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| A tattered ear on an old elephant. |
“Sighting of the Day in the Bush”
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| Three little pigs… |
Update: There’s a good possibility the “lioness on the loose” has returned to Kruger National Park via the same means (or other means) by which she entered a week or two ago. She hasn’t been sighted in the past few days.
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| A few wildebeests with a zebra in the background. |
Currently, in South Africa, kids are off school until July 17th for the “school holiday.” The reason we knew this particular date is that Marta, our housekeeper, who lives in a tiny house on the property has a few of her kids staying here with her until the holiday ends when they’ll return to school to stay with other family members in a nearby town.
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| A large bull at the side of the road. |
This scenario is typical for the local workers in Marloth Park. Many of them come here to work and walk to catch buses that pick them up to return them to various towns surrounding the area. Many others stay in Marloth during the week living in small houses such as Marta’s here on the grounds and return to their families on their days off.
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| Elephants crossing the road. |
It’s not an easy life and we appreciate them all including Marta and Josiah who cleans the pool, the grounds and the veranda on most weekdays. Then, there’s Vusi and Zef who attend to replenishing our bottled water and bottled gas. Many areas of the house use bottled gas such as the water heater, oven, range, and gas braai.
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| Wildebeests, zebras and an impala sharing their food sources in Kruger. |
Typically, they all cover for one another if one is ill or unable to work. Of course, Louise and Danie oversee the efficient running in all of these areas, ensuring the work is getting done proficiently and in a timely manner.
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| Giraffe preparing to cross the road. |
As for our “stroke of good luck,” well, Tom couldn’t have done a better job at saving us over ZAR 14,893 (US $1100) on an upcoming cruise we’d already booked. The cruise sails on October 24, 2019, beginning in Southampton, England and ending in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on November 8, 2019, at which time we’ll fly to Nevada (and later drive to Arizona) to see family for a few weeks.
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| As we zoomed in on the above giraffe, we noticed this round patch which must be a result of some type of injury. |
As we’ve mentioned on many past occasions, by watching cruise fares almost daily, when there’s a price drop, all we must do is notify Vacations-to-Go, a company we use exclusively for booking cruises.
They’ll verify the price drop with the cruise line and issue us a new “cruise confirmation” document showing the new pricing. Tom had been able to get a ZAR 4062 (US $300) price reduction on this same cruise about a month ago.
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| Cape buffalo grazing along the edge of a waterhole. |
Yesterday, he contacted Vacations-to-Go again when he noticed another price reduction at Celebrity’s website for another ZAR 10,831 (US $800). With these combined price reductions we saved ZAR 14,893 (US $1100). This is more than a 25% reduction from the original cost of the cruise.
It’s this type of diligence we maintain, individually and collectively to ensure we’re always getting the best possible pricing for everything we do. In doing so, it allows us to spend a little more on quality properties wherever we may travel in the world.
We’d hoped to go to Kruger today but have heard there’s a long wait to enter. They only allow so many visitors inside the park at one time. We’ve heard it is a maximum of 600 visitors per day at each of the nine entrance gates to the vast national park. We’ll wait until the holiday season winds down.
Have an excellent day and evening!
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| Vincent caught his first fish of the day, tiny but gratifying. The hooks are carefully removed to avoid injuring the fish and the fish are tossed back into the lake. The kids have no interest in eating the fish they catch nor do any of the adults care to fillet small sunfish or crappies (pronounced, croppies). For more photos, please click here. |