When Grandpa came to stay…

Grandpa at Pretoriuskop Camp, Kruger

It hardly seems possible that two months have passed since our last blog. Our five week visit to the UK was unrelentingly busy: doctors, dentists, orthodontists, opticians, Marks and Spencer (!) – all had to be fitted in, along with the essential get-togethers with all those we’d missed over the past year.

A HUGE thank you to our dear friends Patty and Mark for their unfailing hospitality, and for providing us with a cosy nest from which we flew out constantly and to which we returned like roosting starlings, ready to sleep and eat in preparation for the next outing.

For all those who we didn’t get to see this time, we’re so sorry. But it was wonderful to spend time with everyone we did see, and particularly to be with Ben again to celebrate his 18th birthday and spend a few relaxing days in Saundersfoot. Thank you, Richard and Mair, for allowing us to stay in your beautifully renovated holiday home – we will recommend it to anyone who asks!

And so, we returned to Mozambique, refreshed and renewed, with Grandpa in tow. It was a joy to bring my father back to the Africa he loved so much – after twenty-three years in Malawi, I think it has always, somehow, felt like home to him. There were stresses, of course, getting him here – gone are the colonial privileges which made life in Africa easier all those years ago – but the essential Africa he found the same: the stunning light of dawn and dusk; the familiar sounds of birds and crickets; the beauty of bougainvillea, acacia and coral tree; the raised voices of Africans going about their daily business.

Sunrise, Kruger

On the very first morning, Grandpa was to be found sitting on our veranda (or ‘konde’, as he called it), drinking tea in his dressing-gown, reading his Bible, writing his diary and watching the sunrise. He did this almost every day. I can’t believe I didn’t take a photo – but it is the image I will always remember most clearly.  When I went out today and saw the sun lounger (which I acquired recently with Grandpa in mind), it looked sadly empty without his familiar figure lying on it.

Some highlights for Grandpa included:

• meeting Lydia and Lovemore and seeing our home for the first time;
• swimming in the pools and in the Indian Ocean with William;

Swimming with Will

• eating breakfast at the waterhole in Swaziland’s Hlane Game Park;
• relaxing amidst the beauty of Kruger’s flora and fauna and seeing a wild cheetah for the first time in his life;

Cheetah at dawn

• attending, and preaching at, a joyous service in Pretoriuskop Camp village church;

Preaching in Pretoriuskop

• walking around Nelspruit’s glorious Botanical Garden;

Nelspruit Botanical Garden

• eating out at the Clube Naval and at the old Portuguese Station in Maputo;

Inside Maputo's old railway station

• enjoying a delicious home-cooked South African meal with our Afrikaans friends, Isabella, Werner and Owald;

Squashed on the sofa with Isabella and Werner!

• watching our crazy cats and dog playing in the garden;
• reminiscing about past experiences in Africa with his daughter (I’d heard a few of the anecdotes before, but many were new, and as vividly described as if they had happened yesterday).

Of course there are always ‘lowlights’ too – and I think he would agree that these mainly consisted of plane journeys, border crossings, yapping dogs, reckless drivers, noisy neighbours and haggling for gifts! All part of the package, when living in Africa… of course, he also missed Mum/Granny a lot and wished she could have shared it all with him, as did we all. Oh, and he  nearly got squashed by our electric gate – but that’s another story (sorry, Dad)!

Bless you, Dad/Grandpa, and thank you for sharing such a special time with us in our current home. And thank you to Andrew, Diana and Auntie Daphne for making it all possible.

Grandpa with family at Kruger

Above the Mbuluzi River, Swaziland

Grandpa's (now empty) sun lounger

The sun sets over Africa