Buffalo Bay with Theo and Lorraine Lombard

Oma and Opa Lombard- our temporary Afrikaans parents invited us to stay at their 3 storey beach house in Buffalo Bay for 3 nights (above is the view from our room). Originally, we met Theo & Lorraine on the cruise in Croatia and kept in touch. Upon arrival we met her son, daughter, nephews, and their families. Their house staff gave us tea and homemade scones hot out of the oven- a proper colonial breakfast and the table was set for 10 people with the fine china. Lorraine is a Baroness and one royal tip she taught me is that when you pour the tea out of the teapot and it's not strong enough, then you turn the entire pot. Interesting huh? Theo is a Rhodes Scholar from Oxford and played rugby professionally for South Africa too. Their families have been in South Africa for hundreds of years and they told us stories of past history (e.g. Boer Wars and Land Claims where rights and land have been taken away from the Afrikaans people). We learned a lot and have a better understanding of current politics now as well. For instance, Theo explained that in Africa, the Chief is the leader and he can do anything he wants because he is the "CHIEF." This explains the behaviors of the current ANC President and likely next SA president, Jacob Zuma, who raped an HIV-infected woman, lied about it and when confronted witht he fact that the woman was HIV Positve he said he was not worried about it because he had taken a shower after. He has 4 wives and 2 in the pipeline. He has been indicted in taking bribes in an illegal arms deal. He accepted over4 million Rand (about $600k) of bribes from one person, his financial advisor. Its ok, because he is the chief...

The beach at Buffels Baai (Afrikaans word) is 7km long and ends at Brenton on Sea. We walked there and back one morning as the tide came in and were lucky to make it back before the beach was swallowed by the tide. There are 2 tides every day here. We saw jellyfish bigger than basketballs. The bay has little or no wind so the water stays calm and safe for swimming. Buffalo Bay in general is a kid-friendly beach and the safest town in SA. People leave their house doors open or unlocked and kids play freely in the streets. It's a wonderful feeling to walk around and not see huge electric fences and walls around homes like every other neighborhood we've stayed in. On the other side of the bay we hiked a nature preserve at sunset. In contrast to the bayside, it's always windy and sometimes has decent surfing waves. Everyday we said a prayer of thanks before eating and Lorraine always asked for God to keep us safe. On our last day, Lorraine read from the Bible a verse that basically says... enjoy your youth, but remember that God is there.