South Africa
uMngeni

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    • Day 15

      Howick Falls

      July 27, 2024 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

      Vandaag de dat begonnen met een mooie wandeling in de omgeving vervolgens gereden naar de Howick falls, een mooie waterval van 98meter diepte,en bovenop de waterval de bevolking die hun was daar deden,einde van de middag een heerlijke massage gehad in de spa van ons verblijf,en leona haar nagels laten doen.Read more

    • Day 22

      Reise durch das Hochland

      January 3 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

      Wir geniessen nochmal die tolle Aussicht.
      Vom Goodoo Pass geht die Fahrt heute bei bester Sicht, nicht weniger spektakulär, hinunter zum Gate.
      Auf der Fahrt möchten viele Leute mit Sack und Pack mit uns mitfahren.
      Die Marktstände sind entlang der Hauptstrasse aufgebaut. Hier werden von kleinen Schafherden über Früchte bis hin zu Autowäsche alles angeboten😅 Autowäsche von Hand mit einem Eimer Wasser. Bei der Shelltankstelle ist ein extremer Andrang. Wahrscheinlich gibt es heute Rabatt.
      Der Midmar Dam staut den riesigen Nguklu, dieser ist der Wasserspeicher der ganzen Region.
      Die Strasse mit den vielen Schlaglöchern war ein Reaktionstest für René😀
      Wir fahren südlich Richtung Maritzburg. Auf der Autobahn muss speziel auf freilaufende Kühe und Ziegen geachtet werden🙉
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    • Day 12

      Ab in den Süden - Teil 1

      November 6, 2024 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

      Die lange Fahrstrecke teilen wir in 3 Abschnitte. Heute ging’s nach der Wanderung noch nach Pietermaritzburg in eine Poolhaus-Unterkunft. Wir standen jedoch zunächst vor verschlossenen Türen und eine Klingel wurde hier irgendwie noch nicht erfunden. Da wir auch nicht telefonieren können, versuchten wir mit kleinen Hopsern vorm Zaun auf uns aufmerksam zu machen - leider vergebens.

      Exkurs Handy-Nutzung:
      In Südafrika kauft man fürs Mobiltelefon Datenvolumen Tag/Nacht und Telefonie getrennt. Am Flughafen wurden wir somit schön übers Ohr gehauen, da wir für 10 GB Daten nur 5GB tagsüber, 5GB nachts (von 0:00 bis 04:00 Uhr) und keine Telefonminuten bekamen. Man kann zwar online nachbuchen - aber nur mit südafrikanischen Kreditkarten.

      Da es keine Klingeln gibt und man die Unterkünfte immer anrufen soll, mussten wir einfach hoffen, dass bei unserer Ankunft auch jemand zuhause ist…

      Zum Glück öffnete sich nach einiger Zeit das Tor und ein anderer Gast der Unterkunft ermöglichte uns ein Telefonat. Dann kam ein Hausdiener und führte uns ins Poolhaus - in unserem Köpfen erklang das Intro von O.C. California 🤣
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    • Day 4

      Day 4 - Pt 2 : Foot off the gas...

      January 22, 2024 in South Africa ⋅ 🌫 15 °C

      We’re having a much deserved, lazy afternoon. The last few days have been pretty full-on, and some slower paced meandering is called for. We’ve a ‘relatively’ short drive down to Nottingham Road - about 2 hours all in. Back on the N3, despite it being a week-day/work day, the motorway is still blissfully quiet. We stop for a critically urgent Savanna at the Nottingham Road Hotel, then head down to our stop for the night, Rawdons, which is just a few minutes down the road. I remember coming here 20 years ago for a pit-stop beer while heading through the Kwazulu-Natal Midlands. It’s a very pretty country hotel, with a pub attached, serving beers from the Nottingham Road Brewery that’s located onsite. We have a quick snifter, get checked in, and then have a late lunch. The weather has turned decidedly cooler. Vicks is a little chilly sitting outside the pub having a drink. As we walk down to our cottage, there’s the faint hint of some rain. Not what we ordered at all. My early start catches up with me, and I have a deep, afternoon nap. We’re staying in a lovely cottage by the estate’s lake. As I wake from my nap, I open the curtains to a beautiful view, and the sound of Ibis calls.

      Our late lunch means we don’t need dinner, so we grab a bottle of wine from the bar, and spend an hour or two in the guest lounge. I think we’re amongst maybe 4-5 total guests? It’s certainly very quiet. This week is the first week back for school kids in SA after their long summer holiday. It’s a Monday. These things combine to mean that we very much have the run of the place. We decide to take the rest of the bottle back to our room to watch a movie. The pace of our day is exactly what we needed. We’re both looking forward to a good sleep, and are in bed shortly after 23:00…
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    • Day 348

      Nelson Mandela Capture Site

      November 7, 2024 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

      Dort, wo im Jahr 1962 Nelson Mandela gefangen genommen wurde, steht heute ein Museum über sein Leben und Wirken. Sehr beeindruckend. Ein langer Weg zur Gleichberechtigung, der noch lange nicht zu Ende ist.Read more

    • Day 9

      2 Churches, Old Friends, and Picnic

      June 4, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F

      We attended the English speaking church in town as the choir from UBI was singing 3 songs. Susan was the choir director. They did a great job.

      While visiting afterwards, I ran into Dan Genheimer. He was a classmate of mine from Moody.

      The story goes, Dan’s mother and Ramona Schroeder were classmates at Wheaton and when Dan started attending Moody, he would frequently go and visit the Schroeder’s at Foster Ave Baptist Church and that’s where I attended while going to MBI.

      Another story is that we ran into him like during Gary’s 3rd year at Moody when Dan brought their son to attend John Brown University.

      Small World … Big Family

      Then we drove over to the Binion’s Sulu church. I didn’t understand a thing except when they interjected a few English words here and there.

      We drove to a park and joined Stephanie and David and kids for a pizza picnic. There was a miniature train we all rode.

      We finished the evening with a FaceTime call to dad and then to Mark Hopper (our old youth director) from way back in the 70’s.

      Eric and Susan had a Skype call with their kids. Then we taught them the game “Left, Center, Right”, a game we played on the cruise ship during Sea Days.

      While playing the game, we shared some hard times, good times and funny times while being a missionary. We enjoyed sharing.
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    • Day 11

      Last day in South Africa

      June 6, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ 🌙 55 °F

      I must have been tired as I slept in til 8:45. Glenn was up and about.

      We drove to the shopping center about 3km away for breakfast. We ate at a restaurant much like Panera bread. I had waffles and Glenn had scrambled eggs. Then we went to Spur, the local grocery store, as I wanted to see if they had any more TimmTamm cookies that we liked in Australia. Nope. But I got some other cookies.

      We made it back to UBI just in time for Glenn to grill the chicken for the cookout.

      The past 2 days Eric and Susan participated in a strategic planning meetings with the leadership and board members of Union Bible Institute. And so at the end, they had a cook out. Everyone (20) came over to the guest house where we were staying and we enjoyed the late lunch in the dinning room.

      I met Ben Barthelemy who graduated from Moody in 2008 along with Thomas. I also found out that he’s related to Tammy’s husband. Small world…Big Family.

      I had my 3:00pm zoom call with the Azmera group that meets weekly at 8:00amTyler time. It was a very good zoom call about gratitude.

      Glenn and I played Phase10, then we played with Susan as Eric read my Coast to Coast bicycle book.

      We had to cancel our monthly zoom call with the Guatemala field because of roaming blackout.

      Early morning pick up for our ride to Durban airport.
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    • Day 16

      Nelson Mandela Capture Site

      May 22, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

      We were up for breakfast at 6.30am. It was nice to have a hotel buffet for a change! By 7.30am, we were on the truck and on the road. It was very strange only having four of us on board!

      Our first stop was at the Nelson Mandela Capture Site. This is the place where, on 5 August 1962, Nelson Mandela was arrested. He was to spend the next 27 years of his life in prison. The on-site museum was opened in 2019 and tells the story of Nelson Mandela and the apartheid regime in South Africa in an interactive and compelling way.

      There is a replica of the Austin Westminster that Mandela was driving when he was arrested. There is also a collection of stunning photographs of the great man.

      The highlight of the Capture Site, though, is undoubtedly the iconic sculpture of Nelson Mandela created by artist Marco Cianfanelli and architect Jeremy Rose. The sculpture acknowledges the 50th anniversary of Mandela’s arrest and consists of 50 laser cut steel columns between 6 and 9.5 metres high. From the road, the sculpture just looks like a forest of steel poles, but when you walk from the Visitor Centre along a flower-lined path representing the ‘Long Walk to Freedom’ towards it, the columns magically transform into an image of Nelson Mandela. It’s a truly astonishing piece of work!
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    • Day 10

      Lunch at Terbodore Coffee Roaster

      June 5, 2023 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 61 °F

      We had a lovely drive through the rolling hills and stopped here at Terbodore coffee roasters. Nice gardens.

      There’s a lot of English influence-tea houses, etc

      I ate chicken pot pie. Glenn enjoyed chicken pasta.

      The cheese cake and carrots cake was delicious. We bought an extra one to bring to Eric and Susan!
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    • Day 4

      Day 4- Pt 1: What time do you call this?

      January 22, 2024 in South Africa ⋅ 🌫 16 °C

      The 04:45 alarm is brutal - for one of us. Vicks has not slept well, and elects to stay in bed instead of going on our morning game drive. We’ve had a pretty full on few days, including transcontinental travel, and I think she’s just tuckered. I head out though, grabbing a quick coffee before heading into the park at 05:30. As I’m on my own, Lymon suggests I join another group going out. We’re still only 4 guests in the truck. My guide this morning is Noles - Umzolozolo’s chief ranger. She’s a pint-pot bundle of energy, and has the most amazing eyes for spotting game. At one point, she spots a rhino a couple of kilometres away from us. Even through my binoculars, I’m not 100% convinced it’s not a big boulder. Our game drive is pretty successful - lots of kudu, zebra and wildebeest. We see a huge male hippo having a snooze in a small lake. The sun rising over the savannah is beautiful. There’s a dewy mist in the air that the sun is desperately trying to burn through. It’s quite ethereal. We spend some time with a hunting black-backed jackal. It leaps around looking for its prey of small rodents. Utterly jaunty. We spot a small herd of Eland - one of the biggest antelopes on the planet. They’re skittish, so can ’t get too close for fear of spooking them. Around the corner, we come close to that rhino that Noles spotted earlier. He’s a big boy - recently imported into the park as part of efforts to continue to rebuild the population after decades of poaching. Poaching remains a critical threat to these majestic beasts, but the anti-poaching tactics *seem* to be working.

      We receive a radio call from another jeep that two of the park’s cheetahs have been spotted to the North West of us. There are also two lions sleeping with a kill nearby. We choose to head over to the cheetah spotting, and take off at pace. We stop to say hi to some giraffe, and after 15 minutes of being thrown around the back of the truck, arrive to find two cheetahs with very fat bellies snoozing after a kill. There’s still some blood around their mouths, so fresh is the kill. We spend 20 minutes with them, swapping between the naked eye, binoculars and the camera on my iPhone. They’re such stunning creatures - so graceful on the move. These two are going nowhere though. I flick through my photos, and the distance to the cheetahs is just too far for my phone to take decent pics. I shall draw a picture for Vicki so she doesn’t feel she’s missed out.

      We stop for a bush coffee - black coffee, with a glug (technical term) of Amarula cream. Delicious. The sun’s getting properly hot now it’s 08:00. We decide to head back to the lodge for breakfast. I check in on Vicki, who’s had another nearly 4 hours of sleep, and who feels much better for it. We have a quick breakfast, hear a large warthog butchering an orphaned baby warthog (circle of life etc etc), and get ourselves packed for the next phase of our journey.
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