wedding (J1)

This is the last of the USA pictures, there was of course a wedding, so loads of photo opportunities with family.

This was at the rehearsal dinner, with a favourite sportsteam theme.

J2 and her grandma

And someone to take picture of us, which is nice for a change.

J3 was a flower girl at the wedding, together with little K. Here is a picture of them (and the candle lighter)

A picture of the flower girls with the bride

and the happy wedding couple

I also had a function at the wedding, I was an usher together with G.

and then the party started, J3 loved hanging out with the other kids

especially on the dancefloor.......

I promise we will post some recent Botswana stuff in the coming week.

J1

Pool days are here

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birthday (and Harley) (J1)

On my birthday we had a blast this year, thanks to great planning by J2. First presents and breakfast in our B&B:

And how about a horse and cart ride on an apple and pumpkin farm...

The pumpkins were looking great in the field, right in time for Halloween

J2 and JJ picking some apples....

There was a stop at a microbrewery, and then the very big surprize, a stop at......

Where I got a very nice rental Harley Davidson 2011 softtail for the next two days, to try the New England roads.

Of course J2 (and JJ) also had a try on the bike....

This is a nice picture of the bike with our little house on Lake Elmore in the background.

J1

new england (J1)

So we have just arrived back from a nice holiday in the USA, and are straight back into a heat wave in Botswana......It is taking some time getting used to again. I will try to put on a few posts with pictures from the USA trip.

The first week we spent travelling in New England with J3's grandpa and grandma, we also celebrated my birthday during this time.

On my birthday we started with a nice breakfast in a B&B, followed by some presents. After this we went to a local farmers market to buy ingredients for a birthday dinner, and also found some nice local brew (Rhubarb wine and local apple cider)
After the farmers market we went to a local micro brewery, to sample some of the local beers. I was keen on this for my birthday, but J2 insisted that we keep the drinking to a minimum, later that day I figured out why....(next post)

An example of a beautiful covered bridge, as can be found at many places in New England.

A visit to the 'Ben and Jerry' famous icecream factory, of course we sampled some of the favourite flavours.

The view from our cottage at lake Elmore in Vermont, a really scenic spot.

A visit to the Cabot cheese factory, where they had a very nice tasting set up to taste all the local cheeses.

I had wanted to visit some of the typical american diners, and this was certainly one of them. We enjoyed a great breakfast here.

Breakfast at the diner.....

This was our 'home' for 2 nights in Maine, a beatiful house on an island on the water.

Some sightseeing in the island...

And when in Maine, of course you have to eat lobster, lots of it! We enjoyed a great lunch at this small place in the harbour.

Lobster roll!

After having lobster at a few places, it was time to try and cook some ourselves!

And the result was very sattisfying!

More pictures from out trip in the next few days.

J1

old project (J1)

Many many years ago I acquired an old Kreidler Florett (small) motorcycle, 1966 model, 60cc, with 3 manual gears. The belonged to a family friend, who had been driving it himself as a teenager, and just parked it after he got is car drivers license. It needed some attention, both mechanically and cosmetically, and I started this project back in the Netherlands. Then.....I started moving to other places, and the old motorcycle ended up in storage, until earlier this year.

During our Christmas holiday in the Netherlands we made the plan to try and get it packed up and shipped to Botswana, so I could finally finish this project. It took some time to sort out the transport and paperwork, but it arrived in Botswana in late August. With a big thanks to an old neighbor who boxed and packed the motorcycle really well. Some pictures:

Delivery to our office, and loading into my car.
Crate at home, ready to be unpacked

Careful wrapping of all the parts

To keep the crate as small as possible, the Kreidler was partly disassembled.

Some of the parts

Now the big job is going to start, putting it all back together and finishing this project.

J1

in the garden (J1)

Some pictures of playing in the garden with papa, a couple of weeks ago.

J1

Scenes from the classroom...

JJ's school had "Market day" last week, where we got to go hang out in the classroom and admire all the art projects that all the classes made to sell at the "market".

Here's some shots from the Hoopoes (her class).



Cuddles with George & Angela....



Jules & Angela...

...and George

Zimbabwe trip (J1)

At the end of July Botswana always celebrates Presidents day, which gives us two public holidays and a nice long weekend. This year we decided to make use of this, and of all the flyer miles J2 had collected from flying to Maun for nearly 3 years......

We had a lovely 4 days in Zimbabwe, and finally got to see a little more of the country than just Vic Falls. The sad thing is that there are hardly any tourists there, due to all the bad press etc in relation to the political situation. Our assessment of the situation: EVERYONE IS MISSING OUT, Zimbabwe is really nice and very friendly to tourists.

We first went from Harare, where we arrived, about 3 hours east into the mountains. The landscape was really beautiful. We stayed in a place called.......(see picture)

Our lodge was called "Inn on Ruparara", and was at a really scenic spot with great views of the surrounding areas.

As an example: this was the view from our room / cabin.

There was also a very nice little bar called "Trevor's wine room"

And it was still winter, with VERY cold nights. Luckoly the lodge had some roaring fires going at nighttime and even hot water bottles in bed.

Here is a picture of some of the chalets at the lodge.

Of course we did some exploring in the area, and someone was really excited (to get out of the plane and car)

The next morning we joined a very experienced guide for a nice morning bush walk on the nearby gamefarm.

This is the Ruparara hill, which the lodge got it's name from.

The afternoon we did a gamedrive, on which we saw eland, giraffe, kudu, zebra, wildebeest, impala, etc. The gamedrive finished with sundowners...

And after the game drive warming up in front of the fire.

I don't have many pictures on Harare, where we spent the following two days, but we had a really nice time eating and drinking at some nice places, realxing and exploring the city. The above sign was at a small sanctuary.

J1