The storm before the calm

So, you are all probably wondering why there has not been anymore content for quite a while, well the story goes like this……puppies all headed off to their forever homes mid August, then began the task of listing our beautiful home in Stonehurst for rental.  We decided to go the Corporate route as the lets are longer and also less chance of rental not being paid, especially if let to a company.

Vista Motor homes were running around 6 weeks behind schedule with our build, first delivery date being beginning of September 2012,  due to the fact that this was the first one of this spec they had built…it was custom made for John and I.    Details of the build and pictures are in the process of being put together by John and will be uploaded to our website, shortly.

My friend Elizabeth arrived at the end of August 2012 from Slovakia for her annual sojourn to Cape Town.  She is staying with us for the next two months, before flying to Vienna and back to Slovakia.  Her next leg is Greece end November for a World of Little People course.  Elizabeth was who John and I assisted at the course we went to in May 2012 in Ireland.

AND  in between all of the above, John has made a trip to Namibia with his friend Peter as well as a trip to the Tankwa Karoo National Park.   John and Peter are both ‘photography mad’ and were quite happy to rough it for the time they were in Namibia and Tankwa.  I, on the other hand, like my creature comforts AND besides that, didn’t really feel like living in a tent with two males LOL.  So, I stayed at home with the dogs and had quality time with my friend Elizabeth.

Roll on end of September 2012, Vista told us the campervan was not close to being finished yet.  They were waiting for a window to arrive, seats to be covered amongst other things.  John, I know by this stage, was chomping at the bit as he had envisaged we would have at least 2 months before leaving Cape Town, to test the van.  Unfortunately this was not to be, so we had to work with the time we had.  Our van was delivered mid October.  We spent the better part of Saturday cleaning and making a snag list which seemed to go on and on forever.  There were so many little things that hadn’t been finished correctly that Monday morning bright and early, the van was once again delivered back to Vista Homes for completion of our snag list.  This was again to take longer than we had anticipated.  Finally, on Thursday the 1 November 2012, we drove our campervan home.

Friday and Saturday was spent checking everything to make sure it worked, packing and repacking clothes, food, doggie stuff, chairs, tables, crockery, cutlery, glasses, music, dvd’s, laptops and so the list goes on.

Sunday morning, final check and we are off.  The purpose of the first trip is to ‘test’ the van and work out how to set up camp with the dogs.  Also working in a small space, we need to work as a team, otherwise tempers will flair and hackles will rise LOL.  So, we decided to travel to Mountain Breeze caravan park in Stellenbosch, just for 2 nights.

The van handled like a dream, the dogs soon found their respective spots, Quince upfront between the drivers and passenger seats, balancing on all fours, checking for speedtraps LOL.  Madam Gypsey Rose, turned around a few times, then plonked herself down in ‘sleep position’ and proceeded to snore.

Our jeep is ‘on loan’ at the moment, but our next trip, sometime towards the end of November 2012, will be the ‘whole hog’, fully loaded, Jeep, bicycles and whatever else including the kitchen sink is going with us.   This will probably be our final ‘test’ before embarking on our journey up the coast to Hogsback for Christmas and New Year.

So, getting back to Mountain Breeze.   We arrived at Reception and duly checked in.  Our hostess Janine, was a little apprehensive about allowing us in with our dogs, even though she had said it was fine, when I called and booked.   I don’t think she had any idea how HUGE they are.  Anyway, brave and fearless she was, she decided to walk back with us to the campervan where the dogs were waiting with John, to meet them.  Needless to say, she was a little ‘in shock’ when she saw their sizes.  Amid much nervous laughter, she left us and we carried on to pick our spot closest to the forest.

Mountain Breeze is a huge caravan park, offering chalets, camping, caravanning, permanent and semi permanent accommodation.  Unfortunately it doesn’t have a lot of grass, as there are loads of pine trees, so it is a little dusty and sandy.  Ablution blocks were nice and clean, showers with nice hot water and big grounds to walk the dogs on leads.

Sunday evening, beautiful, windfree and warm.   Once we had set up camp, we took the dogs for a walk to the little farm stall on the property, then back home for a braai and sundowners.  Reasonably early to bed like most caravaners and campers and up bright and early……, as I was about to find out next morning LOL.   After tea in bed, off to the ablution block which was little way from where we parked.  The campsite was awakening, people stretching, yawning, scratching and greeting the new day.  Entertaining to say the least. A black double cab went out, came in, went out, came in…John jokingly said ‘he might have forgotton something each time.’  The second time however, behind him trundled a police van!!!!!!!  John and I wondered why, of course, but didn’t think too much of it…..that was until we took the dogs for a walk around the campsite.  Upon chatting to the  locals living in Mountain Breeze, the gentleman with the black double cab had been on the receiving end of a late night intruder, who had ‘cleaned him out’.  Quite scary for us, to say the least.

What have John and I learnt out of this? …….be aware, take nothing for granted, lock up and be wide awake at all times.  Even though we have our bullies with us, we cannot become complacent in any way, remembering of course that when bullies sleep, they sleep……LOL……

We  are home again on the 6 November 2012 as we will need to start packing up our home for Trudie who is organising our storage and our van has to go back into the workshop for its final snag list…hopefully then we can start to pack smart and get ready for our next adventure which we think will be a trip to Citrusdal.

Janine, our hostess at Mountain Breeze, has kindly offered to give us and our dogs a ‘personal recommendation’ and of course we challenge other caravan parks and campsites along our route, to do the same, even though you might not be dog friendly…give us a chance, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Keep smiling, keep wide awake and keep watching our blog for more nail biting episodes of our ad-ventures as we go.