14. A Marvelous Night for a Moondance

Sharing the amazing moonrise and full moon

of the past 2 nights!!! 

Tried to post on FB - but Blog won....More people read this anyway.

I discovered you can click on a picture and it will enlarge for a closer view. 

13. Art - A Walk (Drive) on the Wild Side - Part 3

Meanwhile, back at the game reserve...

there is more than beautiful scenery and wild animals.

Our "Art Tour"  starts with this lovely sculpture of a rhino located outside the Centenary Centre.

This centre houses a craft market and a snack bar. (Mmmm - ice cream!) There is also an auditorium which we didn't visit.

Behind the sign you will notice some of the thatched roof.

As the sign indicates, this is the entrance to the Vulamehlo Craft Market. The word vulamehlo means, "Open Your Eyes." What a great word, eh? Inside there is indeed a feast for the eyes. It is full of crafts - carvings, baskets, jewelry and more. The building is round and there is a walkway all around the interior circumference. The middle of the building isn't covered and has "green space" which also lets more light in.

Come inside.....

Here's a typical view. Many of the crafts are on tarps on the floor. This shows some carvings and the pots in the background are traditional Zulu beer fermenting pots.

Baskets - Baskets - Baskets!!!

These are traditional Zulu baskets. Traditionally they are used for storage of dried goods such as nuts, beans, etc. They come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. The different designs represent different things - diamonds for females, triangles for males - as does their arrangement. They are woven from grasses and palm leaves. Some of the colours are obtained by soaking the leaves in various natural mixes such as mud or cow dung!

This close up shows some of the intricacies of the weaving. There is a wide variety in quality. Tight weaving and smooth in/undersides are indicators of better quality. Also, a more skilled weaver is able to arrange the diamonds etc so that they are evenly spaced all around the basket. So a basket that ends with a partial diamond is not as "good" - if the buyer cares about those things!The quality is reflected in the price.

This basket, while pretty, doesn't have very tight weaving.

More recently wire has been added as a weaving material. The wire reminds me of the old telephone wire - fine and pliable and very colourful.

The fine gauge allows for intricate designs!
Bowls are often made of this material.

Here are some more carved animals.

I don't think the front bowls are wood, but rather some type of heavy pottery that has been painted.I don't think they are local though.

This is a closer look at the clay beer pots. The black ones are the more traditional colour and typically they have some carving around the top. A woven mat would be used as a lid.

Thanks for joining me on this Art Tour!
I hope you have a feel for some of the traditional art of the Zulu people.

Drop me an email or leave a comment.
Thanks for stopping by  :-) 

12. A Walk (Drive) on the Wild Side - Part 2

Here are some more pictures for you to enjoy from our day at Hluhluwe Game Reserve.

This is an impala buck. Aren't the horns great?!  

A female impala 

This is the "reverse view" of the impala. They have a nickname of MacDonald's -- notice the (not quite golden) arches and they can be found around "every corner" - they are so common!

This baboon is quite happy with its prize!!

A younger one - sulking on the roadway - and refusing to move.

What do you think? Might be a two-year-old who has had enough of

following after mom and just wants to chill....

This cutie is a warthog! 

Here are some wildebeests (aka gnus). We saw a fair number of them - often in a group.

There were also many birds - which are much harder to photograph than large animals.

This one is called a European Roller Bird. 

At one point we were told that there was a lion! This is a very exciting find and off we went down the path to find this majestic creature. Unfortunately we missed it. We did see many birds of prey in a tree and winging and gliding around the location where the lion was supposed to be. They included vultures, yellow-billed kites as well as some interesting eagles. We think that  the lion's kill was down the hill in the tall grass - (and out of site) possibly with the lion there - eating. The birds of prey were hovering, waiting to swoop in and continue the feast.

At one place there was a hide. In this building there are benches and a window looking out over a water hole. We saw some more impala and wildebeests. There were weaver bird nexts hanging from tree branches - they look like woven shopping bags.


Of course I have m-a-n-y more pictures but these and the ones on part 1 give you a good cross section of what we saw that day. Pretty amazing - isn't it?

11. Sign at the Mall

 

What's left to say?

10. A Walk (Drive) on the Wild Side Part 1

So while my Canadian friends were wondering if March would come in like a lion or a lamb, I was out looking for lions!!
After waking up at 3:30 and getting on the road by 4 am it was wonderful to see this sign - around 6:15 - pointing us to our destination!! This park (Hhluhluwe iMfolozi) consists of 960 km² of hilly topography which is often referred to as the Savannah or veld. Due to conservation efforts, the park now has the largest population of white rhino in the world and they have been brought back from the brink of extinction. We actually saw 2 men patrolling the park (on foot, with guns) looking for poachers. 

We registered at the gate and were off on our adventure! Going on a safari - or visiting a game reserve is much like going for a drive in the country - but slower. You cruise around on the park's roads eyes ever searching along the sides for signs of wildlife.

At 6:40 am, after only a few minutes in the park, we had our first sighting! Right beside the road were white rhinos!! (much like these - mom and baby - which we saw in the afternoon)

 We stopped and watched for quite a while. After a few minutes this baby got up and took a stretch.....

Then walked around and started nursing!! 

Quite amazing to be able to witness this!!!   The 3 moms in the car were not sure that it would be too pleasant with that horn poking up! 

Around 7:45 or so after spotting some Tawny Eagles and Nayla (too hidden in the trees to photograph) we stopped at a lovely spot for a picnic breakfast.

Once on the road again we were soon face to face with some zebras!

Here are a few others we saw later on in the day. Sweet eh?

Around 9 am we met an oncoming car who informed us that there was a VERY LARGE elephant up ahead and we might wish to turn around. Well we proceeded cautiously around every turn until suddenly....

we were face to face with this bull elephant. Quick! Shift into reverse -- it's a delicate balance between watching and trying to get amazing photos - and giving this guy room! He was a man with a mission - strutting purposefully down the road and not slowing down at all! We gave him the space he was craving and watched as his purpose became clear. He stopped at a water hole and stopped for a long drink!! (Never interupt a fellow at tea time!!)

The brown down his face indicates that he is in musth (a state or condition of violent, destructive frenzy occurring with the rutting season in male elephants, accompanied by the exudation of an oily substance from glands between the eyes and mouth.)

Once he reached his destination he was happy to ignore us and we were happy to watch him! It is really hard to judge the size from this picture but suffice it to say that its legs were taller than the car!

Later on in the day, (around 3:30) we were driving in quite a different part of the park when we had another elephant encounter. This time there was NO warning. We turned a corner and he was right there!! YIKES! The road was windier and backing up was tricky. Plus, as soon as he saw us he started picking up speed. It was quite scary - so photos didn't even happen! (but he looked quite similar to the one above....) We did manage to back up out of his way - including a very fast switching of the drivers -  and we were all quite relieved when he turned off the road and down a path in a different direction. (Thank goodness we were with experienced South Africans! )

I've decided to post this as more than 1 entry. This way you can see some of what the day was like and the magnificance of the animals. I'll keep working on getting the rest up.

I would love to hear from YOU! Either leave a comment or email me.Thanks for stopping by!

9. Quick Note

Thanks for stopping by to check up on me. Things are going great. I've met so many lovely people and join in with Loreen doing some things in the community. I've started taking pottery classes! Things at school are going well. I've learned all the kids names and can even pronounce them accurately or pretty close. I take the class for at least an hour each day on my own while Loreen gets some time to do her admin. work. I'm teaching all the math for now. Plus I'm busy the rest of the time working with individuals and small groups etc. I am currently working on my next blogpost and should have it up soon. It'll be about our trip to the game park. Editing the pictures and resizing them to upload quickly takes a lot of time - hence the delay. Stay tuned - pictures are coming!!

8. Schoolyard Visitors - Not as cute as they look

The school I teach at in Guelph has a resident flock of Canada Geese. Most of the time they keep to themselves but occasionally they venture up to where the portables are. Although a bit of a nuisance, and rather messy - for the most part they leave us alone.

 

Zoom across the world to S. Africa. The other day we had a small troop of vervit monkeys show up on the playground. They are cheeky and brash. First about 3 would climb up the mango tree and throw the mangos on the ground. Their friends would grab them and run into the bushes usually and munch away. They got bolder with time and would run to different parts of the playground - like on the play structure.

 

They would also try and get the children's lunches. They've been known to open lunch boxes and choose what they like. One teacher was telling me that she watched them go to a kid eating lunch, take his sandwich and open the bread to see what was inside and then put it back!~!  They were really hard to photograph because they are so fast. I finally put my camera on burst mode and caught one running -- here are 3 consecutive pics - about 1 or maybe 2 seconds.

The location compared to the car tire gives you some idea of their speed.

I like the next 2 because you can see their paws/hands.

Closed!

Opened!

These monkeys were just passing through and were only there for 1 day. Their appearances vary in frequency - maybe once a week in the summer and once a month in the winter. But they have been known to hang around for a few days in a row.