Year: 2023

The Governor General of Queensland her Excellency the Honourable Dr Jeannette Young AC PSM arrived in her official car and we all filed into a large hall. The handlers and the Graduates were all there, handlers on the chairs, graduates by their feet. Yes, this was the Guide Dogs Graduation Ceremony for their dogs and…

Ziggy is a baby Zebra. He is about three months old. He came to eat lucerne ( they supplement some food for the animals in the dry season ) with his mum and dad and Christine noticed he was limping. She called the vet and he came to remove a wire from his leg which…

This was our home for a few days, the creation of Christine Pulvermacher and family. 297 hectares of bushland adjacent to the Greater Kruger. It is a wonderfully serene, private and luxurious tented camp in the wild. She has created accomodation which is refined, comfortable and considered and totally respecting of nature all around it.…

On our game drives we had the good chance to come across a pride of lions. Two males, six females and a cub. We saw them on two different occasions. On the one sighting they were quite sleepy. Well fed perhaps so not much reason to move. On the second occasion they were also lying…

Down to South Africa to meet our dear friend Christine and her family from Geneva days. We headed to Siviti Homestead near the Greater Kruger. https://yourperfectafrica.com/sole-use-villas/timbavati-homestead/ We were in Thorny Bush Nature Reserve where we spent time spotting birds in the trees and animals at the waterholes. Game drives with our guide Tian and our…

Driving and walking in Rwanda left me with no doubt that Rwandans are hardworking people, but also kind and caring and with a good sense of humour. I would say the women do a large part of the work -they work the fields, manage the home and so many have a baby on their back…

In Virunga we had the opportunity to visit the Ellen de Generes Centre for Mountain Gorillas.https://gorillafund.org/ellencampus/ Ellen greeted us with a televised message at the entrance. Its a big complex with a research centre, an exhibition area and trails. We explored the history of the conservation efforts of Dian Fossey and loved to hear her…

4th October at Virunga Lodge An early 500 am wake up with spiced coffee and a lovely breakfast before heading off to the Park entrance for our briefing. On the programme for today were Golden Monkeys. Our guide was Emmy and he told us that it was very likely that we would find the monkeys…

We visited a special park.The park is open every year for the Kwita Izina Gorilla Naming Ceremony. This year it was held on the 1st of Sept. Ir takes place on the foothills of Volcanoes National Park in Kinigi, Musanze District, joining the communities living around the home of the endangered mountain gorillas. The ceremony…

Virunga is about three hours drive from Kigali. The roads are excellent and all along are pavements or bikeways, safe places for the many people on foot or on their bicycles. We saw many people toiling with huge loads. We saw cyclists swishing by, locals with doors, sacks of potatoes and water cans on their…