"We all went on a game hunt!"

Another great weekend at the game reserve. We saw hippos, elephants, giraffes, lions, rhinos, wildbeeste, springbok, waterbuck, kudo, steenbok, monkeys, warthogs, zebra and loads of different birds. Wonderful! Martin enjoyed the whole experience, which turned out to be quite challenging as the lodge was without water for 36 hours due to a burst mains. However, it all just added to the “bush” spirit and as Martin remarked, we’d never washed in bottled sparkling water before! As always the food was excellent and Les and Martin enjoyed the wines.
An episode with the monkeys was hilarious this morning. Two vervet monkeys got into an upstairs room through the open balcony door via an overhanging tree. Firstly, they drank all the milk, expertly peeling off the foil lids and holding the containers like tiny cups. So elegant! Until they chucked the empty ones over the side, that is! Next, they grabbed all the sugar and coffee packets and made off up into the tree where we could clearly see them tearing open the packets and scoffing the lot. After the feast, they seemed very “high”, probably a caffeine and sugar rush! They played and fought on the grass outside our rooms for a while then simply ran out of steam and flopped on the grass! The warthog family who live in the marsh by the waterhole just a few metres from the door are thriving. The four babies we saw in January and again in February are growing fast, but still stay close to the mother. They have developed tiny tusks already. It is amazing to see them “kneel” on their front legs to root about in the grass for fresh shoots.
Next week Martin and I hope to visit Soweto and also the apartheid museum. He is coming to the school with me and quite enjoying helping with the reading programme. We will also need to do a big grocery shopping; I’d forgotten how big his appetite is!