Hanging at the Drak Shak

We had a four day weekend for Youth Day and headed for the Drakensberg Mountains and stayed near an area called Champagne Castle.  It is named for the middle peak below that looks a bit like a castle...

Our place we rented was called the Drak Shak and we LOVED it.  Just a simple comfortable house with beautiful views of the mountains.  Reminded us of the feeling of being in New Hampshire.  We played most of the board games in the cupboard and had a marathon Pictionary game! (don't ask Kelly who won)

We started our stay watching a concert at the Drakensberg Boys Choir school, the girls decided we should send Charlie there!  Charlie and I liked the gumboot dancing that they did at the end to traditional African songs, the gumboot dancing was said to have originated in the mines.

There was a nice hotel down the way and we played a great family soccer game, Greg, Charlie and I soundly defeated the girls.

It was Father's Day weekend so we treated Greg to a nice breakfast of steak & eggs and Katie and Charlie rowed him around the little lake for a bit...

Katie had started in the canoe with Kelly but Kelly was driving her bonkers so she abandoned ship and came in with us!

We headed for the local chocolate shop and devoured awesome chocolate fondue!

The beautiful flower on the table is a giant protea, the flower of South Africa, also the name of the SA national cricket team.

 We did have to watch out for the baboons, they crawled in our car at one point and Greg went flying out of the house to chase them!

The other wildlife we saw were beautiful birds at Falcon Ridge where they rescue birds of prey. At the show we enjoyed the cool owl that flew right over our heads.

We also liked the black eagle who was there then decided to go off flying, he didn't return before we departed for the day.  We were hoping he was going to attack the kid in the green coat, he was annoying all of us through the whole show.

The golf courses in South Africa are amazing and super cheap.  They also are quite empty most times. we managed to get out late on Saturday, Charlie, Greg and I.  This hole was amazing, you had to hit it over the water...I have to brag-I was the only one of the three of us to get it across....

It really felt like fall, there were leaves all over the course and beautiful colors in the trees!

Our crazy adventure was a scooter tour, where they drive you to the top of the mountain and you coast down.  I took it very slow, not wanting to hurt my ankle, Greg passed me at one point and Katie was doing figure skating tricks as she was flying down....Kelly rode with Charlie on her scooter-they were very cute together!

Happy to report survived the scooters, and were sad to leave the Drak Shack to head back to school!

Rhino Poaching in our own Backyard

A few weeks back I went to a talk at work all about Anti Poaching Efforts that are being done by various groups in South Africa and other places on the continent.   Rhino and elephant poaching are serious problems and they are deploying some good technologies to try to combat it.

One group here at the University of Pretoria runs a forensic lab where they map the DNA of rhino horns (both living and dead) so that they know where all the rhinos are and if horn is found in the marketplace they know where it came from.

Here is a link to a video done on the lab. (this is the lady I saw speak)
http://www.up.ac.za/en/the-onderstepoort-veterinary-genetics-laboratory/news/post_2032325-rhino-dna-mapping

Dr. Harper also gave examples of a few cases where the DNA evidence was used to convict people selling illegal horn.

Sadly, the same day I saw this great talk, three rhinos that live in Reitvlei Nature Reserve were poached.  Two adults, one was a pregnant female that was carrying an almost full term baby.  There are pictures on the local news websites, but they are too disturbing to post here.

For all of our friends and family that have visited, this is the place that is about 15 minutes from our house that we always visit.  So tragic!   Especially because this Nature Reserve cuts the horns off the rhinos to prevent poaching.  In this case, the horns had grown back a bit and the poachers must have believed they had enough horn to make it worth their while.

I hope that the poachers who killed the beautiful rhinos at Reitvlei will be caught!  I also hope that education efforts can be stepped up to get people to stop believing that rhino horn has magical properties!

The next time you read a snippet in a magazine about poaching, know that it is real and not something that just happens in remote places, this Nature Reserve is down the street from a shopping mall!  For a little perspective for my Wakefield friends, it is like someone killing an animal at the Stoneham Zoo!

More upbeat posts to follow, took me awhile to do this one because I was so disturbed by it!

Better than Fondue!!

We have been keeping busy here, school activities and farewell parties as friends are getting ready to depart for new places in the world.

Our German friends hosted us for an outstanding night last night and introduced us to a Swiss tradition that they have adopted, it is called Raclette, and its like fondue but even more fun, because everyone makes their own pans of whatever creations they like.  I foolishly did not take any pictures of us cooking and enjoying our great meal, however here is a story all about it..http://www.styleathome.com/food-and-entertaining/party-planner/all-about-raclette/a/27840 

Charlie kept cooking things (because it was so much fun) then not finishing them, so Greg had to eat more than he planned.  As we drove home we were thinking of all the friends it would be fun to have Raclette nights with!  Our buddies head home to Germany soon and we will miss all of our adventures with them.

Charlie has been kicking off his Saturday mornings playing tag rugby at school.

He is about to do the kickoff in this photo!  He really enjoys rugby and it will be sad to think he may not play it again after we leave!

The girls and I went to their school to watch the Senior Girls and their dates arrive for the Matric Dance, I could call it the porsche parade, as everyone arrives in crazy cars.

 Here is the picture of the hall set up for the formal dinner, South Africans don't mess around when it comes to party planning...

This one wasn't a porche..they have bleacher set up for everyone to come and watch the arrivals, and they had mini glasses of sherry for the spectators.  Sherry is a very common drink here, especially in the "winter".

We had a little fun beforehand in the photo booth...

Kelly is a certified Ice Hockey Ref in South Africa, we think she may be the only girl ref on the continent. She has refereed Charlie's game two times now.  We staged a photo of Charlie trying to buy some favoritism with the ref prior to the game...he is handing her a 100 Rand note.

Yes, our team is the Pretoria Capitals...does the logo look familiar??

That's all the news for now...busy planning some more trips, stay tuned!