Lu-Gerda's Travels

From 1999 to 2002 I studied at the Stellenbosch University.  On the last day of our long weekend in October 2016 I decided to show my husband the Stellenbosch Botanical Garden.  I visited it a few times as a student but did not have a camera to take photos.  We also used is as a short cut to get from the hostel to the shopping centre. We parked the car near the Dutch reformed Mother Church and walked across the street to the garden.   It is open to the public and admission was free. (From January 2017 a R 10 entrance fee will be charged) This is the oldest university botanical garden in South Africa.  The University Council allocated the current site for the Botanical Garden in 1921. It is a beautiful garden.  There is a lot to see in the small area.  This includes Bonsai Waterlily Pond 4 Glasshouses Vegetable en herbs Beautiful old trees Ferns Insects and squirrels ·     We spent about an hour...

The second day of our visit in Stellenbosch was a Sunday.  We decided to have a relaxed day with a bit of shopping and then lunch at the Blauwklippen Market. On Monday we decided to visit Butterfly World.  It was easy to find and there was lots of parking.  The entrance fee was a bit expensive (R80 per adult) but at our son (under 3 years old) could enter for free.  I was expecting different rooms with butterflies but all the butterflies are in one tropical-garden greenhouse of about 1000 m2.  There are paths through the plants and the butterflies fly around from flower to flower.  It is very warm and humid to give the best environment for the butterflies but it takes some to get use to it.  Since we did not know what to expect we took JW’s stroller with us.  On some places it was a bit difficult to push the stroller but most of the paths were stroller friendly. My husband almost the whole 2 hours of our visit inside the tr...

In October 2016 we went to visit my sister in Stellenbosch for a long weekend.  We drove from Mossel Bay to Stellenbosch on Friday afternoon.  The road was busy because it was the start of the school holiday.  Just before we reached Caledon traffic stopped.  After waiting a while we heard that a truck overturned and blocked the road.  We waited for about an hour before we could continue and then arrived safely in Stellenbosch. On Saturday we drove to the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town to visit the Two Oceans Aquarium.  This was my second visit to the Aquarium but the first visit for my husband, my mother and our 2 year old son, JW.  The aquarium was very busy and quite noisy.  I don’t know if this was due to the school holiday or if it is that busy every Saturday.  We could not keep JW in his stroller for very long.  He wanted to be closer to the fish and free to go where he wants. It was hard work to keep him close...

One of our favourite places to visit in George is the garden Route Botanical Garden.  Both my husband and I love taking photos.  This garden is a great place for photography. The Garden was officially opened in 1998.  The garden is laid out with paths, benches and lots of picnic places.  There is also a tea garden but we have not yet visited it. The paths go around the dam. The dam was established in 1811 when George was founded and was the town’s first water supply.  Some of the original furrows can still be found in the garden. We love to just stroll around the garden with our cameras.  There is a wide variety to photograph… flower, plants, insects and birds to name only a few.  Here are a few of my favourite photos from the garden. USEFUL INFORMATION: Garden Route Botanical Garden Address:                     ...

I live in Mossel Bay. The town is next to the ocean and it is a very popular vacation destination during summer.  From mid December to early January it is very busy and we try to stay away from the shops and tourist places during the day. So when things started to calm down after New Year I decided to take my 2.5 year old son (JW) to visit the Dias Museum Complex.  My last visit to the museum was in 2012 when I went during my lunch hour.  This time we arrived at about 10:00 and spend about 90 minutes at the museum.  (There was still more to see but after 90 minutes my son was getting tired and we went home) The entrance fee is R 20 for an adult to visit the museum or R 40 to visit the museum and go onto the replica of the carvel.  Children are divided in 2 categories.  There was no fee for JW.  (I think children start to pay from 6 years and older) Entrance fees are paid in the Granary and we then walked through the building to the re...

Today is this blogs 5th birthday. After a lot of debating with myself I published my first post on Monday 20 February 2012.  The post was about a visit to the Outeniqua Transport Museum in George.   For the first two years I posted regularly…about 10 times a month on average.  Then in 2014 my husband got sick and our son was born and only 14 posts were written in the last 3 years.  This year I am trying to get back to regular post.  My goal is one post every 2 weeks.  This is my 5 th post for the year.  Let’s see if I can keep it going for the whole year. *** On 16 December 2016 I visited the Outeniqua Transport Museum with my husband H and our 2-year old son JW.  I did not realize that it was 5 years since our last visit to this museum or that a post about the museum will be perfect on the 5th anniversary of my first post. H loves old trains and he passed this love to our son. Both were very ex...