No post today…Huge area-wide WiFi outage all day…
It couldn’t have been more fun!…Meeting four readers/friends from the USA at Jabula last night..
When we have an opportunity to meet people who have come to Africa and Marloth Park after reading our posts, it warms our hearts, making all the effort of putting our daily posts together worthwhile and fulfilling. That’s what it’s all about for us…sharing information about exciting travel opportunities with those who can and do travel and those who’d like to travel but cannot for various reasons.
Besides, that blissful result for us is the pure pleasure of hearing the enthusiasm and excitement of new visitors to Africa, and their experiences, while practically jumping out of their seats with joy when they share their stories of seeing wildlife they never dreamed possible. Wow!
All four of our new friends are longtime travelers. Lisa and Sam sold everything eight years ago and have no home and only a small amount of storage. They live like us, on the move, always searching for the next fantastic spot to visit. They don’t plan ahead quite as much as we have in the past, but now they inspire us to do less planning and “wing it” more often than we do.
Karen and Stan have also traveled extensively throughout the world with a base in Florida but spend little time there since, as they said, “Stan has itchy feet.” We loved hearing about all of them.
Today, they took off at 6:00 am to return to Kruger in search of rhinos which they were excited to see. After thousands of rhinos have been poached from Kruger National Park, any sightings are exciting and memorable. But the four of them have seen everything. We hung onto their every word when they shared the sightings they’ve been fortunate to see over the past few days since they arrived.
Unfortunately, with little time at the holiday home, they rent a few kilometers from here and haven’t had many wildlife visitors in the garden. As the animals have begun to return to us with the school holidays ending this upcoming weekend, we expect to see more each day.
We couldn’t resist inviting our new friends for breakfast tomorrow when soon they are leaving to tour many of the places we’ve visited in the past; Victoria Falls, on both the Zambia and Zimbabwe sides of the river, Chobe National Park, Chobe River, Zambezi River, and then off to Kenya for the Ngorongoro Valley and the heavenly Maasai Mara, our favorite safari destination in the world.
Amid their many travel weeks ahead, they will experience a diverse journey filled with wonders. We are so happy for them. Since they are leaving on January 6, we wanted them to experience breakfast at the bush home of friends before they depart. They love it here, and had they known how wonderful it is, they all agreed they’d have stayed longer in Marloth Park.
But, last night, it was such a pleasure to have them experience the uniqueness of Jabula, the great food, the service, and the love and attention provided by Dawn, Leon, David, and their staff. It was an extremely busy night, but they took time out to pay special attention, We’re hoping that they’ll all return sometime in the future and we can be with them again.
This morning, much to our delight Norman was here, and I wish there was a way I could ask him to stop tomorrow morning around 10. We shopped at the little markets this morning, and I bought three bags of small apples, hoping to entice him to return for treats and also for our three orphaned piglets, who continue to stop by several times a day.
Today is another hot and humid day. I’m making chicken salad and coleslaw again, perfect chilled items for such a day. For tomorrow’s breakfast, we’re making a crustless mushroom, onion, sausage, and egg quiche and baking a loaf of coconut banana bread which we’ll serve warm right from the oven with soft butter. We tried to find orange juice for our guests, but none was left at either of the two little grocery shops.
We hope all is well with you and your loved ones as we make our way through this first week of the New Year.
Be well.
Photo from one year ago today, January 4, 2022:
Wildlife returning?…Another sad loss of a favorite animal…
It couldn’t be a more beautiful day. The sun is shining, the humidity is moderate, birds are singing, and the garden is green and lush from recent rains. There are a variety of antelopes wandering about the grounds. Much to our delight, it appears Aggie, our resident agama, had a baby we saw running up the same tree where the mom resides.
The recent heat, humidity, and time outdoors at night have left me with a few dozen annoying mosquito bites, although I wear repellent around the clock. We keep two types of repellent, a roll-on cream and a spray, which I use every few hours outdoors, but it doesn’t seem to keep me bite-free.
Most of the bites are near and on my hands. I attribute this to the fact I often wash my hands and need to reapply the repellent each time. But I realize I haven’t been as good about doing this as I should be and have promised myself to ramp it up today. This is malaria time, and one can’t be too cautious.
No word on Tom’s missing bag yet, but we’re hoping that this week, it will be delivered. Otherwise, I will have to get back to work on filing the insurance claim with the credit card company next week. I’ve still worked on finding receipts for items that were in Tom’s missing baggage. I am putting a good-sized dent in it, just in case we don’t get the bag back.
As mentioned, I didn’t notice anything missing after emptying my returned bag. I was thrilled to have all my belongings back, some of which I’d purchased for upcoming cruises in seven months. Azamara Cruises have a few special all-white dress-up nights, and I bought a few white dresses online for the occasion. Tom had purchased white pants, but those were in his missing bag.
As for the most recent sad loss of a favorite animal, I believe our dear Lollie has passed away. She had three piglets in early November, but after giving birth, it appeared she had intestines hanging out of her butt. This has worsened over the past weeks to a point where it was devastating to see. Only days ago, they were almost hanging to the ground. We both knew then she wouldn’t last long. As our resident warthog, Lollie was integral to our enjoyment in the bush.
We will miss her, the gentle pig she was, always happy to see us, friendly to other animals, other than when she was protecting those piglets, whom we named Leon, Dawn, and David, our dear friends at Jabula.
We assumed she died from an infection or worse. We could only imagine. This morning, the three piglets we easily recognized appeared without her. They are only two months old, and we’re hoping they can survive without their mother’s milk. We will be feeding them lots of pellets, fruit, and vegetables. About a month ago, we lost a little piglet, Hoppy, whose mom and two siblings stop by daily. She appeared to have a broken leg and finally gave up. We recall the day she passed.
Life is hard in the bush. In some cases, animals dart out in front of cars, and it’s impossible to avoid hitting them. We know this is nature, and these things happen, but it doesn’t lessen the emotions we feel when we see an animal has passed, whether it be from old age, a predator, an injury, starvation, an illness, or being killed by a careless driver on the road. That’s why driving slowly is vital while paying attention to the surroundings.
A few days ago, on the one paved road in Marloth Park, we noticed a line of cars backed up, bringing traffic to a stop. Once the vehicles began to move again, we noticed a turtle had crossed the road. Fortunately, all drivers observed the precious animal crossing the road and stopped to let it pass. A smile came across our faces; grateful everyone had stopped. Many visitors care about the wildlife, as many people living and staying here do.
Today at 5:00 pm, 1700 hrs. (during lock shedding), we’re heading to Jabula to have dinner with four people we’ve never met, readers of our site. Regular reader Lisa has been in touch over the past few years, mentioning, based on our enthusiastic posts, that she and three others were coming here. We’re looking forward to meeting them and hearing about their worldwide travels.
We’ll report the details of our evening out with new readers/friends tomorrow. It’s always wonderful to meet our readers, wherever we may be in the world.
Be well.
Photo from one year ago today, January 3, 2022:
Two New Year’s surprises!…Can’t stop smiling!…Fun New Year’s Day with friends…
The first surprise was reader/friend Lisa contacting us yesterday, inviting us to join the four of them for dinner at Jabula tomorrow evening, January 3. She’d written to us quite a while ago that she’d contact us when they arrived in Marloth Park, prompted by our site and endless raves about the bush,
And there was Lisa, writing a comment on our site and contacting me by email to see if we could join them for dinner. We are thrilled to do so. Here again, is more of our readers coming to Marloth Park inspired by our enthusiastic posts about how blissful it is in Marloth Park. We are always delighted to meet more readers/friends.
Well, hang onto your chair for the second surprise we got yesterday while Dawn and Leon were here. I heard my WhatsApp phone ringing and jumped up to answer it. All of my contacts in WhatsApp are people we know, so I assumed it was a friend called to say Happy New Year.
An unrecognizable voice was at the end of the line. She explained she was from baggage handlers service, and I held my breath as she spoke. She was in Nelspruit and was on her way to bring us ONE of the lost bags, not both. We hope we’ll be lucky and receive the second bag.
Ninety minutes later, the delivery person texted me that she was at Louise’s office. Tom jumped in the car and headed there, picking up the bag she’d left with Louise. We have all deliveries sent to Louise’s office since our address is impossible to find with the inconsistent numbering of properties on the dirt road.
I was hoping the found bag was Tom’s, not mine. I had found most of the receipts from my stuff, but Tom’s was nearly impossible, making completing the insurance claim difficult and cumbersome. But, hoping that his bag arrives soon, we won’t have to file the claim. This makes life so much easier for me, especially with other tasks hanging over our heads.
This morning, I emptied my bag, and it appeared nothing was missing, which was surprising. I had a lot of nice clothes and toiletries in that bag. It was funny yesterday; I was about to place an order from the same online retailer that ships to South Africa, where I’d purchased about ten items about four months ago. Something stopped me, and I decided to wait a few more weeks before re-ordering the same items I’d bought. Hmm…safari luck.
Now I have plenty of tops to wear around the house and when going to dinner—what a relief. Before the return of my bag, I only had a few tee shirts to wear, along with a couple of very casual tops I’d purchased from Amazon when we were in Minnesota last month when we also had to buy winter clothes to wear while we were there.
Anyway, New Year’s Day turned out better than expected. We had a fantastic day with Dawn and Leon. We ate early in the day, and by 5:00 pm, Leon was tired, and they needed to head home. It was wonderful to spend that time with them, as it always is, away from the hustle and bustle of the restaurant and frequent interruptions when the four of us are attempting to chat.
Tom and I stayed on the veranda for a few more hours, and when the mozzies began to attack, we headed indoors to stream a few more episodes of Peaky Blinders and eventually doze off to sleep. I didn’t sleep well and was awake for no less than three hours during the night. Perhaps, a nap will be on today’s agenda.
Everything is prepped for tonight’s easy dinner of ham and cheese sliders, one more time, salad, and rice. I’m wrapping up a few laundry loads and have emptied my “found” luggage. Now, I am scrambling to find photos to post for today. We don’t have a single image to post with a few animals visiting over the past few weeks. Right now, Tom is watching for photo ops.
No headache. No facial pain. I am very grateful. We’ll be back with more soon.
Be well.
Photo from one year ago today, January 2, 2022:
Happy New Year to all of our family and readers/friends…The little things…Where were we the past 11 year New Year’s Eves?
We hope that all of our readers/friends had a safe and enjoyable New Year’s Eve and that today will be a special day for relaxing, eating good food, watching sports, and spending time with family and friends.
We stayed in last night but had a great time, just the two of us. We enjoyed drinks, music on our JBL speaker, and a great dinner of ham sliders, salad, and rice. Having an actual ham sandwich was such a treat for me now that I can have my homemade keto bread, which doesn’t raise my blood sugar.
I only ate one small sandwich but took little bites to savor every morsel. I added a thin slice of Maasdam cheese, lettuce, and mustard. The ham was moist and flavorful. It wasn’t a precooked ham and had to cook long enough to be thoroughly done for about 90 minutes. We have one larger ham left and can’t wait to have those sandwiches again.
Tom hadn’t had anything like this in a long time, and he had four little sliders with the soft mini buns buttered, ham, and cheese. He was in food nirvana. I could tell by the look on his face. It’s funny how the most seemingly simple things give us so much pleasure.
After dinner, we hung around outside for a while until the bugs became unbearable and went inside. We stayed up to bring in the New Year and ended up watching the entire fifth season of Peaky Blinders. We never had trouble staying awake and sent New Year’s wishes to family and friends when the clock struck midnight. It was a lovely evening, after all.
A few minutes ago, we laughed out loud when a little piglet got lost from his mom and finally found her. When he saw her at a distance, he squeaked so loud with a thumping sound, as he ran, we were hysterical laughing. It was the cutest thing! Earlier this morning, Tom rescued a dung beetle stuck in a hole in the dirt, unable to get himself and his ball rolling again. Tom took a little stick and gave the ball and the dung beetle a little nudge, and he was on his way again, searching for a mate.
The bush is filled with little wonders that leave us reeling with delight. All we have to do is sit at the table on the veranda, as we do all day, watching carefully for what treasures Mother Nature can send us. Ah, the little things always make us laugh the hardest and the most often.
Yesterday, we recalled where we spent the past 11 New Year’s Eves. Our list includes the links for the specific posts that appeared on January 1. Here they are:
- January 1, 2013 – We were in Scottsdale, Arizona, wrapping up the final details for our first cruise, sailing out of San Diego, California, on January 3, 2013. The post may be found here.
- January 1, 2014 – We were here in Marloth Park and attended a fun party at Jabula, staying until after midnight. The post may be found here.
- January 1, 2015 – We were on the Big Island, Hawaii, in the town of Pahoa with our family, where lava was expected to wipe out the city while we were there. For the exciting story, please click here.
- January 1, 2016 – We were in Pacific Harbour, Fiji, staying in a lovely teak house with a big pool. The post may be found here.
- January 1, 2017 – We were in Penguin, Tasmania, one of Tom’s favorite places on Earth (so far). The post may be found here.
- January 1, 2018 – We were in Palermo, Buenos Aires, waiting for the upcoming cruise to Antarctica. The post may be found here.
- January 1, 2019 – We were in Marloth Park, attending a party in the bush. The post may be found here.
- January 1, 2020 – We were in Apache Junction, Arizona, with Tom’s sisters, awaiting our adventure on the Maharajas Express Train and then a private 56-day tour of the country. The post may be found here.
- January 1, 2021 – We were in lockdown in a Mumbai Hotel (for 10 months) on New Year’s Eve. The post may be found here.
- January 1, 2022 – We were here in Marloth Park, attending a party with a big surprise. The post may be found here.
- January 2, 2023 – Here we are in Marloth Park for our fourth New Year spent in this wildlife wonderland, filled with the many friends we’ve made over the years.
Today, Dawn and Leon are stopping by for fun food, drinks, and, of course, lively conversation with endless stories to share. We will surely spend another fantastic New Year’s Day in the bush.
Be well. Happy New Year!
Photo from one year ago today, January 1, 2022:
