Louis' birthday

Louis was 6 on the 15th of June. We had a party at house number 5 and 20 of his class mates turned up! Louis neatly packed his presents on the window ledge and seemed quite overtaken by the whole event. He seemed somewhat overcrowded and was literally attacked during the 'pass the parcel' game.He retaliated with rage and tears.
He drew a picture of his preferred cake a few months ago and Ceri managed to clone the paper copy on the day. The 'Happy Birthday'was in English, Afrikaans and Zulu.
Prior to his birthday Sarh and Ceri made a surprise tea after a trip to the view tower at Tembe game park(pictured)

Ceri's birthday

Ceri had a birthday which was stretched over a few days. They(Ceri, Christina and Sarah)had a snorkelling session at Rocktail bay which involved jumping out of the boat into a shallow-ish coral reef and seeing turtle/s and other fish(we don't have a fish book yet). On her birthday we celebrated with champagne and cake and a swim at Kosi Bay mouth. We finished off with a very nice meal at the forest lodge. Some of the pictures are taken whilst the sun was setting over the lake at the lodge. The hippos were very noisy but the sun set was similar to the sunrise in 'The Lion King' - a very large red hot ball. We almost missed the final stages because we needed to pick up some hippo dung for the vegetable patch!

I have added a picture of our guests with the boys on the lake system and one of Ralph at the Elephant reserve gate.

We celebrated Louis' birthday twice: early and on time. During the early session he got a bike and on the birth date a crowd of friends...

Ponta Milibangalala

So we arrived at the campsite after a long trip and very little in the form of mapping. The Maputuland elephant reserve is like a large green monster of wilderness with a mouth to enter and then various tracks and side tracks within, with little monitering...and no one in site.

The beach is beautiful, isolated and has a strip of forest on its edge which I love(This reminds me of my school day holidays in Port Shepstone- following the trail through the forest and then over the dune onto the beach). Emily told me the high phosphorus content in the water makes the water shine more than elsewhere. I imagined that the waves would seem as if they were on fire - slight disappointment there- not really, just perhaps me expecting too much!

The rest is typical beach campsite stuff. Sarah and Louis spending hours on the beach making castles, pyramids and emptying the beach of shells and cuttlefish (used as speedboats). Christina and Susan making fresh coffee and having short swim breaks. I made a toilet for our use and I think we all visited the site except Louis who fought nature until arrival back at Manguzi. Ceri discussing marine life and not missing any interesting birds around. Ralph played safe around the campsite. We made a potjie and we all contributed to the bread in the pan under the ground.

The drive back was amazing because we followed Allie's map with reference points like 'whale bones, homestead, mielies and elephant whallowes'. This map went around lake Piti and it was here that we saw many hippos, crocs and water birds. Susan drove the low clearance 4 x4 and almost drove into Piti...! Sarah clicked away as there was more than enough photo opportunity and we discussed 'are we heading in the right direction' and 'is the map correct' many times.

We finished the trip back to the border byagreeing to tow the South African bloke from Stanger who was shot in the R wrist by Mozambicans(? reversed xenophobia/ other causes) to the border - arriving 3 minutes before closing time at the border. Ceri wanted to spend her 40th on South African soil.. and we did!

I need to add Ceri's birthday before Louis', so I have 24 hours.

guests

It has been busy the last few weeks. Susan and Christina arrived a few weeks ago. They have been and gone. I will summarize. We met them at Hluhluwe game reserve. We spent 2 nights at Hilltop camp. Me and ralph did morning game drives on our own because he was not allowed on game drive vehicles. We saw the hadida(pictured with wrong date) and a malachite kingfisher(too small and fast to picture) and the usual selection of buffaloes, giraffe, etc . They saw lions which Louis really enjoyed. I did alot of meat cooking outside and this was pleasant because we all spent time around the fire. Ceri made a bierbrood every night and i think Susan took over this task at some point.

A man was pounced on by a leopard whilst attending to his potjie at Hluhluwe game park during the same time I was marinating the ribs for the fire at Hilltop camp. He survived with scalp laserations.

I took the boys home whilst Ceri introduced Susan and Christina to birdwatching. Ceri saw the pels owl which is the topic of conversation at Ndumo as many people go to Ndumo just to see this bird. They met the ex- chief executive of the Kruger National Park with his solar panelled kitchen on wheels...

I was at home with the boys playing lego, making tents and watching alot of videos...oh and I am Louis' new tennis coach. I can still remember all the things I learnt at primary school as part of the Gerrie Berner squad team like the fact that your racket is just an extension of your arm and that your feet guide your racket etc. We now do fitness around the court to improve ball sense...Louis is a promising young tennis star!

When Ceri and kie reappeared(after 2 days), Ralph was still attached to the breast, so no luck with the weaning(he does however prefer chocolate to the breast). Sarah(Ceri's Mother) arrived on the night we celebrated Ceri's birthday for the locals. We had a good central fire and the evening was cozy and lekker.

This brings us to the weekend. We went to Ponta Milibangalala for Ceri's birthday. This beach and campsite is in the Maputoland Elephant reserve in Mosambique. The campsite is very basic and the road from us is 90% 4 by 4 . From the border it is a tough road to the village of Zitundo and here we stopped(pictured with wrong date) for beers and mobile reception. The sign post pictured was at a bar by the side of the road.

The elephants are grumpy, apparently, because of bullet shots received during civil war and they played football with a locals skull after killing him(this is true!)

more tomorrow