THE HIGHS AND LOWS
THE HIGHLIGHTS: • Snow in Lesotho
‘There was one thing we knew for sure when we set out on this trip: we wanted to see snow,’ says Cindy. ‘One evening, at the top of the Sani Pass in Lesotho, we finally got our wish. Little dustings of snow came down, and by the next morning, the area was covered in a blanket of snow. We had snow fights and built snowmen.’
• Kruger National Park
‘We spent a solid 10 days here; we saw the Big Five and even had lions about two metres away from our car! It really reminded me why we were doing this – being in nature and seeing wildlife is truly an incredible experience.’
• The unexpected places
‘Our trip through South Africa took us to many weird and wonderful places. While we wouldn’t recommend all the towns we visited, there were a few that surprised us, like Springbok. We spent Easter weekend there, and were blown away by its spectacular views.’
• Starting new family traditions
‘Living in close proximity can be intense, but it also taught us to forge new traditions. One was that every time we got to a town that had a chocolate shop, we’d each pick a chocolate to try. We also started playing more games in the evenings.’
THE LOW POINTS: • Optimus breaking down
‘We knew our old van was likely to break down, but we didn’t imagine it would happen quite so frequently! We were very tempted to just give up – set Optimus on fire (just kidding!) and go back to our lives. We kept going but in the end he arrived back home from Barberton on a flatbed truck!’
• Getting robbed at gunpoint
‘Almost halfway through our trip – on day 145 – we were robbed at gunpoint in the middle of the night while we were camping in Waterval Boven, Mpumalanga. Seth and I have made a conscious decision not to give the robbers power over us. We still love this country and believe it’s filled with so much hope. Our family has gone for counselling to help us process what happened.’
• Being sick on the trip
‘The worst tummy bug ever hit all five of us at the same time, just as we arrived at the Golden Gate Park. Luckily we were staying in a self-catering cottage and not in the van at the time but we didn’t see any sights.’