Our getaway to Linton Goldmine and Animal farm near Tinley Manor on the North Coast was a lovely surprise and at an excellent price of R35 pppn. In the end, 6 families arrived with a special welcome to Chris and Doep Downs, all the way from Standerton. That’s over a 1000km trip for the weekend to join us, but hopefully not for too long as Chris has got promotion and they will be transferring to Durban shortly. There is only about 1km of dirt road.

We, Larry, Lyn, Frans, Val and Chris left Empangeni at 04h00 on Sat morning, after spending the night at Lyn and Frans’ place and met up with Tom and Yvonne at the Golela border post at Josini , ready to go through at 07h00 when it opened. They had slept over at the Sodwana Boat Club. This is our usual Josini tiger fishing camping site and literally 200m away from the border post.

We had a nice turnout of 10 families to Ilanga. Friday night there was a unanimous vote to head for the local watering hole “The Pit Stop” for their pub grub. The special was oxtail potjie and it was delicious. I’ve previously mentioned the huge collection of model cars at this venue and it was great to enjoy this wonderful collection again. Johan and Sandra Emmenis arrived with their new Jurgens Penta – what a lovely caravan – congrats and many happy miles in it.