Chandler's Overseas

On Saturday we got our adrenaline running by experiencing the Magaliesberg Canopy Tour with the expat 'wives' and their partners. A series of cables have been erected across the Ysterhout Kloof in the Magaliesberg Ranges, and you zigzag across the series of cables to 11 platforms built against the cliff and rock faces of either side of the gorge. The first 'flying fox' was short & gentle to get us settled, but by the third we were travelling along a 140m long cable which was at least 30m above the gorge valley. Jen lost any inhibitions she may have had about fear of heights whilst Pete was all about speed! It was so much fun... there was frequent shouts of excitment & laughter as we zipped across the gorge. It was also an interesting way to see the Magaliesberg Ranges. Jen in action across the 140m flying fox

This weekend we embraced South African culture by camping at Suikerbosrand and cooking our first potjiekos ! Suikerbosrand is a game/nature reserve less than 1hr drive south of Johannesberg . Very convenient and a comfortable and clean camping ground. With temperatures hovering around 0c at night, it was no wonder the camping ground was deserted! Luckily our new enormous tent can easily fit in doona's , blankets and sleeping bags making it nice & cozy. Work life has been busy for us both so it was great to get away for the night and sit-back with a glass of wine & relax. The potjiekos we cooked was also yummy and just what we needed to warm us up! The reserve does not have any Big 5 or man eating game(!) so has become a very popular, safe 66km cycling route. We have scoped it out and think we will use it as our training route for the 94.7km road race which is later in the year.

Over the last couple of weeks violence has been on the rise in the outer black settlement towns of Johannesburg and the news is dominated by the disturbing xenophobic attacks. Xenophobia: an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange. Thousands of foreign nationals (mostly displaced Zimbabwean and Mozambiquan ) have been attacked in what is believed to be xenophobic motivated attacks. 24 people have been killed in Gauteng (province we live in) and many businesses belonging to foreign nationals have also been destroyed. The attacks have been contained to date in the outer very poor lawless areas, as these are the areas the immigrants are forced to find housing. The xenophobic attacks has displaced thousands of foreigners (many illegal) who are accused by many South Africans of depriving locals of jobs and committing crimes. Many of the illegal immigrants are skilled artisans from Zimbabwe where the current economic conditions are even ...

We were excited about the long anticipated formal function in Africa- a chance to dress up! Unfortunately the function did not meet expectations. Never mind, we made up for it at the Grill House at Cedar Square... Lauren & her blind date, Johnny! Ga & Soph The taxi trip to the Grill House... fun time s begin! a few drinks later... Even Ga is on the dancefloor... Pete and I doing a rendition of our wedding dance (?!).... Lauren & her broomdance (?!)... Pete, Jen & Ben The girls with sore feet at the end of the evening!

As previously mentioned, braai's (pronounced bry ) are the national past-time of South Africans. In Australia we barbeque ... in South Africa they braai . On Saturday we were treated to a weber 'posh-nosh' cooking class (thanks Badalassi !) and learnt the in's & out's of a perfect braai . We learnt that basically anything can be cooked on a braai , and confirmed that the only way to eat roast chicken is if it's cooked on a braai . Seriously! A braai consists of charcoal briquettes which are lit with fire lighters and let to heat & smoke for around 30min. Once red hot, the briquettes have about 2hrs of heat for cooking. The heated charcoal slowly smokes the food and gives it a delicious flavour. At our cooking course we baked a whole fish wrapped in newspaper, prawns, a whole baked pumpkin, pizza, fillet of beef, chicken teriyaki , whole duck with oyster sauce & peri - peri baby chickens. Our favourites were the roast chicken and the fillet of b...

Most people would be deterred by relentless thunder & pouring rain if you were about to run 42.2km.... but not Pete! With an early start of 6.30am (still in the dark), Pete ventured off with 2000 other competitors to run in the Nedbank Johannesburg City Marathon. With a target time of 3hrs 45min Pete set off ignoring both the weather and the fact that he was competing at altitude (note the starting height of 1500m with peaks around 1850m). He ran most of the way ahead of the sub 4hr group but joined them for the last 6km to finish in a time of 3hrs 56min. The startline was a major highlight with the 1900 black male athletes all singing " Shosholoza " in unison. Shosholoza is a South African folk song which translates to " Shosholoza , this train is gaining speed and steaming for South Africa". It is a very uplifting song and gave all the competitors the boost they needed to forget about the terrible conditions. Link to Shosholoza : http://groeswen.tripod.co...

With Thursday and Friday being public holidays we were on the road again.... This time to St Lucia, a coastal town in the wetlands of KwaZulu-Natal. The Greater St Lucia Wetlands is a diverse ecosystem of wetlands stretching along a 60km-long estuary, and even boasts to have the highest vegetated dunes in the world which tower over the adjacent swamp and grassland. Soph organised an awesome house for the 8 of us that ventured down for the long weekend, and so the partying (& sightseeing) began! Due to it's location on the coast, the climate was humid and a welcome change from the cold nights in JHB. The small town is circled by wetlands and picturesque rainforests and also boasts the odd roaming hippo or crocodile! We enjoyed: - wandering through the streets and surrounds of St Lucia; - venturing into the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park and spotting rhino's, buffalo and kudu to name a few; - catching the last rays of Autumn sun and swimming at the beach; and - enjoying beers...