South African Adventures

Periodically during our time here, we have had to leave the country in order to renew our visas.  Ever
since the start, I haven't been keen on the idea.  It's a lot of work to pack up six people and travel out of the country.  It's a lot of work to embark on the unknown and a lot of work to return home to mounds of laundry (which is all hand washed by me).  Even though all of our travels out of the country have been blessed, I was still thankful to know our travel to South Africa last week was [hopefully] our last time to have to travel for visa renewal.

Before boarding our flight to Johannesburg, my fears were increased as we received an important message from Harare's US embassy.  Not only were we flying into Johannesburg, renting a car, and driving ourselves out of the city, but we were also flying in at 10pm and planning to travel at night.  I did't want to get on the plane and I was extremely nervous about our plans.  God provided, though, as we had a smooth flight and arrived in Johannesburg just in time to buy SIM cards for our phones, exchange some cash, and get our rental car.  We left the airport around 11pm and made it safely to our destination in Witbank, where friends Denai and Sipiwe were expecting us.

The next morning we prepared for our road trip across South Africa and into Lesotho.  Denai and Sipiwe were able to join us on our journey and we were extremely thankful for their company.  After a quick run to the store for snacks, we were off!  On the way to our bed and breakfast on the border of Lesotho and South Africa, we stopped for a late lunch and tried a variety of South African foods.  Many laughs were shared as we traveled on to our cute little farm house at the Union House bed and breakfast where we were welcomed like family.

Our first morning was an early one as we enjoyed a great breakfast by our hosts Mari and Michael.  Then we headed off to cross the border into Lesotho.  It was a very cold morning and standing in line at the border was not a fast process!  We made it through, though, and as we traveled onward, the mountains and beauty of Lesotho welcomed us.  A little over an hour from the border, we arrived at AfriSki, one of Africa's ski resorts (there are actually two or three on the continent!).  We could see the hill from miles away with literally only one little strip of snow.  Despite the lack of ski runs and the man-made snow, we still had a wonderful day introducing Denai and Sipie to snow!  They did a great job learning to ski.  Klaasen, Torsten, and Erik entered a ski race (Klaasen won FIRST place!!!), everyone went tubing, and we enjoyed a big snowball fight to end the day.  It couldn't have been more perfect!!

The next day we were given the opportunity to tour a castle on the property of the bed and breakfast where we stayed.  It was a gorgeous drive up the mountain and a wonderful view from the top!  The castle was incredibly beautiful inside and out!  Thanks to Mari, who overheard our kids wishing for pancakes, packed ingredients to make pancakes in the castle.  We enjoyed tea, coffee, and pancakes inside the castle, which made for a wonderful morning of memories.

After leaving there, we traveled back to Denai and Sipie's house.  There we stayed for two more days, enjoying a few other South African adventures.  We went on a South African safari, where we saw the feeding of a lion pack, played with baby lions, and hugged a giraffe!  The next day we got to play with a liter of baby white tigers and a baby leopard!  To end the adventure we ziplined in the Magaliesberg mountains, 30 meters above a beautiful stream below.  Even Torsten braved a few of the slides alone and we all enjoyed the craziness of it all.

We arrived safety back to the Johannesburg airport where we returned our rental car and boarded our flight.  I took a deep breath as we headed back to Zimbabwe, thankful for our many adventures and mostly thankful for our safety.  Upon arriving home, we were given a new visa to enter and stay here in the country for one more month - yay!  And we got stuck in Harare for two days with missing luggage off the flight and car problems, too  It was actually a blessing in disguise, though, because we were welcomed again by Alice and Washington where we were blessed to celebrate Klaasen's 7th birthday with "family."  We also got the boys' haircuts, went grocery shopping, and enjoyed the company of the church's Wednesday evening small group Bible study at Washington and Alice's house.

We got home late Thursday evening and it felt so good to be home.  Simba was waiting for us here and it seemed like he had grown a ton while we were gone!  We were so thankful for his dog sitter, who kept him fed and happy while we were away.  We also were thankful to see some more house guests arriving to stay with us for a while.  The mission superintendent, Augustine, and his wife will be here for a few weeks from the UK and we are looking forward to getting to know them.