Emfuleni At Last

We finally made it to Marloth Park on Sept 21. We've spent a week in Pretoria running errands under a haze of jet-lag, getting the truck registration and insurance arranged; have a phone as well. We have Grandpa as our guide this trip show us how everything works and get us oriented.

We've been going for short walks to the Krans to watch for animals coming to the river to drink in Kruger but most of the animals are here in Marloth: wildebeest, giraffe, kudu, zebra, warthog and ostrich. It hasn't rained since March and things are very very dry. The grass around the cottage is long gone - the impala ate it to the roots, and the warthogs ate the roots!

We will stay here a while before meeting the rest of the family at the trout farm in the in highvelt west of here.

The dry landscape makes for easy game viewing - and lots excitement at the river. At one point I had rhino, giraffe and zebra in my view before two lion made a run for the zebra and sending everything crashing into the bush! We've Been trying to keep track of the pride each evening on our game drives with Grandpa.

Last night I lit the fire while the hippos called and lions answered back. It doesn't get any better than that.

...and with our fingers crossed, we hope to leave soon.

We have found that everyone is very curious as to WHY we are going to South Africa for a year, including ourselves. Maybe a quote from the Dalai Lama may help.

When asked “What thing about humanity surprises you the most?”, the Dalai Lama answered, “Man…. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived."

We will need to figure out this blogging thing, over a Windhoek.
Cheers!