25 Dec 2017

In September we visited Peter, Elaine and Family in Pretoria for about 10 days. While there, I was able to get a filter supplied and a fitting made for the caravan’s water pump. Wonderful how you can get everything you need in a large centre. What you can’t get, you can have made.

When we were on our way back to Scottburgh we stopped at an Ultra City in Estcourt for a coffee break and received a host of calls/messages telling us not to come back to Scottburgh because they were having floods and gale force winds on the South Coast. Roads were closed and flooded with vehicles being washed away.

We slept over at friends in Howick who had been our neighbours at the caravan park in Scottburgh. 
Amazing how the Lord supplies our every need.

The next day, we decided to have a look at the Howick Falls and do some shopping in Howick so that we could go straight to the caravan and not still have to do shopping in Scottburgh.

We saw the falls which were spectacular, then while in a shop we met up with Alvera Crookes, an old friend from Standerton days. She insisted that we come out to their farm and have tea. We spent a good part of that day with the Crookses at their beautiful farm.

When we eventually arrived in Scottburgh (with much trepidation) we found the whole caravan/tent setup in perfect condition. Praise the Lord!

The tent was very wet inside but in a few days it was dry again. The caravan was perfectly dry and comfortable.

On the 15^th of October, I had the privilege of preaching at Pennington Methodist Church. This church was started by my parents many years ago. It is a thriving church now with a beautiful building. It is a lasting and living legacy of their faith and commitment to the Lord.

In October we went away again. This time to our time-share at Drakensberg Sun. Oh the luxury of having an en-suite bathroom, toilet and four solid walls.

While booking in, we met dear friends, Dave and Linda Godley from White River. We spent some time with them that evening and the next day. What a joy.

Our next jaunt away from Scottburgh was to Ramsgate to spend a few days with Neil, Jeanine, Jenna and Thomas who were visiting from USA. They had come to addend the wedding of Jeanine’s younger sister Ina-Mari.

Just as well that my brother Malcolm and his wife Colleen had made their house in Ramsgate available to us. With the exception of one beautiful morning, the weather was foul, with rain and high winds. On that good morning, we were able to take the children to the beautiful beach, close to the house.

On arriving at the caravan again, we had to start packing up, cleaning up and preparing for our move into our townhouse at the end of November.

And so our year long stay in the caravan came to an end. What a busy couple of days we had. First of all we got a local lady who really knows how to clean tents, etc to come and help us wash the tent, and all the equipment before packing up. We then had to plan very carefully to avoid high winds and rain before packing up. 

Fortunately we managed to pack up before it rained. We left the caravan in the caravan park at Scottburgh for the night and slept in the house on the first night. We just put the mattress on the floor because we had a kit-bed which first had to be put together and there were other more important things to do. After being really busy the first day we went to bed.

The next morning we could hardly get up. Being on the floor it was rather difficult to get our weary, hurting bodies into an upright position. We then had to head down to the caravan park to hitch up the caravan and bring it to the house. We managed to park the van in a reasonably sheltered spot which is not visible from the road and quite out of the way of the other tenants in the complex. When we have a chance we will be taking the caravan up to Camperdown where we have found reasonably good storage at an affordable price.

It is about 3/4 of an hour from Scottburgh, so it is far enough inland as to not be affected by the sea air, yet close enough to be able to go anywhere in the country without too much effort.

Then the unpacking of the boxes began. What a massive chore. Now it is a month later and we are down to the last 5 boxes of approximately 110.

We found that we have too much “stuff” for this much smaller house and have had to be rather ruthless and have given away boxes and boxes of crockery, cutlery, clothing, blankets, etc together with furniture. We have decided that we don’t want to be cluttered with too many possessions.

The year in the caravan has made it much easier to get rid of things. Lynette is a real hoarder and everything has a sentimental attachment but after living very simply for a year it is quite easy to look at an article and think “What on earth was I thinking to pack this?” There is still a lot which needs to be sorted but Rome wasn’t built in a day. Tom managed to get the car into the garage for the first time two days ago. At last it looks like we should complete the unpacking in the next week.

We celebrated Christmas with the local Church. It was a joyous occasion!!

Now we look forward to receiving Peter, Elaine and children on the 1^st of January.

Our tour is behind us. What a blessing it was, full of adventure. We withstood gales and floods, car trouble and everything from the worst caravan sites to the best. From the worst weather to the best. Through it all, by the grace of God, we thrived! Thank you Lord!!