Chandler's Overseas

Due to this weekend being a long weekend in SA (and also to celebrate our birthdays), Pete & I along with British expats Gareth & Sophie decided a weekend getaway trip was required and the Central Drakensberg Ranges was chosen as the destination. We camped at Monks Cowl which is nestled in the picturesque Champagne Valley at the base of the Central Drakensberg Ranges in Kwazulu-Natal. In training for the Mt Kilimanjaro hike that we all hope to hike whilst we are based in Africa, we ventured off on Sunday for a long and hilly hike. We first headed to Blindman's Corner, an 11km return route from the camp. This route takes you steeply up a berg to The Sphinx and then along a flat and meandering grassy plateau to the base of the summits. However, upon arriving there we felt like a further challenge so subsequently climbed 1/3 of the way up Sterkhorn Mt. And up we climbed... at times the hill we were climbing had a gradient of >55 degrees! We rested for lunch perched precari...

Life just goes on for us now.... Jen has hit reality again.... her days of leisure and relaxation are over. I have been working for Charles Orbach for 2 weeks now and can report that I am slowly settling back into the professional working lifestyle. The first week of work was spent in the office getting to speed with Charles Orbach's never ending processes & procedures, whilst this week was spent working at a client near the airport with 1 Russian, 1 Zimbabwean decendent and 2 Afrikaans. Working with South Africans to date has been an interesting and memorable experience. There are definately notable differences in personalities to those of Australians... Whilst all Afrikaans communicate in English, once they know that another person can speak Afrikaans, the conversation fluidly changes from English to Afrikaans before you realise it. Half the time I don't understand what they are saying due to their conversing in Afrikaans, and the other half of the time I can't und...

Yesterday we ventured onto the golf course to play nine holes. Luckily Pete could finish work at 3.30pm which was sufficient time to fit in the 9 holes in daylight. We played at Johannesburg Country Club which is in Woodmead (just around the corner from Pete's work). It is a private and exclusive golf course, however non-members are able to play during the week. The course was in beautiful condition. All of the tees, undulating fairways and semi-rough have beautiful manicured carpets of green grass. The course is designed on the South African bushveld, so even the rough and numerous water challenges were picturesque and attracted a lot of birdlife. Jen is obviously suited to her new clubs... she got a par on a par 5! Not bad considering she has only played a handful of rounds in 15 years. Let the challenge begin! The round was finished with the mandatory drink overlooking the expanse of Sandton at dusk. What a great way to end a working day. Pete teeing off with views of Sandton b...

"Noooooooooo..... " and then a chuckle was what Pete heard from the living room as Jen was checking our email. The long awaited news was finally delivered last Friday. The Department of Home Affairs took 155 days (we were originally told the process should take 30-90 days) to process and approve the work application, but at least it has now been done. Only worry is how Jen will transition back into work mode. It has been 7 months since Jen left Pitcher Partners! In a nutshell the 7 months have been consumed with the following activities: - 1 month of wedding and honeymoon; - 2 months of tourism and holidays with visitors; - 4 months including settling into South African life, organising holidays & weekend trips, seeing the odd movie, lunching & spoiling myself with indulgences and volunteer tutoring... I have enjoyed my time off immensely but I now look forward to returning to the workforce.

The road we ran along... Camps Bay in the distance with Lions Head (L) & Table Mountain (R) Mum and Dad were shipped to Cape Town on Wednesday, whilst we followed on Friday evening. We stayed at The Glen apartments again- how could we not! Nice, spacious & modern 2 bedroom apartment in Camps Bay with views of the ocean, Table Mountain & the Twelve Apostles. We were greeted with cheese & wine which set the tone for the weekend. On Saturday we visited the Waterfront for some mandatory shopping time. Lunch was at the Kirstenbosch Gardens with stunning views of Table Mountain and the suburbs of Cape Town. The weather was perfect for roaming amongst the protea garden beds and the avenue of established camphor trees. Then to Constantia which is the oldest wine growing region in South Africa & on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. We tasted 5 of the red wines (true to Smith/ Rounsevell tradition!) at Groot Constantia and bought a few bottles to compliment dinner th...

This is a road, or maybe more appropriately lack of road, that we saw in Cape Town. The freeway overpass comes to an abrubt stop. No signs, no warnings & the paint for the line markings even looks fresh!!

Female leopard- resting after an impala kill We packed and left Joburg for a long-weekend of luxury and relaxation at 12.30pm (as is customary and acceptable in SA offices on a Friday!) and headed along the N14 to Graskop . Even though we had left at what we thought was a reasonable hour, we were caught standstill on the freeway for at least ½ hour… the traffic can get unbearable! Graskop , our stop for the night, is a small town built on the forestry industry but surviving on the bandwagon of the tourism generated from the picturesque Drakensberg Escarpment. As always dining amongst the locals was an experience at the local Mozambique and Portugese Tavern for the pricely sum of R440 on Friday night (ridiculously cheap for 4 people by Australian standards). Stu amused us with his devouring of the 1kg skewer of ‘blue’ beef… the beef is surprisingly good here. The drive along the Blyde River Canyon was stunning, especially the viewpoint overlooking the Three Rondavels . The impressi...