a true fishing story...

Yes really, this one is true!

After fishing at the Vaal Dam for two years, and always catching a decent, yet small sized catch, the secret to big game fishing has finally been discovered. And not only discovered, put into practice - successfully!

Two weekends when we were moving into our new place at the dam (more about that later), we witnessed a young guy catching a whopper of a Barble (or Cat Fish) right where we normally fish(by we I mean the boys - I personally hate fishing!!).

The secret (yes, we are sharing it!)....

SNAILS for bait!

So, this past weekend, Carl and Ali tried it out.

Very pleased with the first catch - the biggest yet.

Then came this one which Carl caught.....

Carl thinks it must weigh 10 - 12 kgs.

Then Ali had his turn to shine...

This one we weighed on our scale and it was a 7kg whopper.

The next day, Carl had gone to work, and Ali was so inspired that he went off and fished all on his own (while we kept the occasional eye on him from our new patio!) and blow me down, he caught another two fantastic sized fish. And what was more amazing is that he baited his hook, cast, reeled it in and landed it all by himself! I was SO proud of him! What a kid. Perhaps he has his great-grandfathers genes (paternal), who was a Springbok fisherman.

The 94.7 cycle race

This seems to be an annual entry! Although this year's race was very different to last year's one.

Instead of Carl aiming to break the elusive 3 hr mark, he took one for the team and raced as a group with my brothers, Roland and Bruce, and... wait for it...., my septuagenarian father!!!

Yes, at the ripe old age of 74, my father did this gruelling race for the first time. Carl managed to get dad a start time with the Deloitte group, so the four men started at the same time and did the whole race together. It was a looong way (97.4kms, to be precise), in the blazing heat, but they did it - and did it well. In 4hrs 34 mins. Which is mighty impressive indeed! Carl and Roland put their hands on dad's back and helped him up some of the hills, and the three of them became this mean hill-riding machine. In fact, they even left a colleague of Carl's behind who's done Iron Man (who hasn't trained for a while, but who's counting?)! At the end of the race, the 4 guys enjoyed the Deloitte hospitality tent before heading home to clean up and crash!

Megs and Ali were meant to ride a leg of the race on an 8-seater tandem. We invited Austin and Liam (Bruce's boys ) and Jeremy and Jonno (Dion, Carl's first cousin's boys) to make up the 6 kids, and an experienced adult rider was at the front and back. This was all done in aid of CHOC, a charity which raises funds for Childhood cancer. We named our team CHOC-lets, and I fabric painted team T-shirts. However, the back wheel of the bike collapsed at the start of the race, and sadly the tandem ride didn't even get going. At least it collapsed in a safe spot, and not when it was barrelling down one of the hectic hills in the race! I'll save the shirts for next year!

In fact, one of the amazing things about this race is how many people did the race to raise money for charities - CHOC, Reach for a Dream, Breast Cancer (a man rode the race in a very racey pink bra!); and a host of others I can't even remember. I have heard that CHOC raised R3.1 million rand from the race! Now that's impressive!

In the late afternoon, all race participants and their families (from our family that is, not the 26 000 riders who took part!) came over to our place for a most pleasant celebratory dinner.

Madikwe River Lodge

We have recently enjoyed a luxury weekend at Madikwe River Lodge. Madikwe is a Private Game Reseve in the North West Province, on the border of Botwsana. It covers 75 000 hectares, is malaria free, and is home to the Big 5. All which make it very attractive, except for the fact that the only accommodation is in Private Lodges, most of which one would have to sell one's body to be able to stay even one night there. Lucky for me, I didn't have to because, through a series of fortunate events, we were lucky enough to stay at a massively discounted rate (no prostitution required!!).

The lodge was ever so comfortable, the food ever so plentiful and the game viewing was amazing. Each day we were woken at 5am (groan!) to go on a game drive in their open game viewing vehicles (and went again in the evenings). We easily saw 4 of the Big 5 (excluding leopard), but on top of that had 2 amazing sightings of Wild Dogs (very endangered), and all sorts of other interesting things - a spring hare, a martial Eagle, a leapoard tortoise (so we did actually see leopard after all!), and amazing birds. I think in this case, picture will speak louder than words, but what you won't see in the pictures is the HEAT!!!! 38 deg on Friday and Sunday, and 42 deg on Saturday. Luckily the rooms had aircon, but we didn't spend much time there. The lodge also had a lovely rock pool which the kids loved, and even I spent the time in and out of it, just to cool off.

On our way out on Sunday, we decided to take the longer route out of the reserve, and on our way we had the most thrilling time of the whole weekend. We got to a water hole and Carl swore that the animals we looking edgy. I was less than convinced, but checked things out with my fabulous bionoculars, and there I saw a lioness under a tree, just next to the water hole. Which did explain why the Zebra, Giraffe and Wildebeest were on on edge and not coming down to the water (36 deg, did I mention that???). The lion moved to a spot just over a ridge so we couldn't see her, but we (and the animals) knew she was there. Eventually, they couldn't stay away from the water anymore and they started coming down. Within no time, the lioness made an almighty charge for the Zebra, but didn't catch anything. We pulled the car forward, once things had settled and we realised that there were actually 4 lionesses!! We moved back out because we were bothering them, and sat still (in the blazing heat) and watched the lionesses make two more attacks, but each time coming up empty. It was just the most exciting and tense thing to see! We were rather sad that they didn't manange to catch one, but the thrill of the chase was quite something. Interestingly, had we been on an official game drive, there is no way we would have been able to just sit for an hour and a half and watch. So, lucky us! By then, the kids were BEGGING to go, and it was pretty unlikely that the lionesses would've actually caught somthing until the day had cooled off (did you gather it was boiling??).

What a thrilling end to a marvellous weekend!!

0 to 3222m

At last! Something exciting has happened in our lives, so for those who do occassionally check to see if there is an update, you must be suitably surpirsed!

After our wonderful holiday in June, we decided to tackle Lesotho again, this time entering Lesotho via Sani Pass. Sani Pass a well known pass open only to 4 x 4's, so for those of us who own one, it is a challenge waiting to be ticked off!

We (our family, Roland and Caron, and my folks) left on Thursday afternoon and descended en mass on my very hospitable and generous in-laws, Selma and Bruno, who stay in Howick. This gave us the perfect location to begin our trip to Sani Pass, via Underberg. What I have not yet mentioned is that SOMEHOW Roland persuaded Carl that they had to try and CYCLE up Sani Pass. Yip - cycle!!! It is a 22km long pass, with an ascent of 1100m. Despite my best efforts to dissuade them from such madness, they left at 7am with Caron and my dad and drove to the Sani Pass Hotel and began their intrepid cycle from there, while Caron and Dad seconded in the car. This meant that mom, the kids and I had a far more leisurely start to our day because we gave them a 2 hour head start. The big bonus about Carl having accepted the challenge of riding meant that I got the opportunity of driving up Sani Pass. If Carl had been in the car, there would have been no way in hell he would EVER have let ME drive! Despite the fact that we both have a 4 x 4 course under our belts. Mom was very encouraging and we crept our way up slowly but surely. There were enough cars also doing the Pass, so I was hopeful that if something had gone wrong, a true gentleman would've helped the damsels in distress.

Our timing was perfect and we met the other group at the pub at the top of the pass only about 15 minutes after they arrived.Did they make it? I know you are all asking! They did about 16 kms, but the last 6kms got so incredibly steep, and energy was flagging, so they loaded their bikes onto the car and drove the last bit (naturally, Roland snatched the wheel back from Caron who had been managing just fine up until then....). Once in Lesotho we drove another 160kms or so to Afri-Ski (which took about 4 hours, the road is so awful). It was a big relief to arrive at the relative luxury of the Chalet at Afri-ski (no snow this time, sadly!). Despite the length of journey, it was absolutely beautiful as my pics will testify. Saturday was spent reading, relaxing, eating and sleeping (girls and Ali) and cycling (Roland, Carl and Dad - did they not have enough the day before, I ask you???). On Sunday we went home the usual route via Calendonspoort. We all stopped off for lunch in Clarens, a lovely quaint, but very touristy town in the Free State. Seeing as our whole weekend had been about the drive and not the destination, we went through the Golden Gate Nature Reserve, yet an0ther spectacular part of the world which all South Africans should do before they die! This lead us to Harrismith, at which point Carl joined Roland, Caron and my folks to go back to JHB, and I headed South again to Howick for the night.
On Monday, I went with the kids down to Selborne, and this time was accompanied by Selma and Bruno, as well as Carl's sister Laurie and her two girls, Anna and Erin. The weather wasn't fabulous - very windy, but at least not raining. And being real Vaalies (well, we are, Carl's family aren't) we still went to the beach, and spent the rest of the day picking sand out of unmentionable places. The house at Selborne is looking lovely, but the golf course is looking so dry - they are in the middle of a drought there. A real crises for the normally sub-tropical South Coast.

On Friday we packed up and I did the mammoth 670km drive back up to JHB.

All in all, we did 2100kms over the 10 days, of which I drove a big chunk of that. If I don't get behind the wheel of a car for a few days, that'll be fine by me.

2010 Soccer World Cup!

KE NAKO........

I simply COULD NOT let an event of this magnitude, which happened right on our door-step, go by without an entry in my blog!

We South Africans have been anticipating this since we were announced as the Host Nation in 2006. There were many who thought we could never do it, and certainly there were a few hiccups along the way, but 11 June arrived and we were READY!!!

The build-up was amazing: this whole year we have had 'Football Friday' where every Friday people go to work/school wearing a yellow shirt in support of our National Team - Bafana Bafana. A few days before the Opening Ceremony, there was parade of our Soccer Team through the streets of Sandton where an estimated 150 000 people came out to cheer on our team! Perhaps one of the biggest differences between us and other Host Nations, is that we never really expected to win, we were just all so jolly proud to be having it here and to welcome all the visitors to our beautiful country!

Also, as the time drew near, homes, shops, roads and businesses decorated themselves with flags/balls whatever to get into the spirit!

Finally the BIG DAY came and the country was electric with excitement! We had my whole family over to watch, which is a fair crowd! We were wearing yellow and blowing our Vuvuzela's. Anyone who does not know what a vuvuzela is, where have you been for the past 4 weeks?? It is a long trumpet type thing that sounds like the droning of angry bees during the matches, and individually are so loud they can wake you from your sleep! The Opening Ceremony was fabulous, and when Bafana scored their first goal, the Vuvuzela's in the whole neighbourhood went wild! Even here in the normally quiet and sedate Northern Suburbs of JHB, where it is usually rugby that people watch, not soccer! I can safely say that there has NEVER been such a spirit of excitement, community and camaraderie in this City! Hosting the World Cup had so much less to do with the actual Soccer, than about the feeling of Pride and togetherness that has never been felt before. Everyone of us was PROUDLY South African - Black, White, Indian and other! No money in the world could buy what this world cup has done for us as a Nation, and I think the foreigners felt that.

I honestly had no idea of the magnitude of this event, and how much it would grip us all, and I really regret not getting any tickets to watch a match live.

Carl was privileged enough to be invited down to Cape Town to watch the Quarter-final between Argentina and Germany. He said that it was an amazing atmosphere, but in truth, you get a better view of the game on Telly in your own (warm and cosy) home. I think he was just saying that to make me feel not so envious!

However, we had our own fun and we went a Fan Park at Innesfree Park in Sandton, where there was a huge screen and thousands of people. It was one of the free venues, and quite close to Alex, so I did have my doubts about going, but the security was excellent and the vibe was awesome! It did help that we were supporting Germany, not Argentina (unlike Carl - ha ha!!), so it made it a very exciting match!

Because we had such fun at the Fan Park, we went again in the evening (yes, BRRRRRR!!!) for the semi-final between Netherlands and Uruguay. Of course we were supporting Netherlands, and happily they won!

One of our favorite places to take the kids is Sci-Bono in Newtown. They put on a Soccer Theme so we all went and enjoyed all the activities/displays there. They also had displays of a Lego competition for some schools where they had to build a Stadium out of Lego. Some were very impressive!

For the Closing Ceremony and the Final Match, we opted to have the whole family over again and enjoy the match in the cosiness of our lounge with the big-screen TV and a fire. With Soup & Rolls for supper.

We are all feeling somewhat bereft now that it is over - like someone has died! Many of us still have our flags on our cars/homes but gradually they will disappear. No longer are there flag/scarf/mirror sock sellers at every traffic light. Being here, in SA, for this, was something to be cherished and remembered, and something we will tell our grandchildren about one day!
So, while life returns to normal, each one of us who was here is somehow changed.

Now that's AYOBA!!!

Sea and Ski Holiday

We escaped a freezing cold Joburg and headed off to Selborne, on the KZN South Coast. Happily KZN enjoys mild winters, so while everyone at home was complaining of the cold (and anyone watching a soccer match in Gauteng during that week nearly froze to death!!), we were in shorts and T-shirts and swimming in the sea. OK, let me rephrase that - we were in shorts and T-shirts and the kids were swimming in the sea!

A highlight of the holiday was a new passion for Carl and Ali - sea fishing. After several false starts, they finally caught some Shad (3 one night, and 2 the other) which we cooked and enjoyed for dinner. Even me, and I am not much of a fish person!

We also had Selma and Bruno join us for one night which was lovely. Especially seeing 3 generations of van der Riet fisherman on the beach. For those who don't know, Bruno's father (Ali's great-grandpa) was a Springbok fisherman, so it clearly runs in the veins!

Then, from Selborne, we headed up to Howick for one night, where we got to spend sometime with Carl's sister Sarah, and her children, which was super.

From there we headed up towards Harrismith, through the Golden Gate Nature Reserve, a quick lunch stop in Clarens, and finally down into Lesotho to Afri-ski. It was not nearly as cold as it has been in previous years which was a relief! Our chalet was so comfortable and warm and fitted all 10 of us in easily! The 10 of us comprised of the four of us, Roland and Caron, Caron's sister Kim and her daughter Sage (6), as well as Caron's other sister's two children, Samuel (15) and Hannah (13).

Megs and Ali really enjoyed the company of the other kids. We skied for 3 full days and had a blast. Megan and Hannah were ski-buddies, and Ali and Samuel spent a lot of time having snow-ball fights! We ate like kings (pigs actually!), but with all the physical activity of skiing, we were allowed to! Lesotho has become a favourite annual Pilgrimage for our family and we love it! We're already planning out next trip!

The Year of the Dog

About a year ago, we had Trixie successfully covered by a young chap, Tintin, and at the end of July our 6 beautiful puppies were born. What a highlight! However, it really has been rather downhill from there on the dog front.

Firstly, one of our puppies tragically died at 3 weeks (if you keep up to date with my blog, you would have read all about it, so I won't bore you with the details again!).

Secondly, we took Gemma, the puppy we kept from the litter, for a walk last November to watch Carl ride the 94.7 Cycle Challenge, and she got attacked by another Jack Russell.

A couple of months ago, the kids and I bravely took our 3 dogs (kids each had a Jack Russell, and I had Lucy, the retriever) down to our park, and had a mostly successful trip (other than our poorly trained dogs on leads, which has to be said is our own fault for not taking them a) to training and b) out more on walks).

So now, I was on a mission to get out more with the dogs, and our evenings now are just so beautiful that it is the perfect time to get out.

2 Sundays ago (our 3rd walk in 6 months!), the kids and I again ventured past our gates with the 3 dogs off to the Park. Carl opted to stay at home, and the less I say about that, the better. On our way there, one of the people in our road opened their gate to let some visitors out, and their enormous Staffie came charging out the gate straight for us, with a look to kill.

I yelled at the kids to pick up the JR's which worked perfectly for Gemma, but Trixie was NOT going to be held and wriggled straight out of Ali's arms into a fight. I just started SCREAMING my head off, hoping like crazy that someone would hear us and come and help (I was hoping Carl would hear, but he was watching Cricket, and the less I say about that the better). The Staffie started tearing into Trixie (who thinks she is a Rotweiler, but sadly is not), and Lucy alternately. The kids and I were screaming and kicking this dog with all our might and this dog would not stop attacking. At one stage, a man came running from the house of the dog and came toward us. I assumed it was his dog, but it turned out, that he was just a visitor there. He took one look at what was happening and refused to help as he thought the Staffie would attack him, and he ran off!! Leaving me still on my own with the 2 kids and a dog fight. Ali was a little hero in trying to pull the Staffie off Trixie, but I was so worried that he would get bitten that I told him to stop. I was trying to pull Trixie away and then I realised that she had her choke chain on, so all I was doing was choking her. I then turned my attention to the Staffie, grabbed his collar and started twisting. Quite by instinct, as I assure you, as my brain was not working at that stage. Eventually I succeeded in choking the Staffie enough for it to let go of Trixie, who was lying limp and half dead on the ground. My poor little Ali had to scoop her up and walk with her in his arms back to the house. Traumatic! Fortunately, another neighbour heard the commotion, and came out in time to see the kids walking the JR's back up to the house on their own while I was still holding the now subdued Staffie, so he took Trixie from Ali and walked them safely home.

In the meantime, the not-so-gallant visitor had returned with a set of Wooden Cricket Wickets in his hands. Quite what he was planning on doing with them, I can't say. So I just asked him to take Lucy from me (who I had on lead the whole time this was happening) and walk her home. The owner, a young lady who was 8 months pregnant, eventually appeared, apologising profusely, and finally another neighbour came and took the Staffie from me so I could get back to the kids.

To say it was traumatic would be an understatement!

Trixie was in terrible shock, with some serious bite wounds. I briefly checked Lucy, but didn't see anything. So we all rushed Trixie off to the Bryanston Veterinary Hospital where she spent the night and had about 19 stitched in various places on her body.

It was only when we got back home that we noticed that Lucy had indeed been bitten - a puncture wound on the upper section of her right front leg. I tried my best to clean it and treat it myself, but eventually had to take her to the Vet too, as it was just not getting better.

So, 3 walks in 6 months, 2 of which resulted in traumatic dog fights. This does not bode well for the future of dog walking in our family. How very sad that we are now trapped even more behind out high walls and electric fences.

Eco-Challenge 2010!

Those who know our family would know that we are NOT the rough it/camping types. However, this year we signed up for the Eco-Challenge (an adventure race), organised by the kid's school. The fact that winter has arrived rather abruptly, and we've seldom had such a wet April, was not enough to deter the intrepid adventurers. Needless to say, our team's name was MACK ATTACK, and I did rather a fine job (if I may say so myself!) of painting our name onto T-shirts for us to wear.

I must also add that we were told that we had to have seconders, so I roped my surprisingly enthusiastic parents (who are hovering on either side of 70!) in for the job.

The venue was The Spirit of Adventure Camp near Rustenburg. Unfortunately, we only arrived after dark (but fortunately after a massive cloud burst!), so it was quite weird trying to find our way around and settle down. We had the choice of either camping in tents, or using the dormitories. The fact that we don't own a tent, and are camping averse made it an easy choice - dormitories it was! We first landed ourselves into enormous girls/boys dorms. However, cunning Carl managed to secure us two very cosy little dorms adjacent to each other (which meant my one night away from Carl was still spent listening to him snoring. Or was that my dad????). We had our dinner, a race briefing, and then off to bed.

An early start at 6am had us breakfasted and ready to race by 7am. Another briefing, and we were off by 7:30am. We ran the Junior Race which was open to children Gr 1 - 6. We basically completed one 10km route, with activities along the way. We had to choose what we thought was the best route, then using a map, orienteer ourselves around. And at each 'checkpoint' we had to either do something and get a stamp, or simply take a rubbing off a marker as proof of our having been there.

The activities were:

Go-Karting -

With Ali driving and we three pushing, in the thickest, sludgiest mud ever. Will our takkies ever be the same again?

Swimming -

Yes, today is the 1st May, yes it has been freezing and rainy for two weeks, and YES the water was freezing. And YES, only 3 people had to do it, so Carl and the kids went in!!! I sound flippant, but it was over 200m and bone chilling cold, and each of them had to really find the strength within themselves to complete it. Brrr, I was SO glad I got to watch!

Rock-climbing -

Ali did this task, by choice, and truthfully, Carl and I had our doubts about whether he would manage it or not, but we let him have a go. Well, let me tell you, he blew us away, and shimmied up and down that rock face like a champ. We were SO proud of him, you have no idea, and it proved to us how easily we can under-estimate our children.

Obstacle course -

I volunteered for this one, and like to think that my running/gymnast past helped, but I'm not so sure. It was a very strenuous course of climbing through barrels, walking on ropes, hopping pole to pole etc. By the end, my muscles were shaking! A good work out, but I'll feel it tomorrow!

Tower jump - Carl did this one (none of us even offered!). A scary climb up a huge tower, and then a leap to catch a handle, and then get lowered back to terra firma.

Throughout the race, we had been neck and neck with another family team, 'White Wash', and it was only at the very end, that they just beat us to the Tower Jump, and raced home in first place. The fact that the father of that family has done this Eco-Challenge six times (in fact he is the teacher who organises it!!) put them at a huge advantage, and we, the rookies, did extremely well to come in Second place!


You may be asking what was the role of our seconders? Well, turns out, not much! It seems that the junior race has only one continuous leg, and as a result, we didn't really need them. However, being who they are, they made the best of the situation by finding jobs - cleaning up our breakfast things, tidying the dorms, and then going for a walk and reading their books. They assured us that they enjoyed it, even though they didn't turn out to be needed very much, and we really appreciated their enthusiasm!

After a quick clean off, and loading the car, we headed back home, only stopping for a fabulous lunch at one of our favorite eating spots in the Cradle of Mankind. We had to thank our sacrificial seconders somehow!

As Arnold Schwarzenegger says......'we'll be back'.