Tuesday 4 January 2011

The very brief holiday report

Today, I am taking what has now become a bit of a traditional day. Just after we return from holiday and before I go to work, I leave the kids with Lucy, take the car for a good clean and polish, and take some time for myself. I just saw Spud - it was brilliant, and now I am sitting at the Mugg and Bean, doing this post and attempting to catch up on some blog reading.

I am definitely going to do a whole series of blogposts about our holiday, but to summarize, in terms of time and distance travelled:
  • On the 17th of December we left in our bakkie for the little town of Mtunzini in the North coast of Natal. On the way we  met Dr Ian Player, a dream of Hunter, and we pitched camp after 10 the evening. The kids were total troopers in our little adventure. (566 km / 352 miles)
  • We spent a lovely couple of days there filled with sunshine, friendly people and the sea, the sea...
  • On the late afternoon of the 23rd of December we traveled back to Pretoria to be home for Christmas Eve. We celebrated with a snoek braai with my mom. On Christmas day we had my cousin Ananda and her 3 grown children over for lunch. This year I made my gammon the German way - in beer. It was good.
  • On the 25th we once again packed the car, including the two puppies and left for a farm outside the little town of Bethulie.(681km / 423 miles) where we spent a lovely evening and morning.
  • On the 26th we left the farm and traveled to Port Elizabeth, Hunter's home town ( 454 km / 282 miles).
  • We spent some great time visiting with friends and family and got the chance to see Hunter's great grandfather - now 90 and not well at all. 
  • Hunter also drove my mom down to Groot Brak rivier (she flew to PE) - another 750 km /466 miles trip.
  • On the 31st of December we headed out to friends of us on a farm near Kirkwood and on return visited Hunters aunt in Uitenhage. (144 m / 90 miles)
  • On the 1st of January we returned to a very wet Bethulie (on another farm) and back home on the 2nd in heavy rain an traffic.
In total, we traveled 3546 km (2203 miles), all of them with 3 small kids, and most with two dogs as well. Hunter's tally for the holiday sits at 4296 km (2670 miles). These are very conservative calculations and do not include the little side tips and roads less traveled that we love to take.

In all honesty, both the kids and the dogs were troupers-and I think I can now classify us all good travelers. Or as Hunter and I love to call ourselves - adventurous travelers or traveling adventurers. I guess as he kids grow up the adventures will grow too.

12 comments:

  1. I love your tradition!

    I used to have a day like that I called laundry day :)

    Seriously, i'm taking another 3 days now that V's back and D and I are going to do fun things like have lunch without feeding kids, go to movies, bookshops, etc.

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  2. YOH! Thats alot of driving!!!!!

    Sounds fun though!

    We also saw Spud - I cried and cried!

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  3. I agree, thats such a great tradition...

    Dying to hear about your holiday.

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  4. Wow...dit is baie myle. Dit was so lekker om jou weer te sien.

    xx

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  5. Oh how I love to braai Snoek :)
    Sounds as if your holiday was a blast

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  6. Sounds like you had a full holiday season!

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  7. Yum, that snoek sounds delish.

    No wonder you didn't want to detour to Kei mouth - had no idea you had done so much driving. Shew, you need a holiday to relax!

    xx

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  8. Sounds like it was hectic, but good. I like your day off idea A LOT!
    And now we need to make a plan to get the DVD to you ;)

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  9. wow! that's a lot of time in the car...so glad the kids all did so well! you'll have to share your secrets for keeping them happy for so long on the ride!

    Happy New Year! Have missed your posts :-)

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  10. Wow you travelled a good few km. I love travelling. Sounds like you had a blast.

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  11. wow, brave! I only had one in the car and we only did 600 km - 400 of which she slept. The remaining 200 km that she was awake was enough.

    Happy New Year.

    Hopefully next time you are in PE we could meet up.

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  12. Your holiday sounds like bliss, except for all the mileage! I do not like driving long distances at all.

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So what's on your mind?