first entry

Lukas -Maropeng

In Robertson... die Kaapse dokter op n stadige dag

the cottage(hulle se kothuis?)

a walk in the hills

Robertson town - hidden

The foothills...

with the boys on the stoep

Louis on African soil

a walk with Lukas

Christmas day

5 of the 6 dogs(not easy to spot)

Ralph op my rug

dis die blou

In London

We are now in Manguzi and we are living in the director's house. This is how it all happened:
It has taken 4 years of planning to finally arrive in South Africa. We arrive in Johannesburg shortly before my 40th birthday. I do a pre-arranged locum in Dunestea 's practice and then arrive home to a few guests(including Jaksie and Lilly) and 3 large wrapped boxes. They are:
a coffee maker, a juice maker and a orange juice squeezer...little do I know how much pleasure these presents were going to bring and just how much flavour it was to add to the tropics...

We spend Christmas in Robertson(pictured) with Lukas and his dogs(6 dogs but only 22 legs). We stay in the cottage(with a magnificent view of the mountains).

We spend the rest of December in and around Johannesburg:
Also pictured is a copy of the picture of Lukas that is found in the Maropeng museum of bones, history and archeology(outside Jhb). Lukas represents a genetic version of our rainbow species and you can read bits about him before you go on the slightly dodgy boat ride through wind, sea(i think), ice and a volcano simulator. You have to dodge the mock ice and it is noisy due to bolting thunder and water pouring into the system that takes you into the rest of the museum. The museum is in a beautiful highveld setting with tall grass and slate and elande outside on the 'koppies'. I really like this place.
I am not really a New Year celebrationist so can't remember the change from 2007 to 2008.

However, we left for Manguzi early in January. The trip was over a weekend and we stayed overnight near Pongola and met Cathy, the HOST (our meeting was coincidental but it was the start of many to follow and we had a real laugh here). Cathy is an agent for a food supplement for the weak and starved(called e-pap) and I think it is best to google 'e-pap' than for me to try to summarise(and before I get myself into trouble for not being accurate). Cathy is very active and runs a lovely bed and breakfast in Pongola. The garden is full of tropical plants, crawlers and creepers(the sort of plants you'd expect to attack and eat little children). There are large and green leaves, strong smells, shadows and dark foot paths(the kind of memory I have of what a tropical garden should look like).
It was not possible to stay in our expected accomodation on arrival at the hospital, which brings me to the medical director's house. He(or as he would later be called Ettiene) was in Belgium so we stayed in his house(awaiting work to be done in our house). This took 2 months and Ceri had to orchestrate this. This involved bribing the workers with scones and other beverages.

You may wonder why i have chosen a picture of me in bed in London. It is because I like the painting on the back wall. I used to watch this painting wondering when I will return to this place I love so much. It is a painting which was given to me by Aldine(during a visit to Bloemfontein) and one that reminds me of Southern Africa. It has an old style frame and the picture is divided by a watermark(made by a water drop) which trickled onto the painting sometime in the past. It is a dusty road(made more profound by the water line) and the typical purple flowers of the Jakaranda tree. From a distance it would seem as if there are mountains in the back, but this is not obvious initially and not true either.