Chandler's Overseas

Jen and Phil- Lunch at Walskipper, Jeffrey's Bay Jen's uncle, Phil, trumped all visitors again by being our first visitor since moving to Port Elizabeth. He was in Joburg for business and was kind enough to fly to PE for the weekend for some relaxation. The weather could not have been more ideal for the weekend with clear blue skies, sun & just a gentle breeze to cool us down. On Friday night we made delicious gourmet steak sandwiches for dinner. The steaks were over 3cm thick and incredibly tender... mmm ! We visited the surfing mecca of Southern Africa, Jeffrey's Bay, on Saturday. It is around 1hrs drive west of PE. We enjoyed a seafood lunch at the Walskipper , which overlooks a pretty bay and coastline. Sunday was once again perfect weather so we strolled along the bustling foreshore and through the Boardwalk precinct, prior to the mandatory fish & chips at the wharf. Beautiful weather and great company for the weekend! The shellfish seafood platter at the rus...

Last Sunday we were eager to get out of town to explore some of the region so we decided to visit Addo Elephant National Park. It is a game reserve of 168,000 hectares only 70km north-east of PE. The reserve boasts to have the ‘big 7’ (‘big 5’ plus great white shark and southern right whale), as the reserve also fronts Algoa Bay. As the name would suggest, the biggest draw card to the reserve is the elephants. At one watering hole there was easily more than 50 elephants! With temperatures reaching 36c it was easy to understand why they were all hovering at the small water/mud hole. We continued to see lots more elephant herds, ate lunch overlooking 3 lionesses, and saw the other usual culprits. A grazing warthog 26 weeks & growing!

Port Elizabeth (aka ‘PE’, the ‘friendly city’ or the ‘windy city’) has become our new home away from home. Pete found a great house for us which has stunning uninterrupted views of the port and beachfront. It is a townhouse within a secure complex, yet unlike Joburg there is no security manning the gate. The house is on 3 levels. Entry is on the middle level to the large open plan living, dining, sitting and kitchen area. The three bedrooms and a couple of bathrooms are on the top level. The bottom level comprises another living area and luxurious spa style bathroom opening onto decking, a small courtyard and pool. The house is a stone’s throw away from Pete’s work (the port). With most rooms offering views of the port, Jen will be able to keep a close eye on Pete! The Port of PE (where Pete works) The view to Summerstrand & Humewood

Having arrived in Joburg on Wednesday afternoon (minus 2 bags), we had a frantic 2 days to organise the house for packing, retrieve our delayed baggage (not as easy as it sounds), make a trip to Pretoria to collect Pete’s new passport, and fit in a day of work for Pete! The removalists packed our possessions on Friday morning enabling us to enjoy a farewell drink with our friends on Friday afternoon. Due to our severe jetlag we were wide awake at 5am on Saturday so commenced our roadtrip to PE just after dawn. We are sad to be leaving our friends (and Jen’s job) behind in Joburg , however the exciting times ahead made the move easier. We stopped for morning tea at one of our favourite rural towns at the top of the Drakensburg ranges, Clarens . The scenery is so beautiful in the region with the town nestled in the craggy limestone Maluti Mountains with surrounding green rolling hills and field of sunflowers. We proceeded along the South African western border with Lesotho having ...