A Wonderful Weekend - By John

Yippee, my parents arrived safe and sound last Wednesday, bringing with them suitcase loads of goodies. A big, big thank you to all our friends and family who sent books, gifts and food articles. Now we have reading material for a long time, chocolate chips for a longer time (over 6 kilos!), and many happy feelings knowing we have been remembered, which last longest of all.

The biggest surprise was that my Dad brought a kilo of Cracklings, a kind of Menno breakfast comfort food made as a byproduct of lard rendering. If you know French food, it’s really like duck confit, but made with tiny pieces of pork instead of duck, kind of (that makes it sound very refined, eh?) Anyway, if you like it, you like it a lot, and I do. I never suspected that my parents would shlep Cracklings half way around the world. Yum yum, I’m willing to bet that I’m the only person in South Africa with Cracklings in the fridge.

This weekend we went “up north” to explore the northern part of Mpumalanga province.

We visited Blyde River Canyon (“third largest on earth”). Here is a snap of "the Three Rondevals", which are rock formations which apparently look like Swazi houses of traditional design.

We stayed overnight at the foot of the canyon in a nice place called “Aventura Swadini” which was very nice and in a spectacular seeting. You cans see from the pictures that the resort is surounded by these huge tall cliffs and mountains.

Sunday we visitied the “Cheetah Project”, which breeds Cheetahs for return to the wild.

The radio antenna is half way up, here are a few snaps.

Here is Vusi (of lawnmower fame) pointing up at the tower. The other Vusi (Sambo Vusi, the tractor driver) is standing next to him. The other guy works for Peter, who is putting up the tower.

This picture shows the radio tower (the silvery thing) being positioned on the water tower. This week we will hoist it up to its full height and weld everything into place.