Lu-Gerda's Travels

It's amazing how quickly a year or two can pass. The last time I posted on this blog was in June 2018. So far 2020 has been a strange year with Covid-19 lockdown changing how we think about everthing. Our lockdown restrictions in South Africa have been reduced and now we can move around a bit more (although we are still very careful). I have decided that I am going to write posts both my home language, Afrikaans, and English in future.  If the post starts in Afrikaans, please scroll down to the English part below and vice versa if it starts with English. We had nice rain the last week of September, but on Sunday , 4 October, the sun was shining and my husband and I took the opportunity to go for a walk in the Botanical Garden in George. We were there early and many people had the same idea. First we had to sign in and go through all the new Covid-19 protocols as well as pay the entrance fee before we could start our walk. The Garden Route Botanical Garden is a ± 19-hectare indigeno...

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...

The George Wildlife and Animal Park opened on 16 December 2017.   I visited the park on a very warm Saturday in January 2018 with my parents and 3-year old son JW.   The entrance fee was R 20 per adult and JW could enter for free. JW did not want to wait for me to buy the tickets.   He could see the jungle gym and just wanted to get inside to start climbing.   The park has a lovely play area for kids.   There is a big jungle gym to climb with monkey bars and swings and slides. JW was in heaven and could not decide where to start.   He is still too small for some of the equipment and I had to help him but he tried everything. There is a large grass area with lots of tables under trees or umbrellas to sit.   Between the tables are lots of wooden animals for the kids to play on.   There is a pond with ducks and beautiful water lilies.   After playing for a while we walked to see the farm animals.   We saw pigs, bunnies, ...

I did a post last week about our favourite kids’ outings in our neighbouring town, George.   Our home town, Mossel Bay, a small town next to the ocean and mainly a  summer holiday destination.  Thousands of people come here to spend time near the ocean during December and January.   Here are some of our favourite things to do with our  3-year old son JW: 1.   The Ocean – Swimming, Playing in sand, collecting shells…. and many more Mossel Bay’s main attraction during the summer month is the beach.   And there is a lot of them to choose from.  For toddlers and younger kids I would suggest the paddling pool at The Point (I usually take my son early, before it gets too busy and the sun to hot) or Santos with is small waves.  For bigger waves rather try Hartenbos or Diaz Beach. 2.   Hartenbos Seefront Fun Park There is a lot to do at the Hartenbos Fun Park… Swimm...

We regularly visit the Garden Route Botanical garden for walks and to take photos.  At the end of February 2017 we decided to do the Mushroom Meander walk for the first time. An article inthe Mossel Bay Advertiser  described the trail as follow: “ The 800m trail, in a stretch of indigenous forest to the northwest of the garden, has a variety of mushrooms and fungi growing along the path and is a photographer's paradise.”  The path is easy to follow but there were no signs and a few times I worried if we were still walking on the right path. I was a bit disappointed because there weren’t a lot of mushrooms along the route. I expected more of a trail with “mushroom” in the title. While driving home we decided it was a very nice walk but as a photography outing it was not successful.

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...