Adventure to South Africa - Ironman African Championship, Nelson Mandela Bay, Port Elizabeth (1 March to 11 March 2023)

28 February 2023 to 1 March 2023

As usual, this last minute queen has not started packing for the trip! Lucky I took half day leave to do the packing. Smart me happily went back to Senja without house keys and Jianhui is at Teck Whye. Good thing is, he is almost done with his HR briefing so I don’t have to wait too long for him. 

So we started packing for the trip. I was so messy that I forgot quite a lot of things like sponge, nail clipper, etc. These are things I will usually not forget! After packing, then we went to fetch Lexuan home from school. We had yummy home cooked dinner at Teck Whye. I always enjoy home cooked food before and after the trip. Then we went back home to check and make sure we packed all the stuff. 

We left the house around 9.45pm and we called Grab 6. Giving that it was raining very heavily, it costs only $41 which is a reasonable price. In fact, it was raining the whole day. 

Lexuan took a short nap in the comfortable cab while I rested my eyes.

Feeling super stoned by now. There weren’t a lot of people in the airport. It was a quick check in coz there wasn’t any queue. To fly to South Africa, you must show the staff your kid’s birth certificate. 

Then we went to The Coffee Club for supper. We ordered sandwiches and the mud pie! Lexuan loves the chocolate part of the mud pie. Jianhui finds the coffee ice cream tasting weird. 

Just when I thought that the timing is just nice and we could board the plane soon at 0030 for 0130 flight, there was an unexpected flight delay due to the rain! Lexuan was feeling tired and complaining why the plane took so long. She took a short nap after complaining and crying for a while. We finally got to board the plane at 0240. By now, I was feeling so stoned and sleepy.

I was so focused in sleeping that I ate a bit of pasta, chicken breast and maybe 2 mouthful of hor fun. So I was so hungry when I woke up in the morning (Singapore time). I slept quite a lot throughout the night. It was then Jianhui told me that there is no food for 7 hours. I made him get some chips for me and hot tea.

I woke up about Singapore time 10.30am. I managed to watch Toy Story 4 which was very nice! I always believe that our toys have feelings! Haha. 

We touched down Singapore time 1332 which was about 7.32am local time! We cleared customs very quickly and even collecting of luggage is fast! We have 2nd leg of the journey so thankfully the flight didn’t delay too much. 

We went Wimpy (which was like everywhere in South Africa). We had ice cream, iced coffee and kids burger meal. So we observed and noticed that your server will be attending to you end to end. We googled and decided to give 20% of the bill as tips to the guy. 

Then we checked in for 11.40am flight. We taking FlySafair to Port Elizabeth. It’s a short 1.5hrs flight time. As usual, we ordered 2 small pringles , apple juice and coke. Total bill is ZAR100. Lexuan slept quite a bit on the flight. We touched down 1.40pm.

It’s a small airport and so we got our luggage pretty fast too. Then we went to get our car from Bluu. As we needed to find a car big enough for the bike, it took us a while to get a suitable car. It was a downgrade but it’s okay for us as long we could load all our luggage. 

And so we are finally on our way to our accommodation, Bellamare which is like an apartment in a condo. We had to show the pre printed documents before the security guard could let us in. And the driver needs to register the thumbprint to go in and out of the condo by car.

We rested a while, had shower before we headed out for grocery shopping. We bought quite a bit of food as usual then we went back to the room. This was when we realized there would be a lot of people stationed at the car park “helping” you to find parking lot or carry your shopping stuff. In return, you pay them some cash. 

While we were having our dinner, suddenly the electricity was cut off. We thought that it was power trip but ended up that it’s a planned “power trip” which they called it as load shedding. 

Quote

The term ‘load shedding’ first started dominating the South African lexicon in 2007, when the country’s national electricity utility, Eskom, announced that it was unable to supply power to the entire country at the same time.

As a result, they announced they would need to implement a blackout schedule – that they dubbed ‘load shedding’ – in order to prevent the entire power grid from collapsing. 

Unquote 

- information extracted from https://theculturetrip.com/africa/south-africa/articles/load-shedding-what-it-is-and-why-is-it-affecting-south-africa/

Since there is no electricity or what, we decided to rest early. 

I had a good sleep as I slept almost all the way even though 3 of us were sharing a queen size bed. 

In the middle of the night, Jianhui gave up and I got to sleep better with proper space. Haha. 

2 March 2023 

We woke up at 6am and had Nutella bread as breakfast. 

We drove around and came across a nice place - Something Good Roadhouse. There’s a fun playground which Lexuan enjoyed it a lot. I like the playground too as it’s very different from Singapore one. For eg the swings were made of recycled tyres and the see saw is made of zebra. The milk shake is nice and it seems to be a popular place as we started to see more guests coming in. 

Then we headed to ironman starting point. By now, Lexuan was complaining she cannot walk and was crying non stop. So Jianhui quickly took so photos then we walked back to the car. 

We went for quick shopping before we went back to the room to relax. Then around 2pm+, we went to race expo so that Jianhui can do the registration. Jianhui was telling me that he needed to take photo and fingerprint at registration. 

Before we could start shopping, Lexuan started to complain again and so we quickly grabbed the stuff that we wanted to buy at a rush. When we were outside, she saw a candy shop and suddenly she is alive again. I bought her Skye gumball machine and strawberry slush which was super sweet. 

We quickly walked to the beach so that Jianhui can do a bit of swimming in his swim suit. It was very windy at the beach. The waves look scary. I can’t imagine swimming with the waves as I probably would be swept away. Lexuan was happily playing with her sand so at least she didn’t complain much. 

Then we went back to our room so Jianhui could wash up. 

We decided to go to the McDonald’s beside our apartment for dinner. Jianhui says the Big Mac and double cheeseburger is nicer than the ones we have at Singapore. Anyway, we are happy that we got to eat McDonald’s at South Africa. One country down! Haha. We hope to try McDonald’s all over the world. 

Then it’s time to rest. I think I slept around 8pm and had a relatively good sleep. All the way to 6am the next day. 

3 March 2023

With a good sleep, we were ready to be up at 6am. We started to get ready, have breakfast and then we were ready to go! We left our room about 7.15am.

We had a long journey to go - 110km to Pumba Private Reserve. We didn’t make any reservation so we hope they allow us to join the tour. 

It was all the way up slope to the point that we were like driving above the clouds. It was quite a tough drive I would say and I am so thankful to have Jianhui! ❤️ He is my no. 1 best and safest international driver! 

We reached Pumba around 8.45am. So thankful the friendly receptionist told us that we could join the tour! It cost us about SGD300 for 3 of us. 

We had welcome drink, lemonade and signed our life away! We need to sign indemnity to join the tour. 

The tour started at 10am and the moment we started, we saw an elephant at the gate! It’s an amazing experience to be so up close to the animals. And all the animals look so beautiful! We got to see the baby elephant which was only born in January 2023! And it’s amazing to see so many elephants together! We saw a lot of deers or you call them antelopes! I was telling Jianhui the deers look so beautiful that I can imagine why the lions love to eat them! They look so beautiful and yummy even to me! We also saw zebras, rhinoceros, a lot of pumbas and the white lions! And we got really close to the giraffes, my favourite animals! 

The animals look so beautiful and our guide, “headman” is very nice too! 

Then we had lunch at the lodge. It’s a beautiful place too! We had a super filling lunch. We had a quick chat with the guide. He said that in life, we should not cry over things we cannot control. As long as we have done our best, it’s good enough. 

Then it’s time to go back to the reception, about 20mins drive. 

Then it’s time to drive back! It’s down slope, so it’s easier to drive back. By 4pm, we are back at port Elizabeth!

We did a quick grocery run then went back to the room. 

We quickly showered and quickly cooked Maggie mee for dinner as the scheduled load shedding is at 6pm. Strangely, the electricity came back around 6.30pm. 

We relaxed in the room before we went to sleep at 8pm. It was a windy night and you could literally seeing all the trees swinging away.

4 March 2023 

We woke up at 6am. Beautiful weather with breeze. 

We had a simple breakfast and relaxed in the room while Jianhui settled his bike. Lexuan did a bit of her homework unwillingly. Haha. She was in such holiday mood that she wasn’t very cooperative haha. But at least she managed to do some of her homework. 

Then we went to race expo again so Jianhui could get his tyre. We also went to the beach where they were having some corporate triathlon event. We let Lexuan play sand for a while then we went back to boardwalk shopping centre. We had breakfast at one of the restaurant and the toast was yummy. Then we went checkers again before going back to the apartment. 

Lexuan and I continued to relax in the room while Jianhui prepared to check in his race gear. He is back within an hour. Then we went to McDonald’s for late lunch. I have been eating non stop here until I think I have become very fat. Haha. 

Then we went swimming around 4.25pm! The water is cold but Lexuan is totally enjoying it! 

We went back to shower then we came back to the cafe for dinner. We had beef bolognese spaghetti and margherita pizza. Jianhui loves the spaghetti and Lexuan loves the pizza! For me, I like both! Haha. We also tried their Rooibos Iced tea which is nice! We finally found a drink that is not too sweet!

Then it’s time to rest! Got to wake up early Tmr so we got to sleep early. 

5 March 2023 

It’s race day! And it’s our 12th proposal anniversary day too! Love you Jianhui! ❤️❤️ 

Jianhui woke me up around 4am+. I had some coffee. Jianhui wasn’t feeling too well. 

Lexuan doesn’t want to wake up but she managed to drag herself out of the bed. It was raining and she was complaining nonstop. She even complained why her daddy always wants to travel so far? She only wants to go Malaysia. This girl has all kinds of funny nonsense. It was quite cold so lucky I brought 2 jackets for her and we had an umbrella too! 

We parked our car at the shopping Center carpark then walked over to starting point. While waiting for Jianhui to get ready his stuff at the transition area, Lexuan was very grumpy and whiny. 

Good thing was, as the rain started to stop, her mood became better. Then we heard the announcement that the swim would be cut short to 900m because of the storm. This must be the best news ever. Hope this can help Jianhui to finish his Ironman!

Jianhui started his swim at 7.14am and we moved to the other side so that we could see him coming up from the water. So happy to see him coming up from the water! Then, he’s off to the transition area.

We stationed ourselves at the bike exit so that we could see him with Xiao P. 

Then we slowly walked back to our apartment. To “entertain” Lexuan, I bought strawberry ice cream for Lexuan while walking back. It was raining and thanks to the ice cream she didn’t complain much. Thankful that we made it back in one piece. 

Lexuan is the happiest when she is back in the room. We had croissant for breakfast. Meanwhile I am tracking Jianhui using the Ironman tracker app. As a supporter, you constantly worry for your athlete and you feel relieved whenever you see your athlete completing each leg of the event. 

We walked back to broadwalk to see Jianhui coming back from his 90km bike. Lexuan was complaining non stop as we walked back. As I was worried we might miss Jianhui, I asked her to walk a little bit faster and obviously she wasn’t too pleased. 🤣 

Luckily, we made it in time. Thereafter, I bought her basketball candy and Fanta orange. We sat down on the chair and she’s in better mood. We played with Sumikko stickers.

Jianhui did his run and came looking for us. He’s having a bad headache. Then we went back apartment together. 

Thereafter, we went out for dinner at boardwalk. We went to Hello, It’s me! We had salmon and steak, beer and smoothie. Food’s not bad. Total damage ZAR600.

Then we went back to our apartment to rest. It has been a tiring day for us especially Jianhui! 

7 March 2023

We had quite a good sleep last night! I woke up 2-3 times to go toilet but other than that, I am feeling okay! It’s good that we get to sleep 10hrs here! Totally recharged! 

We woke up 6am+ and had simple breakfast in the room. Then we went out for a drive! There’s a beautiful rainbow just outside, and in fact following us! Nice! 

We went to top up petrol which costs us ZAR500 for 3/4 tank. I think the price is still okay? 

We did a short drive to Cape Recife but there isn’t much to take photos. Oh ya, it’s raining again. Then we made a quick one to Secrets beach and Molly’s corner and it’s so smelly that we didn’t stay for long. Then we drove back to our apartment for toilet break.

Then we went to our favourite boardwalk! We took some photos with the Ironman arch then we went to race expo. Since the stuff was relatively cheap, we decided to see if we can top up our merchandise. Jianhui bought a cycling jersey, Lexuan bought a winter rainbow beanie while I bought another shirt. 

Then we drove to our favourite restaurant, something good! Lexuan loves it because of the playground. The burger was not that good. I had rooibos tea which tasted like Lipton tea? There were many Ironman finishers at the restaurant. It feels as if this is the “pasta party”! 

We drove back to our apartment. I decided to practise driving in the compound. Haha. It was fun! Though I took a long time to park! My handphone got no battery and now there is no electricity until 2.30pm!

Since there is no electricity, we started packing. We have so many things around the apartment. 

We went to the beach front. I did a short 3km along the beach and it feels good! Lexuan was happily playing with her sand. She loves the sand here! 

Then, we had our dinner at KFC! Not too bad! Then we went to do grocery shopping before going back to our apartment. Jianhui cooked Maggie mee with the beef we bought. But the beef tasted weird and seasoned. We prefer the NZ beef taste. After Lexuan has fallen asleep, we watched the documentary movie, “14 Peaks: Impossible is nothing. It is totally an amazing feat, to conquer 14 peaks of 8,000m within 7 months. I think I can’t even conquer 1 peak. 

7 March 2023 

We woke up at 6am. We had breakfast before we started to get ready to pack our stuff. Thanks to Jianhui for helping to bring all our luggage down. We got so many things and it wasn’t easy to pack them in our car. 

We left just before 9am and off we go! It’s going to be a Long journey to Garden Route Safari Camp. 辛苦老公了！

We made our first pit stop at Jeffrey’s Bay’s McDonald’s which is an hour ride. We had breakfast there and Lexuan is happy to play in the playground. 

Then, our next 1.5hrs ride to Market Square at Plettenberg. We went to woolsworth to get milk. Lexuan wanted to get doughnut so we bought her a doughnut too. Then we went to Delia for lunch in case we didn’t get to eat anything at our next accommodation. We ordered 

roast chicken sandwich but tasted weird. We also ordered a pot of Rooibos tea. 

Then our next target is the Caltex petrol station which is an hour away! So we have been spending quite a bit of money pumping petrol. Each time it will cost us ZAR400. Good thing is, Lexuan was sleeping so we had a bit of peace. Haha. 

Then, it’s the final 1hr to Garden Route Safari Camp. At the final route, it was like a game drive. True enough, after the game was opened, we saw a deer! So cool right? 

The hosts are really friendly and this is family owned safari. We simply love our room too! It’s very safari! We had a big bed and Lexuan has a single cosy bed too. We had an Indoor shower and an outdoor shower. It must be so cold to bath outdoors isn’t it? We have welcome gift with our names on the bed! 

When going to our room, we saw a martial eagle and the host was so excited. Lexuan, being a kid, called the eagle marshmallow eagle. Haha. 

We relaxed in the room and ate more tidbits and cookies. Wonder how much weight I have put on for this trip? Then we walked over for our dinner! 

They served us hot bread which is very yummy.  The potato/tomato soup is nice! By now, I am already so full. So I can’t really eat the main dish. Lexuan had plain spaghetti which she didn’t eat much too. Then, it’s 2 scoops of ice cream each for us. Way too much food! 

Then when we went back to our room, we had chocolates as surprise! There is one uninvited guest too, the spider! And I got 2 mosquitoes bites! 😂

3 of us slept together on the bed together. Jianhui on the electric blanket on my side so it got quite hot in the middle of the night. 🤣 I off it and need to sleep strategically to avoid it. Haha. 

8 March 2023

Rise and shine! Today’s weather is perfect! Clear blue sky!

We had light breakfast in the room before going to the dining area for breakfast. I love my omelette with mushrooms, tomatoes, cheese and ham. A super full breakfast before our game drive at 10am. 

Our guide is Mark and he looks like Ken, Barbie doll’s bf! Haha. He showed us the edible yellow flower, aloe Vera and herbs! It smells nice! Lexuan and I also tried eating the yellow flower. All these are natural food for the animals! 

They have 15 giraffes, zebras, different kinds of antelopes and 3 lions! We are happy to be able to see the 3 lions but they are in the sanctuary though. It was a great tour and for once, Lexuan wanted to go for the game drive again!

We ordered a ham and cheese with tomato sandwich and shared the food. Then, it’s relaxing time in the afternoon. I took a short nap too! 

We went to the dining areas for beer while Lexuan had ice cream. It’s a good relaxing afternoon. Lexuan also had fun playing with the dog. She loves the dog! 

Then we went back to our room to cook Maggie mee! Good dinner haha. 

Our trip is almost to the end! How time flies!

9 March 2023 

We woke up at 6am. Jianhui took some sunrise photos. Can’t believe that it’s our last day in South Africa. 

We had light breakfast of cookies and coffee in our room before we went to the dining area for breakfast. I ordered the same as yesterday which was yummy! But I can’t finish it. We enjoyed the winter melon and grapes! 

Lexuan was getting a bit emo as she misses the dog! The host was really nice as she let Lexuan play with the dog for a while. 

Jianhui settled the bill and so we incurred additional ZAR6,000 (about SGD440) for the meals, drinks and game drive. Lexuan’s additional bed already cost us ZAR1,500. After settling the bill, they gave us the code to leave the place. Haha. 

Seems like the dog misses us as well as he came to our room with us. Lexuan misses the dog too and started to cry as we were leaving. The host is nice to say good bye to us when we were in the car and even brought her dog to say goodbye. 

It’s another 400km+ long drive. Our first pit stop for toilet break is supposed to be the KFC at Riversdale but we missed it. We decided to head to the next town, Heidelberg KFC but when we were there, there is no KFC but Caltex petrol station. 

Then we drove to the next KFC at Swellendam. We finally found one KFC after driving for so long! Anyway, not that we are really craving for KFC just that it’s an easy landmark for pit stop and we guess it’s safer to go to the fast food restaurant. We went checkers to shop also. Checkers is our favourite grocery place in South Africa for sure! 

Jianhui was feeling sleepy and tired so he also bought Starbucks can coffee to drink. Then it’s another 2hrs drive to McDonald’s Heritage Park Drive-thru. The weather at South Africa is crazy. We go from clear blue sky to gloomy day, to rainy day, to foggy day and back to sunny day again in a day as we drive from state to state. 

We had a short break at McDonald’s and we ordered fries strawberry milk shake, iced coffee and Lexuan’s favourite doughnut. From here, it’s another 51km to Signal hills. While driving towards signal hills, we saw the jam back to airport hotel was quite bad. 

The roads at Cape Town are narrow and up and down, definitely difficult to drive. To make things worse, it was foggy up signal hills. Just when we were thinking if we should drive further up since it is so foggy, we met a friendly local whose car was parked just beside ours and told us we should drive up. 

So Jianhui drove up carefully in foggy conditions and we managed to take some photos of Cape Town and Table mountain. Then, it’s 26km to our airport hotel which is going to take us 55 minutes due to the jam. 

And after driving for almost whole day from 9.30am till now, we finally reached the airport hotel at around 6.30pm. What a crazy long day. 

Jianhui went to return the car while I helped to shower Lexuan so that she can sleep earlier. But I guess she slept so much in the day in the car that she wasn’t that tired. 

I was so tired but I couldn’t really sleep well. I slept around 10.30pm and by 3am, we need to wake up to get ready for our flight. 

10 March 2023

It was definitely my worst sleep for the trip and I don’t feel rested at all. Yawn. 

We managed to get ready and took the earliest shuttle bus at 4am to the airport. I guess we were too early that we cannot check in yet. We had to wait till 5am before we can check in our 7am flight. We usually reach airport earlier as we are worried that we might encountered another “munich airport” incident in which there was such a long queue of people checking in they we only managed to reach our aircraft just 5 minutes before scheduled flight time when we were at the airport 3hrs before that. 

When we can finally check in, there was a queue at the counter but lucky the queue was moving quite fast then we needed to deposit odd size baggage at a separate place. The lift was working so we had to walk to another lift to go to ground level to deposit the bike. 

It’s time for shopping time! There are quite a lot of souvenir shops at the airport so I could do some last minute shopping. We finally bought a rhino toy for lexuan and I bought some magnets. 

We bought the plane on time to fly back from Cape Town to Johannesburg. Cape town is so high up that the plane would reach cruising height very quickly and you could see the beautiful mountains below you. 

We touched down Johannesburg around 9am and we collected our luggage every quickly. We walked to Terminal A for international flights and we are thankful that we can check in now though it was only 9am+ for 1.45pm flight.

Then we went to nearby cafe, byte for breakfast cum lunch. Lucky we got a lot of time as we waited super long for the food, like at least 45 minutes? The ham and cheese toasties was not bad. I guess ham and cheese toasties will never go wrong here. 

While waiting, I decided to get another rhino toy for sis and elephant for lexuan. Then, we walked to our boarding gates A12. We cleared the customs quite fast and once you are inside, the shops inside look like lucky plaza. 

I didn’t buy anything inside the souvenir shops though. Soon, it’s time for boarding. Jianhui bought 2 bottles of water before boarding. 

We started flying at 1.45pm local time and we are going to reach Singapore 6.30am (Singapore time). Another long day! I was feeling stoned as it has been a long long day. 

Lexuan took a 2 hrs nap and so she was very energetic the whole flight. And to her disappointment, there is no ice cream on this flight. Ops. She didn’t eat much on the flight. 

I slept a bit on and off from 7pm SA timing onwards till 9pm+ which is like Singapore 3am. Lexuan also slept a bit. Hope she can sleep till 6am. 

We touched down before 6am and when we came out we were so confused. We dont even know which terminal it is. We realize we got it wrong when we called grab and the grab driver was waiting at Terminal 3 instead of Terminal 2. 

When we got home, we can’t wait to shower and rest on the bed. Super jet lag and shag man!

Maybe we are really getting old. I have been feeling so sleepy and stoned the whole day! On the other hand, my girl is full of energy and she even went cycling. 

Overall, it was a great trip! Glad that we made it back safely with no LS. We are kinda concerned over the security but it seems okay since we made it back safely? But then again, we have been staying at the relatively safer place so I guess this helps us to remain safe. It is a beautiful country with many friendly people. I would love to go back there again!