Day 1 South Africa Johannesburg to the Eastern Drakensberg mountains. (Hoedspruit)

Dear friends,

Keep building on the foundation of your most holy faith, as the Holy Spirit helps you to pray. And keep in step with God’s love.

June 20 : 21

We aren’t travelling with Bess and Bugsy but rather by air. This trip was cancelled twice due to covid but at last we are doing it. My father Bill is now 92 and we have come to see him and our family here. Shelly is my sister and you will often read her comments on my posts.

We arrived at Tambo Airport with no problems. Face masks were warn by everyone and passengers were well spaced. The queue for the hire car had a two hour wait so tourists are returning.

Then for a large section of the trip from Johannesburg to Dullstroom we experienced heavy rain using our hazard warning lights as visibility was poor. It was a reminder of the storms I experienced as a child while living in Johannesburg from the age of eight to eleven. A time I will cover a little of in my posts on childhood memories. We didn’t go into Johannesberg but rather past Benoni and a few of the grass covered mine dumps. I have childhood memories of these enormous left overs from mining gold being yellow, dusty and sometimes shining gold in the distance when wet. My father worked as a nurse in one of these mining hospitals looking after miners injured during their ardious task of extracting gold. It was a time of remembering when driving past them again.

Earth laughs in flowers.

Ralph Waldo Emmerson

Happiness held in a seed;

Happiness shared in a flower.

John Harrigan