Update

Well this is the first update of the Blog since we have left NZ. Communication is a major issue when you spend the majority of your time in the parks and reserves where there is no email, cell reception and I didn’t bring Nathan,s sat phone.

So the plan is that I write the blog in Word in the bush then copy to the blog at the next available opportunity. 

Fig 1 Bush Office

  

Problem 2 battery power.

Issac’s laptop is a great machine except I should have probably got a better battery. Fortunately I did bring a 12v-240 converter (Thanks again Isaac) which does allow me to power the battery off the car.

Problem 3. Elephants, Lions, Rhino. We are currently in the Nxai Pan Reserve and these beasts are just wandering around.

Fig 2 Elephant Stop- shame that the Lions can still walk through although this is more about protecting the toilet block rather than people

Buts lets wind back a little.

We arrived in Joburg @4:55am on the 26^th April and after fluffing around the airport getting R$ we connect up with our hotel and given an early checkin. After a quick sleep we head off to the apartheid museum to get a background of the complexity of discrimination by color and the problems of where the mixed, Chinese, Greeks and poor white might even fit. 

It seems to me that discrimination became more of a selection process based on social “standing”.

Nelson Mandela is looked upon as the African Moses and you have to give credit in his vision that recognized the rainbow blend of the nation to find a sustainable solve that fits all. Clearly the whites would not be happy with the change because they were in a privileged position and while it may have worked in the past it was not going to work in the 22^nd Century. 

South Africa still has a long way to go to heal the issue of the past and solve the problem of the present but I sense pride and optimism by native South African.  

Fig 3 Pillars of the Constitution

Following day we met up with Neil & Libby, picked up the vehicles and kept on getting losts. Problem. The GPS called NSS (No ……. Shirley) is good if she knows where to go. Unfortunately names changes are common.

Solution

Use coordinates not names…. The next problem was to find a map with coordinates.

After a night at the Krugersdorp Game Reserve we moved west to the Kham Rhino Reserve and then into the Kalahari Game reserve.

This big critter chasing is not like the zoo. It requires patience, luck and skill.. I know patience is not my long suit but I’m just beginning to realize that there is a whole spectrum of patience in the animal kingdom that humans have little knowledge. With a little more internalizing I’ve come to realize that I’m the worst of the worst.

Fig 4 Neil & Libby. “Don’t look back”

However we have a lot of luck and Neil has good eyes.

A Leopard sprinted through the camp at the Rhino Reserve first thing in the morning.

Seen several Rhino really close up.

Fig 5 Thompson & Thompson

Saw 2 lions right on the roadside under a tree, and a fresh kill with 3 cheaters. The cheaters were a tad shy. Our presence chased them back under a tree 50m away. We waited(fried) 2 hrs hoping that they would get used to us but sadly their patience was greater.

Fig 6 2 Male Lions on the roadside.

Figure 7- What are you looking at?

Figure 8- Birds nest

Figure 9- "Beauty is relative"

Figure 10- I'll second that

Fig 11-

Fig 12- “You don’t need to shout”