Lu-Gerda's Travels

I cannot believe it is June already.  What happened to April and May? It is almost time for the July school holiday and I want to write about the Dias Express trip I took with my son JW on during the previous holiday in April 2018. The Dias Express is a railway experience between Mossel Bay an George.  There are different excursions available.  The regular excursions depart Mossel Bay in the morning 9:30 and returns at 15:30 in the afternoon. I went on the Maalgate Lunch Excursion with my work in 2015 and loved it.  But a lunch trip would be too long for my son (who still takes a nap in the afternoon).  During school holidays the Dias Express has a Shuttle trip between Mossel Bay and Hartenbos.  The trip takes about 30 minutes one way and was the perfect way to treat my son with a ride on a “train”.   It was easy to book our tickets on the website and I pay with an EFT.  The cost for the shuttle trip is R 40 per person for a one way ti...

We live in Mossel Bay, a small town next to the ocean.  The town is still mainly a summer holiday destination when thousands of people come here to spend time in the ocean. The point area is about 2 kilometres from our house and one of our favourite places to go for a quick outing after work or during weekends.  Almost daily, when I get home from work, my son JW asks if we can drive around the Point. Here are some of our favourite things we do around the Point area: Swimming in the Paddling Pool This is one of my son’s favourite activities…in summer, spring and autumn…and even on a warm winter’s day.  The Paddling Pool is a tidal pool. In the summer we usually go to the Point early in the morning (between 8 and 9 am) to swim and return home by 10am.  We do this to avoid the harsh sun later in the day but mainly because there are less people.  The water is cold and refreshing and there is more parking.  The paddling pool is not very deep and...

It is wonderful what kids can remember.   I only took my son for one visit to the DiasMuseum in January 2017 and every time we drive is the direction of the museum he asks if he can go to the boat.   After another request from him in December 2017 I decided it was time for a second visit to the museum. The entrance fee to visit the museum complex was R 20 for an adult or for R 40 per adult you can enter the museum and go on the replica of the carvel. For children under 18 the fee is R 5 or R 10.   I think children under 6 years can enter for free. My son, JW was 3 year old and I did not pay for him. The main attractions of the museum for my son, JW is climbing on the boat. But if we start our visit by climbing on the boat he will never understand why he can’t go back to climb on the boat again. So we start by taking a walk through the garden towards the Shell museum and saved the carvel for almost last. Aquariums in the Shell Museum The Shell Museum i...

The type of places I write about on this blog has really changed.   If I look back the posts of 4 years ago they were about my trips to Europe and Switzerland and our honeymoon through the Eastern Cape.   Now most of the posts are about the places I visit with my 3-year old son. But today I am writing about a grown-up outing to Botlierskop Private Game Reserve.   My husband and I were treated to a night at Botlierskop in January for a friend’s 40 th birthday.   Botlierskop Private Game Reserve is a Little Brak River, about 22 kilometres from our home.   Just outside of Little Brak we turned off of the tar road onto a gravel road.   This road was not in a good condition but we soon arrived at the entrance. Once inside we met our guide or host for the 2 days.   He gave us a quick tour of the Main Lodge and we completed all the paper work.   Then another guide took us to our tent with a golf cart. We stayed in one of the L...

As I wrote in my post about our favourite kids outings in Mossel Bay ,  I don’t know why we have not been to Blaster yet and in January we changed this. It was a rainy Saturday morning when I took my 3-year old son JW to Blasters in Mossel Bay.   We found parking easily and went inside.   I paid the entrance fee of R30 (for 3 hours) and completed the form for JW to play and he could not wait to start playing. Within seconds of telling him “Go play” he was climbing to the slide. Blasters is a family restaurant with a great play area for kids. There is the great indoor play area for kids from 1 -12 years.  The jungle gym has three levels, slides and lots of interesting things to do with soft balls like machines that blows wind and then the balls blows out at the top.  These “blasting” machines kept JW busy for a long time. There are lots of tables and benches for parents to sit. I found a table and ordered a coffee for me and cool drink f...

On 3 February 1488, St. Blaise’s day, Bartolomeu Dias landed at Mossel Bay, which Dias named Aguada de São Bras (St. Blaise’s Watering Place). The first Dias Festival I attended was in 1988 for the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Dias’ landing.   During the weekend of 1 to 4 February 2018 it was once again time for the Dias & Port Festival.   This year the festival was expanded to include two festival grounds…Santos and the harbour.   At the Dias festival in 1988 with my brother and sister Looking at the Carvel in the harbour Dias Festival @ Santos On Saturday morning I took my son JW to the festival ground at Santos.   Entrance to the festival ground and all the shows were free.   JW had no interest to sit down and watch a show.   He just wanted to explore and play.   We walked through a lot of stalls selling toys, clothes, food, etc and then reached the play ground. JW ran to the nearest ride and I had to qui...