All roads do in fact lead to Underberg

I really thought we would only come back here to visit again in a few years time.... I didn't envisage us moving back here.... well let me start where I last left you and you will see what has led us back to NUD

I drove from St Francis down to Cape Town with Meg, Shannon and Rowen.  Excitement and nerves all mixed together.  This was a big step for our family.  Craig left the same day as us and sailed Sarah back up north towards Durban, having to sail up the dreaded Wild Coast.  The winds along this section of the coast change on a daily basis so it is incredibly hard to find a weather window big enough to get you going in the right direction.  He had to wait for a few days of westerleys or south westerleys!!  We had 2 days of this and so it was decided that Craig would leave - he had 2 youngsters from St Francis to keep him company and share in the night shift duties.  The weather didn't behave and they pulled in at East London for 2 nights before carrying on.  When the wind eventually died down and they got back on track the current was against them, there was no wind and it was cold and rainy!!! yuk  anyway, a week later they arrived safely in Durban, the same day I arrived back in Underberg.  But let me back track a little and tell you about our time in Cape Town....

We stayed with Charlene in Somerset West which is so close to Stellenbosch.  After some mad last minute shopping we took Meg to Isa Carstens Academy on the 12th to get her registered and settled in at her new res.  It was a long, tiring and very hot day - at least we didn't let our eyeballs misbehave too much.

Whilst in Cape Town we decided to act like real tourists and equipped with the required back pack, camera and bottles of water we headed off to Table Mountain.  The new cable cars are magical... the inside floor actually rotates while you move so that your views of the breathtaking surroundings are changing constantly.  It was so hot up there and the wind was hardly blowing - so acutally it was a perfect summers day.

Then it was off to Hout Bay for some fish and chips at Mariner's Wharf - South Africa's oldest waterfront food emporium (25 years old) We were starving by the time we got there and the fish was awesome!  Our next outing was right there in the harbour - we hopped on board "Calypso" for a boat ride out to Seal Island.  Craig was horrified when I told him I had PAID for a boat trip!!! haha - but it was worth it.  The kids loved it but when asked what the most memorable thing about the trip was... the unanimous answer was:  "seals stink".

We drove from Hout Bay along Chapman's Peak down to Simon's Town to swim with the penguins on the beach.  It was about 6pm when we got there and I actually felt as though I was still getting sunburned.  The sky only becomes dark at around 9pm in Cape Town - quite the strangest thing.  It feels so odd to be eating supper at 7pm when you haven't even had sundowners yet.

We ended the day by joining Charl at the Harley Club for a bring and braai.

Our road trip coming back to KZN was such fun.  We took Route 62 and drove through gorgeous little towns like Monatgu and Barrydale.  Of course the road takes you right through Oudtshoorn so naturally we stopped and paid a visit to one of the show ostrich farms.  Meg and I did this trip back in September and we went to Safari but I didn't actually get to ride a bird.  This time round I took Shannon and Rowen to another farm called Highgate and I was determined to ride one too.  It was amazing, we got to feed the birds, play with them, walk inside one of their pens and stand on Suzy and Jack's eggs.

Shannon standing on Suzy's eggs

Have you ever cuddled an ostrich?  This was so special!!!











When we drove through St Francis, we picked up Aunty Dawn to give her a lift back up to Natal.  She is staying a few days with us in Underberg.

OK now for the reason that our road has led us back to Underberg.  Back in 2007 we sold our property to a consortium that was going to sell off all the units on a "timeshare" basis.  The mistake we made was in allowing them to pay us off over time.  They are now in breach of this contract as they have transferred all the shares out of our name and into theirs so they can issue share certificates to their buyers AND they haven't paid us in full yet.  This was done fraudulently as we told them last year that we would only sign the CM42 once we had received all our monies they owe us.  In Dec we had a chat with our friend Greg who is also and advocate and he advised us to cancel the contract and claim back the property.  Will keep you posted with as things progress.  I think it's going to get quite messy at times.