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