Cruising through life and love

When Linda and Clive Faulkner met at a local dance evening in Wales, to the tunes of Elvis Presley, they had no idea that they would be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary in Ballito one day.

While the two youngsters were in London, a South African woman asked them to photograph her outside the South Africa house in Trafalgar Square.

“She was dripping in diamonds and I thought I want to go to South Africa, which we did, although I never made it to all the diamonds,” said Linda laughing.

“We were told that a ship was leaving for South Africa in the next few months and that would be our chance to live there,” said Clive.

So, in 1968, Clive, Linda and their two-year-old son, Gary, set sail for Cape Town from Southampton.

After a 14 day journey, they arrived and moved along to Johannesburg, but it did not take long for them to move to Durban.

But their shipping adventures did not end here.

“Gary worked in Tasmania and so we decided to stay with him for two months,” he said.

It just so happened that the Queen Mary was going to Sydney at the same time and so they hopped on the grand ship in Cape Town and cruised to Sydney.

“It was the trip of a lifetime,” they both said.

Besides the fine dining and the sheer elegance of the affair, one of the most fascinating parts of the trip was the planetarium.

“You go in and lie down on your back in a reclining chair and Harrison Ford’s voice glides you around the rings of Venus, so close and so real, you want to reach out and touch it.”

Once in Tasmania, the sweet couple had an unforgettable time.

“Going into the small, country style town, was like time traveling back to the 1800s, with all the old fashioned, but pristine buildings,” she said.

“The nature is beautiful, it felt like being in a little garden of Eden,” he said.

The couple and their German shepherd recently settled down in their own garden of Eden in Ballito, where they have been trying out new things, such as bowls at the Umhlali Country Club.

“We are in the novice stage, but we are learning and the people in the club are very patient and helpful,” he said.

The fun couple have moved to the professional stage when it comes to marriage, as they celebrated their golden anniversary at the beginning of the month with their two sons and their daughter.

They got married on April Fools day, before 12pm, so they could be playing a joke on everyone, and it was a joke that has kept them smiling for the last 50 years.