2010 – The Year

Since I was so slack about keeping in touch in 2010 I thought a quick overview of the year would be a good idea.

January 2010

Purchase new binoculars which are a lot lighter than my old Zeiss and have almost as good optics. Went to the Botanical gardens at Kirstenbosch for the Freshly Ground concert, wonderful energetic mixed race band, playing high quality own compositions. Went to Fisherhaven for a canoeing weekend and got very wet paddling back across the bay against the wind. Installed solar water heating. Saw the movie ‘Avatar’.

February 2010

As I page through last year’s diary I keep seeing ‘annual letter’ in my ‘things to do’ and realise that I did not even manage to record 2009!  Went to an amazing performance of ‘Magic Flute’ at the newly opened Fugard theatre in district Six, absolutely fantastic marimbas played with gusto. Went on a camping trip to Salmonsdam Nature Reserve and got rained out big time. Packed up and came home early.

Salmonsdam reserve

March 2010

A month full of boring medical stuff, visits to Gynie, dermatologist, start of lengthy periodontal work and dreaded colonoscopy. However did manage the usual round of Tuesday and Thursday cycle rides and Wednesday hikes most weeks.

April 2010

The month started well with a trip to Langabahn Lagoon to stay with Hannie and was quickly followed by another trip to the Fugard to see Athol Fugard’s latest play ‘The Train Driver’ which was harrowing but excellent. Peter left for a six month stint on his canal boat.

Visitors centre - Posberg National Park - Langebaan

May 2010 – October 2010

Good friends held a birthday lunch for me on the 23rd as I would be in UK on the actual day. It was lovely and I was very touched. I flew to England on the 25th and headed up to the marina to start my cruise.

Summer on the boat was wonderful, exciting, hard work and fun. The rough route was down the Grand Union Canal to Paddington. A couple of weeks spent in Little Venice with visits from friends living in London and trips to theatre and opera, not to mention a hug from one of my favorite TV News presenters, George Alagiah!

With gorgeous George at Little Venice

Into the Thames and up to Weybridge for a cruise down the River Wey to Godalming and back.

Lunch at Hampton Court with The Stewarts & The Litchfields

Georgie & Jonathan Stewart and Will were on board for the first part of the Thames. Anne & Stewart Litchfield met up with us at Hampton Court. Our mooring was right outside the Palace!

Georgie at Coxe's Mill - Wey Navigation

Georgie was excused from lock duties due to a broken wrist in a colour co-ordinated plaster cast!

On up the Thames to Reading and the Kennet and Avon down to Bristol and back to Reading.

Jon and family were on board for the first few days of the K & A. It was good to have crew as some of the locks were a bit dodgy.

They were followed by Anne & Stewart who stayed on all the way to Bristol.

At Bristol Hannie joined me for a week.

It was particularly good to have crew on board between Devizes and Bath as this the location of the Caen-Hill flight of locks. There are sixteen locks in the actual flight and another six at each end.

Caen-Hill Flight (16 locks!)

Lyn at the tiller

Lyn took over from Hannie at Newbury and stayed on the Boat till Reading. We had some rain on this stretch which made the river run rather fast. It was impossible to moor up below the Foley Lock to pick Lyn up as there was a waterfall coming over the weir. Getting into the Town Lock was

Nita at Goring

also quite challenging!

From Reading it was back out into the River Thames and on to Goring where I picked up Nita, Kevin & Conor Stewart who stayed with me till Oxford.

Conor working the lock at Napton

Jon, Henry & Charlotte came back to the boat for a weekend and were followed by Marian, Pete and Conor who stayed for five days and left the boat at Napton-on-the-Hill.

Mang & Pete

From there it was plain sailing up the Oxford, the Coventry and back into the Trent and Mersey to moor up for the winter at Kings Bromley. Lots and lots of friends and family were on board at different times to assist with locks and boat handling and enjoy the fun.

The group

Before leaving the boat for the winter I went on an Exodus cycle tour with Grant and Alison to Croatia for a week.

Yours truly & the gorgeous boy

It was very enjoyable. The guide was gorgeous,

The driver was delightful, and obviously all the girls thought so!

the food was mostly excellent,  and the wine wasn’t half bad either!

The scenery was amazing ,the cycling was good, the weather was great ………

………and Dubrovnik was stunning. A really good summer.

October 2010

Coming home to the Cape was no great hardship! The highlight of the month was the Tsitsikamma Hiking Trail.

A five night slack packing trail  with good weather and great and very varied scenery.

November 2010

Outside of the usual hiking and cycling, a quiet month.

December 2010

The month started happily with a visit from friends from Scotland with whom I have shared several Exodus Cycle Tours. They had just done the Exodus Cape Winelands cycle tour and came to stay for a few days on completing it.

No sooner had they left when other friends from England who were staying in Cape Town came to take me out to dinner. Always lovely to spend time with Georgie and Jonathan Stewart and their partners. Another milestone in the month was my son Paul at last taking and passing his driving test and getting a South African drivers licence – legal at last!  A trip out to stay with Anne and Stewart at Atlantic Beach with a visit to Evita se Peron’s Station cafe in Darling for his/her show was another highlight.

On the 22nd December Lissete, Carmen, Simon and Elena arrived from Singapore to spend Christmas with me. It was really lovely to have them and we had great fun doing all the Cape Town tourist things together including climbing Table Mountain.

A good end to a great year.