On the comeback

Hey Everyone! So we are finally settled in our new place. I start school tomorrow and I am really excited. Matt has been fishing so much that he actually said he thinks he needs a day off. We went camping up to a place north of us called Beaverlac. It was recommended to us by our American friends and then multiple other people said it was wonderful. So we got up there after a very arduous drive. The drive was so difficult we thought that surely there would be no one else as crazy as us to try to make it through this pass to a camping site in the middle of nowhere. We couldn't have been more wrong. Seems like there were at least 300 people there and I think they all just have really super nice camping gear and then hang out at their campsites admiring their nice things. The attraction of the place is a river that runs by it and it is really clear and pools as it moves down through these rocks. If you hike up the river, you can just go from pool to pool. So the pictures are from along that river. We tried to take one with the camera timer of both of us so Matt is caught swimming out to me while the picture was taken.

The picture of the two of us close up is from today. And it is showing that this country can't keep us down. We decided that we would go orchid hunting today and so we took off out of the city towards Betty's Bay in search of the elusive disa orchid. Well, since it has been about a month since we've had any bad luck, we should have known that some was coming our way. In trying to prevent this, we took the car in the have it serviced which ended up being $300 of little repairs here and there. But hey, we figured an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Anyways, one of the things they did was change the brake pads. Back to today...as I am driving down the highway at 70mph the brakes on the car gave out. So we didn't make it orchid hunting. Luckily after our last car problems we decided we should invest in a good insurance company...so they had a tow truck come pick us up. The picture of us from today is when we were at a rest stop waiting for the tow truck to come. See the big smiles on our faces....it's because this sort of thing can only be funny now. So here we are without a car again....

Our new place on the golf course!

It's been a while since we put up a post, but that's because we don't do that much that is very interesting. Unless you want to see pictures of the millions of fish that I have caught. Matt only wishes he was so good. We did move into a new place. We are now officially country clubbers. We live across the street from a golf course and have a spectacular view of the golf course and then Table Mountain behind it. We have started wearing a lot of white and drinking cocktails all the time. We have lots of country clubbing friends. Now if only we could play some golf. So here are some pictures of our new place. We really like it overall. Number 1 fun thing is that we have an oven and I have been going crazy baking. And our landlord is this nice lady who lives next door with her mother and there are 2 people that work here during the day and one other guy that lives downstairs. I like to call it our little commune. We also have house geckos that come out at night. The are adorable little creatures. One of the pictures is from the golf course of our house. We have a key so we can get onto the course and walk around. Then one of the pictures is of the mountain at sunset from our porch.

In other news, Matt got me a job at an art gallery. Basically I just babysit the place because the owner is gone on vacation. I invite all the art gallery people over to hang out on the golf course and have cocktails. I start school next month and I am really excited to have some responsibility. The free time has been nice, but with no money, there is a limit to what we can do.

Matt has been fishing a lot and taking a lot of guided trips. He is making us some money. I call him Daddy Warbucks.

We really missed being home and Christmas. It was strange having Christmas in the summer. A big huge meal isn't as appetizing, or fun to cook, in the summer, but we toughed it out. We hope everyone had a merry christmas, and will have a happy new year.

My first African stream trout

To continue my birthday weekend...we went strawberry picking and I made a great strawberry crumble--amongst many other really awesome things. We were so excited to have an oven that we never went out to eat other than our picnic. I think we both agree the best dessert I baked were these chocolate peanutbutter cheesecake bars. They were insane. You can find the recipe at: http://www.jamieoliver.com/foodwise/article-view.php?id=3054

Seriously for any bakers out there, this is a keeper. But definitely one to share. It makes a lot of brownies and they are really rich. Oh and check out the flips flops that I am showing off in the first picture. Matt got me those for my birthday. They are the coolest flip flops I've ever had. BUt I guess when you normally get your flip flops at Walgreens, you can only take steps up.

I got to go out on the South African streams for the first time with Matt. He has been multiple times with other fishermen and he has started doing some guiding, but I have only been able to go out on the dams since we haven't had a car. Thank god for the car back. I am learning a lot and I improve every time I have a rod in my hands. THis stream was great and if Matt wasn't teaching me, he probably would have caught a millions fish. He still caught a handful and I caught one, seen in my pictures. He was so proud he was beaming...Matt, not the fish. Matt saw the fish and I casted to it and caught it on the first try. I had a couple of other bites, but I get pretty excited when I feel them, so sometimes I don't set the hook right. BUt I am getting better and my other birthday present from Matt was a pair of wading boots. THank god, because I was slipping and sliding all over that stream. Matt is telling me that I have to walk slowly and quietly through the stream and I feel like a toddler because I can't stay on my feet. So soon my wading boots will be coming in the mail.

Butterfly World

Matt was really sweet and dedicated our whole weekend at the winemakers house as my "birthday weekend." I have not put that much focus on my birthday since I was a kid, and it was a lot of fun. In fact, it's probably the first time a long time I haven't been in the hospital on my birthday. Anyways, we got word of this place called Butterfly World and we figured that it would either be awesome, or kind of a joke. Well, it was awesome. There were hundreds of butterflies all over the place and all different colors. There were a couple with bright blue wings, but they were quite elusive and we couldn't catch a photo of them. My favorite part was the wall of cocoons. They had a wall with about 500 cocoons on it and they were all in different stages. Some of them were totally closed, but wiggling and wiggling and wiggling like something was just getting ready to pop out. And some of them had butterflies that had just emerged and were drying there wings. One of the photos is of a red and black butterfly that has just emerged. It was really amazing. My favorite butterfly was the one with the clear wings. The second picture. When they flew, they looked like dragonflies.

After lunch and the epic bike ride, we stopped by for a bit of work, errr fishing. Megan hooked into some real monsters and at one point I had 2 of these beasts on at once. No troots, but Megan shouldn't have to wait long for her first African trout, we are fishing a stream on tuesday.

We came across this fella this morning. there is something wrong with his head, maybe he got attacked and dropped or something. but he seems mostly fine now, just a bit ugly, but he was in the open near some crows so i brought him home to the orchard here to have some recuperation time. hes pretty.

Its a chameleon.

The end

I got my surfboard...

I also now have a wetsuit so i can ride in cold water and a car to get me and the board to the water.

Speaking of cars... check out the awesome car we were given as a courtesy car for a couple days. And if Megan didn't get super pissed, we wouldn't have even had that. This is a funny place.

This is now Megan's Birthday weekend bash and we are pulling out all the stops. We had a picnic in the forest at one of the vineyards called Vergelegen. It was awesome, all tucked back in the woods with gourmet foods. The bike ride there was down and enormous hill, which of course meant the bike ride home was really fun.

We also stopped at the farmers market and got some butter, a free range chicken, some amazing cheese, a mix of wild mushrooms, eggs, and awesome loaf of bread and some chocolate. it was a fun market and we hardly scratched the surface.

Caterpillar Wonderland

Spring is in full swing. Had a little trip to the Gardens again over the past weekend. It was wonderful, strange weather too. There were less flowers in bloom this time, but other signs of life and spring time. There were these crazy caterpillars around the gardens, one in particular caught our attention for quite a long while. this guy was fantastic, and about the size of your index finger give or take a couple centimeters. The little black guy with yellow dots was also very cute. check out the mohawk...

thats about it for now. We get our car back in exactly one week and could not be more excited about an automobile. i think we are both tiring of the city a bit and long to get out into rural Africa. We have a fishing trip to do, a Knysna trip to do, and so many other places to visit. Also, my surfboard is now finished and i pick it up on Sunday and take it for a surf.

Go Penguins!