The Return to Nkwe

This Time Done Properly

- 2 February 2013 -

In December Michael, Scott and myself took a drive out to an old memorable place we knew as kids, Nkwe 20km outside of Pretoria. In December we just stopped over for a short recap on the venue to see if it was as good as we can remember..... it was and we promised we would return, but with a larger crowd. So we did exactly that....

My brother, his daughter and I arrived first, bright and early. Nkwe's gates only open at 8:00am, if it were to open early we probably would have been there at that time. Eitherway coming early has its advantages. We got parking right next to the path and stairs leading to the main braai / picnic area, we also had first choice on the shady spot we would use for the day. Walking down all the stair is no problem, but if you carrying loads of food, beverages and accessories with it can be a pain.

After carrying all the gear down and Jade crying a bit because she realized she had forgotten her swimming tube, it was time to explore the waters edge.

It wasn't long until others started to arrive. Some brought chairs to sit on, I decided that a large blanket will do the trick. Turns out that those who forgot to bring a blanket or chair were fortunate enough that I had extra space on the blanket.

It didn't take long for my friends to start with beer, and potato crisps and nuts go well with alcohol...

Conversation was good too...

First I took a dip in the "pool", but soon after that my brother was very eager to jump off the highest cliff into the water. The route to the highest point is a short trip up the stairs, a careful walk over a wall and you there. The highest jump is about 12 meters and can be a bit daunting, but Michael handled it well.

Kids being kids, Jade was keen to get into the water too. Not having her tube with her was a problem so my brother and I had to escort her in the deeper pool. She loves water, and even mentioned to me she wouldn't mind learning how to swim soon, but swimming or not swimming she is quite capable of drying herself off.

The afternoon continued, some more conversation, playing and drinking.

The park wasn't as busy as when Michael, Scott and myself came round in December but there was a fair amount of people around, all doing what suits them best when visiting a park in the bush.

There are also smaller "jumps" available for the less brave..

We started a fire and I was able to convince a couple of men and Tania do the big jump with me. Due to me jumping 12m into water I decided it is best that I don't take my camera along, so I gave it to Michael (a friend of mine, not my brother, and yes they are both named Michael) to get the photos, but I heard that he was too interested in woman's breast than to operate the camera, so he didn't really get any decent photos of us leaping off the cliff, so we are limited to "before and after" pics.

Michael and Scott were the only 2 men not willing to test their fate, so they just sat watching most of the time.

My brother then decided he would like another turn and more photos of him jumping, so Jade stayed with me while we watched her father exercise his leaping skills.

By this point everybody was relatively hungry and it was time for food, so we spread the coals and grilled the meat... Once the stomachs were full my friends started leaving piece by piece, when eventually the last of us decided we were tired too, at about 4:30pm, so we packed up, carried all the stuff back up to the car and hit the road back home.

The day was a success and everybody had an awesome time. Nkwe is definitely a prime destination on a hot summers day.