Quiet again (J1)

I realize we have been ignoring the blog a little, I can list all sorts of excuses about not being in the office much, and having visitors etc, but who really cares?

First we had a long awaited visit from the family Polson, which was loads of fun, we showed them Gaborone, Mokolodi game reserve, and a few nice restaurants. We also enjoyed watching the rugby world cup final with them, which was a blast. We went to our favourite rugby hang out, the Bull and Bush Bar.

What else? Maybe I should just do this with pictures:

For those who do not follow sports: The South Africa Springboks won the rugby world cup, and Ferrari became world champion Formula 1 (against all expectations)

(Interjection from Jill: "WOO HOO!!!")

After that fantastic weekend we travelled up to Lethlakane (central Botswana) for a new project. The town is not very nice, but people were very helpful. I wont post any pictures of overflowing septic tanks here, but that is what we kept ourselves busy with.

Late last week we went to Joburg to pick up our friends from Australia, we spent some time in Joburg and in Pilanesburg game park, and are showing them the nice things about Botswana now.

Unfortunately one of those things was the cable thieves, on Sunday night they paid us a visit again, and took the now buried cable out of the ground. We spent most of yesterday getting it replaced, and even though Steve thought he came on a holiday, he ended up mixing concrete with me in the afternoon. Now with most of the cable embedded in concrete we should hopefully not have the problem again.

Other news from Plot 32A: we seem to have a new resident, a puff adder. He (or she) has been spotted twice in the last few weeks. As soon as we figure out where it has set up residence we will probably call BDF (Botswana Defence Force) to remove it, and set it free in a nature reserve.

J1

Off again.....

Just got back from a site visit up in Letlhakane last night, drove straight to the gym, got some exercise and went home to pack. Now we're at the office for a couple of hours, then it's off to Joburg to pick up our friends Steve & Madonna (aussies we know from Ireland) to hang out with them for the next week and a bit. Looking really forward to having our first Aussie visitors, as so far they've only been Irish and South African. Wonder what they'll think of Botswana and South Africa. I'm sure Steve will have lots of good photos, perhaps some of them will make an appearance.

But not before we hit the South African Wine Expo in Joburg tonight with Jéan and Alan. The fact that Alan doesn't drink wine will make this a highly entertaining experience for him, I'm sure. It will be one of our last hoo-has with Jéan before he so cold-heartedly dumps us for the gloom and rain of Scotland, for the next 2 years. boo hoooooooo!

Cable thieves

I suppose the fun stories and pictures have already been posted. Time for a little less fun? It happens quite often that people get their power cables stolen in South Africa / Botswana. The thieves strip the stolen cables, and sell the copper to the scrapyard. It had been happening around us quite a bit, and the night we came back it was our turn. It was only a matter of time, as the cables were not buried, and thus a very easy target. We had already taken this up with the landlord, but our concern was ignored. Not really too much our problem (rental houses have their advantages….) except for there was a holiday on the Monday and Tuesday, with no electrician being available. The power in the house was still working, but not in Marys place, and not at the borehole pumps. This meant no water, resulting in no showers, no flushing toilets, no laundry (with a piles of sweaty hiking clothes) etc etc. On Wednesday evening we were all connected again, this time with the cable properly buried. I guess this is all part of living in Africa.

Last weekend we volunteered to help with a family fun day (fundraiser) for the SPCA, the local animal shelter. We had the task of selling drink and food tickets, but it was nice to see so many people turn up, and be surrounded by puppies, kittens, donkeys, rabbits, goats and even guiney pigs. I think they made a load of money, which helps paying for veterinary bills for dogs like Sech (he is still with us….)

Besides this we have been enjoying the rugby worldcup. For those from the non-rugby countries: Australia and New Zealand, two of the biggest favourites, were kicked out of the tournament. South Africa did make it through, and is playing Argentina in the semi finals next weekend.

Alan has left us and settled in Johannesburg. He has started his job two weeks ago, and found a nice place to live. His permit has been approved, and everything has worked out perfectly for him. No more sober driver for us though.

Nothing else to report on, except for work, new projects, courses etc etc, but that would make this just too boring.

J1

Happy Botswana Day!

(this last weekend.....)

Several of Botswana's public holidays fall on a weekend, so sometimes they give you both the Monday AND the Tuesday off. This makes for blissful 4-day weekends where you can actually get out and do something and not have to take time off.

We decided to go hiking with Jéan and Alan. There is a nice mountain range exactly halfway between Joburg (them) and Gaborone (us) called the Magaliesburg, with endless possibilities for camping and hiking. We decided upon the Eagle Cove trails and it was great. Only lost the trail once, didn't get eaten by anything, and stumbled upon the coolest canyon ever... from the top AND the bottom.

Some photos:

At the top of the canyon edge:

Looking down into the massive rivine below:

We sat and watched these baboons for a half an hour. They are really entertaining... there were about 20 of them or so.

It was tough climbing and took us a whole day, but we got back to camp at the bottom sometime around sunset and enjoyed some nice sundowners and a feast of meat on the fire.

The next morning we got up, boiled some eggs in some tin cans left over from the night before, and headed off for another day of hiking - this time DOWN into the canyon to the river below.

The boys (A & J) headed back to Joburg on sunday and we (J&J) came back to Gabs exhausted and feeling fit.

Beach and Birthday (J1)

After being totally landlocked for the first time since I moved out of Holland, we (finally) spent some time on the coast again. J2 had organised an early birthday break, and we met up with the P. family in Umhlanga, just north of Durban. The weather was very nice, we did some swimming in the ocean, and of course lots of eating and drinking. Some pictures:

Our resort, as seen from our apartment

Jill on the beach

Dinner with the family P.

A little note on the side: This dinner was right before the France - Ireland game (rugby world cup), which explains my shirt. For those who do not follow rugby: Ireland's game has been terribly poor this whole WC, they did not stand a chance against a poor French team, and have now lost all chances of progressing to the quarter finals. My support did not help. I will be supporting the Springboks (South Africa) from here on for this tournament.

Still happy, an early birthday dinner (an before the rugby)

After our lovely few days in Durban, we stopped over for a night of partying in Joburg with Alan and Jean. We had champagne, a really nice dinner in Moyo and of course loads of drinks.

Drinks in Ratz - Melville

I have been overwhelmed by all the presents, wishes, superpokes, cards etc for my 30th. Thanks everyone. And while I write this I am only halfway through the day. Jill bought me a new (Bosch) hammer drill and a really good pair of binoculars. I can not wait to take them into the bush for a test.

Finally a small negative. The picture below is me paying a speeding ticket to a possibly corrupt traffic cop in Groot Marico. I got caught again....He halved the fine on the spot for paying cash though, welcome to Africa.

J1

Lo and Behold, it's here!

The big news from the dark continent today is that our website is officially up and running!

Please check it out and don't forget to let us know of any glaring mis-spellings or appalling grammar.

Big thanks to our friends Jéan and Alan who helped us make it. Definitely couldn't have done it without you guys. We really appreciate it, and appreciate it even more that you were willing to do it for free. Or rather, do it for wine and muesli (respectively).

The next post will be filled with far more excitement, I promise.

In the meantime we're just busy watching the World Cup rugby, Twenty20 cricket World Cup, and working a little bit.

Otherwise, it's getting hot. Really hot. I think Alan is going to melt.

And finally, we 2 Westras are going down to Kwa-Zulu Natal, to Umhlanga beach (Just outside of Durban, SA) for 3 days with the Polson parents at their timeshare next week (19-22 Sept). Our first sight of coastline and anything that resembles a large body of water (The Indian Ocean) in almost a year. For those of you who don't know, SOMEONE is turning the big 3-0 on Monday the 24th and we thought it would be nice to do something fun that weekend. A day in Joburg with Jéan on the way home, and a stop in Rustenburg for sushi before crossing the border back into Botswana on Sunday. Can't wait.

Spring (J1)

This is probably going to be the most cheesy and boring blog so far. But even though Botswana spring is so very dry, everything is flowering beautifully. I went around our garden this weekend and took the following pictures:

Did we already say it was getting hot again?

A little 'log' we hung, which has been inhabited

A beautiful 'native' in full flower.

And the aloes are just gorgeous.

This is taken from our 'lawn' area.

Nice white flowering tree around the pool.

The creeper on the pergola close to the kitchen.

An even our pruned peach tree is showing the first flowers.

This is a little lemon tree we planted a few weeks ago.

And of course our farming.....some carrots and onions

We finished a major deadline last week, so we are slowly catching up with everything else, such as working out, playing tennis, having long lunches etc. Sorry for this boring post.

J1

Khutse again (J1)

We headed for yet another weekend into Khutse last weekend. Alan's first weekend in the bush, and it was as great as always. We stayed at 'campsite' no14 this time, about an hour further into the park compared the the last times. This also meant that there was absolutely no-one around. It is always amazing to only be able to hear the sound of crickets, and a roar from a lion or hyena, but no other noise at all. And the skyline is only lit up by stars and the moon, no other light at all.
As mentioned in the previous blog, we did pick up a nice roof tent, which worked perfectly. Below a picture in the folded position, and when put up (takes less then 1 minute)


There is no shop anywhere near the place, the nearest (very basic) shop and petrol station is approximately 150km from the campsite, so the car was packed with supplies and extra diesel to keep us going all weekend. Having the tent free up some space in the back (which would have been taken by our tent, air mattress, bedding) was a welcome bonus. Cooking on the fire is always fun, Jill makes the best stew with kudu, wildebeast and oxtail in a potjie (cast iron three legged pot). She is also very good for cooking breakfast:
I usually do a braai (barbeque) with wors (sausage), lamb chops and corn on the cob. The cooking keeps us occupied for a good part of the camping, but collection of the fire wood for probably just as long..... It is very dry in Botswana at the moment. Rain season does not start until October / November, and the last rain was in April. The tracks had gotten very heavy and sandy, and the car was put to a real test. Especially on our way back when we found 2 cars stuck in the sand. One had sunk away into the sand, and the other managed to get itself stuck trying the pull the first one out. It is very important to keep driving in these sandy spots, and we were reluctant to try and pull them out, with danger of also getting stuck ourselves. But leaving them there would be cruel, so we did give it a careful try, and managed to pull both of them loose.

We did not spot any of the cats such as lion, hyena, cheetah or leopard. But we did see plenty of wildlife again:

Giraffe

Beautiful bird, I have not identified this one yet

Gemsbok

Ostrich

Hartebeest

Unfortunately we are back in the office now, buried into the work. But weekends in Khutse definitely make up for all that.

J1

Just a random update

The year has flown, it's springtime again and we don't know where the months have gone.


Here are some recent photos from just "around", and a few notes to go along with them.


We're still loving having Alan around the place, even though the testosterone level in the house has been thrown so totally out of balance. I'm seriously considering getting at least a few more female animals around or something. 3 male dogs, 2 boys and 7 sports channels on TV... Or maybe redecorating the house... in shades of pink and lilac or you know, along those lines.


So, what is the queen to do?


Besides put them to work (obviously):



A & J1 pruning the snot out of our overgrown peach tree. Desperately needed. Now we might actually get fruit this year that won't be the size of a golf ball, but rather actual peach-sized peaches?!?

Also in the last week or two I planted a passionfruit vine and a grape vine. I have no faith in my own ability to cultivate edible plants, but we'll see if maybe the warm and dry Botswana climate can do it for me. With the help of the great Irish slave-boy, I also planted chillies, sweet peppers, cucumbers and coriander in the vegetable garden. I aspire to make my own salsa by the end of this coming growing season. The gardener laughed at me because I've obviously not sown a single seed since my 3rd grade botany project. I had seeds everywhere and he overheard me telling Alan to space them out in "exactly 30cm spacings". whatever! apparently that's not necessary when you can transplant them later on in the year. who knew?!

While I was busy out there, I noticed some weavers have begun building their nest in one of our other climbers on the pergola:

Speaking of birds, we suspect there is a crested barbet building a nest in one of the trees in our yard. Actually, not the tree itself but in a log that we nailed to the tree, which we took over from the Polsons. Fingers crossed.

The landlords came by last week to check us out. They live in the West Indies and were back in BW for a visit/general stuff. They said we weren't keeping the pool clean enough and we said "but it's winter" and that was pretty much the end of that. I think they realize they got some good renters in the place and we're obviously not wrecking the joint. She nearly had a go at J1 for not mowing the lawn enough but before she even went down that road he reminded her that we'd just had frost the night before so I think that was the end of that thread. Either way, I suppose we can understand, I mean, not a day goes by that we don't breathe a sigh of relief that those nice (clean) Swedish boys who are living in our house back in Ireland aren't a bunch of irresponsible scumbags or something.

The road to fitness (and summer i.e. swimsuit time) is still going strong. We're still climbing the mountain 2x per week, yoga (Alan in tow) and J1 playing tennis on mondays, plus we manage to work a run or something-or-other into another day during the week. Sprinter Lynch is pushing us to the point where we're actually running up the mountain (from about halfway up - where the track starts) rather than climbing. We're getting there. If we can only pull off about another 100m, we'll be there. But of course the last hundred metres is the steepest and most uneven and looks like Mount Everest. But I'm enjoying the feeling of having legs-of-jelly. It's been a long time since I've had that feeling.

This weekend the boys were filling up at a petrol station and J1 saw some guys moving a roof tent, in the back of a bakkie. So he went up to them and offered them money for it on the spot (without even asking if they would consider selling it), seeing as they obviously weren't using it (come on, it was in the back of their bakkie!). So, they realized their chance to make a quick 3k right then and there had arrived, and lo and behold the tent is ours! It's a total bargain considering new ones retail at 7k. It's brand new and would have only been sitting in those guys' garage. Now it has a nice comfy new home on the top of a lovely '93 Pajero, where it'll get lots of abuse scraping along thorn tree branches and will enjoy a wide variety of foreign bodies sleeping in it throughout the year! (We will kindly be offering it to our visitors and taking the old trusty ground tent for ourselves - that is until said visitors realize how much of a pain it is to get in & out, up & down etc. in the middle of the night when nature calls).

So anyway, now we just have to get a rack welded onto the top of the rig and fix the tent on, and we're 2 items closer down to the bottom our never ending 4x4 (standing at the bottom of a diesel tank tearing up dollar bills) wish-list. We're going to take it on a test run with Alan this weekend, in Khutse. Can't wait. Photos to come.

A little preview (J1)

Having recovered from our porcupine intruder last week, and the dogs (literally) licking their woulds, we went into a very nice and relaxing weekend. Poor Alan really deserved this after putting him to work at our office all week. He came expecting a holiday....

Friday night we had sundowners (drinks while watching the sunset) at the Gaborone yacht club on the dam. There was music by our friend (and ecologist) J, and giant hamburgers from the kitchen, very enjoyable after a busy week at work.

Saturday morning was spent (again) repairing the fence we built for Reggie. When he is determined to get out, nothing can stop him. He can pull chain link fencing apart like it was not even there. We made another attempt in re-enforcing it, and will have to see where he finds the next weak spot.

During the afternoon we had the plan to walk from Gaborone to Gabane, we had done this a few months ago, and it was very enjoyable. Just outside Gaborone we stumbled by total coincidence onto the back of the set for the 'No. 1 ladies detective agency' movie. Of course we had a wander around, until security came to kick us out. No-one was allowed to see anything until the release, so enjoy these pictures, before we get solicitors' letters etc telling us to take them down......

The amazing thing was, this whole village had been built recently as the set for the movie, but it looked like any Botswana village, which had been there for years. It included broken down cars, chickens and buildings in need of repair and re-painting. I am reading the last book in the series now, titled 'The good husband of Zebra drive', and would recommend them to anyone who has not read them yet.

Our 2 1/2 hour walk ended in Gabane village, at the "Mountain liquor restaurant", where cold beer was waiting. At about 6 the barbecues were going at full speed, and the restaurant sell the best marinated steaks, with complementary pap. Some pictures of us around the barbecues at the bar:

We also went to see the Simpsons movie this weekend, I thought is was very funny, and would certainly recommend it to anyone.

Yesterday I played my first game of tennis in over 2 years. Our work experience student E. has access to the university courts, and it was great to play again. We will try to make this a weekly habit. Maybe we might also join a local tennis club (and squash courts), so Jill can start playing tennis as well. I am looking forward to teaching her.

J1