We left Warrington in the mid 60's ending up in Vanderbijlpark, not quite neighbours. My dad swapped Crosfield's for a SA steel plant and his prized Ford Corsair for an Austin A30 happy days

All these years talking loser chat on here with the odd CC win, and we finally hit on a topic of gold.
Some cars and bikes of wow.

Dad worked in the coal mines, most of my friends were fam boys (we are talking late 60’s though), it was still the Transvaal in those days!

A few “boers” as well as a few “bores” on here, I put myself as overlapping on the Venn diagram.

Close enough Captain we drifted to Swaziland from Transvaal before heading back home probably as you were arriving.

I went back in 2010 bit of a road trip with my youngest girl and we drove from Jo'burg airport to Mbabane and we passed through the coal fields around Delmas and beyond. The road had the longest and presumably slowest roadworks I've ever driven on, they made the trevails on the M6 look like a work of genius

Uncle, my bros was born there and has tried to persuade me to go back, but hardly the most scenic of places and I haven’t retired yet so my holidays are precious. I do wonder if my Afrikaans would come back to me, assuming anyone speaks it anymore!

My Afrikaans was limited as I was there pre school I arrived back in the UK aged 7. Apparently, I could understand it and relay the message to my mum in English if we were at the shops/doctors or anyone called at the house. I more than survived on the recent return visit with English even in Vanderbijlpark.

I get what you mean about hol's being precious but would definitely recommend going back it doesn't have to all be 'home' based we had a fortnight around Capetown and the Cape...stunning

Agree with you all that, holiday-wise, this is a stunning place to visit - so many wonderful places all over the country: living here these days isn't so easy though...crime is now ridiculous - we live in the supposedly safe suburb of Fourways and receive daily reports of joggers being held up, mums being robbed while shopping with their kids etc. etc. Economically we are in freefall with no real plan to sort things out, cronyism and graft are pretty standard and the gap between rich and poor is widening. There is currently a migration in progress - anyone with access to a UK or European visa is getting out, resulting in the once-buoyant housing market collapsing due to over-supply.....I could go on, but don't want to sound like a whingeing old fart

With all the above, there are still great bits to this place - I will certainly miss the incredible live music scene and the "vuma" (energy) here...Oh, and Afrikaans I classify less as a language and more as a throat infection

Spitting Image did a song about South Africans.
I'd post the You Tube link, but it'll get taken down, pretty sharpish

Spitting Image - I've Never Met A Nice South African

I was surprised how well the transition went, sorry to hear it didn't last! At primary school there was no option, you had to learn Afrikaans, I also had a brief stint in the Voortrekkers, which my parents thought was like the Scouts, I didn't make the 3rd meeting!
I always took the mickey out of my brother with the Spitting Image song given he was born there.

Any ski fanatics on here?