Amazing South Africa - Part Two

Back to the Cape Town airport to fly back to Joburg.
Makai loved putting his backpack through the scanner so much that he snuck back through for another go around.

Makai met the pilots.

Then we had a six hour drive to the Drakensburg Mountains.
It was a beautiful drive with vast farm land.  It looked like Michigan part of the time with corn growing and cows grazing. 

Although SA is a beautiful, modern country it still has shanty town.  Always a wrestling.

It's fun meeting new people!  This was our taxi driver, Vincent. 
We really enjoyed getting to know him and appreciated him.

Cathedral Peak is where we stayed in the Drakensburg Mountains.
It was beautiful and peaceful!  We had two days as a family there before the retreat started.

Oh my word, the food!  Three wonderful buffets a day plus two tea times. 
That's more than anyone can do!  But it was very nice and a treat for sure.

It was nice and cool in the mountains - a treat for us!  I think it was in the high 60's most of the time but it the sun came out it quickly became hot.  We got rain about every day too.

The hotel had a lot of fun things to do and was very family friendly, but the hikes are of course the main attraction.  We took a hike every morning.  Some were an hour and some several hours.  Some were easy and some were a hard upward climb.  Lydia, Luka and Josh loved it.  Josh and Lydia even did the Cathedral 4 which gave them a certificate and medal.

Our hike to Doreen Falls.

It is really hard to hike with a 3 year old who is too little to walk it all and too big to be in a backpack comfortably.  Emalai didn't love all the hiking either so thankfully Grace or I could stay back and enjoy the other things at the hotel together.

Josh swam in the cold waterfall - fun!

We were surrounded by beauty and it was hard to capture and take it all in.

It was nice to cool off after a hike at the pool.
Emalai and Makai love swimming!

Their natural pool.

I think Luka and Grace's favorite thing they did was 4 wheeling.
The whole trip in SA Luka wanted to golfing, go 4 wheeling, cage diving with sharks, surfing, go to a football match...he has expensive taste and we had to keep telling him no because we couldn't afford it there.  But he finally got to do one of them and of course he loved it!

Josh and Luka also tried fly fishing for the first time.
An awesome setting but no fish.  They decided fly fishing wasn't their thing.
(And Josh got a hook in his finger!  It was one of those bad moments!)

Our hike to the rock paintings.
Grace did a report in school about the Drakensberg and she was all about seeing the rock art.
Honestly, it was a bit disappointing but we did see them.  I think we enjoyed the eland we saw on the way there better. 

We tried rock climbing.  Lydia made it look easy and climbed right up!

Emalai struggled at first but the second day she made it to the top!

Makai was so cute trying.  When he got about this high he wanted to come down.

Everyday there were different kinds of deer at the hotel.

Horse rides

Makai loved it!  He was so brave and did it by himself!

Lydia, Grace and Luka went tail riding one day.

Enjoying the view...

Grace and I did a hike to more rock paintings.  Way up there!
(I think the climb about killed Grace's lungs and my legs.  We are not use to mountains!)

Back to Doreen Falls.
I swam this time!  When else do I get to swim in a waterfall?!

Rainy hike to Baboon Rock

Hike to Mushroom Rock

We had a four day retreat with our partner organization, Resonate.

It was a true retreat and we appreciated to time to get to know everyone and have fun together.
One afternoon we learned to basket weave together.  Harder than you think.

This is what Emalai and I made with a lot of help from the teachers.

Our kids loved meeting and making new missionary friends on the retreat.

The teens really connected which made it very hard to say goodbye a few days later.

The whole group

Those serving in Uganda

Forever missionary friends the Ribbens

View from the chapel where we had worship.

All too soon we were back in the airport.  All good things have to come to an end. 
We had one last treat before saying goodbye to SA - for now.

We had a wonderful trip to SA!!!  We feel spoiled, blessed, refreshed and amazed at our Good God!  He is the giver of all good gifts.  I am grateful that I could share this experience with my family.