Blog Update – 25 December 2012 – 3 January 2013

Christmas Day dawned and we huddled in bed, it was very misty and cold, it had also rained the night before so everything was damp. We had planned to have an early afternoon lunch of gammon, salad and fried potatoes (good old German meal).  It was the easiest and quickest for two of us.   John fired up our cadac gas braai and lovingly prepared our gammon with mustard, brown sugar and baste it in Cocacola.

Plan was to have lunch round 3ish (was hoping the sun would peep its head out sometime).  Swallowtail was abuzz with activity.  Kids on bicycles, opening presents, laughing and sharing what Santa Claus had put in their stocking the night before.  Before long it was time for our late lunch and opening of our pressies of which we had the princely sum of ‘one’.  Thanks kids…..

We spent many hours walking the dogs.  John, Mike and Judy, along with Quince and the owners dog Patricia, hiked to the Madonna and Child falls.  Gypsey stayed behind to look after Mum  (thats me).  Quince had never been on such a long hike before, let alone with another strange dog.  John said he had a ball…that is until he needed to cross the river.   No ways, absolutely not, getting his feet wet.  It took John over an hour of coercing, cajoling and temptations, but he wouldn’t cross.  Eventually John dragged him over.  Since then, he won’t go near water.  Our dogs also got introduced to cows for the very first time….closeup.

We took a walk one morning to the local Church.  The Church is beautiful in its simplicity.  Apparently it burned down some years ago and with donations from Hogsback residents, as able to be totally restored to its former glory.   After a very warm walk, we came across a restaurant/tea room that was open so popped in for an early lunch.   I mention (that was open), you see in Hogsback the clocks that run here are not on the same clocks that run everywhere else.   Here in Hogsback, sometimes the restaurants/tea rooms/curio shops etc., open at 9am, other times they might open later, so one never really knows when they are open, its basically ‘pot luck’, however there will be a notice telling you exactly that.

I heard from Ansie that she was expecting a group of hikers on the 1 January 2013 from Johannesburg.   What a surprise I had, when I found out that one of the hikers was an old friend of mine from Cape Town, Bev Brockmann.  It was so super seeing her again, we even had time to have dinner one evening with her and her hiking group, before they left for their respective destinations.

All too soon our time at Swallowtail had come to an end.  The morning of the 3 January 2013 dawned.  We packed up bright and early as we wanted to head to Port Alfred and set up camp before nightfall.   We checked that all had been packed safely, battoned down the hatches, brought in the hosepipe and electrical cable.  We were just about to hitch up the jeep when John noticed the van leaning to the left.

Upon inspection, we noticed the left back section was resting on the back wheel…not was in a million years was this van moving anywhere in a hurry….now what…….phone call to Vista Motorhomes.  This was now getting a bit much, first the pressure gauge,now the collapse of the springs…..and this was a brand new campervan.  John Lawrence called Fiat in East London to see if he could arrange for them to sort this for us as it was a Fiat issue, not a Vista issue.   A phone call @ 8am, resulted in a flatbed being sent from King Williamstown at round 3pm that afternoon.  Our hopes of Port Alfred, fading in the distance, we climbed into the Zook with the dogs at round 3pm that afternoon and head for East London.    Arrival time of the campervan on flatbed was around 7pm that night.  We had nowhere to sleep, accommodation prices were horrendous as it was still peak season, so now what……..well we managed to arrange with Fiat for a plugpoint and water connectivity so we spent the night in their showroom parking lot.  Fiat couldn’t guarantee how long the repairs would take, guesstimation was around a week…..oh boy imagine spending a week in the showroom parking lot……

Early Friday morning, we took loaded the dogs into the Jeep and made for Gonubie, where we spent a really super morning walking the dogs, then landed up on a deserted beach, so they were able to be offlead to run around and play.  This is where we discovered that Gypsey loves water and she bathed herself in the rockpools like Cleopatra on her chaise lounge. Quince spent all his time barking at her but not going near to the water.  We arrived back in East London round 3pm to be told….’surprise’, your vehicle is ready, you can go anytime you want.   It was getting very late and we hadn’t organised anywhere to stay, so out came the Campervan/Camping book and cellphone.  For the next hour I phoned around to see if I could locate a caravan park that was dog friendly.     That’s how we came across Natures Rest, about 20kms outside East London.