Skydiving

For my 40th birthday Anree treated me to a skydive... what a rush! Check out the video and share the experience.

Les Portes du Soleil video

I haven't managed to write up a blog entry on our ski trip yet, but I did put some of the pics together into a short video in the meantime.

Flying High

There's no better way to appreciate the majesty of the Cape than from the air.

The emerald polygons of the vineyards put together like pieces of a puzzle. Stark grey green mountain ranges with lush valleys tucked in between them fed by little silver dams. Golden fields of wheat with concentric lines carved by harvesters stretching out to the horizon where they meet up with electric blue skies and Simpsonesque cloud formations. The cobalt blue sea blending into azure and cerulean as it mingles with the fresh water flowing down an estuary across white sand beaches that are endlessly battered by breakers rolling in from the ends of the Earth.

It was one of those summer morning where you can feel that it is going to get stinking hot. There was a temperature inversion with a cap of cool air high up in the atmosphere trapping hot moist air below it so that there was hardly a breath of wind as we went through the ritual of waving-blowing kisses-making fists and saying bye-bye-I-love-you to Luca. We were driving out to Worcester to meet up with Erma and Grové, where they had arranged a little four-seater Cessna to take us on a tour of the peninsula.

After some last minute calculations to work out exactly how much fuel Mike-Delta-Foxtrot would need to transport the four of us without being so heavy that he couldn't get off the ground, Grové gave us the thumbs-up that we could put on our headsets and get ready for takeoff. Actually he had worked out all the calculations the day before and given strict instructions that they should only put in half-a-tank, only to arrive at the airfield and discover that they had helpfully filled it to the top. This necessitated swapping planes and the aforementioned calculations.

Since it was her birthday present, Anree climbed into the front with Grové and Erma and I slid into the back. This was a fortunate arrangement due to the need to balance out the weight distribution in the plane. If both Grové and I had sat in the front the plane would have been front heavy... and I don't even want to think of what that would imply.

Once we were airborne, Grové handed over the stick and Anree had here first experience piloting a plane. After starting out a bit tentatively, she was soon asking about doing loops and all sorts of tricks. The rest of us vetoed that idea, preferring to sit back and enjoy the view as it leisurely slipped by below us.

After taking off from Worcester and flying over the Brandvlei dam, we saw Villiersdorp, Theewaterskloof dam, the Greyton valley, Caledon, the Overberg, Hemel en Aarde Valley and finally Hermanus before turning left and skirting the coast down to Gansbaai. We looked hard for whales and great whites, but didn't see any. But we did spot a tiny white airstrip up above Gansbaai at the Grootbos private nature reserve.

We buzzed the runway once to scare of any of the private nature that may have wandered onto the landing strip. There was no game, but there was a car in the way so we had to make another circle to wait for it to move on before landing.

There waiting for us on the ground was our ride, a Grootbos combi that had come to pick us up from the airstrip and take us back to the main lodge. All that flying had left us famished and parched, so we wasted no time in ordering a bottle of local Ataraxia sauvignon blanc, pork loin and cape salmon. As we sat there savouring our wine, enjoying the view down the mountain and out over Walker Bay we were treated to the sight of a rooivalk (the kestrel not the attack helicopter) hovering motionless in the air in front of us looking out for prey on the ground.

After we had finished off our sorbets and drained the last of the coffee from our cups, we wandered out by the swimming pool and met up with Brummer, the local nature guide, and his wife/girlfriend/partner. They took us on a walk through the old growth milkwood forest next to the lodge and treated us to a lesson on birding and botany that left us feeling like coming straight home and planting some milkwood, stinkwood and wild peach trees in the garden.

While we went back for a swim in the pool, Grové offered to take our guides for a flip in the plane. Unfortunately, a sea mist came out of nowhere and reduced visibility to the point where they couldn't take off. We got the call from Grové that we should pack up and head back to the airstrip to wait for a gap in the cloud so we could take off.

After an agonizing wait and working through all the possibilities of how we might be able to get home if we didn't get a gap, the mist lightened up enough that we could make a dash for a hole that appeared in the clouds. Mike-Delta-Foxtrot shot up through the clouds, did a couple of sharp turns ... that had Anree calling for loops... and then we were up through the clouds into the sunlight.

Anree took another turn at the stick and ended up flying for quite a while, while we gazed out the windows at the colors that lengthening rays of the afternoon sun were bringing out of the fields below and the thunderclouds rolling across the karoo on the horizon. The trip got a little bumpy as the wind off the mountains caused a bit of turbulence. But all too soon we were touching down on the runway back at Worcester airfield and our magical Sunday afternoon drew to a close.

Birthday sundowners on Clifton 2nd

Sweet chili prawns and ice cold mojitos on Clifton 2nd beach with 40 friends was how Anree celebrated her birthday this year. Although the Southeaster was pumping as we drove over Kloof Nek, nestled in the shadow of Lions Head it was a gorgeous wind still evening on Clifton.

We arrived about 5pm and started packing the skottles, the tables, coolers full of ice, food and drink, as well as bags and boxes of all the necessities down the 101 steps to the beach. Thankfully Carla and Hilton were there waiting for us to help with the hauling. Before long we had a table set up, pitchers of muddled mojitos on ice and prawns cooking in the skottles. Anree joked that we were all ready to open for business and instantly we had a queue of strangers from the beach lining up. We had to send them away as we were a little nervous that 20 litres of mojitos, 10kg of prawns and 8 loaves of fresh baked ciabatta bread wouldn't be enough to satisfy our guests.

In the end we had more than enough so that everyone could eat until they were stuffed and drink until their thirts were toally sated. It all actually turned out amazingly well and, despite everyone's initial reservations about being invited for dinner on a public beach, I was repeatedly asked what our recipes were. For anyone who is interested here are the recipes -

Mojitos for 40

• 5 litres rum
• 16 litres club soda
• 2 litres lime cordial
• 40 limes
  
• 240 mint leaves
• 2 kg castor sugar
• 12 bags of ice

Divide mint leaves, sugar and lime between pitchers and coolers, muddle well with a giant pestle (gently to extract the oils from the leaves without shredding them). Add the rum, club soda, lime cordial and ice. Stir well and garnish with some mint leaves and lime.

Chilli Prawns for 40

• 10 kg prawns (deveined, tails, heads and shells off)
• 10 pieces of fresh ginger (finely chopped)
• 20 cloves of garlic (peeled and finely sliced)
• 20-30 chillies
• 10 lemons
• 4 litres of olive oil
• 9 loaves of ciabatta bread

Into hot skottles pour in loads of olive oil, ginger, garlic, chillies and prawns. Fry until the prawns start to curl but are still fairly plump. Pour into plates over top of the ciabatta, to mop up the juices.
After it got too dark to stay on the beach any longer, we put on our dancing shoes and headed up to the Karma Lounge in Camps Bay and spent the rest of the night dancing and sipping cocktails on the balcony.

All in all a great evening and a memorable birthday party,

Beaches, birthdays, braais, brothers

Surrounded by iconic landmarks, probably the most eye-catching one in Noordhoek is Longbeach. An appropriately named 8km expanse of white sand beach stretching from Noordhoek to Kommetjie and encompassing at least popular three surfing spots. But on this day, Luca and I decided to take his bike out for a spin along Chapman's Peak Drive, which has been closed for the past few months due to rock falls, mudslides and the general effect of gravity on the steep slopes of the overhanging mountain. Sounded like a good idea... a wide empty paved road and a three-year old on his two-wheeler with training wheels. Only problem was that Luca isn't too keen on riding or even walking up hills for that matter, so it turned into a walk with me carrying boy and bicycle most of the way.

It's still spring here, but even though there is sometimes still a chill in the air it is still generally nice enough for a day at the beach with the kids. Over the last year we haven't had much time to get to the beach as we've had our hands full making the transition from one to two children, with all the time and attention that's required to get a newborn through totoddlerhood. But this month Nikolai turned one and he is chomping at the bit to try to do all the things that his big brother does.

He took his first steps a couple of weeks ago, but on the days leading up to his birthday he actually started to make use of his walking skills as an actual mode of transportation rather just a novelty. That and he has started eating just about all the food that Luca does as well. In fact it is just about impossible to stop him from eating Luca's food as he can be quite adamant that he doesn't want to miss out on any food that is on offer.

However, this week there was more than just food on offer as he got his first experience with birthday presents. Ouma Ilse flew in from Port Elizabeth the night before his birthday and Anree went a bit overboard with buying birthday presents, so by the time the morning of Nikolai's birthday came around the house looked like we were ready for Christmas. Once Nikolai figured out what was going on, he got right into the action and was busy opening up his presents and playing with all his new toys. This was quite a treat for him since up til now for the most part he has had to put up with Luca's hand-me-downs when it came to toys. Speaking of which, with the plethora of gifts for Nikolai we had to get Luca something and luckily we still had a Christmas present from Uncle Scott that we hadn't given him yet, so he was pretty chuffed with his new motorboat too.

His birthday fell on a Wednesday, so we delayed the actual party until Saturday. The highlight of the day was definitely when Jan and Marrizane arrived a couple of hours before the party, having taken a break from their overland odyssey from London to Perth to fly back to SA from Thailand to spend some time with the families. In no time at all the boys had reconnected with them and were having a blast with their uncle and aunt. Almost instantly Jan became a bit of a hero to Luca and the two of them were climbing trees, jumping on the trampoline, playing frisbee and generally going off. As for Marizanne, Luca developed a crush on her, always wanting to sit with/on her and telling everyone who cared to listen how cute she was.

The rest of the day was also a hit as all of Anree's party planning and preparation came off perfectly. Since Nikolai was just one, we made the most of it to have a bit of party for the adults as well. The kids played on the trampoline and jungle gym, ate chips and had a giant chocolate cake with candies on it, while the adults hung out on the deck, sipping bubbly, munching on quiches and cheeses, and tucking into a couple of decadent cakes from Melissa's. Although the party started at 3pm, the last guests only left sometime after 10pm... which for us these days is a late one and by the time we turned in everyone was exhausted.


The next morning was another session of gifts, as Jan and Marrizane delivered a bunch of treasures they had brought back for us from their journey. All the more impressive if you consider that they have been backpacking for the past seven months and packing space and weight have been at a premium. After working up an appetite opening presents we headed down to the Foodbarn and had a long leisurely Sunday lunch, followed by a nap, a braai and an evening checking out some of the photos from across Europe, North Africa and Asia.

Monday morning we set up a picnic table beside the fish pond behind the house and chilled out in the spring sunshine. I'm not really sure whether we should be calling it the fish pond, or the duck pond these days as a couple of white ducks have recently moved in and have decided to make it home. Luca has already named them Ladybug and Mambo and he takes great joy in taking them for "runs" every couple of hours throughout the day. The ducks don't seem to mind too much as when he is finished chasing them, he usually feeds them a couple of slices of bread.

But this week the ducks got neglected a bit as Luca and Nikolai were fully absorbed playing with Jan, Marizanne and Ouma. Play was only interrupted a couple of times a day for naps and meals. Luca was spoiled for choice when it came to bath time and bed time as there were any number of volunteers keen to bath him and read his bedtime story. Life doesn’t get any better than that when you’re three.

Other than playing with the boys, we made time to go out for a few lunches, cook up some spectacular feasts in the evenings and even get out for cocktails at Cape to Cuba one afternoon.

However all too fast the week came to an end and it was time to take Jan, Marizanne and Ilse to the airport and put them on a plane. The house feels pretty empty now and Luca has been asking about them a lot...
it doesn’t take long for people to become part of your daily routine to the point where it leaves a big hole when they’ve gone. But now the talk is all about when we’ll get on a plane and fly to Perth.