We left Kimberley Club around 9 am. Today’s journey took us 7 hours, including a lunch stop. The road was long and straight, very straight.

The mornings drive hosted lots of beautiful African acacia trees. There was the occasional sociable weavers nest hanging from telephone poles like a giant thatch roof. We were plagued by a number of ‘stop and go’s’ due to roadworks. One particularly long stop, it turned out was due to a donkey cart coming in the opposite direction – only in Africa.

We passed through Strydenburg, we are not retiring here, on our way to Britstown, where we had lunch, rather nice venison pies at the Old Mill Coffee Shop. A really quaint little restaurant in a town that probably most people have not heard of. It sits in the Great Karoo area of the Northern Cape and is Merino sheep farming area. It’s hard to believe anything can survive in this environment. In spite of the desiccated soils and stunted vegetation starved of rain, the road leading from Britstown to Canarvon offers an austere beauty: copper earth, short golden grass, grey-green bushes and the odd ashy-barked shepherds tree, triumphant survivors of the testing elements.

Then there are the high Karoo hills, some with their tips lopes off, some pinnacles like Basotho huts, some knobbly and bumpy, one might think you are on Mars. After Canarvon, we passed through Williston. Again we will not be retiring to any of these farming dorps. 

We arrived in Calvinia, a regional town in the Northern Cape, named after the French religious reformer Jean Calvin.  (Kirst says the town sounds like an S.T.D.) It was 4 pm and a warm, sunny 22 degrees, when we booked into the Blou Nartjie Guesthouse. The cottage rooms are clean and comfortable. The guesthouse also hosts a fabulous restaurant with great home cooked food housed in an old revamped synagogue.

After checking in, Ga and I went for a walk through the scrub vegetation at the back of the house.  We came across the first of the Namaqualand flowers of the season. This is very early so it was very exciting. Our walk was cut short when we arrived at the fence and the neighbors massive Alsatian took a dislike to us.

We sat outside enjoying the surroundings till the sun set. Then the wind came up and the temperature plummeted. As this is reported to be one of the coldest areas in South Africa, I think we are in for a chilly night.

We left home at 8:15, to a still disgruntled Kirsty and cat, and headed west, through the suburb of Northcliff, where I grew up, to Roodepoort, where we took took the N12 to Kimberley.

On our journey we passed through Soweto, Potchefstroom and through the mining areas of Orkney, Stilfontein and Klerksdorp. 

When Ga was a kid, it was always ‘when will we get there’, this has been replaced by ‘when are we stopping to eat’. We stopped in Wolmaranstad, where our choices were Wimpy, KFC or Steers, we opted for Steers.

Having satisfied Gareth, we continued onto Bloemhof. I attended veld school there, not a fond memory, it was a type of schools indoctrination army camp. The area is however pretty; flat and covered with wheat yellow grass and green acacia trees.

Around Christiana we passed white dry pans and were disappointed not to see flamingos. However as we entered Kimberley, the dam was filled with flocks of the pink birds.

Kimberley has an extraordinary history and today is one of South Africa’s main tourist destinations due to the ‘Big Hole’ at its heart. Our first stop was to visit the big hole. I have been here a number of times but it never fails to impress.  It is hard to conceive that this deep hole was made with picks and shovels. We toured the museum, went under ground and walked around the old village museum.

We then booked into Kimberley Club where we spent the night. The Hotel boasts a long and fascinating history, with Queen Elizabeth and the royal family having stayed here. Our suite is beautiful, including a lounge and study and beautiful bedroom and bathroom. Modern comforts while maintaining the old features made for a charming stay.

After G & T’s in the Kimberley Club Bar, we were treated to a wonderful dinner in the old dining room. A great start to the Cape leg of our trip.

Another week at home and the usual round of catching up with family and friends and eating and drinking…such fun.

The best part about being at home, on leave, is being able to sleep in. Getting up on dark, cold winters mornings to go to work is not my idea of fun. I could get used to this life.

Saturday, the day before our departure, was busy with shopping for home and holiday. This was in between breakfast with friends and dinner with Kirst.  She was not in the best of moods because we were leaving her alone and she “misses us sooooooo much when we are not there and she is sooooo lonely and to make it worse we are taking her sibling away as well”. Gareth has some much needed leave and will be joining us for the next 2 weeks.

The other family member that is not enchanted by our comings and goings is Morgan, our cat. He totally ignores us for at least 3 days after we return from a trip. He has just returned to sleeping in our bed and then he caught us packing and went off to sulk.  The dogs and Tonto, our more forgiving cat, on the other hand love us unconditionally and are excited to have us around.  The ducks don’t give a …. whether we are home or not.

Tonto

Morgan

I am looking forward to the next leg of our trip to the western part of the country, namely Tankwa Karoo and the Cape and Stellenbosch area.

The last few days in the bush it was just the two of us; game drives, birding and still eating Jean’s fruit.

 On our last drive we were under great pressure … we had 98 birds on our list for this trip, not a great number but certainly not bad for winter time. As there was very little game around we stopped to identify anything that dared flutter around us. We added 99, a red-billed buffalo weaver and as the sun was setting I spotted a long tailed paradise whydah, a nice way to finish off a wonderful few weeks.

I love the freedom of having our own place in the bush. No pressure to be up a 6 to go on a game drive or be back in a camp before the gates close. We are also very spoilt to have our own game drive vehicle. It is wonderful to have the breeze in your face and to be open to the sounds and smells of the bush. On we down side, we have been caught in the rain and soaked to the bone and it can get pretty cold on early morning drives.

 This is our third vehicle we have had down here, a brand new out the box Landcruiser that was converted into a comfy sight seeing vehicle. It is quiet and handles the off-road beautifully. This has been a huge step up from the previous two old workhorses; retired construction vehicles that had been around the clock a few times, chopped up and seats welded onto the back. They did serve us well and they were also the vehicles that all the kids learnt to drive with. If you can master those gear boxes on gravel roads with the threat of ellies around the next corner, you can pretty much drive anything. All 3 got their licenses first time.

The bush at the moment is very dry and fairly sparse but at least there is vegetation, unlike last year this time when the area was ravaged by drought. It will still be a few years before the grass cover recovers completely but the animals are all in good condition. Each season is special, the spring brings leaves and seed pods to what looked like dead winter trees and bushes.  By summer the grass is thick, green and lush, making game viewing difficult but bringing in loads of migrant birds, making birding easy and exciting. My favorite time is early December when all the ungulates drop their babies and the plains are teaming with herds of tiny impala, giraffe, zebra and my best baby warthogs. 

We all have bush favourites: my favourite drive is the Pels Loop, favourite drinks place is the old washed up log on the Olifants River. 

As I mentioned my fav of the the Big 5 is the ellie, my fav animal is a warthog – someone has to love something so ugly. My fav flower is the Impala Lilly, fav tree is the baobab but I also love the rock fig, fav smell is the potato bush (wild sage comes second), I love the sound of roaring lions and the call of the fish eagle. Birds, omg, I don’t have one but I do love birds that stick out, in an otherwise stark environment, those with colors that are so out of place and yet these camouflageless birds survive. The list must include the lilac breasted roller, the violet backed starling, African hoopoe, malachite kingfisher, love blue waxbills and so on.

I guess I just love the bush and my best is sharing it with Gray, whose love and knowledge always inspires me.

We were fortunate to have some nice sightings with the Kennedy’s. The ellies again came to the party. I think elephant are my favourite of the Big 5 because they are the most interesting to watch; they are always on the go, eating, drinking, breaking down trees, occasionally charging us and they are easy to spot. We had one that was hanging around the house and one morning as I came out the outside shower – there he was.

We had a great leopard sighting and Gray and Ian saw two black rhino. However, the cherry on the top and definitely for me, the sighting of the holiday was a Pels Fishing Owl. This big light brown owl was perched high in a tree along the banks of the Olifants. Gray spotted it as he was checking a squirrel warning call, while the rest of us were watching a breeding herd of ellie. Unfortunately we were eventually chased off the sighting by the ellie who were heading down to the river to drink. 

We had some good nocturnal sightings. A jackal with the hind leg of a steenbok on the road. Also fairly common at night are nightjars that settle on the road. They freeze in the spotlight and Gray on many occasions has been able to pick the bird up for us to inspect before letting it fly off into the night. 

Tonight he did the same but as he got out the car I saw him stumble slightly, bearing in mind we are on 6200 hectares of land with 100s of km of road, and he barefoot manages to step into the biggest, slushiest ellie patty on the farm. I was laughing so much I couldn’t hold the light steady and the nightjar flew off.

During this time it was full moon, a special time in the bush, recently marred by the fact that it is also the time that rhino poachers like to strike. 

And news from the home front ….

Pic sent from Robs – looks like our ducks have adopted an Egyptian goose

The road system around the farm is a myriad of gravel roads (one area is even named spaghetti junction – for obvious reasons) and if you don’t know your way around, you could get lost for days. 

Sadly Wayne and Jean were driving back to Joburg today, then flying to the UK to visit their children before returning to Miami. They followed us out the reserve and then we took Steve and Sheila to the airport at Hoedspruit. 

We bought a few supplies, no fruit, and headed to Sleepers for lunch. Sleepers is our favourite restaurant in Hoedspruit. It is located next to the railway line in the old railway station. Here we were joined by other good mates Gayl and Ian Kennedy. They were joining us on the farm for a few days. 

On the way back to the house we saw the sable we had been looking for. Having had a big lunch we didn’t feel like dinner so Gray made a great atmosfire and we chilled and swilled till late into the night. 

So much for boosters and improved comms at the house. Postings blogs was clearly just out of reach.

 

For the past 4 days life in the bush has been fairly busy. Our great friends Wayne and Jean Diesel, from Miami,  joined us along with friends from Cape Town Steve and Sheila Pacak. So all had come a long way to spend special time with us. 

Jean and I have been besties since we met in Mrs Brett’s class in Grade 1 at Northcliff Primary School. She frequently visits SA to see her mom, so I am so lucky to see her regularly, Gray jokes that he is bossed around by two wives. 

Sheila and I met when our boys were at Nursery school and then they moved to Cape Town, it was great to catch up with her for a few days.

On our way to meet them all we came across a great sighting of a fish eagle eating a barbel it had just caught. This was the start of some wonderful bush sightings: we saw breeding herds of ellies drinking at water holes, one particularly interesting interaction was of a stand off between two elephant bulls and how the non dominant one backed off. On another sighting, as the Ellie came down to the water hole they disrupted a pride of 8 lions resting nearby. For an hour we didn’t what to watch, lions skulking all around, baby ellies being protected by the herd or the herd drinking and spraying water with their trunks. We also had a great sighting of a hyena one night. 

We had sundowners with spectacular sunsets every evening. Then nights around the braai fire, with the wine flowing. Steve had flown from CT to Hoedspruit with a case of some of the Cape’s finest. As always we frequently shine the light around below the deck to look for the resident civets and genet. One night a Gray shone over the edge there was a leopard drinking at the little waterhole. 

Lots of eating and lots of drinking and loads of laughs and fun. Gray is a carnivore and considers a chicken dinner vegetarian. Jean likes her healthy food and clearly concerned that we might be on a full on braai diet, arrived with enough fruit, veg and salad goods to feed an army of vegans for a year. Heaven forbid, Gray even landed up with lettuce in his drinks fridge. 

Thanks friends for making the effort to spend time with us. Sorry Wayne that we didn’t get to see your rhino and sable. 

Today we swopped our routine around a bit. We lazed in and chilled till around 10. Then we set off on our game drive.

We stopped off at the office and caught up with admin. We had a long chat to Megan and Mario, who have been running the farm for the last 25 years, they are a wonderful couple and do the most amazing job. We chatted about the reserve and rhino poaching in the area. 

As we were bumbling along on our drive, I asked Gray to stop as I had seen a red-crested korhaan, and next thing there was a leopard in front of us. The herds of impala in the area were screeching out warning calls and it was all very exciting. Then just as quickly he disappeared into the bush.

Shortly after that we came across a pride of 5 lions. They were chilling in the shade under some trees. We saw lots of general game, including a tawny eagle and klipspringers. On the way back to the house we stopped at Warthog Pan and a small herd of buffalo came down to drink. To crown it all we drove through a swarm of bees. Not fun in an open vehicle but luckily they flew over and left us unscathed.

I remember our annual trips to Kruger National Park as a child. We were always up at sparrows to secure first spot in line, car revving as the gates opened to get the first and best sightings.  Over the years I have come to realise that it’s just luck and the time of day is not really a factor.

So after a pretty good drive, we arrived home at 3 pm, the time we usually leave for our afternoon drive. We chilled, sat around the fire and had an early braai. If we relax any more we will start going backwards. 

Picnic stop

Woke up to a spectacular sunrise. The wind, thankfully had died down. 

This mornings drive was fairly uneventful for the most part. 

On our return home we saw a flock of vultures circling, this usually means they have spotted a kill. We followed them as they descended through the thermals and found around 200 of them sitting on an island in the middle of the Olifants River.  Most had their wings spread wide, enjoying the morning sun.  We identified 3 types; white backed, cape and hooded vultures. It was a pretty cool sight.

The afternoon drive also started off slow. G & T’s must have done the trick, improved our eye sight or given us some luck. We came across two ellies having a glorious mud bath, we watched them for a good half an hour as they rolled, splashed and had fun in the mud like a couple of kids.  

Then we came across a herd of around 200 buffalo. Please excuse the pics, iPhones are clearly not meant to take bush photos. I have not brought my laptop to download pics from my Nikon- hopefully I will have better shots to show.

Technology just gives more accessibility daily. For the first time we have cell access from the house, allowing me to post blogs from here. Gray has brought down a wireless router, enabling us to use WhatsApp, FB, blog and so on. Posting is slow at times but at least doable.

I remember arriving at the newly built bush house with Gray and his folks about 30 years ago.  It was among the first houses built on the reserve and had no electricity, everything; that is lights, fridges, geysers and stove was run on gas.  We helped unpack the new home, make beds and hang curtains. Those sun-filter curtains and candlewick bead spreads are still in use today, much to my  irritation. For years I have been desperate to upgrade the décor but have been vetoed. 

The house itself has however had the odd facelift from time to time.  The first was to cover the polished concrete floors with cream tiles.  The old flooring is now the latest rage and we are stuck with cleaning cream floors … in the bush.  The bathrooms have been upgraded, the driveway stoned and the thatch and paintwork have been attended to.  The best upgrade was extending the deck out towards the river and including a fireplace / braai area.  Most houses host bomas but we elected for what we thought a more sociable option, for the braaier anyway.

Years back solar power was introduced, which ran in tandem with the gas. Then about 5 years ago, electricity was introduced into the area.  Funny, the kids were really anti us putting electricity in. They conceded eventually, with the proviso that we didn’t get TV, a request we fully agreed with. We now run a system with the best of all three – gas geysers, solar lights and back up for power cuts and electricity for fridges and appliances.

The house itself has a large open plan kitchen, lounge area with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.  My 2 favorite features are the deck, where we practically live when we are down here and the outdoor shower. The shower is some 20 paces from the kitchen door and is accessed from the outside. Despite 2 indoor showers, I have only known our family, in all weather and at any time of the day or night, to use this little cubicle shower. As we come across elephant, lions and other Game in the drive way from time to time, one needs to do a check of the area before heading back to the house in your bath towel.

This truly is a special place.

We woke at 6 am to a windy day. Yesterday was beautiful, even the evening was mild and we were comfortable in our shorts and T-shirts. Today, however, while it was not cold, we had definitely brought the wind with us.

We started the day with our favourite bush drink, condensed milk coffee and our favourite activity, birding on the deck.

Animals are generally scarce in windy weather as they lie down in the thicket, so we didn’t rush off on an early game drive. We decided to leave around 9 am, not expecting to see much. We drove along Pels Loop, which took us through a forested area along the banks of the Olifants River, one of the most scenic drives on the farm, we then headed across the railway line to the dams and planes. We were fortunate to see 6 lioness, as they have cubs, we will hopefully see more of them over the next few weeks. We also saw kudu, a beautiful big waterbuck, some general game and a good variety of birds – so much for not seeing anything…

We returned home for brunch and down time or chill time. The routine here is to have coffee and rusks, go on a morning game drive, return for brunch and then chill time. This is usually to avoid the heat of the day, especially in summer, when temperatures can head into the high 40’s.  It is a time to read, play board games, do jigsaw puzzles, crosswords and soduko, sleep, chat and so on.  We then go for an afternoon game drive and sun downers before returning home to braai for dinner. The afternoon drives often continue into the night, especially if we are seeing lots of game.

Today, due to the continuous wind, we decided to forego the afternoon drive. Instead I sat on the deck, crocheting, sipping on a G&T and watching out for animals coming down to the river to drink.  There was a pod of hippos frolicking (probably the wrong word to use for hippos) in the water, a crocodile sunning himself on the rocks and a white backed vulture roosting on a nest, high in a tree next to the house. As the sun was setting a beautiful male nyala came to drink at the little water hole at the house, he was followed by the female and a young one. The best sighting though was that of a fish eagle flying along the river with the sun glinting on its wings. 

The hippos are a fixed feature at the house and every visit we see them sunning themselves on the sand bank, swimming in the river and making that delightful grunting sound that makes one assume that they must be permanently constipated. The nyala family are also regular visitors, along with a pair of genets. The other nocturnal visitor is a civet. One night we had elephant on one side of the deck, the civet on the other side and the genets in front – where does one look ???

We had great big T-bone steaks for dinner, complimented with a glass of red vino, Gray was in heaven.