Doug and Kerry Hudson in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

World Trip >> Africa >> Kwa-Zulu Natal >> Pietermaritzburg

A lot of the time we spent in South Africa, we stayed with Kerry’s parents in Pietermaritzburg. We tell you, it’s the best five star budget accommodation you will find anywhere! Lou, Kerry’s mum, spoiled us rotten with tea in bed, freshly baked scones, peanut butter biscuits, chocolate crunchies and rusks, and so on. We were greeted every morning by the dogs, Mishka and Jamie, who crashed into our room and leapt onto the bed squealing in delight and trying to give us lots of licks. As you can tell, we enjoyed ourselves there very much.

We were not completely idle however, as Lou put us to work around the house and in the garden. Doug painted lots of plant pots. We got even more painting experience when we gave our room a new lick of paint. It really made our arms ache reaching up the whole time. The good news was that we made a reasonably professional looking job of it, and the room looked much better. Kerry also whitewashed the laundry, which had been covered in Chris’ graffiti since he was at school. We also helped our friends paint the inside of their new house. We resolved that we would never paint another house until we have painted our own (whenever that may be).

Kerry also helped out in the garden, as well as tidying out the spare room. Meanwhile Doug took the shears to the may bush that runs the entire length of the driveway. This bush had been growing out at all angles, but once Doug had finished it was all neat and straight. He was in a plant chopping frenzy, and continued to chop back another bush from the garden path. He finished off by cutting back the avocado tree where it was also blocking the path. From then on you didn’t have to duck and weave like Lennox Lewis just to get to the bottom of the garden...

We took the newspapers piled up in the garage down to the recycling centre and received R40 for our trouble. This made us feel really good, because:

We’d done our bit for the environment,
We’d freed a lot of space in the garage, and
We got some money for a load of old rubbish!

Kerry’s parents Lou and Rowley were looking for a smaller house with a smaller garden. This was why we were making so many cosmetic improvements to the house and garden, to make it more saleable. Several different estate agents visited to value the property. The most recent agent to visit said it was worth R100,000 more than the value the first agent that visited put on it. Either our home improvements made a world of difference, or they were really desperate for business...

Doug’s parents, Margaret and Dick, flew out to South Africa at the beginning of October for a holiday. We joined them at their accommodation at the Midlands Saddle and Trout for a lovely meal. They didn't try horse riding or fishing during their five days there, as they were too busy driving all over the Midlands enjoying themselves on the local tourist trail. We then hosted them here for a couple of days, too. The first evening we took them to the Boston BBQ. This is a restaurant at the Golden Horse casino, and it overlooks the racecourse in Pietermaritzburg. You pay just R75, the equivalent of GBP4.75, and you can eat all you like from the buffet. The best thing about it was the vast selection of dishes on offer. There were over 140 different dishes. You have never seen anything like it! The dishes ranged from traditional fare, such as salads, fish, roast meats, vegetables, Chinese and Indian, to exotic delicacies such as guinea fowl, ostrich and even crocodile. In case you are curious, crocodile meat looks like fish but tastes rather like chicken. You could even cook it in a red wine sauce and call it "croc au vin". And if you still have space after all that, there is a selection of thirty different desserts to choose from!

After their two days with us, Margaret and Dick then jetted off to Port Elizabeth for the next leg of their journey, to follow the Garden Route to Cape Town. We joined them there a week later...

World Trip >> Africa >> Kwa-Zulu Natal >> Pietermaritzburg

Last updated: Sunday August 27, 2006