t had much of a winter this year, so the days have been lovely and warm (± 24°C) and the night temperatures, although cool, haven’t brought any frost or numb toes. One of the other major differences is its size! It seems to take ages to get from one side of Pretoria to the other, while a drive through George can’t take longer than 15 minutes in the worst of traffic. Pretoria is huge! And that means there are lots of people, lots of cars and LOTS of traffic. We aren’t used to driving on 6-lane highways and dodging kamikaze-style drivers who are always in a huge hurry! We’ve found it very stressful.

Experience has confirmed that Pretoria is still a much better place to be than Johannesburg. Its much cleaner, less congested and doesn’t feel as unsafe as Johannesburg does. We’ve actually found Pretoria to be quite safe and have enjoyed our time here very much. Our day in downtown Johannesburg was not as relaxing an adventure, we were warned by a merchant to hold on to our belongings and felt very uneasy and were so glad to head home when we did.

We have really enjoyed our time here, have loved connecting with special people and exploring new territory! We have one last night in the Bushveld before we head back into Pretoria to spend 5 last nights with friends. On Tuesday next week we hitch on the trailer and head back to George, via Kimberley (where we will overnight).  We’re looking forward to seeing our homeschooling and community friends especially …. We’ve been gone a long time, but have loved our African travels.