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Three Letters From Santiago
Insomnia. Lying here in my single bed, in our Spartan Nun’s cell in the former Convent on the square. I move my feet to feel the cold part of the starched white linen sheets. The thick ancient walls can’t keep the heat out, the muggy air does not stir. Our pilgrimage has come to an end. Lise and...
Solidago Santiago
We’d heard on the grapevine that there would be thousands of Pilgrims flooding into Santiago de Compostello from all four corners of Europe. We had to make haste unless we were prepared to queue for hours waiting for our certification. Early it would be. I set our alarm for 4am at 5am we’d set...
Butch Bites The Bullet
Like much in life, unless one is 100% committed to a task it is sure to be a failure or at worst a disappointment. I know that if asked 5 years ago whether he’d attempt to walk halfway across Spain Butch would’ve said “NO!” Unequivocally. The only reason he did it was because Anna (his...
Overweight Honey Badger Must Streamline
The Honey Badger is on a crash diet. No more heavy metals. On the spur of the moment it was decided to weigh the truck and huge was the collective surprise when she came in weighing a few hundred kilogrammes over her recommended weight allowance. “How on earth can that happen?” you may well...
Big Butch Battles Bravely
Like two pom-pom girls we stood ready to welcome our Butch at Vigo airport. We caught a glimpse of him way down the passage coming through customs long before he spotted us. He looked exhausted, thin and quite pasty (and not at all like a Cornish pasty, rather, grey and pale) around the...
Vigo Splish Splash And Get Sun-Kissed
It’s raining. If one’s lucky to be there when the first drops fall you will get the smell of rain on dusty tar and it’s just amazing. In Redondela we took deep breaths of rainy air, it was heaven, but, not quite like our African rain, here we smell dust, dry grass, and the blue of water...
Kick-Ass Heroes For A Day
Although we were quite content with each other’s company and had no need of hooking up with other Peregrinoes we did meet and chat to a father and son walking alongside us. The attraction was our feet of course. Flip flops! When I mentioned that St James would've approved we got a "touché"! One...
A Flip-Flopping Peregrino On Camino
My friend sent a photograph of her amazing knitted patchwork blanket, a gift to her grandson, the other day. I am in awe. You see, I started one too. Years ago. On all our wanderings I’d sit in the car and knit, miles of strips and squares I’ve done. Haphazard they are, not all exactly square,...
There's No Snoozin' With Susan
Camping with my sister-in-law Sue is a treat. She’s organised and runs a tight ship. She has to, with her family of 3 plus 2, plus all the friends and extended family members who make themselves at home there. This whole mish-mash of friends, family and vreemdelinge (strangers) often accompany...
A Sucker For Punishment
Is exactly what I must be, when I agreed to repeat my 2016 performance of hiking the Fish River Canyon. Needless to say I couldn’t go back on my word so I saddled up the old back pack, loaded it with the bare essentials and set off on a nine day adventure to Namibia. We would hike for five...
Lise, My Camino Compañero
We have made it to Barcelos in one piece, a little bruised and battle weary. We could lament the state of our toes until the cows come home, but we’re braver than that. We'll dust overselves off and soldier on. I watch her sleep, always the sleep of the innocent, so quiet, not a snore, not...
Scoring 100% On Her First Test Drive
Our pet project, the Honey Badger lives up to all expectations and passes her first test drive with flying colours. She didn't put a gear out of place and with all the confidence in the world revved her engines and zoomed off at a top speed of 80kmph. I mistakenly said we were going on our...
Mood Swings, Puffy Feet and Cobblestones
Right from the start this day did not auger well. Lise’s jet-lag was settling in nicely and with it came a few gremlins. The madam she was moody, she’d lost the spring in her step. My bag felt a little heavier but my mood, I thought was quite chipper! Silence at breakfast. Bad waymarks...
Board Not Bored Walking - Setting off
This I know is true. Just as we had to take those first uncertain steps into the unknown and blindly take one step at a time to do our Camino, I know that unless I type my first words and just get on with it I’ll never write our story. Simple as that. I have a very simple philosophy, it has...
Bon Camino Peregrino - Introduction
18 months ago I grabbed the bull by the horns and sent the family an invitation-slash-announcement. I was setting my sights on doing the Camino Portuguese before I turned 60 and they were welcome to join me. I knew if anyone would be up for it, it would be Lise. Just as well I put it out...
Picture Perfect Oporto
Four nights in Porto is all I could squeeze into my itinerary. My love for Portugal is a genetic thing. It’s not skin deep, I’m wired to love that slip of a Mediterranean country hemmed in by Spain on one side and the ocean on the other. My aunt lived in a tiny fishing village south of...
We've got to talk about THAT
I sigh, (I do that a lot when I’m sad or depressed) as I open the fridge door after weeks away. Not because it’s a shambles. It’s because we “save for rainy days”. Why do we do that? I look at the shrivelled carrots, the drooping celery sticks and the blackened fine green beans. As I drop...
Driving Dirt Roads, Dunes And Deserts
Twenty years ago my life was a shambles. I was scared, insecure and I cried every day for almost 2 and a half years. I do believe I could’ve filled buckets with tears. Friends can only take so much. My best friends decided instead of writing me off they’d take me to Namibia. We’d celebrate my...
Five Fabulous Friends
It was written in the stars that I would board a steam train and shunt about for two years, making my way from Nelspruit, across the Crocodile River wending my way from the Lowveld to Pretoria every term to attend boarding school at Pretoria High School for Girls. With a quivering lip,...
The Honey Badger Shenanigans
Hallo! It's been a while. I've not updated on the progress of our Honey Badger. I couldn't. Things weren't going as I thought they would. I had to dampen my enthusiasm and realise a few home truths. I am not in charge of this project. In my defence I did begin many scribblings but for...
Good, Better, Idiom
Packing up and traipsing all over the countryside is not the only way to relax after a busy year. We stayed at home. It was different, and, interesting. Our home was our base for making day trips. We lolled about at home as if we were sitting on the beach at Tofo, that’s where we were meant...
Bang! My Bubble Burst
Like a shot in the dark. Unexpected, frightening and loud. That’s how 2017 set the standard. And look! A twelfth has almost gone, right before our very eyes. Fortunately I have no guilt feelings about not accomplishing one New Year’s resolution last year, I didn’t even try compiling a list for...
Don't Get Me Wrong
It’s been a busy month since my last scribbling, an exciting time it’s been too. On the day it rained I set off at the appointed hour, very early, to meet them at the airport. It was exciting. Rain. Soft, gentle, penetrating, misty rain. Enough to soak our scorched land. Not enough to break...
We Can Die Without Food
That’s a fact. We know it. They don’t, really. On this wall it’s a statement, a slogan, a cry for help, a prayer, but it’s also part of life. SINETEMBA means HOPE "Safety and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children,...
Surely Sundays Are Fun Days
In all my born days I never thought I would say "whoopy! Sundays are fun days". I’m a boarder for goodness’ sakes.We loathe Sundays.Turn on a radio and I recall Esmè Everard’s distinctive lilt as she read messages from Mums and girlfriends on “Forces Favourites”. That's my cue to fall into...
On Doctor's Orders
Isn’t exactly how it all happened. Summer colds are really the pits, especially in spring. We were both bitten by a bug. Runny noses, sneezing, bunged up sinuses, laryngitis and an embarrassing gungy cough. Not bad enough to tempt one to pull a duvet over one’s head, but enough to make you...
Simple Summer Salads With A Twist
When the sun beats down on the top of my head and I feel the need of a hat and sunnies know it’s time to dust off the platters and large salad bowls. I find pleasure in digging in the napery drawer, flinging out the florals, stripes and coloured linens, the worn check napkins in shades of...
One Whale Wallows
Weekenders line the cliffs and choke up the paths in the Rep.of Hermanus. Spring break and it's chock-a-block.Traffic jams, long queues and exhausted officials are the order of the next 10 days. No matter where you were within a 1km radius of the Old Harbour you’d hear the screech of...
Drive By Shootings On Sunday Drives
Butch hadn’t had such a good day on Saturday. His Springboks lost to the All Blacks, the result was expected, but the shock of it still hits the solar plexus doesn’t it? What a shame. Sadly for them Saturday was the last straw and their last chance to impress. They’ve lost an ardent fan. To...
Fabulous Friends, Food And Frivolous Fun
Was exactly how my weekend started. We’re born into families, some are single parent ones, adopted ones or traditional ones. We can't choose them, friends are the people we pick along the way. People who intrigue and fascinate us, who we have something in common with or it’s the child you sit...
Tim's Trailer Makeover
Not my usual story about our Honey Badger, but, it’s about being motivated by the plan and execution that we have for our truck.Ours has been in the making for months and the end is not in sight. Yet. This one is a spur of the moment, “let’s get stuck in and get the job done job”. Typically...
Singing Ching-Ching It's Spring
I go ballistic every time Butch announces “It’s Summer!” (Like clockwork he does it every year on the 23rd June).My beady eyes give him dirty looks as I shiver and shake from the cold, but, I start watching the signs. And then. When he starts paying attention to the weather forecasts, reads...
Schatzie Goes Hands, Knees And Bump-Sa-Daisy
That’s exactly how I made my descent into the Fish River Canyon. Slowly, measured steps and oftentimes on my behind. I had no dignity as I squatted to slide down rocks. When did my legs shorten? It was after 55. The audience looking down must’ve rolled their eyes while they whispered...
Floss, Gloss And Go
It happens once you get engaged, married or become pregnant. Everyone has advice. All good, solid cases based on past experiences. The problem is which one do you follow? If I had to take up all the tips, tricks and warnings I’ve had in the past week, I’d have to employ Sherpas to trek with...
Gearing Up! Ready To Take A Hike
A few decades ago I celebrated my 40th birthday in Namibia. On the night, the rotund chef at the Waterberg Reserve’s restaurant made an entrance and in true operatic style serenaded me in a booming baritone blasting “Happy birthday to you” beautifully. It’s something I’ll never forget. I have...
Jolly July - A Progress Report
Slow, steady, streamlined is what’s happening with our Honey Badger. Blueprint? There isn’t one. Plan? There isn’t one. So how are we going about this conversion you might wonder? We’re feeling our way. Like building a tree house, we’ve got a tree and branches, we've got the platform and the...
Winning Winter Warmers
While we wallow with winter weather we wish-wash with water, wet, when willowy wind whistles.When we wake, winter withholds wondrously, while we wish weather would warm. Yes.I know. I'm trying my hand at alliteration. Reminds me of poetry slams with my son. This is the best I can do believe...
Catching Kate In Vermaaklikheid
Bad news spreads like a rash. The world is upside down. Our own Juju is giving away his secret recipe and weight loss plan. The UK is in a shambles after Brexit. In the US there’s a possibility that a megalomaniac with a Hitleresque attitude and a permanent bad hair day, might become the...
Clowning About - From Your Besotted Gram'ma
This is a back-to-front letter. Your Mom has celebrated her birthday, we've pampered our Dads, you've turned one and I've got a few more grey hairs. The mountains are covered in snow but the sun still shines warmly on our backs. Landmarks flash past as the year speeds up, typically all we do is...
Progress Report - This Is No Faerie Tale
Work continues at a steady pace. The piercing, shrill, whining screech of a grinder fills the air, while the white light of the welding rod blinds, yet, fascinates. Sparks fly. Work is progressing. The air is infused with the smell of grease, lubricating oil and diesel. Men in overalls and...
