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Well... everything was looking doom and gloom - the company was about to be closed down, people were leaving the country.... I had gone Freelance and was making no money at all, we had bought Peter Chiswell's old Ford Escort (which used more oil than petrol) when..Almuth's good friend from Munich Anneliese Horn (together with her good friend Uli) decided if they were going to see South Africa - NOW was a very good time to do it!!
You know how we joke about Swiss/German punctuality etc.. well - I do remember being told that their Lufthansa flight would be arriving at (let's say) 09:30AM - so I decided that we'd get to the airport around 09:40... we came over the last hill on the expressway, and could see the airport buildings... and there just turning into its parking slot - was the great white plane - had to laugh!! 12 or 14 hour flight - bang on time!!
So, hello, hello - and back to the flat at Juno Ridge - get settled in....
Next day out to a bank in Orange Grove to get some currency - Anne came back laughing but we made her be a bit respectable - and waited for Uli to come back and join us before we exited the bank very quickly and then all collapsed laughing...... Apparently, instead of DIVIDING by some number - the clerk had MULTIPLIED - and he/she had done it to both girls!! Sorry for the clerk - but can you imagine presenting 100 D-Marks - expecting to get maybe 33 Rand - and getting presented with 300??? TWICE!!
Then it was off out for a bit of "Africa" - so we took them down to the coast at Balito Bay (north of Durban - just before Shaka's Rock)...
We had a nice little cottage there, and most unexpectedly very early one morning - we were all fast asleep - there was a knocking on the door - and there they were... Brian and Vonnie Stoate (did they bring Andrea with them??)!! They'd driven down from Jo'burg overnight and had come to stay - excellent!!
Uli, Almuth, Anne (l
to r) - daisies and Bougainvillea..... somewhere.. (for some reason I remember
this as Oribi Gorge - but I don't think so now..)
One of the days (bit grey and drizzley) we decided we couldn't just stay in... had to have a walk along the beach.. northwards....
It was a rough old
day!! Almuth.
Other people had the
same idea (just coming up - to the right of Almuth's head). This bit of the walk
was all amongst rocks and very narrow in places - had to allow people up before
you went down...
Big sand dunie
beach, Almuth and Anne trying to get up higher...
weird sculpted rock
formations (bet it was a volcano/lava - originally) and at top left (amongst all
that black rock) you can see three people walking towards a white hole/doorway
in the rock - that is the subject of the next shots....
Time your run across
the little bridge......
Otherwise......
you're soaked!!
we always laughed at
this piccie... along the walk Anne had picked up a blossom, but by the time we'd
got back to the cottage, both the blossom and Anne had got
drenched/drowned/worse for wear.......
These Paw-Paw trees
were growing directly outside our balcony
Think we zoomed back to Jo'burg and then took them to the Snake Park.....
If I remember
rightly...an Egytpian Cobra - don't some people have "weird" jobs...??
Told you it was a Cobra!!
And - would you believe it.... I think that is the last piccie I took in South Africa........this time around....