Dear Garonga diary…
I’m Marietjie McDonald and I have been nominated to write this week’s diary. For those who don’t know me I’m the Hospitality Manager here at Garonga Safari Camp. I hope everyone is doing well and keeping safe.
Everything is going good with the team Garonga side, we are pushing through winter and luckily every day is filled with a bit more sunshine.
I think we can all agree that this lockdown needs to come to an end. Hopefully a cure to this unknown virus can be found soon, so that we can welcome back our lovely guests and enjoy a drink around the fire.
Here is what we have been up to this week:
Admin
It’s month-end time again, this means reconciling of invoices and statements, and of course stock take inputting for Bukani. She is doing an outstanding job and keeps a sharp eye on all these important aspects of the company.
Hospitality
I’ve been doing the month-end counting for beverage as well as housekeeping. I have been wrapping my head around all the different protocols and procedures that need to be put in place for when we reopen again. And of course the daily temperature checks of the staff to ensure that everyone is healthy and fit for work. We also received back some more dry cleaning items, it’s quite a mission to get everything back on the shelves, but on the bright side we get some exercise in the process.
Dolphine , Adelaide and Christina are our cleaning team ladies at Garonga Safari Camp and they ensure that all the areas are cleaned and disinfected.
Kitchen
Nomsa is our chef at the village ensuring that all the staff get treated with lovely warm winter meals. Her signature dish is beef stew and pap. Virginia is continuing to spring clean and disinfect all kitchen areas not forgetting she has also been busy with weekly stocktakes also. She is the reason for our smiles every Friday, of course Friday is cake day! This week it was the famous strawberry cheese cake.
Safari
The safari team have been busy with animal monitoring as well as bush clearing. They also did some more chainsaw training. Safari also completed their month end counts. Wednesday animal monitoring was not just an ordinary drive for Phineas and Bernie, watch Phineas’ video for more details on this…
And below we have an image of the cheetah that Phineas and Bernie were fortunate to see…
Maintenance
The maintenance crew is always busy with various tasks to be completed.
Some of the bigger tasks this week was burning and cutting the grass at the game capture boma and collecting fire wood for the staff village. Wood is classified as an essential item at the village in order for the donkey to work.
For those of you that don’t know how a donkey works, it is a water heater that doesn’t require electricity, gas or paraffin but instead wood as the fire warms the water.
Security
Lloyd also had his hands full with month end counts, keeping outside areas neat and clean around the lodge. He also got to do our weekly town trip.
Daily cleaning and maintenance of the pools is a priority for him and very exciting news is that he got brand new pool cleaning nets!
Staff game drives
Every Wednesday and Sunday our staff go out for an afternoon game drive.
This is a great adventure for all of us and great for getting some fresh air.
That’s all for the week, hope everyone have a great weekend!
Marietjie
Read more from our Garonga Safari Camp Diaries here
