Sanctuary visits... for Monkeys & Herbalists

We had the good fortune of a visitor from Massachusetts, our friends from Wakefield have a goddaughter who attends University of Delaware and she is on a school trip to South Africa.  Bethany was staying at a hotel very close to us and she had a free day today, so we picked her up and after a quick tour of our house we headed to the Bush Baby Monkey Sanctuary.

We were instructed that many of the monkeys were former street monkeys who were trained as pickpockets and as we went in we saw a monkey chewing on a pair of glasses...we locked everything up but Katie kept on her real glasses as she needs them to see the monkeys!

We saw an amazing Ring Tailed Lemur family all hanging out together in a tree...the little one on the bottom shared Greg's talent of sleeping anywhere, he fell asleep even with the big one sitting on him! Greg was jealous of the lemur's nap as he stayed up late cheering on the Patriots here 

(Game started after 11 pm South Africa time!)

We crossed a cool swinging bridge with water & monkeys running below, one monkey hitched a ride on a guy as we got towards the end of the bridge.  Bethany with the Hughes gang...

Charlie really wanted the monkey to meet his blue monkey, the monkey was wondering what was up with the blue guy?

This monkey REALLY wanted Katie's glasses...luckily another guy grabbed the monkey before he was able to grab her glasses & scamper away!

Before we left a monkey jumped on Kelly, I'll try to post the video, its taking its time loading now!

We did a quick stop at this African market that has lots of interesting things, the kids had been before and couldn't wait to go back!

We also crossed over the bridge & went through the tunnel at the Hartbeesport Dam, here is Charlie at the overlook, there is a cool waterfall off to the right.

A few days before our monkey visit, we were finally able to visit another sanctuary, this one for gardeners and herbalists.  It is called Margaret Roberts Herbal Center, Katie had gone on a school field trip months ago and raved about it.  We had to wait for a Wednesday when everyone was free to go. (its only open to the public on Weds).  We loved seeing all the amazing things that were growing there and Katie and Kelly had us buy some cool plants to take home, Stevia, Aloe, Lemon Verbena & some Rubarb (to make Dad a treat)  We brought our friend, Miss Jenny, who has a beautiful garden at her house.

They had a pretty little chapel on the grounds, I liked the prayer, Kelly and Katie said they say something like it at school.

Here is Kelly by the amazing lunch salad, filled with edible flowers.

Here is Katie looking quite at home, sitting in the royal chair outside the Fairy Garden.

We wish we could bring all gardeners here as it really was an amazing place!

Tomorrow we leave for a very exciting adventure...we are heading to the Vaal River on a houseboat for one night.  Greg was studying up on his Rules of the Road so he can be our Captain for the trip.  Everyone very excited here, stay tuned!