Hanro and the Hunger Games

Okay well not the Hunger games but an archery competition at the Ngomo Safari Lodge inside the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve. The National Archery in Schools Programme held one of competitions at the lodge with another one which had contestants walking through the veldt and shooting at targets at various ranges and elevations.

My nephew Hanro from Rustenburg has been selected to represent South African juniors in the National Archery in Schools Program World Tournament to be held in July this year in Nashville, Tennessee.

Today’s competition Hanro shook his head as he was upset as he scored 270 out of 300. He was aiming for much higher. At only 12 years old, Hanro has the world before him. Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favour.

Other than watching the archery, we got to tour the nature reserve and see some amazing animals up close.

Please note poachers and those that believe that rhino horns give you some special powers, that all rhinos at the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve have had their horns treated with toxins that make them unfit for human consumption.

Lion Myth Busters

On Friday afternoon, when leaving Mogale Business Park, I had the pleasure to stumble upon a springbuck giving birth. After watching life unfold before me for a little while, I left to report it to the groundsman.

This morning I noticed some grounds staff herding the pair of zebras at the park. I went off to query about the new born baby, one of the grounds staff said that three had been born with the third one this very morning. He also went on to tell me that the zebras were on a mission to kill the babies.

Now I need to find out if this is a myth or not. From what I have been told that zebras in order to protect themselves, they will kill any baby not their own in a herd in fair of attracting lions. Now we have all seen zebras in mixed herds along with buck and wildebeests surely this can’t be true.

I am not sure if the zebras managed to kill the babies but I do know the zebra pair were darted and relocated to our other facility down the road for the safety of the baby Springbucks.

The closest lions are about 10 kilometres away. Obviously the anti-lion deprogramming didn’t work on the zebras, or maybe they know something I don’t. Myth or not, this has got me got me looking over my shoulder for lions.

Update
Two of the baby springbucks were killed by the zebra serial killers before they could be caught and relocated. Their excuse is that they heard lions roaring and were afraid. The only surviving one is the one born this morning.

Give me a little Good News

Good news, good news. Firstly it is the start of the midyear holidays for Matthew and he is spending the first part with me. It is my first day back in the office after the Imbizo and Matthew has joined me to see what daddy does. And daddy does good stuff.

After a quick photo shoot this morning of the board of directors, I sent Matthew out on his first assignment into the wilderness of Magale Business Park with my camera and he came back with photographs of zebras, springbucks, blue cranes, geese, and ducks.

My interweb experience starts today as my Telkom’s LTE wireless system arrived this afternoon via CourierIT and after years of struggling at 0 data from Cell C good for nothing Telkom is delivering 19Mbps at my home. Telkom is always been known as Helkom due to its lack of service, now let us see if their service has improved. It is still early days but I promise if it goes south, you’ll be the first to know.

Zebra Crossing

Well basically today is only my second day at work this topsy-turvy week. Monday was work of course, then Tuesday was all messed up with getting Scarlet road worthy, Wednesday and Thursday was the Online Content Strategy Workshop, and today being Friday I have to somehow catch up with all the time lost.

Pause. Breathe deep and wait for the Zebra's to cross.

Stuff it, time to let my hair down and get this weekend started.

Zebras in Pyjamas

Somehow I feel that it is becoming a zoo where I am working as now I am starting to see zebras. I have only seen 2 so far, so I will name them Jim and Jam for the alternative word for pyjamas, jimjams or jammies.

A few months back with all the rain, I would have been very concerned with the sudden appearance of two zebras outside my office. I would have looked around for some crazy old man building a rather large boat.

Now this reminds me of the story about a zebra who had lived her entire life in a zoo and was getting on a bit so the zoo keeper decided as a treat that she could spend her final years in bliss on a farm.

Arriving at the farm, the excited zebra got out of the horse trailer to see this huge space with a green grass hill in the background, trees and all these strange animals. She saw a big fat weird looking brown thingy and ran up to it all excited, "Hi! I'm a zebra, what are you?" "I'm a cow" said the cow. "Righty then and what do you do?" asked the zebra. "I make milk for the farmer" said the cow. "Cool beans." The zebra then saw this funny looking little white thingy and ran over to it. "Hi, I'm a zebra, what are you?" "I'm a chicken," replied the chicken. "Oh, right, what do you do?" asked the zebra. "I make eggs for the farmer." replied the chicken. "Righty, great, see y’all round." Then the zebra saw this very tall handsome beast that looked almost exactly like her without the stripes. She trotted over to it and said, "Hi, I'm a zebra, what are you?" "I am a Stallion," puffed the stallion. "Wow," said the zebra. "What do you do?" "Take off your pyjamas darling, and I'll show you."