december....part 2

this christmas was the first time that i didnt see the kids on christmas day. it was tough not seeing them, BUT things like this will happen, occasions that we wont be able to be together. they were going to be with me from the 28th december. on the 27th myself & otto decided that we wanted to take the kids to montagu for a few days. we invited my parents along as well. so i contacted their dad and fetched them a day earlier.

after setting up tents and getting settled it was time to open up the christmas prezzies :-)

the kids really enjoyed the camping. we took them to ride bike, swim and to try out climbing. unfortunately we didnt have the right size gear for the kids to climb properly, but they got the idea. think they will need a couple more tries to be comfortable and confident. we spent 3 nights in montagu.

*climbing pics

* otto on lead on "crack baby"

i tried out "crack baby" its a toughy for me. i tried and tried and tried and tried (haha) just to get the start done, to get to a point (a goal). once i got to that point i was finished, energyless!!!

* me attempting "crack baby"

 we took the kids to the lion & monkey park on the 31st december, it was a hoooooot day! we got to see a few lions at least, but they were mainly hiding in the shade.

after dropping the kids off by my parents for old years eve, myself & otto headed out to a friend of his to say hi and to pick up flat keys for a flat in melkbos strand. our new years plans were kinda left for the last minute as i previous (original) plans had been cancelled. we dropped off our stuff at the flat, then took a walk to the nearest bars & restaurants. 1st stop was a sushi restaurant for a starter. 2nd stop was a restaurant 2 doors down for our main meals. we then decided to walk up to the citi shuttle bus stop to catch a bus to bloubergstrand where we originally wanted to go out for the evening and party.

when we got the the bus stop we were notified that tickets were no longer sold on site and we needed a prepaid ticket, which we never had, so now what??? we didnt want to drive around on new years eve, worried about road blocks. we went back to a bar for a few drinks, i tried calling taxis and all were fully booked. so we then decided to walk back to the flat to get the bakkie, we took a chance and drove to bloubergstrand. we then pub crawled for the rest of the evening/morning. as the clock striked 12, otto was no where near me (haha), he had gone to the loo. we both never realised or actually kept track of the time.

we danced and really had a great evening. at about 4ish (i think) we decided after a extremely hot pie it was time to get some sleep. we decided to rather sleep in the bakkie for a couple of hours and not drive back to the flat just yet. luckily otto had a sleeping bag and blanket in his bakkie. at about 6am we woke up and drove back to the flat where we slept some more.

a new years to remember!

december 2013 ...... part 1

december holiday started off with a friday night out in stellies with my parents.

while out in stellies, i was keeping in contact with otto, he was on his way from namibia. i was unsure of when i was going to get to see him, as he had other stops to do as well and people to see. the saturday morning i went for a early morning mtb cycle with my dad in jonkershoek. before i left home, i left my house keys in my garage, i just had this funny feeling that otto would surprise me by arriving earlier. and yip, what happened, as we stopped at jonkershoek to start the cycle, otto sent a message to say he was at my place, hahaha. luckily my keys were there. i still did the cycle with my dad, but my mind was on one thing, and that was getting home to see otto.

seeing him again after so many months was really nice, getting a hug was great!

this was our holiday:

1st outing was to kleinmond for some climbing. the hike up to the climbing point was exhausting. i felt so bad, the long drive to kleinmond, the long hike up and then i could only climb once. bit of a waste! i did try the start of the route a couple of times to conquer the tough beginning of the climb route.

an absolutely stunning view from ontop.

on our way home we stopped over for a burger and chips and another stop was at one of the crosses.

next on the agenda for the holiday was montagu. camping, climbing, uncle sams and an awesome time. 

we took the long way to montagu, did some sight seeing. muuuuuuch better than the boring n2 road. a stop in greyton, what a pretty and weird place. some trespassing on a farm to take a look around and then to montagu.

after 2 days in montagu we took the loooong way home, via paarl, haha. a picnic on the side of the road with a stunning view.

 a stop at the paarl taal monument, thanks monkey for taking me there. i have been wanting to go for a while and just never got there. what a beautiful place.

pics below, might explain the nickname "monkey" haha

a drink at the paarl monument, then in stellies at la romantica and then a "quick" stop over at de kelder in somerset west which landed up being a loooooong stop at de kelder and a random but oh so lekker evening spent together.

next was off to vredenburg to say hi to otto's dad and a night on the boat in port owen. the next day we went back to vredenburg to pick up otto's dad and our road trip to vredendal for christmas then started. we spent two nights in vredendal on the farm with otto's sister and husband.

* happy times!

one of our evenings out, landed up in ej's.

langarm, hell yeah!