If this gazebo could talk…

I’d like to share this ode to our gazebo. In 2007, we camped at Weesgerus, just outside Modimolle, but there was hardly any shade on our stand. So, we decided to look for a gazebo in town. After an exhaustive search, we found the last one in stock at the local co-op: a 3x3 m Bushtec with an aluminium frame. At that time, we’d camp with a tent. Later, it would be a caravan, which we then sold when our youngest daughter Danika left home to study – at which time we returned to tents. Seeing as she recently completed her studies, we bought a caravan again – and the gazebo is still going strong. This gazebo can tell a number of tales: in 2011, we attended the Innibosveld music festival and the gazebo provided welcome shade. On several coastal vacations, it worked like a charm on the beach, precisely because it’s so easy to set up. And that aluminium frame won’t rust. In October 2015, we loaned the gazebo to my eldest daughter Shandré and her husband, Wynand Botha, for their honeymoon – also by the sea. That’s when a gust of wind got hold of the gazebo and broke a section of the frame. Luckily, my father-in-law, James du Toit, managed to repair it, using his boiler-maker skills. The canvas tore in a thunderstorm while we were camping at the Olifants River Lodge in December 2019. Luckily, the damage wasn’t too bad, and we fixed it with duct tape. The following year, we bought an extra gazebo – the dome type – but we’ve already sold it. The Bushtec, however, is still going strong. We had heavy rain on a recent trip to Dinokeng, and Shandré’s tent leaked like a sieve. The gazebo came to our rescue again: even though the frame didn’t fit over the tent, we used it as a fly sheet. The bag shows its age and the canvas also doesn’t look too great with all the duct tape, but there’s nothing wrong with the frame. I think it’s time to have a new bag and canvas made that matches the colour scheme of our caravan’s tent.