Last Night In Tiny

Come the end of March and we had a tiny tour planned. Below was our plan.
Sun 28th Morgans Bay

Mon 29th Port St Johns

Tues 30th Port St Johns

Wed 31st Hibberdene

Thurs 1st Hibberdene

Friday 2nd Hibberdene

Saturday 3rd Lady Grey

Sunday 4th Lady Grey

Monday 5th Mountain Zebra Park

Tuesday 6th Home.

After seeing off Kirstie at the Airport (she was off on Eurotour). We set off to Morgans Bay arriving just before dark. The start or our holiday was a bit of a disaster as the Porta Potti fluid had leaked all over the inside of the nose cone and we had chosen the only camp site in SA who still had the old fashioned cravan plug points and we didn't and they didn't have a proper adaptor. Eventually though we managed to get something sorted out. Campsite and view were stunning. The photo above on the right is the view from our site.

Little did we know that this was to be the last night in Tiny which tragically met its end in Mthatha (Umtata) the next day.

Cape St Francis 13 to 14 February 2010

On the Valentines day weekend we decided to take a short break and go back to a place we had often camped/caravanned at when the kids were much smaller (in the late nineties) , the Cape St Francis Resort near the Seal Point lighthouse. We had always enjoyed Cape St Francis which used to have something a retro feel, I would imagine something like Jeffreys Bay was 30 years ago. The resort too had a special feel about it, especially the pub which was rather rustic and in which I never heard music played whose vintage was younger than the seventies !

Alas, although the resort does still have campsites, it has mostly been taken over by chalets and upmarket accomodation. I guess the real estate was too valuable and the lure of the almighty dollar too great, what a shame.

The village itself though remains largely unchanged and in my view still retains a special atmosphere.

Some pics of the resort :-

From left to right

Beachfront luxury accomodation, this area used to be camp sites with a fantasic view over the sea.

A row of chalets. Used to be campsites seperated by hedges of indigenous flora

What used to be the playground !!

Having said all this there are still a number of campsites although many are closed and cannot be used and many are overlooked from the windows/balconies of the chalets. The facillities though are still good. As we were only there for one night we didn't worry to much about the location of the site but quickly set up tiny and then headed to the beach for lunch.

Above ; tiny on site and Ness coming back to the beach

Heres "the" shop in town and the pub where we went for supper. We were going to go to the resturant at the resort but despite the fact that we had tried to book the day before when we booked the campsite, we had been told it was not necessary when we arrived and asked about supper we were told that the resturant was closed that night for a private function. Annoying to say the least !!

After the beach we headed back to the site to change and then take a drive down to the rocks to watch the sunset before going to the resturant for supper. The sunset was spectacular and this is a very poor photograph of it :

The evening was very interesting because when we got to the resturant it was closed ! Apparently the kitchen staff hadn't turned up for work. Eventually they agreed to serve us lasagne which we ate on the deck. After supper we played backgammon where we we joined by a guy in a genuine German army helmet who wanted to play against Ness> Well that was the beginning of a series of games which went on all night with Vanessa eventually ended up triumphant, although from where I was sitting cheating was a key skill of both players !!

Leaving the pub after an enjoyable, if unexpected evening, we were soon settled in tiny and fast asleep. The next morning we decided to pack up early and take tiny down to the beachfront for breakfast, which we did !

After a excellent breakfast with an even better view we decided to head for home. On the way home we took a detour through Oyster Bay to look at the Caravan Park and then stopped at the Olive Tree Junction for tea/coffee. An interesting stop !

We got home at about 3.00pm after a wonderful night away !

Tiny nearly meets a Jumbo

Our first trip for 2010 was a quick trip to Addo for one night. All the mods on Tiny worked well, but we chose an extremely hot weekend !

As you can see it was to hot, even for the animals !

So the human animals had to cool down

Collecting the new revamped Tiny

We left on Sunday the 20th December to collect Tiny, driving up to Johannesburg in one day. We arrived at the B&B in Edenvale with about an hour of light left and had a swim to wash the dust of the day off us, followed by some refreshments.

The next morning we received a phone call from Neville to say the coffee was waiting and just after 9.00pm we were at the factory. Where we collected the new upgraded Tiny which we were both thrilled with.

After inspecting all the changes, having numerous cups of tea and having some more minor changes made we eventually left Johannesburg at about lunch time and headed towards Bloemfontein, stopping at a one stop for lunch. We were heading towards Bloemfontein and hoping to spend the night at a place called Bains. We stopped at an interesting petrol station/shop on the road which made a change to the One Stop/Star Shop/Ultra Cities.

When we got there though we found out that there was no longera campsite there. We then decided to stop at Toms Place which we had driven past many times and always wondered what was there. The answer is not much !

On Tuesday morning we left Toms Place for Middelburg, a much shorter drive with the intention of a nice relaxing stop at Cara Chalets. What we didn't anticipate was just how hot it would be. Nonetheless a pleasant afternoon and evening was spent in Middelburg athough it was marred by a personal tragedy befalling the owner of the site shortly after our arrival.

After the night in Middelburg, it was back home to prepare for Christmas and plan our first getaway.

Modifications

After using JT (our name for tiny) for nearly a year we decided that some minor modications were required and so in October 2009 did another of those mad weekend trips to Johannesburg. It was in fact so busy that we didn't even remember to take any photographs. Here's s brief outline of the trip though.

Friday - finish work at 2.30 and get get picked up in Uitenhage by Vanessa who has JT in tow. Drive to Gariep Dam arriving at about 8.00 pm. Stay in B&B.

Saturday - leave clothes etc in B&B and head towards Johannesburg. Meet Neville at the Kroonval Engen One Stop. Have lunch with Neville, discuss modifications required, unhook JT which Neville takes back to factory whilst we head back to Gariep arriving at about 8.00pm.

Sunday - Home via Craddock, stopped in Steynsburg for Ginger Beer and Nanaga Farm Stall for pies.

Long trip !

Modifications to be done :

1)Fitting of small basin and pump

2)Additional plug points inside.

3)Fitting of easy awn on side (side without door)

4)Fitting of plug bank on outside on side with easy awn.

5)Fitting of table on on outside on side with easy awn.

6)Replacement of all tables with fibreglass tables.

7)Bolts on doors to enable locking from inside.

8)Hatch into cupboard from outside.

9)Modernisation of Dinette layout inside.