Lockdown Day 69 - Wednesday 3 June

A change in the routine. We spent time preparing the old Hilux for trade - in. Tomorrow we will get our new car delivered to Tzaneen.

The bird list is up to 136.

Today's bird is the Goliath Heron. It's the biggest heron in the world. Every few days he comes to fish in our stretch of river. 

We watched 2 big crocs mating in the river but I wasn't able to get a photo. Sunset drinks turned into a braai and then into a party. We polished off our best bottles of wine because tomorrow we are collecting our order from Safari Wines.

Lockdown Day 68 - Tuesday 2 June

Today I took pictures of the lizards sunning themselves on the wall by the kitchen door. And the Golden Orb Spider's nest.

The Fish Eagles are active and noisy almost every day. The Call of Africa.

I feel overwhelmed by too much bad and sad news from social media, news channels and personal stories right now. I do care and I am always here to listen or to help but I need a party to organise or a trip to plan and some crazy, light-hearted fun and real-life interaction to recharge my batteries.  

In light of that, we are watching quite a bit of comedy and The Hairy Bikers Route 66 series. I made their Yorkshire Pudding Wrap for dinner last night.

Here are also a few pics from our Route 66 Trip in 2013 to cheer us all up.

Lockdown Day 67 - Monday 1 June

We had so many animals in the "garden" today but this story is about the 4 giraffes that decided to cross the river. I have never seen this before and couldn't work out why they would put themselves at risk, eventhough the water is pretty shallow now. It took about 30 minutes of for all 4 to cross, one by one and with caution. Such amazing creatures.

 Neil placed a big wine order with Safari Wines in Hoedspruit for collection on Thursday. We will be staying put here at Ximongwe for June unless the restrictions on interprovincial travel and leisure accommodation rental are lifted.

Lockdown Day 66 - Sunday 31 May

So the excitement of possibly going on a day trip to the Kruger National Park was rather short-lived. We await further announcements from Sanparks.

At least we got to go out on a game drive here.

The "Girls' Night In" had such fun on Zoom, cooking Risotto together with Mandy and making Black Forest Cheesecake with Mazzie. I have the best friends. Can't wait to see you all and have a real party!!