African Birthday Celebration

IMG_3752[1] Oct. 26, 2017: Ed turned 83 today. I had arranged for a cake for the evening meal at Cathedral Peak but how the rest of the day went was not of my making. We left our hotel in the morning for a coffee break at the Chocolat Coffee house in Poelanie. This is a lovely spot. I took this picture in the garden to mark this special day. IMG_3730[1] We had a “passage control”, we had to stop to get our time cards stamped.

Without my knowledge, some of our best rally friends, Marco and Claudia found candles somewhere on the route and bought a tiny (wonderful) chocolate cake and surprised Ed. A spontaneous Happy Birthday sung by all the rally teams in attendance, accompanied their presentation. Ed was surprised as I was and I began to wonder if the evening cake had turned into a daytime one. IMG_3735[1]

We arrived at Cathedral Peak Hotel and I learned the cake was on order so I had to tell Ed, he had to stay to the end of the dinner. Often we leave before dessert. As the dinner ended, Fred (our noble leader) stood behind Ed’s chair and announced his birthday. In truth, everyone already knew and many had congratulated him during the day. Then in only a style we had encountered in Africa, the kitchen staff present his cake along with African music and dance. IMG_3749[1] This was not the end. Our entire group stood and sang Happy Birthday to Ed and presented him with an original drawing which will hang in our house along with other memories of Africa. I will have to add a photo of the painting later as it is not in our room at Phinda Game Reserve where we are now.

About ejhowle23

Authors and adventurers, participated in the World Race 2011, an automobile rally from New York to Paris, crossing three continents and 14,000 land miles. Following much the same route as the setting for our debut novel, The Long Road to Paris. This blog describes our own adventures and challenges. And now you can follow our Bahamas sailing adventure that provides the setting for our second novel, Night Watch. Our rally, the African Safari Challenge, crossed five countries in South Africa in May 2014 and in 2015 we participated in the second Trans-American rally this time from Nova Scotia to San Francisco. Spring of 2016 we travelled 28 days around Australia with friends from previous rallies and in the fall participated in our most exhausting rally through Argentina, Chili and Peru- the Rally of the Incas. We were awarded the Against All Odds award. We're still not sure if this was for us or our car. Stewball never broke down and we hardly did. We will soon take on Iceland as a self-drive tour and in the fall of 2017 we will participate in the Odyssey Italia and then back to Africa for a do-over (almost) of the Africa Safari Challenge.

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One Response to African Birthday Celebration

Russ says:

October 28, 2017 at 9:49 pm

Happy birthday Ed!