Wednesday Nov. 14th – Sunday Nov.18th (Port Elizabeth and Homeward Bound)

Wednesday we were up early and after a quick farewell breakfast with Rose, we were on our way back to Port Elizabeth, a 500 mile drive from where we were in Grotto Bay. We stopped for lunch at the internet café in Sedgefield and posted the blog while eating lunch, then on to PE and we arrived at Wout & Vilia’s home at about 6.30. They had some wool farmer friends who were in town for the annual wool sales and we all walked to a local Indian restaurant for an excellent curry meal. We got to bed early.

On Thursday we moved back to the flat at Christian Meyer’s home close to the beachfront and in the evening we went to dinner at Brian & Gail Rainbow’s home at Kings Crest townhouses right across the road. Brian also invited Wally & Sheila Shear who live in the same complex. Alison’s first job in Port Elizabeth in 1968 was secretary to Wally’s dad, Abe Shear, or “old man Shear” as Alison called him, at the law firm Shear & Shear. Wally, then “young Mr. Shear”, who is now 72, told us his dad died at 64!

Friday we had a short brisk walk along the beachfront together, after which we had a few “administrative” things to sort out, but managed to get back to the beachfront for lunch. In the evening we went for a second curry evening at the home of Lawrence & Imelda Augustine, but this time, we were joined by Jim & Debbie Gray and Mike & Felicity Campbell. Lawrence, Jim, Mike, Felicity and I had all worked together at Shatterprufe, and we had a fun and somewhat boisterous evening talking about old times and also the future of South Africa. We laughed about a “Whites Only” sign that Lawrence has on one of his internal doors in his home that “disappeared” from a bench in front of the Shatterprufe offices where people would sit at lunchtime, but we all knew that it wasn’t funny back then. Fortunately, once it “disappeared” it was never replaced.

Saturday morning I went for a final walk along the beachfront with Christian and we were joined by Monica, a German guest staying in a second apartment at the Meyers’ home. Monica has limited English but walked well! On the way back, we stopped at Barney’s pub on the beachfront and Vic Wolff joined us for a couple of beers, thus negating any positive effects of our two hour walk! Alison & I then crammed in some last minute shopping and lunch before joining Christian & Vic in Christian’s “media room” (or theatre) where we watched the ATP Masters tennis semi-final between Federer and Nadal coming from Shanghai. After a shower and a quick clothes change, we were back down in Christian’s bar having cocktails with him and Marlies before we all went off to our respective evening functions. From there we met V&C at Chippie & Pam Henderson’s, where we had more “farewell” champagne before we all went to the “Ocean Grill” for dinner. Back to V&C for some more farewell gifts (please not too heavy!) and a couple of ports to round off the evening. We got to bed the day we were leaving.

Sunday was THE moving day! One of the suitcases had been packed even before we went to Swellendam and left behind at the Offermans, although Alison did finalize the contents one more time on Sunday morning. We were invited to the Meyers for breakfast and then Marlies lent us her bathroom scales so that we could check the weight of the suitcases (limit of 20kg per case). I also made the mistake of weighing myself which was very depressing! We loaded up the rental car and made one more stop at the Offermans and dropped off a few things we intended to leave behind. On to the airport and dropped off the rental car and then we checked in for a flight to Joburg. Vic & Carol had headed to the airport and we met up with them in domestic departures for one last drink before we went through security. What a fantastic time it has been and many thanks to Vic for his superb organization. We arrived in Joburg on time and made our way to International and checked in. No issues at all. We boarded early and took off 7.15 pm SA time. We were on our way home!