Tanzania to SA and back...

...in eight days!

I'm sitting back in the Seacliffe hotel in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We've been to South Africa, seen family and friends, replenished our wardrobes, packed and returned to Tanzania. All within the space of just more than a week!  

The Seacliffe Hotel in Dar es Salaam where we stayed on our way out to SA last week and where we find ourselves now again

On the Saturday of the weekend we arrived in Bloemfontein, South Africa, Angus and Amanda collected us at the airport. There was a slight upheaval as we realised that our luggage (which had been booked straight through from Dar to Bloem) had not arrived. Later last week we were notified that the luggage had gone to Durban; it was eventually returned to us on Thursday which was a day before I had to start packing to come back to EA again!

Abby Kate, pretty in pink and Joel and Granddad look at pictures of motorbikes

I arrived home to find that one of my cats, Puff had disappeared and subsequently found dead on the road outside our house. I'm not to sure of this as Puff never ventured outside the garden but, sadly, he was is no more. Rest in Peace, dearest Puff. We have three of the original ten cats (from 2007) left back in SA. Top photo: Chip, the Siamese is 12 years old, Tigger, centre was 16 years old on Sunday 1st April and Felix (Puff's brother) is eight years old.

The pretty little lass in pink is our newest granddaughter, Abby Kate. She was a month old the day we met her. She is like a little doll with dark hair and eyes and an olive skin. Too beautiful. Two-year-old brother, Joel is bike mad (why am I not surprised) and above you can see him look at pictures of motorbikes with granddad. He is quite talkative and gabbles away in three of the official languages of South Africa, English, Afrkaans and Sesotho. He also still speaks quite a lot of Chinese, LOL!

On Tuesday morning we got onto the bike and rode  south to Kwa-Zulu Natal to catch up on family visits. We met John, Debbie and our beautiful grandchildren in the Drakensberg.

From top, the countryside which I grew up in in Natal during the sixties and seventies. Elijah, who turns two in May looks a lot like Grant when he was little, with Debbie enjoying a cup of coffee in the background. Dear, sweet Eryn (nine years old last week) hugs granddad while John looks on. Centre right and bottom left photo: Bethany who turned three the same day as Eryn with five-year-old Joshua on a bouncy bike behind her. The last photo is also of Bethany cleaning the table! Aren't they all just too beautiful?

From here we visited Grant's mum in the Old Age Home in the country. She seems to be happy but has aged quite a lot and become quite deaf. It was good to see her again.

On the way back we popped in to see Grant's aunt Gill and her husband, Neville. They were packing up their home to go into a lovely retirement village in Howick, Kwa Zulu Natal.

From here we drove up to see my brother, Phillip. Grant had a handmade fly rod for him and of course, the men had to peruse and discuss the merits and good points of the rod. Phillip is an excellent fisherman, and regularly fishes the three dams near his home and the streams and dams in the Drakensberg area. If you like, you can read his blog here.

A rush and then a squash as I raced back from my camera to pose with my brother, Phillip and Grant (last photo)

When we tour KZN (Kwa-Zulu Natal) we always stay over at a guest house owned by an old school friend and her husband.   Gene, Grant and I have known each other for the past forty years and we've known her husband, Brian for thirty six of those years.

The waxing moon rises over Ivala Guest House owned by friends, Brian and Gene Bradfield

Today as this post is aired, Grant and I will be at the British High Commission applying for our UK visas. We fly to England at the end of May. More about this later. Meanwhile, once we've finished with the embassy, we'll catch the next flight to Mwanza. From there we drive back to Mwadui and the camp.

I hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Easter. Thank you for your kind comments and wishes on my blog.

Till later

(((Hugs)))

Jo

PS I'm linking this post with Our World Tuesday here