Post 10 Build it Journey

BLOG POST 10

I woke up at a decent hour today being Saturday and walked around the camp surveying the view of dry acacia and ‘Wag ‘n bietjie’ trees in the distance. The two Greg’s were busy reminiscing over past days and events so I decided to cycle the 49 km to Dundee from the camp and asked Greg to meet me at the Boulevard Shopping Centre in the CBD at 10 am. I set off again pacing myself carefully, enjoying the scenery, buck running literally all around me and cool morning air and was feeling up to the challenge but still feeling on top of the world. After about 30 kms came the extremely steep 5 km hill that has to be endured but I actually enjoyed it today and after summiting the mountain crest, rolled gently into Dundee to meet Greg.

We munched sandwiches in the car as we headed to Newcastle, our last stop for the week.  I was struck by the incredibly wide open spaces and flat veld rolling for tens of kilometers either side of the road with koppies and hills in the distance. It was a relief to see several small lakes and dams in the background and the morning sunlight lit the fields stunningly like a Pierneef painting. We entered Newcastle with its towering power stations and impressive coalmines and made our way to the large and spacious Build It store in the CBD owned by Andre Potgieter. Andre was out and I was lucky enough to chat with his son-in-law and manager Robbie Jamison who with managing the store looks after all its marketing needs. I could not have been more impressed as Robbie knew all there was to know about our website and his listing and with every passing minute I realised that my visit to Newcastle Build It just needed to be a social one. We did however swap some marketing ideas with us offering, amongst a few other ideas, his Build It customers a 50% discount to sign up to our website.

After an excellent meeting we drove to the scenic farm of the kind and friendly Julian and Debbie Philips and their sons Wade and Struan who would be our very gracious hosts for the weekend. After unpacking we drove down in Julian’s Land cruiser to a magnificent waterfall on the river which is part of their farm where we enjoyed sundowners in an open area used by our hosts for camping and braaing. After a mouth-watering curry, which would have impressed any Indian or Englishman, prepared by Debbie we retired full to bed. The blog will resume on Monday as we regroup tomorrow with a day of hard earned rest. We are so lucky to do this in the convivial home and beautiful surroundings of the Phillip’s home and farm. Thank so much Jules and Debs for having us