kruger park visit 2008
During November, I took my yearly leave and set off for a week long chill session at the Kruger Park with one of my friends. The Kruger has got to be my favourite holiday destination; It is cheap, close to Pretoria and a damn cool place in general.
We left Pretoria on a Monday morning early, by which time it was already pretty hot and humid. A sign of things to come no doubt. Arriving at the Malelane gate at about 9 AM, we already knew. It was going to be a hot day. A very hot day. On the way to Berg-en-Dal, we spotted 4 of the big 5, missing only the Leopard. Not a bad tally for a 10 km stretch of road. But then again, the Berg-en-Dal area is always a brilliant place to see loads of animals. If you ever go to the Kruger I would highly recommend this camp. It has won Best Camp for numerous years running for a good reason.
But back to the heat. The Monday was a scorcher. It touched on 43C in the shade with 80% humidity - or that is what the fancy weather thingy said, but it could not have been far off. Not fun at all. The only respite from the heat was driving around in my car, because it has air-con. Normally I take heat well - not that kind of heat though. We reached a silent agreement that, was it as hot the next day, we would head out to Badplaas, a resort close by, on Tuesday afternoon. Luckily by late Monday afternoon cloud cover came to our rescue and a quick shower during the night cooled everything down. The rest of the week, we had perfect weather! Partly cloudy with light rain late at night.
tree plant session
Over the weekend, we went tree planting in Furrow Road, close to Equestria in Pretoria East. It was the first “operation” by the newly formed Pretoria East Tree Huggers group. It was only a small start to get the ball rolling, but hopefully future tree planting sessions will be better supported.
The wetland area in Furrow Road, has been pretty solidly messed up by developers 
and residents alike. Used condoms, building rubble and general rubbish, makes it a bit of an eyesore. It is a pity, because it really is such a beautiful small piece of land, with the potential to be an urban animal haven. Between all the rubble and rubbish, I found this toad hiding.
People tend to miss the small things. Nature will always find a way as the saying goes.
Justin Bradfield - creator of the group on Facebook and the main driving force behind the tree planting initiative - has already planted about 55 trees in the area. Well done man! Recently Tshwane Metro also agreed to plant 21 more trees in the area. Once again thanks Justin!
If we can get people to just take some ownership of the areas they stay in, such a big difference can be made. Plant just one indigenous tree per month, pick up litter in your neigbourhood for just 5 minutes a week and you will be suprised at the improvement you will start seeing after a while.
rain spider
Catching it and taking it outside was quite the ordeal;
- They are really aggressive as can be seen in the photo. No trying to run away, these things come right at you.
- They are really fast… it almost got to my hand a few times. I took it out in a 5l ice cream container but it tends to not sit still as other spiders usually do.
- Have a look at the fangs…
- It freaken jumps at you.
But luckily I eventually got it outside and safely released in a far corner of the garden, where it now feeds on neighbourhood cats. And who says spiders are not usefull? Damn noisy parrot eating cats.
See here for a bigger version of the above photo.
