Irish invasion (J1)

There has been a silence here for a while, but the reward will be that we have some great pictures to post. We had the big Irish (and Canadian) invasion, with our friends Alan, Audrey, Padraig and Rachel visiting us for 2 weeks.

Of course such a visit was a great excuse for us to take a few days holidays as well, we had been very busy at the office for the weeks leading up to the visit, so it was a great reward. Lots of things organised during this time, we started with a day and night in Johannesburg, we stayed in a beautiful B&B in Melville, had a great night out there, and a trip to the city centre.

The next day we left for 2 nights in a beautiful self catering house on the Hartebeestpoortdam. It was a great and luxury place, complete with butler, in house bar, view over the dam (from the swimming pool), and we really enjoyed our time there. It was close to the Cheetah rescue centre, and the visitors enjoyed checking this place out. On our way back we stopped in the Magaliesberg to do a canopy tour, a real adrenaline kick.

After this we went to Gaborone, where we showed them around town, office, Kgale Hill etc. After a few days we went for 2 nights to Madikwe game reserve, where we hired a self-catering house in the park, complete with ranger and safari vehicle. It was really nice not to have to drive ourselves, the house was gorgeous, and the mornings very early for the morning drive (we should have gone to bed earlier). We celebrated Valentines Day, as well as Alan’s birthday there. We saw loads of animals, including Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo (our first since 2000), brown hyena, spotted hyena, and of course loads of different antelope. The highlight was probably when our vehicle was surrounded by 7 lions, they were breathtakingly close.

After Madikwe we went back to Gaborone, were we enjoyed an Angels and Devils valentine’s party at the Gaborone dam. The following week our guests decided to take things easy, enjoy our pool and newly build bar. This gave us the chance to check on the office once in a while, and then join up with them again during the afternoon. Many nights of playing games, afternoons of playing pool volleyball, and a game of soccer once in a while. During all this our dog Sech made friends with everyone, and he was probably as sad as us to see everyone leave again.

Some pictures:

The canopy tour at Magaliesberg

Lions in Madikwe

More lion..... And more, very close

Elephant in Madikwe

Our accomodation in Madikwe

Group picture...
Coffee during the early morning game drive
Alans birthday
Relaxing at home at our lappa and new bar
And of course a braai

J1

I'm Back

I haven’t written on here in sooooooooo long.

Two reasons I haven’t been doing much writing are:
1) lots of work to do, and
2) planning trips!

I’ll skip the work part, because there’s nothing new and exciting there, and go straight to the visitors.

In exactly one week, we will be receiving 2 of our best friends from Ireland, Padraig and AlanM, and their respective girlfriends. We can’t wait! I have been planning stuff for months now and finally we get to do it all. It’s about time. They’re here for 2 weeks and we’re doing a combination of South Africa and Botswana stuff. I know I’m going to be devastated when they leave, because I’ve been dying to see these guys for exactly one year now and 2 weeks just seems like it will go too fast.

But anyway!

One month after the guys get here the aunt and uncle unit come from Humansville, MO, along with the cousin+girlfriend unit from the UK. Even more excitement! The reason I’m so excited about that trip is because I know they’re going to be blown away by everything and their enthusiasm is bound to double our enjoyment of just having them here. None of them have been to Africa before so everything will be outrageous and impressive for those guys. I have about 80% of their trip planned so far.

The husband is getting a little bit worried about taking so many days off work, but the good thing is that we’ve managed (through a bit of hard work and dedication) to get all our jobs up and organized to a point where we can abandon ship without abandoning jobs for a few days. It’s a work of art, in fact, how we just managed to pull a combination of reaching deadlines, achieve some impressive scheduling feats, and tastefully postponing a thing or two that would work for us. Of course we’ll probably have to check in at the office a few times during these periods, but again, even that has been scheduled for. More guests of the family variety coming in both June and July, from both sides of the fam. But more on that to come – it’s still early now.

Otherwise, I suppose some more news is that I have been accepted into a Masters’ degree programme at the University of Portsmouth, UK. I will be starting in April and the course I will be doing will be an MSc in Occupational and Environmental Health & Safety. It’s a correspondence course that will take about 2 years, and I will be taking my exams at the British Council here in Gaborone. Over the 2 years there will be one small 1-week trip to the UK for some formality, so anyone wanting to hang out with me in the Northern Hemisphere is welcome to take a quick trip to sunny Portsmouth!? Everything will be online, just like the course that Hannes is doing, only an extra year. I’m not sure what one does with 2 Masters’ degrees, but the curriculum and qualification is going to give the company a monopoly on the Environmental Health and Safety market in Botswana not to mention I feel like my brain is melting, so I kind of need the challenge.

The bad thing is that I have a memory of myself in 2000, swearing an oath to… me, that I would NEVER go back to school again, ever. EVER. And now I am. I may regret it. We’ll see.

It will be a shame to be losing out on even more of my already inadequate free time. By going to the gym at lunch time during the week, I’m loving all the reading I’m getting done these days, and we’re taking the dogs for a walk after work nearly every day. I’m really enjoying my new Hillary Clinton autobiography that Hannes got me for xmas, and learning a lot. She’s got a remarkable story to tell. I’m also double-timing with a Bill Bryson book that I’d highly recommend for anyone interested in the English Language, called “Mother Tongue”. I suppose once I have to start studying again, it’ll be goodbye to all things fun and relaxing for awhile.

Hot weather is rolling on in Gaborone. We had an incredibly monsoony rainy season this year, which could still come back to haunt us as the season is technically not over yet. It has been great actually being in the pool and being outside all the time. FINALLY.

So busy coming up in the next month or so that I will probably forget my own anniversary and birthday, but at least with the guys & girls here for Valentines day, combined with the fact that we have a big party to go to at the Gabs Dam, at least we’ll get one celebration out of the next 2 very busy months.

Stange January

It has been a very different January, if we compare things with last year. First of all I was looking at pictures on our blog from last year; I could not believe how dry everything looked. Now everything is green, and it keeps raining. There is standing water everywhere, some plants in our garden are dying because they are too wet. I had the pleasure of going to two site meetings for construction projects this week, and these construction sites had turned into total mud pools. Botswana does not know how to deal with this. The good side, the dams are getting really full, guaranteeing supply of drink water for the next 2 years, even if we do not get another drop of rain.

Also when we look back at last year, this January we were very much organised and settled. No waiting for furniture, no looking for jobs, no hectic tendering for all sorts of new projects at work. We have our house set up, have our cars, have things like bank accounts, residence permits, cellphones. We also know that we are working together, and even have a nice workload for the next months. I turned the opportunity to quote for a new project down today!

The other big difference is the recent power cuts. It is something we will have to learn to live with. At the office we have a power backup, that will last us for few hours when the power goes down, so we should not loose too much time. Otherwise it is always a good excuse to go home a little early….At home we have no backup, no power means candle light. Luckily we cook on gas, so we are able to prepare a dinner when the power is gone.

We have another two weeks until the Irish posse will arrive. We are trying to get as much work as possible done, so we can take time off as well. That is a benefit of having our own business, we can try to schedule work around these periods where possible. I am worried about the weather, it has been so abnormal, I don’t know what to expect anymore.

J1

Power

Southern Africa has a shortage on electricity supply. South Africa has been doing what they call 'load shedding', basically cutting off a few areas when the demand is too high. Unfortunately this is now also starting in Botswana. Since January we have already had two cuts in Gaborone. The situation will only get worse until 2011, when new powerstations will open.....

Johannes

Happy Newyear

First of all we would like to wish everyone a very happy 2008. Sorry it has taken so long to get this first blog of the new year on. It has been a bit of a mission, we had so many good pictures from our trip, and Internet was teasingly slow all last week, if working at all.



OK, so Christiaan and Susan (friends from Holland) came over to visit us, we spend a few days in Pilanesburg, then had Christmas at our house (Alan also joined), and then headed north to Chobe and Vic Falls.



Christmas day: Unwrapping our presents. Santa was very good to us again this year, including presents from overseas.





Johannes presents, including new hiking shoes, new shirts, books, towel, socks and lots of marsepijn.



Jills presents, including a purse, play station game, books, perfume, a towel, and.......a puppy named Sech.



Jills present called Sech, also our 'stand-in reindeer' for the occasion.





Our Christmas breakfast, with mimosa, poached eggs on toast, and Christmas music in the background.

After breakfast and presents, the preparing of the big Christmas dinner started. Jill had planned this for weeks, and managed to make the best Christmas dinner I have ever tasted, with roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, carrots, and salad.


Our Christmas dinner, enjoyed outside at the poolside.....

The day after Christmas, we headed north to Nata. This is about 7 hours driving from Gaborone, and our first stop on the trip. We camped at Nata Lodge, always a nice place to stop over.

Our camp the first night at Nata Lodge, with beautiful weather (sunshine)

Bushbabies at the bar, every night the staff leave some papaya out for them on a feeding table.

The swimming pool at Nata lodge, very nice after a long hot day in the car. The next morning we headed into Makgadigadi pans, a bird sanctuary in Nata. The pans were about 8 kilometers from the gate, but getting there was quite a challenge due to the rains we recently enjoyed.

On our way thought the sanctuary, where is our track??? Parts of the track were totally flooded, and many people turned around here.

Not us, with 2 other cars we were silly enough to go through the flooded areas, to really get to the pans. Luckily we did not get stuck or lost, and made it in the end. The good old Pajero did well again.

Here we are at the viewpoint, overlooking the pans. We saw some pelicans and some flamingos in the distance.

After the pans we headed from Nata to Kasane, another 3 to 4 hour drive, depending on the amount of elephants on the road.

Elephants along the main road, we must have seen at least 25 on our way.

We camped at Chobe safari lodge that night, where we were sharing the campsite with all sorts of visitors, including these warthogs.

There were also many monkeys, who are very quick when it comes to stealing food.

Chobe safari lodge is on the Chobe river, we had some sun downers enjoying the most beautiful African sunset.

Another picture of the sunset. It was extra special, because it started raining the next day, and did not really stop until the end of our trip.

More sunset, and us.....

Next day we went to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. This ended up being a pretty wet experience. Not only did we get wet from the falls, but it was also raining. Because of all the rains from the previous weeks, the falls were enormous though.

Me and Jill at the falls, not too wet yet.

More falls, and Jill.

After visiting the falls, and getting pretty soaked, we enjoyed lunch at the Victoria Falls hotel. It was a little surreal to have lunch in such a posh hotel in Zimbabwe, while we know the shops are empty. Final bill: 286 million Zim dollars!

The 100 year old bridge, as seen from the hotel. It is still being used by both trains and cars daily. After Vic Falls we went back to Kasane, the next day we headed into Chobe National park, our first camp was Ihaha.

A small crocodile we saw on the way through the park.

A beautiful bird that I have not identified yet. Maybe a reason to join Birdlife Botswana?

Elephants drinking at a water pool, there must have been at least 35 of them.

There were 2 jackals very happy to be photographed, they are usually very shy.

The baking of oliebollen at our campsite, it was one day early, but still a success. I ate to many (again)
After 3 days in Chobe, we headed back to Kasane, where we enjoyed a lovely New years eve dinner and dance.
Including fireworks and champagne (and more rain)......

The next day we headed back to Nata, on our way out of Kasane we saw these goats hiding from the rain. This is maybe my favourite picture of the trip.

Our car after the trip. It held up very well again. Damage: one lost licence plate, and a lot of mud.

J1

Office closed

We are officially closing the office for Christmas and new year in about five minutes. Lots of stuff to look forward too. We hereby wish everyone again a happy Christmas and new year. Next blog post will be in January, which lots of stuff about our first Botswana Christmas.

Johannes and Jill

Nearly Christmas

It is my turn for a post, after Jill has done an excellent job keeping everyone updated. Last weekend was a very busy weekend. On Saturday we got up early to go for a 18km hike through Mokolodi game reserve (starting at 6.30). You don’t often get a chance to walk through a game reserve, and even though we did not see as many animals as we had hoped, we did see warthog, impala, springbok and as it had rained recently we saw lots of tracks.

taking a break and enjoying the view over the FULL dam

'Vulture restaurant'

fresh hippo tracks

the Mokolodi cheetahs

I have to admit Christmas has been sneaking up on me this year, I am not sure if it is because we are so busy, or because of the weather, or because of visitors, but I did not have much of a Christmas feeling, until last weekend. We decided to buy an (artificial) tree, and got all the ornaments and lights out, and our house is looking rather ‘Chrismassy’

Jill decorating our tree

Reggie offering a hand.......

the result!

Our friend Gerrit asked me if I was interested to sail with him in a catamaran race on Sunday morning on the Gabs dam: the “Turkey Regatta”. Another early morning, but there was plenty of wind, and sailing a race like that with no previous experience was quite an adrenaline rush, especially since we managed to capsize the boat even before the start. In total there were three short races, and in the last race we even managed to finish second, and 8th place over all.

After the race there was a Christmas lunch at the yacht club, and Jill and Sophia (Gerrit’s wife) joined us. There were also the overall results of the race, and we even won a small prize, a six pack of beer! I am quite excited about this, and would love to join again in the next race.

The prize ceremony after the race

Gerrit and I accepting our prize

One more (busy) week at work, just signed 2 contracts for new jobs, so plenty of work for the start of 2008. But first we have a nice break to look for, together with Christiaan and Susan. A nice trip planned with stops in Pilanesberg, Gaborone, Makgadigadi Pans, Chobe and Vic Falls. Plenty of pictures to follow.

We would like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas, and a good 2008.

Johannes and Jill