Holiday home or emigrate?

We’ve established that we like South Africa, but do we like it for holidays or do we like it enough to move there?

There was something strange when we first drove through South Africa. We had the feeling like we were almost home. Little did we know that was more true than we ever dreamed.

This feeling of almost getting home is something we also have in The Netherlands. There is this certain crossing between the Diependaalselaan and the Bosdrift in Hilversum and when we turn right somehow this feeling start bubbling up. It is a very nice feeling because it means that we are almost back at our safe, cozy and loving home.

But how can you have that feeling when you’ve never been there before? The same exciting feeling showed up when we were driving on the highway in South Africa. There was this great wide view on both sides of the road with gorgeous raw nature. Never thought we would say this, but driving on the highway can be very nice (just not in The Netherlands…). Nothing more than the road itself and the few cars that passed to remind you of human existence. The air is fresh and it smells nice. There is this nice warm breeze you feel when you drive with your windows open. Normally we like to have music on, but we didn’t even need the music to make it a nice drive. It felt like a place where we would want to live.

Back in the Netherlands we were dreaming and fantasizing about South Africa with all its nature without to much human impact. However we realized that we had that experience during our honeymoon. The vacation of all vacations! So maybe we romantized it a bit and we are not people that visit a country once and decide to pack up all our stuff and move. So we decided to make a second visit in november.

We thought the gorgeous wide view was approximately 80-100 km from Johannesburg and we were so ready to experience that again. We were driving and driving, we passed 80 km, we passed 100 km, we passed 120 km… and all we saw were these wide views with factories and mines on both sides. It was terrible. It still looks better than industry in the Netherlands, but it was definitely not what we had in our minds! We looked at each other like we already made the biggest mistake ever.

But what the hell, we were already there, so even in the worst case senario we just made another vacation out of it and saved ourselfs from a horror life decision. Then we were driving further and further north/east and the scenery began to change. It was probably one of the best moments that trip when we realized that we did not dreamed it or made it prettier in our heads. The South Africa we thought existed, really exists. Only a few 100 km further from Johannesburg than we thought! The air was fresh, the views were amazing and the smells were fantastic.

That was the moment we thought ok we were not wrong at all and let’s give this whole emigration idea a real chance!

To be completely honost we never thought about the option to buy a holiday home there. We want to experience all the beauty, wildness and friendlyness on a daily basis.

Wiebe & Melanie