We're leaving on a Winter holiday!

I am very excited!

Sandra has been packing things slowly all week. There is a special kitchen box in the kitchen corner which she has been carefully loading with kitchen stuff and food.

This week we both went shopping for warm warm comfortable winter clothes...

because,...

We will be waking up at 4am on Saturday morning; and be out of the door and in the car at 5am at the latest and driving to the Grahamstown Arts Festival. I have paid for accomdation in a garden cottage of the a woman who lives in Grahamstown. We will have our own kitchen, bedroom, living area and garden. (And of course secure safe parking.) We will be there four nights (Saturday night, Sunday night, Monday night an d Tuesday night.) I have already booked for four main festival performances. On the night we arrive we will be seeing a big jazz band, On Tuesday afternoon a tap dancing/gumboot dancing extravaganze, on Wednesday night a classical music string quartet with a clarinetist and on Wednesday morning for a modern dance performance in the main theatre. (Unfortunately I could not book for Sleeping Beauty as it is sold out already.) Of course we will be booking for other performances once we get there. But it is 100% certain that the main festival events will be sold out by the time time we get there. The last time I went to Grahamastown (more than 10 years ago) I learnt that lesson the dissappointing way. So I have booked for these 4 main festival shows; and of course we will see many others shows that we will only book there.

And then on Wednesday afternoon we drive an hour to the Addo Elephanant national park were we are booked for two nights. This national park is completely malaria free and has all the big five. We are booked for a sundowner game drive that evening; and a morning beginners horse ride the following day. We will then spend the rest of the day driving around looking at animals and stuff; finally falling asleep exhausted in the cottage in the middle of the wild.

The next moring we will wake up early and drive 6 hours to the iNtali river lodge in Port St Johns. We should arrive there in the afternoon and will settle into our river facing bungalow before going to the a la carte restaurant for dinner. We will spend the next day wandering the beautiful beaches of Port St Johns and of course the beautiful hikes near the river. We will sleep there again that night.

Finally on Sunday morning we will wake up; and after breakfast take the last 4 hour drive back home.

And then the next day I will return back to work. Sandra still will have a week left of her holidays, but she has been given lots of work to do and so will be busy preparing for her next semester.

later...