Jacarandas

One outing I had really wanted to embark on since we came here was to visit Pretoria when the Jacarandas bloom.  We came during the 2014 season, but as we were brand new here, and had no car, we planned that we would go next season. After waiting a year, the time arrived.  Spring!  After some research as to the spots to check out we enlisted some friends to go with us and off we went.  Our first stop was to see the white Jacarandas.

I had been a little worried that we would not find them, but we rounded another corner and there they were. A whole street lined with them.  We got out and walked up and down the street. Matt found himself fascinated looking at the properties.  As evidenced by the pictures he took.

 Apparently this is quite interesting.  Well.  I took the camera back and we proceeded on our way.

We drove down to the government buildings areas in Pretoria next and I was quite happy to find the streets lined with Jacarandas, just like the internet promised!

It's a really gorgeous area.  We came across a sidewalk library.

Someone had dropped off a box of books along the street and then others had spread them along.  Just another one of those random things.  

We went down to the gardens in front of the parliament buildings. 

  

Lovely gardens, and amazing views of the city.

Just us.

Can you see Mandela in tbe background?  He was a popular photo spot with wedding parties.   

Back towards the cars is this famous view.  You would not believe how hard it was to get a good picture without tourists.

The view I dreamed of.

Mainly, we just had to wait for them to leave.  Worth it though!  In the meantime, we kept ourselves busy looking for "Jac Pods."

Matt didn't mind putting in a little extra effort. 

By the time we left, I was jumping for joy! :)

3 Rondavels

After the best potholes in the world we went on to the Blyde River Canyon 3 Rondavels view.  It's called that because the mountain is shaped like 3 Rondavels, or traditional round houses.  Absolutely stunning views:

Close up of the Rondavels

When you come up to the view point, the rondavels are in front of you. If you look to the right you could see this:

If you were Matt, then you would have seen this anyways.

Then if you look left, you see the dam.

If you are on the dam and come around this large ship looking rock, you look up and see the Rondavels.  I don't know if that gives some perspective or not.  The next day we did go to the dam.  That is where we saw the exciting creatures that we posted about earlier.  But just a few more pictures from our boat ride:

We saw a living waterfall:

A little like aliens.  From around the waterfall you look up and see the rondavels like I mentioned:

Even though it was approaching winter, it was still gorgeous colors of autumn and green still in many places. I imagine if you do go in summer it would be brilliant green.

The dam boat ride was Matt's favorite part of the trip.  I think because he just got to sit back and relax and not drive me anywhere!

Ok. Enough pictures.  We did hike from a visitors point down to the  water.  (Like 5 or 10 mintues.) As we did approached the waters edge, it did occur to me maybe we shouldn't be going to where crocs hang out. So we didn't' stay long. And then..we heard noises rustling in the bushes around us, definite animal sounds. Matt saw the baboons and suddenly I had WAY more energy and climbed up that hill like nobody's business.  Seriously, I think I set a new record or something! I do not like baboons.

Well, that is  pretty much our Blyde River trip.  

Although, we did take some pictures of our little Naya buddies at a pretty waterfall on our way home:

Do you see them?  They travel with us everywhere in South Africa in our camera bag.  They are from a little sweetheart we miss so much and hope to show these places to soon. 

We will try to share more adventures as we can.

The One Where You Get to See the Most Beautiful Potholes. Like Ever.

Sorry it's been so long.  My excuse is that there has been a lot going on in our construction world here and the time has flown by since I last posted. We haven't forgotten you though.  Matt has reminded me on a semi-daily basis to write a blog.  Tonight I spent a lot of time going through pictures to be able to keep some nice ones to share with you of the places we were really excited to see in real life.  So without further ado, I give you, the rest of Blyde River Canyon. Well, some of it anyways.

Next stop, Berlin Falls:

We would like to be able to see  it someday again with more water. Winter is dry season here.  But we thought it was so pretty.  Yes, I said winter.  Then we proceeded to the truly exciting part.  Bourke's Luck Potholes.  Had a cold picnic whilst keeping a look out for big Baboons who like to steal food from unprepared tourists.  You think I'm joking about the cold part.  June in South Africa should be lovely right?

Ha! It is lovely.  But can also be cold.  I wasn't just playing around for the camera either. Well, maybe we played a little.

It's just that we were so happy to be visiting new and exotic locales!  Back to the Potholes. Are you ready? It's seriously cool.

 Hands down, best potholes ever.  This picture shows the scale.

The potholes have formed where 2 rivers come together, if I have my facts straight.  The canyon officially starts around this area.  Here is part of the canyon just before the potholes:

And lets take another look at those potholes:

So so so pretty. 3 times for emphasis.  We then walked over to the top of the falls and hiked around a little.  There is a sign of prohibited things to do above the falls.

So you noticed the hiking sign....well we weren't exactly hiking. More like exploring.  But not in the forbidden area..well, we didn't think so anyways. :D Other people were doing it! Hmm...

It was gorgeous though. We had some encounters with other tourists above the falls.  They wanted their picture with us!  We are like, such celebrities. Or maybe they were just really enjoying the day. They were giggling alot..

Us with random stranger.  Hey!  I totally didn't even see that warning sign behind Matt until just now.

That's enough for this post!  

Love, Lazuli

It keeps on growing

Time is flying, and the project is progressing quickly. The Residence building is complete and Bethel has moved in, the Printery project is well under way and the Warehouse, well lets just say it keeps on growing...

I took this picture the other morning before the fog lifted

Now the structure is complete, the roof is almost 3/4's on, the brick infill is almost complete, they are pouring the massive concrete slab around the outside. Its been very busy, the contractors are working 6 to 7 days a week which means we have an increased workload, and with close to 300 workers on site things change quickly. Overall things are going well and we are still having lots of fun.

Hopefully this will help you appreciate just how big the warehouse is, if you look carefully you will see some decent size trucks, a crane, and some tiny little people. This panorama was taken from the viewing deck where tours will come once its completed. 

It has been Pecan season here and there are many Pecan trees here at Bethel. They make good snacks during the workday

I tried to help the brother out that I share an office with with, not sure if he really appreciated it, but we do our best to support to one another.

This little guy visited us in the copy room the other day, the quirks of the printer bugged him too.

Lazuli is still working away in the tool crib, its a busy job as people need the tools to get the work done so keeping everything organized, clean, and ready to go keeps here hopping. Fortunately she has had a little time to relax here and there.

Testing chairs at the mall, with her Finnish friend, not sure this is the right one, have to check a few more....and testing chairs does make one hungry.

Good thing a Mugg and Bean wasn't too far away

We really wish we were better at keeping in contact with all our friends and family, we love hearing from you and what you are up to, sorry if we take forever or completely forget to reply to your emails. We really look forward to when everyone can enjoy life with one another without all the rush, until then we love you all, blog to you sometime in future....-Matt

Check out the View!

Our first scenic stop was at The Pinnacle:

The vegetation at the top of it is really pretty.

Then we went to God's Window. They told us on a clear day you can see all the way beyond Kruger Park to  Mozambique.  It was a clear day..but I'm not like, a terrain expert.  Was it Mozambique?  I'm not sure.  But I know it was beautiful!

Here's my view out of God's Window:

And here is my favorite view:

Oh, are you interested in the actual  view? Here ya go!

We took a little hike, and by hike  I mean climbed around on some stone paths up to the top through the rain forest and sat on top of the world:

Sitting on God's Window.  It's not blasphemous, since it's the name I can say that!

Don't worry guys, it's not like we were really being daredevils. It's all down to clever cropping and camera angles.  

We drove along just a little further though, and had a fantastic 180 degree view at a little spot cleverly named "Wonder View."

Ok, that's enough views for now!  Til next time, when I show you the stuff I dreamed about on Pinterest and then finally got to see in real life!

Blyde River on a Budget! Day One

Well, it's been a exactly a month now since I wrote last.  I did promise to share more of our trip, besides all the reptiles we saw.  We wanted to maximize our vacation time away so we left around noon on the Friday and made our way to Graskop, in Mpumalanga state.  We had been advised as to the best scenic route to take, so we went through some neat towns on the way.  One had a pub with a great sign, I took a picture for my dad.

Just a throwback from my pre-teenage Lion King obsession days. It was the favorite movie of  my cousins, my sisiter and me for awhile there.

South Africa has such a variety of landscapes.  It's awesome!  We took the Long Tom Pass, It was breathtaking:

I love the layers of the scenery.

It's steep too, don't worry though, there is signage to help you out:

After just a little longer than we had anticipated we arrived at our destination.  I had made the reservations for the cheapest campsite we could find. After all, it was a nine year anniversary trip.  When we got there, we were surprised that it was at a backpacker place.  (Guess the title of the place "Valley View Backpackers" should have clued me in. Just a tip, if it has backpackers in the title, it means a backpackerish/hostel place.) A house where they rent out rooms and you share communal bathrooms and kitchen space.  Well, as we were camping, we were shown to the back yard, or garden as they call it.  I inquired as to power points for plugging things in...I got a strange stare and no reply.  No power points in the back garden apparently. So we pitched our tent by the back hedge for maximum privacy.

This was taken our first morning.  We arrived in the dark so, no pics of the set up. They weren't lying about the view though, from our vantage point in the back garden we could see pretty well.  Even better was the front view:

It was a very clean place, and it turned out for the best, as we were winter camping, it gets a bit cold at night..so it was good to have a warmerish place to go to prep food, and take showers...I say warmer, what I mean is warmer than outside, not warm.

We had been advised by some Bethelites that hail from the area as to the best place for food:

Cool Landy too. 

We totally recommend it too.  If you come visit this area, make sure you stop at Harries!  We had carefully planned every meal and had not planned eating out at ALL.  However, it was so yummy we ended up eating at Harries 2x as an anniversary splurge.  Having saved some $$ on accommodation we figured we'd go for the pancakes!  There is an African Market across the street.

and the windows that face the street are helpful for the vendors to try to sell things to you as you eat.  They actually had some cool stuff and Matt liked the giraffe and kudu carvings they had, but we had brought only enough cash for our tolls and entrance fees.  Matt saved so much by us doing it that way! :D

Then it was on to the sights!