Elephants come to visit

It is half past nine in the evening; our guests are just back from a game drive and are having dinner when we hear something in the bush. It sounds a bit like growling and our first thought is lions, but it doesn’t quite sound right. Then we see a big shadow passing just behind our watering hole. It is an elephant and they can make a low rumbling sound. We see bigger and smaller shadows and realise that it is a breeding herd. First it looks like the elephants will pass just outside the light on our watering hole, but then one turns and comes for a drink. Soon a second elephant

Swimming

It is the end of March and that means that the swimming season here in South Africa is over. It is still warm enough and our European guests still go for a swim, but for the South Africans the swimming season has come to an end. At school the season is closed each year with a froggy-gala for the little ones. All pre-school children and their parents are invited for a morning of water fun in the school swimming pool. This event takes place on the last Friday in February and after that there is no more swimming at school till next summer.

Here at the lodge we give it a try once or twice in March but Corné and I have adapted well to our new country

Knock, knock, who’s there…

For weeks now we are being terrorised by birds.

The birds are a few hornbills, also known as Zazoe from the Lion King. Every morning as soon as it gets light they start knocking at our upstairs window. These birds have quite a big beak so their knocking makes a lot of noise. Since it is still summer here in South Africa, it gets light quite early in the morning and we don’t really enjoy our wake-up call.

We chased the birds away many times already and even thrown rocks at them in the hope of scaring them but they come back

Giraffes and braai

It is Saturday and we have no guests on the lodge. The personnel are home for the weekend and we have the lodge all for our selves. In the weekend we always take it slow and today we have given ourselves the day off. I am relaxing at the terrace, reading a magazine, while I keep an eye on the children who are playing together. Then I see a movement in the bush, a long neck sticks out above the bushes and slowly moves towards our watering hole. If I walk a little closer I see some more giraffes eating from the trees. The giraffe that I saw first stops at the edge of the water. Then his long front legs spread

Power failure

It is Friday morning quarter past six, we are awake but still in bed. In fifteen minutes I have to get up to get Niels, who is still asleep, ready for school. Dennis is wide awake already and is playing.

All of a sudden we hear a loud bang and the power goes off, since we are wide awake now we decide to get up. Corné goes out to have a look and after a few minutes he is back with the message that two of the fuses of our three phase power are blown. We immediately call Eskom (our power supplier) and they tell us someone will be there within six hours

Breathtaking stars

As a child I already had a fascination for stars. I think I was about nine years old when my brother in law pointed out the Big Dipper to me for the first time, and from that moment I was hooked. Although I already owned a book about astronomy when I still lived in the Netherlands and had looked up to the breathtaking sky of the southern hemisphere during our travels, the real fascination came when I came to live here in South Africa. Especially in winter the sky here is so clear that you can see the Milky Way beautifully.

Corné also got interested and together we watched the beautiful stars that we knew so little about at that stage. We learned some basic knowledge about the Southern Cross

Be nice to your computer.

At our lodge we get all sorts of guests and many of them have an interesting story to tell. On New Years Eve we had a very nice American guy who worked in the IT-business. He had done several jobs but was now specialised in solving computer problems for people. As a computer user who knows not too much about the actual computer I found this interesting and we started talking.

On his question what kind of computer I have I answered “no idea, a normal one” and he gave me a compassioned look. His next question was how my relationship with my computer was. I found it a strange question but answered

A cobra in my kitchen

On a Sunday afternoon I walked into the kitchen to get some juice for the children when I saw a snake disappear behind some things. In the seven years we live in the bush now we got used to encounters like this so I stayed quite calm. I first got the juice for the kids and brought it out. Because I didn’t want to risk losing the snake and having him startle me later I got our snake-stick. This is a stick of about a metre long with on one side a sort of a beak that you can open and close with a handle on the other side of the stick. My friend happened to be visiting that day with her one year old son. She lives in the bush as well and has even more experience with snakes

It is never boring in the bush

We now live seven years here in the Balule Private Nature Reserve and we have seen many animals around our camp in that time. We also had our share of adventures with some of the animals. I still find it very special to have these animals just in our backyard. Sometimes it is quiet for a few days and then all of a sudden a waterbuck or a kudu stares at you when you walk out the door. The past year we have seen four of the Big Five around our camp. In winter we always see elephants

Introducing myself

Hi,

I'm Miriam and since 2004 I live with my husband Corné in South Africa, in the Balule Private Nature Reserve to be precise. We have build our own lodge here in the bush where we receive guests. Our two sons, Niels of four and Dennis of two are born here and grow up in this beautifull environment.

The reserve where we live is close to the famous Kruger Park and all animals that live