diary

2011

9 December For the second time in a row we have rainy weather, making the bush green and lusty.

8 December The 3 buffalo are back again!

7 December This day we organize a bring & braai for our friends, later that day we see 3 buffalo, and a large hyena.

6 December That day I do my first deal, as our Dutch friends buy a 1 hectare stand in Moditlo for a bargain price.

4 December With friends of us we go see a stand for sale in the Moditlo game reserve, it is a 1 hectare stand in the Big-5 Moditlo, where you have a traversing over more then 3000 hectares.

3 December Early in the evening we hear the lions again.

2 December Late that evening I take my guests to the gate to collect their suitcases, they were delayed on the flight. Around midnight we hear the lions roar.

27 November With friends we go to see the giraffe kill, great sighting with 3 males resting in the shade, and Mazinino - the old Balule lion - beeing allowed by the other males to feed on the carcass.

26 November We hear and see 2 ground hornbills, quit rare bird! In the evening a few male lions kill an old giraffe..

13 November Sunday = snakeday. First Niels comes to tell us he discovered a (young) rock python between the toyboxes. I remove him with the snake-stick. Later that day we see 3 buffalo near the Mandla-dam, and also a sand-snake. Guests and kids enjoy this!

12 November A very hot day with 39 Celcius!

11 November On their way to the Elephant-safari, guests see a young leopard crossing the road! Miriam and myself are the whole day in Nelspruit, and see a lot of road-maintenance between Acornhoek and Hazyview. When we return late in the afternoon we see 2 young buffalo taking a mud bath in the Kapama reserve.

10 November A lot of visitors: warthogs, vervet monkeys, the civet, jackal and a duikert at the Moosa-dam. That evening we have a beautiful full moon.

9 November Guests see a black rhino (very rare!) on the game-drive, that evening the civet pay us a visit/

8 November An asteroide comes in close orbit of the earth, closer then the distance to the moon (average 380.000 km.)! The next time an event like this occurs is in 2028.

4 November We see lots of giraffe, 4 small ones. In the evening we hear the hyena's.

3 November Nicolas finds tracks of a white rhino at the Moosa-dam.

29 October Guests see 4 of the Big-5 on a game-drive!

27 October The elephants from 10 days ago are back again at the waterhole, this time the choose the Mandla-dam.

24 October Temperatures reach 39 today! On the afternoon game-drive guests see a black rhino, very rare.

22 October We decide to go with our boys on a drive, in our old Landy. We park off on a hill with amazing views toward the mountains.

17 October 2 elephants visit the Moosa-dam.

16 October The herd of buffalo are seen again on the morning game-drive, later guests also see lions.

15 October Now we have a breeding herd of buffalo at the Mandla-dam.

14 October 3 buffalo drinking at the Mandla-dam, guests enjoy the view while having a cup of coffee.

12 October A group of 8 kudu's are browsing their way to the Moosa-dam. The bush starts to turn greener and greener.

11 October Corné finds the leftovers of a porcupine at the Mandla-dam. There are droppings from a leopard right next to it. The guests see elephants and lots of plains game on the game drive.

8 October Guests see two rhinos when they come back into the reserve at the end of the afternoon.

7 October We go to Nelspruit to pick up our new car, a Hyundai Terracan.

4 October The first rain of the season comes together with hail! The kids never saw this and gather the pieces of ice afterwards in a bucket.

1 October Corné sees three rhinos on the olifantsroad.

13 September When I walk from our house to the lodge suddenly a big buffalo jumps nervously away from the Mandla-dam where he was drinking.

12 September On the game-drive we are looking for lions, see fresh tracks and what they had on their menu last night (kudu), but no sightings. Later we see a couple of big bull elephants, grazing under the full moon, cool sight!

10 September 9 buffalo gather around the Mandla-dam, guests see them before they have breakfast.

9 September Buffalo at the waterholes, 7 at one, 2 at the other. They are Big Boys!.

4 September Childrens party at Amukela, the weather is good, kids are dressed up as pirates and princesses and we have a real treasure hunt. Parents also enjoy themselves.

1 September We see kudu and warthog around the waterholes, and later an Elephant.

30 August We hear that evening the lions roar, not so far away. Great sound!

22 August Maybe the highlight of this year: in the evening we hear the typical growling of a leopard. Later in the evening out of nowhere she walks towards the waterhole! A magic moment in Africa.

21 August Guests on a bushwalk have a great time, they encounter lions, a big crocodile, zebra, giraffe impala. Later that day we walk to the Leeuspruit, where 2 big buffalo after seeing us quickly run off.

20 August Later that evening we hear lions roaring, closeby. Always cool to hear.

16 August Unusual rainfall: 10 mm! The bush smells nice and for a while the dust has been killed.

13 August It's a warm sunny afternoon, with temperatures above 30 in the shade.

11 August This morning when I bring Niels to school, we see a grey-headed bush-shrike attacking a twig snake! As soon as we approach the shrike flies away, and the wounded snake tries to slither into the bushes.

8 August Six of our guests go on gamedrive and see 3 rhino's, a herd of elephants and a leopard close to the vehicle!

4 August Our guests are relaxing in the sun after a morning gamedrive when suddenly 7 elephants apprear at the waterhole to take a mudbath. That afternoon I join them for the gamedrive and we see a crocodile and 3 lions.

The last few days we have a lot of nice birds in the camp: bee-eaters, sunbirds, white helmed shrikes and a lilac-breasted roller. That evening we hear the lions again, and see some shooting starts from the Alpha Capricornids meteorshower.

Corné is at the wildsfees, a sort of a fair here in Hoedspruit, he is there on the stand of Century21, the property broker where he works part-time werkt. In the afternoon I visit with the kids. Dusty our 13,5 year collie died. Peacefully and painless. We bury him next to the grave of Laska, who died in 2005. The boys look for some nice rocks to place on his grave, and we say a final goodbye to our loyal friend.

With Rob & Caryn, colleague's of Century21- we are on our way to the Lissataba Game Reserve. Suddenly we see a wounded cheetah limping next to the road. We contact the game-warden of Balule, and later a wildlife vet comes to dart the cheetah. It doesn't happen as she runs away.

A big bull elephant stands close to the gate, just when our guests want to drive out. Cool!

Spectacular full moon eclipse! The moon turns orange-red and it gets dark around 22:00. Next one is in September 2015!

Returning late in the afternoon, our guests see a big male lion in the Balule nature reserve: next to the Maroela-drive. That evening we also hear him roar loudly.

The civet and porcupine are regular visitors again at our waterhole. Also elephants are regularly seen one big one is collared with a GPS transmitter. We have this one before, he has magnificent tusks. At night it cools down a lot and we sit around the campfire but during the day it ia a pleasant 25 degrees.

Miriam joins the guests on the gamedrive, the new guests have a girl of 6 and Niels gets to join us too, he enjoyes it very much! Corné goes with on the gamedrive and they see 4 rhino's, elephants, civet and a small spotted genet, when they get home there is a herd of over a 100 buffalos at the Mandla-dam.

The guests saw 3 lions on the crossroad of Marula drive and Sable road, not even a kilometer from our lodge, when they came back from the Krugerpark!

Saw two cheetahs when I took Niels to school! The mother had left the reserve and the two half grown cubs were waiting for her close to the fence. Our guests saw them too before the mother returned and they disappeared in the bush again.

Corné's parents have to go beack to the Netherlands again and we became uncle and aunt again! Corné's brother and his wife have another son; Jonas.

We get some late rains and the bush, that was getting dry already, gets green again. We see elephants and bufaloes regularly again and the civet visits a few times. We also see a Large spotted genet at our waterhole. One day we are still having dinner when Nicolas comes to warn us that there are lions at the Mandladam! We quickly go to the stardeck where we see 3 lionesses and a big male lion....Africa-magic on its best!

We celebrate Easter with my parents at Ngala Ya Rila, their temporary home in Balule-west and we have a braai with our friends Sander and Kim.

With Corné's parents we go two nights to Bucklers Africa on the south borde of the Krugerpark.

We see a lot of animals this month. Regularly elephants and buffaloes visit our waterholes and we see giraffes (with baby), kudu, waterbuck, warthogs and jackals amongst others. Tehe civet and the procupine are seen again for the first time this month. One evening a small herd of elephants, inculding young, visits the waterhole while our guests are having dinner. They drink and eat some reeds. We hear the lions quite often and the guests see them on game drives several times. We look through our telescope at Saturn.

Corné parents arrive this month and ill stay 8 weeks in the house of friends again. The kids are happy to see their grandparents.

3 big buffalo take a mudbad in the Mandla dam, after first chasing away a couple of warthogs who had the same idea. An elephant with a radiocollar hangs around the lodge and eats Marula-fruits, we see him regularly this month. One evening around 18:00 we hear a lion closeby. With 5 guests and Niels we go out in the Landrover and eventually we find him on the maroela-drive. He passes our car closeby, and the guests have their Africa-magic! Photo's of this lion can be seen on facebook. When I come back from Hoedspruit another day, I see a big male lion resting in the shadow of a bush-willow tree. Later I find out that the whole pride (22 lions) was seen in that same area. A yellow-colored chameleon crosses the road in the reserve, maybe he was lying against a marula fruit (which have a green-yellow color)?

The yearly froggy-gala is held at the Southern cross school, and Niels and I have fun in the pool. One morning at school there are 2 wild dogs on the road, close by Niels' classroom!

We have a midweek in St. Lucia, where we stay in the Monzi country cottage, a very nice and rustic self-catering cottage.

We visit Hluhluwe-Umfolozi where we see impala's, 2 nyala's and 1 hyena. From St. Lucia we enter the wetlands to Cape Vidal which is a very scenic drive. Here we see more than in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi, a white rhino, wildebeest, zebra, kudu, buffalo and lots of birds.

On the last day we take the boattrip on the lake where we see some huge crocodiles, playing hippo's, and the pied and giant - kingfisher.

When we take 2 guests on a sundowner, Nicolas discovers the tracks of a white rhino in the Leeuspruit.

Miriam and I decide to go for a walk, around 16:40. After 5 minutes out of the camp we walk on the tracks which leads to the highest point on Amukela-land, when we suddenly hear loud growling and see a lion jumping and running away! We both stay calm but are very excited!! In a calm pace we walk back to the lodge where we take the guests, Niels and Nicolas to have a closer look. We see 5 lions in total: 4 big lionesess and 1 sub adult male.

We have an unexpected visitor in our house: a rock-monitor. Our neighbour Steve -the game-ranger- catches him professionally and releases him again far away in the bush. That evening we hear the pride of lions roaring, close to the lodge. We see this month buffalos and elephants at the water hole amongst others and regularly hear the lions roar.

In the evening we see Jupiter, our Moon, Orion, Sirius (in the constellation Canis Major) and the Plejades (also named the 7 sisters) beautiful shining at the sky.

Guests have a fantastic game-drive where they see twice a leopard, 14 lions, rhino's and newly born impala, zebra andwildebeest calfs.

Gasten geniet van een fantastische game-drive met o.a. 2 x een luipaard, 14 leeuwen, neushoorns en veel pas geboren kalfjes van impala's-wildebeesten-zebra's een een giraffe.

Dennis turns 2 this month and a few days later we have our 18th wedding aniversary..

We see this month 5 olifanten at the Mandla-dam amongst others. one is very big with nice tusk and I sneak up to the gate to take some pictures. When he walks very close I first take some pictures and then tell the elephant that this is close enough. He is supprised but walks of calmly. Later that day 3 of them come back for a mudbath. We have a remarkable evening when we hear a leopard, then an elephant, followed by lions and a couple of times hyena's! After visiting friends for the afternoon tea we're heading back home. Our neighbour phones us: lions walk on our land, quickly we drive home and we see 2 big males walking in front of our Landrover.

The woodland kingfisher is back! Last year we heard him here on the 15th, now on the 16th. This birds migrates in the wintermonths to Europe, and is named the rain-bird -for the believe that this birds brings the rains along-.

Tinyiko is very happy to see us again, especically the children. Altough the shrubs and trees are getting green, the veld looks very dry. The rains are late this year.

We had a very nice holiday with our family and friends but are also happy to be home again.

We have a party organized by Vinny, the sportinstructor of Miriam's class. We visit his house in Raptor's View, which is a awesome house! We have a great party.

Giraffes and impala's graze in the veld. When I leave the house one morning I spot Steve's game-vehicle outside the fence, and with our guests they're watching a big male buffalo.

A herd of more then 150 buffalo visits the Mandla-dam in the morning and stay for a little rest. Fantastic to see!

2 Elephants visit at the end of the afternoon the Mandla-dam. It is an extremely hot day, almost 40 degrees Celcius!

On the game-drive with guests we see a big herd of buffalo's. When we get back to the lodge we have a magical moment when a big male leopard walks past the wateringhole!

Early in the morning guests see 3 lions behind the rondawels. Giraffes and impala's drink at the Moosa-dam. In the evening we hear elephants around our house and at the watering hole. From our bedroom window we see a big male waterbuck one morning. A herd of more than 100 buffalo come to drink at the Mandla dam and then move of to the riverbed.

When Nicolus wants to check the damage to the dam at 07:00 in the morning and he starts opening the gate the big herd of buffalo's returns for another drink before moving off to graze. Later that day 3 elephants visit the waterhole, one of them is wearing a collar with a transmitter.

Late this month our friends Remco and Marianne come to look after the lodge for 3 weeks while we go on holiday in the Netherlands.

We see a lot of game around the lodge this month: giraffes, jackal, vultures, vervet monkeys, elephants, kudu's , waterbuck and buffalo's.

Lions kill a buffalo directly next to our waterhole! With our guests and staff we go out in the Landy to have a good look. What a sensation! The whole night we hear the pride growling and feeding on the buffalo-carcass. The next morning it's a schoolday for Niels, and we all walk to the terrace. Our guests are already there, and when we arrive a couple of lions are reacting nervours. Late in the afternoon we go out with guests who just arrived. When it is getting darker and we approach the kill suddenly we get a puncher! We phone Bert the neighbour who comes to help us out. Landy stays behind... The next morning the lions have moved away and Nicolus and I go to change the tire.

Busi, working already 6 months for us, doesn't appear on work.... we try to phone her but no answer.... Tinyiko tries a couple of times and then Busis' sister answers her phonecall. She hears that Busi don't want to come to work anymore, but not why she is reluctant? Because we have dealt with situations like this before we react quickly. Goodness-Busi's sister- is willing to come and work for us.

There is a circus in Hoedspruit, and because they only have one performance on this monday, we decide to take Niels tonight to this circus. It will be his first time

July 2010. We leave here at 3 am and drive through Limpopo, Gauteng, the Free State, a bit of the Northern Cape and then the Eastern Cape. We like the arid semi-desert land which we encounter in the Eastern Cape. At the end of the day we encounter some road-works where we have to stop, here we meet other Dutch football-fans as well as Brazilians. Just after 17:00 we arrive at the Guesthouse in Cradock. Directly after breakfast we leave for PE, where we arrive around 11:00. We park the car close to the stadium and take a walk downtown to the FIFA fanfest. On the way we spot 2 ladies dressed in orange in a car. We shout and wave and they notice us, we get a lift from them to the fanfest, and later that day we meet again. Then at 13:30 the famous Orange-procession starts from the fanfest -via downtown PE- to the stadium.

After an exciting game that the Netherlands win with 1-0 from Brasil we drive back to Cradock. We are extatic, we beat the great Brasil and made it to the semi final!

Although we only fell asleep late last night we are up at 03:00 o'clock already for our journey home. We have a good drive and at 17:00 we are home were our 2 boys greet us enthousiasticely. From our staff we hear that there was a herd of elephants while we we gone.

The elephants visit again and we realise that there is more than just the world Cup football.

The semi-final: Holland vs. Urugay. We dress in our Orange-shirts as we go shopping in Hoedspruit, with lots of positive reactions beeing the result. That evening we don't have guests, so we watch at home with Tinyiko at an exciting game. After every dutch goal we ran outside to scream and cheer, blowing our vuvuzela's. After the 3-1 we are in the 7th heaven, but the 3-2 makes it nerve recking for a couple of minutes. We are in the final!! After 32 years the Orange football team please for its 3rd time in history another final.

We see 2 buffalo's at the Moosa-dam, and the bush-feeling is back again. I contact the FIFA, the KNVB (Dutch football organisation), several touroperators in the Netherlands, a contactperson from the dutch national tv but without any result... also the man from Mozambique whom I met after the match against Brasil couldn't help me further. Too bad, we cannot get any tickets anymore and decide to try our luck by leaving the next day for Jo'burg, de car decorated with a carton sign "Need 2 tickets

For one more time Tinyiko takes care of our 2 bushboys, as we leave the lodge at 07:00 towards Jo'burg. We arrive in the afternoon at the Nelson Mandela square, where some Orange-supporters have gathered already. Via the less formal market we manage to get 2 tickets!! Completely happy we head to our friend Kobus in Randburg -close by Sandton-. The same evening we have dinner at the Mandela-square where we all enjoy the fantastich ambiance.

Aroud 11:00 the next morning we are back on the Nelson Mandela square, which has transformed in Orange colors and here and there we see some Spanish fans. We enjoy the atmosphere, have brunch and some drinks. At 13:30 we take a bus to Soccer-city so we can join the Orange-fest there. Also here there's is fantastic vibe. De closingceremony is impressive, and Mandela's appearance create some Madiba-magic. And the match well... enough has been written and said, we leave with an empty feeling. But at least we were there!

When we drive back from Jo'burg we got bad luck: a piece of iron tosses over the road and comes under our car. A few kilometres further we are able to stop and check out the damage. Two traffic police-officers come to see if they can assist us, and we take up their details. We can drive further but the damage is considerable.

The second part of the month we pick up our normal life here in the bush although we often think back about this fantastic WC!

Thefirst schoolday for Niels after this long holiday. He enjoys going back to school and when we pick him up he has lots of stories to tell. In the evening we hear lions, jackals and a hyena when we sit around teh campfire with our guests.

Five buffalos come to drink at the Mandla-dam, and that evening the civet was seen as well. Guests who left one morning saw 15 lions on the Marula drive! Guests that came back from the Krugerpark saw 5 buffalos on our drive way and that evening an elephant came to visit our water hole.

We leave for Pretoria so Dennis will be enlisted in Miriam's passport. On the 4,5 hour journey the kids behave themself very well in the car, but are happy when we are in the shopping mall. After the passport-photo's have been taken we go to the Spur, where the boys play their heart out in the playground. Steve our neighbour calls us: a herd of more then 100 buffalo's come to drink at the Mandladam! The next morning we visit the embassay and head back home. We hear from our staff that the buffalo's stayed all night around the waterhole. That evening two honeybadgers are seen at the waterhole.

June 2010. We are getting in the mood for the World Cup and decorate the lodge with flags, balls an shirts. On 11 June Corné picks up Jan Roelfs, the Dutch reporter he has to drive to the matches in Nelspruit and Polokwane, from Hoedspruit airport and takes him to his lodge. Together with our staff we watch the opening of the World Cup and the first match of South Africa. On 13 June Corné has his first game in Polokwane: Slovenia-Algeria 1-0. Fantastic to watch the match from the commentators seat. On the headphone we hear the NOS studio. The next day we leave at 5 am to Soccercity in Johannesburg for the game Netherlands- Denmark. There are many Dutch supporters and it is one big party, espacially as the Netherlands wins. On 17 June I pick up Jan Roelfs for the game France-Mexico, and with 20.000 Mexicans we see France lose with 2-0. On our way to the stadium we see Zidane and Viera.

On 18 June we leave here at 10.30 and only arrive at 20:30 at Argyle's Arms in Mooi River where we spend the night. After a good night sleep we wake up in a very cold Mooi river. We drive to Durban to another Orange party. In the beautiful Moses Mhabida Stadium over 63.000 people see Holland win with 1-0. There are at least 25.000 Oranje fans and a huge banner is unfolded. With an euphoric feeling we leave Durban, and via de rural roads we arrive around 02:30 home. Dead tired but content we stumble into a rondawel.

After only 6 hours of sleep the timer rings, and at 10:00 Corné leaves again: with Jan Roelfs on his way to Nelspruit for the match Italy against New-Zealand. The all-whites stunt with a sensational draw (1-1)! After a restday we head for Polokwane. Greece takes on Argentina. In the media-centre we notice that there's is a lot of attention for this match. The fans of Argentina celebrate loudly, and before the game kicks off Maradona enters the pitch, waving to all these fans. Fantastisc! His squad beat Greech by 2-0.

The next day is Australia-Serbia in Nelspruit. Before the match we enter the pitch as Jan want to chat with his friend Pim Verbeek, coach of Australia. After 5 minutes the FIFA security-team gets a bit nervous and we are asked friendly to leave. Australia wins (2-1) but is out of the tournament (as is Serbia).

I have a suprise for Nicolas: a ticket for the match Paraguay vs. New-Zealand in Polokwane. He is thrilled and also Jan has a suprise for the 2 employees at the Kuname lodge. We head towards Polokwane, and Nicolas sees his first Worldcup match in his own country. We also discover 2 Dutch spies (Arthur Numan and Ronald Spelbos), as Paraguay might be the next oponent for the Netherlands. Then the last match with Jan Roelfs: North-Korea vs. Ivory Coast in Nelspruit. Because our own car is at the garage, I hired a rental. Bad luck, as underway I hit a straydog who suddenly decided to cross over. I cannot avoid a collission and hit the poor dog. Although the car is damaged we can drive further. I am fed up with this, until Jan arranges that I can also declare the own risk: Thanks Jan!

Miriam and I watch Holland-Slovakia at home, and we are excited with the 2-1 victory. For this means we can plan our trip to Port Elizabeth, a journey of more then 3000 km's... The opponent is Brazil... a Worldcup classic! And we will be there...! We book 2 nights in a Guesthouse in Cradock, which is about 260 km. north of PE.

One afternoon we hear a lion roar and with Niels and our guests we go in our Landy to have a look. On the Marula drive we find a big male. After a while he gets up and starts walking down the road. We follow him for at least half an hour and see him marking his teritory and hear him roar a couple of times. When we drive home Niels says, "That was cool dad, we must do that more often!" At school Niels goes on a game drive and they saw a herd of buffalos. He is very enthusiastic about this.

Dennis is starting to talk now. He says words like "house", "out", "moon" and if he doesn't want something he shouts "NO, NO". When he needs his vaccinations again we go to Nelspruit for a day where we visit the Mombela stadium.

Many animals are seen around the lodge and on gamedrives. We see giraffes, impala's, jackals, kudu and the porcupine. On the gamedrives lions and elephants are regularly seen.

Guests who came back late in the afternoon saw a leopard on the Marula drive. At the end of the month we spend 3 nights at Bucklers Africa on the bank of the Crocodile river. On the other bank starts the Kruger park and we see rhino's and elephant grazing there.

This month we often hear the lions closeby. When we go out in the Landy with our guests we see them as well.

Our winter visitors, the porcupine and the civet, have been seen again. We also see elephants.

Again a buffalo is seen regularly around our camp. We see a couple of times an elephant and also giraffes, zebra's, impala's and waterbuck are seen.

Corné and Niels drive on Marula drive at around 16:30 one day, in our Landrover when suddenly an animal crosses the road. It is a leopard!

We still have hot days and we enjoy the swimming pool. Dennis wants to do everything his big brother does and he tries to jump into the water as well.

It is starting to cool down in the evenings and for the first time we put on a jersey.

Tinyiko send us a sms that she has given birth to a healthy daughter. Her name is Thubelihle Emotion and she weighs 6 pounds. Thubelihle means "nice chance".

With Sjaak and Ineke, who are back in Balule, and Remco and Marianne we visit Tinyiko. She has a beautiful baby girl and is very happy. When we arrive Niels gives her a big hug and says from the bottom of his heart "I missed you!". Dennis hasn't forgotten her either and happily sits on her lap.

We regularly see elephants again this month. One morning when I want to take Niels to school there is one right in front of our gate. After a few minutes he walks away far enough that I can open the gate and drive out but I call Corné to close the gate because I don't dare to get out the car to do it myself!

For the first time we see a hyena at our watering hole. The buffalos visit us again.

We discover a boomslang in the knobthorn tree, just next to the office. This dangerous and venomous snake has entered the nest of the green woodhoopoe.

We spend 2 nights in Graskop on a lodge just outside this pittoresque village for a short holiday. Dennis can walk on his own now and we have to watch him carefully.

The new schoolyear starts and although it's a bit difficult the first morning, Niels likes going back to school.

Fire in the bakkie! An electrical wire was not taped off sufficiently, and caused a short-circuit under the chair. Lucky enough not much damage was done.

One evening we hear growling and when we go and have a look in our Landrover with our guest we see 16 lions around a giraffe carcass.

When we have no guests we decide to go to the Krugerpark. The first time we go in at Phalaborwa and drive to Mopani, a beautiful route and a nice camp. Although this is not the best route to see game we see a few big elephants, a herd of buffalo and a rhino.The other time we enter at Orpen. We drive to Satara and have a picnic at Bobbejaanskrans. We see nice game: 2 cheetah's, a leopard, buffalos, one elephant, zebra's, wildebeasts, giraffes and a terrapin. Also the carmine bee-eater.

This month Dennis celebrates his first birthday and Tinyiko celebrates her 28th birthday. Meanwhile we are already 17 years happily married.

A lonely buffalo spends most of the day at our watering hole and in the riverbed. Through the telescope we look at Jupiter which we see beautiful. Even the equatorial bands and 3 of the 4 Galileian moons. Also the moon looks impressive through our telescope. Furthermore we look at the Orion nebula, the Eta Carina nebula and the Pleijades.

Guests who came back from Hoedspruit are very lucky: they see a lioness who just killed a young zebra, just next to the road!

On another occasion I receive a phonecall at 18:00 from our neighbour: 17 lions have been seen. With our guests we drive in the Landrover to the land of friends where we see them. After a while they walk away, directly next to our Landrover. It is a breath taking moment for our guests.

It's the last day of the year already and because our guests go to bed at 22:30, we celebrate with our staff. At 24:00 we toast with champagne to the new year.

This month the good rains start. In 2 days we had 130 mm. The leeuspruit was flowing for several hours (something that in the 6 years that we live here never happened so early in the raining season). The bush quickly becomes green again.

One evening around 23:00, while we're almost asleep, our bedroom is enlighted by a very powerful lightbeam.... The next day we learned it was a meteor, travelling through the atmosphere from Pretoria to the Kruger Park. It burnt out before it could hit the earth's surface, making the official tem for this phenonemon a fireball.

On 13 November we see and hear the first woodland kingfisher, a bird that with his arrival announces the start of summer.

We have no guests and go 2 days to Pretoria. The kids stay at home in the good care of Tinyiko. When I call home in the evening Niels quicly sums up what he has done today and is gone before I can say goodnight. With our friends from Pretoria we go for dinner at the Carnivore, a restaurant where you can eat all sorts of game meat.

We see more snakes now. At the house we found a sandsnake and in the office an egg-eater. These are not dangerous but you have to stay carefull, especially with the children.

When Nicolus is busy cleaning up the camp after the storm he hears something at our borehole. It is a puff-adder that got in the manhole for our pump. Corné catches him and releases him in the bush again.

It rains! This first rain of the season brings us only 4 mm. Not much but just enough for the bush to become a little greener...

This month we regularly see elephants and buffalo's. A big male giraffe comes to the Moosa-dam to drink. Guests see on the morning game-drive the rare black rhino!

The septic tank which has been used for our house and the guest toilets is full, after 5,5 years of use. No problem, we call a company who cleans the 2000 litre tank within 3 hours.

From ex-guests who visited us in 2005 we received an uncommon request. They send us 2 boxes full of stuffed animals, requesting us if we knew a good destination for them. Tinyiko, our staffmember since 2006, contacted a church-school for young children in Acornhoek where we handed tem out.

Our borehole is cleaned, and Michael van Eck (he's the one who drills boreholes) suggests to drill deeper as he thinks there might be another well. He drills an extra 16 metres, so our borehole is now 60 metres deep!

Dennis is now crawling well and stands up on his own. Nothing is safe anymore fir his little hands and we regularly have to say " Dennis, no..." .

Niels turns 3 years old, and this is celebrated on the pre-school with cake and gifts. At home, in the company of our staff Tinyiko and Nicolas, all the gifts are unwrapped.

Niels is still not quite at ease at school and says with tears in his voice "goodbye".

Dennis is now 8 months old and is trying to stand up. When he finally succeeds with wobbely legs he looks at us with a big smile!

The rerun of our episode of "onverwacht bezoek" (unexpected visit)is broadcasted this month.

Tinyiko has a very pleasant surprise: she is pregnant. And these days she walks around with even a bigger smile then normally. Congratulations Tinyiko!

We pay a maternity visit to Glory, and see a proud mother with her 10 day old son.

270 different bird-species have been identified in our reserve, which is an impressive number when we look at the eco-zone in which we stay.

We regurlarly see elephants this month and they even push over the tree next to our water hole. A young elephant bull got badly wounded during a fight with another bull, and had broken his neck. After consultation with nature conservation it was decide to take the wounded Elephant down.. To prevent the carcass causing bad smelling for weeks they cut him up, and thus the lions, jackals and vultures had a free and easy meal.

Niels goes to pre-school for the first time. He found it a bit scary but the teacher told us he played nicely.

The Eco-club in Hoedspruit organises an astronomy-evening. At the Southern Cross School Vincent Nettmann, an extreme enthousiastic astronomer, tells about what is also our great passion: Astronomy. First we have a look at Saturn and we do see the rings. Then we go inside for a slide-show, after which we go outside again. Jupiter with it 4 Galileo-moons look beautiful through an 8" Dobsonian telescope. Shortly before 9 the Moon is rising, again an amazing sighting! We also take a look at some nebulars and open star clusters. Then I ask VIncent about his opinion regarding the Dobsonian 10" telescope, which I want to buy, and he fully agrees with that choice. Something tells me we will meet again.... maybe it is written in the stars.... We receive the DvD of the tv-programme onverwacht bezoek. It still is a strange idea that this was broadcasted in the Netherlands.

Via internet we were able to see the programme they filmed here in January, a day after the broadcasting in the Netherlands. In contrast with our families in the Netherlands, who are addressed by strangers in their hometowns, we still have an anonymous life here.

We do receive lots of reactions, mainly by e-mail and lots of hits on our website, this indicates the impact of the tv-programme.

According to the game-warden's report, a herd of more then 100 elephants has moved into the Olifants-West section of Balule. One elephant was collared with a transmitter and he has also visited Mozambique, again showing the importance of transfrontier parks. We regurlarly see elephants now.

A black rhino, released in the neighbouring Klaserie Nature Reserve, has also found its way to into the Olifants West-section of Balule.

We painted the Mercury-stardeck in a dark color, resembling the dark nightsky. The deck is being used frequently now to observe the breathtaking stars.

With Corné's parents we spend 2 nights in Olifants camp in the Krugerpark. Then it is already almost time for them to leave.

Although we still get some rain the bush starts to look dry already. The giraffes frequently visit the new waterhole.

It is autumn now and the civet has been seen a couple of times already. Another regular visitor is the porcupine who brings a surprise for us one evening; 2 babies! The stardeck is nearly finished now and the laserpen, donated by observatory Mercurius in Holland, has arrived.

The parents of Corné arrived the 2nd of March and they will stay for almost 3 months here in Balule.

In the meanwhile we are busy with the star deck. The new, bigger, waterhole has been discovered by the animals already. We regularly find tracks and on one evening a lone buffalo came to the waterhole to drink.

The first of February Miriam's parents arrived here. They stayed for a month and spent most of their time with us and their newest grandson.

We finally saw elephants again at our waterhole after they had been gone for a long time.

It is still summer allthough it is not so hot as it was in January. We have started building our star deck and the new waterhole is almost finished.

Dennis makes his first trip into the Krugerpark, he sleeps most of the day but his brother Niels enthousiastically spots the animals.

One of the big trees next to the mainbuilding fell over, one day before the Dutch filmcrew arrived. We had 4 very busy but special days with the filmcrew of the Dutch programme

'Onverwacht bezoek' (unexpected visit). Miriam's sister Henja is the unexpected visitor and they had a wonderful week together after the filmcrew left.