Helgard's Birthday

Yes, Once a year it happens. Friends were invited and we had a great day. Ursula and I prepared Oxtail in a slow cooker already the previous evening. It must have been a success because Eddie also bought a slow cooker! I have to mention that Ursula is an exellent cook and without her it woudn't have been such a success.

One good thing about my birthday is the agreement I have with my friends that we do not buy each other presents. This is very convienient because you can just visit the friend that is having his birthday without stressing about buying a present. Us guys don't like to shop.... Well I must say I got very nice presents form other people that I do not have the agreement in place.
More photos are in this set

Camping

Yes we went camping and the weather played along. Appart from the tent that Ursula bought in Taiwan we didn't have any other camping gear. We packed what we had, mostly food, blankets, and set off north. Ok we stopped for some supplies at Camping Warehouse but ended not buying everything from them, The sales assistant convinced us to go across the street and we found what we needed at Game (camping chairs) and at Builders Warehouse (shade netting). At Camping Warehouse an old guy starterd talking to us while we were trying out the camping chairs and it turned out that he knew the area that we wanted to visit, we followed his recommendation and camped at a place called "Temple" just outside Nylstroom.


The campsite was completely booked out and it took some "mooipraat" to get a camping spot. We ended up in a spot that the were that is guaranteed to be flooded when it rains....fortunately it didn't. It is winter here and the night was cold, we sat as close as possible to our small fire. We slept surprizingly warm, but without a mattress the ground is hard.
Next morning we set off to do more bird watching at Nylsvley nature reserve and at Vogelvontein a private farm next to the Nylsvley nature reserve. In our hurry to get out of Pretoria (That is a different story) I left my bird guide at home so we took pictures of everything with feathers to identify it later on the PC. Check out some of the better photos here

We were pleasantly surprised when we could hire binoculars at the nature reserve. The guard even let us leave the reserve to bring it back after we visited Vogelvontein. Ursula used the binoculars and I had my camera with the zoom lense so we were sorted. There were a lot of birds to see with quit a lot of water around. We spent the day in the veld and went back to Naboomspruit to grab something to eat. We ate a two different fast food restaurants, well I won't go into that, another different story. After the food we could think straight again went back to the campsite to pack everything for home. We stayed on the R101 and drove back slowly in Warmbaths we stopped for ice cream to end a great weekend out.

Rondebult

During the long weekend we got word that a Western Reef Heron was spotted at Rondebult Bird Sanctuary, photo's here. Ursula, Gert and I set off at 6:00 to see if we are able to get a glimps of the bird. The Freelander was packed with a coolerbox full of beer and cooldrinks and everything you need for a braai. We didn't get to see the the Heron at Rondebult although people we met claimed that it was spotted earlier the morning, someone actually took these photos.

We had the whole day still so we set off to Merrywale. It is a marshland and there are a lot of waders and all kinds of birds that has something to do with water. Took some pictures but my pictures were mostly dissapointing. A highlight of the day was a family of otters.

The first time I see them in the whild. We braai-ied and sat and chatted nearly the whole day. The best remark of the day was when Gert told Ursula if she does bird watching for two more days her whole life will be f...ed up, because that is all you would want todo in future, Guess what we did the next couple of days....

Peter Smit at Firkin

As usual on a Thursday night we were at Firken but Gert and Rudy were late. Pieter Smth's show started and after the second song Gert and Rudy joined us, with unusually big smiles. We asked what is going on because they were giggling like girls and wearing thick jerseys. After dragging it out of them ... Rudie bought a Porsche Boxster S and he was ecstatic, we rushed outside to have a look,and listen to the engine. Hope I get a test drive soon...

The show was good and loud! Pieter's show is recommended. Have a look at the nights photos here.
After he finished another band started and performed but they were too loud for us and we left promptly.

Serviette Rings

Ursula kept herself busy one night by making serviette rings for us. It is quite simple just a short piece of wire and a couple of glass beads.

It is amazing how good these look like with light shine through them.