Senior Morton's World Tour
Kids are done, work is done, Grand Kids…Eh… they'll be here when we get back!
Some background
Posted by laurie and jill in Adventures on 04 29th, 2013Sunday 28 April
This morning we caught up with one of Jill’s old school friends Moira and her husband Andre, who she hadn’t seen for over 20 years. We met at a local cafe cum nursery, cum farmers market just around the corner from our accommodation and had a very nice brunch outside under the trees in the beautiful 24C cloudless day. The memories just flowed, as news of school mates long forgotten were discussed. Time stood still and it was as if they had just seen each other last week.
We went over to see Granny in the afternoon for the second last time. I think she has improved mentally quite a bit with our daily visits. What a shame no-one is around to visit her regularly. I just hope that my children and grandchildren will regularly come and visit us “down in Rosebud in our caravan” !!!
Shaun mentioned we have not discussed our accommodation, so here goes. It is in a place called Fourways which I used to visit on weekends when it was way out in the “bundu” (bush) 45 years ago. The premises are on a very busy crossroad, with police cars passing by on a regular basis, but with a 3 meter brick wall surrounding, a lot of the noise is cut out. There are a number of units here, but we have a large self contained flat, situated just near the swimming pool. The place is run by some very nice people and we have enjoyed our stay here. We will see if we can include some photos of the surrounds.
Checking for emails by the pool on a typical sunny day
This is the wall that surrounds us. Keeps the goodies in and the baddies out
read comments (0)Memories of yesteryear ….
Posted by laurie and jill in Adventures on 04 28th, 2013Saturday 27 April
This morning we went and visited Granny once more. On the way there we managed to get into the wrong lane and ended up having to go on a freeway that ultimately would have ended up in the Orange Free State! After a while we luckily found an exit and did a U-turn to re-enter the freeway and as we did so, we were pulled over by the police who wanted to check my drivers licence. As I gave it to him he received a phone call which was obviously more important than my licence check, so he promptly returned the licence, said thank you and we were on our way once more. We have previously mentioned the traffic here. There are many places where you can travel at 80kms per hour in suburban streets and on main roads you regularly find people travelling at very high speeds, weaving in and out of the traffic. The pot holes are something to behold, as they can be in excess of 50cm deep and if you hit them you could blow your tyre out. So there are many things to be aware of when you are driving here and you need to be very alert at all times.
This afternoon we went and visited the suburb where Jill grew up and where I used to go and see her. We found her parents house which now has a 12ft brick wall in front of it, topped with electric fencing and an automatic gate and you can only see the roof from the street. All the surrounding houses were the same which was a major change from 40+ years ago. We then drove up a few streets to the church where we were married, St Martins-in-the-Veld and walked around taking some snaps of the church and surrounds, then went on to Rosebank, Jill’s local shopping centre which has significantly changed and grown. On our way back we went passed the building where she worked just prior to us getting married. So it was a trip down memory lane for us both today.
Jill and Granny
No. 62 where Jill used to live
Catching up
Posted by laurie and jill in Adventures on 04 27th, 201327 April
Well, going back to Perth, we did manage to leave on time at around 11.50pm taking off straight over Perth and Fremantle and once their lights disappeared, we were left with darkness until we reached Johannesburg. The flight was reasonably smooth except for a few bumpy patches, one in particular which lasted about 30 minutes. When we reached Johannesburg we could see the lights all spread below us, BUT the actual airport was covered in a thick fog so we had to go into a holding pattern until it had cleared enough for them to see the runway. Eventually we landed but because of the fog and their inability to see the landing lights properly we did a big bounce and landed twice!! The head stewardess advised us that the second landing was free! We went through customs and immigration very quickly, got our bags and went out and found our chauffeur waiting to take us to our accommodation. Jill commented that the drive was like low flying as our chauffeur sped along the roads doing 120+kmh!!! (the speed limit on the freeways here).
We eventually got to our accommodation which is actually on a busy cross road with high walls around it and electronic gates, all part of the security. We then relaxed for a couple of hours until a friend of Aunty Fiona’s arrived to take us to collect our hire car, a Honda Accord and a very nice car to drive, except that the indicator stalk is on the left and consequently I keep turning on the windscreen wipers every time I do a turn – very frustrating especially as the standard of driving here is a lot different to Australia and you need to be extremely alert as there are people as well as cars all over the roads.
We have visited Granny each day and were pleasantly surprised at how well she looks for 98. Some days she is very with it, but sometimes the effects of the dementia are evident. We have been tentatively exploring the local area and are getting more confident each day as I get used to driving here.
Jill is hoping to catch up with some friends over the weekend and then we head to Cape Town on Tuesday.
We have found the Internet!
Posted by laurie and jill in Adventures on 04 27th, 201326 April
We are really in South Africa and have found a tiny little pocket where there is Wi-Fi . It is late so we will try and update things tomorrow if this little pocket is still here. Here’s hoping……………!!
More from Perth ….
Posted by laurie and jill in Adventures on 04 27th, 2013Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 April
We spent another quiet but relaxing day on Monday. After sleeping in until WA time, we did some further shopping in the morning and then went around to see Aunty Bun who looked remarkably well all things considered. Janet was there also as she is taking care of her mother at the moment.
On Tuesday morning we went up to Byford for a coffee, where we hoped to catch up with Sue Murfitt. however we weren’t able to contact her. After lunch we did a tour of Armadale, in particular the other nicer side of Armadale, then went over to Churchmans Brook where the ashes were scattered last month and had afternoon tea in the lovely surrounds. Then it was back home to pack and get ready for our flight to South Africa. Penelope drove us there and we arrived at the airport about 8 pm in the dark. We had quite a bit of trouble finding the correct departure place, with all the building going on there. We booked in and as we were going through security we had to go into a booth for an X-ray photo. I went through and came out and saw a blob on my shirt pocket which turned out to be a toothpick. Jill went through and she came out looking like Guy Fawkes! She was then promptly taken aside and frisked by a burly security lady, only to discover that the metallic thread in her blouse was the cause of the problem. So much for modern technology!
SMS from Dad
Posted by Craig in Adventures on 04 25th, 2013Just got this SMS from Dad and thought I would share with you all…
“Having problem with internet no blog let everyone know arrived safely all ok Dad”
Relaxing day
Posted by laurie and jill in Adventures on 04 22nd, 2013Sunday 21st April
A quiet day today adjusting to the time. Weather is sort of overcast with occasional bursts of sunshine, but quite mild in the early 20’s. We went up to the local shops in the morning as we didn’t have any Wi Fi for the I-Pad, so we purchased a Telstra card and put it into the computer, then organized the authorization. ( I hope Craig is impressed that I mastered the technology all by myself!!) So once again we have our blog.
In the afternoon we drove out to meet my cousin Marian and her husband Alan Perkins and spent a very pleasant afternoon with them catching up on some WA news. I forgot my camera , so wasn’t able to take any photos. It was a quiet day relaxing.
The trip that nearly wasn’t!
Posted by laurie and jill in Adventures on 04 21st, 201320th April
Well we nearly didn’t make it! I was going through all our travel paperwork and I noticed there was nothing that looked like a ticket. I felt we should go to the travel agent and enquire why, but Jill said ” don’t be silly, they don’t use tickets now” and the agent who gave us our itinerary should know what they are doing. Having seen all those films where people turn up to the airport without any tickets or passports, I wasn’t convinced, so decided to phone and they said ” Yes, you should have tickets, would you like to come and get them!!” I think we would have looked rather silly in South Africa trying to convince them that we should be allowed to fly on their aeroplanes without tickets!! Anyway, we arrived at the airport having been delivered there by Fi, with our luggage, passports and tickets where we were confronted by many booking in computers instead of booking staff. We duly looked helpless and a kind Qantas gentleman came and guided us through the booking process and we were soon through the baggage check and headed off to our departure gate.
The trip across to Perth however didn’t earn Qantas any brownie points. We found out their marvellous new fangled ticketing systems placed Jill in row 55 and me in row 56 right behind her. I noticed later that within 3 seats of where we were sitting there were ten obviously single travellers. So we complained to the stewardess and luckily we were able to swop with one of the single travellers. Lunch came and they had run out of whatever it was that was good and we got what was left. For afternoon refreshment, they simply ran out and gave us whatever they could lay their hands on. So, I am not inclined to recommend Qantas to any other travelers. Let’s hope our next leg of the journey is better!! We arrived in Perth 15 minutes early, but they forgot to tell the person who drives the disembarking arm and so we had a 15 minute wait for him to turn up before we could leave the plane. We were met by Penelope and managed to get home without any further incidents about 4.30 pm Perth time.
Yes, we’re off again!
Posted by laurie and jill in Adventures on 04 14th, 2013Sunday 14th April 2013
Yes we’re heading off again, this time to Perth and South Africa and so we are busy getting everything ready. This trip is going to be more catching up with family than touring around, but who knows we may get a bit of sightseeing in along the way.
Hope you enjoy travelling with us.
Grandpa fulfilling his final babysitting duties at Nicola’s house before we leave.
Someone’s got the bug again…
Posted by Craig in Adventures on 04 5th, 2013Sounds like someone has got the travel bug again, so to encourage them to keep us entertained on their travels I have freshened up their travel blog (sorry the old mission brown just wasn’t doing it for me!!).
Have added a really cool new feature too… on the left hand side of the blog home page you can quickly and easily subscribe!
Why would I want to subscribe I hear you say? Well by subscribing you will automagically (technical term) get an email everytime they post something new!
Yes that’s right you wont have to check everyday just in case they posted!
To subscribe, just enter your email address in the box provided and click subscribe. We will send you an email to confirm, and simply click on the ‘Confirm Follow’ box and wha-la!!
All done and you will never miss another post 🙂
By the way… you can do the same thing to follow my blog at http://caravan.mymorton.net *hint hint* yes I love to hear that people actually read all that we write…
Anyway, good luck and all the best Mum and Dad, and can’t wait to read all about your new adventures…
