New Year New Journey

Joe. Blogs #112 – Sunday 12 January 2024

NEW YEAR NEW JOURNEY

Howzit guys!

Life’s a journey, enjoy the ride! I love this idea, but it needs some explanation.

For me, the journey has been an interesting one. Life is a journey, but it’s made up of lots of different journeys. Kind of like a road trip.

I have always loved road trips. I hate trying to get somewhere in one go! When we decided to relocate to the Cape two years ago, I decided to break the long trip into three days. We stayed over in Colesberg, Prince Albert and lastly in Greyton.

For me, its about breaking up the long hours in the car by discovering new places and literally finding time to look around and enjoy the scenery.

As a child my parents always booked an overnight stop in Colesberg, and I have many happy memories of these family trips going to the Cape for the school holidays. Flying was not such a big thing in those days.

I remember staying at a place called the Merino Motel and specifically remember the stunningly dark Karoo skies at night and the very yummy roast lamb dinners.

So, with these memories in mind, I was happy to book our first night in Colesberg.

Prince Albert and Greyton were new towns that I had not been to before. Both were unique in different ways, but it was also the scenery that we saw driving between these towns, as apposed to just driving straight down the N1!

Greyton was our last stop, and it was a very ‘arty’ town with lots of a of nice restaurants. It was only 1,5 hours from Cape Town so we would definitely consider visiting it again for a weekend away.

Arriving in the Cape then started our real-life journey.

My life’s journey originally always saw me staying in JHB, working until retirement and then who knows but things are very different now and my journey in JHB ended and I had to find a new one.

Finding a new journey wasn’t a difficult one initially as we knew where we wanted to go but changing journey’s rather than just the destination can be a very daunting one!

Choosing to go to the Cape was something I never thought possible as I could not see how I could get away from my life in JHB. We get so fixed into our lives, caught up in all the stress and challenges that we do not ever think about changing it. We accept it and move on. Why? I am not sure, maybe to prove something to ourselves or others??

But at the end of the day, we need to realise that not only is life a journey but that the journey can change completely!

I started my new journey without really knowing the destination! The destination was somewhere other than JHB and that is all I knew.

Two years into my new journey and although I still have not finalised my destination, but the journey itself is a lot more fun and rewarding!

It’s super scary not knowing the destination, at least at first but now I realise that that is ok…

Let the journey decide its own destination.

Just commit to the direction and enjoy the ride!

Speaking of road trips, we have just returned from a quick road trip out to a glamping spot along the Breede River, just outside the little town of Swellendam.

This is also the reason for the late blog post!

The glamping holiday was an amazing break from our recent day to day lives and a nice way to end the school holidays! We were completely off the grid, relying solely on solar power. The kids had an amazing time swimming in the river and playing board games with us. A really nice family bonding experience!

We are back home in Somerset West now, our new home and ready for the New Year!

I will see you on the other side and hope that your journey this year is an amazing one!!

Later,???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Joe.blogs