All this on my door step

Well a 2 hour drive west from Centurion to Pilanesburg Game Reserve.

I dressed for the part...

...camoflagued to blend in with the zebras (we saw only 1)

We were at altitude, the temperature averaged 35c during the day.

We saw so many animals it was unbelievable and so close to where we were.

There was only 1 rhino on this trip.

A variety of antelope (gets boring, Yawns) I promise I'm going to learn to identify them.


There were plenty of giraffes.

This Ostrich was seriously close.

Then there was the elephants...they are just so big, fast and not very friendly if you get in their way.



We heard a nosie beneath us and looked down.

Give us a lift mate.

Can't I'm tired.

I had to get out the car to read this sign...sort of defeats the object really.

A stop for lunch at one of many picnic spots and photo opportunities for the kids also.




Wrong side of the fence, son.

And finally about a mile from the gate...Lions

Santa Shoe box Celebration day, PACSEN, Pretoria

Unfortunately I have had to remove the photos from this blog as Permission had not been obtained from the schools to use these pictures. Despite there being an official photographer on site and the organisers being aware photos were being taken and me saying to them I would be putting them on the face book page, no one thought it necessary to actually tell me, that permission would be sought, in retrospect, only after I had posted them.

Today I thought my heart was going to break. At a school in Pretoria, several schools attended for their Celebration day to receive their Santa Shoe boxes, donated by the people of South Africa. It was a wonderful, heart breaking, experience to be part of something so very magical. PACSEN supports Parents and Children with Special Education Needs, financially and emotionally where their education, equipment, clothing, nappies. You name it, these kids need it. http://www.firechildren.org/index2.asp?include=pacsen.htm&catID=5

There was entertainment with a clown and bouncy castles and The Lions of Pretoria did the catering.

http://e-clubhouse.org/sites/pretoriahostza/

The children were happiest with the simplest of things that we take for granted, such as bars of soap, a pink toothbrush and strawberry flavoured toothpaste, their clothing was perfect for each child, they hugged their teddy bears, started their colouring and ate their sweets. We stayed till the last child went and it made me cry to say goodbye to one of the little boys, who doesn't interact, make eye contact or speak, he clung to me and had to be prised away when it was time to leave....We were thanked by the staff for sharing and giving our love.

Krugersdorp Lion Reserve

Picture the scene, you go to a game reserve, there is a Lion Enclosure, you arrive in time to see the 2nd half of South Africa v Wales (dressed in your Wales top) you drive to the lodge, park your car and see two lions in a cage, you walk closer to take a look and you realise there is a wire fence and an electric wire hooked up to a car battery between them and you.



You turn round to see this



And you remember you now live in Africa.

Living in Utopia...part one

The house is fantastic, ok it’s costing us a fortune in rent, but we ‘need’ the security and as I can’t work, why not live in a beautiful setting on a 18 hole golf course, where I can go for a walk in complete safety. I ‘need’ the pool (more of a big bath really) and the steam room and all this space...we could never afford this standard of living in the UK and why not?...we may be here forever, we may decide to go home, we may move somewhere else in a few years...who knows?



We live a 10 minute drive from Rietvlei, http://www.rietvlei-reserve.co.za/index.php?loc=rietvlei_game a small game reserve by South African standards, more of a park really, but bigger than Longleat and it’s not manmade, it’s the animal’s natural habitat. There are Lions, Rhinos and Zebras as well as the Sneezy things, as my son named them when he came to visit, seems like they’re all allergic to the grass...think they’re called Spring Boks.





45 Minutes further down the road is Krugersdorp Game Reserve and the Lion Park http://www.sa-venues.com/game-reserves/ga_krugersdorp.htm...we go there on Sunday mornings as that’s when they feed the lions. They have Elands and similar animals that have died of natural causes chained to a post to stop the Lions dragging their food away so the tourists can see and take photos. The Lions are docile after feeding but if they do approach your car you need to keep moving as they have a habit of chewing your tyres and you don’t want to be changing a wheel out there.



Pilanesberg Game reserve http://pilanesberggamereserve.com/index.html is a 2 hour drive away north west of Pretoria, that’s where you get to see all the ‘big 5’
The Elephants were amazing, a herd of approximately 20, stood no further away than the length of a football pitch, unfortunately one of them decided it liked the look of our car and started to approach us on the road...there was nothing we could do...we couldn’t go forwards as the elephant was blocking our view, so we indicated to the car behind to reverse, who indicated to the car behind him, who indicated to the car behind him and so on.....it took ages before we were able to reverse away, to discover that the end car about 7 back was in fact actually a car and not a 4x4 like the rest of us and the road was actually a track full of deep holes and they had trouble getting out...a fair amount of panic from parents but I’m quite calm in these types of situations as is Peter...we had no control over the situation.



Two weeks earlier I spotted a Leopard at dusk and despite the warnings, yes, I sort of got out the car to take a photo and get a better look...good job its mate didn’t sneak up behind me...he was less than 20ft away.


The remaining two animals are the Rhino and Buffalo and I’ve seen them many times, in fact in each park on every occasion in the case of the rhino.





I could get used to this...I am used to this... there’s another weekend ahead and the picnic will be made and the camping stove with tea and coffee facilities will be packed and off we go...

Do you know what my neighbour said when I told him that I’d seen the ‘big 5’ in 3 separate visits within 5 months?...
Suzanne...This is Africa