Hi everyone! This is our final week here in South Africa. We’re really enjoying it and getting close to finishing our garden project. This week’s blog is a bit bigger then the others because we left on Thursday, so we thought it would be best to extend this week’s blog. This week Tijn wrote the blog again with his experiences, enjoy!
Monday
On Monday Declan and I were still a bit sick and we mostly rested all day.
Tuesday
Tuesday we continued with the project in the garden. The week before we had put the posts in the ground so we could start with the posts lying horizontally on the posts in the ground. This was quite a job as we had to hold up 6 meter long poles and drill into them in the meantime. After Quinn was too tired to continue, we unfortunately had to stop because this work was not possible with the two of us.
Wednesday
On Wednesday we got into the car around 8 o’clock on our way to Hoedspruit. Hoedspruit is a village next to the Kruger Park where boost the world bought a piece of land a few months ago. The ride was a very nice ride through the high plains of South Africa. For lunch we stopped at a delicious Belgian pancake restaurant. When we arrived at our residence after a long day of driving, we were all impressed by the beautiful accommodations where we slept. We slept with Nico, a friend of Jacques and Barrie. Nico has a beautiful piece of land in the middle of the Kruger Park, so hyenas, zebras and buffaloes just walked along the fences. In the evening we had a delicious braai with Nico and his wife.
Thursday
Thursday we got up at 5 am to go on safari. It was a beautiful sunny day and we saw a lot of animals. At the start of the Safari we soon saw a leopard, this is normally the most difficult animal to spot. It was a disappointment that we did not see any lions. After the Safari we drove to the area of the angry the world to have a look around. There was still a lot to be done on the piece of land, so there was not much to see yet. At the end of the day we had a nice swim in the pool and then had a braai with Nico and a friend of his.
Friday
Unfortunately, we went back home the next day. After a beautiful stop at a lookout we arrived back at Liv where we had a Christmas party with everyone from Liv. The Christmas party was very nice and cozy. The highlight was that Quinn participated, as the only boy, in the best dressed competition. Quinn eventually finished in second place. Later that evening, Willemijn Declan and I went to monte casino. The Netherlands played against Argentina and of course we couldn’t miss this. After an exciting game that ended with penalties, we went home disappointed, the Netherlands had lost…
Saturday
On Saturday we were all a bit tired so we actually didn’t do much. Declan, Willemijn and I went shopping and sat on a terrace for a while.
Sunday
On Sunday we went to the prison break market. This market was mainly filled with food stalls, all of which had great food. After getting some food here and there, we went hunting for presents for our parents. In the evening we had a nice meal together.
The week we leave South Africa
The last few days were mostly used to finish our project and say our goodbyes to everyone. We finished our garden the last 3 days we were able to work. We drilled the last few holes, put some metal rods in and bolted them tight into the poles. When we were done with the hole structure, we asked Dan to get us some fruit trees. And Dan did get us some nice trees, a total of 15 trees where planted, among them were kiwi, lemon, nectarine and many more. Our last days we also said our goodbyes to Barrie, Jacque, Russel and all the others. We had a nice last lunch with the 3 of them and saw many of our friends we made here in South Africa, the day we left and before.
We really hope you enjoyed all our blogs and if you have any questions or want to join us on our next trip to South Africa, please let us know. We also really appreciate all the support we get, so if you can afford to sponsor one of our projects please do! We hope you’ll have a lovely day!
