On the road again!

It is hard to believe that we ended our 1-year road trip 13 months ago! Within no time at all it was ‘Jo’burg and work’ as usual. And here we are, getting ready to roll again; sadly only 3 weeks this time, but at the same time happy to be on the road again.

The first step was to get Ufudu out of the cobwebs of the hangar where he had only Buzz for company over the last year, except for a few short weekend outings.

I fetched Roger from Lanseria airport on Thursday the 29^th October and we spent that night and the next at Silver Creek Gorge. Ufudu had a thorough clean on Friday.

On Saturday Roger made use of the time to sort out an issue we had with the aircon. This is his story:

“Our Dometic air conditioner fitted to the roof of Ufudu had not been operating very well recently. A strange vibration was felt inside Ufudu whenever we tried to cool down. It was another blistering hot day at Silver Creek so I decided to make use of the hanger: Firstly to stay out of the fierce sun while on Ufudu’s roof and also to lift the solar panel, which is attached above the aircon, using the hanger roof girders for support.

My suspicion that the potter wasps that are so abundant at Silver Creek were responsible was proved correct. Besides the nest below, they had also constructed nests in the two centrifugal extraction fans which accounted for the vibration!

After 3 hours, (thanks to Kevin at AC Motorhomes for the 18 most difficult to reach bolts holding the solar panel on), I eventually had everything cleaned, vacuumed and back together again. Cool air – bliss!”

We spent the night in Ufudu at Eugene and Marlene’s plot after André’s 21^st birthday party on Saturday evening. On Sunday we brought him back to Rosebank where he stood for the week until our leave started on Monday the 9^th November.

We left shortly after lunch and reached Yellowfish Paradise on the Vaal River at about 4pm, only to find out that they ‘charge per day’, without exception. So for us to spend the night we would have to pay for one night and two days, even though we were planning to leave early the next day. This was not acceptable to us so we decided to drive on; their loss! A few kilos down the road we spotted a campsite called Streetwise. That was where we spent the night; and it was most pleasant.

Within no time at all Roger had his fly fishing gear out and he was in the river. And before sunset he had caught a fair sized barbell! A happy man and a good start to a long awaited holiday…