SANParks.org Forums

People at the meet:
Stephen and his family.
Gwen and SO
Freda and SO
BB and dad
Deville and his family.
I met Deville the next day and his feedback was that there needs to be one again soon.
Peter Piper
Nico and Yvonne
I hope I have not left anyone out.

I little more feed back.
The meeting was great. Lots of laughter. We have a couple of comics on the forum.
Once the party was over Freda, Gwen and SO's decided to escourt me home, as it was on the way to their respective tents and bungalows.
Only.. this where things get complicated. No one could remember the number of the bungalow. I was sharing with someone.
We looked, but all in vain... short of knocking on evey door, there was not much that could be done.
Freda, very kindly at that point offered to let me share her tent.. and her SO would sleep in the car.
I was not all together happy with that arrangement, but there seemed to be no other option at that point.
Off we went, but I was not too happy. I was anxious that my bungalow mate would be worried about me and I did not feel happy about Freda's SO having to sleep in their car.
Freda gave me a sharp lecture about wondering around outside and its dangers.
MM, can however be a bit stubborn..and I picked up my cell phone and off I went.
I found more or less where the bungolows were.. I had a choice of 9 numbers. After knocking and calling softly at each door, I realised this was a lost cause and decided to return to Freda's tent. Problem was, I have no sense of direction and could not remember where it was.
I also had only seen it in the dark and had not taken much notice of what it looked like.
I decided to try phoning or SMS ing... only problem, I had picked up Freda's cigarettes and not my cell phone.
I wandered until 5 am. I eventually decided to try the bungalows again.
This time I hit jackpot
My calls were heard and I was let in to sleep.
Next morning Freda did not know where I was and decided to phone me. Problem was, my cell phone was in her SO's pocket.
He had picked it up by mistake.
I was now starting to wake up after 2 hours of sleep oblivious to the search party looking for me.
Gwen had just received a message. "I lost Macho Mouse"
More to follow.

Oops, sorry, I forgot Jay and nephew.
It was great to have them all the way from the West Coast and Cape Town.
I hope the rest of their trip went well, as they had to leave very early for Skukuza.

MM was eventually found by the search party of four... just as she was about to freshen up with a shower.
It was agreed that it was not a good idea to travel back to G'teng after so little sleep.
We said our good byes and everyone went off on their respective game drives.
I decided to go on a quick drive before going to check with reception about availability of accommodation for the night.
I found this very bumpy road that left me feeling sea sick, but it just felt good to take that route.
I saw the usual collection of cars, indicating a good sighting.
"Lion" someone said. So off I went to find a good parking spot.
Someone in the next car started talking to me, I looked across... it was Freda and SO.
A little while later I heard Freda chatting to someone else....
I looked to the other side.. it was Gwen and SO.
So there we all sat, yellow ribbons and all, sharing Freda's muffins and watching lion.

only thing that spoilt the moment a little was the sandpaper in my eyes and the roaring in my head.
Later, I might let you in one the accommodation saga.
I think MM is making bungalow hopping an art form.

Jumbo, can you imagine Freda's face when she woke up to realise that MM had gone off with her fags .. and cigarette lighter.
No wonder there was such a quick search party on the go.
Unfortunately I lost the fags when I tripped over someone's tent pegs.
I am sure there was at least one person who thought that there was a very strange wild creature sniffing around their tent that night.

Just a short note to thank all the members that attended the meet, especially Stephen and Gwen for all the organization, it was great. A lot of new friends were made and hopefully we can do another meet soon again.
MM, Freda and So really kept us entertained for the evening, as Jay mentioned.

May I post Photos

Wow, what a night.

We arrived at BnD 16H30 and my dad put his car seat down and slept until about 19H00. In the meantime I went to meet the other forumites. It was wonderful to meet people that you 'know', face to face. I had only met Jay (at the Cape Town meet in March) and Stephen (2001++, Biyamiti) before.
When my wobbly man joined the party, he wasted no time before telling the fastest story that would make a sailor blush. Really, you can't take your parents anywhere. The only thing that happened faster was the inebriation of one member, to whom the evening must have been a dream. Anyway my Dad and Freda hit it off from the start, maybe because they both still have broad Lancashire accents that could be heard at Croc Bridge. This completely overwhelmed Stephen's numerically superior support group, who said nothing all night.
The Dutch contingent really have got the hang of this braai thing, and did it with aplomb. I would still like to see them do it in their own backyard in the middle of THEIR winter!

Peter Piper looked like he lost his comb 35 years ago, and the only normal people there were Me, Deville and his SO, although I am doubtful of them, they are from Nelspruit and the heat can get to you there.

All good (and crazy) things must end, and Stephen had organized to escort the geriatric and I to Malelane gate, and he squeezed his whole tribe into his bakkie at about 22H15, and we drove the 12 km side by side. As I had hoped, we came across 5 lionesses and 2 cubs on the road. There is nothing else in the BND area!

Seriously for a minute, it was a memorable evening and our heartfelt thanks must go to Stephen - how does he stay so thin when he eats so much - for his rare dedication to excellence. Of course he is a redhead like me and PP.

When & where is the next one.

You may find this hard to believe but we actually saw animals during the meet weekend
Gwen has better sable pics so I'll leave those for her to show:

Those ellies were lovely, one of the little ones fell over and they trumpeted at us then helped it to get up. Didn't meet any angry ellies at all.
The sable and hartebeest were both seen on the H2-2.
@katy, yes I have more pics, will try to post later, this den is on the H3 near Afsaal

I am posting my final chapter of the Berg n Dal mini meet.
It is entitled.. "Where did MM spend her last night?"
When I went to find out about accommodation, I was told that there were no bungalows available. They did however say that I could share Freda's camp site at a nominal fee.
With all the preliminaries settled, I felt good about staying the extra night.
Gwen and Freda really were my guardian angels and volunteered their SO's to help me with the tent once it cooled down.
Come 5pm everyone was gathered at Gwen's bungalow, and "operation MM's tent" started.
Gwen's SO had started a braai so Freda's SO kindly came with me to the tent site.
I took the tent out of my car and we found the best spot available.
"Now where are the tent poles?" he asked.
I went to my car boot and looked. and looked ... and looked.
No matter how much I looked, the tent poles would just not appear

The tent was in Berg n Dal and the tent poles in Skukuza.

Maybe we should have a poll on this:
Where did MM spend her last night?
a: in Freda's tent
b: in Gwen's bungalow
C: the back seat of her car (she is small)
d: looking for Mr Fox.

I suppose I am going to have to admit my part in all of this...tentatviely discussed sharing my Skukuza accomm. with meandering mouse, left early the next morning while MM was still peacefully sleeping.....then dropped my mobile in the toilet later, so had no contact no's for anyone, nor could they get hold of me till Gwen SMS'd late afternoon( I used the hair drier on my SIM card and put it in my nephews fone by then)... my poor fone didn't recover from the shock til 2 days after I got home

Photo made by Deville
jay, gwen, macho mouse, freda, peterpiper

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear

Meaning the Carling Black Labels

Txs for posting the picture
Great to see people enjoying themselves

.. and the techni colour socks.. among other things....
Gwen, of course looks bright and breezy and full of wisdom
Freda has the capacity to just go on and on and on.. Jay is our voice of reason.. PP, at this point looks a bit wind swept..