Before we head to our next destination, let’s just do a quick montage of all of the other stuff that happened at Murray’s place!!

Each morning there are pots of coffee and water sitting by the campfire…..

I found this scene to be comforting!!!

One of the nights was Murray’s parents’ 54th wedding anniversary and we were invited to be part of the celebration. It was so special to help celebrate with Andre & Val…..

We ate in an upstairs room that was decorated and set up beautifully. We had a menu…..

The food was amazing…..

And we had Malva Pudding for dessert…..

We have enjoyed this dessert twice now so I looked up the recipe and will definitely make it at home. You can check it out HERE.

There were several interesting decorations in the main sitting area, starting with these bowls….

….but my best discovery was a fiber art piece hiding under a display….

It was much larger than I expected so I asked two of the camp staff to help display it…..

Isn’t this a great design!!!

Speaking of the staff, our chef was Lamie….

She was originally Murray’s Nannie and has been with the family for a lot of years!!

Her assistant was Poosh…..

She was always busy working at some task!!

I made a quick spin around the property one morning and enjoyed seeing some of the flora of the area. This cactus reminded me of Texas…..

As I was wandering around, I noticed this small cactus laying in the path…..

This is a form of a jumping cholla, and I knew enough about it to know that there was a “parent plant” somewhere around. Sure enough, about 2 feet away I found this one…..

If you have never seen these plants, the “nodes” come off easily as you brush past them and MAN are they sticky!!!

You also have to watch out for a number of trees with thorns….. LONG THORNS…..

Finally, I wanted to share an amazing live wreath that they had….

The bottom portion of the wreath is a section of a bike/motorcycle tire that has been filled with potting soil and the succulents are planted there…..

It was gorgeous!!

So it is time to say good-bye to Murray’s place and Kat River…..

Now it is time to move on to our next place…..stay tuned!!!

Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

Be sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss a single trip!!

After a quick overnight stay in Johannesburg, we were in the air again heading to the Eastern Cape. Now, I knew NOTHING about Africa geography, so needed to look at a map to see exactly where we were going.

This is Africa, with South Africa in the lower right…..

THEN, there are numerous regions within South Africa…..

…and we were headed to the Eastern Cape.

We flew into East London and drove to our first destination along the Kat River (marked in blue)….

James Quin (fondly named Quinny) picked us up at the airport and drove us to the new camp. I kept seeing groups of young people walking along the road and quickly snapped a shot thru the car window. I was amazed when I looked closer at the photo…..

I had NO idea that they were singing as they walked along!!!

Once we left East London, we never passed thru another highly populated area but houses were scattered all along the way….

We arrived at Murray and Yvette’s place (we nicknamed it Murray’s place) just after lunch and were immediately made to feel right at home. We walked down a long walkway…..

to get to our hut…..

I have never been “up-close-and-personal” with thatching and it was interesting to see how many layers of material were used….

Note that it had been raining and you can see that the rain only penetrated about 1/4 of the way thru the thatch!!!

It was equally interesting to look up into the rafters of our room…..

I was afraid that the room wouldn’t stay warm but the propane heater that they provided kept everything snug!!

I loved the designs in the wall stucco…..

Regardless of how nice our accommodations were, the real heart of Murray’s place is at the Fire Pit…..

If I sat at the firepit, this is what I saw…..

…. sitting room on the left and kitchen on the right. This is shot in panorama view so it looks flat but in reality, this makes a neat Horseshoe shape!!

Although they have a stove and oven in the kitchen, much of the cooking takes place outside. On the first night, they cooked steaks. To do this, they moved coals from the fire…..

….to a shallow stone pit…..

Then a grate was swung over the coals and Quinny cooked the steaks…..

It was a magnificent meal that started with spicy mussels…..

…..and ended with perfectly cooked steak and fries…..

Since the weather was nice, we ate on small tables in front of the fire…..

And when it started to get chilly, they gave us seatwarmers. Not the kind that Michael has in his new truck!!! These were cast iron “skillets” that were filled with coals and placed under your chair…..

It was AMAZING just how much warmth it provided!!

Murray’s place was our base of operations for the next three days so stay tuned for more…..

Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

Be sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss a single trip!!