Happy Monday from Hoedspruit South Africa. If you are a fan of “Chopped”, I say — today I have for you a beautiful Africa moon, a young vulture in its nest, and a beautiful picture of some giraffe.

We are laying low today resting and basking in a warm African day. We go out tomorrow for our 3rd and final 3 night excursion to a camp called Shindzela. Looking for a plethora of hippo and leopard. I am also going to get some beautiful photos of the African landscape for you.

This time next week we will begin our journey home. We take an Airlink Flight from Hoedspruit to Johannesburg, hang out for several hours and then board a 15-hour non-stop United flight from Johannesburg to Newark. I have a little anticipation of the homework journey beginning to bubble up!

By the way, Covid is kind of low-key here. People are being vaccinated and mask wearing is required in stores but never while on the reserves!

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We finally saw our first leopard — at night but nonetheless! Today is Saturday, September 20th and we are still at the Tree Camp and still pretty darn cold! Our game drives start quite early and we get quite bundled up! We are here for 1 more night then back to Bush Baby Haven and then our third and final 3 nights at a camp called Shindzela…. One week from today we will be packing to return to the United States. Can’t wait to see you all!

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We have bid adieu to our Chacma guides Henry, Nadine and Collins. Such a wonderful time spent with them in the bush. We are back at Bush Baby Haven enjoying the porch on this very hot day at Bush Baby Haven. 91 degrees to day and 100 degrees tomorrow. May be time to enjoy the swimming pool. Today I offer you a few photos of this gorgeous bird of prey who is enjoying a Hornbill – a relatively large bird. Notice the legs on this thing! We are here until Thursday morning and then off to our tree-house experience.

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A very exciting day indeed! The endangered wild dog. Four of them eating breakfast consisting of a tasty impala (as you can see).. Also some wonderful birds and a few more lions. We are in search of a leopard tonight as this is our final evening game drive at Chacma. We go back to Bush Baby Haven tomorrow for a couple of days of doing laundry and bubble baths and then off to bush again for 3-nights someplace new. I hope you have enjoyed some of our sightings as much as we have.

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Blessings everyone,

Finally got a bit of wi-fi to let you know how it is going out here in the African Bush. We are currently at the Chacma Game Reserve which is about an hour from our home base at Bush Baby Haven. It is a rustic camp with lots of local elephants and it is just the three of us so is quite fun. We left camp this morning at 7am for a 3 hour game drive and ran across a pride of lions — 10 of them. It is quite unusual to see lions up and about since they hunt at night and mostly sleep all day. So it was fun to see them drinking water and moving about. The lions were sprinkled in with some buffalo, a giraffe and a few beautiful birds.

Every day is pretty much the same on safari. You wake early, have coffee, go for a 3-hour drive come back and have breakfast. Then until the 2nd drive at 3pm we sit around the pool, have lunch and take naps. Hard life right?

For our afternoon game drive, we will be heading out to a river about 90 minutes from here. We are hoping to see hippo and more elephant of course. We all have a crazy dream to see Wild Dogs so keep your fingers crossed.

Today is September 12th — we left the states on September 3rd so have been here 9-days. It feels quite far from home and I feel as if I have been away from home for a very long time. A little homesickness is creeping in but way too soon since still 2-weeks and 16 game drives to go —

I hope it is cooling off for you and that everyone is having a good time in the community. I miss you all.

Love,
Denise

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For 950 South African Dollars (RAND) which equals $63 we enjoyed a 3-hour game drive on the Kapama property which is a world-class safari destination for the rich and famous. If that weren’t enough, we also enjoyed a 5-course meal which included 2 bottles of wine for our 4-person table. This $63 included all tips. It was really fun as evidenced by some memories captured below. In total for this trip we will experience a total of 19 game drives – so 18 left. Our total vacation is 23 days in Africa – 4 down, 19 to go!

This remarkable creature is a mature male Kudu — one of the most spectacular of all antelope. We found him on a short drive around the grounds today.

Tomorrow we embark on our first ‘official’ game drive to a local lodge called  Kapama Game Reserve. We are joining their guests for a 3-hour game drive and dinner and it should prove to be a the first opportunity for your first glimpse of lions and elephant. The weather here today was a nippy 73, dipping down to 55 tonight. Chilly in our world – yes?

This first week of our journey has been very much about community, learning each others rhythms, giving each other space to be.  Even though it is now becoming a distant memory, we WERE stranded with each other in a hurricane, without a change of clothes and completely up-ended for our first 72 hours together.  It is easy to think you are completely normal until your idiosyncratic tendencies get witnessed by other people.  We don’t often get to REALLY be seen through the eyes of another.  Kind of frightening really Just like in life – breathe, surrender, yield, communicate, breathe, surrender, yield, communicate.  It’s been quite fun!

Most of you don’t know me as a self-proclaimed amateur chef (I have a deep desire to beat Bobby Flay) but I love love love to cook for people and tonight I prepared chicken thighs in a mustard sauce with smashed potatoes and steamed cauliflower. I think perhaps my last day of cooking for several days. Oh darn!

We have only been in Africa for 2 nights but it feels like a long time.  I am not homesick yet but of course I am missing you!  Stay tuned for the next blog about the Kapama adventure!