Sunday Evening, March 4

Our welcome committee.

I think this is Jethro and Sally – as Gus is old and slow and is probably still somewhere in the background. All three are Jack Russell mixes.

One of the first things we did was get acquainted with our chalets. They are numbered 1 through 4. We were in Chalet 1. The truck is delivering everyone’s luggage.

Our bedroom

Our shower. Our whole family could shower at once. 🙂

The shower is inside the rounded area.

Walking from our chalet to the main house on the camp. The camp (about 2 acres) is surrounded by electric fence to keep most animals away from the people. Monkeys, baboons, and warthogs manage to find places where they can get under the fence, but quickly escape when they see people.

A view of the main house from the back yard.

We learned to love these two ladies – Kate’s helpers. Fisana (left) helps only when Phil and Kate have guests. Steffie (right) is a regular helper. They were working on a welcome snack and supper.

Getting acquainted. Phil and Kate wanted to get an idea of our personalities and how we wanted to spend the next eleven days. (That looks like Gus on the far right.)

We ate every meal in this outside dining room.

We got acquainted with the house and grounds while Kate worked on supper. She is very skilled in the kitchen and sometimes does catering for others.

One delightful adjustment for us was the fabulous weather (it was winter at home) and the openness of the rooms of their house. Doors and windows are always open during the day (no screens used in most areas) and there were several outside seating areas – like this one behind the house.

Another view of the seating area behind the house.

A view of the backyard pool from the above seating area.

A seating area around the campfire.

Phil starts the meal coals here – before transferring them to the grilling area.

There are many signs that this is the home of a professional hunter and a couple who love wildlife. Each skeleton has a story.

Phil talking to the guys about hunting.

None of the guys had a clear idea of what they wanted to hunt – other than they were not doing real expensive hunts. Jared and Ian chose some of the cheapest – warthog and impala. Jere chose a nyala. Cerwin was going to hunt for wildebeest until he saw the beauty of the male nyala.

Ian wasn’t sure that he wanted to spend money on a hunt, but eventually decided that this was an experience he may never have again. (He is saving money for college.) Josh chose to not hunt this time (even for a low-cost animal) because he has a current priority for saving his money. He hopes to go back in a few years and hunt for a big game animal.

They would be hunting on the 12,000 acres that Phil and Kate lease. They also have access to another 38,000 acres – depending on the animal you want to hunt. In Pennsylvania, we can hardly understand that amount of space. If an average farm in Pennsylvania is 100 acres – 50,000 acres is 500 farms.

We were all excited to go with Phil for our first photo safari.

Our first sighting was a mother and baby rhino on the road ahead of us.

Another mother with her youngster.

I look at these critters and wonder what God had in mind when he created rhinos. 🙂

Because of the stripes, I think these are female nyala. It is easy for me to incorrectly identify the female bushbuck, waterbuck and nyala because they are new animals to me.

There were a lot of rhinos in the open feeding area. Some looked like they had taken a mud bath in recent hours.

There was a power-play going on with two of the males – which was interesting to watch…

…until the larger male turned on us, thinking the Toyota safari vehicle was another competitor.

Phil backed up several times before it stopped snorting and acting like it planned to charge us.

Well, that had our hearts going at a higher pace than usual!

A more calming scene – a baby getting supper

Much of the landscape looked similar to this. There were more trees and hills in other areas of the farm. Can you find the warthogs?

We saw many vultures, hawks, and eagles during the next week and a half.

Termite mounds abound in the area. Phil told us that the mound we see is 1/3 of the entire mound. 2/3 of it is under ground. This one was probably six foot tall – above ground.

I still can’t believe that I am on an open safari vehicle in Africa. Cerwin rode in the seat with Phil while the rest of us sat or stood in the back.

Impala abound in this area of Africa

None of these animals is tame – thus they usually ran away as we got close to them. We could only leave the vehicle if Phil and Kate give us permission to do so.

Most wild animals in this area of South Africa are protected by fenced-in, very large (thousands of acres) game preserves and National Parks. Poaching is a very serious and active problem here.

Many game preserves do not allow hunting, but have animals like lions and leopards that keep the animal population balanced. Phil and Kate do not have many meat-eating animals, so hunting keeps the animal population within their border fences from over-populating.

There are many cute – but naughty – Vervet monkeys.

Notice the zebra? In Africa they are zebb-ras – not zee-bras. 🙂

Guinea fowl

A beautiful sable.

Another herd of impala

Relaxing before supper

Kate had potatoes in the black pot.

I went back to our chalet to freshen up and put more clothes in drawers and closets. There were four chalets – we had one, Jere and Kristen had one, Ian, Jared, and Jesse had one, and Josh and Jana shared one.

How many people have a view like this when they sit on the toilet? 🙂 We did. No curtains needed – only animals watching.

Back at the main house. The kitchen area from outside.

Outside kitchen entrance

Herb garden

It didn’t take long for Jesse to make friends with the dogs. Sally loved to sit on his lap.

Jana and Josh loved snuggling – after being separated by the Atlantic Ocean for the past six months.

Supper meat on the grill. I think we had beef the first night.

Supper is ready. The evening meal was usually at 7 pm.

Yum!

Kate made delicious desserts

~~~

We loved to hear Phil and Kate’s stories. When Phil learned that we had been to Table Mountain, he told us about swimming across the lake from Cape Town to Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was jailed) when on the swim team in high school. He also told us that his rugby teacher often had them run up and down Table Mountain for training.