A Mini Break...

The weekend has come and gone all to soon.  Jake has been super excited about our little camping trip with a bunch of his school and cubs buddies.  He's been most excited about fishing.  There was talk in the week leading up to our trip, about going somewhere else because of rioting farm workers in the area, but I'm so glad that we managed to stick to our original plan.  It was calm an peaceful (if not a little windy) and it was just great to have a quick re-charge before the festive season really kicks in.

 

Because of a broken down bus in the Du Toits Kloof Tunnel, we took the pass over the mountain (thank goodness I wasn't driving) and after stitting through a bit of slow moving traffic, we eventually arrived at our camp site around 6ish.  We unpacked and set up camp and got the fires going for supper.  Jake and I had burgers - divine!  All that meant that Jake had to patiently wait until Saturday morning before he could hit the water.

 

This little girl is a friend from cubs.  She likes to chase Jake and she can do the splits, which really freaks him out.  Her name's Allegra and her mom's Italian.  Her dad was raised in a fishing family and has been fishing since he was about Jake's age.  He was great with helping Jake when things went wrong and was full of compliments for how well Jake manages to fish and how knowledgeable he is on the subject.  He even went as far as saying that Jake was a pleasure to fish with... 

 This is Allegra's baby brother, Ashton.  He likes to fish too...

 Skurwekop campsite is on a working farm.  These orchards were directly behind our tent...

 Pity the peaches were too tiny to munch on...

 There was plenty for the kids to do, besides hang around the campsite.  Besides fishing, there was chess, 2 swimming pools, a playground with a trampoline and kyaks to rent.  If I'd known kyaking was so much fun, I'd have rented one for us the entire weekend.  We borrowed a friend's for about half an hour and it was GREAT!  Jake did some fishing on the opposite side of the river... 

 Beyond the chess set, were vineyards for winemaking purposes.  The Robertson Valley has some great wines...

 This is looking back from the chess set towards the camping site.  The blue gazebo on the right is where we were.  The river is just beyond the big trees in front of the hilll...

 A tired fisherman, playing with huge thorns...

After an "early" night on Saturday, Jake was ready for more fishing on Sunday morning.  It was HOT (33 deg C)...

 Looking upstream...

 And down...  This is the Breede River, by the way...

 Jake's tackle box is pretty much always a mess.  It's actually too small for all his stuff and I think Father Christmas might bring him a new one this year...

Jake does it all on his own these days.  He knows that to ask me to tie on a hook and sinker is not an option, so he's learnt how to do it... 

 And as a typical little boy, he loves dirt.  It's probably the thing I like least about camping.  That and ablution facilities & spiders... 

 The water was warm.  If I could've seen the bottom, I might've been tempted to go for a swim...

 Jake pretends that I'm not taking his photo...

 Hey!  What's up, dude.  It's been so interesting to see how boys talk to each other.  And how much that's changed in the last couple of weeks...

After a weekend of fresh air and sunshine, we made a quick pit stop at KFC in Robertson on our way home.  Jake's in the middle, flanked by Aiden and his little brother Josh and on the outside are Nicholas and his sister Megan, who's mom went to school with me...

All in all, it was a great weekend and the kids all had a ball, which is really what it's all about!

 

Love,

Sue X