Kruger Park and Work Visa

March 24

Last weekend we went into the Kruger National Park. It's only an hour's drive from Nelspruit. What a wonderful place! It was like an enormous zoo, the only difference that it was the people who were in the enclosures – our cars!

We stayed at Skukuza. Which is the largest of the "camps". It is not really a camp but a little village in the park.

We had a 'Semi-Luxury' cottage. The emphasis was very much on the semi rather than the luxury. But it was fine for the night and it was right on the riverfront.

Mrs Warthog on her way to the shops. The family were trailing behind at this point.

From our cottage we could see elephants feeding on the far side of the river and while we watched about 12 of them, including some little wee ones, decided to swim across the river and feed about 5 metres in front of us. Quite magical really.

We went on one organised sunrise drive but we saw the most animals when driving by ourselves; elephants, giraffes, buffalo, impala, lions, zebras, hippos, crocs the list goes on. What we didn't see were rhino, leopards, porcupine, aardvarks etc, etc. Great, that means we will have to go back sometime to see them!

 A baboon leapt onto the car.

This is his hand on the windscreen!

Lots of Impala everywhere. They are very beautiful animals with fine features and shiny coats.

Zebra and Wildebeest often move around together. The Zebra like long grass so they munch it down for the Wildebeest, who like it shorter.

Not rocks, hippos! A family of 6. We watched for 10 minutes but they barely moved.

This young lady was browsing a thorny acacia by the side of the road and didn't seem at all worried about us watching.

I will be back in Tauranga over Easter.  There are problems with Andrew's work visa. It should have been all sorted before we came over but the company didn't get their A into G in time. Now it seems the best way to get things done is for me to come back and submit the application for both of us. The company don't want him to leave cause there is too much work! It may still turn out that the SA embassy refuse to allow it while Andrew is still in South Africa. In that case he would also have to come back. We will cross that bridge if we come to it.

Love

Pam

Elephants

March 21

We had a pretty quiet weekend. Andrew had work to do so that kept us house (apartment) bound. We did manage to get out to the shops and bought our selves a couple of desks, one for the computer and one for my sewing machine. We have been told our stuff has arrived in South Africa and we should get it in the next couple of weeks! We are not holding our breath.

Another little bit of excitement in the weekend was ...we went out for a walk! Only 30mins or so and just around where we live. We made sure we had nothing of value visible and dressed in tee shirts and shorts, trying to look very local. We only meet a few folk but all were very friendly when we greeted them with "Sawubona" Hello! it was great to be out and about and I am sure we will do it more.

Wednesday was a holiday, " Human Rights Day". We decided to go north to Hazyview,a small town about 60ks away, with lots of places to see. Our first port of call was to the Elephant Sanctuary. It was fantastic. We all know elephants are big but when you stand right beside them they are huge.

This is Casper the biggest elephant. He is 26 years old. What a beautiful wise face.

Kitsu the younger, smaller one giving me a very sloppy kiss.

Andrew is inspecting Kitsu's teeth. Interesting elephants only have four teeth, two at the bottom and two on top. Each one looks like several molars joined together. The teeth last about four years then they are pushed out by new ones growing in from the back of the jaw. Each set lasts about eight years. When the final set fall out the elephants have to find soft food and are really doomed to die of starvation.

We had lunch at a coffee plantation where Andrew chatted with the grower and learned a few more interesting facts and tips about coffee!

It was a great day and has really whetted our appetite for our visit to Kruger Park this coming weekend.

Lots of love Pam

The Sappi GoCell project site

March 1

Sorry for the long silence but it’s been a bit hectic. Here’s a few snapshots that you might find interesting.

All well here. The weather has been quite hot but no worse than Oz. Pam is finding the enforced idleness a bit hard to handle, especially since I’m gone by 6 am and don’t get back until 6:30 in the evening. She has been in contact with a local college that (like many schools here) runs an outreach program to provide assistance to the less advantaged schools. Today Pam is going out with another teacher for a visit to a rural school where a reading program is run twice a week and if it all works out, she might do some volunteer work there. So that would help to give a bit of shape to her week.

I’m enjoying the project. It’s good to back at an operating site and the team here are a good bunch. My Afrikaans isn’t improving much, even tho most of the locals use it whenever they want to get things done in a hurry. Despite the fact that the building construction is well advanced, the feasibility study still hasn’t been approved! We have a shut down in May and will do as many tie-ins as we can, despite the fact that we don’t have any P&IDs yet. It’s going to be exciting, that’s for sure.

Here are some pics I took on Wed 29 Feb 2012 of the Sappi GoCell project site. I’m standing on top of the pulp machine pulp storage tank.

Building columns going up for the new batch cooking, washing and bleaching plant.

Looking over the construction site to the Sappi engineering office on the right, GoCell project trailers on the left behind the trees.

Looking east across the distribution warehouse on the right, pulp machine 3 building on the left. I’m managing a replacement of the pulp dryer and some wet end mods.

To the north the continuous digester and fibreline 2. Here I’m looking after a small amount of new equipment, decommissioning of a lot of old equipment and a lot of piping.

This is my office which I share with the other Amec area managers and the Sappi area coordinators.

Outside the cabins it’s a bit like the OK Corral. This is where we have staff meetings, smoko and lunch.

From the project cabins looking back to the mill over the construction site.

The project cabins from outside.

Andrew Thorpe, 1 March 2012

Kaapschehoop

March 3

On Sunday we went to Kaapschoop, a wee settlement close-ish to the Sappi Ngodwana mill, where Andrew had spent his first week when he arrived last December. It's about 20 mins from Nelspruit. The place was an old mining town and appears to be caught it a time warp. This was the site of South Africa's first gold rush in the 1880s but this site didn't come to much. However the locals like it because it's 1600 m altitude so cooler than down in Nelspruit which is about 900 m.

We saw the wild horses, left when the British pulled out some time after the Boer War. They wander freely through the town, in the forest and on top of the escarpment. Much more visible than the Kaimanawa horses which I have never seen. We took a walk to the top of the escarpment through some amazing rock formations. We hoped to track down Adams Calendar, a stone circle thought to predate Stonehenge and the pyramids. When we asked a local she proceed to tell us all about the ghosts and apparitions she has seen, but thought the stone circle was just a hoax. Think we might ask someone else in town about the stone circles.

Wild foals

Mum and bub




Wild horse group near the escarpment. Weren't scared of us.



Probably the weirdest house in Kaapschehoop, but not by a large margin.



Walking through the rock field to the escarpment



Looking East from the escarpment

Looking South

Everlasting Daisies

Chimp Eden

March 3

The weekend was fun. We went out to the Jane Goodall centre for chimpanzees. A fascinating place. All 39 chimps there had been rescued, some from absolutely terrible conditions. These conditions had damaged the chimps mentally in different ways and they displayed this in dysfunctional behavior, like pulling all the hair off their arms, acting aggressively and throwing things at us, sitting quietly by them selves and so-on.

We hadn't realised that chimps are extremely strong. Our tour guide was telling us that a fully grown chimp was 6 or 7x stronger than he was and would kill a human with ease. Toward the end of our visit it became apparent they were unable to locate one of the chimps and feared he may have escaped from the very large enclosure. So when they asked us to leave we didn't hang around to explore the place further. We haven't heard any more of Claude's escape so guess they found him somewhere.

This is the edge of one of the enclosures. You can see the edge of the bush that makes up the centre. We're quite struck by how much some of the chimps in this pic look like people.

This guy had learned to clap his hands and then hold his hand up, meaning; "hey I'm over here, throw some goodies"

This is Murphy the Irish chimp keeper talking to one of his guests

It wasn't all primates. The main building had some nice architecture and landscaping.



Very Moroccan, we thought.







Cozy the chimp getting ready to scream and throw something at us



Phokani & Chakarza schools

March 5

Much cooler today, I am thinking I might need to put a jumper on! I have been quite enjoying the heat and don't want it to cool off too much. The pool here is not heated. Up till now it has been a delight to get in to but if it gets too cold my main form of exercise will have to change. Andrew is a bit starved for physical activity at present.. His bike is yet to arrive. He has managed a few swims but there is not much time In between coming home, having dinner and going to bed!!!

Yesterday was my second visit out to a rural school, a different school to last Thursday, but very much in the same vein. Again we worked with the grade three children who had to stay behind, specially for these English reading classes, when most of the other children had headed off home. Hard for seven and eight year olds to sit still and pay attention when it is hot and late in the afternoon. I felt a little more prepared this time, knew how long the lesson would last, what it was going to be about, how things would run, etc, etc, so I felt happier with the outcome. I would like to help with the planning and making of resources so things are a little more interactive and interesting for the children. We will see how that goes.



School notice at front gate saying "No sexual harassment, no guns, no robbery, no muggings etc etc"



Little shop close to the school.

Not sure while I am pulling a funny face but at least the kids are cute.

Kids coming out to say goodbye Phukani school



Cute grin


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Classrooms are much the same everywhere!



A rural supermarket

The school fence. Even the rural schools are targets of theft and vandalism