Ulog 4 - All good things come to an end.

After we have ridden 2278 km we are safely back home. Our holiday came to an end this past Saturday.

Just to recap:
We rode from our home in Glenmore Beach, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa to my hubby's brother and sister-in-law in Boksburg, Gauteng Province.

Ready to hit the road on 30 August 2018, on hubby's birthday.

That trip was 709 km. We stayed there for 4 days catching up with all the family, and being spoiled rotten by my sister- and brother-in-law. We ate a lot!

We and also visited my brother and sister-in-law in Pretoria which added another 100 km return trip.

My brother and his 4 daughters, Michelle the one on the far left is getting married on 30 September. Note the Jacaranda trees in the back. Pretoria is known for it's Jacaranda trees.

https://charlsteenkamp.com/southafrica/

We then departed from Boksburg and rode 515 km to Kimberley, Northern Cape Province. This is where my mother-in-law lives. I made a whole post about our stay there.
https://steemit.com/ulog/@hope777/ulog-3-our-holiday-part-3

Kimberley is known for the Big Hole which is a big tourist attraction

By Bjørn Christian Tørrissen - Own work by uploader, http://bjornfree.com/, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46821872

The Big Hole, Open Mine, Kimberley Mine or Tim Kuilmine[1] (Afrikaans: Groot Gat) is an open-pit and underground mine in Kimberley, South Africa, and claimed to be the largest hole excavated by hand, although this claim is disputed.

Kimberley is an old city with a very rich heritage and history:

As miners arrived in their thousands the hill disappeared and subsequently became known as the Big Hole (or Kimberley se Gat in Afrikaans) or, more formally, Kimberley Mine. From mid-July 1871 to 1914, 50,000 miners dug the hole with picks and shovels, yielding 2,722 kg of diamonds. The Big Hole has a surface of 17 hectares (42 acres) and is 463 metres wide. It was excavated to a depth of 240 m, but then partially infilled with debris reducing its depth to about 215 m; since then it has accumulated water to a depth of 40 m leaving 175 m visible. Beneath the surface, the Kimberley Mine underneath the Big Hole was mined to a depth of 1097 metres. A popular local myth claims that it is the largest hand-dug hole on the world, however Jagersfontein Mine appears to hold that record.[13] The Big Hole is the principal feature of a May 2004 submission which placed "Kimberley Mines and associated early industries" on UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative Lists.[14][15]
By 1873 Kimberley was the second largest town in South Africa, having an approximate population of 40,000.[16]

In Kimberley. we spend a lot of time with hubby's mother and his son, Adrian. Before this trip we saw them more than a year and a half ago.

So you can imagine it was quite a reunion and we had a great time and was spoiled with "mother's food" the best tasting food in all of the world for any child. We stayed more than 10 days here.

It was time to say goodbye to mommy and Kimberley.

We then travelled 160km to Bloemfontein in the Free State Province to see Hubby's daughter, the beautiful Carin and our precious granddaughter, Hailey.

Due to work we could only see them for an afternoon and an evening. It was way too short but I suppose better than not seeing them at all. We spend some precious time together and tried to make the most of it.

We slept over at Opihoek Guesthouse, wish we could have stayed longer here, but duty was also calling at home.

https://travelground.imgix.net

We had a good and warm night's rest and the next morning we started the last 800 km home. We left at 7 am and were home at 3h30 am. Our doggies and the cat was overjoyed to see us and we them. All the other family at home was also glad that we were home safely.

Now, not a fancy guesthouse, its my room, my house, my rules! It's nice to visit with family but you are subject to their way of keeping house, cooking etc. Home sweet home still the best place to be! What can be better than this view?

Thank you for reading and looking! Remember if you want to visit the East Coast of South Africa, I do holiday letting and help with good and affordable holiday accomodation. Blessings!

Photos my own except where stated otherwise.

@hope777 & @scotty777