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Newsletter March 2009. |  |
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Here the latest news about Amukela, March 2009. |
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We have been very busy and had a big surprise in January (later more about this), and didn't get around to |
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sending out a newsflash for the birth of our son Dennis. |
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Dennis was born on 15 December 2008, he is growing well and on the picture below he is already 2 |
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months old. We are very happy with him! |
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He is as dark as his brother is blond and a bit more impatient when it comes to food... |
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At this stage he still gets night feeds whichs means that I give him a bottle around 23:30 h. |
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After this he is usually hungry at 3:30 and again at 6:00... The beauty of parenthood :-) |
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Niels is also very happy with his babybrother and is mostly very caring and sweet for him. |
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He helps his mother by handing her things. Niels is getting big already, he is now 2 1/2 years old and altough |
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we speak Dutch with him he is picking up some English already from our staff. |
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Soon he will be going to pre-school 2 mornings a week. |
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| We are very happy with our two bush-boys! | |||
 |
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| Newsletters: | |||
| Newsletter March 2010 | |||
| Newsletter December 2009 | |||
| Newsletter September 2009 | |||
| Newsletter June 2009 | |||
| Newsletter March 2009 | |||
| top | Do you know those programmes about people who emmigrate? | ||
| We watch some of the Dutch versions via the sattelite-tv. | |||
| In November 2008 we received an e-mail from Stokvis Production, the company that produces some of these | |||
| programmes. They had seen the website of my dad and were interested in filming here for about 4 days. | |||
| We were very excited, a piece of your life on TV and off course very good marketing for our lodge! | |||
| They came here in January and we had very busy |  |
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| but very special days. Dennis was only a month old | |||
| so Miriam had her hands more than full. | |||
| The crew existed of a cameraman (Vincent), | |||
| sound (Tjodi), presenter (Marion) and | |||
| productionleader (Hester). | |||
| They filmed at our lodge, in and around Hoedspruit, | |||
| at the Elephant back safari (Kapama Game Reserve), | |||
| Moholoholo rehabilitation centre, on a gamedrive | |||
| here in Balule and in the village of Tinyiko. | above: Miriam interviewd by Marion at Ngena Deli | ||
| The biggest surprise came on the last day when Miriam took Niels and Dennis to a teaparty, organised by | |||
| Ineke Hoogendam. We met Sjaak and Ineke on one of our Botswana trips and after visiting us for a | |||
| couple of times they bought their own house here in Balule were they now stay part of the year. | |||
| On the teaparty were some of the neighbours and some friends of Miriam and to her big surprise she was | |||
| offered a bisquit by her own sister Henja! | |||
| Henja wasn't able to visit us before and it was an emotional reunion. | |||
| Later we were told that the program is called "unexpected visit". | |||
| Well it was defenitely unexpected! | |||
| top | We had exellent rains this year resulting in a real river which normally is just a dry riverbed: | ||
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This year the Leeuspruit flowed a couple of times. | ||
| On 13 January we had very heavy rains with more | |||
| then 100 mm in 3 hours! | |||
| Because more seasonal rivers in Balule flowed that day | |||
| some landowners were stuck in the reserve for one day! | |||
| The next day the water dropped enough so they | |||
| could drive through. | |||
| For
the bush it was great :-) |
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| We had an increase of elephants in Balule this year. |  |
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| The African elephant is the biggest land animal in the | |||
| world. An adult male can weigh up to 7000 kg. | |||
| An adult elephant needs 150 to 200 kg food per day | |||
| therefore they spend up to 20 hours a day feeding. | |||
| Elephants need to drink every day, especially in the | |||
| hot summer months. | |||
| top | One of our bigger projects that we started a few weeks ago is the building of our star deck. | ||
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From the boma you enter this terrace. | ||
| In the middle we build a column on which we can mount | |||
| a telescope. This colum is not connected to the | |||
| foundation of the terrace itself so there will be no | |||
| movement on the telescope when you walk on the | |||
| terrace. | |||
| The stardeck also overlooks our new waterhole. | |||
| (left on the picture below). | |||
| In winter this terrace will be a lovely place to | |
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| enjoy the winter sun. | |||
| The diameter is 6 meters so it is big enough for | |||
| 10 people at once. | |||
| the Mercurius observatory in the Netherlands who | |||
| gave us advise about building and donated a | |||
| laserpen to point out the stars. | |||
| top | Miriam went into the Kruger park in February with her parents and took this picture: | ||
| A mother hippo with her baby. |  |
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| When a hippo has to give birth it seperates from | |||
| the rest of the herd. A few days after the birth | |||
| the mother will introduce her baby to the herd. | |||
| Usually hippo's spend their day in the water and | |||
| come on shore to graze after sunset. | |||
| However on a cloudy day they can be seen out of | |||
| the water during the day as well. | |||
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Last week my parents arrived and they stay in the house | ||
| of Sjaak & Ineke. They wil stay for almost 3 months | |||
| here, which means that my dad and I will work on the | |||
| Landrover. | |||
| More about this in the next newsletter. | |||
| Life in the bush is always special and full of surprises. | |||
| On the picture a spotted bushsnake. | |||
| It is a beautifull snake that is not poisonous. | |||
| top | From Balule: Salani Gahle (goodby) ! | ||