Winter Wonderland...

On the spur of the moment (we literally decided, packed the car and were on the road within half an hour), we decided to go through to Ceres on Tuesday afternoon for the night. There'd been reports of snow falls in the Ceres mountains and we weren't going to miss out! We spent the night in a bungalow in the Pine Forest and woke up to rain on Wednesday morning (it was a public holiday). Because we expected the rain to have melted all the snow, we staying in bed longer than we should have, before heading out of town and into the Mattroosberg Nature Reserve at about 8:30am. I cannot tell you how cold it was, especially on Tuesday night and I was SO grateful to be sharing a bed with Jake - nothing beats having another body in bed next to you, to help keep you warm.

This is the sight that awaited us at the entrance to the Mattroosberg...

There was quite a bit of traffic and we queued up for a while before paying our fare and being allowed into the reserve...

We were thrilled with the little puddles of snow next to the road...An Afro snow lady...This one looks a bit like a gargoyle...And these two look like mourners at a funeral. Funny how each and every snow person is so different from the next...These guys had the right idea - bacon and eggs, with beers kept cold in the snowman... The view as we walked towards the thicker snow... A perfect snowball gathered on top of a protea... Very exciting stuff... As we climbed higher, the snow thickened... Look how cold Jake's nose is... A pretty, cold protea...This is where we stopped to play. Beautiful!!!The beginnings of a snowman...Everybody was having fun, laughing and playing - such a treat for us all...As you can see, the snow was a little patchy, so I couldn't make my snow angel... Some people brought along special clothes to dress their snow people into. These guys were proudly South African and fully supporting the Bafana Bafana boys ahead of their game last night. Which they lost, 3-0. Shocker...

They even made a ball for their soccer man...

After a little while in the snow, Jake began to get cold and very grumpy. We weren't properly dressed and I'd highly recommend wellington boots over takkies (sneakers) for anyone else planning a trip to the snow...I had to carry Jake to our snowman to get a picture of him with it...Throwing snowballs at me...Behind my camera, I was an easy target. Nobody seemed to concerned about damaging my camera. Then again, it is pretty stuffed already...Getting into the swing of things! Jake moaned last night that his arm's sore from throwing snowballs...Ummm... not for me, right?Having a taste of clean snow...Having a word with the snowman... Another sulk about cold feet. I love this photo, but in all fairness, Jake had been up vomitting during the night...This is the smile cost me R5.00...Time to go home and time to take back his scarf. I think my dad felt a little sorry for our snowman being so naked in the harsh weather... Now you be good and don't go melting away tomorrow... I thought he looked quite happy to see us go... There were lots more new snowmen built up on the way back to the car. Some people are really good and others just haven't got a clue... This one looked malnourished...And this one fat, but happy...Another proudly South African snowman...Since everyone else was doing it, we built a little snowman to ride on our bonnet. He lasted about 30 minutes before sliding off the side...
Yesterday's holiday was finished off with Bafana Bafana's match against Uruguay. I was picked up and went to watch with some friends and had a fabulous evening. Just a pity about the end result!!

Sue XXX