WanderLust

Every October, my hometown and the capital city of South Africa, Pretoria is transformed into a purple paradise. This is when the Jacaranda trees, which are actually native to Australia but thrive in our dry, soaring heat, blossom in full force.

I love the pretty purple tree lined streets. And I'm always reminded of Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze and Prince's Purple Rain at this time of year.

Purple Haze all around... Excuse me while I kiss the sky!

When the wind blows, and when the blossoms have matured, they fall to the ground below as purple rain. Purple rain, purple rain. I only want to see you laughing in the purple rain.

I only want to see you underneath the purple rain... Let me guide you into the purple rain... I know exactly who I want to see laughing in this purple rain, and who I want to share this purple splendor with: Clinton. He has since gone back to Cape Town, and things up here are very lonely without him!

I might not be a millionaire any more, but I have been living like one in the five weeks since I've been back. Perhaps I've been splurging a little too lavishly, but hey... You have to treat yourself every once in awhile, right? Especially if you have been lacking for over 18 months. What is the purpose of life, if not to enjoy it?

So, a few weeks ago, Clinton and I planned a roadtrip down to the South Coast of South Africa. It was something that we had planned to do for a long time, although we had initially discussed going to see the Namaqualand daisies or visiting Coffee Bay for the first time. Sadly, Namaqualand is too far away (and up the wrong coast), and even Coffee Bay, which is just a bit further south, would cost too much to get to. Finally, we settled on going down to Clinton's previous hometown, Margate before stopping by to visit my friend, Jeanine who is currently living in Durban.

With a car packed with our bags and padkos (drinks, food and snacks to enjoy on the road), we left early in the morning on Friday, 16 September. It was a chilled drive, and we took turns driving. I read my book occasionally when Clinton took the wheel. We arrived at Howick falls just after 3:30pm.

After a quick stop, we got back on the road and arrived at the place where we would be staying - the Kirby's outdoor granny flat - just before 7pm. They are the parents of Clinton's school friends and live in a beautiful house in an even more beautiful area, Ramsgate. They were on their way to a braai, but we stopped for a quick chat. They also gave us the keys to our home away from home. We were pleasantly surprised by the gifts of food and the nice letter they had left for us, welcoming us to the flat. Max and Gemma were also there to welcome us the next day.

On our first day, it was too windy too swim but Clinton took me to loads of beautiful beaches, like Skiboat, Southbroom, Empinjati and Trafalgar.While we were trying to find Trafalgar, we saw a small troop of vervet monkeys.

We had fun in the sun, while exploring some rock pools. Later, we had an amazing lunch at the popular Waffle House in Ramsgate. We shared both a sweet and savoury pancake - the savoury being mushroom and cheese, the sweet being a lemon meringue. Delicious!

Later that night, Clinton and I went to a bar in Margate called the Cock and Tail for his 10 year high school reunion. There was a bit of a disappointing turn out, seeing as only about 20 people arrived, but we both enjoyed it nonetheless. It was nice for him to see some old friends and schoolmates, and it was interesting for me to meet some new people.

On Sunday, Clinton took me to Lucienne beach. We lazed on the beach for most of the day. Then, I asked him to take me on a tour of all the homes he has stayed in on the South Coast. Some have changed a lot, some not at all, but it was interesting for us both to see. And it was nice to get a little taste of his history. He grew up in a plethora of nice houses.

On Monday, we had to run some errands, one of which was to pick up Clinton's dachshund, Mickey's ashes. Then we went to visit his surviving pet, Bunny, who is staying with a nice lady named Patricia. I have never seen a dog so happy to see anyone in my entire life. I saw her approaching the house very casually, unaware that her owner was there to see her, but as soon as she saw Clinton sitting on the couch, she screamed and howled in delight. She got so excited, she caused a stir and Clinton had to hold her away from the other two dogs, Lexi and Diesel (a funny black pug).

Diesel also wanted some attention from us.

Later, when all our errands were done, Clinton took me to the magical Uvongo Falls. What a beautiful area! It was stunning and one of the highlights of my trip.

We said thank you and goodbye to the Kirby's by having coffee and milktart with them. Their little flat had come to feel like home. But the next day, we were off to Durban - now called eThekweni - to visit my cousins, Kate and Kiva, my aunt, Lorraine and my good friend, Jeanine. But first, we stopped off at Oribi Gorge and enjoyed a spectacularly delicious day in the sun, getting up close and personal to the beautiful untouched surroundings. That was another highlight of our roadtrip.

Clinton and I were a little worried about the lack of barricades around the gorge. It's 400m high, but there are no fences for protection, so be careful when you visit and don't get too close to the edge.

Oribi Gorge was formed from sandstone deposited about 365 million years ago, and the rocks at the base are even older than that - 1000 million years old! Situated along the stunningly green ravine of the Mzimkulu River, close to Port Shepstone, Oribi is the eastern gorge of two gorges that cut through the Oribi Flats in Kwa-Zulu Natal. The views were spectacular. And best of all, we had all the whole place to ourselves. No one was in sight. That made our stay even more magical. ^^,

On our first day in Durbs, we walked along the North Coast beach all the way to the uShaka marine world. It was a nice walk, but yet another windy day. We knew we weren't going to have great weather, as springtime at the coast can be quite cold, but this was the only time we could arrange to do our roadtrip. So we enjoyed it regardless. Another factor hindering our vacation, however, was the fact that Jeanine is studying to be a teacher at college, and had practicals every day of the week. So I didn't get to spend as much time with her as I had hoped. But, we made the most of it. Just before 4pm that afternoon, we enjoyed a creamy cuppacino and a delicious chocolate chilli pot dessert together at a really cool restaurant close to her house in Musgrave.

On Thursday, I woke up feeling sick. My chest was closed up and it was difficult to breathe. I felt like I had asthma! Something, perhaps the spores or Jeanine's cat, Phantom, was making me very allergic. That put a bit of a damper on the day and it got so bad that I had to go to the doctor. No doctor was available to help me so we even tried the hospital. In the end, I had to make an appointment for the next day. After all that trouble, we went to Gateway shopping center to get some new clothes for Clinton. We just chilled for the rest of the day.

After my doctor's appointment on Friday, Clinton and I had a picnic at the Botanical Gardens. We saw some spectacular trees, that seemed to have their own personalities and characters. We lazed around, eating, and while we lay on the blanket reading, I noticed a hadida bird who had some plastic wrapped around her foot. She came really close to me, and it seemed as though she was asking me for my help, but a silly hungry duck and another male hadida kept interfering. I never got her plastic off, but she didn't seem to be too bothered by it as she could still fly.

Later, Clinton and I had a seafood dinner at John Dory's with my cousin, Kiva and my aunt Lorraine, both of whom have been living in Durban for years. It was 20 years or so since I last saw my aunt so it was really great seeing them. On Sunday, we visited my other cousin (Kiva's sister and Lorraine's eldest daughter), Kate, who has just had a new baby, Spencer.

On Saturday it was windy and rainy. A perfect day for curry! We tried to go to a popular spot called Goudens, but seeing as it was a public holiday (Heritage Day) it was closed. So, we had some curry and bunny chow at Govenders just down the road instead. Jeanine was very disappointed with her food, but I had fish curry for the first time and it was delicious. I don't know if it was really good, or just good because I had nothing else to compare it to..? But I enjoyed it. Clinton also devoured his bunny chow. Then we took a drive to Umhlanga Rocks. It was too windy at the beach, but fun anyway.

Jeanine sent her food back, but they just put some extra chicken on her plate and didn't really do anything about her burnt rice. She wasn't impressed, but at least she didn't have to pay for it.

On our last day in Durban, we visited Kate and her husband Steve. I met their two boys, Spencer and Lucca for the first time. Lucca immediately took Clinton outside to catch monsters at his jungle gym, while I held the baby. It was great visiting for awhile.

Then, too soon, it was time to head back home. We made one final stop at the "farm" at Harrismith, where we saw ducks, chickens, goats, donkeys, ostriches and two alpacas, one white and one brown. We returned home late in the evening, sad that our amazing 10-day roadtrip had come to an end, but happy to be home.