Our time in Port Elizabeth was focused on family and Christmas time with Erika, Patrick and the two girls, who were visiting from Jamaica. As always when kids and grandkids visit, the grandparents happily take over babysitting duties while the kids have time off. We spent time with Patrick’s dad (Patrick's mom passed away earlier in 2020 and he couldn’t visit due to Covid19 travel restrictions) and had the girls sleep over many a night in the truck on the front yard or had pillow fights, colouring-in sessions and play dough time on the parking at the beach.
To give Patrick and Erika quality time with Patrick’s dad getting closure over his mom’s passing, we took the girls for two days to Addo Elephant Park, (read more about that here) with a camp-over at The Homestead caravan park, where the girls got to work to peel potatoes so that Bompa could make French fries – the Belgian way!
For Christmas Eve, we booked a chalet, seeing it would be kinda difficult and weird to entertain with a Christmas braai… parked on a shopping centre’s parking! We opened presents and pulled the crackers and had a great evening. Patrick’s dad joined us, but due to Covid19 curfew, he went back home at 9pm.
Because the Christmas Covid19 lockdown rules included closure of all the beaches over the festive season, we decided to go for a walk on the Sacramento trail. Although you eventually end up on a stretch of beach, it’s more a proper walking trail than a beach where throngs of people sit around on towels and play in the sea. The girls had a ball screaming and jumping in the waves and climbing on the rocks. And of course… ending a walk with a nice meal and ice-cream is always a hit!
Unfortunately, due to the Covid curfew rules, Erika and Patrick got the news that their flight to Johannesburg was cancelled as the plane would only arrive there AFTER curfew. So, on this last minute, they now needed to rent a car and drive to Johannesburg, which meant that our time together was cut by 12 hours: they would leave at 6am the following morning instead of 6pm at night. Big bummer!!
We spent our last afternoon (new years evening) at Patrick’s brother’s farm. They have horses and support the Horse Care Unit. A symbol of their organisation is Wilbur, a local donkey, and his sibling who were rescued by the horse unit and found a new and relax home at Grassroof. A t-shirt to support the cause was part of our Christmas presents from Erika and we proudly wear them! So… if you love horses and Wilbur’s story touched your heart strings… buy a t-shirt!
Our New Year’s Eve turned into a New Year’s Afternoon, as we had to be home before the 9pm curfew.
The girls slept with us in the truck for the last time and the next morning we kissed them all goodbye! Till next time… whenever that may be!
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Port Elizabeth Family Visit