Well September was a celebratory month indeed. Saturday 14th was Kevin's birthday, always an excuse for a "do" and this year was no exception. Louis of Malongane arrived the day before with a case of 2M beer, fresh from Mozambique. Karl arrived on the day with a case of Hansa and the party was in full swing. SARU were kind enough to organise a rugby match for the morning of the 14th televised at the club, with breakfast, easy enough. Then a full day of beer drinking, fishing and playing with the dinghy ensued.
This was topped off with a cocktail party that night at the club, including snacks. Kevin and Chrissy (whose birthday was the 13th) were given a birthday present each from the Nautigals and guys, a team of volunteers at the club that get together to organise fund raisers for good causes. This time they did a collection for Kevin and Chrissy and presented them with a voucher each for a Game Drive and breakfast/lunch at Thula Thula Game Reserve.
We anchored our boat in the channel just outside of the club as there were no available moorings and had great fun surviving with our own means, traveling back and forth in our tender boat.
Sunday morning was the Opening Season sail and first Sunday Sailing Race of the new season. How amazing it was to see over 30 vessels, power boats, yachts, dinghies, even one of the foreign visitors joined in with their Catamaran and Karl went out on his own on Destiny, an all time record at the club. We did the usual spin past Rod and Michelle our new Commodore and wife, then the water fights, then the Sunday Race. All followed up with a braai and drinks.
This was topped off with a cocktail party that night at the club, including snacks. Kevin and Chrissy (whose birthday was the 13th) were given a birthday present each from the Nautigals and guys, a team of volunteers at the club that get together to organise fund raisers for good causes. This time they did a collection for Kevin and Chrissy and presented them with a voucher each for a Game Drive and breakfast/lunch at Thula Thula Game Reserve. 
We anchored our boat in the channel just outside of the club as there were no available moorings and had great fun surviving with our own means, traveling back and forth in our tender boat.
Sunday morning was the Opening Season sail and first Sunday Sailing Race of the new season. How amazing it was to see over 30 vessels, power boats, yachts, dinghies, even one of the foreign visitors joined in with their Catamaran and Karl went out on his own on Destiny, an all time record at the club. We did the usual spin past Rod and Michelle our new Commodore and wife, then the water fights, then the Sunday Race. All followed up with a braai and drinks. 
Tuesday was our wedding anniversary and Kevin decided to use his gift voucher, booked and paid for an extra one (me) and we went and did a Game Drive and lunch at Thula Thula. Thula Thula (www.thulathula.com) is a Game Reserve made famous by its late owner Lawrence Anthony and the rogue herd he adopted and which he tamed and now live freely on his reserve, the novel "The Elephant Whisperer" is the story of the herd, why they were so dangerous, how they were nearly destroyed and how Lawrence brought them around. When he died of a heart attack in 2012 the elephants came to the house for three days to pay their respects and to mourn and they came and presented his widow the new babies, just like they did when they accepted Lawrence at the beginning. 
After spending time at this wonderful Reserve I am going to buy the book, I had already bought it once for a gift and never read it, now I want to. They have two orphan rhino on the Reserve as well and it is sad to see that they have armed guards following them around the Reserve 24/7. These guards have twice thwarted poaching attempts, once resulting in one of the rhinos being shot in the leg. Being so used to human company they are naturally inquisitive and not afraid of people, so they are happy to get close to have their photos taken and they wander around the restaurant where patrons sit on the balcony, amazing. All I can say is, we are going back!! Our friends Chrissy and Alan used their voucher last week and had the rare experience of being charged repeatedly during their game drive by Mabula, one of the male elephants, what an experience. The video clip is on you tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxA2H0h8Jok  |
| At the entrance to the estate |
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| Waterbuck on the hill, estate in background |
We promised our friend Janet a visit, she lives in Nelspruit in a huge house situated on a stunning Nature Reserve, home to Kudu, Impala, Giraffe, Zebra, Waterbuck, Duiker, etc . We made a trip of it, arrived there on Thursday afternoon and whilst Kevin worked
I spent a day and a half playing with the 7 puppies she was fostering, as well as their mommy, her kids two puppies and their male dog Jack - 11 in total - heaven!! 
Saturday saw Janet, Kevin and I heading for the Kruger National Park, great excitement for me as I had never stayed over night in the Park before.
Our aim - to find Leopard. Leanne had been there a few weeks before and had lovely photos of animals, not least of which were a couple of awesome shots of Leopards and we wanted to find them too!! Saturday was stinking hot, the temperature outside rose to 46 deg C and the aircon was battling. Needless to say most of the animals were hiding under trees in the shade. We still managed to find some lovely elephants and rhino and a fish eagle (very exciting), hippo's, a leopard kill in a tree, and as we headed to our camp for the night we spotted the Sable, a rare sight causing great celebrations.  |
| Yes, those are crocodiles!! |
A braai in the bush under the trees with good wine and laughs and the animal noises in the background made it a day to remember. Up early the next morning we spotted the Sable again, then on rounding a corner found a male elephant who wasn't too happy with us as company, flapping his ears and stomping - rather rude - so we decided to let him have his way and quietly reversed back the way we came and took another road. Saw more rhino, elephants, lions, buck, giraffe, baboons, but the Leopard remained elusive. 
Eventually it was time to head for the exit and we took the long way round and that proved to be the right choice, there they were, mother and teenage cub Leopard, we were so excited :-) What a weekend, we will be back, next is Cheetah!Back home and the face of the wrek of the M/V Smart has changed. After having successfully removed the coal, the authorities have, after 3 days of non-stop drag by two huge tugs and ropes, managed to pry the back of the wrek loose of the sand and drag it out to deeper waters and sink it. We are now left with the remaining front, not sure when that is going to go.
Had a giggle at Kevin, we were taking photos, in the rain, of one of the visiting yachts for the news letter. Under pressure Kevin whips his cell phone out of his pocket to take a photo with that, forgetting that in the same pocket he had earlier stuffed two R200 notes which, as per Murphy, flew out and landed in the water. Whilst we desperately willed them closer, Neptune was having none of it and they started to sink. Nothing left but for Kevin to strip down to his shorts and in he jumped - money laundering at its utmost!! Summer is pretty much here and we are able to enjoy the outdoors again, had a lovely braai at the club, overlooking the channel, life really is good...
Kevins work has been progressing with Toyota and we have been traveling up and down to Hibberdene, it is only 45mins from my mom's house to work for him, versus 2 hours from Richards Bay. Nice as we spend a couple of days and catch up on happy hour, the CRAFT club, bingo, bowling, and Kevin generally gets to do a bit of freelance computer fixing, always a welcome break.
Two Sundays ago we woke up at 6am and decided it was perfect weather for sailing so off we went, wind of around 20 - 25knots was awesome to sail in, of course the first sip of coffee 
I took from my mug blew right up into my face! but we had a wonderful time. The club sail was taking place at 11am and on our return leg to join them we were escorted by a pod of dolphins swimming in the wake and bows of our boat, so exciting and just incredible. We saw many whales too although it is coming to the end of whale season so they will be moving off soon.
We had an exciting morning at the club on Friday 18 October as SABC2 broadcast their morning live program from the Yacht Club. They had organised for a couple of guys to be fishing (a challenge as the rain came in sheets and the poor guys had to keep running for shelter) and some of the Stand Up Paddlers to be out on the water and Nomad the charter catamaran to do a sail past.
Kevin and I were there at 4.30 to help with setting up, then at 6.30 we snuck back to our boat and headed out to the channel outside the yacht club to try to appear in the background of the broadcast as well. Not sure if we made t.v. but wasn't for lack of trying :-)Our bakkie is finally sold. The little Micra ended up at Nissan for a couple of weeks as the wheel bearings needed replacement and the bakkie was put back into service again, obviously wasn't meant to be sold until we didn't need it any more. Once we had the Micra back and all in one piece again, we received an offer that was acceptable and off she went, kinda sad :-(
Poor Gaynor ended up doing a stint in hospital, she ended up with hyper-thyroidism or Gravy's disease. Her body was basically attacking her thyroid as it was over-producing and this was causing her pulse to race, dangerously high. The specialist admitted her straight to hospital as a precaution and gave her a radioactive iodine pill which should destroy the majority of the thyroid, then the normal functions of the thyroid will be duplicated by medication for the rest of her life. This is apparently an almost common ailment and those that have it suffer no long term affects (not even glowing in the dark!!). 
Fishing is becoming a big thing, my freezer now has to have a specific area for "bait" - frozen prawns and squid and sardines - and we head out into the channel trying for that ever-elusive shad!! theres still lots of puffer fish lol!! After a day of glorified fish feeding, I am sure it would be easier to just throw all the bait in the water than to keep neatly tying it onto a hook and throwing in the water, only for the hook to come back empty, but seemingly I don't appreciate the delicacies of angling! So we get back to our mooring, empty handed, not even a bite and Kevin decides to let the fish here nibble the last bait off his hook and voila, he nabs himself a neat little bream/stumpnose. Made him throw it back of course, but we have photographic evidence that there ARE fish in Richards Bay.
It has been 3 years since we purchased our life raft and it required servicing to remain in date for our certifications so we took it to Viking in Durban. As we had been advised by everyone, we got them to open it in front of us so that we at least know what our liferaft will look like if we ever need it and what it has in it. Amazing how big it is, and now we know how it opens, makes us feel a bit more confident in our equipment and also realise that those dog biscuits they supply ain't gonna impress no one so extra food better be in the grab bag.
That time of year again also means the internationals start arriving en masse. This is the time they cross the Indian Ocean, arrive in South Africa and make their way to Cape Town ready to cross to Brazil or just hide out in South Africa til hurricane season is over, then head back to Mozambique. Our international arrivals area is starting to fill up!!
Cheers for now, happy shopping everyone :-)
