African Shark's week end news

Just busy sorting our new pics for the newsletter.
I haven't written a newsletter for ages. Not sure why, maybe its because I receive so many newsletters that I simply hit the delete button, and so I cant really see the point of sending out one myself only to have someone like me delete, delete, delete.

Our transfer side of the business seems to be taking off. Its still really early days. Wellington has been doing quiet a few Eastern Cape trips over the Christmas period. This "taxi" side has certainly been an eye opener for me. Not only have we ferried passengers we have also carried 2 couches and a 2 coffins so far for funeral trips. These trips are called "special" trips. Its quiet involved with having to sort out death certificates etc to have the correct papers to transport a coffin.

Got a phone call yesterday saying Wellington had a fender bender. Great stuff! Just waiting now to see the extent of the damage.

All quiet on the home front regarding the shark attack last week. Perhaps the devastation in Haiti has kept the media from focusing more on this incident.

We went to the beach yesterday with the kids. Its amazing how much fun kids can have just running in and out of the surf. Adam received a red swimming cap for Christmas and so he has to take it to the beach with him. He looks so darn funny in his little spider man costume and a swimming cap.

We are thinking of perhaps moving. Now that we have another staff member working from my office at home space is of a premium.
We had a look at some homes in Noordhoek yesterday. They were totally overpriced and really not great at all. We would still have to spend a fortune converting them to our needs.

Going to add some holiday pics to facebook now!

Day 5. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

We headed off at 6am to Nduma game reserve an hour and a half away. It started to drizzle as we arrived there, and we had planned on having a skottle breakfast before setting out for some bird and game watching.

Nduma can be described as a sub tropical mini Okavango. Its situated on the Pongola river flood plain bordering Mozambique There are 2 long pans; Nyamithi Pan, 4kms, and Banzi Pan 6kms, which host a diverse avian population and Nduma boasts more than 400 species of birds. It also has the highest density of hippo and plenty of crocodiles.

We arrived at the Picnic area and the drizzle had subsided, so we whipped out the gas and I started to make bacon and eggs. This is where the beginning of the wheels fell off the bus. The kids decided on getting as muddy as possible and running around me whist cooking. Despite Rob’s threats of a smack and then a good smack each, they continued to run wild. Afterwards, our best attempts to clean them up failed, and I wasn’t prepared for the amount of mud in our car. Then, they started fighting in the back, and so that made bird watching impossible. Next, we tried to go to a bird hide. We spotted a Palm Nut Vulture, which is unique to this area! I was very thankful that we were alone, as my hooligans, then continued the fight over the binoculars.
Jordan has suddenly become petrified of crocodiles, and so, when she spotted one she then went ape. Adam kept running up and down the hide, as only a 2 yr old could and so we took a deep breath and decided to go home, chalking this up to a very bad idea.

We both really want to go back there, but the next time it will be minus the kids.

Rob took some nice pics of a Steppe Eagle.