Category: Travel

Special time with Ouma

/ Renae / 3 Comments

One of my highlights of our trip to South Africa, was meeting Hubs’ Ouma. She is one of the most amazing women I’ve ever had the privelege to meet, and now I’m related to her! We spent many hours drinking coffee, eating rusks and listening to her stories as she showed us some photos. She has had an extraordinary life and remembers the finest details in her stories – we couldn’t get enough!

 
 These are the memories that will last a lifetime – precious moments spent with precious people who we adore, and we are so blessed to have so many of them in our lives.

Come fly with me

/ Renae / 1 Comment

As I mentioned, my family bought me a chopper ride over Brisbane for my birthday! And of course, Hubs got to go with me. It was little scary, but SO much fun! We flew with a flying school that also does joy rides, based in Caboolture. (This was the company.) This was the chopper we flew in:

 
It was described as a M*A*S*H chopper so of course I had the theme song in my head the whole trip! We were strapped in nice and tight:

with Hubs in the middle, and the Pilot and I on either side. It was certainly nice and cozy! The take off was a little scary, but once we were off the ground it was just so exciting! 
 
It was a fairly hazy day so we couldn’t see the city very clearly from that far away, but it came in to view not long after. 
Beautiful Brisbane City

I was trying to get my bearings and I spotted lots of things like Stafford Rd, Brookside shopping centre, the street where Lsl is living, Victoria Park Gold Course, my schools and Mum and Dad’s house!!!

To the bottom right, all those red brick buildings in a U-shape, is my primary school (Kelvin Grove Primary) (bottom) and high school (above that) (KG High) and to the right of my high school is the start of my uni (QUT Kelvin Grove). Basically right in the middle of the photo is a street that runs up and down with red blocks on it (traffic calmers) and right near the second red block from the top, is my family home! Where I grew up and cherish so many memories. *sigh* Okay. Moving on. In the top right hand corner is Ballymore Rugby stadium, and at the top in the middle, those fields are where I used to play hockey for Commercial Hockey club, AND that small field with a stadium to the left of that, is where I played a couple of my soccer games! I didn’t get out much! 🙂 And don’t you just love the heart-shape! 
Here we are back on solid ground. What a ride!
 
 Thanks to everyone who contributed! It was so much fun and an experience to remember! Happy Birthday to meeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Kondalilla falls

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On the Monday after my birthday party, Hubs and I felt like doing something active for the day, so our family friend Lou suggested Kondalilla Falls. And the best thing was, Lou was free on the Monday as well so we invited him along to be our guide. Lou knows the area like the back of his hand, so we didn’t have to worry about such things as getting lost or eaten by giant eels 🙂

It was a hot day but the walk was mainly through rainforest so we kept quite cool. We started at Barroon Pocket Dam, and left the car there. The plan was for Lou’s wife Di to pick us up at the other end, just near the falls, and bring us back to the car on their way home. Lou had told us it was about 8km so off we went!

What a view!
After about 2 hours of walking, it was time for smoko and a swim
 
We then walked another hour or so and found somewhere to stop for lunch. Lou tried a bit of fishing but there were no bites that day. The track was all downhill for the first bit, then pretty flat for a while, and then we started walking back up again. Lou had promised us a swim at Kondalilla falls, and after a day of walking, it was exactly what was needed to cool off.
 

And boy was the water chilly! While we were swimming Lou said something along the lines of “You wouldn’t BELIEVE how big the eels can get in here.” Hmmm… I chose not to think about it…
Just before we headed back up to meet Di
 
It was exactly what we needed – a day out in the “wilderness”, with good company and lovely views. As we headed to the car, I turned around to see a sign that said:
Baroon Pocket Dam – 11.2km walk
No wonder I was so exhausted!! Thanks so much for a great day Lou!

The Food – Wifey stuffing her face…

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…with a muffin the size of her head… (no matter what flavour muffin you order, you get butter, jam and cheese with it. Incidentally I ordered a bacon and cheese muffin, while Hubs opted for the choc-chip variety. Both were equally scrumptious!)
And a coffee (or 3) to wash it down! (At Mugg & Bean you pay about $2.50 for bottomless cups of coffee. I couldn’t have more than 2 in one sitting, but Hubs went back for a third. For someone who doesn’t really drink coffee, it was kinda funny to see the caffeine kick in!!)
Then there were the Oliebollen – or “Oil balls” which are a Dutch delicacy to be had at New Years. (Shocking photo, but delicious, deep-fried goodness!)
And I’m told you NEVER forget your first Koeksister! The crispy outside, the gooey inside, the syrup running down your chin. Oh boy. It was awesome.
Vodka Martini anyone?
Or perhaps a Kahlua cream coffee for a mere $4?
 
Best. Brunch. EVER!!!
 
 Frogs eggs for dessert, anyone? (It wasn’t REALLY frogs eggs. That’s just what they called it! At least, that’s what they TOLD me…..)
And one of the best dinners EVER, with a bit of everything.
 
I’m off for a walk now, to try and work some of this off!

The Big FIVE

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We were lucky enough to see all of THE BIG FIVE in the Kruger. How exciting!
Enormous Elephant 
(it’s coming right for us!!!! Drive dammit drive!!!)
 
Look! Lions!!! Ludicrously close Lions!
 
  
Rampaging Rhino

Brilliant Buffalo
 
Luscious Leopard 
(we saw it on our last day as we were leaving the park! Incredible!)

Big Five High Five! Woo hoo!

The food – part one

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For me, travelling is all about the food and the people. And the toilets, but we won’t get into that (punny!). Back to the food. We arrived in South Africa on a Monday and on the Tuesday we set out to the local berry farm. 

You pay 30 rand (about $5) to go in to the berry farm, and you get to eat as many berries as you want!

 
You don’t need to tell us twice! I’m eating bramble berries, while below, Hubs is about to scoff down some blueberries – his favourite! 
  
After eating as many berries as you want can, you can take some home with you and you pay by the kilo. Here’s our stash:

Hubs: “Here Wifey, I found you the biggest, juiciest berry and picked it for you.”
Wifey: “Aw Hubs! You’re so lovely and kind and generous! It looks delicious!” (unlike Wifey’s facial expression!)

Wifey: “Thanks Hubs. I love youuuuuuu.”

 
Wifey: “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew! Sourest berry EVER!!!! HUBS!!!! Stop taking photos of me eating the sour berry that you picked for me! You set me up!!!!”

“I don’t know WHAT you’re talking about. Tee hee hee hee.”
Luckily, he’d also picked a super ripe, super sweet berry to make it all better. Oh, and some ice cream as well.

I have SO much more food to tell you about. Not to mention the people!
I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Catching up

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We just got back to Melbourne from Brisbane last night, which brings an end to our blissful 6 week holiday! And the nice thing is, I really wasn’t dreading going back to work. It’s good to be back into the swing of things, especially after the delay in getting home yesterday…

Our flight was due to leave at 1:20pm and with the hour time difference, we were due back at Avalon airport at 4:45pm Melbourne time. At 1:05pm, we were informed that the plane had been struck by lightning on the flight down from Mackay that morning, so they were just doing safety checks. As annoying as the delay was, I was okay with the safety checks being carried out. We didn’t get away til after 3pm and were informed once we left that the temp in Melbs was 37 degrees!!!!!!! Two and a half hours later (and after I had finished reading one of the crappiest books I’ve ever read), we started our descent into Melbourne and were told that the temp had dropped to 20 degrees! Aaaaaah Melbourne. How I love your temperamental ways.

So we landed without fuss, jumped on the shuttle, then a cab, and we were home around 7:30pm, just in time to watch the Australian Open Men’s Final last night.

The perfect end to an amazing holiday. I’ll fill you in on the details in the days and weeks to come! Oh, and I just opened up my Google Reader after not checking it for 6 weeks and I have 337 new items to read! It’s going to take a while…

It’s good to be back!

South Africa

/ Renae / 2 Comments

Things to tell you about when I get home:

Biltong
Bakkies
Snoek
The Big 5
Savannas
Koeksisters
Potjie
Agave
Oliebolle
Sarmies
Braai
The Valley of Desolation
Game
Torrential rain
Robots
Ouma
The in-laws
The Kruger

… and lots lots more!…..

We’re on our way!

/ Renae / 1 Comment

Hubs and I left Brisbane 8 (???) hours ago and we are currently on stopover in Singapore, using their FREE internet!! Did I mention it was FREE????? Singapore Air have my 2 thumbs up so far! We had a few glasses of wine (and G&T and Baileys) which I’ve never really done before (drank much on flights) so I’m feeling ready for a little nap now but there are too many good movies and TV shows to watch on the next leg!! Which leaves in 6 hours 🙁

Singapore airport is also really easy to get around (FREE shuttles between terminals that are run by robots!! Okay. So it’s all automatic, but that’s PRACTICALLY a robot, right??)

Not much more to say other than I had such a great Christmas and it was awesome seeing all the family again. I miss you all already!! And we made a few new special friends who really touched our hearts – you know who you are! Can’t wait to see you again!

Until we get FREE internet again, adios!

Take the long way home

/ Renae / 2 Comments

Myself, Hubs and Nate will be starting our road trip back to Brisbane tomorrow night and we’re excited!! This is where we’ll be for the next few days:


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Once we hit Brisbane, we’ll be pretty busy leading up to Christmas, and then of course we’ll be heading to South Africa and doing something like this:


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So as you can see, we have a LOT of fun to get through the next few weeks! Then it’s my 30th birthday! YAY!!! And then we’ll be attending Hubs’ brother’s wedding (double YAY!) and then flying back to Melbs for our last 5 months here before we head to Wangaratta (or to the locals, Wang!) which is here:


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Looking forward to seeing so many of you soon! And some of you not soon enough!
(You can drag and zoom in and out on the maps! Go nuts!)