Three-year update while in Hartebeespoort

 Thursday 30/12/2021

We’ve been on the road for over three years now (it will be 1,150 days tomorrow) so we thought it was a good time for an update.

In spite of Covid and Brexit being added into the mix, we have still been able to travel, albeit not always when or where we wanted to.  We have spent two thirds of our time travelling outside of the UK.  The bulk of our time has been spent in France (497 days), the UK (370) and Portugal (133) followed by SA (92) and Spain (51) and whistle-stop tours of Belgium (4) and Germany (3).

We’ve covered 18,690 miles (29,904 km) in Bokkie and 5,437 miles (8,700 km) in Bakkie, my Dad’s Pajero in SA, and spent almost £4,300 in diesel.  Our biggest single cost is, as expected, groceries which has been £9,703 for the three years but this actually works out to only £8.35 per day.

Bonsai with a view

We’ve managed to keep our total annual spend below our target for all three years which is very encouraging.  World markets have performed well, which has meant our investments have also grown well and this, coupled with our lower spend, has put us in a better position than we had estimated when we set out.

This is a real win for us and means we feel comfortable enough to keep on with this lifestyle for as long as we enjoy it.

We've made so many good friends along the way.

For some reason, bats come and visit us when we are watching TV.

We’ve loved being in South Africa, seeing family and friends as well as seeing many of the sights, but miss Bokkie and the lifestyle she offers us. It's also been tough being away from Charmaine so long, and we are missing her a lot - somehow, being on another continent to her makes the distance seem real (in spite of FaceTime).

We’re ready to head back to Europe as the next twelve months are already mapped out and we are keen to stick to our plan.  

Walking the dogs - seconds before Streep surprised a spitting cobra.

Streep came off worst in the encounter, now nursing a very sore eye.

Bonus video:-

We learned very early on that we need to give the gate a head start when we go for a walk...

We're coming to the end of our sit and, as we will be on the road for a while, would like to wish everyone who's been reading this a Happy and Healthy 2022- we'll keep you posted on our travels 

Merry Christmas !

 Saturday 25/12/21

Merry Christmas everyone, we hope you have a Peaceful day, a lovely break and a fantastic year ahead.

Lots of love from Bokkie, Bakkie, Toni and Andrew

Living in Harties

 Wednesday 22/12/21

The Proteas are flowering in the garden and all over the mountains

As with many of our house-sits, we've settled into an easy routine.  The dogs are generally well behaved and very little trouble.  They can be a little barky at times but, as they are guard dogs, one can't blame them.  

These 4 Jack Russels have oodles of personality and have accepted us into the household very quickly - they are very easy to love.  We've had one emergency trip to the vet with suspected snake venom in Bella's eye but she's made a full recovery.

The house is fantastic, perched on the hillside, and has loads of character

The views are lovely - Pelindaba, visible in the distance, has an interesting history

We've been treated to wonderful sunsets

We've taken longer walks with the dogs now that we've built a bit of a rapport with them, and have more confidence they will come back when called. They tend to pick up a scent and go haring off into the distance but, so far, we've always managed to return with four of them with us.

Heading home - with four dogs, always a relief!

The owners have built a rustic braai area on top of the mountain

It even has a 'loo with a view'

The elevated position of the house gives fantastic views and the birds, both at the bird baths and stealing the grapes, make for some lovely bird watching.  We'll do a bit of gardening and mowing now that the gardener is on holiday but are generally having quite a relaxing time.

The birdbath is constantly busy.

There is even a Barbet nesting in the garden

More unusual grasshoppers

Toni managed to get a shot of this lovely butterfly

We hope you all have a lovely, safe, peaceful Christmas.

Broederstroom near Hartebeespoort

 Saturday 18/12/21

It's always a bit traumatic leaving Kruger Park and entering the real world - travelling for so long at low speeds seems to slow everything down and getting back on normal roads can be daunting.  

Accidents, detours, heavy rain and absolutely shocking road behaviour made for an eventful trip across to our house-sit but we made it without incident.

We were welcomed to the house by four boisterous Jack Russells - the owners had already left as planned.  We're in a fantastic thatch house on a huge, wild plot on the Magaliesburg ridge of mountains.  It's a bit grey (weather-wise) at the moment so we'll do some pictures of the area once it brightens a bit more.

Dog massages - just one of the many services we offer.

Puppies - Roes and Streep

The oldies - Bella and Trash

The dogs have accepted us quite quickly and are great fun to be with.  Taking them for walks up the mountain can be quite daunting as they race off like demons, so we are gradually increasing our distance to make sure they come back every time - we also have dog treats as our 'secret weapon' to coax them back.

We'll be here until New Year's day and are enjoying the solitude, interrupted only be a steady stream of wildlife in and around the house, from bats in our room to all fashion of creepy-crawly. 

Praying Mantis found on the stove-top - luckily while it was cold

Foaming Grasshopper, which releases a toxic foam from glands on it's back when
grasped by a predator

Not even going to try and name this one

Caterpillar of the Citrus Butterfly

Big 5 Bonanza at Berg en Dal

 Sunday 12/12/21

A TEST:- Who can spot the animal?  No cheating and scrolling down.

We're not Big-5 chasers at all, in fact we get quite angry at the Pokemon chasing app-followers who race around from scrum to scrum of the latest sighting, seemingly ignoring the rest that Kruger has to offer. 

We much prefer the quieter routes where we can slowly enjoy all the bird and animal life, not only the 'popular' ones.

Nope, this isn't it, this is just to check if you are cheating...

That said, we have remained aware that we hadn't yet seen all of the big 5 so were rather thrilled when saw all 5 before 9am on our final game drive of this visit.

Yep, there's a Leopard peeping at us through the branches

Luckily we'd seen it before it hid away otherwise it would have been difficult to spot.
(No pun intended.)

We then had an easy sighting of Elephant, well they're hard to miss, really.

We were so busy watching Kingfishers we almost didn't notice these two nearby.

We the had a rather obscure Lion sighting before stopping for brunch, 
but it still counts.

And we wrapped it up with loads of Buffalo, just before 9 am.

We managed some new bird ID's as well, and were lucky enough to watch Kingfishers fishing and a Bee-eater catching a bee (well, it was a wasp).  We weren't able to identify the fish caught by the Kingfisher though.

Pied Kingfisher (with fish), Reed Cormorant and Southern Foam frog's nest

The baby Impala have been an absolute joy to watch.

Arty shot of a Pied Kingfisher

White-crowned Shrike

Toni spotted some cinnamon coated buns, but they turned out to be
Cinnamon-breasted Buntings

Unsure on the id, think it may be a Pipit

Bee-eater doing it's job.

Just for good measure, we had a lovely sighting of two endangered animals again, Wild Dogs and Ground Hornbills.  The dogs came jogging past us effortlessly, clearly on the lookout for something to chase after.

Wild dogs jogging effortlessly down the road

Not even a sideways glance.

Juvenile Ground Hornbill to round off the drive's sightings

Tomorrow morning we leave the Park and head off to our house-sit at Hartebeespoort, which will be a change in scenery for us.  We'll miss the Park life but, Covid willing, we'll be back in January.