It was a fantastic 75th birthday with more celebrations yet to come..

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What a great time was celebrating my birthday at Tamborina Restaurant in Komatipoort with Dawn and Leon!

We had such a fun day yesterday on my birthday. Any reason to celebrate is a cause for us to plan an event. Initially, we hadn’t planned to do anything with the party coming up on Saturday, but when Dawn and Leon asked what we were doing, we all decided to go to lunch.

It is always fun to get Dawn and Leon out of the restaurant and able to relax with us. It was such fun spending my birthday with such good friends.

We all decided to head to the Portuguese restaurant on the main road in Komatipoort for lunch since none of us cared to drive in the dark from Komati to Marloth Park. We don’t usually drink alcohol during the day, but we were in a celebratory mood and each ordered drinks with our lunches.

Dawn ate one roll, and Tom ate the rest. How unusual!

They didn’t have light wine, as in all of the restaurants in Marloth Park, so I ended up with regular white wine and slowly sipped on it with lots of ice in the glass, diluting it sufficiently for my taste. Our food was delicious, as shown in today’s photos, and we had fun taking photos of each other so we’d have something to post.

My grilled chicken and bacon salad was delicious.

We always enjoy having time out and about with Dawn and Leon, getting them away from Jabula for social time without the distractions of running the restaurant practically around the clock. Our conversations are always filled with laughter and. profound and important topics and commonalities we share.

I also ordered this little bowl of grilled calamari which was also delicious. Guess who ate my bread?

We hadn’t been to Tamborina in quite some time. The last time we were, there was with Rita and Gerhard a few years ago when we also had a perfect time. Dining is exclusively outdoors; yesterday, it was initially uncomfortable in the heat and humidity. But, once we got situated, pillows under our butts on the wooden chairs, we forgot all about it.

Reminiscent of our ten months in lockdown in India, Tom couldn’t resist ordering Chicken Penne Pasta which he ate every night for eight of the ten months.

The time flew by. After we finished our lunch, Leon suggested we visit one of his favorite bars in Komati, which we’d heard him talk about occasionally, but had never visited. Leon hesitated for us to go thinking it was too much of a “working class” bar for our tastes. But, in Minnesota, we’d often attend get-togethers with family and friends at casual, laid-back bars.

Dawn and Leon both had the fried sole with chips and rice.

We can easily enjoy all types of bars and restaurants as we did while living in Minnesota. We don’t always need to be in an upscale environment to have a good time.

After lunch,  the four of us stopped at a little bar in Komatipoort, Koos se Kroeg, which had these money-sucking slot machines. We didn’t play. We stayed until load shedding started, and it became sweltering in the bar without aircon.

As it turned out, we were the only customers there, along with the owner’s wife, who served us while the owner was asleep on the pool table, as shown in the photo below. Hahahaha. We all had a good chuckle over that.

The owner of the bar was asleep on the pool table.

Back at home around 3:30 pm, 1530 hrs., I finished the post for the day and relaxed in the bedroom with the fan on to cool off. Tom was still too full for dinner (especially after eating five pieces of bread), but my light meal left me hungry by dinnertime. I reheated a few slices of homemade keto pizza to eat while we watched a few shows on my laptop. The mosquitoes and black worms were everywhere, so we didn’t care to be outdoors while I ate my pizza.

I talked on the phone with my sister Julie for about an hour with lots of laughing. Later on, I spent a lot of time thanking family, readers/friends for sending so many thoughtful birthday wishes. It was a great day.

Today, we’re staying home, again eating leftover pizza and salad and enjoying a quiet day in the bush. The sun is shining, the temperature is 90F, 32C, the humidity is only 47%, and the dew point is a much lower 67 today. It’s much more tolerable today than over the past weeks.

That’s it for today, folks. We look forward to sharing more new photos tomorrow.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, February 21, 2022:

Danie and Louise were hanging onto our elephant’s tusks. For more photos, please click here.

It will be a wonderful 75th birthday!…Gratefulness is at the forefront….Attack of the black worms…

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There are thousands of these black worms on the veranda and in our garden.

There are no words I can say to express my gratitude for this milestone birthday. Well, it’s a milestone by my standards, three-quarters of a century…good grief. I never imagined this would be my life when I was 75. I’d imagined we’d be living in the US in a senior community of one sort or another, going out to dinner for the early bird special, having breakfast at Perkins or Denny’s on occasion, lots of family gatherings, playing cards, and making a monthly visit to our primary care physician, as most seniors in the US do.

Instead, our physician, Doc Theo, his two associates,(his brother) Doc Mel, and Doc Philip, and their wives, along with many other friends, are joining us for my catered birthday party on Saturday in the bush. My biggest concern is that we have plenty of South African wines and beer to serve at the party, and many animals stop by for a visit. It’s all so fun and exciting.

These worms are caterpillars. But there are way too many of them! Yuck!

This morning our garden was filled with animals. Even Norman stopped by to wish me a Happy Birthday, to which I tossed him “Norman’s lunch.” But, speaking of lunch, in a short time, we’re heading out to meet Dawn and Leon (great friends and owners of Jabula) for lunch at Tamborina in Komatipoort, known for their fantastic seafood.

Since we prefer not to drive in the dark, a lunchtime event was more suitable today, the actual day of my birthday. The birthday party is being held on Saturday, February 25, at the gorgeous Khaya Umdani house, with lots of room for our 28 guests, rain or shine. Our home isn’t big enough to accommodate that size of a group, so Louise and Danie offered this house to us for my birthday. Wow! This will work out well!

Mushroom is growing at the base of a tree in the garden due to the high humidity.

We wish we could have invited more of the many lovely friends we’ve made in Marloth Park, but space is limited, and the magic number was 28, with seating for everyone. We’re bringing our Bluetooth speaker for music, and we’ll be mainly playing oldies from the 70s and 80s. For all we know, there will be dancing on the veranda.

Although the party will be casual, the food will undoubtedly be over the top. Louise and Danie are catering the food and accouterments. They have hosted weddings and other special events and are excellent at this. Of course, we’ll post many photos from the party and hopefully from today’s lunch.

This Big Daddy kudu appears to be sprouting one of those third mini horns between his eyes, the weirdest phenomenon.

Since yesterday, we’ve noticed an invasion by some ugly black worms. They are common this time of the year, but we’ve never seen them until this year. Most likely, they are due to all the rain we’ve had in the past several weeks. Supposedly they are harmless but annoying when they land on us.

Now that my long-haul Covid symptoms are improving, on Monday, I am having a tooth pulled by Dr. Singh in Malalne. Hopefully, he will be able to place a temporary tooth to avoid me walking around with a gaping hole that will show when I open my mouth or smile. I will report how that works out next Tuesday. If it didn’t still hurt, I wouldn’t be doing this! I despise going to the dentist and, even worse, having a tooth pulled.

These dazzle zebras have been regular visitors lately.

Thanks to all of our wonderful family readers/friends for the birthday wishes. Every one of you is so thoughtful to think of me on this special day. You have no idea how much this means to me.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, February 20, 2022:

Louise and Danie hosted the interaction event for my birthday. We couldn’t believe we could be so close and interact with the two elephants who freely roam in the wild. e photos, please click here.

Another humid scorcher!!!…A busy morning left me sweating…

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Four Big Daddies stopped by for pellets this morning. They share nicely with one another.

At the moment, I am in the bedroom at 1:00 pm, 1300 hrs., after sweating in the kitchen for the past three hours. I made breakfast, cooked and chopped the cooled sausages for homemade keto pizza, made three pizza crusts, chopped and diced all the vegetables, and pre-cooked the pizza crusts.

Since we can’t use the oven during load shedding, which occurs at dinnertime tonight, we decided to cook all three pizzas now and can heat our servings in the microwave when it’s time to eat this evening. All I have left is to make the salad which I’ll do once I cool down.

Zebras don’t get along when vying for pellets. They snort, head-butt, and kick one another. But, they do fine when drinking from the pool.

With all the rain lately and the mozzies on a rampage for human flesh, I am again wearing long pants and a long sleeve Bugs-Away shirt with the sleeves buttoned at the wrist on the tighter button to ensure none will fly up the sleeve for a nibble. It’s the only way to protect myself, especially when sweating wears off the DEET repellent. I can’t stand the thought of reapplying that toxic chemical any more often than I have to.

Although I reapply repellent every six hours, when it’s supposed to last in dry conditions for eight hours, I still end up with lots of bites. I wake up during the night itching like crazy when, even with the aircon on, I still sweat under the light blanket. It seems that warmth exacerbates the itchiness.

Recently, I’ve found that using Benzocaine numbing cream stops the itching for several hours, but it doesn’t work well during the day when using repellent with it. It never seems to work out using multiple cream products on the skin, such as applying any body lotion while using repellent.

It’s always a pleasure to see these big boys in the garden.

Once the bedroom cooled down, I turned off the aircon and am fairly comfortable with the fan running at its highest speed. I may end up spending the next few hours in the bedroom working on today’s post and other projects, such as researching holiday homes for upcoming locations.

We feel we’re somewhat on hold from booking much more right now while we await the answer to our visa extensions. If we don’t get the approval to stay until June, leaving in March would impact what we’d do next. We can only wait and see what transpires in the next few weeks.

Last night, we had another fun-filled evening at the bar at Jabula. Locals we’d met in the past were there, and the conversation was lively and animated. Later in the evening, back home, we watched another episode of the Good Doctor, a show we are binge-watching at night. Its quite an enjoyable series with lots of episodes.

Bossy stopped by to see what was on the menu.

We’d planned to go to Kruger tomorrow on my birthday, but the Crocodile Bridge is still closed, and we don’t want to drive an extra three hours to go up and back from the Malalane Gate. We’ll go another day as soon as the river settles down.

I’ll upload a short post tomorrow morning since we’re meeting Dawn and Leon for my birthday lunch at Tamborina, located in Komatipoort. This way, neither of us will have to drive in the dark, if we’d gone for dinner. We rarely go out to dinner to any restaurants that would require us to drive home at night. It’s not safe on the roads.

Today, we’re content to stay home, enjoy our pizza and salad dinner, and later hunker down in the cool bedroom for some mindless drivel, the end of a perfect Sunday in the bush.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, February 19, 2022:

Seigfried and Roy were sharing pellets. For more photos, please click here.

Another fine weekend in the bush…

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He’s so comfortable with us that he often lays down to rest in the shade.

The weather today is a little more comfortable. The humidity is at 90%, the dew point is at 77, and the temperature is 80F, 27C. It was not a lot lower than this time yesterday. It’s a busy morning around here. I folded all the laundry on the rack that took over 24 hours to dry, but most of the little rugs I washed and hung in the outdoor laundry room were still wet.

With the new inverter system keeping us from experiencing load shedding, we aren’t using the clothes dryer since it uses too much electricity, which we’d instead save for more critical power needs. Everything is working well, and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the new system.

Seeing Gordy (aka Gordon Ramsey) in the garden is always pleasurable.

We can tell by a familiar blink when load shedding starts and ends; sometimes, the WiFi goes out for five or ten minutes. Other than that, we can’t tell that it’s load shedding. We love not worrying about our food spoiling and being able to buy enough meat to last for a few weeks.

Tom hand-grated the massive block of mozzarella cheese we purchased at the local Wild Butchery a few days ago, and tomorrow, once again, we’re making keto pizza, enough to last for several nights. My party isn’t until next Saturday, the 25th. We’ll share details about the party in the next several days, held at the Khaya Umdani house, a much larger house than our holiday rental. Need I say, we both are excited about this special celebration.

Bossy stopped by to see what was happening.

Monday, the actual day of my birthday, we’d planned to go to Kruger, but we’re waiting to see if the park will be opened by then with the Crocodile Bridge flooded over, off and on, over the past few weeks. If it is open, we’ll head out Monday morning, have breakfast at the Mugg & Bean and see what wildlife we can find. We’ll have leftover pizza when we return in time for sundowners on the veranda and quiet dinner together.

Another female kudu we didn’t know stopped by.

If the Crocodile Bridge is still closed, we’ll stay home, which I don’t mind not making a big fuss about my actual birthday, with the party coming up several days later. We’ll celebrate then.

Last night, we headed to Jabula for another fun Friday night, hanging out with locals and dining on consistently excellent food. We never fail to have a good time. Dawn and Leon had been away for a few days, and it was great to see them again. Leon still seems to be feeling well after the fourth month of his terminal cancer diagnosis, for which he was only expected to live for three to four months. He looks and feels good, so we hope a true miracle has occurred. We can’t imagine living in the bush without him here.

Since it’s the weekend again, the animal visits are few, and we’ve been scrambling to find enough photo ops to post here. We’re doing our best to develop interesting photos, but it’s tricky right now. The roads are still too muddy to venture out for photo ops in the little rental car. It’s the nature of the beast (no pun intended).

The helmeted guinea fowls have returned. They were gone for a few months, as they do each year.

Tonight at 5:00 pm, 1700 hrs., we’ll head back to Jabula for Saturday night’s entertainment. Amazingly, we are always assured of a great time heading there every Friday and Saturday evening. We never tire of visiting the establishment and always look forward to seeing people we know and meeting new people.

Not much is required of either of us for the remainder of the day. We’re waiting to hear about our visa extensions to begin booking holiday homes in Scotland before the upcoming two cruises. We have about six weeks to book after we leave South Africa on June 8 and until the first cruise begins on August 1, 2023. We should have an answer in the next few weeks.

That’s it for today, folks. We hope you have an enjoyable weekend!

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, February 18, 2022:

Bossy arrived with her baby and another mom and baby. We couldn’t have been happier to see her young one. For more photos, please click here.

Humidity and rain continue…Kudu pulling down branches…Why???…Animal behavior…

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Right now, at 11:00 am, the weather is as follows:

  • Temperature: 77F, 25C,
  • Humidity: 100%
  • Dew Point: 78

Although the temperature is low, the humidity is unbearable. Wearing jeans and a long sleeve Bugs-Away shirt to keep from getting bites, I am drenched in sweat. It continues to rain a few times every 24 hours. I’d much rather have dry, hot days over this uncomfortable humid weather.

Even Little Johnny, with his tiny budding horns, digs in the dirt to get mud on his horns. What constitutes this behavior?

As shown in the above photo of Little Johnny, a young male bushbuck, many of the horned animals, even with tiny budding horns, are digging in the dirt to make themselves look bigger and more intimidating. Some animals dig in the ground with their tusks or horns, searching for edible roots.

With the dirt easily accessible after it’s been raining for weeks, we’ve seen many muddy horns. Even Norman stopped by a few evenings ago with his long horns covered in mud. Later we saw him digging in an anthill to add more dirt, the same anthill we’ve seen kudus, bushbucks, and warthogs attacking from time to time.

Animal behavior is quite interesting, and we look up information online about a particular animal’s behavior almost daily. Oddly, many wildlife species haven’t been studied extensively, and there may be little information about specific behaviors we observe while watching them day after day.

Little Johnny quickly learned how to stare us in the eyes, looking for pellets.

Many casual observers, such as us, speculate about animals’ behavior, but those observations may be incomplete and inaccurate. We often guess why a specific animal is acting a certain way, thus prompting us to conduct research. Of course, we’re always looking for information from reliable sources.

This morning, we watched a male kudu working very hard to take down a branch from a tree. We posted the above video about this behavior in 2018 and are excited to post it again today based on today’s topic. When looking online for “why do kudus knock down branches,” the answers are few and vague.

When we watch this behavior, we think it is for the kudu to eat the inaccessible leaves from higher up on the tree, as shown in our above video. But, often, as today, we watched a kudu pull down a large branch and never eat a single leaf once he’d knocked it down. Is there another reason he may have worked so hard to accomplish this feat?

There were other males and females nearby. Was he showing off his brute strength to intimidate the males and attract the females? It’s hard to find such information to substantiate this type of behavior.

Do these female kudus lie together in the bush for any reason other than to rest? The answers are hard to find.

When we’ve gone on a game drive with guides, their comments vary on animal behaviors. After watching wildlife daily for over three years, we keep our mouths shut about what we’ve observed when in a group. We’re no experts. Jane Goodall spent over 60 years studying and interacting with chimpanzees in the wild, yet she has said there is still much to learn.

As casual observers of animal behavior, our experience is uneducated, limited, and, at times, biased by our love and interest in certain animals. Not a day goes by that I’m not trying to discover the reason for the behaviors exhibited by nyala Norman. How did he and Nina kick Noah out of the family group to ensure he’d stop grazing with them and the new baby? We haven’t seen Noah since then. Others have reported they’ve seen him at least two kilometers from here. Will he ever return?

We’ll never know. Many observers claim to know and understand these various behaviors, but even with them, there is uncertainty. If only animals could talk and tell us the answers to these and other questions. But, like the mystery of life and the afterlife, we can only speculate. We, as humans, just aren’t meant to know some things.

We continue in our relentless pursuit of answers, which makes the search all the more fascinating. That uncertainty inspires us to be continually enthralled by wildlife and the world around us. From that source of motivation, we continue on in our world travels, hungry for more knowledge, connection, and fascination with Mother Nature’s bounty.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, February 17, 2022:

Last night we took this blurry photo of our visiting porcupine through the glass and the screen doors to the veranda. If we’d opened either door, it would have run away. For more photos, please click here.

Awful experience at Spar Market…Pricing at the local meat market…Watch our video with Bossy’s baby kicking…

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The minute we walked into the Spar Market on Tuesday, I knew something was wrong. It was so hot and humid on an already hot and humid day we could barely breathe. Right away, I noticed the usual refrigerated dairy and perishable end-of-the-aisle area where I usually buy fine cheeses was totally empty, and the power was off. Also, the entire air conditioning system in the market was off.

Even during load shedding at Spar, the aircon stays on, and the refrigeration works without an issue from what we’ve seen repeatedly. Don’t get me wrong; we like Spar. This grocery store is generally well-stocked for this area of relatively low population, providing most foods we use. Sure, on occasion, certain items are out-of-stock or entirely unavailable. As a result, I’ve learned to stock up on things I use regularly.

We were soaked in sweat when Tom loaded the non-perishable items on the checkout belt, including an additional dozen bottles of wine for my upcoming birthday party in nine days. When we finally walked out of the market, the hot humid air felt cool compared to the discomfort in the market. We couldn’t wait to turn on the aircon in the car.

Check out that turned-back ear and those long eyelashes.

They may be selling a keto salad dressing one week, and the next time we go, it’s no longer available, nor do we ever see it again. There is a brand we like, Carb Smart, which has healthy mayonnaise without toxic seed and vegetable oils, spices, sugar-free barbecue sauce, and coffee creamer without all the chemicals and corn syrup. One week, they have two or three of these items, and the next week, there are none…never to be found again.

But, on Tuesday, when Tom and I headed to Komatipoort to shop, we were sorely disappointed when we couldn’t buy meat, cheese, and dairy. Immediately upon discovering this, I decided we’d shop for meat at the Wild Butchery at the Bush Centre in Marloth Park. We didn’t go until this morning after breakfast.

Bossy was looking my way, wondering if she could have some pellets.

Here’s what we purchased this morning:

  • 6 kg mince (sirloin – hamburger), 13 pounds
  • 2 kg  filet mignon, 4.4 pounds
  • 2 kg short ribs, 4.4 pounds
  • 2 kg bacon, 4.4 pounds
  • 3 kg lamb chops, 6.7 pounds
  • 2 kg block mozzarella cheese, 4.4 pounds

Total 17 kg, 37.5 pounds

Total Cost: US $76.11, ZAR 1373.55

That averages US $2.03, ZAR 36.64 per pound of meat and cheese. Where in the world could you buy this amount of protein at these fantastic prices? The filet mignon alone will provide us with two night’s meals of over 8 oz filets for each of us. We’d spend the total cost we paid today for only the filet mignon. Wow!

This amount of meat will last us for over two weeks. We’ll use only a portion of the mozzarella to make pizza this Sunday, with plenty left over for future dishes.

She’s such a lovely kudu.

Back at the house, we both started sweating profusely once again while putting everything away. By the time we were done, it was almost 3:00 pm, 1500 hrs. The dew point was at 78, the temperature at 88F, 32C, and humidity was 85%, way higher than tropical. Although these numbers aren’t much better today, it feels drier since it hasn’t rained in 24 hours, and the sun is shining.

I couldn’t imagine we’d want to sit on the veranda at 4:00 pm, 1600 hrs., but once situated with our chilled drinks with many animals visiting, we forgot all about the weather and enjoyed our evening. The only shopping we had left was the meat we’d put off until this morning. But, after buying this amount of meat today, my grocery-shopping enthusiasm has returned. Hopefully, Spar has returned to “normal,” and everything will be as expected next time we shop on the 23rd.

It’s been obvious she has been pregnant for the past few months. The gestation period for kudus is 240 days.

As for buying meat in the future, we’ve decided to support the local Wild Butchery for great prices, excellent service, and quality products.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, February 1, 2022:

The large male only had one tusk. There could be many reasons for this, including fighting with other elephants or animals or natural causes. He looks sleepy or is very old. For more photos, please click here.

A huge savings after a phone call…Well worth the hour-long phone call…

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Many mongooses stopped by for the new roll of paloney we purchased yesterday.

When Tom saw a mention on CruiseCritic.com that our upcoming Azamara cruise on August 1, 2023, had a price reduction, he was determined to see if we could make use of the promotion. On September 3, 2021, we booked the cruise and wrote about it in detail in this post.

We were excited about this cruise since we’ve longed to go to Norway for the longest time, but all the cruises were so expensive we hesitated to book this 600-passenger Azamara cruise. At the time, while we were here in Marloth Park, we hoped this smaller ship would be less likely to have as many cases of Covid-19 by the time it sailed.

At the time of the booking, neither of us had tested positive for Covid-19, and we’d hoped we’d never would. As it turned out, as most of our readers know, we were infected on the Celebrity Silhouette, with 2886 passengers, hundreds of which became infected with Omicron during the cruise.

It was a tough time for both of us when we became ill for many months. Tom got Covid pneumonia, and I got long-haul Covid sinus issues that still linger today, ten months later, although it has improved considerably in the past two months. You’d think we’d be gun-shy about sailing again, but we are still traveling the world, and for us, part of that experience is sailing on cruise ships and other vessels.

Zebras come to call.

We, like many others, have decided to move on with our lives, whether we’re traveling or not. We can’t remain entrapped in fear and apprehension over getting infected, now three years after the onset of the pandemic. Gosh, it was about this time, three years ago, that our private tour of India was fast coming to a close due to sightseeing venues rapidly shutting down, and only days later, our ten-month stint in lockdown in a Mumbai hotel room began.

Well, at least the cruise to Norway didn’t get canceled, as with many previously booked cruises. We’ve been excited to embark on this itinerary which we’ll share again when we set sail on August 1, 2023, less than six months from now. Or, if interested, you can click on the above link, here again to see the full itinerary.

As mentioned in that post, the total cost for the cruise for the two of us was listed as follows:

“The total cost of this cruise for the two of us is US $16,275, ZAR 234,559 (based on today’s value of the rand). The cruise includes an upgraded balcony cabin on the Azamara Journey, tips, drinks, and WiFi for one device. Once we board, we’ll pay for WiFi for a second device. Shore excursions are extra.”

Over the past year or so since we booked this cruise, there have been several price drops. In each case, Tom has called Costco Travel, which always requires over an hour on hold, but he was able to get the price dropped each time. Through his determination and patience, the price has decreased considerably.

Stopping for a drink from the pool.

On Saturday, Tom discovered another price drop, but based on the time difference and Costco’s hours of operation, he didn’t call to request the new lower price until Monday afternoon, when he knew Costco and Azamara’s offices would both be open. In each case, the rep from Costco has to call the cruise line to provide us with a lower price.

I should mention, as I have previously, that these price reductions are not automatic. It is up to the passengers to keep checking prices and promotions and inform their cruise booking service that they’d like to take advantage of a lowered price, added perks, or upgrades. Tom is diligent in keeping track of possible changes, saving us thousands of dollars over the years.

Then, of course, we had multiple credits from cruises Azamara canceled due to the pandemic, which we rolled forward to future cruises. But, for today’s sake, I am only getting into the difference from the original price to the new reductions that occurred in the past 18 months.

So here are the totals for two passengers in a balcony cabin

Original Price: US $16,275, ZAR 234,559

New Price:      US $7,522.62, ZAR 137025.36

As it turns out, the accumulated credits leave us with a credit balance, which the cruise line is applying back to our credit card on file. We owe nothing when the final payment is due on March 20, 2023. This gives us peace of mind after losing quite a bit over the Seychelles fiasco.

Here are some of the perks we’ll receive on this cruise:

  $450 Costco Shop Card Costco Shop Card
  Azamara’s Sale $250 per person Shipboard Credit
  Azamara’s Early Booking $150 per person Shipboard Credit
 ***The amenities included above (including shipboard credit or Costco Shop Card) are assigned to this booking as of (02/13/2023). Any changes to price, cabin, category, sailing date, promo, etc., may result in a change of amenities.***
We’ll use US $800, ZAR 14382.10, and shipboard credits toward WiFI fees. A basic drink package and tips are included in the cruise fare. We’ll pay extra for any shore excursions, but often we choose to go on private, small-group tours arranged with other passengers to travel on vans, instead of the 40-passenger bus experience, which we don’t care to do.
That’s it for today, folks.
Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, February 15, 2022:

This is a Thick Neck. He hasn’t been coming around as much as he did before Gordy claimed his territory. We can distinguish Gordy and Thick Neck from TN’s thicker neck and Adam’s Apple on his throat. Zoom in to see this anomaly. For more photos, please click here.

Still raining off and on.. Evacuation warnings for bush homes along the Crocodile River…

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Please zoom in to see Aggie, an agama, which changes colors at will, on the right side of this tree when he chose to look like the tree bark instead of his usual colorful style.

The Crocodile River continues to rise. We’ve never been anywhere in the world when it rained as many days as it has here in the past ten days.  Last night, warnings were posted on Marloth Park Facebook groups that residents in bush homes along the river may have to evacuate.

All guests residing in camps and resorts in Kruger National Park were evacuated yesterday, and the park is officially closed. All entrance gates (nine in South Africa and two in Mozambique) to the vast national park are now closed due to flooding, washed-out roads, huge potholes, and mudslides.

It is one of the largest national parks in the world, with an area of 19,485 km2 (7,523 sq mi). The park is approximately 360 km (220 mi) long and has an average width of 65 km (40 mi).”
A small band of mongooses stopped by for paloney.
We feel bad for the tourists that spent fortunes to get here since airfare is so expensive, hoping to do multiple game drives and camp and resort stays in the park and now will not be able to do so. Let alone those currently staying in Marloth Park, the roads to their holiday homes are washed out, and they can’t enter or leave. Can you imagine their frustration?
We are safe here at our bush home. Water isn’t leaking into the house, and there don’t appear to be significant issues on our dirt road. As much as we’d like to see the roaring river, we avoid the area for the above reasons. Nor do we want to get stuck driving with the lightweight KWID car rental. It hardly had enough oomph to go up a hill with the aircon on, let alone maneuver out of a deep mudhole.
Some of our readers have written to us inquiring about how excessive rain and flooding impact wildlife. These animals are so resourceful and intelligent. They know what to do to stay safe as long as they aren’t caught in the rivers’ fast-moving current, which may prove deadly. But many animals are excellent swimmers, and many others are wise enough to know to maintain their position on the banks of the river.
At any given time, there are impalas in our garden. If we can help it, we don’t feed them since they may scare off many other species, and there are too many to feed regularly.
Numerous waterbucks have been stranded along the Crocodile River, unable to swim across the raging waters. They can survive on the Marloth Park side of the river since there is plenty of vegetation for them to eat. However, if nosey locals approach them, they can become stressed, panicky, and die. There have been numerous warnings for locals and guests to stay away from the river, not only for their safety but also for the safety of the wildlife.
Tom woke up early this morning to watch the US Football Super Bowl. I watched for a few minutes of the halftime show, which I usually enjoy, but this time it was just OK, not as exciting as some I’ve seen in the past. Although his favorite team, the Minnesota Vikings, wasn’t playing in the game, he enjoyed it anyway.
Last night, while on the veranda at sundowner time, we enjoyed ourselves with Norman. He is funny, animated, and so attentive to our voices. He always makes us laugh. Afterward, we had a great dinner but experienced a WiFi outage for a few hours, preventing us from streaming our favorite shows.
Impalas are good-looking animals with interesting markings and adorable faces. Only males have horns.
Instead, we watched a mediocre movie on the external hard drive that Rita and Gerhard gave me last year for my birthday. With the 1000 movies Gerhard loaded on the four terabyte devices, it has been a lifesaver when there’s no signal. Right now, we’re working on watching movies beginning with the letter “b,” thus, we have a long way to go.
We always have a good time regardless of what we do each day and evening. Tonight, Tom’s having pork chops on the braai with rice and salad, and I’m having prawn salad. As always, it will be a lovely evening.
Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, February 13, 2022:

A foam tree frog nest hangs over the pool, made by a female frog during the night. For more photos, please click here.

Still raining…Wildlife under cover…Mudslides on the N4…My four-year “heartaversary!”

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Big Daddy and an impala we call Chevy, sitting close to one another.

With both of us outdoors, the temperature is tolerable at 81F and 27C, but the comfort factor is minimal. It’s still raining heavily, off and of, and the humidity is outrageously high at 84%  with a dew point of 76, 11 points above “tropical,” which makes the air heavy. We’d rather have a much higher temperature with low humidity which is considerably easier to tolerate.

This morning when Norman, Nina, and their baby stopped by, it started raining so hard that they immediately searched for a good spot under a tree. Norman seemed most annoyed by the rain, which interrupted his pleasant days of meandering about the bush at a leisurely pace with few distractions.

Norman wasn’t thrilled that this kudu was sitting in “his garden. He fluffed up his hair and tail and hung his head low, making himself appear larger.

The three found shelter under a dense tree and waited it out. They were on the move again when the heavy rain evolved into a drizzle. They stayed around our garden for quite a while, eating pellets, carrots, and cabbage before they took off to continue grazing in the bush.

Most wildlife spend most of their days and nights grazing, occasionally napping from time to time, especially after dark. But they are always on the lookout for predators for potential dangers. Doing so is in their DNA. With fewer predators in Marloth Park, we still have lions, leopards, and smaller cats like genets and civets. Other dangerous predators may occasionally enter the park, including jackals, hyenas, and wild dogs.

The Big Daddy didn’t seem concerned about Norman.

This morning there was a notice on Facebook about the N4 that the road we travel to Nelspruit is closed due to mudslides. This doesn’t impact us since the closures are beyond Nelspruit, where we don’t have to travel until we go to Johannesburg to renew our passports sometime in March. But we’ve read that the road is backed up for hours.

Today is the fourth anniversary of my open heart surgery in Nelspruit on February 12, 2019. I am grateful to be feeling well and not having any heart-related symptoms at this time. But, the experience resulted in six surgeries (angiogram, heart surgery, and two surgeries on each leg), including infections in both legs from where the veins were taken for the triple coronary bypass. The recovery was slow and painful.

There’s no doubt about how traumatic this surgery may be for many patients, especially with complications like those I had. Emotionally, I am fully recovered, but I have experienced many changes in how my body works since the surgery, as do most patients after this type of surgery.

The male kudu develops swelling in his neck during the mating season. He has a few oxpeckers on his head and back.

What are the lingering effects over the past four years? They include:

  1. Weakness  in my legs
  2. Difficulty bending over
  3. Reduced small-hand skills
  4. Concerned about every pain in my chest, neck, jaw, and shoulder, wondering if something was wrong.

It’s normal for heart patients to become concerned over every twinge. How could one not be concerned when remaining arteries throughout the body have blockages. But I can go for weeks without thinking about it. Over time, those concerns have diminished considerably.

Nina, Norman, and their baby were sheltering from the rain.

I do everything I can to maintain good health by staying very active;  getting in a lot of steps each day; eating healthy, unprocessed foods; continuing on a low-carb/keto, sugar-free, grain-free, starch-free way of eating; don’t smoke; low alcohol consumption; good sleep and above all a low-stress lifestyle which includes a positive attitude combined with our joyful way of living.

Of course, having a loving and playful relationship with my fantastic husband and cultivating positive relationships with family and friends…thus, a social network that has been proven to be instrumental in healthful longevity.

As mentioned, I am very grateful to have survived the surgery and had the loving care Tom provided in the many months that followed, along with the support of many friends here in Marloth Park, our readers/friends, and people we’ve met throughout the world. Thank you, Tom. Thank you, readers, friends, and family.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, February 12, 2022:

A young daddy with lots of growing to do. For more photos, please click here.

The rains continue…More flooding…We’re hunkered down until tonight…Another sad animal injury…

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Roads have been closed in sections of the Kruger National Park due to heavy rain.
Image: SANParks

The rain stops for an hour, drizzles for another hour, and then comes down with an unspeakable force. It’s expected to continue until Tuesday. There continue to be more and more warnings in the Marloth Park Facebook groups about flooding on certain roads, vehicles getting stuck, and road closings. A lot could happen in the next four days.

We were so sad to see that this Big Daddy kudu, whom we’ve named Torn Horn, suffered such a horrific injury, most likely from a fight with another male kudu.

We’re considering heading out to the little market for a few items as soon as the rain lets up. The videos and photos online are astounding, and as much as we’d like to go out and take some of our own, the little rental car,  a lightweight KWID, would surely result in our getting stuck if we attempted to travel on any of the dirt roads. Neither of us cares to get soaked.

I just touched base with David, and he said it should be OK for us to get there. By going out soon, we can determine if it will be safe and sensible to go to Jabula tonight for dinner. If Olifant Road, the paved main road in Marloth Park, is passable, we will go. It’s about a 10-minute drive from here.

We’ve been surprised that many animals have stopped by during the storm. This morning there were four bushbucks and one duiker in the garden. We tossed pellets to them, but if they don’t eat them right away, they turn into mush from the rain, and they don’t eat the mush.

We put pellets, apples, and carrots on the railing so he wouldn’t have to bend to the ground.

We hadn’t seen Norman, Nina, and the baby for a few days, but they were here for a few hours yesterday afternoon when the rain let up for a while. It was good to see them again. We had more animals in the garden than we’d seen before the Christmas holiday. It was great to see them all together.

Even the mongooses stopped by a few times in the past two days, and we couldn’t cut up paloney fast enough for them. It was fun to see all their babies, already indoctrinated into the frenzy of eating paloney, cut into bite-sized pieces. They also recognize our clicking sounds that attract them to the garden. When a few show up, we make the clicking sounds, and they all come running from everywhere within earshot. It’s quite a sight to see.

Today’s photos of the injured kudu broke our hearts. We fed him apples, carrots, and pellets. He was looking thin. An injury as severe as losing a horn can cause significant disability and even death while the animal tries to recover. Nothing can be done other than to wait and see how he does.

Hopefully, this wound will heal, and he can go about his life in the bush.

Most of the wildlife is sturdy with robust immune systems and often recovers without infections or further harm to their health and well-being. We hope this will be the case with the now-named “Torn Horn” (a mouthful to say). We hope he’ll return to see us again so we can check his progress.

The sun is peeking out right now as it continues to rain. There’s an expression in the Afrikaans language, taught to us by our old friend Okee Dokey, frequently used when describing sunshine when it’s raining. It’s stated as follows:

Jakkals trou met wolf see vrou…which translates to “The fox married the wolf’s wife.” Go figure.

Happy day!

Photo from one year ago today, February 10, 2022:

Rita sent me this photo on Whatsapp of a tiny newborn bushbaby they found on the veranda. One of the Honorary Rangers, Nadine, picked up the baby to have the bushbaby cared for and eventually released it back into the bush. So sweet. For more photos, please click here.