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Newsletter June 2009. |  |
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Here the June 2009 newsletter from our small paradise in the bush. |
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It’s winter in South-Africa, temperatures are very pleasant, and in the evenings we gather around the campfire. |
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We often see shooting stars, and lions can be heard frequently. |
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| We have upgraded our website (refresh with CTRL + F5), Miriam’s creative talent came in handy again. | |||
| My parents visited the Balule reserve for a long period: 3 months. Also this time me and my Dad did a lot of odd jobs: | |||
| building the stardeck, maintenance and repair of the landrover & bakkie (=pick-up) and other things. | |||
| But most of all the grandparents enjoyed beeing with their grandchildren. | |||
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Grandma at her best: reading from a book for Niels |
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(who points out the pictures), while Dennis is all right |
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with
that. |
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Niels is more then 2,5 years old now, and his favorite |
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occupations are: helping Dad with the Landrover, |
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working in the garden (especially watering the plants), |
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studying all sorts of insects and imitating |
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baboons,
jackal, lions and birds. |
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Dennis is not yet as capable in his actions, almost 6 |
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months old now, but it seems that he will also be a |
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very
active bush-child. |
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| Fortunately Tinyiko is often around to assist us with | |||
| our youngest! | |||
| 2008/2009 was an excellent year regarding the rains. We got about 460 mm. and that in an area where 350 mm is | |||
| a normal average. Thus there will be enough food available in the bush for this winter. | |||
| A memorable moment we had on a Sunday late-afternoon. We enjoyed some cool drinks on the terrace with our | |||
| guests, when a herd of Elephants came along. One male had nice large tusks, and altough this photo is not 100% clear | |||
| (it was getting dark already), I decided to place it here. | |||
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When you visit the Kruger park, make some time available to |
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visit
the Elephant
hall in Letaba. |
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Here you will find an exposition with the tusks from the 7 |
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largest elephants which occurred in the Kruger park. |
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| Also a lot of information about the elephant, his history through | |||
| the centuries and the problems in these modern times. | |||
| The elephant on the right is surely a descent of one of the | |||
| Magnificent-7 (so named because of their enormous tusks) | |||
| top | The Mercury-stardeck is finished. The only thing that is missing is a telescope. | ||
| But also with binoculars you can see enough interesting celestal bodies. And with the donated laserpen of our Friends | |||
| of the observatory in the Netherlands, we can point out the stars and planets better then before. | |||
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Stardeck
Mercury, ready to use! |
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In the middle you can see a column on which a |
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telescope
can be mounted. |
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In wintertime it’s lovely to enjoy your coffee or tea |
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here,
as in the morning the sun is really pleasant. |
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| From this deck there is an open view into the bush and | |||
| on our new waterhole. | |||
| The deck is split into 4 parts, each with their own | |||
| constellation. | |||
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With my parents we visited the Kruger park in May, and spent 2 nights in the Olifants camp. |
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| Olifants is located in the central region of the Kruger. It is built on a rock and the views are stunning. One can overlook | |||
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the Olifants-gorge and the bushveld. | ||
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The
view from our family-chalet in Olifants camp. |
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From our terrace we could see mountains in the distance, |
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these appeared to be the Tranvaal-Drakensberg nearby |
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Hoedspruit. |
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With
the naked eye we looked more then 120 km. away! |
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| In the evenings we gathered around our campfire, while | |||
| admiring the stars and listening to the hippo’s. | |||
| top |
We entered the Kruger park at the Orpen gate, and |
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already
after 10 minutes we saw a cheetah. |
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Niels found that very interesting, and therefore we took |
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in
Satara this picture of him and the cheetah. |
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| Frequently the Kruger park writes out a competition, | |||
| here you can send in your photo’s of cheetah’s, seen in | |||
| the Kruger park. This way it can be decided how many | |||
| cheetah’s live in the Kruger park. | |||
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The Hulk, our sturdy Landrover, got a facelift: we pimped the dashboard with tamboti-wood (indigenous hardwood). |
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| Also we managed to get hold on original mirrors. | |||
| While doing the maintenance we discovered the true character of the Hulk: now and then a bit bad tempered but | |||
| incredible strong. This was expressed by the fact that he is a real work-horse (with a 4,1 litre Chevy-engine), but also | |||
| had
its mood-swings. Fortunately
these became less and less but now and then my father & I grew some
extra gray |
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| hairs, so we decided to write a song about it: | |||
| top | (Tune: ) ‘The Wild Rover – The Dubliners’ | ||
| I drove a Landrover for many these years, | |||
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And I spent all my money on oil and on beers…. | ||
| My wife she has left me so I bought me a store, | |||
| And I swear I will drive that Landrover no more… | |||
| (Tune: )‘My Old Man’s a Dustman-Lonnie Donegan’ | |||
| Now here's a little story, | |||
| To tell it is a must, | |||
| About my poor old Dad, | |||
| Who bought a piece of rust! | |||
| Some people make a fortune, | |||
| He apparantly not, | |||
| That Landy didn't do much, | |||
| In fact he's flipping rot! | |||
| Copyright Amukela :-) | |||
| Just to make sure: it is my Old Man in the Landrover, and not some rich American tourist who decided to pay a large | |||
| sum of money for this car. Maybe that day will come soon! | |||
| Meanwhile we become very anxious about the broadcasting of the TV programme Onverwacht bezoek (Unexpected | |||
| visit), which can be seen on the 15th of June on the Dutch national television. | |||
| Because we are not able to see this from South-Africa, we will try to see it via webcam. | |||
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Dennis,
found of laugther, especially after a meal. |
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He joined us this month for the first time on a trip in |
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the Landrover, and seemed to like that, as much as his |
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Big
brother Niels does. |
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Even now when he is almost 6 months old, he still |
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keeps us awake at night, but that is one of the beauties |
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of
beeing parents. |
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| And if you look at that smiling face, and his dark & naughty eyes then you don’t feel sleepy anymore! | |||
| top | From Balule: Salani Gahle (goodbye) ! | ||
