Addo elephant park and "town"

September the 24th is Heritage Day in South Africa and this year it meant a long weekend :) Liz, Laura, Sion (pronounced Sean) and I were keen to go to the Berg for the weekend. Unfortunately, being disorganised, we left it too late to book, so we couldn't get into the place we wanted to go. Liz's friend Jules was going to a wedding and staying at a farm in Addo, so she suggested we go to Addo.

So on Thursday morning Liz informed me we were going to Addo (and not the Berg) and we were leaving straight after work (instead of Friday morning as originally planned). So i obediently went along with the plan, not really asking how it was going to all work.

"Straight after work" turned into after 6 o'clock (despite the fact that we all left work early). So we drove to East London in the dark in Liz's hired car (because her car was still being fixed). We stopped at the Kei river Steers expecting it to be dead quiet as usual, but found the place packed. We were all starving as it was 10 o'clock, but we patiently waited and had a very welcome Steers supper.

Next stop was Jules's house (after driving past the church parking lot to peep at Liz's car) which was in darkness due to a widespread power failure. We didn't even go in, before Liz had contacted Sam to arrange to fetch her car. Sam had collected Liz's car from the panel beaters earlier that day. Sam's "I'm on my way" turned into a 20 minute wait in the church car park at about 11.30 at night. But soon enough Sam appeared and Liz was reunited with her car (after 4 painful months). Words cannot describe how delighted she was that the ordeal was over.

Then it was back to Jules's house were we were shown in by pitch darkness, somewhat reminiscient of that classic horror movie. Luckily, all the housemates were away, so Jules had the run of the house. Laura and I spent the night in Monique's double bed, during which time she managed to hit me in the face several times, but mostly i didn't wake up.

The next morning turned into a very leisurely cooked breakfast and generally chilled morning. Then we were back in the car - actually 3 cars this time as Liz had to return the hire car, and Jules was instructed by her parents to take her car so that they could use it off road. We had to fill up all the cars and then return the hire car to the airport. And then we were on our way to Addo. Sion and Laura both brought their i-pods which came in very handy since Liz's CD player is still broken.

Grahamstown was the agreed-upon lunch spot and after driving through the main streets we stopped at Cafe Dulce for a very civilized and delicious lunch. It had its entertaining moments with Sion and Jules reliving the previous weekend's sharing food escapades. And Liz going down the street to draw money without taking her card.

I was the route finder and decided to take what looked like the shortest route to Addo. Unexpectedly, the route ended abruptly with a closed road due to a collapsed bridge! couldn't have known that! So we took a detour through the park itself and saw some kudu.

Eventually, we found Addo "village" which didn't contain a Spar. Liz had told us that there was a Spar at the Berg, but for some reason Laura, Sion and I still had it in our heads that we were going to a place that had a Spar. So we hadn't really brought food with us. Ooops!

We stayed at Aardvark "backpackers" which was actually more of a guest house and got amazing accomodation for backpacker prices. I highly recommend it.

Since Laura knows Jules's parents, we all went over to the farm they were staying at for afternoon tea. Somehow, we had got the impression that it was a peacon farm. So when Laura said to the citrus farmer "so you grow peacons here", it was rather entertaining and provided amusement for the rest of the weekend.

Heritage Day has informally become National Braai Day, so we had to braai that night. Luckily Laura and Sion had brought some steak with them, and Liz some rolls, so we weren't completely stuck for food. Liz and Laura insisted we needed to have veggies, so they went off in search of a shop at 6 pm on a public holiday in a tiny dorp - i was not very assured of their success, to say the least. Meanwhile Sion and i were left to start the fire. Since Sion was the only guy, South African culture states that he is responsible for the braai. However, Sion is Welsh and had never made a braai before, so that left me to get the process going. We managed to hijack a braai from an Afrikaans family, and before long Sion was being taught how to braai steak by an Afrikaans farm boy - how embarrassing! Amazingly, Laura and Liz found a cabbage and a pumpkin, so we ended up with quite a feast! There were also some black Zimababwean guys around, so we had quite a multicultural Heritage Day.

The next day, we headed into the park and spent the day game viewing. We had some fantastic encounters with elephants who have no fear of cars and happily walk right up to them. Our favourite was the baby ellies who are super cute. It was fun initiating Sion into the game park culture.

On Sunday morning we had a leisurely breakfast and then were back on the road again. We had to stop and shop in East London since Uncle Tony had convinced Sion he was suffering from "post-salmonisitis" and desperately needed some salmon. Sion felt obligated to comply and spent R180 buying salmon from Woolies. We found some unexpected bargains in Hemingways: half price Pick n Pay wellies! and a colourful tea pot from Pep:)

All in all, a great long weekend :)

Sundowners on the watertower

This is part 2 in the series entitled "Goodbye Children".

Climbing the water towers is one of those things that everyone thinks would be really cool to do, but doesn't ever get round to it. But not us....

I was walking home from work one day when i saw Sammy running out her gate with a bag. I found out where she was going and i quickly changed and ran to the tower. I couldn't believe Kayleigh had made it up, cos she is afraid of heights. I thought i wasn't, but then what followed next changed my mind...

JT also heard what we were up to, and soon we were both attempting to climb the LONG ladder. In my first attempt, I got about one third of the way up and couldn't believe how high it was, so i panicked and climbed back down. JT managed to get half-way up before giving up and going to play frisbee. I couldn't let her beat me, so i made another attempt and climbed half-way up. I paused briefly and then just kept climbing and taking deep breaths and then i was up!

Kayleigh and Sam were thrilled to see me. My whole body was in shock, so i just sat down for a while too scared to stand (- there are no edges, its just flat on top). Sam had brought cider, so that helped to calm my nerves, and then i could admire the view. The hospital from above.
A few minutes later, Liz appeared at the bottom of the tower and proceeded to climb straight up as if it was the easiest thing in the world. And the family was complete :)

Thankfully, Liz brought chocolate :) So between the cider, chocolate and some time to chill, I managed to recover sufficiently to have a photoshoot.

And it wouldn't be a party without Walk Like an Egyptian!:)

Climbing down wasn't so bad. The adrenaline rush from the whole experience lasted for at least an hour - it was hectic! Overall, an unforgettable evening :)

Family weekend away at Bulungula

Due to internet (or rather anti-virus) problems, i have gotten a bit behind with the blogging and have left out a whole rather significant period of my life in which Kayleigh and Sam left us to return home. I am missing them so much - they are Liz and I's first adopted children (and possibly last, since we are heart-broken after losing them).

One day about 3 weeks before they left, Kayleigh and I made a list of all the things we wanted to do together before leaving day. The list was as follows:

• Sundowners on the water tower


• "Sunrise Surprise"


• Dinner at Raptor's View


• Family dinner cooked by Sam


• Family weekend away to Bulungula


• Ceighleidh party

We managed to do half of them. We had to skip dinner at Raptor's View, family dinner cooked by Sam and the great ceighleidh party - although they did kind of morph into other events.

So, lets start with the legendary family weekend away at Bulungula. This must be the most photographed weekend of my life with over 400 photos, some of them taken by Josh and Grace. Let me present a (very selective) photo diary of the weekend.

The weekend included some members of our extended family, the Gaunts: Ben, Taryn, Josh (6), Grace (4) and Elijah (2). Kate very kindly lent us her car for the weekend. Unfortunately her car has no boot and feels like it has no shocks. So the journey there was very amusing, with Kayleigh and Sam squashed in the back with the luggage. The Gaunts had the amusing priviledge of driving behind us (cos they didn't know the way) and seeing Liz drive slowly (for a change! running joke:)).

Friday afternoon was spent lounging inside drinking tea and eating rusks while Josh, Gracie and Elijah climbed all over us.

Saturday morning began with beach games Gaunt style. Ben practiced his golf swing, and then with Josh, they created a huge maze. Good fun!

Kayleigh became next on the entertainment list for the day. As u can see, she was mobbed by kids. I think they were drawing flags and maps.Legendary Bulungula tosted sandwiches for lunch. They are almost as big as Elijah's head!!!

I had an awesome afternoon nap and missed Josh playing the drums with the local kids. Are those Kayleigh's sunglasses?!

Gracie :)Drumming and tree climbingLate afternoon, followed by a beautiful sunset

Family portrait: the awesome foursome :)

Saturday night antics round the fire. At Bulungula when you collect your main course, you also get given a "pudding ring" which is your token for getting pudding later. We discovered that pudding rings made good monacles, and many pictures followed :)

Ben and Taryn performing an owl imitation

Sunday morning was bright and sunny and we had an awesome leisurely breakfast...

...which turned into yet another flag drawing session - this time on our finger nails! Josh's favourite part of the world cup seems to have been flags - they made quite and impression on him.

Liz gets the mug with flowers on, because "she's beautiful like a flower."

Annette who works at Bulungula, gave us a tour of the Early Learning Centre. Some adults in the gang also appreciated the early learning play equipment :) All aboard to Loony Land!

What else can you do on a beautiful day besides go to the beach?! The water was perfect temperature, and Josh and Grace loved exploring the sand dunes. Kayleigh decided to change the spelling of her name to Kayle (to be easier for Xhosa people to spell). It says "Sammy" and "Kayle" in the sand. Notice Ben still working on his golf swing :)

After a thoroughly enjoyable weekend, it was time to head home :( Thanks to everyone who made it so amazing!

How to eat a sheep

This story begins with Jack. Jack is Kate's black dog who likes to chase sheep and goats. We were spending the weekend at Hole in the Wall and on Friday afternoon Kate and Jack were on the beach when Jack spotted some sheep on a nearby hill and chased after them. Kate didn't expect him to reach them on time, but one sheep got separated from the rest and Jack caught up. Unfortunately, Jack's playing ended up in a mortally wounded sheep.

A few hours later, when we hadn't heard from any of the locals about missing a sheep, Kate decided it was time to do something. So she gathered up a bunch of enthusiatic helpers. With very few torches, we missioned across the beach in almost pitch darkness to find the then dead sheep. It took 4 people (each holding 1 leg) to carry the sheep back from the far end of the beach.

The question then became: what does one do with a dead sheep? It is standard practise that when you injure or kill an animal in the Transkei (even if the animal does a suicide run in front of your car), you have to pay - big time! So we knew Kate would be buying the sheep, so she may as well use it. The problem was, that the sheep had not yet been identified so we couldn't cut it up (as the owner's initials are spray painted onto the fleece). And it was about 8 o'clock at night - bed time for your average Transkei local, so it was unlikely to be identified until the next morning. So the problem becomes where to store the sheep overnight. Can't fit the whole thing in a fridge or freezer. Can't leave it outside cos other animals will eat it. Don't want to store a dead animal inside either. The best idea we could think of was to put in on the roof overnight where it is less likely to be eaten.

Fortunately, before we could get the sheep on the roof, the owners were found. After long negotiations in Xhosa, Kate and Dan manged to negotiate a deal. Unfortunately the sheep was pregnant, meaning that 2 sheep had to be paid for. The final price was R750.

Then came the dissection. Two security guards from Hole in the Wall Hotel were willing to cut it up in exchange for the organs - fine with us since we didn't want to eat them anyway. As a bunch of medical people, we watched in fascination as the sheep was dissected by torchlight.

Above: sheep with the skin removed - much like skinning a cadaver

Below: Intestines, liver, stomach (and maybe lungs)

As the organs began coming out, it was an interesting cultural situation as we declared certain parts as edible or otherwise. The security guards had a completely different idea as to what was edible. So we made 2 piles: one for us and one for them. The only part that didn't go in either pile was the uterus and fetus. The uterus was huge - the security guards reckonned she would've given birth in 2 weeks. When the uterus came out it was a sacred moment. The local guys were deeply impacted by this visual reminder of loss of potential and refused to take the lamb out of the uterus to show us, instead disgarding it in the bushes with tangible sadness.

There was surprisingly little meat on such a large animal: mainly the legs. It went in a bucket to spend the night in the fridge. The next day, Ben and Kate spent two hours dissecting further and removing the meat from the bones and other bits. The meat went into a delicious potjie that Ben made, and so the sheep ended up feeding about 20 people and still having the left overs. It is surely the freshest meat i've ever eaten. Thank you Kate, Ben and the sheep.

Funny Friday

The Zithulele netball team decided they needed funds to buy kit and they would get these funds through organising a "funny day". The way it works is that you are supposed to dress funny and if you don't, you pay a R5 fine. If you do, you pay R3 - so much for freewill. (I haven't paid yet)

Two peas in a pod

During our weekend away at Hole in the Wall, Liz and Kate climbed into bed and took out their books one night, only to discover they were reading the same book! : Twenty chickens for a saddle by Robyn Scott.