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Newsletter January 2011. |  |
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| Already another year has past again and from Balule we, the good people of Amukela, all wish you a blessed and | |||
| prosper 2011. | |||
| Looking back on 2010 for us this was the year of the Worldcup in South-Africa, and where Oranje (the Dutch team) | |||
| almost became the Champions of the World... We had great moments the last year, not only during the Worldcup but | |||
| also here in the bush, as every year has its surprises. | |||
| We had buffalo, elpehants, lions and even a leopard at our waterholes this year! And there were more special | |||
| moments. In this newsletter we look back on a great year. | |||
| Below some of those moments, for all other moments please read our diary. | |||
| For weekly updates and foto's you can also find us on Facebook. | |||
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| The year 2010 started with a boomslang (tree-snake), who attacked a nest of green woodhoepoe chicks, in the knob- | |||
| thorn tree next to the reception. The adult birds were furious and keep attacking the snake, who couldn't move fast as | |||
| he was full of food! | |||
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In January we were due for a break, and so we spent 2 | ||
| lovely nights at the Thaba Tsweni Lodge in Graskop. | |||
| This lodge is managed by Patsy & Wendel, whom we know | |||
| from the time they worked at Tshukudu Game Reserve. | |||
| The spacious self-catering house has a veranda and lots of | |||
| green lawns where our kids could play their heart out. | |||
| We had perfect weather: dry-sunny and around 32 Celcius. | |||
| In January I have a fire in the bakkie, while driving in the reserve…only with trowing lots of dirt sand from the road, I | |||
| manage to get the fire out. | |||
| Twice this year I was so lucky to see a leopard, the first time with Niels in the Landrover, coming back from the gate and | |||
| the other time just after a gamedrive, when we see a large male walking to the Moosa-dam. Just awesome! | |||
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| In April lions kill a kudu, close to our entrance-road. | |||
| On that Friday-afternoon around 14:30 we hear the | |||
| growling lions, quickly followed by the deathcry of a kudu. | |||
| Quickly we go for a look, and see a large male feasting on | |||
| the freshly killed kudu. | |||
| Later more lions move in, but -wisely enough- they keep | |||
| their distance. | |||
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| In the month May we follow -together with guests -Miriam & Niels- in the Landy a big male lion, who walks on a lazy | |||
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Sunday-afternoon on the Maroeladrive. Loudly roaring! | ||
| Later that month we spent 3 lovely relaxing days in the | |||
| Buckler’s Africa Lodge, located against the Crocodile-river | |||
| which forms the border with the Kruger Park. | |||
| Next to chilling out and having family-fun we watched | |||
| rhino's and elephants grazing on the other side of the river. | |||
| We also did a daytrip in the Kruger, visiting Lower Sabie. | |||
| June & July were the Worldcup-months, and this succesful event brought South-Africa many good things. | |||
| In the future the marketing value will become known as this could stretch out over more then 10 years. | |||
| For the NOS (National Dutch Broadcasting) I visited -together with NOS- TV resporter Jan Roefs- 8 WC matches: | |||
| 4 in Polokwane en 4 in Nelspruit. |
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| Together with Miriam we went to 4 WC matches of Oranje | |||
| (the Dutch team). We saw Netherlands vs Denmark in | |||
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Soccer City for more then 83.000 spectators! |
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| Then a roadtrip to Durban and together with 65.000 fans we | |||
| saw the Dutch beat Japan in the beautiful Durban-stadium. | |||
| The best match was when we kicked Brazil out in a historic | |||
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match in Port Elizabeth. And the final in Soccer-City... |
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| ... a match which I like to forget forever - at least until the | |||
| 116 minute when that awful referee Webb refused to | |||
| top | award us a corner- and from the counter (where there 1st | ||
| was an off-side situation) Spain scored... it will hurt forever. | |||
| In August lions killed a buffalo at the Moosa-dam! | |||
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Around 20:45 uur we heard growling lions and the | ||
| bellowing of a buffalo... | |||
| We quickly went to the terrace and saw the lions hunting | |||
| down the buffalo, who died after about 15 minutes... | |||
| It is now the second time that the lions killed that year | |||
| an animal on Amukela-land. | |||
| The horns of the buffalo now decorate the knobthorn- | |||
| tree next to the reception. | |||
| In September we have 20 days of vacation -minus one day we have to spent in Cario- thanks to an unauthorised | |||
| strike of the Belgium airfreight-personell. We visit our family in the Netherlands. | |||
| It is good to be back again, alltough we find it difficult to get used to the traffic noises and the obstacles in the roads, | |||
| which are there to decrease the speeding cars. | |||
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November is the Elephants-month, as we had these gigants |
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| visiting both the Mandla and Moosa-dam. | |||
| One time even when we are all in the swimming-pool! | |||
| Isn't it a beautiful picture? | |||
| Overall this year we had good Elephant sightings, and one | |||
| time 'Big George' -a big bull who is used to humans- came | |||
| close to our entrance gate. I stood their to take fantastic | |||
| photo's from closeby. | |||
| top | In December the good rains came , which turned the bush into a lusty green paradise. | ||
| Again a year has passed in our lifes under the African sky blue. | |||
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2011: Niels now goes 5 half-days (07:30 - 12:00) to | ||
| school and also Dennis will go somewhere this year to this | |||
| school, which is located in a nature reserve. | |||
| In March my parents will visit us again and as my Old Man | |||
| turns 70 we will have a great birthday party! Further we | |||
| we have plans to create private seats at each rondawel, | |||
| and make a view point on the highest point of Amukela- | |||
| land, where we can have a sundowner. Enough to do | |||
| this year, which undoubtely will also have some crazy | |||
| surprises for us. | |||
| From Balule: Salani Gahle (goodby) ! | |||
