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Published: November 10th 2005
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View from the pool
Everyday the elephants came to drink from a pond just below the swimming pool. Provided we sat quietly they were happy to let us watch. I´m in Chile in an internet cafe with Real Coffee. Wow! Guess its a good place to write an entry.
From Rio we flew via Sao Paulo to Johannesburg for Kara and Andrew’s long anticipated wedding. We were quite please to be going to our new home for a short while as it gave us a chance to drop off some of the extra baggage we had accumulated. Our time in South Africa was exceedingly busy and we had very little time for anything not related to the wedding, such as recovery.
First major event was Andrew’s stag do, which started off with Paintball which was fun until Andrew and I got a little bit out of control, followed by a Braai at Dave and Paula’s house and then some other stuff ……. ( No nothing bad). On route back I was stopped by the police to check for drinking and driving, I was quite keen to be tested as I wanted to know what it was all about but they very quickly determined that I had not drunk anything and sent me on my way.
The next day it was up to Lukimbi in the Kruger National
Lion Cub
Lions are cute without blood on their faces. Park for the wedding preparations, the wedding and Nicola’s birthday. On the drive to Lukimbi we were shocked to see just how dry the country was as the rains have not yet started and the previous year’s had been poor. Soon after entering the park we were greeted by a heard of elephants not to far from the camp. I love elephants as they are such busy animals and we were lucky to have them visit us each day as they came to drink from the waterhole in front of camp.
As the wedding got nearer things got busier and busier but we were still able to go on a game drive each morning and evening. The wildlife was superb and it did not take long for us to have seen the big 5 of Elephant, Rhino, Lion, Leopard and Buffalo.
The wedding went very well and the couple looked suitably in love. The ceremony was held under a JackalBerry tree, one of the few evergreens, and we had some very cool local singing and dancing group who wore white gloves and very enthusiastic expressions. The minister was pretty chilled too and didn´t seem too bothered at the
Owls
Some beatiful little barred owls that came and perched outside Paula´s room. prospect that we could have some extra guests of the elephant kind. The bride arrived to the beat of approaching drums and looked stunning, as did her bridesmaides. Paula, other sister, read a poem specially writen for the wedding and the men in the white gloves did their thing. At the end of the service we had some drinks with a perfect African sunset as a backdrop.
The reception was where I had to do most of my work as Master of Ceremonies and I was kept busy all evening. The MC thing went pretty well and I only had trouble filling the early departure buses as everyone was have a really good time and wanted to stay on. I used some of the local folklore to link the different events together and it was quite fun getting the bridal couple to do some bizzare things such as thrusting spears into elephant dung and having a small tug of war to prove the strength of their union.
The next day was Nicola’s birthday and at the post wedding lunch the elephants came to wish her happy birthday. That night we had a special birthday dinner for Nicky with
Beeater
Beeater in Kruger takes to flight. carrot cake, her favourite. After dinner when we were walking to our room we heard some noises very near to our room. When we got to our room Craig (The manager and good friend of ours) called us to tell us the lions had just killed an impala near to where we had gone for dinner and that if we wanted he would take us on a Landrover to go see. Walking back on the path we could see the lions in the distance as one of the other rangers was shining a torch on them. Close up and at night with fresh blood all over their faces the lions really do look quite fearsome and we were quite pleased afterwards when Craig drove us right to our door.
The next night we headed part of the way down the road to Johannesburg to spend a night at the Sabi River Sun with the Nicky’s parents before continuing on, packing up and flying back to Brazil.
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