DEAN'S DIARY NOVEMBER '98

Greetings friends and fellow travellers.

Another month has gone by since my long epistle - I did not realise how long my last entry was until I printed it out! I promise, this shall be short and sweet. This is what I shall include: Brad and friends safari to Zululand, my housesitting, my dogs, my brothers birthday, my new axle, the Scouts Night Hike, our weather, curtains, feedback and Christmas prospects...

Well, as mentioned last month I went on a 4 day safari with Brad and two of his friends, Alan and Gavin, from the UK inot Zululand. We first went to Shakaland and experienced an exciting Zulu cultural experience departing armed to the teeth with assegais and shields, and then spent the afternoon and night at the floating chalets on the nearby dam. This was fun again - Brad had a 100 metre swim which seem to take forever especially knowing there were crocodiles around. (He was doing his swimming training that he needed for a forthcoming lifesaving certificate) and we were quite successful in spotting a small variety of animals and quite a lot of birds from the little skiff which we putted around the dam on. That night we had a delicious Roast Beef and vegs for dinner, with a big helping of Ice-cream for desert, followed by our night-time jaunt back across the dam to our chalet. Early the next morning we departed for a long trip to view the eagles, which was great but on our way back we ran out of petrol half way across the dam - and out came the paddles!

That day we had great game viewing in Umfolosi with some close encounters with Rhino, giraffe, zebra, buffalo, waterbuck, impala, nyala and some lovely kudu. We arrived at Emdoneni in time for the feeding of the servats and cheetah and then enjoyed a great braai for dinner. (barbeque). The entire next day was spent in Hluhluwe Game Reserve - another great day, returning to our camp for a delicious 3 course dinner. After an early breakfast we then drove to St Lucia for an exciting launch cruise. Whilst the guys were on the boat, I went and visited a couple of guesthouses that we utilise for our guests in the town, just to take a few photos for my upcoming slide show! We had our lunch at Richards Bay, no stupid ticket this time, and returned to Durban shortly after that.

A few days later Alan and Gavin left on a Monday for Johannesburg for a night and then the following two nights they enjoyed at Sun City, returning to Durban the following night. I am almost certain they had a great time, and I look forward to some feedback from them. (How about an e-mail guys?)

During the month of November I was housesitting for some friends of mine - they have a house situated overlooking Durban City and the harbour and it is always a pleasure to stay there. Beauty has worked for them for 20 years as their domestic maid and is a lot of fun and an excellent cook. Woody, the Corgi, loves walks - I needed to take him twice a day so that he can go from lamp-pole to tree, to bush...Jos and Elma went to visit friends and family in Europe and I have stayed at their house over the last 6 years. One nice perk is that I need to drive their BMW & Merc twice a week to keep the battery charged - so it is a pleasant change fom driving my big 4x4 safari vehicle around.

Whilst I was away with Brad and co, my eldest sister visited my mother for a few days and she took Abby to the vet - unfortunately she was diagnosed with Ricketts and was put to sleep - we all miss her dearly, especially Didi, who mourned for 5 days, hardly eating her food. We are looking at getting her another companion - another dog about her size and also with short hair.

On the 21 November my mother and I went to spend Saturday night and Sunday with my brother and family. I treated everyone to dinner that night at a local restuarant, as it was my brothers birthday on the Wednesday. The next morning Katie celebrated her 1st Holy Communion and we all attended the church service, followed by a huge braai at the farm afterwards where all of Moniques family joined us, plus the priest. I found the following rather amusing - maybe you will as well: We had already started cooking the meat - most of us standing or sitting outside in the garden around the braai fire, when the priest arrived - only one person was drinking beer, the rest of us were drinking other drinks. My brother being the host, and obviously not used to entertaining priests welcomed the priest and then offered him "Can I get you a coke or a cup of tea or something." Well he replied "A beer will go down well" A bit taken back and I guess suprised that a man of the cloth wanted any alcohol - Sean's reply was "No honestly, what can I get you..?" - to cut a long story short, the priest ended up with a beer!

Two horses also had just arrived at my brothers farm - Katie and James were very excited to start riding, but they still have to settle down properly and be trained a bit. Sean has also cleared a lot of the old trees and rocks from his river to create a safer pool for the kids to swim in and also from where to pump water from for his fields.

I have finished fitting the new braked axle to my trailer and also a different coupling with nice big jockey wheel, so it makes it a lot easier to manouvre the loaded trailer around when on safari. Having brakes also makes it a lot safer especially down the many mountain passes that I encounter on safaris.

Over the past month I have been busy organising the Scout Night Hike and last weekend we ran it. It had been raining heavily during the preceeding week so we were concerned about whether the hike would continue - I did a recce drive over the route on the Saturday morning - there was mud on the roads, but driveable - so we continued. Everyone met at the Durban North railway station, but as the railways had cancelled 279 trains that they felt were not carrying enough people, I had organised a convoy of 6 minibus taxis to convey the Scouts and Guides - quite a sight! Well, so as not to draw the whole night-hike out over a page or two, briefly, the 80 Scouts and guides hiked in teams of about 10 from one activity centre to the next, starting at 7pm. The bases that were held up until the midnight base were: games base, reactor extraction, first-aid, aerial cable-way, stalking and BMX. At the midnight base there were fires for the kids to cook some food and hot chocolate to drink. They then hiked to the shooting base, an orienteering base, a cryptic-clue base in some old ruins, a balancing log base and finally a canoeing base on the lagoon at the beach, ending with boerewors rolls and coffee. All in all a great success.

Our weather is getting hotter and not too much rain yet- November has been way below normal figures with only a few days of light rain. Summer is not the best time for game viewing as the bush is thicker so it is more difficult to see the animals, there is more water around in pools so they animals do not need to congregate near the waterholes, and with it being hotter the animals rest-up in the shade from about 9am until about 3pm. For the best game-viewing months I recommend from May until September, then the animals give birth during October and November (our spring) and we have a lot more birds during our summer months - November to March. For the best ideal weather, I would say April and May have the idealist weather temperatures.

My thanks to Alice for brightening up our little office with new curtains. Sometimes the glare through the windows was too much, so the curtains are great and add a homely atmosphere.

With Christmas around the corner we are also decorating the office walls with Xmas Cards which we have received from various people and companies - really shows promise for a great year ahead. I took a good friend and his son (Steve and Lloyd) to dinner the other night to a new restaurant - the Reef 'n Beef - we all enjoyed a delicious meal with stunning views overlooking the sea and my house! Next door is another new restaurant, Splashes, and they were kind enough last month to treat me to a free lunch as a promotion. The food was absolutely stunning and also great daytime views. Other friends, Tom, Johness, daughter Dominic and father in law, John came around for a lovely Beef Fillet dinner which Beauty had cooked for us.

Feedback from a number of friends and guests who have travelled around Southern Africa recently include a lengthy detailed report from Donal and his wife, Benny and Bente, Debbie and Anthony, Rachel, Siobhan & Jon and finally Gert-Jan & Patricia.

Donal spent time in Cape Town, then up the Garden Route, then to Johannesburg, Pretoria and Kruger Park. His comments shall be extremely useful to us in our future planning, as he explained the good and the bad points of the different places they stayed and visited. Thanks Donal.

Benny and Bente who visited us in October have plans to build a website of their holiday - I shall advise you all once they have it up and running - and they were so pleased with our organising, I quote part of their e-mail: " We have already recommended you to some our friends/ colleges as a good travel agent and a very good safari guide. "

Debbie sent an e-mail from her Naval ship she is on, presently down in the Antartic, brrrrrr. She had so many nice things to say about their trip, so I shall include just a few sections of her e-mail: "Hello Dean

Rachel was on the long safari with the Backus family and stayed on by herself to see more of Southern Africa. She travelled down to Cape Town on the luxury coaches through the Eastern Cape and Garden Route, then a week in Cape Town before flying up to Namibia for a 2 week safari. As most tours were booked up already we had no choice but to include Rachel with a German group but luckily the tour Guide was fluent in both English and German. She enjoyed her travels and gave some lovely points for our future use. Some of Rachels comments: "...
.I found the bus trip very interesting - particularly the Durban/PE leg. Along the Garden route I wish I had been able to stop a bit more - more touristy spots I quess. But was good. Glad I was not flying........
.... I really enjoyed Namibia. The pace of the trip was also good. Tough as a tourist to maintain attention and interest all day long. This one was paced so that every hour or two we would have a stop and a chance to get down, walk about, swap seats, pit stops whatever. Our guide was very good with a broad knowledge of flora, fauna, history and culture and whatnot...."

Erik and Ralf booked a holiday flat through us for a 2 month stay here in Durban to complete their studies - what a perfect location - right on the beachfront and the flat had just been renovated!

And from Siobhan and Jon, they enjoyed a great safari with my cousin and here are their comments:"
We had a fantastic time and our guide, Rupert, was excellent, he really made it a holiday for us, there was times when it was raining and he always managed to cheer us up, I can't praise him enough. The weather here is, as you say cold and wet but we are used to it I suppose.
Thanks for your help in everything and I hope to safari again in the very near future......"

Then finally a final word from the Honeymoon couple, Gert-Jan and Patricia:

"Hi Dean and Alice
Thanks very much for your mail.
Patricia and I did indeed have a wonderful honeymoon in Kwa-Zulu Natal.
Thanks very much for organising everything so well. We were treated very well whereever we went. Your tour notes came in very useful and enabled us to make the most of our time. ......"

It is so nice to receive feedback from our guests, both positive and negative - we find it all very constructive and useful.

I had an e-mail from an old Scouting friend of mine - Richard is in the UK now and a consultant anaesthetist. Good to hear from you Richard.

Well, I am going to be away from the 8 to 23 December in the Cape Town area, more specifically, the Cedarberg Mountains - as I enjoy the excellent weather the Cape has in Summer, and then shall be home for Christmas. Alice will be handling all the bookings and enquiries and thenover the Xmas and New Year period she shall be on leave. If I have a last minute request for a safari during that period, the office will be closed for then - please be patient - we shall reply to your enquiries as soon as possible.

As promised, this is short and sweet - so it but only leaves to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

All the best

Dean

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