What a busy world. It doesn't matter however because of "THE ASHES" WIN! Ha, Glen McGrath eat your heart out!!

Now there's that mad Iranian who needs high heeled shoes or else you can't see him, stealing the election, and causing more problems in the area.

Kennedy kicking the bucket, and BO still trying to get his medical scheme through. Not hearing much from young Hilary Clinton - good sign or bad sign?

In Afghanistan not all good there at all; dodgy election results and as reasonable as he may be Kharzai is not producing the goods, and yet our troops are still out there spilling their blood for him!

Recently of course the tsunami in Samoa and earthquake in Sumatra. Not good.

However what is good is England whipping the South Africans at Cricket!! All they have to do now is beat Australia. Umm!

Here in South Africa there has been the whole storm over an athelete whether she is a "he" or whether he is a "she". Surely he or she must know by now! Of course the SA atheletics boss told a "porkie" and caused huge embarrassment for the country by denying they had investigated him/her before, when they had. Zuma actually seems determined to stamp out corruption (except his own of course) and appears quite willing to listen etc and not be the firebrand we expected him to be ... not yet anyway.

Good old UK - Brown to stay on and take the country even further down the debt slope; hand it over to the new government and then 6 months after that say "you see, you were better off with me!" For any cricket fans, come out to SA this winter (our summer) and watch the England v SA test. I went to a game when they were last here many years ago. Unfortunately it was IN Durban and it took me 11 hours driving from the camp to get there. On opening the door and exiting from the vehicle I suddenly got this urge to walk like "The Duke" (aka John Wayne) - don't understand why. Won't try that one again! Then there was the whole drive back again. Well at least the test was a good laugh. Barmy Army, Barmy Army, and so on and so on.

Right it has been extremely busy here hence the missing out on one month - sigh of relief I hear. In August we achieved 78% at Safari Camp and 35% at Little Garonga; then for September 90% for Safari Camp and 33% for Little Garonga. We have a record. Never have we been higher than 80% ever. The staff have performed incredibly well, and it has been busy with lunches, picnics, sleep outs, weddings on top of the normal. Good slap on the back all round there. I did mention to them it would be great if we had that all year round, and then suddenly their jaws dropped slightly. It would be a nice thought.

So on that note I congratulate David and Julia on tying the knot here at Garonga. They were ably supported by the Northern Ireland "Four" Charlie, June, Heather and Valerie - all old mates/chums from the "good old days". Thanks Charlie et al for those hangovers, and also for the Night swim in the Pool with the Temperature not much higher than those polar bears! Welcome back Charlie and June! Also a warm welcome to the ladies from Unwind Africa who came to have Site Inspection for the one night. Great to see you all and thanks for all the support you give us!! In September many congratulations to Daniel and Mackenzie for tying the Knot. The whole camp was booked out for family for 5 nights, and a lovely location found on the banks of the "dry" Makhutsi river bed under a huge fig tree for the service. It was all great fun. We actually thought it was going to be an aussie family wedding and so were prepared to mention about the small thing called "The Ashes". Only to discover actually all were from the UK, only that Daniel and Mackenzie lived in Australia! Then also to Ian and Sarah who got married on the sleep out deck - congratulations to you both. A very warm welcome back to Terry and Jennifer; great to see you back, and yes, those whiskies took a bit of a pounding! Thanks Terry!! And to all those on honeymoon we wish you well and hope to see you back on an anniversary! It was all great fun, and I'm sure good friendships were made.

Well done to CJ, Hafric, Margaret, Sylvia, Phyllis and Peter for doing so well at Little Garonga. Excellent work and guests really enjoy the quietness and intimacy there!

On the safari front the guides have been out now for 2 months solid. Some spectacular game viewing, although sometimes very hard to find. Jaffeth used to come back regularly scratching his head quite frustrated, but all in time he used to nearly always "get his man", except to find Terry his leopard which was the one of the reasons he came back to Garonga as last time they did not find leopard either. Previously to this they had been finding the leopard 2-3 times a week. Murphy's Law eh! 5 x leopard sightings in August and 7 x in September. Good ellie, rhino and cheetah sightings, but again the lions have been playing hard to get, although they are seeing them but finding it quite hard to locate. The Garonga cheetah boys are doing fine, as is "AYA" feeding for herself quite capably. Walks have proven popular due to the cool mornings still, as well as the sleep outs which have proved amazingly popular! Now we are in "summer time" so to speak, the guests are now being woken up at 0530 hrs to leave around 0615 latest; tea is still at 1545 hrs as it is not really all that hot at present and can be quite dark sometimes when the cloud cover is low.

The Chefettes have been doing extremely well with lunches now lunch picnics, sleep out dinners, wedding cakes and the like. All those cakes now vanished to be replaced with delicious light salady type lunches washed down with some crisp chilled rose - delicious! Don't forget the health options - plenty of those still being ordered. Here is this months' recipe - give it a crack!

Garonga Recipe

Prawn, avocado and rocket salad with a spicy coriander dressing.

Serves 1

8 Prawns (cleaned)
2 Avocados (sliced)
A few rocket leaves
30ml sesame seeds
1 small spanspek (cut)
Juice of 1 lemon
Finely chopped mint

Dressing:
120ml olive oil
4 red chillies (chopped)
130ml coriander (finely chopped)
2 cloves garlic crushed

Steam the prawns. Mix the avocado, rocket leaves, sesame seeds, spanspek (use a melon baler for a different effect) mint and lemon juice. For the dressing just mix the ingredients to taste.

"As a child my family's menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it." Buddy Hackett

On the farm side Andy and his team have been doing incredibly well in the vegetable orchard - it is really taking shape and pretty huge. All we're waiting for are the ...rains, and then it will explode with life. The herb garden too also looking great. Lets never forget the farm team who provide the maintenance at the camps, maintain the waterholes, fences, roads etc - a long laborious task. The bush is looking of course pretty dry but there is plenty of grass out there and no real problems have evolved yet. It looks very promising for rains now, but nothing really happening as yet. In fact today it is "bloody mary" weather with the "Times" newspaper sitting around the fire! I say the "Times", but I sneak the "Sun" inside if you know what I mean. It looks good! The main waterholes are all still holding water well.

On the Bookings side things will start getting quieter now and December still has some openings there. January, February very low at present, but maybe bookings are coming in more at the last minute now. We are offering a stay for 4 and pay for 3 nights from 20 November - 18 December and from 10 January all the way through to the end of February.

New Images are also on the website and look superb - you don't need fancy passwords and all that nonse for the hi-res gallery, just go straight in.

Lets not forget the troops spilling blood in Afghanistan. The "Rifles" return from a long tour of duty out there and have had a number of casualties. If you get a chance support them on their return when they have a parade through Liverpool. To read more about supporting these brave men take a look at the help for heroes newsletter.

Finally a sad note again. George Snyman was killed in a helicopter crash in the Lowveld near Nelspruit. George designed and built superb swimming-pools for lodges, including Garonga. He was a great man and will be sadly missed!

Keep well out there. Enjoy the Indian Summer. Will catch up next month.

Bernie

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Garonga Safari Camp, PO Box 737, Hoedspruit 1380, South Africa
Tel: +27 (0)87 806 2080/1 E Mail: safari@garonga.com

 


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