Travel, party, travel, swim, travel.....

So, Friday we left for the coast. We were supposed to go to Durban, but due to the massive accident on the highway, the fact that they hadn;t cleared it in 6 hours, the detour road was a single lane carrying way too much traffic, the weather (raining) and updates from friends who were there......... We went to Richards Bay instead.
Had a good drive down, covering the 720km in just over 6.5 hours.
My brother was seriously impressed as it happened to be his birthday as well, and he was so not expecting us.

Saturday was spent with the family, and helping with the birthday party preparations. This stared at about 1.00pm, and we left for Durban at about 5.15 pm. Got to the friends place at 7.15pm, visited for a couple of hours, and went to bed.
Up early Sunday, drove to the swim venue, Midmar dam. Traffic ok, and organisation on the site much improved this year.
Saw junior off at the start, and drove to the finish to wait for him.
Now it's an open water swim, across a dam, 1 mile (1620m). Last year he swam it in 30min 30 sec. We expected him to improve this year. From 25 minutes we start watching as each swimmer comes out of the wated. 30 minutes ...... Nothing. 32 minutes....? Nothing.
By 35 minutes into the race, I'm getting pretty stressed out. Come on, he's gotta be here somewhere. My cellphone rings. It's some friends who also got kids swimming. Their son swam a 23 miutes and place 16th overall. Their daughter swam 23.?? And placed 11 in the girls race. They have my son with them!!! Damn?!? How did he come out without us seeing him?
Anyway, we are happily reunited, and it seems he came out in 32 minutes. Don't know how we didn't see him, but alls well that ends well!! Turns out the weather played havoc this year. Winds were "off shore" and so the swimmers were being blown into deeper water, away from the finish line, hence the slower times!

Got his medal, the T-shirt... And we're off. Another 5 hour drive and we were home.
Damn long weekend it was.

Well done my boy, once again I am so proud of you! Keep it up!!!!
Typical scene at the start of the race. The participant are sorted by seeding (Previous times) and separated by cap colours. Fastest swimmers (red caps) go first, then blue caps, and so on. Junior swam in a blue cap this year.