God's Window (and many other places!)

I think we've been back from our trip to South Africa for about 2 weeks already - this blogspot is definitely overdue for its customary mix of drive-by shots and random notes..

Firstly, a typical ridiculous blogger's shot, taken in the pre-dawn blur!On departure from here - our GPS depicting the essence of a road trip in our part of  northern botswana. I do enjoy this symbolic representation of the open road round here... On setting forth, she instructs us to "Drive 489 kilometres South" and promptly goes to sleep until then - when we reach the traffic circle for our first change of direction! 

Doctor Livingstone, I presume? Having travelled a thousand km  from our spot bordering Livingstone's actual epic journeys, I was intrigued to re-encounter him in the concrete jungle, operating his lawnmower atop this roof. I hope you can see there is even some grass up there for him to mow!

Actually, this is where we met up with Blogger Janet, at the store's coffee bar in freezing cold Jo'burg. It was a bit difficult to place her in the city with a spotless vehicle, (last seen travelling dustily around Botswana and Namibia).

*I have now learned that there is actually a reason for the strange mixture of Dr L and a lawnmower, but this will have to wait for another blogpost!

Here is one of the reasons we struggle to adapt to cities. Hemmed in by metal boxes, crawling along the highway, and envying the motorcyclist on the left who is about to make his big break ...

After catching up with our city-dwelling family members, we could not wait to escape, and head for the hills... 3 nights in a beautiful stone cottage in the mountains. 

 

Luckily our vacation needs are supremely compatible. The art of fly-fishing combines well with my often neglected reading habit, and we both love any natural, serene location. Preferably a different place each time, of course!

Follwing a stream along the mountainside, we found this lovely waterfall dropping the water down to our level. Pity the wonderful natural swimming pool was way too cold...  More photos of this waterfall over here!

Once again, we hit the road... Just for a complete contrast, note the GPS now showing us contours and forests! A novelty for us table-land dwellers to drive on the curves and gradients.

Doing our essential car servicing is always a good opportunity(excuse) to visit  people and places, and with our travelling miles in the car, it comes round fairly often. In this case we convinced my sister and family to meet up with us in the lovely wildlife area inhabited by our uncle. Always a joy to catch up with family, especially our fast growing twin nephews! 

 

We even breezed into vist Val and KJ, of Monkeys on the Roof fame. Nice to finally see the Roof in real life (it's a magical place).

One of my holiday highlights was seeing God's Window in Mpumalanga. I think this is our fourth attempted viewing/visit in the past 15 years or so, the first attempt being during our honeymoon! Then, and on each successive arrival, my enthusiastic husband has raved about the amazing view, and I have been confronted with nothing but a solid blanket of impenetrable mist. 

Over the years, I have therefore become very keen on seeing it with the misty curtains drawn back. This time we were lucky - and I think it was 100% worth it!! I do hope this photo does it a bit of justice.

It is always good to be home, and at the risk of making this blogpost impossibly long, I just have to insert a homeward bound roadscape again. Here the road ahead is almost obscured by bushfire smoke, while brand new green leaves liven up the wintry tones of the dry season.

The dry season is now heading for its worst phase - October is a month to be endured as the temperatures soar, waiting for the Rains to come. At the same time, so many of the trees are miraculously bursting forth with greenery, yet since about March,  not a drop of rain has fallen!


Equinox has come and gone, and I have seen the first advertisements for Christmas products and events............ But for now, the next expected milestone is the arrival of the migratory Paradise Flycatchers in our garden. We won't be going anywhere for a while, so perhaps my blog will become more frequent than its current monthly status?!


Mid week greetings to all reading this, from the hot, dry dustiness, tinged with green!