Between Christmas and New Years

I mentioned that we spent Christmas in Darkest Africa with Friends-

Fanie (Farnie), his wife Elmarie and her 2 children Helize and Thronton. Originally I think we were going to travel up to Pretoria with them, and spend the week between Christmas and New Years up there. But since it’s summer and we live on the beach; and Pretoria is not near the beach -we invited everyone back to the condo. Fanie, like my DH had to work those days, so he went back to Pretoria with plans to come back for New Years.



The first day back home, everyone slept in… and rested. Elmarie works, so she enjoyed the relaxed start to the week!!! We spent some time during the week shopping locally, there is a large East Indian shop, where we both bought Sari’s; 7 meters of fabric… for about $15 US. I plan to make a trip back…and see if there is something else I like! I am of course purchasing the fabric, not the Sari, although I did see how they wrap and fold the fabric to create a Sari should I decide to wear it. The kids and Elmarie spent sometime at the 'big' mall too. Elmaries brother recommended a fish place up the beach highway for the best Fish & Chips I've ever had. I had Swordfish, which was cooked to perfection! So we did that one night for dinner.

Elmaire and I took a day trip into the Interior of Kwazulu Natal Province- up near Pietermaritzburg, to do the “Midlands Meander”. It is a group of roads and loops that have shops, artists, restaurants and Bed & Breakfast places. I found a quilt store there, and purchased some fabrics… I hope to go back on our way up to Pretoria at the end of the month. We checked into several stores and had the most spectacular dinner at a place called St Ives Restaurant, Fly Fishing & Accommodation Estates . We began with a Starter (appetizer) of a Phyllo packet with Brie and asparagus filling, a main course of Fillet Mignon with a cherry vodka glaze, creamed spinach and the most amazing sweet potatoes!!! And for dessert we had a Lava Cake in a coffee cup right from the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The meal alone was worth the drive. Never mind that it took us several hours to find a place that was still serving. We stopped at about 6 places where we heard sorry closed, on holiday, only doing catering and one place that ignored us after we sat down… no hello, no menus, no nuth’in. So we left.

On New Year’s Day DH and I took a walk on the beach . Talk about wall to wall people! It is a traditional day where everyone with the day off and means makes a pilgrimage to the beach. You can see that the beach is much more crowded than the picture I took before Christmas and the following Monday after New Year’s appears nearly deserted! None of the local residents venture to the beach on major holidays, due to the crowds.

 To make matters a little more difficult there are Jellyfish in the waters, not necessarily deadly, but I guess the sting can really hurt. No Thanks!

Cooking here was a family affair with everyone pitching in!!! We had lots of good and different foods for everyone. Mostly on the grill and salads, but we threw in some other foods as well.

We spent a very quiet New Years, and did not stay up to celebrate. We saw Australia’s fireworks right after dinner and China’s too. Since South Africa doesn’t do a big fireworks display, and you are required to have a license to fire off any explosives…. And once you’ve seen midnight… they all start looking the same…. So we went to bed in 2009 and woke up in 2010… and you know what it looked the same!

This coming weekend we will be visiting Sani Pass. It is rated as one of the most dangerous roads in the world. We will be going with friends and we will be driven to the top in 4x4, stay overnight at the top of the pass in the Chalet and having dinner at the highest pub in Africa.

So as always-

More Later!