Cats of Claridge: Vacation Time!

Helloooo......

As the title mentions, we were on vacation, just got back yesterday!
Now, where do I begin.....?

We invited my grandparents to join us and of course, they accepted! They live in Durban which is almost an hour away from us, my parents picked them up the day before we left. So, it was the 2 of them together with the 5 of us (my parents, my brother, our grand-aunt who lives with us and of course, myself).
Alright, first we headed off to Bethlehem which is just over 3 & a half hours away. That felt really short because we had travelled for 10 hour's to Malelane a few weeks ago! Anyway, Bethlehem is in the Free State province (South Africa has provinces instead of states). I loved the place we stayed at, it was so nice and rustic! It's called La Mottè.
We arrived there on Friday and the next day was the wedding of Pieter Bruwer and Ester Jacobs at Virginia Mission Goldfields. Ester is the daughter of Gideon Jacobs, Oom Gideon is the head of Goldfields Mission. Although, the actual wedding service and ceremony was in an another church close by but the reception was held on the mission there. We had to travel from Bethlehem to Virginia which was over an hour and a half. It was so lovely to visit this mission again! The wedding was absolutely beautiful, I enjoyed it so much!! The bride and groom are both Afrikaans speaking so, the whole wedding was in Afrikaans, including the sermon. Uncle Erlo took the sermon and married them, he flew down from the main mission, I think it's just 2 hours away by plane compared to 6 hours by car! Anyway, thankfully we understand Afrikaans so it was not a problem at all. You can visit Goldfield's website on the right ------>

Yeah, so we spent a few days in Bethlehem and left on Monday for Mpumalanga province! My parents have a timeshare so, we stayed at Waterberry Hill lodge in a town called Hazyview. This place was very nice too, quite fancy. ;) My granparents and my grand-aunt stayed in a different unit but it was connected to our one which was great. We were in Unit 1A and they were in Unit 1B. Anyway, the very next day, we left for Schulzendal Mission! Yes, we travelled quite a lot during this vacation, the mission was 2 hours from Hazyview. The older folk were still tired from the previous days travelling so, they stayed at the lodge.
We had such a lovely time at the mission there, Jonathan and Sophia Powys invited us for lunch. Jonathan is the son of John Powys, who is the head of this mission. Oom John is currently in America with Oom Peet and Tannie Andra, they went on their usual USA preaching trips.
After lunch, Daniel Rice was kind enough to take us on a little tour of the mission, I think my parents really enjoyed it, as it was their first time. Daniel is the principal of Schulzendal Mission School, you can visit the school's website :

http://www.smschool.co.za

Also, you can gladly click on Schulzendal's website on the side ----->
The next day, all of us went to the Kruger National Park! That was such a lovely experience! We had been to other game parks before but it was our first trip to Kruger National Park. We intended to get there quite early but you know how it goes... ;) We got there before 7 in the morning though. Alright, we saw loads of Impala and also Reedbuck, Kudu, Steenbok, Nyala, giraffes and many different birds. Unfortunately, we didn't see the entire Big 5, we only saw 3 of them...the buffalo, elephant and rhino, we didn't get to see any leopards or lions. Although overall, the day was wonderful! I would gladly go again!! They say that it's better to stay at the accommodation in Kruger Park, so that you can go very early to see the animals, especially carnivores. Well, we'll keep that in mind for the next visit!
Anyway, we went sight-seeing the next day, we visited an old settlers town called Pilgrims Rest. It was so quaint, with all the old houses still there, some were turned into museums and others into little shops or eating areas.
We also visited a tourist spot named God's Window, we took some lovely photo's there, it's on a mountain, they have little viewing places where one can see right down.........and it is quite a drop! Caleb and I went on a short route through the "rainforest" as they've named it. It was great exercise for us. :)

Yesterday, we left Hazyview and headed for the province of Kwa-Zulu Natal, that's our province! It was indeed a beautiful drive, passing little towns along the way, it was a long drive though I think my body is getting accustomed to these long road trips. We dropped my grandparents off in Durban and returned to the cool breeze in Claridge!
Today, we picked Joshy, Blitzy, Curly and Lassie (yes, Lassie too because Oom Peet and Tannie Andra are in America) up from the kennels/cattery where they were for time that we were away. We hadn't taken them to that particular place before but it seemed to be a more comfortable accommodation for them.

Yup.....so that was our vacation in a "nutshell".....a BIG nutshell! ;)

God bless,
Sele'ha Mikhaila ♡

P.S. Due to the amount of photo's, I can't upload all but just bits and pieces from the entire holiday!

Here is Curly, the day before we left.