Once again we have some questions from Di at Pensitivity101 to answer.

 What kind of vacations did you have as a child?

When I was a pre-schooler I lived for three years in goldmine-littered Johannesburg which was far from the sea. The rest of the family on both sides resided in Cape Town and so my earliest holiday memories are of travelling there and back in the family Opal Caravan (Station Wagon). My two siblings and I, beside ourselves with excitement at leaving in the dead of night, would cuddle up together on a mattress at the back of the vehicle and finally fall asleep while Dad drove the 1400 kms, stopping only for loo breaks and picnic breakfasts and lunches at the side of the road. Then we would have three glorious weeks of family, sun and sea at Fish Hoek Beach.

When I was five we relocated to Fish Hoek and my father said that since we lived in a holiday resort it would not be necessary to go away for a holiday. But we did visit the Kruger National Park when I was seven years old and The Lakes at Wilderness when I was thirteen.

Have any of those remained favourites now that you’re an adult?

Although I only visited Kruger National Park once as a child, I never forgot it. I was forty-two years old when I went again and have been almost every year since.

What has been your best vacation ever?

This is a difficult one to answer. I have had so many awesome holidays. Game reserves aside I would say that the best holiday I had was cruising for a month from Mauritius to Venice in 2019.

Another very memorable holiday was in 1998 when we visited Australia. We did Sydney, Central, Sunshine and Gold Coast and also spent a few days bareboating in the Whitsunday Islands. It was truly amazing.

When our grandchildren were 7, 10, 14 and 15, we took them to Kruger National Park for the first time. This turned out to be totally amazing. We played game spotting games to keep their interest peaked but found that having four of them really worked well. The cousins got on super-well and the older two boys kept the younger two eager, engaged and entertained while travelling in the car as well as the time spent at the campsites. We have taken them on holidays since then but that one was certainly the best as seeing their delight at each sighting gave us more pleasure than seeing the creatures ourselves.

I blogged about this trip here

Do you prefer resorts where there are no kids allowed?

I don’t mind having kids around but at 70, a resort geared especially for families is not on my list of places to go. Now that we can, we travel out of school holidays. When we are caravanning off-season we find that there are very few children around but if there are we are quite happy to see them enjoying nature and the great outdoors.