Party in Margate!

We had many wonderful adventures in Margate.  We stayed at the home of Dave’s former mission companion.  The Oehlerking family - Jean-Pierre, Gina, Cameron, Jared and Liam were the most gracious of hosts.  They have a beautiful home on a farm in Margate, South Africa.  Margate is a small resort town along the Eastern coast of South Africa.  There are so many things to do at the Oehlerking's home - they have dogs, ducks, chickens, birds, horses, and wild monkeys. Gina holds water aerobics in their pool, and Jean-Pierre has his own airplane. We arrived right after the busy holiday season, so we missed the rush and the crowds.  Jean-Pierre and Gina told us all about the local haunts and must-do activities.  Cameron and Jared were in school, so we couldn't spend as much time with them as we wanted. But luckily Jared's schedule was a little more flexible so we were able to hang with him, and he could show us the local scene!

Cameron and Brooke "The Horse Whisperer"

 Jake and Jared quickly became good friends.  Two peas in a pod...they explored the area, played on the beach and just "hung out."

Jean-Pierre planned a special surprise for us one night.  We lit these lanterns in his backyard and let them float high in the sky until they disappeared.  It was a magical evening we will never forget.

Jean-Pierre has always loved flying. Lucky for him, Margate has its own small airport about 5 minutes from their home!  He has his own 2-seater airplane, and the first day we arrived, he did a "fly-by" while we were swimming in his backyard pool. One of the mornings he even treated Dave, Ben and Emily to their own private flight along the coast of South Africa!  On the way, we did our own "fly-by" and saw Robynn waving to us in the courtyard of the Oehlerking home. It was a beautiful way to see the landscape.  The ocean, the trees and the hills are just gorgeous. He even let Ben and Emily take the controls for a little while!  He flew us through the clouds, and even down low - about 20 feet off of the shoreline where we could open the side door and have a completely open view of the ocean. This was a true highlight of the trip!  

A bird's eye view of Wild Waves water park from Jean-Pierre's plane!  We spent the day at Wild Waves with Jared, and literally had the park to ourselves, since it was off-season. 

Maverick and Goose!  Luckily Goose didn't die this time! 

African woman carrying her inventory of curios - awesome!

And,,,here are the curious - Robynn doing what she does best...Shopping!

Jake and Jared hamming it up at Mac Banana before getting our savory and sweet "pancakes" - or crepes as we Americans call them.

Three beautiful ladies hanging outside Mac Banana.

Gina and Jean-Pierre treated us one night to authentic "Bunny Chow" - curry served in bread bowls.  This was both legit and Lekker!

Swimming at the Oehlerking pool!

The Oehlerking home is amazing - bedrooms and family rooms surround this central courtyard where we hung our laundry to dry. It was here that Robynn waved to us while we were on our personal flight!

We loved The Waffle House so much that we went there twice!  The hummus waffles for dinner, and the cadbury chocolate waffle with ice cream for pudding.  Yum!

We spent an entire day hanging out at Uvongo Beach, a seaside resort town right near Margate. Funny enough, Paul and Yvonne have a home here - that's how they got to know Jean-Pierre years ago.  Even funnier - Dave got "rescued" here at Uvongo beach by a lifeguard. Ask him about it if you want a good laugh!

Reunited at Last!

FYI...I wrote the following post on the way to Margate and haven't been near WIFI since!  Sorry...we are still alive and are spending our last full day in SA at a Waffle House that has WIFI!!! And the best waffles in the world!!!  I will try to post our last couple of days at the airport tomorrow before we leave...thanks for following:)

We took off to Wartburg in the craziest storm ever!  I wish we could send some of that rain to Cali cuz I’m pretty sure it would have solved the drought!  It was a four hour drive through the country…just b u tiful! Warburg is a small town in the country an hour from Durban.  Paul and Yvonne Roberts (who Dave baptized while on his mission) live in the greenest area, full of farms of all sorts, but mostly lined with rows and rows of sugar cane.  Paul works at a nearby sugar factory that makes the most amazing pancake syrup…they sent us home with a huge bottle (oh yeah)!  They have the most lovely home and yard and we were super comfortable.  Pauls father, who is ninety years old, lives with them.  He is a hoot!  They also have a large bird living with them…he is an African Grey and his name is Charlie.  We all loved Charlie but Charlie did not love us!  He is obsessed with Yvonne…who wouldn’t be!?  Jake can actually say “Charlie bit me” in the cutest accent and it is true!

 Yvonne is an amazing cook…we were treated to the most delicious meals of our journey.  My kids are ruined for life!  They took us to a butterfly house that was really fun.  It was full of not only butterflies, but also had monkeys, birds, fish, turtles and lots of other cool stuff.  Loved it!  Later that day we hiked down to some amazing waterfalls…it was quite an adventure.  The trail was steep, muddy, rocky and slippery from the rain the day before.  It was also crazy gorgeous and jungle-like with vines hanging down and tropical flowers all over the place.  WOW!  We almost died like a thousand times…but we didn’t. The falls and views were totally worth the near death experience!  That night they treated us to a lovely braii (bbq)…the spread was incredible!!! Brooke turned twelve that day...what a birthday treat for her.

Paul is the bishop of the Pietermaritzberg Ward…the city is about forty minutes away and their ward boundaries are huge!  Quite a sacrifice to do home and visiting teaching, not to mention just traveling to church on Sunday.  They are stellar members with amazing testimonies!  The ward was friendly and we met some really cool peeps.  The members here take a lot of crap from people…they are my heroes!  After church, one of the members named Karel Van Der Westhuizen, invited us to dinner at his B and B.  It was another insane meal!  The South African people know how to cook and entertain!  The missionaries (both from Utah) came as well and we had the best time chatting and eating and listening to beautiful piano playing by our host…unforgettable Sabbath day.

Ahhhhh...it's been a serious party since we arrived in Wartburg.  The Roberts have been feeding and entertaining us like crazy.  They are really the best people on the earth and it is with heavy hearts that we leave them this morning to head to Margate (where Dave's mission companion lives...he's a party animal so we will be busy there too).  I really don't know how much time I'm going to have the rest of the journey so this may be the last post...so we will go out with a bang (WARNING….this post is three pages long…read with caution)!  

I know I am overusing the exclamation point on this post, but this last week has just been the highlight of our time in Africa!  It has been such an education…we have learned so much about the people and culture and have had such an amazing time.  It is the sweetest experience to be reunited with the Roberts…they are the salt of the earth and we love them to pieces.  I am writing this post on our way to Margate with views of the Indian Ocean to my left.  S0 cool!  The air outside is warm and thick…super humid.  We are ready for another adventure with Jean Pierre and Gina Oehlerking and family.  I hope to post once more before our trip is done…thanks for reading and all the fun comments!  We miss you all and look forward to coming home…but not just yetJ  Cheers!  Robynn

Enjoying Malva Pudding with Paul and Yvonne - the best dessert in the whole world!

Our laundry!

The Roberts' back porch. This is where we visited, ate Malva Pudding and had a lekker braai!

Jake and Grandpa Roberts shared a real love of polished rocks.

Paul and Yvonne treated us to a fun visit to the Butterfly museum in Pietermaritzburg.

Ben enjoying some ginger beer!

Ginger Beer - we had to try every variety we could find!

For Brooke's twelfth birthday, Paul and Yvonne took us to a really fun hike near their home. They are surrounded by miles and miles of sugarcane fields, spread over flat lands as well as over hillsides. There are also gorges all around which lead to some pretty spectacular hikes.  This trail got a bit dicey in some areas, but it was worth the effort!  A beautiful waterfall and watery pool in a very secluded spot.  Just another fond memory of our time with Paul and Yvonne!

Dave and Paul preparing for the braai of all braais!

And here it is - the braai of all braais!

The kids digging in!

Our Sunday afternoon with Karl Van der Westhuizen, Paul, Yvonne, and the missionaries.  Lots of music and fun conversation.  Karl is also a painter, and painted those pictures above the fireplace.

Robynn, Yvonne and Charley working their magic in the kitchen!

Safari Part Deux...

Jake and Emily and the giraffe.

We asked this guy if he would take a photo of our family...he gave Dave the camera and got in with us instead.  Cheeky buggar!

White rhino...super duper amazing to see in person.

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Bathing elephant.  No privacy for these animals!

The cheetah...chillaxin under the shade tree.

Two lionesses and their bloody dinner.

Braii (BBQ) with our guide, Stacy.

The Safari at HluHluwe iMflolozi was really out of this world!  Like I said in the last post, we had to leave by five that morning for the hour drive to the park.  We arrived at six and started right away.  It was going to be a scorcher so it was imperative that we see as much as possible before the heat sent the animals fleeing for shelter.  I can't remember what we saw first, but we saw it all and then some!  The giraffes were so cool, just chillin and eating leaves with their big eyes and long lashes.  We got to see a bunch of them throughout the day and they were one of the favorites...we even saw them running from afar which is just the coolest!  The park is known for its large Rhino population (Rhinos are endangered and are still being killed at an alarming rate, even in the parks) so we were able to see many White Rhinos and quite a few up close.  They are super prehistoric and impressive looking.  Jake said they looked like they were wearing armor. We had to be calm and quiet as they moved slowly past our vehicle...but believe me our hearts were racing because you do not want to tick those guys off!  They did not try to tip our car over...just wanted you to come back and read the post:)  

The lions were incredible!  At one point we came upon a pack of wildebeests who were fleeing from something...that something proved to be a teenage lion and lioness.  They ran across the road in front of us and hid in some bushes.  All the animals in the vicinity were freaking out, making high pitched warning calls to one another.  It was the coolest!  They soon ditched us so our guide, Stacy, took us to a “hide” which is a small building with narrow windows where you can watch the animals at a watering hole but they can’t see you.  There were restrooms nearby, but Stacy was very nervous to let us use them since the lions were still in the area.  It was a stressful toilet experience!  The boys were already down in the hide and by the time we got there we had just missed seeing an elephant bathe and drink in the watering hole!  Bummer!!!  The lions had been there earlier too.  It was a super cool place to see many animals up close, interacting with one another.  A huge pack of zebras and some bucks came in and it was fun to watch them for a bit.

We had a lovely BBQ lunch on a hilltop with our guide and fellow tour mates, Babette and Sebastian.  Naughty monkeys, guinea fowl and warthogs joined us as well.  The day was getting extremely hot at this point and our time was over half way up so we were eager to get back on the road.  We got to see some more Cape Buffalo up close after lunch.  One of them had a little bird living on it (symbiosis) that spent time cleaning out its nostrils and ears of bugs and other parasites.  I wish I had one of those things for my home!  I know Jake could use one right about now!  At one point during the afternoon one of the kids turned to me and said “I would have never learned any of this stuff at school’…yup…made my day!

One of the most memorable sightings happened late in the day when we had stopped next to another couple of jeeps to talk animals.  One of the trucks took off with a bang and spooked a cheetah out from under some nearby bushes!  We did not think we would get to see one since there are very few in the park (it’s been two months since our guide had seen one).  Jake was extra pumped since he is in the process of writing a report on them.  It ran to a nearby tree and sat under the shade while we stared at his awesomeness.  Wow!

We saw lots of babies…rhinos, giraffes, warthogs, zebras, monkeys, to name a few…the kids loved to see them!  Before we left the park we sighted three huge male elephants walking along a nearby ridge and a couple of female lionesses chillin in the shade. One of the lionesses was pregnant and they had recently killed something because there was a bloody carcass right next to them.  We got pretty lucky on our safaris to get to see all that we did.  It was such an awesome experience…just unforgettable!!! (you were right Julie Trammel and Julie Brasher)  I could have enjoyed a couple more days just like it…but my butt was dead after only two (from sitting and going over so many bumpy roads)!  The kids won’t let me live down the fact that I stopped the truck on several occasions thinking that I had spotted an animal, only to have it be a tree stump or small bush…whatever!

On the drive back, the African children were just getting off school so they were yelling greetings to our truck as we passed.  At one point Jake asked “why does everyone know us here?”  Hilarious! The people here are so friendly and fun!  That evening we shared another lovely dinner with our Swiss friends and hotel owner, Laurence.  We were all just fried from the heat and wind so we walk into dinner and sat around a fire pit…we were dying!  He had us wrap dough around a stick and cook it over the coals…it’s called stick bread. When it’s done, you pull it off the stick and throw some butter and honey inside.  Wow!  Dinner was fantastic too!  So much awesomeness for one day!!!

That night the heavens opened and it started to pour.  There’s a cyclone off the coast and we got the tail end of it.  It rained lightly in the morning as we took the last of our adventure tours, a hippo and croc cruise on the waterway in St. Lucia.  We got to see several families of hippos just laying all over each other in the water.  The babies are the cutest and they are protected in the middle of the sleepover by all the moms.  So cute!  No sightings of crocs though…they only come out with the sun.  Oh, and beware of the bubbles that pop up next to the hippos…toxic gas! 

Cape Buffalo with his little bird friend.

Dave and some buck or impala...can't tell which.

Cute homes like this dot the hillsides of SA.

Walter Family on Safari: Take 1

Safari is a word that means AWESOME.  I just made that up.  I have no idea what it really means, but the safaris that we have been on the past couple of days were really so amazing!!!  The tour we booked has kept us going 24/7 so everyone is just beat to heck.  We all smell like a safari as well...totally ripe!  It all started yesterday morning after a lovely breakfast.  Themba, our guide for the day, picked us up at 8 and we went straight to the iSimangoliso Wetlands Park.  The park is huge...goes all the way up to the Mozambique border and is now protected by the government so it is really well kept.  Although it is large in size it really doesn't have a huge amount of the predatory animals found in most other parks.  There is plenty to see, but it's mostly about the landscape here.  There are lakes and wetlands and the Indian ocean within the park boundaries.  We were able to see lots and lots of hippos and zebras, also a few Cape Buffalo, many Bush Bucks, bush baby monkeys, and blue butt monkeys, Kudu (like an impala), wildebeasts and tons of cool birds.  The highlight of the trip was during the half way point when our guide dropped us down on a beach called Cape Vidal.  There is a reef where we were able to snorkel and swim in the tropical waters.  It was heaven!!!  By that time we were all so hot and sweaty that it was just a treat.  There is an endangered Somango monkey down that coast that is super cute and super naughty...it stole our cookies right before lunch.  Evil monkeys!  Our guide was very knowledgeable and was from a Zulu tribe so we had a great time asking him many things about the animals and Africa in general.  By the end Jake was smitten with Themba and followed him around whenever we left the jeep.  There is also another couple on tour with us, Sebastian and Bobbette, who are from Zurich and are very nice and have tolerated our children very well.  The trip ended around three or four in the afternoon so we had some time to shower and relax before dinner.

Dinner is a whole post in and of itself.  The place we are staying cooks breakfast and dinner for us then the tour group provides the lunch.  The food in SA up to now, except for a couple of yummy meals in the Cape, has been underwhelming.  But the owners of our hotel are true blue Afrikaners, so each meal has been superb.  Dave almost peed himself the first night because the guy brought out all of his most favorite dishes from the past.  We ate gem squash (just a sqash but so tasty), bobotie (meat with curry sauce, rice and chutney), cucumber salad, and for dessert: a pudding Dave has spoken of with reverence for the 20+ years since his mission.  Tears were forming as it was brought out...and it really was delicious.  The kids were real troopers, tried it all and really liked it.  Especially the malva pudding dessert.  We topped the dinner off with a nice cup of rooibos tea...yum!

Next on the agenda was a night safari.  That evening, after dark, our guide named Theo picked us up to take our family, the Swiss and some Durbanites back into the wetlands park.  This was really the coolest experience, even though it was a bit unnerving.  We were taken through some large back gates that reminded me of Jurrasic Park...double thick with all kinds of fencing and wires.  Both of the other gals were really nervous to come and spoke openly about their reservations.  A couple of my children were a bit freaked out as well.  Hippos can be very dangerous and there are just loads and loads of them in this park.  We drove for what seemed like forever without seeing much except for hippos (Ben was working the spotlight on one side of the truck and Theo was on the other).  Theo stopped at a little road on the side and said he spotted some cat tracks...there are no lions in this park so it would have to be leopard tracks.  He starts down the road and soon it becomes very bumpy and hard going because it is so sandy and rocky.  And then we got stuck...really stuck in the sand.  He tries to back up like a thousand times...until there is a smell of burning rubber and we all start getting concerned.  You could tell that Theo didn't want us to get out of the jeep but by then it was obvious that we were going to have to help push.  We had just seen a hippo who was bloodied from fighting something and Theo had also just pointed out small poisonous spiders that make their webs in the reeds right on the sides of the road.  So...with those things in mind we all hop out of the jeep.  Then Brooke tells me she needs to pee...really bad.  Allll righhty then!!!  Don't worry...it all ends well...Brooke pees in the woods unmolested, the men push the jeep out and we go on our way.  We have almost given up hope for seeing anything of real interest when all of a sudden a leopard jumps right out in front of us an on to the road!  What a sight to behold!  We followed him around for a bit, coaxing him into view a few times, then lose him in some tall grass.  To see him in all his glory was a real treat and pretty rare according to our guide.  We left that night super pumped for our big safari the next morning....and very glad to be alive as well!

Which leads me to today and our safari at HluHluwe iMfolozi Park. The oldest safari park in SA.  Our Safari started at 5am....so I've been up since 445 and had insufficient sleep the night before...so I will leave you here with this cliffhanger until tomorrow.  Does the Walter family get to see the Big 5?  Is their truck nearly tipped over by a rhino?  How many times does Robynn mistake a tree or a bush for an animal?  Stay tuned for answers to those provocative questions and more...tomorrow!

Our crazy hotel...it's so wrong that it's right, ya know?  From the albino geckos that slither all over the place, the feral cat situation, and large/flying/birdlike insects...we almost feel at home!

Cape Buffalo...one of the Big 5, considered to be the most dangerous of all the African animals to hunt.  I don't know why this photo cropped out the hippos and zebras that were drinking on either side....you'll just have to take my word for it!

Tripple selfie at Cape Vidal

Delicious lunch overlooking Catalina Bay...hippos swimming in the distance...awesome!

Ben with the zebras...that's his impression of them i guess?

Jake with his new friend Themba and the rest of the fam