Blogs from Somerset West, Western Cape, South Africa, Africa - page 2

Hello all! Thank you for writing on our message page! It is one week to go until we leave. Mom and I just went to Father Martin for a blessing on ourselves and our backpacks. He concentrated more on our back packs than on us, suppose realising that these babies would be our constant companions for 2 weeks. He said some beautiful words- and one really stood out- FORBEARANCE. We quickly googled it when we had finished- tolerance, patience, endurance. Shoo, quite a lot to digest. He clearly understands what the Camino means and requires. So where did this all begin..this adventure??? Well Mom and I backpacked in Spain and Portugal 15 years ago- I was 25 and Mom was 50. Oupa had passed away 6 months before and I really can't remember how we thought ... read more

hey bloggers so....i had quite an eventful weekend in the Western Cape and thought I'd share these moments with my fellow bloggers. on the morning of the 23rd March we got up extra early, packed our swimming wear in and headed to Blue Rock. It is located in Somerset West, just off Sir Lowry's pass. This is definitely a destination for the whole family filled with many activities for you to enjoy WHOLE DAY!!! Doing all those water sports for the 1st time and definitely wanting to learn more. the kids were also having fun as there are parks/ play areas, facilities for swimming as well as fufi slides and much more. Staff at Blue Rock and friendly, fun and willing to teach you things to make your experience better, these are all things that contributed ... read more

Thursday 22nd R25 for entry and R5 for a route map and we were all set to begin the long slog up the Helderberg Mountain! We spoke to the woman at the information desk and asked how long it takes to summit the mountain, “6 hours,” came her reply which took us both by surprise as other people had said it only took them 2 hours to get to the top. Not only this but she also told us that the other day a couple had got lost trying to reach the top and didn’t return to the bottom until nearly 1am! There were many different routes. Pink is the only route which takes you to the top and green is the next highest, which splits from at the base of the rock face. We decided ... read more

The Intercape was fantastic as we got to sleep through the night (from J-Bay). Craig's dad (Trevor) was picking us up at the Somerset West petrol station at 6:00am. Unfortuantly for him we arrived 3 hours late and we had no signal until we entered Cape Town. It was really exciting as Craig was seeing his house in Penhill for the first time and I was meeting the family. After unpacking and introductions we went to the local Shabine....time to chill out and open a cold beverage. We tried to surf as much as possible but the waves were not that great mostly non existant. We had hired a car (vomit comitt)and we really got our monies worth by spending (sometimes) 2.5 hours driving around looking for waves. My parents arrived on the 22nd Dec so ... read more

3 Days to go 'till we're teachers! After three and a half weeks of classes, homework, textbooks and all those things we left behind years ago, Cathy and I are once again getting used to the whole school thing. Except that this time we return to fight for the other side! The truth is that both of us have really enjoyed the TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course we've been doing. The course is run over 4 weeks (100 hrs) and during this time we've had the chance to prepare and teach 6 one-hour classes to foreign students. The students have been really great and we've met some fantastic people, some of whom we will hopefully be able to visit during our travels. Not an aweful lot has been happening because of the full-time ... read more