Chandler's Overseas

Pete on his latest toy motivated by le Tour de France! A 5am rise is too early for us for cycling, so Pete relented and finally resorted to a wind trainer. Go Cadel!

Our friend Paul Burger had too tempting an offer on Thursday night. His parents had access to their timeshare house in a resort at Hazyview (bordering Kruger NP) and there was an empty bedroom- were we keen? Paul even offered to drive seeing he was competing in a 155km bike race on Saturday in the region! We ventured east along the N4 after a typical Friday afternoon of work and made some last minute plans for the weekends activities. An early 6's collection beckoned on Saturday morning for a private game drive through Kruger. Seeing we have done a fair bit of game viewing to date, we weren't too concerned in relation to the game we saw. Well ... within 5 minutes of entering the park we stumbled across a cheetah posing gracefully on top of a rock mounded sign. With the sun rising behind the cheetah it was an amazing sight. Then with in minutes came across a pride of 4 lionesses and 2 lions who were looking for a kill. We witnessed a lioness attempting to hunt and mawl a lon...

After spending the last few weekends in Johannesburg, our country roots got the better of us so we escaped to Clarens in the Free State for the weekend. As always seems to happen in SA, expect the unexpected and be flexible. We arrived in Clarens in time for dinner so headed to Clementines, the reputed best place to eat. We ended up sharing dinner with an elderly local South African couple. The restaurant was 'fully booked'.... not sure why there was at least 10 free tables when we arrived and for the remainder of evening! Anyway, it was a yummy meal and interesting to chat to the locals and hear their perspective on life. They were so intrigued to hear about our lives to date & why we were in South Africa. Of course they had family & friends in Australia and were keen to establish if we knew them! Pete organised some last minute accommodation was booked at the Clarens Golf and Trout Estate. Whilst Clarens is not a booming country town, it certainly is a popular we...

This weekend we indulged in some African culture with Jen's workmates by seeing the production of African Footprint . African Footprint tells the vibrant and diverse history of South Africa through music & dance. The African drum, saxophone and pennywhistle meld Afro- and Euro-centric music and dance. All of the dancers consistently awed us by their fitness and were unbelievably toned and fit, and with the males in the opening scene sporting costumes of only loin cloth and a g-string over their genitalia... the audience (well at least the females) were captivated! In 1999, a producer recruited a group of young people from the dusty streets of Soweto. From hundreds of hopefuls, 30 young aspiring performers were chosen. The next year was taken up with vocal classes and intensive dance instruction which, for most, was their first opportunity to enter the world of professional theater. Seemingly going nowhere, the long hours of rehearsal were rewarded when, on December 31st 1999,...