May 20 2017

We have been at San Cha Len Caravan Park for almost 3 months now, and what a privilege and pleasure it has been. Situated about 100 Km North of Pretoria at Bela Bela (Warmbaths) it is well and truly in the bushveld, but close enough to make visits to Peter & Elaine and family and my Dad in Benoni possible. This has been super because we have been able to attend school concerts, sporting and church events with them. Distance from them has always kept us from doing those things so we have really enjoyed being more involved.

Winter has arrived so the time has come to move on. I have to officiate at a wedding on Saturday 27^th and God willing, we will leave for Scottburgh Caravan Park on Tuesday 30^th . A dear friend of ours heard of our plan and has insisted that we stop over at Montrose, just South East of Harrismith where she has booked us in to the Protea hotel for dinner, bed and breakfast. She has organised safe parking for the car and caravan and will meet us for breakfast the next morning. We stand amazed by the goodness of God and the calibre of the friends we have met in His service.

While in this area, we have removed a stack of “stuff” from the caravan and stored it with Peter & Elaine. We have shed all the things that we thought we might need on our trip but that we now know we can do without. This has many benefits. It reduces clutter, increases space, reduces cleaning & sheds weight. When we are settled in our flat in Scottburgh at the end of our trip, we will fetch it all.

Our car, caravan and all its equipment are still in perfect condition and have proved to be very comfortable and efficient.

On the 10^th of May we went to Broederstroom so that Tom could do marriage counselling with Juan and Thalia. We spent two nights there so that Tom could spend more time with the young couple. It was such a blessing to be with the whole Durr clan again on B’Sorah. While we were there we went to Jasmyn at Hartebeespoort. 

When you are so close you don’t let an opportunity slip by without a visit to this fresh produce and bakery paradise. While we were there we had our customary “Boeretroos”. Lovely “moer koffie met kondensmelk en beskuit”.

I still feed the bunnies every morning and this morning the adults were joined by a lovely little baby bunny. The baby was still a little skittish and hopped away when I came out of the tent, but it is amazing how tame the others are.

We went for a lovely long walk on the property the other day. Not doing much exercise lately, I am ashamed to say. Laziness has overcome us, I’m afraid. Daily chores take up most of our time. Back to the walk - This is a truly lovely property. We walked for about an hour, up and down little sand roads especially for the purpose of enjoying the bushveld and hopefully spotting some of the buck species. There are Njala, Duikers, Gemsbok and Impala. 

The Njala and Duikers graze here in the camp but the others are rather shy and you don’t easily spot them. What a wonderful walk that was. The road was rather sandy and I found it hard going, but other than that it was a wonderful time. We will be doing some more walking before we leave. We have also been spending time in the warm pool where we are doing water aerobics (which I am trying to remember from when I was doing it in Carol Joubert’s pool about 3-4 years ago.)

The camp is relatively full this weekend with a caravan club camping here. Even when the camp is full, it is really quiet and peaceful. The caravans and tents are grouped together, obviously so that groups of friends can camp together. No loud noise or music. We are truly blessed to have found this place. Babie, one of the owners here, came by for a visit earlier this week. When I told her that we were leaving in less than two weeks, she asked why we were leaving. Wouldn’t we just like to let our flat in Scottburgh and then live here permanently. It is nice to know that we will be welcome any time to camp here.

I can’t believe that 6 months have passed since leaving Hazyview. It is more than a year since I stopped working. I don’t know how I ever found the time to work. There is so much else to occupy my time. Tom and I are enjoying each other’s company, which is a real blessing.

I have managed to finally complete the jersey I had to knit for Christy’s charity project at school and I have also just finished making an infinity scarf for Elaine for the winter. I am now trying my hand at fingerless gloves. These need to be finished before Wednesday, when we are planning on going to Elaine. We plan on visiting Dad and Annette on Wednesday, then on to Elaine. On Thursday we are going to B’Sorah for a pre-wedding practise. On Friday we will have a day in Pretoria. On Saturday we will go out to B’Sorah again for “The Wedding” and then straight back to Elaine afterwards. On Sunday afternoon we will return to the caravan. 

On Monday we will start cleaning everything and then the big pack-up starts. On Tuesday the next leg of our trip starts, when we leave for Scottburgh. We are booked in at Scottburgh Caravan Park from the 31^st May until the 27^th July, when we depart for Clanwilliam.

Many blessings to you all,

Tom & Lynette.