We left Pilansberg after a wonderful two week stay to go to Rustenburg for their annual show. We worked the show for ten day's the first weekend was not to busy with the week days not busy at all. The second weekend was very busy and we worked real hard till late at night.
We then went to the town of Brits with a traveling Carnival for ten day's the business was very bad but we enjoined the time we spent with old friends.
On our way to the City of Nelspruit we had to stop for a week in Pretoria to visit our oldest son Tony and his girlfriend Mignon. Tony came for dinner the day we arrived in Pretoria and invited us to watch him and Mignon and her father ply action cricket on the Tuesday night. We went and really enjoined the evening with the family and made arrangements to meet again on Saturday at Mignon's family home for a get together and dinner.
The week was very busy with trips to our big suppliers to stock up for the Innibos Festival in Nelspruit, the traffic was horrendous and I was dead tired every night and couldn't wait to get back to the bus at night.
Friday night we met Tony at Yamazaki a Japanese restaurant close to his home in Waterkoof where he stays for their Sushi buffet. The food was outstanding and we enjoined the time with our son tremendously.
Saturday afternoon we visited with Mignon and her family and had a scrumptios dinner and a wonderful evening with them and after saying our goodbyes we left for the caravan park to prepare for a early departure on Sunday morning.
Sunday morning was freezing cold when we left the caravan park at six o'clock. We took the N1 first and then turned off on the N4 that go's all the way to the city of Nelspruit. We had a pleasant drive most of the way except for out side the town of Witbank (God now's what the new native name is) we had a air leak on one of the air pipes of the bus, it was a easy fix accept for my fingers that almost froze in the sup zero temperatures. After a steaming cup of coffee we where off agane.
It warmed up nicely as the sun came up and we head east on the highway. We left the highvelt behind and started the descent to the Lowvelt of South Africa. It is nice a drive through the mountains past the small towns of Watervanboven and Watervalonder. I enjoined the drive through the mountains with the bus and was overwhelmed by the beauty of this area. As we took the offramp from the N4 to enter the city I notice black smoke coming out from behind the bus as I looked in the the side mirror of the bus and instantly realized that we lost a tire on the trailer and immediately pulled over to the emergency lane. As I got out of the bus to investigate what was happening Anita stoped behind the bus and shouted that the tire was burning. I turned around and ran back to the bus to get the fire extinguisher and ran back to the trailer to put out the fire.When I got their the flames was already licking on the side of the trailer and it took a few blasts with the extinguisher to put the fire out. We are so blessed not only could we have lost the trailer with all the stock for our sweets business but we also could have lost our home.
We ended off the day with a delicious family size pizza at Panarottis. No we are settling in nicely at a caravan park a few kilometers out of Nelspruit on the Barberton road enjoining t-shirt and flip-flop whether.
Cheers Karel.
