Gooodbye Reserve

'Clubbing' last night turned out being trapped in a 'good ole boys' Afrikanners bar with leering men dressed like motorbike riders. None too exciting.

Last full day on the reserve and we chilled out with (surprise) liquor coffees and game driving...not without the usual ute-stuck in mud business- but I wont put that photo of me covered in sprayed mud up! Several breakneck journeys on the back of the ute down highways to bottle stores and we closed it all off with a braii (love that meat) around a monster fire of my own construction.

Then it dissolved into loud music in the pool house, bad dancing and drunken goodbyes. Funny how you get to know people after working and living together... then its all gone. Ah well.

Off at 12pm Sun on the drive into our hotel in the center of J'Beg. Gulp.

Blog entries may be sporadic later on, have no idea when we'll get to net access

Toodles

Manfred & Francoise

Bonfire of the Manatees

Friday and our last working day on the Reserve. Of course it could not be a relaxed last day. The 4 volunteers had to split up and do separate walks along the fences of the reserve to check for breaks, cut wire etc. I get antsy walking alone in the wild with only a crude map to guide me. 'Walk for 5 kms then look for the power substation' they said 'You cant miss it'

Of course, while I saw a shanty house with homing pigons and made a locust friend:

...I saw no power station. No wires or transmitters or whatever. The fence ended at a house with a dog and an African who spoke no English. Cursing the fence I ducked back and jumped some barb wire, ran through a private plot, scaled another fence and made my way to another fence which luckily led me to a landmark I knew, from where I could make my way to my pick up point. 'Oh yeah we should have told you about that house and how you have to go through a gate then another gate then round it etc etc etc'

Getting back to base, Francoise was long overdue from her fence walk so we had to drive out on a search party, leading to me scaling more fences looking for her. I found her covered in prickles, looking beat. She had no watch and had no idea what time we were supposed to be heading home. I impressed on her the need for a watch. Freaking fence walks.

The arvo was more fun. We got to burn -using diesel- the umpteenth piles and piles of grass and dried out weeds we'd cut over the week, then beat away at it with rubber broom like things:

Beat, beat, whack, whack

(It was more satisfying to me than a previous bout of sanctioned arson I was asked to do incinerating expired bird medicines at the bird sanctuary...that made some NASTY smoke)

Anyway, I decided to beat the fire from the wind whipped smoke billowing side...eyes running with tears, unable to breath I forgot whether you were supposed to stand above the smoke or get below it (30 years of stop, drop and roll was forgotten) Finally I clicked, got below it and raced out to fresh air, just as panicked neighbours and a rural fire fighter turned up to see what the burning strip of flame beside the fence line was. 'nothing to see, return to your homes' We stayed out till dark beating out embers, then went in for our last cooked meal curtesy of the maid who works here Mon-Fri...(I must look into getting a maid back home, her food-even the vegetarian food- is tasty.)

Oh well, its 8pm now, better go gussy up as we are supposed to be taken out tonight clubbing in Pretoria by a permanent worker here, that should be fun.

Manfred

Lively up Yourself

Did you know-

The fruit of the marula tree which grows on the savannah ripens, ferments in the sun and brings elephants for miles who come to devour the fruit and get tiddly. It is this fruit that the drink Amarula Cream (product of South Africa) comes from (duh).

In tribute to the humble African tree and cos we had the arvo off, we decided to drink Amarula Coffees (far, far nicer than brandy coffees) and listen to Bob Marley until sundown. Much more fun than the grass seed collecting we did this morning in the most demented easter egg hunt ever 'Wow, you found a rare grass seed, good for you!' (they told us we were going fencing, the liars)

Back to the alcohol topic, I did have to laugh when a South African guy said with a heartfelt smile that he liked nothing better to drink, than a bottle of Don Pedro wine. My only exposure to the 'Don Pedro' brand in NZ is it as a swamp water tasting cooking wine.

Manfred (who swears he was only tasting the Don Pedro to see how it went with his cooking)

Last Week on the Reserve

With 2 days of weed whacking down its only, 2 fence repair days and an 'invader control' (plant not alien) day to go then its off to J'Berg for a night then a tour of Kruger park and its surrounds...with a pop into Zambia.

We'll miss the landscape stretching past the fence and seeing creatures wandering past at dawn and dusk as we coffee, play cards, drink or listen repeatedly to awful cds. Will miss the varsity holiday vibe of the outdoor work, friendly waves from locals and the characters we've met working here. I wont miss grass analysis. Not that it isnt vital. Ahem. But on the whole thus far the experience has measured up to what we wanted it to be.

Manfred

Bits

Hmm, Mirkwood Estate, Gandalf & Radagast Holdings, some properties around the Reserve have a Lord of the Rings Fetish.

Getting sick of rolling blackouts...demand is far exceeding supply, have not had regular blackouts since I was a kid in Hawkes Bay.

Eating so much chocolate & beer...nothing else to do during a blackout, after all

Temperature plunged 10 degress yesterday arvo. We've spent today freezing cold using petrol driven weed whackers to clear fire breaks around fences. Trust Francoise to grab the fanciest one while I get the pyscho one that revs up by itself. We're going to have words tonight.

Off to drink more beer

The Bird Witch Project

Late Update-Spent Tuesday -Friday at a Bird and Wildlife Sanctuary. Pretty cool birds and the couple who ran the place were friendly. The living conditions were a bit ... rustic. We were in tents which were freezing at night time. I felt a bit jealous of the birds who were indoors with heatlamps at night! Alot of the work involved cleaning up after the birds. Yech, I never knew that raptors (birds who eat animals) threw up this nasty fur ball of all the stuff they can't digest, eww. I'm thinking I like the vegetarian birds the best.

Me moving into my luxurious accommodation:

Marsh Owl:

Doug holding a baby barn owl, we had six of these little guys move into the sanctuary the second day we were there. They were hissing at us which was pretty funny considering how intimidating they were (not).

My sweet little Swift. I got to feed this wee cutey by hand!

Bella the parrot who loves me...

and Charley the bird who wanted me dead. I still have bruises and scratches from this nasty African Grey.

Doug holding an African Snake Eagle.

Francoise

Golf Kart vs Eagle Cage

Firstly, note to self. A solo night walk to a dam on the reserve to find the mysterious loud night croakers, will end in wet shoes, no frogs, covered in 'black jack' ie prickly weed and challenged by neighbours who think you are scouting out the Reserve for a home invasion.

Saturday, despite being a tad animal and bird weary, we decided to check out Pretoria Zoo, which is supposed to be one of the top zoos in Africa if not the world...guess funding aint what it used to be. Definitely dilapidated in places, with some ratty looking enclosures and sad animals. Some nice items here and there (like Komodo Dragons!)...

(hippo says yawn...)

(getting to pet that water buffalo I always wanted to)

Generally however the people were more entertaining to watch than the animals. From the unhelpful, disinterested staff 'I sell ice creams I DO NOT KNOW where the snakes are!' to the huge family groups yelling at the animals to do things, to the corpulent zoo visitors riding around on crazily fast golf carts rather than walk. A family of large Afrikanners careened past us, over corrected and slammed at full speed into an eagle cage...the passengers were too large to fly out, rather they rolled out onto the ground and commencing wailing. They took out a good portion of fencing, dented the cage and almost took us out.

We tried to get help: 'I CLEAN, not help you', finally told someone who hopefully went to assist them. We then saw an infant fall off the back of another kart (whose mother attempted to calm it by putting a giant mammary in its face.) and a cop car racing around the zoo to find hooligans yelling at the lions (not me).

Whether it is a zoo or the country, things do fall apart and you hope individuals will rise above their inequalities, self interests ands differences to keep the whole on track

Thoughtful Manfred

Swaziland...the horror....

(Our cottage by day)

It was Monday, I felt almost over my cold/flu (passed it to Kim) and we planned to get going early to see a few sights before arriving nice and early back at the Klipkop Reserve so Kim could catch her 11pm flight home to Canada that night.

And the car would not start.

No matter what we did, how we tried to clean out water from the engine collected during last nights drive, nothing would happen. There was no instruction manual or toolkit with the car and we were 12 km from phones, electricity, clean water, food etc...we were a bit freaked. We found a cottage cleaner and begged her to call a mechanic. After first telling us he was away she relented and told us to patiently wait. African time is not time as I know it. 6 hours later, after boredom, no toilet,no food, little water, spiders and sun, a trinity of mechanics turned up. After money, work and time they diagnosed it was the hijacking prevention/car disabling custom job playing up and we just needed to reset it. We angrily noted to ourselves how it would have been nice to be told about this feature of the car and how to reset it or be given a manual before we were rented the car but anyway...'Thank God' the mechanics told us to do.

We were on our way, got a bit lost, ended up in a busy market, got guided out for a fee by a taxi driver, were on our way again when the car started shaking. Just a bit. Kim was getting quite worried about her flight as it was 6pm and we still had the border crossing and a 3-4 hour drive after that. We went smoothly through the border back into South Africa, it was dark, the car was shaking more and more and then with a crash, the bumper came loose, followed shortly by sparks and a side panel of the car which tore the front right wheel down to the inner tyre. $hit. We were stopped hundreds of kms from home on a deserted highway with scenes saying 'Do Not Stop!-Crime Zone'

(Our crew assesses the damage by the side of the road while I helpfully document this for posterity)

A terrified looking motorist stopped by us for 2 seconds, thought it was a ruse to shoot him then raced off. Our hazard lights did not work 100% (The uno was dying) The ancient wheel brace, the worn down nuts and my puny arms meant we could not get the damaged tire off. Then 2 cop cars turned up, alerted by the scared motorist. They escorted us to a service station in a cesspool called Carolina, South Africa. A town of trucker stops, beady eyes and security cars everywhere. We vainly tried to find a mechanic, while Kim (sucessfully)changed her flights. The cops stayed around for a while 'You are safe so long as you do not move from this spot' I went for a quick recce and quickly darted back to the car...there was no street lighting at all and too many unfriendly faces and shadows.

We got hold of our Reserve whose staff started the 2 hour drive towards us as we hoped the service station did not turn off its lights. The cop cars took off leaving me the lone male to protect my herd.

At 10ish thankfully the reserve staff turned up with the right tools to rip off the tire. They got the car driveable, heard our tale of woe, then with us all piled in their Mercedes, we did a tandem 160-170km breakneck drive back home. We got there 12pm, its 212AM now as I sit typing this horror down.

I think our guardian angels got hazard pay tonight

Well off for the next few days to an off site bird sanctuary for some restful tending of injured owls and feeding of raptors. Will catch up after that.

Manfred.

Swaziland Long Weekend-The Good

After a peppy 3.5 hour drive through the empty spaces (bar power plants and curious cops stopping our Uno) of South Africa, Friday we 4 travellers (Francoise, I, Kim (Canadian) and Jenny (Aussie)) crossed the border into Swaziland. Despite its 70% of people below the poverty line, 40% unemployment and highest rate of HIV infection in the world, the people seemd more chilled out than South Africa (lots of waving hello to us)...almost too chilled out. Directions, transactions etc are done at a glacial pace. Signposting is vague at best, utterly deceitful at worst. In the South-ish where we started the climate was humid, the vegetation lush compared to dry South Africa. Quite like NZ in places with its rolling green (except for the scale of course.)

We hit the glass factory and markets. Francoise got a rude introduction to the lengths sellers will go to and the crazy prices they will demand for mass prodused trinkets. Its a bit stressful when you aren't used to it.

That afternoon after long tedious map reading and back tracking due to aforementioned useless signage and locals laughing at us stupid tourists, we found our accomodation in the Milwane Game Reserve. Nice little traditional looking bungalows sans toilets...sigh. Still we had a good meal and some nice local beers by a fire, followed by some energetic traditional dancing by the staff.

Saturday we decided to get to grips with the local fauna.

'pull that warthogs tail!'

We went for a long walk (sigh so unfit especially in humidity) sniffing out warthogs, zebra, vainly searching for hippo, while avoiding a few fresh water crocs.

'but I want to pull his tail too...'

That night we had a nice candle lit dinner overlooking a waterhole eating (well some of us anyway) Impala stir fry...yum.

Sunday, we opted for a change of scene and went to Hlane Game Reserve in the North West. A lot drier and poorer looking than whence we came. Cows and goats all over the roads. But still people looked happy. Hlane seemed a nice set up even the skulls of rhino and hippo on the gates and we booked in a game drive and a guided walk.

On the game drive we saw elephant devastated forests, the back end of an elephant, 6 lazy lions, hornbill birds and this surly mother protecting her calf:

She did a bit of a charge at the vehicle so we stopped and waited her out.

On the game walk the guide told us to stand perfectly still if elephants charged at us and that elephant tracking was dangerous, but he would try to get us to see them. By climbing up tress, standing down wind etc we got close to a group of female tuskers but no good photo opportunities. Felt the tracking/hunting adrenaline...though in Swaziland Poachers or apparent Poachers are allowed to be lawfully shot on sight.

After more Impala meat (again not for all) to the sound of hippos roaring, we took the long, rough muddy drive in the dark to our camp site 12 kms into the inner reserve. Ulp. We almost drowned our little Uno in some huge holes, shook it up on rocks and get all the electrics on the blink. A grim drive in the dark. We got to our lit up cottage and it was nice, if as said remote. I thought it would be cool to do a solo torch walk from the cottage into the surrounds at night. I went 5 minutes and almost blundered into a man sized web with a palm sized armoured spider in the middle....the same type earlier a guide said kills birds and small baboons in its web. I ran back to the cottage...little did I know the trial that lay in wait the next day...

to be continued

Manfred (a small baboon)

Happenings of Late

-Baby G found alive and well

-We did not get in too much trouble for losing the ute...it got towed out

-I still feel flu ridden...makes working fun. Taking some suppository sized African Aspirin derivitive.

-At 4am a couple of nights ago, we were woken by crashing metal and dogs barking...we thought we were under attack, so I grabbed a kitchen fork and went outside...to find the horse tipping over garbage cans

-Interesting talking to Afrikanners who were around '94 when Aparteid ended to get the sense of fear they got that they were all going to be brutalised.

-A large pig came running through a place we stopped at in the ute, chased by an African with a stick. Francoise got to pet it.

-We have been during a grass survey...grassy, I really can see the hundreds of different grasses they have here...ah

-On a trip to the mall in Pretoria, we were accosted by a seller of cheap camoflaged caps at the traffic lights:

'Hey want to buy a cap?'

'No thank you.'

'Because I like your car its my favourite model I give you these samples FREE'

'Oh, cool thank you'

'...now please give me any monies you can spare, cmon Miss California and Mr Personality'

'Um sorry, no money'

'AFTER HOURS,I'M COMING!!!!' (ie to kill us)

We drove off both bemused and unsettled. Can we not have courteous sellers of junk at traffic lights please?

Otherwise, off to Swaziland 4hr car drive from here, on the weekend. Need our passports, apparently its a beautiful place.
(Please no rude junk sellers)

Manfred

1,2,3,4 animals

Did a game count today which involves trekking through the park and counting the animals (the 'good' ones not vermin like jackals). It makes it more interesting that a) the reserve is not 100% sure what animals they have released in there have stayed here and b) everything hides so well. While we saw giraffe, no sign of the baby which is worrying.

I got a sore throat during the day which seems to be developing into some kinda flu...hopefully not some wierd African malady (insert sympathy here)

We were told there were signs of a leopard around here a few years ago ie mauled carcasses but nothing recently.

Just when it looked like a normal unblogworthy day was coming to an end we were asked to go on a night drive to discourage any poachers, look for game etc We saw some bat eared foxes and the passengers had a few beers before our driver decided to take a different road home than usual...we promptly got stuck in a long stretch of water and mud. Cue us cursing waving torches in the darkness pushing and pulling the ute trapped in the Bog of Eternal Stench, our shoes (and Francoise' natty reefers and socks) getting suck down into the morass. We gave up and commenced a smartly paced torch led walk back towards the house through the long grass. You know how puny humans really are when you can hear things moving and crashing around in the dark and you have no idea what they are and whether they think you are tasty or just worth roughing up. The leopard was much on my mind as was the cobras, hyena, jackals, scorpions and other beasties we've been told are reputed to be out on the reserve.

One last startling of some Zebra and we got back to ahve a coffee and face the music for 1 x lost ute.

The World's Biggest Hamster Wheel

Now every day on this continent is seeming a little surreal but today was more so than most. Early morning, we had to transport a huge circular wire trap to a house in the JoBerg suburbs. It was intended for Hyrax/Rock Rabbits ie big gunea pig looking things. The house was apparently plagued with the 'Mega Guinea Pigs' gnawing at wires, pushing funiture around(!) and we were going to relocate them to the reserve.

The trap looked like a giant hamster wheel. We strained and rolled it's ungainly mass into the back of a ute and tied it down. The ute took off while Francoise and I and 2 other volunteers followed it in a little Fiat Uno.

(behold the cage!)

Then followed one of the most mad car rides Ive been on. While a navigator in front seat tried to make sense of convoluted JoBerg highways, off ramps and turn offs , we followed this ute (whose driver is native to these parts) ducking and weaving at high speeds over 140kms through huge trucks and crazily driven cars. There were plenty of white knuckle moments and a few screams I tell you. I feared that hamster wheel was going to spell our doom.

(Musn't lose the ute..)

The ute led us to a swanky hill suburb of JoBerg to a posh mansion overlooking a valley. We strained the wheel into place on a lawn while we watched the 'rock rabbits' racing around, to the chagrin of the well to do Afrikaans family that lived there. I note it was weird to be served a nice fruiit drink with ice from an ice maker and stand by a pool with a spectacular view, having come from a squatter camp the day before.

Another mad journey back to the reserve and grateful to be alive we had lunch before the next task of the day. We were meant to be testing the water of the dams here with little kits but just as we got the 'Water Testing 101' talk from our boss, a thunder + lightening storm rolled in. Obviously I was not keen to get out into the reserve with lightening bolts going off around but during a lull we headed out (apparently the repeated thunder storms we've had are very unusual this time of the year...global warming?)

It actually was quite pleasant (apart from some subsiding rain) to be out by a dam watching animals come down to drink. Nice cloudy sunset too. The powercut around dinner time sucked though, but I tried to entertain my fellow workers with candle light anecdotes as Francoise shook her head.

Manfred

Strobe Lights & 5th Form History Redux

Sat night four of us hit some bars in Hatfield, a trendy part of Pretoria. While avoiding the hugging pick pocketers and gargantuan sized rugby heads we were able to imbibe ridiculously cheap drinks and dance to genres ranging from heavy HEAVY metal to 'Grease' songs; though I think Francoise and I's style of dancing is a bit too street theatre for the Pretorian clubbing scene...


Sunday we were meant to be picked up at 8am for a JoBerg/Sowetto tour ...we waited by the side of the main highway for an hour till a gruff Afrikanner turned up in a car to inform us it was not his fault there was a stuff up and he was taking us to McDonalds in Pretoria. On getting there we joined a minibus comprised mostly of Europeans and one Aussie Girl. The driver was a gregarious African gentleman. We drove into JoBerg to see some of the sights...um what can you say about a city where big business physically abandons their central buildings in droves due to rampant crime to rebuild out of the city centre...leaving said abandoned office buildings to squatters and vandalism. The centre of JoBerg on Sun was deserted and did not seem at all inviting. Despite some nice buildings here and there, the fear of the tour driver-we were not allowed out of the van at all-the barb wire, the urban decay and the run down evidence of mining in the surrounds gives the place the air of something out of 'Mad Max'. Im not feeling overly joy joy joy about Francoise and I's short stints staying there after our time on the reserve is up.












(Francoise with JoBerg in the background)

Sowetto was more satisfying. It was like Mexico (or so im told) a bustling crazy patchwork of squatter camps, cheap housing, middle class housing and urban development (malls, govt housing etc). I note though the tour driver said he was only taking us to the safe areas and that some areas of Sowetto there was no way 'white people' could go there. I asked him at one point if I started walking down the road how long could I walk before something happened 'Dude!' he exclaimed and then he proceeded to say I would make it only a little way before I was pounced on. He reiterated white people stick out like a sore thumb and that criminals target those who appear to have $$-white people or black people who appear well fed(!) (I think as a well fed white person Im doubly screwed.)

We went to two Aparteid Museums...sobering stuff especially when you can visit the spots talked about in the museum straight afterwards. We had a traditional South African Lunch (meat n' maize) at a touristy place in a nice part of Sowetto. The tour driver said he had never met a vegetarian in South Africa his whole life before working with tourists so I helpfully pointed him towards Francoise. "dont you feel like an outcast?!' he blurted at her as I laughed...I mean consoled her.

We visited an illegal squatter camp with one tap for several hundred people. It managed to be disturbing (eg walking into peoples houses to view their squalor like they were exhibits) and nice (they were friendly and happy despite there poverty to our Westerner's eyes) at the same time. Francoise, despite my warning, got hussled by some kids who sweetly asked if she wanted to take their photo then demanded money (for gambling the squatter camp foreman told us).





We drove out of Sowetto to a nice sunset, singing to the sappy stuff that gets played on radio stations like Chicago and 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' etc.


However, nearing the reserve out in the sticks we went past a big traffic accident scene. South Africans drive at mental speeds on their roads and take insane passing risks...I hear 200 people were killed here in the Easter Weekend alone on the roads...they are not for the timid (he says as a non-driver)

It was dark and we had forgotten the remote gate opener to the Reserve so a quick fence jump avoiding the electrified sections and home 12 hours after leaving this morning for some ice cream.

Manfred the Well-Fed

"Late last night - whoo yeah!" and Saturday

Saw some mega cute Bushbabies last night around dusk. Pretty agile wee creatures the way they spring between the trees. Got some pretty cool shots - eventually, before they dashed off along the fence:

SATURDAY

Our day off, hoorah! Hung out playing monopoly most of the morning, which I graciously lost (LOL), drank brandy coffees and then headed out to a shopping centre out in the middle of nowhere. So weird compared to shops in New Zealand. there were about 8 restaurants with out door dining, and then a shoe shop, a hardware store, a post office, bookshop and a couple of supermarkets. Kind of a weird combo but I was pleased to pick up some snacks. After that back to base where we decided to so some baby giraffe spotting cos Mark, the volunteer co-ordinator had missed out the last time we saw it . Unfortunatly no sign of the baby G but Doug managed to get pretty close to some of the rest of the herd. Rather amazing creatures.

We're off to local bar tonight which should be interesting.

By the way, I've tried time and again to respond to emails but there seems to be some problem with the connection or systems around here. So if you haven't heard back it's not through lack of trying.

Francoise

All work and no play...

(Francoise shows that fence who's boss)

Most challenging day thus far. It started sedate enough when we took the ute to go collect bottles for recycling. We went past a huge iron gate as big as the Black Gate of Mordor to a nice little Afrikaan's house (complete with maid) and the hundreds of liqour bottles there kept in a shed. We filled up the ute and took them back to the reserve to recycle.

Then it got 'Survivor' like. I foolishly said a challenge would be good so Francoise and I for my rash statement were dropped literally miles from the house and made to wander the perimeter of a huge section of the reserve fence with naught the right tools to fix anything. We were plowing through thornbushs, rocks, bones and wasps for hours in the blazing sun. I started to get fearful as we were all alone in a huge plain but for a few curious BlesBok. We finally got to a shanty house and a padlocked gate so we jumped that and toiled up several kilometres of dusty road back to the house. The seasoned workers on the reserve acted like we had just been for a Sunday Stroll as we howled about how burnt and wasted we were.

Then we had a Conservation 101 class and booking of tours for the weekend.

Roll on said weekend.

Rowr!

Meat Cor! Hoorah!

More rock toiling today filling holes in roads. Disconcerting to be pulling up old bricks to put in the ute to see a Black Widow with its little red hourglass waist crawling on it 'It will only kill children', our supervisor cheerfully told us (in the same tone we had been told earlier not to touch the fence around the reserve which was electrified to 10 000 volts to stop car thieves)

That done, Kim the Canadian and I drove off in an ancient landrover (no windows, handles, gears etc) to 'Meat Cor' a huge open air cattle holding pen (ie for slaughter). (Francoise sat this out) We were cruising for cast off meat to entice Vultures into the reserve. So far no vultures have been seen though something was eating the regular dumps of meat and dragging off the bones (Jackals? Hyena?) 'Meat Cor' is acre after acre of sad or dead cows on arid soil in the burning sun...thankfully the human's office has nice greenery and a water feature. Hmm.On being met by the huggiest African worker ever, we took our containers of spare cow parts to the reserve and dumped it in anticipation.

That night 4 of us went on a night drive to the 'Vuture Resterant' to see if anything was gunning for the meat. We had flashlights blazing in every direction and soon saw eyes gleaming in the dark. I volunteered to get out and get closer to see what they were. My ute mates were doubtful as to the wisdom of this exercise. I got pretty close and was thinking 'is this the smartest thing to do?' and 'man thats a lot of eyes' when there was the loud Wildebeast warning snort and they stampeded away...as I hightailed back to the ute. Nothing else was seen though we did hear the screaming calls of jackals pretty close to us. We sat on matresses on the back of the ute with beers and contemplated the stars. Not a bad way to spend a night indeed.

Manfred

T.I.A (this is africa)

So second day of work this time road repairs, hauling rocks in a ute and dumping them in cracks in the badly damagede road (see wildebeasts behind me?)

Afternoon was a drive into Pretoria with a stop into a monster 6 storey mall. Wierd to be accosted by coat hanger sales people, street dancers as you drive around. Security and fencing everywhere. The mall was huge and we argued a bit in the searing heat as Francoise wanted sensible items we needed eg food while I wanted to check out the elephant fountain, aviary etc

We went into Pretoria proper, really nice city with nice parks, archetecture and statury.

People seemed curious (especially at my Weta top) but not dangerous. I was accosted a few times by citizens and asked where I was from 'You speak German in NZ?' 'I come visit you in Welliston, NZ' etc. We did a quick race around Church Square down Paul Kruger Street and thru the Transvaal Museum, then drove madly home under a huge lightening storm. The storm went on and on all night with lihgtening strikes a couple of metres from the house...freaky to watch....

toodles

Manfred

Photos

Um...Impala?

"Whatchoo looking at?"

Vulture Restaurant:

Like my jokes, so very tired

Last night was fun, after a beer by the reserve fence and watching zebra and wildebeest trot home and bush babies race around in the trees above, we had a braii (bbq) and fire where the owner gave us the extended history of Zulu Conquests and this area, a lot of history of inter tribal warfare. The reserve is pretty impressive especially given it is 100% private and if anything the government appears hostile to it (ie it wants the land for commerce or industry...no tourists here). Then beers, jackals calling in the distance and awful music booming out of the common room (Justin Timberlake etc)

Next day, after more bacon, went fencing which was pretty straight foward ie tie wire here. Nice views, lots of Black South Africans around carting fire wood or waving to us as we worked. Wierd weather, theres thunder and it looks like rain then its hot then thunder then repeat. For lunch I thought Id experiment with a local can of 'Pap n Meat'(?)he can assured me it was 'canned to Govt Regulations'...it looked and tasted like Whiskas catfood.

The Sun was up high and the wife and Ifelt a little spaced out as we drove in the VW van with coathangers holding the doors shut to the Reserve to pull out black wattle trees. Hot sun, red martian soil and more insects than an Indiana Jones Movie. Huge Locusts and stick insects over us...not for the squeamish. I cursed my lack of fitness as it was hard hard work ripping out trees. Francoise didnt show me up but it was a close one. We staggered off home at 4 covered in the red martian dust that passes for soil here...hanging out for a beer

Shattered Manfred

ps having trouble getting onto our email account so dont sweat if no answers to emails
pps yes yes photos soon when we get more time


Pap and Meat

Trees a'popping