How the Mike Bolhuis flamingo project is also supporting vulnerable children in South Africa.

I came across Mike Bolhuis and the Flamingo Project through a friend in South Africa. I’m here for 2 weeks working with volunteers who support children’s charities year-round. When I’m not in South Africa I work behind the scenes, promoting, fund raising and online support. You can read about my last visit in December 2018, supporting a Christmas Charity.

After recent droughts in South Africa Mike took it upon himself to try and rescue hundreds of dehydrated and starving flamingo chicks, which hatched back in February in Kamfersdam, Kimberley.

Photo Credit

These chicks have now been released back into their natural habitat, but Mike was left with 100’s of teddy bears the public had donated for the flamingo chicks to snuggle up to, to keep warm and to play with.

I spoke to Mike this week to thank him for the teddy bears, which are now washed, repaired and waiting to be rehoused to 300 vulnerable children living in poverty or in orphanages in and around Pretoria.

You can read more about Mike’s Flamingo rescue on his face book page.

Flamingoes are one of my favourite birds and I often visit Ras Al Khor bird santuary where I live in Dubai and I went in search of the flamingoes in the Western Cape in July 2015.

I'm, pleased Mike and the volunteers have been successful with their project, just a shame I didn't arrive earlier and I could have volunteered.

My top 10 places to view Wildlife in South Africa

We lived in Centurion, Pretoria for 4 years and welcomed numerous visitors every year to South Africa, including family, friends and work colleagues. We were regular visitors to the first 6 places and enjoyed annual trips to 7-10.
In no particular order, other than closest to our home at the time, are the following places to view game, wildlife and birds.

1. Reitvlei Nature Reserve just off the R21. Fantastic for picnics, bird watching and viewing Rhino.

2. Groenkloof on the outskirts of Pretoria where the M18 and the R21 join. Get out your car and take a walk with Giraffes, Zebras and Gnu’s. Hire bikes, ride horses or experience the awesome 4x4 route. Picnic, camp and experience authentic African food at Moyo’s restaurant.

3. Walter Sisulu Gardens in Johannesburg. Enjoy a picnic, a stroll through the gardens, view the nesting Eagles and walk to view the waterfalls.

4. Krugersdorp Lion Reserve, best to visit on a Sunday and experience the feeding habits of the Lions in a semi wild habitat. Picnic site and camp site with restaurant.

5. Pilanesburg Game Reserve. The closest place to view the Big 5. A two hour drive from Pretoria or stay over in a lodge, Sun City or camp site. Take a picnic or eat at Pilanesberg Centre. View Lion, Elephant, Rhino, Cape Buffalo and a Leopard if you’re lucky. Self drive or game drives available.

6. Kruger National Park. Nearest entrance is Malelane, nr Leopards Leap Golf Course, stay inside or outside the park in a lodge or camping. Drive along Crocodile River and take a walk with a ranger to view the hippos. Visit one of numerous restaurants in the park or take a picnic and braai.

7. Take a road trip to Cape Town via Port Elizabeth and visit the Addo Elephant National Park, there’s a variety of lodges nearby at reasonable prices. Spend the day viewing Elephants and other game.

8. Port Elizabeth Light house and visit the SAMREC Penguin Sanctuary. Learn about the plight of the penguin and the good work they do to rehabilitate penguins and return them to the wild. Take a walk on the beach to the light house and view the Oyster Catchers in their natural habitat.

9. Visit Oudtshoorn, inland of Mossel Beach and George. There is a great restaurant and gift shop and take a guided tour of the Ostrich farm and learn about their environment and the trade in feathers. Finish the day off with an Ostrich ride.

10. Finally visit the Cape of Good Hope, where the Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean meet. Take a walk on the beaches with the free roaming antelope.

HDYGG in Jacaranda City aka Pretoria

The nickname for Pretoria is Jacaranda City. There's a hospital and radio station also called Jacaranda and it is named so as the streets are lined with Jacaranda Mimosifolia.

I'd have loved to have taken more photos on my travels in Pretoria this spring, but just stopping on the side of the road in South Africa to whip out an expensive camera and take photographs is really not recommended. I certainly don't want to risk getting hijacked just to show you the lovely purpleness of the city.

Jacarandas aren't native to here and are considered an invader, introduced from Brazil in 1829 there is now a total ban on planting any new trees, but existing Jacarandas do not have to be eradicated. it is estimated that there are 70,000 Jacarandas growing around the city. They are in full flower between September and November which is spring time in South Africa.

Week 44 - My Sunday Photo. Volunteering in South Africa

This should've been a photo of the team, in the school hall with 7000 christmas gifts neatly packed into the cartons and captioned 'Job done'

Sadly this is what we will be doing all day. We have to finish checking approx 400 boxes then we can start wrapping up and the computer system will tell us what boxes are needed for which carton.

We were a couple hundred pledges short so team have been making up these boxes over the weekend from physical donations from the public and cooperates. Around 500 boxes that have been pledged just haven't been delivered, either people forgot, many just can't be arsed to get up and bring the boxes in or they've simply changed their mind.

What this means is that 500 children will go without a gift, but those 500 children are spread over 89 facilities, 30 kids here, 10 kids there, maybe just one child.

We cannot and will not go to a facility for celebration day, knowing that some of the children there will not receive a gift, so today is being spent, making boxes, we've run out of boxes, we're running low on things to put in our none existent box.

2011 we were learning
2012 we were short of boxes
2013 we hit target and were making boxes for the Joburg team to help them out
2014 we were over target
2015 we are under target, making a plan and making boxes

Over the next week we need the following donations to help us reach our target, and require the following:

toothbrush/paste/soap/face cloth
sweets
toys
clothing
shoeboxes

If you would like to support the work I'm doing in South Africa you can make a donation here, if you're in Pretoria and can get to the Chinese School today with any donations or just your time to help us with the packing we'd love to see you, especially if you could bring us a decorated shoebox and maybe a cafe latte.

The reality of living in South Africa

I'm off to South Africa in just under two weeks to volunteer with Santa Shoebox, collecting and distributing 10,000 Christmas gifts to vulnerable and disadvantaged children in Pretoria and surrounding areas and to support The Viva Foundation and to visit my friends that I made in the 4 years we lived there.

When I’ve been on holiday in tourist spots in South Africa where you’re likely to meet other foreigners, I rarely struck a conversation with anyone else because all they want to do is tell me how dangerous the country was, what they thought of it and ask my opinion on Oscar Pistorius and Nelson Mandela when I told them I actually lived there. The same applied when I went home to the UK.

When I was going about my daily business in Centurion, Pretoria paying a bill with my South African bank card, doing the weekly food shop or in the post office trying to retrieve my post that South Africans would say ‘what? you live here? you’re English? Followed by how much they want to go and live in the UK and why they think I’m mad to want to live there.

I was asked all the time to compare the two countries and every time I'd answer without fail, that South Africa is by far the nicer country and when asked why, I tell them there is more space, people are friendly, it’s more relaxed and the quality of life here is better than the UK. Of course there is limited access to education, housing and free health care is very basic and not available everywhere and of course gun crimes and the risk of hijacking are high.

Their response is ‘but England is a better place to live, you earn more, cars are cheaper.’ But people don’t realise just how high the cost of living is in the UK compared to here. We are paid in Rand, so don’t benefit from the current exchange rate with the UK, in fact we struggled as we had to send money back for our son’s education and for our house over there.

The perceptions of the opposite country are the same.

To give you an idea of the major differences between the UK and South Africa consider this.

If I drove East from Kent for 6 hours, I'd pass through 4 countries to Germany. If I drove East from Centurion I'd just about reach the coast and Durban.

A 5 hour drive North of Centurion I reach the bottom left hand corner of Kruger National Park that is the same size as Wales. A 5 hour drive north of Malvern where we lived in the UK, I'd probably run out of land to drive on.

If I flew south for 2 hours I'd reach Cape Town. If I flew south for 2 hours from the UK, I’d be in Spain.

There are 52 million people living in South Africa.

There are 62 million people living in the UK.

We’d been victims of crime in South Africa, we’d been victims of crime in the UK.

We’d driven 1000’s of kilometers in South Africa and were stopped many times in routine roadblocks, We were never asked for money from the police.

We have friends who have been hijacked, robbed and held at gun point in South Africa, that is the only part of South Africa, that scared us and we were vigilant every day, everywhere we went.

£10 is equivialnt to R210 with the current exchange rate. R100 goes further in SA than £10 does in the UK.

R100 would buy me lunch, a coffee and a packet of cigarettes.

It costs more to buy a car in SA, because people don’t change them for new plates and labour is cheaper so it’s cheaper to keep an older car going than it is to replace one. Road tax costs R250 a year. In the UK it costs £400 for the same car, a Jeep. Fuel costs were the same, but remember how much further your Rand goes in SA than the £ back in the UK.

When I visited the UK I avoided eating out, as it was so expensive compared to SA, but I could use public transport, there just isn’t any available in SA.

South Africa was my home. I no longer converted the money for our benefit, just for our visitors and the people I bump into when I’m going about my daily business. We discussed the political differences, they were shocked when I told them that in the UK people are sent to jail for not sending their children to school, when they’re crying out for education in SA.

We left SA in December 2014 as new changes to the laws in regards to foreigners were informed. We now live in Dubai and then we'll move back to the UK in a few years. I have blue skies in Dubai, but I won’t have the space that I crave when I’m not in SA.

I can't even begin to compare Dubai to South Africa, I can't tell you where I prefer to live or why. I left a little part of my heart in South Africa that I will never leave behind in Dubai. We fell in love with SA over time and it was a shock to move as quickly as we did, although we had more of an idea over a longer period that we were leaving SA than we did moving there in the first place.

How to sell a car in South Africa

Email, Facebook, Tweet, Instagram, Whatsapp and SMS EVERYONE you know in Gauteng.

Wait till someone contacts you and then try to work out who they are as your friends have shared the details.

Arrange to meet in a public place, with security, in day light, in an area you know well.

Message a friend with the name of the person, cell number, where and when you are meeting.

Make sure your phone is fully charged and has credit.



On route to meeting this guy at his place of work which is a government office, I messaged my friend with a description of what I was wearing. Having driven round the one way system in Pretoria, road blocks and protests outside the Tshwane Postal Depot. I pulled up at a petrol station to check if there was someone else near by that was secure I could meet this guy at.

I found a secure car park, parked near the entrance and security booth. I phoned the guy, told him to meet me there, kept my key and parking ticket in my pocket and paid the security guy to stand with me while I waited.

Over the top? No, not in South Africa. I was very anxious, my friends BIL took a friend with him and met the potential buyer at a mall, they were both bundled into the boot of the car they were trying to sell and held hostage a couple of hours drive away, until one of them was taken ill and they were driven back to the outskirts of town.

No I haven't sold my car yet, but he said he'll get back to me this afternoon.

I do hope he buys it, I don't think I could go throughout that again.

Where can I walk my dog in Pretoria?

There aren't many places you can go with your dog in South Africa. A lot of open spaces contain wildlife of some description and the rules can change from one week to the next. I've found several places I can walk Bob on a lead, including the golf course that with live on, but there are few places where I can let him off the lead to run free.

Our favourite place is Magalies Sleepy River, we've been there for day trips and camping, but it's an hours drive away and I need somewhere local for daily walks.

I love taking Bob to Irene to Jan Smuts House which is a 5 minute drive from our house. Entrance is R5 to park, there are toilets and lovely tea gardens. There is also a museum that charges R10 for entrance, but you can't take your dog in there and the 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month there is a market (dogs welcome)

You have to remember and you are warned about the dangers of walking on your own and there have been a few incidents in the past, but there have also been incidents inside the security estate that we live in. 

There are places on the walk where you are requested to put your dog back on the lead, but they are clearly signposted. Walk as far or as for as long as you like and I always stop for a pot of tea and give Bob some water before we leave.

I'd love to hear from you if you know of other local places where a dog can run off the lead in safety.

Freedom Park, Pretoria

I had to drive through pretoria on Friday and saw the sign for Freedom Park. I've seen it many times on my travels during the last 3 years, but had yet to visit. A friend on Facebook commented that I am the only person she knows that has ever visited.

My whole visit was summed up by a quote from Archbishop Desmond Tutu:

'When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land'

It cost me R90 to visit the museum and wander round at my own speed and included a guided tour of the gardens of remembrance. I was the only visitor there on Friday.

I did however encounter the following people who were exceptionally friendly and knowledgable, I also thought there were too many people and a lot of their interaction probably wasn't necessary.

I was booked in at the gate and told to drive 200 yds up the hill to park, he radioed ahead to say I was coming. The guy at the parking then directed me to park in a certain bay, despite everywhere being emptied, he then radioed ahead 200 yes to a woman who was stood by reception, who then escorted me into the building to buy my tickets, I was then escorted back via the same process and radio to my car and round the corner, up the hill to another parking area, where my guide met me to start the tour, which lasted approximately 60 minutes. We encountered 2 more security people and Pastor Francine and 2 men in prayer.

Again the whole process was repeated back to reception, escorted up the lift, encountered 3 security guards and finally back to the car.

1 visitor = 11 members of staff

Freedom Park

 Eternal Flame

 Names of all those who dies in the struggle for Freedom

 Memorial for 1st and 2nd World War and Anglo-Boer War

 Bushveld and Highveld Bioms 

 Housing today same as housing then