Since we left Marloth Park in May 2019, as mentioned in a prior post,  a number of animals have been “culled” or relocated to other areas, including Lionspruit, a game conservancy within Marloth Park. See the map below:

The game count was conducted yesterday as shown in this report below.

In a perfect world, there would only be enough animals that this 3000 hectares of land and vegetation could sustain. But, a reality of this special area is there are more animals that nature can provide for, resulting in many homeowners and visitors feeding them.

Feeding the wildlife is an accepted practice, although controversial, which includes game pellets, Lucerne (hay), and certain “safe-for-them” vegetables and fruits such as sweet potatoes, bananas, carrots, and apples which many of us purchase to feed them on a regular basis, especially during the “lean times,” during droughts and dry weather when the vegetation they need is less prolific.

What’s the controversy? Many of the homes in Marloth Park are rented at certain points to tourists. Let’s face it, they, like us, come here to interact with the wildlife, generally around food which brings them back to our gardens, over and over again. Some feel that by feeding them, we are preventing them from foraging for their own food sources in the vegetation.

We understand this fully. But, after spending a total of 19 months in Marloth Park, over the years, we have seen starving and malnourished animals. If we can supplement their diet to keep them healthy, it is nearly impossible for us animal lovers to resist.

Another question that arises, is, what happens when tourists or homeowners leave the property, the animals return and no one is there any longer to feed them? We worried about this very fact when we left the Orange house in 2019 after 15 months of feeding the wildlife. But, these marvelous creatures aren’t dumb, by any means, and they’ll seek out other tourists and homeowners for food, as well as continuing to forage.

Few of the animals in Marloth Park are carnivores or omnivores and hunt other wildlife for food. An example of this is the mongoose, who will kill and eat snakes when they are resistant to the venom, Ironically, on February 22, 2018, we did a story about carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores found in Marloth Park. Please click this link for details. Also, it’s imperative NOT to feed the animals “people food.” They are unable to digest food other than the pellets and appropriate vegetation, and offering them the equivalent of “junk food” can make them sick or even kill them.

It rained in buckets last night and continues to rain today. Storms are brewing in the Indian Ocean and heading this way. Our garden is a muddy mess. We doubt we’ll see much wildlife until this passes. In the meantime, Tom is outside on the veranda and I am indoors in the bedroom, staying cool and comfortable until this bad weather passes.

It was two years ago today that I had open-heart surgery here in Nelspruit, South Africa. Although I still bear some of the lingering effects of this life-changing, life-saving surgery, I am grateful for the medical care I received in helping me come out on the other side. And, of course, I am grateful to my husband Tom, who provided the best possible care, love, and attention possible, along with our many friends in Marloth Park.

Have a great day! Stay safe, wear a mask, wash your hands, and social distance. Let’s put this dreadful pandemic behind us!

Photo from one year ago today, February 12, 2020.

As I continue to deal with the side effects of two antibiotics, we’re laying low with me spending a few hours each afternoon in the bedroom with the air-con on. It continues to be hot and humid, and right now, as I feel this way, the heat is less tolerable than usual. Load shedding continues for no less than seven hours a day, in the middle of the day, late morning, and again at night from 1900 hours to 2130 hours, 7:00 pm to 9:30 pm.

I keep thinking of how generous Louise and Danie are for providing us with an inverter that gives us sufficient power to run the router, charge our digital equipment, and operate fans in the bedroom when the power is out during the night. This helps so much that load shedding isn’t as big an issue for us.

During the power outages at night, we’re still able to stream TV series or movies on my laptop through Hulu, Prime Video, or Netflix, making the 2½ hours without air-con pass more quickly. The past few nights’ load shedding occurred between 3:00, and 5:00 am.

As soon as the air-con stops, we both wake up, and one of us gets up and turns on the fan. When the power returns, the air-con comes back on by itself, which again wakes us up. Sleep is fitful, but we’re managing. Again, it’s the “nature of the beast,” in other words, “life in the bush.”

This evening, friends Uschi and Evan are stopping by at 1730 hours, 5:30 pm, for social distancing sundowners, although I won’t be drinking alcohol due to the medication, I’m on. By Tuesday, which will be eight days since I began the five-day course, I will be able to have a glass of my favorite, low alcohol wine.

Of course, we’re waiting anxiously for the opportunity to get the Covid-10 vaccine. But, now, with the world talking about South Africa and UK variants, the rush to get the vaccines out has been completely halted. The new stats for South Africa are as follows. Please click the South Africa link below for the full article:

Health Minister Dr. Zweli Mkhize said on Wednesday night that 3,159 new Covid-19 cases had been recorded in the past 24 hours.

After two days of less than 2,000 new Covid-19 cases, health minister Dr. Zweli Mkhize said on Wednesday night that the number of infections in 24 hours had breached the 3,000 mark.

There were 3,159 new infections recorded in the past day, taking the total number of Covid-19 cases recorded to date to 1,482,412.

However, it was another day where the positivity rate – the number of new cases against the number of tests in the same period – was again below the 10% mark. The new infections came from 35,195 tests, at a positivity rate of 8.97%.

Mkhize also reported 276 new Covid-19 related deaths, taking the total death toll from the coronavirus in SA is 47,145.

Of the new deaths, 126 were in Gauteng, 34 were in KwaZulu-Natal, 33 in the Eastern Cape, 31 in the Western Cape, 21 in Mpumalanga, 20 in the Free State, eight in the Northern Cape, and three in Limpopo.

To date, 1,367,247 recoveries have been recorded, at a recovery rate of 92.7%.”

This morning, when we headed to the Bush Centre for meat and biltong (delicious South African jerky), we noticed how few people were socially distancing and wearing masks. I still don’t understand why people don’t take this virus seriously when there have been several deaths here in the park over the past few weeks. I was wearing a face mask, face shield, and rubber gloves (which I only use for one wearing before tossing them).

As more and more cases come to the forefront, we find ourselves, back into a semi-state of isolation, even here in the bush with relatively few people around us. Nowhere in the world is exempt, including Antarctica, which we visited in 2018 and now has had several cases of Covid-19.

The more we discuss our visa options, the more convinced we’ve become that we need to apply for visa extensions instead of flying to another country through multiple airports and crowded spaces. Our best bet is to stay put, continuing to exercise the utmost caution, avoiding restaurants and any potential public gatherings. Who knows when any of us can relax and fully enjoy life once again?

Photo from one year ago today, February 11, 2020:

One year ago, on this date, my laptop crashed, and we weren’t able to prepare a post or upload photos. We were able to post on February 12, 2020, so please check back tomorrow for the year-ago picture.

It’s 1:00 pm on Friday, and our site is still having issues. According to our web developers and our hosting company, it is necessary to “debug” our over 3000 posts. This is taking quite a while. Our web guy just sent me an email, saying they are working on our 40,000 plus photos and with only 10,000 of them processed so far. It could be a while. We are anticipating another day or two.

Of course, we’re frustrated, but there’s nothing we can do but wait until they are done, and we are back up again. In the interim, I will continue to post, which you should see, although there is some computer dialogue on the page you can ignore.

Since we handle all of our financial matters and banking online, we often see popular sites we use down for a day or two during this process. We certainly understand the frustration of all of our worldwide readers. Also, we realize the frustration over our site being down off and on over the past nine months since we began the process of moving over to WordPress as opposed to Blogger.

We had no choice but to make this transition. The web company we’ve used has been on top of all of this, and we feel confident they will resolve this soon. In the interim, I will continue to prepare new posts while taking many new photos to share once everything is back on track.

Sadly, we realize we may lose many of our readers whose frustrations cause them to read our post no longer. We feel wrong about this and wish there was something more we could do. We can only promise that once we’re back up, we will continue to strive to provide all of you with the best possible content and photos from our current base of Marloth Park and wherever we may go from here in the future, yet to be determined.

As mentioned a few days ago, we’re continuing to research our options when we have to leave South Africa in April for our visa stamps. We selected a few possible options. But, here’s the dilemma. If the virus escalates in South Africa between now and then, we could potentially lose a ton of money if the borders are closed again, not only for South Africa but also for wherever we are planning to go.

Many would assume that when borders close due to Covid-19, those travel expenses are automatically refunded. This is not the case. We have spent days in total frustration attempting to receive refunds for various plans we’d booked. Some took months to receive, and others required us to contact our credit card companies to help us in getting a refund. It’s such a harmful process.

Thus, we’ve decided to “wing it” and wait until two or three weeks before our visas expire to pin down where we’ll go and what we’ll do for those possible ten days when we leave South Africa. The countries we may choose now may present an entirely different situation in the next 60 days. Again, our lives are based on a “play it by ear” scenario. WE can live with this.

Yesterday morning, Thursday, February 4th, we headed to Komatipoort for an eye doctor appointment for me. As it turned out, it was the same doctor we’d visited in 2018/2019 from whom we had eye exams, who was still working at the exact location in town, next door to Dr. Theo, family practice doc, and Dr. Luzanne, our dentist both of whom we’ll see while here.

We both have dental appointments this upcoming Monday with Dr. Luzanne for a cleaning and dental check. Also, I suffered from an abscessed tooth early on in our confinement in the hotel room in Mumbai and desperately need to get that tooth checked out and resolved if necessary. It no longer hurts but in these situations. It’s best to get it checked out. Also, Tom lost a tooth implant while in India, which we’ll bring with us and see if it can be re-inserted. If not, a crown might be in order, perhaps for both of us.

But, yesterday’s eye doctor appointment was necessary to give me peace of mind when several nights ago, while eating dinner, I noticed I had something in my eye, something I’d never seen in the past. It appeared to be a black stringy-looking thing in the right corner of my right eye. Immediately, I removed my contact lens and rinsed my eye with sterile saline solution. I kept doing this throughout the evening, and yet the particles would not go away.

Then, by the end of the evening, it dawned on me it might be a “floater,” not necessarily a dangerous condition, common as we age. If one’s vision itself is not impaired, there’s no light flashing and no pain; generally, a floater is not worrisome, although very annoying. After my considerable “Dr. Google” searches, Tom insisted that I have it checked out to ensure it wasn’t a potential retina detachment or another more serious issue.

I supposed I, too, was anxious to be assured it wasn’t anything more than a harmless floater which is an anomaly of the vitreous (clear floating liquid) of no particular use in the eye. When the eye doctor assured me, after careful examination, there was nothing to worry about. I was thrilled but not surprised. Nonetheless, peace of mind was definitely worth the 20-minute drive to Komatipoort. I guess I’ll have to learn to live with this black squiggly thing floating in my mind for the rest of my life. Ah, the perils of aging! How annoying.

Much to our surprise, the eye doctor appointment, for which he did a reasonably thorough exam also, only cost ZAR 300, which was only US $20.06. Wow!

I was more concerned about the up close and personal requirement of an eye exam. But, his packed office exhibited social distancing and good sanitation, although I had to ask one of the receptionists to cover her nose with her mask. I’m at a point where I don’t care what anyone thinks. I always ask people to protect their nose and mouth adequately when in “my space.” On occasion, I may get a dirty look, but I am unresponsive to those looks.

Back in Marloth Park, only 90 minutes later, we commenced our almost daily search for the large ostrich family wandering in the park, which we hope to see soon. Returning to our home after another unsuccessful hunt, we went about our usual activities, catering to our animal friend’s visits, enjoying an “adult” beverage at happy hour, and cooking ribeye steaks on the braai.

Last night, without a doubt, was the hottest night on the veranda we’ve experienced so far. It was stifling. Sure, we could have hunkered down in the bedroom with the air-con to keep us cool, but we were determined to continue to offer pellets and the remainder of the bananas to our visiting friends. Not surprisingly, when we finally had dinner while continuing to sit outdoors and headed to our room to cool off, a massive rainstorm ensued, with thunder continuing for several hours.

Only once during the storm did the power go off and, it was for less than a minute. We were thrilled. Today, although still humid with more rain on the horizon, it’s quite a bit cooler.

Although our new posts will look different over the next several days while the issues are being resolved, many of you will still be able to see them in the automatic emails you’ll receive if you signed up to do so in the past. If you’d like to sign up now (no charge), you can do so on our main homepage, and you will get the newest posts in your inbox during this period and after that. Thank you so much for being so patient.

Be well.

                 Photo from one year ago today, February 5, 2020:

After yesterday’s fiasco when our site wasn’t loading (which will be resolved by day’s end) and the loss of the post from February 3, I decided to attempt to piece it back together from memory which, after a stormy night’s sleep worrying about why we were down, my memory isn’t as sharp as usual. I’ll do my best.

When Louise informed me by text that Paula had received a shipment of bananas, we dared venture out on muddy, dirt roads, with potholes, ravines, making an uneven treacherous route. There was no other way to arrive at Paula’s lovely home on the road bordering the Crocodile River.

With Tom’s expert driving skills, he somehow manages to make the drive over the rough roads tolerable, albeit amid a massive amount of bouncing around, which we both tolerate well. But, should a person suffer from several painful joint or muscle issues, such a ride would be prohibitive.

When we were here from February to May 2019, after I’d had open-heart surgery, never once did we attempt to ride on those bumpy roads. Thank goodness that now, I don’t suffer any ill effects. As for the driving, thank goodness, once again, I never drive while we are in South Africa or other countries where most cars have a standard transmission with the driver’s on the right side of the vehicle, using their left hand to shift.

It is hard enough for me to adapt to driving on the opposite side of the road I was used to in the US, let alone manage to change gears with my inept left hand. No, thank you. I’ll continue to be the passenger, never guilty of being considered a “back seat driver.” Tom doesn’t require any coaching while driving.

When we finally made it to Paula’s house, her friendly employee met us in the driveway to assist us with the bananas sitting atop a few tarps in the garage. Tom offered to place the bananas into our big empty pellet bag, but the kindly man insisted on helping. Of course, we tendered a much-appreciated tip when he loaded them into the boot of our little rental car.

We headed back to our “home” (as we call it here), anxious, even in the rain, to deposit some bananas onto the ground in our garden, which backs up to a parkland area bordering Lionspruits, a “conservancy within a conservancy,” where lions Dezi and Fluffy reside.

Being located close to Lionspruit, which we’d entered several times during prior stays in Marloth Park, enables us to hear the lions roar day and night. What a glorious sound, music to our ears when we listen to them, we can’t help but smile at one another. The simple joys of living in the bush never end.

Last night we were invited to the home of Lesley and Andrew, along with friends Louise and Manie (a different Louise). We sat outdoors on their veranda, perfectly social-distanced by no less than two meters, enjoying the beautiful conversations and appetizers they served so graciously.

A number of their usual visitors magically appeared upon our arrival at Lesley and Andrew’s lovely bush home, and again, we embraced the magic of this special place, its abundant wildlife, and of course, its unique people. How fortunate we are!

A few minutes ago, Tom took off for his first haircut in over a year, barring the “bowl over the head haircut” he gave himself some months ago while living in that hotel room in India. Photos will follow tomorrow. It will be fun to see his “new do” when he returns before too long.

All is well. We’re content. Power is working. WiFi is working. By the end of today, our website will be up and running correctly. The sun is shining. The animals are visiting once again and enjoying the bananas. Happy day!

May you also be well and content!

Photo from one year ago today, February 4, 2020:

Tom, listening to our tour guide while in Udaipur, India, with the five-star Taj Lake Palace in the background. For more photos, please click here.