Letter from your Easterns Reporter
I’m sure I’m not the only one wondering what happened to the end of 2016. I had every intention of making sure
there was a newsletter to end off the year but time got the best of me …. And I ran out of it. Now we sitting in the
rainy season of a brand new year looking forward to all the rallies that’s lined up for us this year. Before we get to
that, I hope that you had a wonderful festive season filled with love and laughter. I hope that you got to sleep in a
little late, spend time with those you love and indulged in all the Christmas treats and traditions that make it the
most wonderful time of the year. And going forward I wish you a prosperous 2017 – may all your beers be cold and
the nights longer. May there always be time for long chats with friends around the fire and special moments with
family and may there be many more rallies to write newsletters about.
Soccer Rally @ Saddle/Bush Inn – 4/5/6 November 2016
The weekend kicked off with Registration on Friday night with many jokes being told about how very far the park is
for many of our members and how tough the tow out was for them.
Saturday morning started off with Kids games being well supported by kids and adults alike. The Marshalls kept
them busy with Sack races, Bobbing for Apples and Blindfold Donut catching. It’s also lovely to see how Easterns
Parents are always prepared to jump in and assist and play where necessary. Best place for a Child to grow up is at
Caravan Rallies.
December/January Edition
Next was the Soccer Tournament with two teams battling it out for the Trophy. Easters VS England. Good Sports
Comradery was shown by all however England should be ashamed of themselves by making use of Child Labor with
Kyle as their Goalie, even though it was at his own insistence.
England won the day controversially … I’m not sure who enjoyed the tournament more –they players or the
spectators.
There was a Country Party in the Lapa on Saturday night with Juanita spoiling us with great music and keeping
everybody on the dance floor till late in the evening. It’s always great to see members keeping in with the theme of
the rally and dressing up for the occasion. Being in the Lapa with the hay spread all over the place and members
wearing their cowboy hats and boots proudly – you really got the feeling you were at a County & Western Barn
dance in the USA.
The weekend closed off in the usual manner with Sunday school, Discs and Chairman’s Tea. We had a total of 36
Easterns Vans.
Chairmans Tea was opened in prayer by Conner Beijl.
We hope that the following members enjoyed their Birthdays held in November:
Rochelle Kozakiewicz, Davy MacVay (60th), Duncan Middlemiss (50th) and Abigail Van Gool.
Congratulations to Anne-Marie, Phil and Kerry Ryan for celebrating 10 Nationals.
Kyle Grobler is always a pleasure to have at Sunday school, not only because he shares his stories with us but he
participates in the activities and contributes to the lessons. Along with Kelly & Morne – we are proud of his
achievement of attending 50 Sunday school lessons and receiving his kiddies Bible. Well Done Kyle.
Our Committee Member on Duty, Jeff, chose Heinz as the Stirrer for the Weekend:
Congratulations to Louis & Marti Nel, Kelly & Morne Grobler and Morne and Pam for celebrating Wedding
Anniversaries in November.
Thank you and Well Done to Lucy and all the Marshalls for a wonderful Rally.
Christmas Rally @ Koppisol – 25/26/27 November 2016
In typical Easterns fashion – a very well attended rally.
Friday night began with Registration on a lovely rainy evening followed by Carols by Candlelight. Terry and Kim
Prior did an amazing job of supplying Karaoke carols for those that are not sure of the words and to keep us all
in tune … not an easy job when it comes to Easterns and our singing abilities. It always gives me goosebumps
when the lights are dimmed and the candles are lit.
Chief Marshall Gordon invited some special visitors to join us for this rally and they arrived Saturday from their
Orphanage to spend the day with. There were Kids activities planned for the morning and Spur Burgers
sponsored for their lunch.
Meanwhile, adults were donating alcohol infused blood with the South African Blood Service. This was another
well supported initiative with the SANBS hoping for 17 pints and leaving with approximately 25 pints.
Santa arrived in an unconventional way, on a Fork Lift as the presents he was carrying were so heavy that his
poor Reindeers would have suffered and could have been seen as animal abuse.
It was heart warming to see how Easterns had opened up their hearts to ensure that each and every Child that
visited us received a gift from Santa and a Backpack full of stationary. I also couldn’t help but notice how many
of our adult members were a little teary eyed while watching Santa hand out the gifts. It really shows you how
much we have to be grateful for in life.
Early Saturday evening the Actors of Easterns put on a Nativity Play with Heinz and Kelly acting as Old and New
Stars and telling the story of the Birth of Christ. We really have a talented bunch of Members – taking on their
roles with ease and skill.
Dinner was catered for so the members got to enjoy a meal with family and friends while listening to the
enteratainment the Marshalls arranged. Thereafter Kim and Terry Prior showed their class once again with
great music blaring through the night giving the members an opportunity to dance off the good food that was
had by all.
The weekend closed off in the usual manner with Sunday school, Discs and Chairman’s Tea. We had a total of
46 Easterns Vans. 44 Easterns & 2 Visitors.
Our Special Guests for the Weekend:
Raymond & Sharon Page, Mike & Petra Burger, Vicki and Brett Nash and all the way from England, Allen and
Sue Smith.
We hope that the following members enjoyed their Birthdays held in November:
Susan Cogill, Terry Prior, Bill (The Man) Smith, Connie De Vries and Bradley Prior.
A Special Easterns welcome to New Members Rustin & Natasha Limbert. We trust you will enjoy the Easterns
Culture and will probably find that caravanning will never be the same again.
Congratulations to the following Members who celebrated at this rally:
Our Committee Member on Duty, Morne Grobler, wanted to choose the Three Wise Men (Peter Thompson,
Denzil Van Jaarsveldt & Emile Meano) from the Nativity play as the Stirrer for stealing peoples drinks and
generally causing havoc as they made their way to the stage. But he finally chose Pamela Marx as the stirrer for
choosing those three as Wise Men to begin with.
Well done to Gordon and his team for an amazing Christmas Rally that will be remembered for a long time to
come.
Stay At Home – Upside Down Inside Out Rally @ Sionberg – 9/10/11 December 2016
Oh Boy! We had no idea what we were letting ourselves in for with this rally. Previously this rally would
normally only pull in 10 – 15 caravans due to the timing and most families already heading to their holiday
destinations. However, the popularity of this rally has increased tremendously and now sees 30 vans
attending. The Marshalls confused us and turned everything on its head with the Upside down Inside Out Rally
where members where expected to wear their clothing inside out, spend the day in their pajamas or some
even brave enough to wear their underwear over their clothing … turns out it’s not just SpiderMan that can get
away with that.
Friday night was Registration and in keeping with the theme … Breakfast was served in the form of a Breakfast
Bunny! Most enjoyable. Midnight that evening, a midnight feast was planned with the theme of a SkoonMa
Braai allowing the few Members that attended to only braai Pork Chops. I myself, was KO in Lalaland however
I’ve heard it was a lot of fun.
On Saturday morning some of the members had a full on Braai with salads for Breakfast which turned out to
be quite enjoyable as surprising as that may be.
Next up was Kids Games which included Egg & Spoon races, 3-legged races & a Water Bucket challenge that
had more water being poured over the kids instead of in the buckets. Seemed like the kids (and parents) had
a ball.
Moving on to Adult Games – this was very well supported by all members and had the ladies feeding their
husbands Baby Food (Gross!) blindfolded. We also had to dunk our faces in water and search for cherries
that didn’t taste like cherries anymore and then dunk our faces in flour and search for sweets. In addition we
had to blow up something that should not be blown up by pulling it over our heads and using only our noses
to blow.
It was a fun filled day and some even managed to enjoy the party by the Lapa on Saturday night whilst some
Members managed to cook a full Bacon and Egg breakfast on a braai.
Sunday came too quickly with Sunday school, Discs and Chairman’s Tea. We had a total of 30 Vans. 29
Easterns and 1 Visitor.
Special Guests & Visitors:
Graeme and Sharon Pridgeon from Vaal Region. This couple should be on the lookout for a Transfer form
coming in the mail.
Allen and Sue Smith all the way from England.
Park of the Year Award
Was awarded to Sionberg by our Chairman Heinz as per the Members opinions & comments on the scoring
sheet completed after each rally.
We hope that the following members enjoyed their Birthdays held in December:
Nick Fort, Deandre Meano, Clayton Larsen, Sheila Thompson, Laetitia and Trevor Schultz.
Congratulations also to Trevor & Laetitia for celebrating their 46th Wedding Anniversary.
The following Members who celebrated at this rally:
Our Committee Member on Duty, Jenny chose Emile as the Stirrer for the Weekend.
Thank you to Emile and the hard working Marshalls for another awesome Stay-At-Home Rally.
Next Rally: Cheese & Wine @ Soetdoring – 20/21/22 January 2017
This Rally should give us a great opportunity to catch up now that we are all back from our holidays. Friday
night will be Registration as normal. Saturday morning will keep the kids busy with an Amazing Race
Challenge and Saturday afternoon will be the Wine Tasting/Judging – please bring a Plate of Eats and your
own Wine Glass should you wish to participate. Saturday evening will be a quick round of Adults Games for
some laughs, good fun and maybe some shooters.
Hope to see you all there.
Classified Ads
Should there be anybody wanting to advertise in our Monthly Newsletter – the cost is R100-00 for six issues.
Not only is our Newsletter read by Easterns members but anybody who happens to look at our site so it’s a
great opportunity to get your Company visible and in the public eye.
We would like to thank DTS Security as well as Kempton Caravans for the continuous support & sponsorship for
our rallies on a monthly basis and hope that they will continue to do so in the near future.
Apologies for the late submission of last year’s Rallies. I’m looking forward to the new Rally Year and to bring
you an enjoyable newsletter every month and also reflecting back to the fun memories that was had at the
previous rally. I’m also hoping to build excitement for our future rallies still to come.
And Now For Your Moment of Zen…