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Already the end of April?

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April 29 - Last night in Port Elizabeth.  Tomorrow morning, I will drive 4 hours north to Ganora Guest Farm, saying goodbye to Addo and the Port Elizabeth area. It has been an amazing visit in lots of different ways.  The Kraal guesthouse was a little challenging on a few fronts. My arrival appeared to be at an inconvenient time for the hosts. That said, after a confusing few days, we agreed I would spend my time painting small murals on the walls of four new guest units.  Instead of the required 5 hours/5 days each week, I started work around 8 and finished around 5 every day until I was sure I would complete the project. Painting on concrete presented some new challenges and learning opportunities. In the end, I was happy with the result and the owner appreciated the effort and the art. Each room is named for a citrus variety and that defined the painting. Then I added a mock frame to give the illusion of a hung painting. I added regional birds and a butterfly to balance the painting
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Catching up with pictures - April 10th

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How time flies! I am so far behind with this update that I am just going to tells the story in pictures. In between outings, I am hanging out at H&W’s house, painting a few things on walls and enjoying the local restaurants. The neighborhood could easily be mistaken for Southern California if you don’t notice the gated walls around the houses.  In reverse order, because I don’t know how to force this app to do it the other way around -  30 minutes from Johannesburg is the Cradle Moon lodge and recreation area. We had a nice Sunday afternoon outing; walk around the lake, up close to some animals and a nice lunch overlooking the dam. Heather’s famous charcuterie board, just a quick snack for the kitchen pro! Amazing rhino encounter during the morning game drive in Dinokeng Game Reserve. This reserve is less than an hour from Pretoria and was created through the collaboration of more than 170 land owners who were committed to working together to support conservation and make a reserve
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Glider ride, off-roading and drive back to Pretoria

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March 12-19 Glider Ride Having made good progress on the mural, there was time for a play day. A friend of Michelle’s knew a local glider pilot who operated out of a nearby airfield. The weather was perfect when we arrived, clear sky’s, hill’s heating up in the morning sun. The glider was a self-launch with a small motor in the front. That meant we could take off unassisted. It also gave us a huge safety net because the motor would overcome the drag in areas where there was no lift. The conditions and terrain would have made flying without the safety net really challenging. Catching the lift off the ridge My pilot, Martin, was happy to be flying with another pilot and gave me control of the airplane as soon as we were at a safe altitude. He tried to explain mountain flying which is unlike any other flying I have done. It took some getting used to but once I got a fell for it, I was able to maintain airspeed, navigate and find some lift and ended up flying about half of the 3-hour fligh
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Winterton and beyond! It has been an amazing week in and around Winterton. It’s difficult to capture Winterton because there isn’t really a central town. I borrowed these images to capture the gist of the place  Michelle and I spent most of the 6th tossing mural ideas back and forth and out the window. Looking at the scaffolding, the building surface, and getting a better sense of what matters the most to my host, and the scope of what I could accomplish in two weeks, the design became clear. What we settled on was an image I had been playing with and a quote I saw in Michelle’s kitchen. It wasn’t vaguely related to anything we had talked about in the past. Step one - stabilize the scaffolding with a few bricks and an inner tube that happened to be nearby in the yard.  Step two - rough in the shapes with chalk to get a feel for scale and proportion, map out a matrix that would allow me to transfer the design to the wall. Step 3 - lots more, just dig in and get it done.  As with th
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The house is very nice, fairly new and made of concrete walls with old fashioned tin plate ceilings.  Like any farm house, there are animals who share the space, both inside and outside.  I got up to pee around 3 am, not too unusual for me but not welcomed. I didn’t turn on the light for the short trip to the bathroom. No need, it was just a few feet away. Turning on the light just wakes up the brain way more than is necessary and definitely inhibits going quickly back to sleep. As I closed the bedroom door, slowly and quietly so as to not wake the host, I had trouble getting it to close completely. Odd, I thought, it had closed easily in the past. I was keen to get the bedroom door to latch completely because I had heard and seen a bat when I opened the door to go to the bathroom. I didn’t know where the bat was but figured it wasn’t in my bedroom and that a door firmly closed was important for keeping it out. My host had warned me that the farmhouse attracted bats. I had seen one loo
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Busy first week in South Africa

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 I arrived at the Johannesburg airport after roughly 24 hours of travel feeling pretty good and very excited to see Heather and Will. Having somewhere to stay and someone picking me up at the airport took most of the stress out of prepping to leave home. Heather drove us to their house in Pretoria through rush hour traffic and I was grateful to be jet lag numb so I didn’t panic on the freeway. It was like LA traffic on steroids! Cats Allen and Katza allowed me in the house after some dubious inspections. It was amazing to see familiar furnishing from the Seattle house, like some sort of crazy transport. Will has done a great job creating an outdoor space that reflects his style and incorporates local finds/forages. He mentioned an interest in adding some art to the garden walls which gave me a chance to warm up my painting skills before the big mural project. Will wanted a pet turtle so I hid one for him. I was included in their busy social life - attended a braai (bar b que), watched
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PetTeet Park - Workaway Near Perth

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Arriving at the airport in Perth, the workaway host gave me instructions for how to meet him outside, telling me to simply look for the bright red Ute (pronounced yoot). Easy enough if you know what a Ute is. When I asked a nearby traveler, they made the obvious statement - you aren't from here, are you! When I finally climbed the red UTility vehicle, aka Ute, I met Kevin, my host. We had spoken during a video call two months earlier and I had felt confident it would be a good stay. As the actual arrival date neared, I had become a bit less sure and found myself wondering what I was getting into. "Close to Perth" turned out to be nearly an hour and a half southwest, in the middle of sparse farmlands with the closest town 30 minutes away by car. When Kevin stopped at a grocery store the edge of Perth and asked if I needed any food items, I really had no idea how to answer. My two previous workaway stays, one in remote Costa Rica and one in Xela, Guatemala, had not prepared
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