Family Holidays

Once a year we travel to Sundays River, which is just outside Port Elizabeth. As mentioned before, Mike grew up in Port Elizabeth and Sundays River is very close to his heart. Years ago his father bought a piece of land on Sundays River and started to build a holiday house, which was lovingly called "The Shack".Mike's Dad was a building teacher who loved the practical side of his teaching, so the building of the shack was in a sense a hobby to him.


The Shack as it was when Mike's Dad was building it. This is a view looking back up from the slipway.Many hours were spent at "The Shack", and every Christmas it was a gathering place for all the family. Here you could relax, go back to nature as there was no running water, no electricity - so there was no Television, just recharging your "batteries".	Mike's Dad working on The Shack.Every time he went to the Shack he busied himself with something

You would do this by fishing, reading and spending quality time with the family.

Here is a picture of Mike and Kudi throwing the thrownet to try and catch some mullet which are then used as livebait.

In 1986 Mike's parents moved down to Cape Town and sadly Mike's father died in January 1987.

In 1993 Mike's brother Ian, who lives in Johannesburg, finished building "The Shack".

Here is a picture of the Shack, also a view looking up from the slipway, once completed.


Looking at the shack from the roadside, one can see that in the early days it was fairly barren. The dog you see was our faithful friend Flossie. Mike bought her as a pedigreed bull terrier, but after six weeks something went wrong! Nevertheless, she was a lovely dog and had much character.	Here is a comparison of what the same picture looks like now.	In December 1994 we went back to The Shack, leaving Cape Town in the early hours of 25th December so we would be in time to have Christmas Dinner with Ian and his family. Once again we enjoyed the peace and tranquility The Shack gave us.This is us on the balcony of the shack in December 94, when Amy was just a year old.

Every year since we have been back and our children are now also beginning to enjoy the time spent at The Shack. Mike is happy again, as once a year he can try and catch a fish or two, as well as huge crabs, which is then cooked and served "in style"!

This is what I see every morning when I look for my family! Mike always thinks he can sneak out and have an hour or so by himself, but that is not to be!

At night time the River is so peaceful. The stars also shine very clear up there in the sky. Here is a picture of a sunset at the river.

When you look at this next picture, you can see the Sand Dune that reaches the waters edge. This is the swimming area. When a swim is called for we hop in the boat, and off we go to the swimming area. The children also have great fun climbing to the top of the dune and then running down straight into the water. At times they loose their balance and end up covered in sand which thankfully is easily washed off. I once climbed that dune - it took forever and I couldn't walk for three days after that!

Here is a close-up of one of the sand dunes.

Over a weekend and public holidays the river can become very busy, as all the "town" people come to their weekend homes, or people just come out to the river for the day. All sorts of watersport then takes place, for example skiing! Here is an example!

Here is a picture of Mike with a rather large specimen he caught in April 98. I also caught a large fish and am not quite sure why no picture was taken of my fish! The fish in question is called a Kabeljou or Cob as it is more commonly known as.

Here also is a picture showing the view up the river from The Shack.

Here is a front view of the boathouse, which has a little kitchen as well as a bathroom in it, and is our quarters when we are at The Shack.

Here is a view from the back.

The trees at the river were planted with much thought by Mike's brother, a few each year. They had to be sturdy and not need a tremendous amount of care, as only limited time is spent at the river, so he used trees indigenous to the area. They grew well as you can see by this picture. Now they provide shelter and shade when it is blistering hot!

Most of our evening meals are cooked on the open fire, which is known to us as a braai and is a very typical South African custom, not only on holidays but normal weekends as well.

Here is a picture of the children, sitting on the steps with Alice who was here on holiday from the U.K.

Here is a picture of the river, which had this thick layer of mist over it.

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