Monday, November 30, 2009

1st tour behind

Hello,
Now IM 38 years old!We had a birthday party for me and Kira last night, had a braai and drinks and music:) It was a nice evening, I fell asleep when I took Viivi to bed at 22h30...yes she also stayed up late, Guests came already around 18h00 so no wonder I was tired...also the tour ended on sunday and I did not sleep late on monday morning, so I have still some sleep to catch up on.
About my tour, the tour went very well. To have 38 people to look after can be hectic, but they all where very good in following times, I think they really enjoyed themselves.
While in Pilgrimsrest, the old gold digging town that is a museum nowdays, we went to the Blyde river Canyon and saw the three rondavels, Burke Lock potholes and had a stop in Graskop for lunch. After 2 nights in Pilgrims Rest we entered Kruger Park and stayed one night there. We went on game drives and saw a lot of animals, hyenas, wild dogs( hyeena koira) , elephants, lions, hippos, giraffes, zebra, rhinos( sarvikuono-noshörning) and many many more...also some crocodiles. And the last two nights we stayed at a private game reserve, Kwa madwala, and the guests LOVED it, it is an unfenced area with the big five animals, the guests had two safari drives a day ,morning and evening, and they had a day off so they could just relax and have a massage, many guests would have loved to stay one more night. We had a boma dinner by the fire one night and a bush breakfast on the day we left. We had a rain storm on the safari, the only rain we had on the whole trip. On the last morning we went to see a Swazi cultural show, and everyone enjoyed it, the dancing and singing.
Im happy how the tour went, now it will be much easier with the next few tours.
We will be going on some site inspections next week, to the bush, I have a lodge I need to see and also a few other places, for golfing and cultural shows.
Today we are going to just relax, and tomorrow I have to start working again, planning and finalizing for the next tours to come and for next years tours. But it is easy to work when the sun is shining and rises already about 5am:)
Cant believe christmas is almost here! It feels like a hot July in Finland here.
Bye bye, will be back in a few days again.Will try to get some pictures downloaded.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Pilgrimsrest

Hi everyone,
Sitting in bed ready for bed:) Tour more than half way trough, a few more and small incidences has happened, but we are still rolling forward. Yesterday we flew from Cape Town to Jburg, got on the bus and headed for Mpumalanga province, and of course something is wrong with the bus! I only know this about half way trough when we have a stop, the bus is making a loud pitch noise in the back and I cant hear it to the front, so my clients in the back are half deaf by now( not soo bad yet luckily) , I have to start making calls and after a while I have a mechanic on the line and he can hear himself how loud the noise is, so a guy is sent to Pilgrims rest to fix it for us. We arrive in Pilgrims rest about 19h00, a long day behind, we left Cape Town just before 8 in the morning. All guests are still fine, but of course the major nose is a bit too much. A part needed to be ordered so tonight they have fixed our bus...lets hope all is fine tomorrow!!! Today we went to the Blyde River Canyon, the weather has been great the whole trip trough,today over 30degrees:) I think everyone enjoyed the Canyon and Potholes. Tomorrow we are going to Kruger Park. A few guests has had small tummy problems, but nothing major, and a few has had fever( hope not the swineflu!!) But everyone is up going.
It is now almost 21h00 and it is time to get some sleep. It is so quite with no girls around, I miss my family, just tomorrow and I have them around me again, Nico , Viivi and Liina is joining me at Kwamadwala game reserve.
Good night and I write more next time.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

and tour goes on..

Hello,
3days of the tour behind and everything has gone smoothly:) Weather has been sunny, guides on time, guests happy.
On saturday we did a full day tour to cape point, wonderful views, and we also visited the penguins, sweet little things, guest loved it and Liina and Viivi jumped of joy.
We added an extra visit to a wine yard, a nice way of rounding off the day.
Yesterday we went to the townships ´hökkelikylä´and saw how the poor people of south africa lives, learned some of the history and saw happy children running around barefoot on the streets. We visited a church ceremony, and I wish the ceremoies in Finland was as cheerful, singing and dancing, then I might actually go to the church sometimes on sundays! And the guests enjoyed the visit very much. We also walked on the streets of the townships and children came to hold our hands. I think it was a touching experience for many.
After the tour, guests had rest of the day free, and we went to the V&A waterfront first to buy a few things like mosquito repalent...soon we are going to malaria area...and then we went to Clifton beach,met up with our friends there, children got to play in the white sand and swim, water very cold on the atlantic side, about 16degree! We got back to hotel after 18h00 and quickly got ready for our african dinner experience, only us, no group. Place name Gold restaurant, the owner had invited me and my family +Kira to come and eat and it was a great way of ending the evening. Different foods was brought to us, african dancing and singing inbetween. Liina enjoyed it very much, she also participated, and found a new friend, a person disguised in a african costume, she calls him Goli:) She also went to see where he lives, one of the waitresses took her there...and Goli was sleeping= costume hanging on the wall.She talked about him the whole evening. Kira also go to try some african dancing and she did great:)
Today we have full day wine tour ahead of us and dinner at Spier wine estate, an african buffe outdoors, and guests will get facial paintings:)
I will write more once we are up north again, until then bye bye.

Friday, November 20, 2009

tour 1 started

Goodmorning,

Its a while since I have written ,a week just passed by. We had a busy week, it was all last arrangements before the 1st tour, and now we have one day behind.
Let me start what we did during the week. Firstly the Johannesburg weather was crap, cloudy and cold, rainy, what a breeze to leave it behind yesterday for a sunny and warm Cape Town:)
Me and Kira actually sat with blankets around us in Johannesburg because of the weather, we visited the gym a few times, and preparations preparations...and Viivis teething big time.
Yesterday , friday, started out by Viivi throwing up a 6h00, I thought..´Oh, no, not now, dont get sick´...I just saw the long flight ahead of us and Viivi screaming and being impossible, almost thought Nico better stay behind with the kids,. Anyway, we all went to the airport and Viivi seemed ok, only throw up once in the car:) So, at the airport we where in time even if Jburg traffic was hectic. We got the group together and then it all started....we only had 1h10 minutes to the next flight, when we finally got to the chéck in they say the gates are closed, I said it is not acceptable as I booked the tickets together and we are going to be on that plane...the lady went to check something, made a call, the manager arrived and all our luggage was loaded on and we got our tickets...and then we realized 7 people did not have seatnumbers? Where they going to stand in the plane? Back to the manager, new arrangements, these 7 people are put on a different flight arriving same time in Cape town, SAA flight. After all this we went to the plane, and departured 40 minutes later( they delayed the flight for us) and arrived just a bit late in Cape Town, What a start!!! But I just told people, this is Africa, anything can happen, just go with the flow :)
Anyway, the day turned out to be a good one, after a break, a very late lunch we went to Table mountain for the sunset, and we where lucky , it was a nice sunset over the Atlantic Ocean.
The day ended at 20h00, and Viivi is feeling much better:)
Today we are going to Cape Point,full day ahead. Will write more in a few days, now I have to go eat breakfast and get ready for the day:)

Greeting from a sunny , beautiful Cape Town.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Saturday night

Hello everyone,
A quick update tonight. Today we started our day by going to a very nice flea market in Pretoria, weather sunny and warm. Nico stayed at home with the girls, I had a relaxing morning but not Nico....firstly they managed to find some pills, luckily not eating them, and then in the afternoon Liina sprayed Viivi with Nicos perfume,the hair and the body while she was sleeping, almost finished the bottle, you can imagine the smell on Viivi and in the room( house!) Liina also ran into the wall this morning,her nose is swollen, and also checked Kiras make up bag+ her cream bottles.. in short a busy day for the girls:)!
Back to our mornig,me and Kira enjoyed the market with Elizma,thank you Elizma, we really enjoyed it!we spent a bit of money , not yet on souvenirs,that comes at a later stage dear friends..if we still have money left:) we bought some hats, clothes, shoes and paintings, a tent for the girls(they love it).....
Nicos parents are here with us over the weekend, we just have eaten a great meal, braai and mealie pop etc....sitting with Kira here on the cough with tummies up.
We also went to the gym this afternoon, we tried the planet fitness gym with a running track and swimming pool indoors,we LIKED it very much, and are taking memberships( me& Nico& Kira) now starts the new chapter in my training, back on track again. We got a very good deal and Kira got an even better for the few months she is here with us, as the manager understood we all want to train together, can you believe R200 / month including everything( instead of sauna they have steambath) and access to all other planet fitness gyms, also in cape town. I have to add that I started gym already on wednesday( Kira has been working out all the time) but that was a completely different category of gym we went to...maybe it can be compared to the local pub,Kira is doing a class there on tuesday, she is a local now:)
Hope you all in Finland are coping with the winter to come, we send you a glimse of sunshine every now and then. I will add some new pictures soon, this weekend.
Bye bye

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Back in Johannesburg again

We are back from our roadtrip, it is always nice to be on the road but it is also nice to come back home, and home is where most of the belongings are at the moment, that is Elizmas house.
What did I write about last....must have been before we went to Entabeni Game Reserve. On monday morning we started quote early our drive to the bush, Waterberg area, we stayed in the Entabeni Game Reserve for 1 night. The trip there was supposed to take 3 hours but I think we where on the road for 5 hours, as we relied too much on the gps that took us in a circle, but, we all enjoyed the drive and we had some amazing scenaries on our way to the camp. I have taken pictures, but pictures does not always do justice, one cant capture the feelings and smells into pictures, it is only something one has to experience, that is why you all have to come to South Africa yourself:) But I try my best to share with you our journey in SA trough writing and photographes.
Our camp at Entabeni, Lake side lodge, was nicely set by a lake, night times the hippos comes up to eat and the monkies climbed around in the trees,Liina and Viivi loved to sit by the window and watch them , carrying their babies on their stomach, sweet:)
On monday evening me and Kira went on a 3 hour game drive, when we left it was cloudy, after a while it started raining, got windy, we sat with rain coats on( provided by our ranger) it was fun in a way, and then we drove to a beautiful viewing spot high up, and then the sun came out and we enjoyed a beautiful african sunset:) We saw animals, different antilopes, zebras.....on our way back when it started getting dark, we almost drove into 5 rhinos( noshörning) , one came around from the back and had almost his horn on our vehicle!
The following morning Nico went on game drive with Kira at 6.30 am, I stayed in bed and thought I get a nice and long sleep-in morning...but 7am Viivi jumps up with a huge smile and that was it for my long sleep.
After breakfast we left the camp and of course compared it to other camps we have been at , it gets a rating ok, a few things missing like ambiance and dedication, our ranger Trevor was good but otherwise a bit boring place, location good....This is part of my job, to see places and compare and see the value of it, very hard work:) and I love it!
Then our journey back to Johannesburg started, sunshine all the way, 30+, last night we went out for dinner, I had sushi, I need to mention this becuase Immo would LOVE it here, I had 14 pieces for 15 euros.
Today we have had sort of a shopping day, I got new Asics...means I have to excersise again, Kira is on a go ever day, she is like me 4 years back, up at 6 am , training and running an hour,hope I get some inspiration from her to get a new start.
That is all we have been doing so far, and only 1 week + until the tour starts, not yet nervous.
No one has been sick and all of us have a good time.
Bye bye

Sunday, November 8, 2009

And a photo







Sun,rain and hail

Hello,

This is just a quick update of our weekend. Two tired girls just went to bed and I got a few minutes over to write , I better use them:)
I have added a few more pictures, it might be a few more from Sun City then from our stay at a reserve close to Thabazimbi. Friday to Saturday we stayed with Roelof and family in Thabazimbi, children loves to play together, hide and seek, they are most of the time running around screaming `You cant find me`, all in their own english languages:) (... of course Viivi is just running and screaming), they love to be outdoors , and running with hardly any clothes on..easy for us compared to what it would be in Finland, just the thought of spending 30 minutes getting girls ready to go outdoors makes me freeze:) The weather here has been wonderful, even nights are warm.
Yesterday Roelof& Lusette took us to a game reserve 50km away and we had a great relaxing time.When we left the house the sun was shining, on the road it started pouring down loads of water and then it started hailing and it sounded like the windows where gonna break, we sat and held our hands over our ears,and we could not see more than a few meters ahead, and thunder, all at the same time, then 10 minutes later it is sunshine again, and the rest of the day was sunny.
We made a potjie, Kiras first taste of this african dish....and she liked it!
In evening we sat outside and listen to the sound of the nature, it is not quite, more like the bush comes alive after dark:) We had a few curiose warthogs coming up to us and some monguse.
This morning we did a long walk in the heat, searching for animals, we got very close to some giraffes, I have added the picture of a giraff from this morning.
Tomorrow we are moving on again, to Entabeni Game Reserve, I will write more on tuesday when we are back in Jburg.
Thanks to all my friends/family who have written comments, it as always nice to read what you are up to , have done, and how everything is going.
Good night to everyone from a warm South Africa!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Sun City and Thabazimbi
















Hi everyone,










Behind us we have two days at Sun City, we where furtunate with the weather and could spend a day at ´Valley of the Waves´. Both Kira and me got red shoulders:) I did some site inspections, fed the elephants and saw the activity center at Sun City, cultural village etc. Lots to do there for everyone,both child as parent. We will go back again when Jukka comes to visit in December.





On pur way yesterday to Thabazimbi we went to a lion park to see the small lion puppies, and the girls loved it, as you can see from pictures:) We also had a drive trough to Pilanesberg nature reserve, we didint see much animals, giraff and lots of zebras, but the drive was nice, as always in the bush.





Now we are visiting Nicos brother Roelof in Thabazimbi and the weather is hot here, I think yestareday about 32, today we are going to a farm and stay overnight, animals are walking freely around there, but no dangerous animals, it will be nice to just experience the silence of being out there.





All are well, no one has any stomach problems or colds,lets hope it stays that way, as it is only 2 weeks till the first tour starts!





A great weekend to everyone, we are going to have a hot one:)










Jannika:)

Sunday, November 1, 2009

1 week in South Africa
















Almost a week is by and we have settled in quite well. Been a busy week but we are well organized now and it feels like I have plenty of time until first tour starts..that I say now, but wait till it is a few days to the first tour and Im will be running around like mad:)





This weekend we spent at small game reserva called Buffelsvlei. We celebrated Nicos mom& dads 40th anniversary, lots of family arrived, almost 70 people, from far and close by. It was an enjoyable time, we had a spitbraai ( for my finnish friends who does not know what it is: we grilled a whole lamb on a stick) that was the first time for me, interesting and very tasty:) and most of the people stayed over night.Nico did not know that his brother James with family was coming, it was a suprise and as Nico already stressed he wont see him during our stay , there was tears when he saw his dear brother.





Kids loved playing in the mud...I can tell you the mud is red, not so easy to get clean, but you get to a point when you either tell the girls not to play in it..or just let them enjoy it and get dirty.And we let the go crazy, as you will see from pictures I will put on here soon. We also did a small game drive and Liina, Viivi and their cousin Jamie loved it. We saw zebras, a curious giraff that came close up to see what we where up to, springbook, ostriches( strutsar) impalas and many more animlas. Even Viivi spotted the animlas from far away and she gave us a happy scream .





The mornings starts early here ,as we used to get up around 8.30am in Finland, the normal time here is 7am, and I must say it feels like getting up 9am, Im all rested and ready for the day,even the girls are up then.





The weather is nice today, a hot day ahead of us. The weekend was also warm, more cloudy, but I managed to get some sun in my pale face.





Will keep you uopdated how the week goes, Tomorrow Kira( my friend from Finland) is arriving, we are going to meet her at the airport.She is quite nervous as it is her first time in South Africa, but she will enjoy it. On wednesday we are going to Sun City for 2 days, doing some site inspection, part of the job:) and then weekend we are spending with Nicos brother, checking out another game lodge and then we are going to Entabeni Game reserve on monday next week, and back in Jburg on tuesday. That is in short ourplans for the coming week, But I write soon again.





All of you have great start to this week.





Jannika