A month in Africa

I have been in South Africa for a month. The first port of call on this amazing journey was to stay in the home of Ingrid and Les, in Pretoria. Their niece, Nici, was being married at Giraffe Camp in Limpopo and I would drive there with them to officiate at the ceremony in conjunction with Father Chiko (a Portuguese Catholic missionary), attend the celebration and all the associated pre- and post-wedding festivities.

These are two of the ten tortoises who live in Ingrid and Les' garden!

Ingrid and Les had been incredibly involved with the preparation for the wedding and their house was filled to the rafters with the most amazing collection of 'things' that needed to be taken to the venue - cake and knife for cutting, flowers for bride's bouquet and decoration, food, drink, decorations made by bride's mother, ice and ice bucket, champagne, rug for the couple to kneel on, flares for the garden, candles, innovative candle holders made from plastic soft drink bottles to 'plant' in the ground...................... the list goes on. We traveled in two vehicles + trailer as 3 adults, their luggage and all the wedding stuff would not fit into one car.

The drive took us almost 6 hours, traveling north east from Pretoria, through beautiful rural countryside and, in the afternoon, beside the Drakensberg mountain range. We stopped for lunch in Dullstrom, a small holiday town where fly fishing is the main holiday activity.

In the late afternoon, after traveling comfortably in convoy all day, we arrived at our destination - Giraffe Camp, close to Kruger National Park - a small, private game reserve that has 8 one bedroom cabins and a central cooking and dining building. It is a self-catering camp, so everything that was needed for a four day stay for 2 people in each cabin (16), a pre-wedding dinner for 25, a wedding reception for 60, a post-wedding brunch for 30, had to be brought in and prepared and served by those in situ. The camp provides outdoor staff and some kitchen help.

For some reason this blog won't let me load pics right now so - the following pics (which are actually above this post) are a snapshot of the camp and the people and the animals.