The end of our busy week in Johannesburg brought up the end of October and time to head back to Natal for a planned month of upgrades to Mr. Jones and getting ready for Devon & Hannah holiday to visit us over Christmas. We were feeling quite tired from all the running around and socializing so decided to split the 600km journey in two by stopping off halfway at new destination for us, Spionkop Nature reserve and dam.
The facilities are very basic but the setting of the dam is spectacular and so we very quickly decided to stay an extra day which could have turned into a few more if our Standup Paddleboard hadn’t developed a leak (another job added to the list for November).
Feeling a little rested from our mini holiday we followed the backroads across the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains as we headed back to the farm and our base for the foreseeable future as we tackle jobs and await the arrival of Devon & Hannah.
Throughout November we followed an approach of popping down to Durban for a surf and perhaps lunch on the promenade if the weather and waves were good interspersed with ticking off jobs big and small. The most significant job and upgrade that we are most proud of is the automation of the roof opening on Mr. Jones. We carry a lot of weight on the roof and have upgraded the gas struts that help to push it up but it still required a lot of initial human muscle power to get the process going, which is fine so long as Stuart is not sick or injured. It had worried us for a while that Tania could not open the roof if required and we had been looking around for solutions including asking the manufacturers if they had any solutions. Stuart had come across the concept of using linear actuators and so when in Johannesburg we had visited a supplier and purchased two. At the time of purchase everything was very much a gamble as we couldn’t accurately assess the force required to lift the roof or whether we could attach the actuators to Mr. Jones in such a manner as to use them in a “linear” motion. The wannabe engineer in Stuart was not deterred and so over a few days we lifted and dropped the roof a number of times as we tried to figure out the best method of installation. Being on the farm helped a lot in this process with both access to the brain of Johan and a well-equipped workshop where we could fabricate brackets and modify as we progressed.
The end result is that while it may not be the neatest solution we have a very functional system which can now lift the roof with the flick of a switch. For a more detailed breakdown of the installation, see this page under the section Mr Jones
As the end of November neared our excitement was growing real as Devon & Hannah long awaited holiday to SA drew closer only to be shattered when South Africa reported the discovery of the COVID Omicron variant and the world reacted with knee jerk reactions to impose bans on all travel to and from SA. See the Captain(s) log from this time for an insight into our anger and despair.
A less successful job during this period was trying to get to the bottom of a possible overheating issue Mr. Jones was having, while we didn’t think it was a real issue it was concerning as the OEM temperature gauge occasionally showed an increase in temp. The reason we didn’t think it was a major issue is we also have a digital aftermarket gauge which measure engine block temperatures and this was largely behaving. Nonetheless it was concerning and we would prefer to have both gauges working as designed which meant that piece by piece Stuart removed and repaired or replaced parts of the cooling system and all along the process the problem persisted. The further he dug the more it looked like an electrical/earth fault but despite changing earth wires and so forth the issue persisted, leaving one accountant/wannabe mechanic very confused.
Having had enough of working on the coolant topic and needing to clear our heads after the Omnicron debacle we took a mini holiday down the South Coast aiming to be away until the beginning of the Christmas holiday season and imposition of exorbitant rates by the caravan parks. As an example, the park we visited charges R150 per person per day practically all year but for the Christmas period this jumps to a minimum of R950 per day per site.
By the middle of December, we were back at the farm and expecting to have a quiet Christmas when finally, some form of sanity prevailed and the “developed” world recognized that the Omicron travel bans were pointless and the UK scrapped theirs. Sadly, and most annoyingly they did this on the very day that Devon would have originally arrived in South Africa but with the bans announced 3 weeks prior we had already cancelled all flights and other reservations.
Within hours, Devon had rebooked a flight out for the following day and we spent the next 24 hours frantically trying to resurrect the local flights and accommodation originally booked. Unfortunately, because of all the chaos caused, Hannah was only going to be able to join us just before New Year but at least she was still going to be able to come and we would get 4 weeks with Devon and 2 weeks with them as a couple.
An anxious wait still ensued as there was still the small matter of passing a PCR test before any flights could be boarded but thankfully both did test negative and so the holiday finally took place. The first ten days were a chilled affair as we just caught up on life, went to the beach and out for a few meals and of course over indulged on Christmas day.
New Year was spent in Johannesburg, mostly enjoying and being spoilt by the extended Goosen family which naturally involved introducing Hannah to the art of a South African braai, for a person prior to the visit was not a big meat fan she did really really well!
Hannah had only expressed one big desire for her part of the holiday and that was to see elephants in the wild. In principle this is not a big ask but as Africans we know how difficult these giants can sometimes be to find when driving around in the bush, so when planning the trip we had weighed up options for game reserves and eventually decided that as a spoil and treat for all of us we would go to a private reserve in the Waterberg region. Our time at Clifftop Lodge in Welgevonden was exactly as we had hoped and it was so fantastic to experience the joy of first sightings with “fresh eyes”. Although after the first two game drives we were a little concerned that we may still not “deliver” the desired elephant sightings as the resident herd had not been seen for a few days. Thankfully on the evening of the second day signs of elephants were spotted moving up a narrow valley and to add to the excitement a huge thunderstorm was raging all around us and the adolescents in the herd were less than happy, delivering a few mock charges for effect! A pretty epic and exciting way to see your first elephants in the wild…
The following morning we got to see another smaller herd and get really close to one bull in a much more relaxed setting. Other “less significant” sightings included Leopard, Lion, Cheetah, Black & White Rhino and all the usual antelope.
After a leisurely cruise back to Johannesburg, we dropped the “kids” at the airport as they were on their way to Cape Town for a few days and we drove back to Durban where they would fly too after Cape Town.
In between all of the above, we had started to request quotes for shipping in the hope that South America would open its borders to Africans soon (they also locked us out due to Omnicron) and that perhaps we could ship mid-February and get our own adventure back on track. A combination of the borders remaining closed and a lack of vessels sailing the route we wanted meant that by the end of January there was still no light at the end of the tunnel and so we made a last minute decision to head into Mozambique for a month and have some fun. It was one of our best decisions in a while but that is a story for the next blog post.
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