We decided on an inland route and chose Willowmore as our destination. We travelled through beautiful countryside and saw loads of animals including Secretary birds, buck, warthogs, monkeys, merino sheep and an enormous tortoise in the middle of the road.

One of the great things about travelling are the people you meet and Lesley was no exception to this rule. We were lucky enough to stay at Lesley’s Airbnb for 3 days and we would have gladly stayed much longer as it (and she) was so super. A perfect little cottage with an amazingly interesting and great human being.

Finally we get to Port Elizabeth, my lovely hometown. Some foolish people say that it is a little bit boring, but these people have no idea of Port Elizabeth’s hidden treasures! Just take me and my family for example…stop laughing back there!

After visiting my lovely sister, I was lucky enough to visit my lovely Aunty Ann and Uncle Peter in East London. East London South Africa, I’m talking about here, not East London, East London. I could tell you all types of interesting facts about East London (founded by John Bailie in 1836, only river port in South Africa, etc, etc), but it’s my beautiful family that makes it so beautiful!

After leaving my sister and family, we headed to Aliwal North where we spent the night in a lovely self-catering double story unit. The owner has Fan-tailed Doves and ducks and it was a treat to watch them fanning their tails right in front of us.

We continued our travels through the Northern Cape Province to Gariep Dam and Nature Reserve which borders the Free State and the Eastern Cape. It’s the beginning of November and hot as Hades. Gariep Dam Village is very beautiful, with manicured gardens and beautiful trees. Being next to a dam does sort of guarantee you water!

The great thing about South Africa is that I still have deevine family there and I had the opportunity to visit them this year – haven’t seen my big Sis, Patricia, in 7 years! My super nephew and his lovely wife made me feel old by making me a Great Aunt twice over…okay, so that makes me great, like you didn’t already know that!

We LOVE the Karoo. There are just miles and miles of “nothing”. I use inverted commas, because it is semi-desert and fairly deserted, but it is just so beautiful and full of things to see. The lovely Erika and Gerhard told us that people in the northern part of the country have farms with 400 000 hectares! We had a whopping 3 ½ ha…

Also known as Bushmanspoort, this place is a little piece of heaven and we would quite happily have stayed there for the rest of our natural lives. It is owned and run by Manus and Erida – Erida was away, but Manus was a ray of sunshine everyday. We had planned to stay one night, but stayed 2 because it is just so wonderful.

Our last hosts, the lovely Erica and Gerhard, told us about a little gem of a place called Wuppertal. We found the name alone super as there is an enormous city with the same name in Germany which has a population of about 350 000 and the SA version probably has a population of 350 tops (I’m guessing here).