Between Meetings

Monday, 1/17/11

Happy Birthday Aaron.

Most of Thursday and Friday were taken up with conference planning meetings at the university and with establishments around the city.  We did get a call late in the week from a new lodge, River Crossing, and they invited us to take a game drive on their 6.500 hectare (25 square miles) property.  This lodge is less than a year old and they thought this might be a good activity for the conference delegates.  So since our Friday meeting with the university was in the afternoon, we got up at 6:00 am and went up to the lodge.   JACKPOT!   What a fabulous place.  After a five minute drive from the lodge, we never saw another sign of human life for the next four hours.  Absolutely beautiful scenery.  Unlike Okapuka, the game here is not acclimate to human interaction so they are relatively skiddish.  Most of the viewing was across valleys or gulleys.

Beautiful open terrain.

This is mile high country (like Denver)!

Our guide was Albertus Dosh and the Land Rover could cover most any terrain.

   A steenbok in the grass.

 

Kudu crossing the gulley.

A herd of black wildebeest across the valley

Hartemann's mountain zebra

Zebra, blue wildebeest and springbok watching our approach.

Off they go.