Nicole and I had a plan for today… to explore the city.  I wanted to find new photoshoot locations and she wanted me to help her with her camera.  Our limitations at the time of making the plans were that our kids would be with us.  We didn’t think that the weather would turn as cold as it has.  Seriously, we could NOT have picked a colder day for this adventure.

We had planned to go to at least 3 lookout points over Johannesburg city, we made it to one.  We had planned to get to Newtown and possibly the old bank district, we only managed 10 minutes in Newtown.  We had planned to find the Westcliff steps and Hope Road and the forest in Bryanston on the way home… none of that happened at all.  LOL, so it may not have been as successful as we’d hoped, but it was worth it… Nicole got to see parts of Johannesburg she’d never seen before, and I found a new spot for photos, and we had the most awesome coffee and chocolate croissants at 44 Stanley.

It was just far too cold.  When we stopped at Melville Koppies at 10am my car’s thermometer was reading 3.5 deg C.  But I cannot describe how cold the wind was at the top of that hill.  It was just too freezing for words.  Then in Newtown my car told me it was 2 deg!! But it actually didn’t feel as cold as the hill.  But that was the end of the road for Nicole’s little Damian, he’d just cried and cried… we think because his hands were so cold… mine were like ice blocks and were actually hurting me!!  So we aborted our mission, and headed for a heater and some coffee instead

But here are some of the photos that I did manage to get…

I really need to do more things like this.  It’s good for my soul.

Erin spent the day with us today, and I took the kids to the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve in the Cradle of Humankind.  They loved it… although they were very disappointed when I decided that an extra R30 per person per enclosure was an exorbitant amount to pay to let them pet the lion cubs considering the amount we’d already spent to get in the reserve! Anyhoo… I’ll take them to pet the lion cubs another day.

Because we got there quite late, we headed for the creche first where we saw the lion cubs, rhinos, jaguars and tigers.

Apparently Barbie didn’t like the Rhinos…

Then we headed for the lion camps (on the way spotting some warthogs and ostriches and a “wild” rhino and actually a jackal crossed the road in front of us but it was too quick for me to stop the car and grab my camera)… where although we didn’t see the lions in the camp we were most thrilled to spot the wild dogs and the cheetahs… and a family of white lions!

Then before we left, we took a walk to the Hippo pools and saw more lion and tigers along the way.

And now I’m going to have an early night… have to be up sparrows to catch a flight for the first of this weekend’s weddings!! So my blog will be quiet for the next few days

Today’s stay-cation mission was to have fun at the Johannesburg Zoo. Nicole and Erin joined us, and we spent quite a few hours chasing the kids around the zoo.

The weather wasn’t exactly pleasant and alternated between fine drizzle and freezing winds… and then some sun to tease us before the mad weather cycle started all over again.  But the kids didn’t seem to notice, and they ran and ran and ran… and then collapsed at around lunch which meant that Nicole had 4 year old Erin in a stroller with 25kg Connor (also 4 years old) perched on the back of it… and she managed to somehow push them up that HUMUNGOUS slope to see the hippos and rhinos!

LOL I had to laugh, because it reminded me of Exmi’s blog post yesterday about their trip to the Pretoria Zoo.  Well, that, and the umpteen sets of parents that arrived all fresh looking with their kids riding those push along tricycles… only to be seen walking around the zoo half an hour later trying to carry the child in one arm, and the trike in the other!! Zoo trips are not for the faint-hearted!

Hehe Bradley was on tippy-toes trying to reach the opening… and then in the second shot he’s actually pretending to be a lion… although it looks like Connor is kicking him or something

One of my highlights was seeing the baby giraffe.  Aww, it was so sweet!

It was a good day, and it was awesome that the boys shared the experience with Erin

What a treat!!

I saw a tweet go through my stream last week with @southernsunchat and a hashtag and some strange message about acrobats.  So I went to the Southern Sun twitter account to see what was going on… and there was a competition.  And I tweeted too!

And I got a tweet yesterday saying I’d won!! How very cool!! The prize was 2 tickets to see Cirque du Soleil at the Dome tonight… such good timing too because it was Lance’s birthday yesterday

A huge pity that I couldn’t take my camera, and even though I was tempted to take photos with my iPhone I decided not to (not a good idea to put photos on my blog without permission)… but anyhoo… I could take photos of my tickets

I cannot explain how much of a treat it was.  I used to watch all the reruns of the Cirque Du Soleil performances that were on TV… I just loved them.  And to watch the show in real life was just too awesome for words.  You cannot describe how impressive it is… I can’t believe people can do things like that with their bodies.  And it was just so slick!

I loved it all.  The clowns.  The trapeze artists.  The juggler.  The swing. Just the whole lot!

Thanks so much Southern Sun.  We thoroughly enjoyed our evening out… just the two of us… with no kids… the last time that happened was almost a year ago!

I really wish I could’ve stayed longer.  The town of Dullstroom is just so gorgeous, and the people oh so friendly. I could easily have spent 3 or 4 hours on Sunday morning wandering around the little shops but alas I needed to get back to the boys.

I stayed in this wonderful little place called Cherry Grove (which thankfully is just like the images on their site).  My room was right above this deli called Legendz Cafe, which served the most awesome cappuccinos and I had the yummiest eggs benedict ever for breakfast.

And the people, oh yes, I’ve said that already, but seriously they were just awesome.  They were so accommodating.  I needed to get their early in the morning just so that I knew where to go after the wedding (I didn’t want to wander around in the dark)… and that was no problem.  I wasn’t sure whether I was getting food at the venue, so Cherry Grove organised with the owner of the Duck and Trout pub that he would keep the kitchen open for me (I didn’t end up needing it because I ate the most glorious meal at Walkersons).

I really really enjoyed the short time I was there.  I really really want to go back to explore some more with my camera in hand.