Tag: travelling

Travelling Over God’s Country Part II

Bloganuary writing prompt
Think back on your most memorable road trip.
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Hi There. Last year I wrote about some of my favourite road trip experiences which included a drip between Connect and Weehawken as well from Durban to Johannesburg and back. You can read about and see pics of the smallest church in Southern Africa here.

Another trip that comes to mind is an overnight bus trip from Durban to Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha) that my son and I took when he was about three or four years old.  The new name is an IsiXhosa word, and the pronunciation of it might take some practice. You can learn how to pronounce it here. Anyway, I digress. I was a bit apprehensive about travelling overnight on a bus with him. Lucky for me, he was an excellent traveller as a kid, so on that front, all went well. It had snowed the previous day on the Drakensberg mountains, so I was hoping that my son would get his first glimpse of it and even get to touch it when we got to Kokstad, which is near the southern Drakensberg. It was not to be. Most of it had melted, and all we saw was the last dregs on the side of the road as we neared Kokstad. By the way, Oprah’s school for girls is just outside of Kokstad.

Images of Grahamstown – source: Canva

The trip was going well until the bus broke down about 20 minutes outside of Grahamstown (Now Makhanda. Thankfully, there are no tricks to pronouncing that name 😅). It was about 5 am, and it was freezing cold. The temperature was closer to zero degrees Celsius than it was to ten. Thankfully, after about thirty minutes, they got the bus going again, and we limped off to Grahamstown, where it died. I felt so sorry for those who needed to get to Cape Town. They now had to wait for a new bus to arrive to take them the rest of the way. I have no idea what time they eventually reached their destination. Luckily for my son and I, the friend we were visiting drove through to fetch us. It’s just under an hour and a half’s drive, so we were very grateful. It was freezing in Grahamstown. We were so fascinated by the town. The architecture is an interesting mix of Cape Dutch and modern buildings. It’s a modern town, but we also saw a donkey cart making its way down the road. It’s part dorp (an Afrikaans word for a small town or village) and part modern town. It was very interesting. 

Image of Gqeberha: Canva

Anyway, we did eventually get to Gqeberha. It took us a while longer than planned, but we reached our destination safely. Thank goodness I had booked us flights home so we didn’t have to go through that experience again. My son wasn’t feeling well either, so it worked out perfectly. Needless to say, we will not be doing a bus trip again in a hurry.

An update on my plan to go on a cruise as I mentioned in part 1. It is booked and happening this year! We are super excited! I will definitely tell you all about it when we get back!

Well, that’s it from me. Thanks for popping by. Be blessed!

Travelling…over God’s country

Bloganuary Day 14

Today’s Prompt: What is your preferred mode of travel?

I would definitely say the car! Road trips are my favourite.

When I was a kid, it seemed like we were always on the road during school holidays. My dad loved driving and visiting his and my mum’s families. As a result, we would travel to Johannesburg from Pietermaritzburg, where we lived, or to the farm, spend the day in Durban, or drive to a small town called Harding in KZN. One year we even drove to Cape Town. It’s an 18-hour trip, and I really don’t know how my dad coped with all our singing and chatter along the way. I was only eight years old then and full of energy.

I had dreamed of taking my son on road trips too but it hasn’t quite worked out as planned. We did drive to East London in the Eastern Cape with my dad. That was a 6 or 8 hr trip and Alex sat like a trooper all the way there. He was only 5 or so when we drove down. He was so excited to get there that he didn’t even want to take a bathroom break until mother nature refused to take no for an answer.

The other trip I did take my son on was a trip to Johannesburg with my boyfriend at the time. My son was about ten years old. We stopped at the smallest church in Southern Africa at Van Reenen’s Pass. It is called The Landoff Oratory, and you can read about its history here. It is gorgeous and is surrounded by the most beautiful landscape.

The Little Church. Photo credit: Michelle Frankson
The Coffee Shop next door. Photo Credit: Michelle Frankson

I think the things I love most about road trips is the quality time you get to spend with your travelling companions in the car, the scenery (South Africa is a beautiful country) and the journey.

Ooh, the other little road trip that stands out in my mind was the drive from Trumbull, Connecticut, to Weehawken, New Jersey and back. It was the end of September, and the nighttime temperature dropped between trips, so the trees were green on the way to NJ, and on the way back, most had changed colour to the beautiful autumn shades of yellow and orange. It totally blew my mind!

I love flying as well. Most people think me strange, but the take-off is my favourite part of the flight. I also love airports. I love that I am surrounded by such a mix of people and cultures at any point in time, and it’s always a vibe. I love flying because it takes me to such distant destinations that have different cultures to experience.

It has always been a dream of mine to let my son experience all the major forms of transport at least once. He has flown, taken a long distance bus trip to Port Elizabeth (once was enough!) and had a train ride to Inchanga although we need to do that trip again but in the steam engine. Next up is a cruise. My aim is for that to happen in the next year or two. We were supposed to tick that off last year but covid got in the way.

What’s your favourite way to travel? Let me know in the comments. I would also highly recommend follwing the bloganuary hashtag as I have read great posts on this topic.