Leaving the city – shall we, my dear?

There are times in your life when unforeseen circumstances change everything. And I mean everything as in all, todo, alles, tout, tutti. The force of nature can direct your life’s journey into a direction that you would not have thought about a few months earlier.

Fast backward to March 2020

The pandemic was creeping all over the planet and South Africa was not spared. LOCKDOWN! WTF? It started quite interesting. Running around the house through the garden and back “moving” the dogs doing more than 100km on a 150m trail in a couple of weeks. There would soon be a return to normal and home office would become a part of the daily routine, but not necessarily the main center of gravity. Anyway – most probably just another funny period on the way to retirement planned for2024/25. That’s what I thought at that time.

Fast forward from March 2020 to 16 August 2020

Wedding anniversary. And my last day of work. Finally the shit hit the fan. The corporate world fell badly ill: Restructuring, I am out, a 40 year working period ends abruptly. 4 to 5 years too early. Huere verdammte Schiisdraeck!

After a few days of numbness, the thinking was like “Let’s digest all of this and do a trip to Dullstroom for some lekker hiking and re-setting of my foggy brain.” Ama Poot Poot trail sounded like a good therapy. And it really was. The nature, the hiking, the dogs and the endless long chats with my partner in crime touching one single subject: What now?

September 2020

It was so good that in early September 2020 we decided to do another round of therapy and soul searching and while spending a few days at a place we had never visited properly although we have done day trips to this little town in the Free State – Clarens.

We loved the place so much – the beautiful Mount Horeb, the incredible Golden Gate National Park and the majestic Maloti mountains in the Kingdom of Lesotho. Wow! I felt like a ton of bricks had fallen off my chest! And the Mojo was comming back!

I started to see a light at the end of the tunnel and I remembered that the Force would be with us, always! And yes, we have done it before – throwing the dice and in true Han Solo style never letting anybody tell us the odds. Yes! Chewie, we’re home! Umm…sorry, where were we?

The next day on a nice walk, I asked the love of my life whether she could imagine living here, away from the hustling city of Johannesburg. Without a second of thinking she said: “Of course!”

And that was the start of our latest adventure. Never too old. Never too crazy.

To be continued – stay tuned, y’all!