South Africa: Family, Felines & Frikadelles

August 2015 

This summer I was super excited to head back to where my life began and my roots were first planted, South Africa. It felt like a bigger deal than normal, not only have I not been for over 5 years but it was also my Granda's 80th birthday celebration and it was my boyfriend's first visit. I couldn't wait and our family holiday didn't disappoint. 

We flew from London Heathrow to Joburg and then got on a connecting flight to East London.

We were greeted by my Auntie Alison who welcomed us with open arms before getting us all into her combi and then we continued with our day of travelling to our first stop, Morgan's Bay...

We arrived just in time for a pre dinner drink in the hotel bar and to say hi to the rest of the family; my grandparents, my cousins and my auntie and uncle. It's always so great to have the whole Trueman side of the family together in the same room. We were spoilt to a cracking 4 course dinner and plenty of wine before  hitting the sack.

Morgan's Bay was perfect; fantastic views, the best company, great walks, delicious food and a brilliant birthday celebration for my Granda...

Next stop, East London for a few days where we ate an incredible burger and got a touch of summer sun...

Port Elizabeth was where we drove to next to watch my youngest cousin play in a hockey tournament and catch up with more family members and mum and dad's old uni chums...

Then we headed on our way once more along the famous and beautiful Garden Route to one of my favourite spots, Knysna specifically Theson Island. The thing with been in the real world and not uni is that holiday periods are considerably shorter. We weren't as blessed with good weather, it was colder but we still managed to get a couple of picturesque sunsets, taste oysters on an oyster cruise, some walking and we ask saw a proposal...

We then got to drive back through the Garden Route stopping at Storms River although I didn't manage to get any photos, before taking another flight to our final stop to Joburg, our flight was delayed which was a huge pain and then we also had to drive a good 5 hours to get to Inglewala Game Reserve, but it was worth it as always. We saw lion, elephant, giraffe, warthog, hyena, jennet and plenty of buck. We had day drives, night drives, lots of braais, wine and laughs...

And that was it holiday time over and time to head back to reality, and the drive back to Joburg through the Drakensburg was the perfect end. Until next time...