I am getting behind on my blogging as we have been so busy doing fun things. Today we did a practice run for out trip to Kruger National Park which we will visit on Friday. We headed out this morning to visit a game farm about an hour south. Upon arrival we were greeted by a lemur who entertained us by leaping from car to car. Inside the reception building we met a 4 month old lion cub who was spread out on a sofa in front of the fireplace. We were gathered up by a young man with a baby ferret on a leash sitting on his shoulder chattering away to us. Our “guide” Maurice ran through the rules for us and then off we went for a walking tour of the farm. No cages but rather fenced enclosures, almost like pens. As this was about noon most of the animals were in huts or shelters but we did see African foxes, jackals, hyenas, tortoises, warthog, wild boor and a number of birds. The most impressive was the lion pair, male and female. They are the parents of the for month old cub we encountered in the restaurant. Unfortunately these animals are not in their natural environment but it was an opportunity to see them up close and learn about them in anticipation of of real safari on Friday. We made our way back to the reception/restaurant building for lunch and an opportunity to play with the lion cub. He is still on a bottle so one of our team was able to feed him.

Last night was our first “Rotary meeting” During a Rotary Friendship Exchange it is traditional to attend your host club’s weekly meeting, do a presentation featuring you club’s projects, give effusive thanks to the host club and exchange club banners with the host club president. As our team has Rotarians from 5 different clubs the presentations got a little long but it really was a very enjoyable evening. The Rotary Club of Vanderbiljpark is a small club but have an impressive list of worthwhile projects that make a significant impact on their community. One of the goals of a visit such as this is to identify opportunities to collaborate on projects in the local community. Often exchanges are with clubs that don’t necessarily have the financial resources to contribute; manpower and local knowledge combined with foreign dollars can do wonders. In fact, when we we visited a facility for severely challenged children last Saturday, I spoke with the director about their wish list and she identified possible ways in which we could have in an immediate way. I passed the hat amongst our team and raised $500 CDN to give to the director for the purchase of some needed kitchen equipment. Rotarians are doers.

We rose early this morning for a farewell to our new BFFs and our host for the last four nights, Esme and Desmond Young. Lovely people. Desmond was a Professor of Chemistry and Esme is a PhD in Chemistry now both retired. We joined the rest of our team for a 450 kms drive east towards Kruger National Park. Tonight we are in the town of Graskop, home of the famous Graskop Gorge, a geological feature that has created a deep canyon in the South African escarpment. It has been developed as a tourist attraction with a very nice restaurant, elevator ride to the bottom of the canyon, elevated boardwalk along the creek flowing through, zip line, giant swing and of course gift shop and local artisan market. After a walk through the lush vegetation we climbed into our van for a short ride to our accommodations for the night, the Autumn Breeze Guest house. Clean, very rustic and a very good restaurant. Our group feasted on alligator, ostrich, wildebeest kabobs. I had a nice curried lamb dish, Vicki enjoyed her trout accompanied by snail and the table shared a big five pizza, the big five being lion, leopard,rhino, elephant and African buffalo. Much wine was consumed by some, lots a laughs, sharing of expectations for Friday when we will have a chance to see the Big Five up close and personal in their natural habitat. Now to bed as we are on the road again early tomorrow. Good night all.