Welcome to my blog! Thanks for reading!

Saturday, November 24, 2007

The Nedbank!

There are some things which still bring me great laughter in South Africa. The Foreign Exchange department of the Nedbank ... wonder what this might entail!?!?


Siviwe!

I promised that I'd show the world this picture! Congratulations on graduation Siviwe! And what a beautiful scarf you are modeling here!


Spaceship Earth ...



Sunrise in Stellenbosch ...



It's nice to think back about when I was up before the sun rise! Hasn't happened for a while now. Beautiful view from my little apartment.

And a wine farm ...

The pictures speak for themselves ...


Inside ...





And a few tastes later ...


Afrikaans Class trip to Franschhoek


Franschhoek in the sunshine! And back to the Huguenot monument.








Maropeng & Sterkfontein

This area is known for the Sterkfontein caves. We visited a museum/information centre at Maropeng and then had a tour of the caves where the hominin remains of Mrs Ples and Little Foot were discovered.




Kathy (my supervisor) at the Sterkfontein caves



The overground excavation site. Below there is a small plaque on the right where the remains of "Mrs Ples" were found and named by Robert Broom, a Scottish doctor.



Ellis the Tiger ...

Even though tigers are not native of South Africa, we found one enclosed in the lion & rhino park! This is Ellis!




Ellis is affectionately grooming her minder! And there's a bit of cuddling going on too ...




Big Hippo!

A couple of real sized hippos!


And the slow progression of them getting out of the water ...





I seem to be able to get lots of pictures of animals bottoms ... maybe it's an art in itself. Hippo's have an amazing way of poo-ing ... if you don't know about it you should really find out!


Pigmy Hippo!

We had lunch watching the pigmy hippo ...



Roan!

I think this is a Roan!



Lion!

And here are the pride of lions, with papa just beside the road we drove on!



Cheetah!

A Cheetah, camouflaged under the tree!

In this particular park they keep the cheetah, lion and wild dogs separate from the rest of the animals. Means that the other animals get a chance!



Wild Dog!

Some wild dogs which are actually endangered species. I'm not super keen on them!


Buffalo

Some buffalo!




heading off to the water hole ...





Wildebeest!

Wildebeest!



Which I think also tastes good ... (!).

Warthog!

Some warthogs!






When they eat they go down onto their elbows!

Waterbuck!

Here are some Common Waterbuck






Their distinguishing characteristics include looking like they have a toilet seat on their bottoms! Demonstrated beautifully in the last picture!