In the beginning......

16th January 3:40 pm

As soon as the online booking opened (24 hrs before the flight) we tried to check in online but it appeared that everyone else had the same idea and we kept getting a message to say 'try again later'. Well it wasn't until this morning that we could successfully check in and by that time, the seats we wanted had been taken. Blast! We could only get seats in the middle of a row; never mind, we had seats and we were not flying economy class.

After locking up Winedown, it was a short taxi ride to Calcot to get the National express. The taxi arrived early and we found ourselves at the coach stop with 45 minutes to kill. Since the temperature had not been above -1 all day we decided to take refuge in Mac Donald's for a cup of coffee.

Nearly 5 hours later we were finally boarding our flight and had a lovely surprise to find that we had been upgraded to business class. Jammy! Our holiday was off to a great start after all.

17th January 11:05

We had left Heathrow 45 minutes late but we still arrived in Johannesburg on time.
After collecting the hire car, we made our way to Thatches of Bryanston where we were staying for the night and what a night it turned out to be.

Carol and Ken who own Thatches of Bryanston had hosted Tanya's wedding reception all those years ago and we make a point of returning when we are in Johannesburg. As ever we had a very warm welcome. Dinner was served on the patio near the pool, where we were seated around a  magnificent table. The wonderful meal was washed down with copious glasses of wine followed by liqueur. It wasn't until the small hours of the morning that we took our leave from our hospitable hosts and went to bed.

18th January

Well we brought the rain with us but at least I can say that we escaped in the nick of time. Thank goodness we missed all the snow disruption. As we were having breakfast, the light drizzle turned to heavy rain and Carol told us that rain was forecast for the whole weekend. It certainly made driving to Durban a little more difficult than we had anticipated.
After negotiating traffic hazards we left Johannesburg behind cloaked in rain. The drive was pretty much uneventful and we arrived in Durban shortly after 5:00 pm to a wonderful welcome. Unfortunately, Cliff had been sent away on business but Beth was there to greet us and introduce us to her two sons.
After dinner, we went to the Durban seafront and met up with Robynne and she introduced us to her husband Dave (Robynne and Beth had visited us in the summer and spent a few days with us on our boat). We were taken to a restaurant on the pier where we sat overlooking the sea and watched the huge tankers being piloted into the harbour. As we chatted, we were treated to impromptu entertainment as a group of singers delighted us with their talents.
Returning along the seafront, the heavens opened and we were all soaked in a deluge of warm rain. I felt like a child as the excitement surged through me. It has been a long time since I was able to run in rain pelting down like a warm power shower.