Braai

When I arrived in Korea and found a house, I was told that I am expected to have my team at work come over for a house warming. I have been putting it off, and other things always come up, but eventually, nearly three years after arriving in Korea I will have them over.

So next Saturday (6 September) my team will be coming over for a traditional South African braai (barbeque). A bit of wine, some beer, lots of meat ... I'll let you know how it turns out.

Baby

Well, most people are aware by now, but Carla is pregnant. The baby will be due in March 2009, so one year later than Jacqui and Jacque's baby boy who was born on March 1, 2008.

We don't know what it will be yet, still a few more weeks until we can tell.

Here are some of the first scan pictures we have. It was interesting to see the development and realise that something is really there. Watching it kicking and moving around was also nice. We had the scan as it was at the 12 week stage, and needed to have certain things checked like the nose and the thickness of the neck, these apparently are both important to check to see if the baby is at a high risk of down syndrome.

Our baby was not very cooperative, and the doctors really struggled to get the right angles, so we had to have a break and walk around several times to try and get the baby to shift positions. On the fourth try (4 scans later) the doctor managed to get what he needed. ( Either that, or he just gave up and told us everything was okay).

Yongmun Mountain

We have been back in Korea for a nearly a month now, unfortunately it was straight back to work and into the thick of things. We have been trying to get out of Seoul a couple of times, but everytime we have got stuck in traffic for a few hours and had to turn around. We tried to get to a place called Yongmun Mountain, which is only about 60km from Seoul. The first time we tried we nearly got there, but after about 40km and 3 hours, we turned around because it was getting late and weren’t sure how long it would take to get back. Then a week ago, there was a public holiday on the Friday, so we tried again, this time after nearly 4 hours we had only gone 30km’s and turned around again.

1000 Year Old Ginko Tree

We decided to give it another go today, so planned to leave early in the morning to miss the traffic. We did miss most of the traffic, so it only took about an hour and a half, but at last we made it. The mountain was really nice and we sat beside a river to have lunch with Storm going for a swim every now and again.
On the way back we found a different road which followed the edge of a dam. It had beautiful scenery the whole way and almost no traffic. A nice way to spend a Sunday.

South Africa: Braai and Ballito

It was a little sad to be back in Jo’burg after the Kruger, but at the same time it was good to be able to see friends and family.

Stef arranged for everyone to come over to his place on Saturday for a braai (barbeque). It was a great way to see everyone with the short amount of time we had. Stef really went all out in catering. We also got to see his kids who are growing up really quickly. That is one thing about being away, is you miss out on all the things that are taking place. Luke now has three kids, Stef has two, and we don’t know them at all.

On Sunday after checking on our house we went across to Luke’s to see Ronel and the kids and have a braai. Peter Sinclair and Lida came over, so it was good to have a small group to be able to chat about everything that has happened over the last year.

We flew down to Ballito, which is a small town just north of Durban on Tuesday. We went directly from the airport to see my Gran. She is turning 97 on the 28th August. Every time I see her she really amazes me, always has stories to tell and jokes about the other residents of the home, most of who are losing their marbles.

We went for dinner with my dad and Liz. The restaurant was nice, overlooking the beach. My Dad was looking better than the previous times I had seen him, which was nice to see.

We only stayed one night in Ballito, so in the morning we went and saw my father again, went for a short walk on the beach and then went to the yacht club in Durban, it has started to become a bit of a tradition, but is nice to have lunch overlooking all the yachts. Maybe one day we can own one of those yachts… who knows.
After Ballito it was back to Jo’burg, some shopping and back on a plane to Korea, until next time.

South Africa: Kruger National Park and Exeter Lodge

We arrived back from South Africa on Sunday (26 July) after two weeks. I arrived in SA on Saturday 12th, Carla flew in a week and a half before and spent some time seeing her parents and friends.
I needed to get away from crowds for a bit, so on the Sunday we drove up to the Kruger National Park with Carla’s parents and booked into the Mopani camp for two nights and then one night at Satara. We have never stayed at Mopani before, but it was really nice with the main restaurant overlooking a beautiful dam, full of crocodiles and hippo’s. Our bungalow was a three bedroom place with a big balcony. Every evening we braaied outside, listening to the sounds of the bush and looking at the stars, just perfect! I haven’t seen stars in probably a year, most people here in Seoul do not believe me when I say we can see the “Milky Way”, they think the Milky Way is a fairy tale. On the Sunday we drove up, the weather had turned pretty cold, but it cleared up by Monday and gave us a few beautiful winter days with temperatures averaging around 19c during the day.

Elizabeth, Carla and Brad at Mopani Camp

Tuesday we drove from Mopani to Satara, it is just over a 100km, but you are driving that while spotting animals and we stopped at Letaba for breakfast, so it took us just under 6 hours to do.

Roy and Carla at a loout near Olifants

The game is always excellent around Satara. We had booked for a sunset night drive that evening, it seemed liked a good time to go on one after our long drive earlier that morning, now someone else could do the driving and we would just sit back and enjoy the scenery and animals. Sometimes you are lucky on the night drives and other times you don’t see anything at all. We had a good drive, seeing quite a few animals and a few rarer ones like a civet, it is the first time I have seen one.

This buffalo nearly put his head into the car window

Carla and Brad starting the night drive at Satara The following day Carla and I left the Kruger and Carla’s parents, who were staying over another night at Satara, and went to Exeter for two nights. Exeter is a private game lodge in the Sabi Sabi reserve, owned by Stephen Saad who founded Aspen Pharmacare, South Africa’s largest generic drug manufacturer. Exeter is fantastic, each bungalow is exquisitively designed and furnished, with your own private pool overlooking a river. In the Kruger we drive ourselves around, but at Exeter you are always taken by a guide and a tracker and are almost guaranteed of at least seeing the big 5, cheetah and wild dog are a little more difficult.

We arrived and had lunch overlooking the river, relaxed for about and hour and then went on our evening game drive. At night you are not allowed to walk around the camp without a guide as there are no fences and it is not uncommon to have leopard and other dangerous animals wandering through the camp.

Lunch at Exeter overlooking the riverWe were escorted to our door and arranged with the guide to pick us up fifteen minutes later to go for dinner. Carla and I walked into the room and both stood staring for a couple a minutes. The room had been prepared for us with a table setup for dinner, candles around the room and leading to a drawn bubble bath, and petals spread over the bed. For a moment we thought they had got the room wrong, as someone on the evening drive mentioned about some newly weds, but it was meant for us. The only problem was that I was feeling so sick, and just wanted to get into bed and sleep. The dinner was excellent with waiter serving us each course, it definitely was one of the highlights of the trip. Thursday was pretty much the same, we woke early for coffee and our morning game drive, came back to the camp for an enormous breakfast, relaxed in the bungalow for a couple of hours before heading back to the main lodge for lunch, another hour to relax and our evening drive. Dinner was a braai held in the boma, with some traditional singing and dancing while we enjoyed some good South African beer and wine.

Friday mornings game drive was excellent, we saw so much and to top it off, while we were following a pride of lion, they ran into a leopard and chased it up a tree. A first the leopard was a little agitated ( I can understand), but soon settled down on a branch for a well earned nap.

It was really disappointing to have to leave on Friday after our morning drive and breakfast, and head back to Johannesburg. The drive back wasn’t bad, with not too much traffic. It is approximately 500km and took us 5 hours (that is unheard of here in Seoul, normally Busan to Seoul, approx 400km will take between 8 and 15hrs depending on the traffic)