All Creatures

All creatures great and small, fat and tall, our Lord God loves them all, or does that song go otherwise. Anyway on the very last day of the year, we did another early morning start. This time we left from our base in Nelspruit and headed for Numbi, the closest gate into the Kruger National Park armed only with our cell phones’ cameras.

It was a cool start but we knew that the temperatures would hit 40 degrees Celsius so we packed lots of water. At first the animals were scarce but we camped out at every watering hole between Pretoriuskop and Skukuza. The heat forced the animals to the watering holes with even the rhinoceroses preferring to wallow in the water as if they wished to become hippopotamuses.

We saw mostly Impala followed hot on their tails were the rhinos. Yes we were blessed to see lots of these endangered animals but towards the end of the day all we wanted was to see some elephants and then we nearly drove into two large males bulls as we round a dirt track that lead to another watering hole. These two must have opened the flood gates as it was elephants we wanted, we got plenty.

The crowning point of our trip was at the very end, near Malelane on another dirt track along the Crocodile River. The Leopard just caught a monkey in front of us and calmly proceeded to walk past us carrying it’s dinner, much to the disgust of the other monkeys who stayed well back in the trees barking at the leopard.

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.

Rhino Art

This morning was spent with Matthew, going to the bioscope, whoa, who says bioscope anymore? Oh well even cinema seems so old to say, so off to the movies to watch a fliek. We only got back home late afternoon. Later Lynda and I went out but that was a disaster. No more about that other than this beautiful mosaic art rhino which we stumbled upon in Broadacres.

Social Media Law, Bacon, and Baby Rhinos

A seven o’ clock breakfast in Sandton was not cool. Firstly it is way too early for me to start fighting traffic just for a breakfast seminar. Secondly no bacon. Yes no breakfast should be ever called a breakfast if bacon is not involved, seriously people, this is not cool.

I enjoyed the seminar talk on Managing Risk and Compliance of Social Media but there was others who have already been on many of these talks such as Mr X (name withheld as speaker is a lawyer specialising in Social Media) and in his opinion comparing to other talks on the subject that he has been on, this one he rated as mediocre, poor choice of venue for so early on a Monday morning, and wait for it, with a poor attempt of a breakfast. You see bacon plays an important part of anyone’s morning, as they normally are.

Bottom line I didn’t have much to compare with, I enjoyed the talk and found it informative but all I could rate it with was in terms of the breakfast they served and yes this one was mediocre. Not worth fighting the traffic to Sandton for. Luckily for me I was on my Vespa which allowed me to whisk through the gridlock surrounding Sandton during rush hour as one does on a Vespa.

After the talk, I had to walk across to Sandton Mall to buy a new belt as mine conveniently broke yesterday and now I found myself beltless. Maybe it was this that caused me to crave for some bacon. The shops were all geared towards the coming Christmas but something caught my eye. “Have you seen my mother?” cried a baby rhino on a poster. Under the Stop Rhino Poaching poster was these hand painted porcelain baby rhinos. And there you have it, the ahhh cute moment of my day.

M'Kepi

The rain has set in so that means no game drives unless you love getting wet on top of an open game viewing vehicle. But that does not mean you could not have fun. We went for quite a long walk in the break of the weather and we also visited the two baby orphaned rhinos whose mothers were killed by poachers. Okay more about where we staying. Tambotie Lodge is the luxury lodge of the three types of accommodation available at M'Kepi. Camelthorn Cottage is the rustic getaway and Maroela Camp is the basic boma for hunters. See the website for more information. Oh yes just one thing there is no cellphone coverage in the valley which means no internet, no blogger, no twitter and no news of the outside world. Peace and tranquil bushveld life.