So - after a three and a half year hiatus spent resolving where to go with our lives after hanging up my construction overalls (so to say), I am back!
With no income and the spectre of possible migration to join Caradoc and Chavane and their families in Ireland, we were faced with some unpleasant and stressful decisions.
Primarily the beautiful house and garden that we had developed over seven years in Bathurst had to be sold to provide an income bearing investment, as also all of the furniture and possessions that we had accumulated over 57 years of marriage. This was the really stressful part of the exercise, but we worked through it all, and barely two weeks after vacating the house and moving into temporary accommodation at Greenfountain just outside Port Alfred, we felt as if a huge load had been lifted from our shoulders.
It is not until one leaves the daily visible and sensory contact with all the many friends, acquaintances and surroundings that a village like Bathurst offers, that you realise how cloistered a life you live in such an environment. I recall during my very first week there, just having introduced myself to Gavin Came at the Pig and Whistle, he went about warning me that in Bathurst everyone in the village knows what your plans for tomorrow are before you do!
Anticipating a lengthy wait for my Irish Citizenship application to be dealt with we decided upon the sale of the house at the end of September 2025 to purchase an old motorhome and a used Suzuki Jimny runabout to serve as our accommodation for the foreseeable future, and to use the waiting period to revisit some of the places around South Africa that we had so enjoyed in the past.
Immediately we took possession of the Motorhome it went in to have a 3Kw inverter installed along with a new battery and LED lights, a gas water heater, fridge/freezer, and one or two other improvements. Sadly the company that did the installation overlooked one or two details in the new electrical installation, and two days before we were due to leave on the 1st November for Tsitsikamma there was a short that caused the entire interior of the vehicle to be completely destroyed by fire. After some haranguing they eventually came to the party and agreed to do all of the repairs and re-fitting of the interior at their own cost, which in many ways was a blessing as we now had what looked like a brand new motorhome internally - but we did only get it back just two days before Christmas.
The folk at Greenfountain were most helpful and secured a campsite for us after allowing us to stay on in the cottage we had rented until the 10th December - for the intervening period we were fortunate enough to have Peter Davidson offer his house in Port Alfred to us while he was away in Pretoria ......... so while it was all a bit stressful, it all worked out in the end.
Following January at the Greenfountain campsite we moved up to a cottage at the McCreath's Tiger Spring farm for two months before driving down to Tsitsikamma Sunrise campsite in Nature's Valley for April, where, being so close to Plett we were able to spend a couple of great days with cousin Sean and Pat. A few days before the end of the month we left on the longhaul to Wagondrift situated some 60kms NE of Pretoria, stopping over at De Rust, Beaufort West, Colesburg and three nights with cousin Gary Lance and Louisa at his beautiful Heron Banks golf course on the Vaal outside Sasolburg.
Fortuitously, we somehow managed to stay just 48 hours ahead of all of the storm destruction in the Cape, the flooding of Meiringspoort, snow in Beaufort West and bitter cold in Colesburg.
Wagondrift was a beautiful campsite with amazing facilities, all at our disposal, and with loads of game all around us. It gave us the opportunity to spend a few nights in Pretoria with Pat's sister Maureen, and to hook up with the rest of her family for some quality time.
Our next stop was Busa House Campsite in White River, where we are now. The decision to come here was to get away from the cold, and again, fortune has favoured us no-end. For the six weeks we have been here to date we have had nothing but blue skies, lovely warm days, and very mild - entirely tolerable - evenings, persuading us to stay on here until the end of September to be sure that winter elsewhere in SA is over.
OUR CURRENT CAMPSITE AT BUSA HOUSE IN WHITE RIVER (JUNE - SEPTEMBER 2026)
Having travelled the Eastern Transvaal extensively in our trusty little Fiat 850 over the 18 months before we were married in December 1968, we had visited all of the towns and high-spots, but the intervening 58 years has taken its toll, and what was then our playground has become developed in every respect, with everything we enjoyed alone and for free now a never-ending series of tourist traps that have to be paid for.
We then used to drive down to the banks of the Blyde River Dam and camp there happily for a couple of nights with no-one even aware of our existence - similarly at Bourke's Potholes, spending our days climbing and walking, entirely alone and free - also at God's Window, Pilgrim's Rest, Graskop and all of the various waterfalls. No more! Now you pay to get in everywhere, and can only experience the Potholes and waterfalls from a controlled distance. Weren't we fortunate to have done it all when we did, and to have all those memories still with us?
