Friday Morning, March 9

My favorite morning spot to enjoy coffee and wildlife

On this morning I was blessed to see a herd of impala.

They are a beautiful, small antelope.

Things were busy at the main house. Nelson and Victor were working outside. Steffie was in the kitchen and Fisana was cleaning chalets and working on laundry.

Kate, Jana, Kristen, and Jesse were sorting through items for the children’s home.

Supplies from one of our local dentists.

Jesse was removing price tags from small notebooks.

Before leaving camp for the day, I went back to our chalet for something and found Fisana cleaning our floor mat. Our shoes deposited a lot of sand onto the porch the evening before because of the afternoon rain.

I loved the drive over dirt roads as we headed toward the provincial (state) park for a picnic lunch.

There were cows everywhere as we neared the park.

The road seemed to be their home – and we were the intruders. 🙂

Kate said most of the cows were a mix of Nguni and Brindle.

About the time we passed one herd, we came upon another.

We asked about the “thing” in this cows nose. Kate said it was to keep it from nursing at its mother. It does look big enough to not be nursing. 🙂

I was fascinated by all the colorings and patterns in the cows and bulls.

We also enjoyed hearing the cow bells.

Cattle Egrets

Loved the creative fence posts

Jere enjoyed seeing all the cows since his job is with Lancaster DHIA (Dairy Herd Improvement Association).

Entering the Provincial Park

We had a picnic in a beautiful area of the park – near a waterfall.

Working our way toward the waterfall

It was a great place for a few pictures.

When I reached for this tree – to use as a stabilizer on the uneven path – I first noticed the thorny protrusions, then saw the spider that looked like it also needed to be avoided.

This was just after Jesse slipped in the creek – right after he was told to not try walking across the rocks. 🙂 No punishment needed. He just had to deal with wet shoes and socks for the rest of the day. Not really bad in this warm weather.

We thought this was a good place for a shot of the old folks.

Jesse found a large leaf that he later used for cleaning up our picnic area.

Kate did a great job of choosing picnic items.

Notice Jesse’s large leaf on the right.

The meat – a kind of jerky – came from the butcher shop we visited during the previous day’s adventures.

I wandered down a path to see what was happening at the creek. This was the view looking back toward the picnic area.

Time to pack up and head toward the children’s home. We had a mid-afternoon appointment.

Preparing to leave the park

This was the rented van we used when all nine of us (and Phil or Kate) needed to travel.

Baboons crossing the road as we left the park.

Park exit

Kate stopped and talked to this woman – and asked what she was doing.

She said she was cooking for her family who were working in the fields – and keeping baboons away.

This was her kitchen.

Looks like we will be dealing with cattle again.

Banana trees

A newborn

It was just after seeing this young bull that we turned in the driveway to the children’s home.

I will tell you about that in the next post.