Unfortunately, since wildlife is only marginally more cooperative during photo shoots than five-year-old boys, many a special moment did not result in a special photograph. Also, all too often by the time you've dug your camera out the moment is over, so in order to appreciate it fully you need to forget about the camera, at least sometimes. As anyone who has kids will know.
When I was a child, we always camped on our family holidays - and the destinations were quite frequently game reserves. One of the advantages about not camping, is that you get the opportunity to be much closer to the wildlife - if you were that close in a tent you'd be at risk of being flattened by a passing elephant. We felt, from our chalet balcony, that we were right 'out there'.
The view was spectacular. One felt oddly tempted to attempt to impersonate Meryl Streep being Karen Blixen.
The chalet wall itself actually forms part of the camp boundary. So you might, say, be firing up your braai at around 5pm,
hear the sound of breaking branches nearby, joke about an elephant being around, have a quick look about, and
There were two of them, in fact, ambling along, munching up trees for their supper. I've never been so close before. It was incredible.
Some of the locals were very interested in our bowl of fruit.
Then there was the morning when I woke early and went out to watch the sunrise, which was ridiculously glorious. The absolute quiet you experience in a situation like that is hard to believe. And then I was thinking how the best and most beautiful sunrises require a partly cloudy sky, and I was thinking how profound and symbolic that was, when I realised I'd definitely heard that one before. (Silver lining, anyone?)
And then Lauren joined me, and cuddled up in my blanket, and we watched the morning some more together.
A little later, we saw a mother bushbuck nursing a calf so young it might just have been born the night before.
We saw other mums and babies too, on our drives.
Danny's favourite animals were the warthogs
while Robyn loved the antelope, like this impala (accessorised with two tickbirds),
and Lauren picked the giraffes.
The park is very dry at the moment. There's been quite a drought for about seven years, especially severe the last four. Where there should be a great, wide river, there's - not.
We saw a lucky rhino who'd found a relaxing muddy spot,
and a touring river craft which isn't going to be afloat for a while.
We saw loads of rhino, in fact, as you'd expect in Hluhluwe.
During the hot part of the day, from mid-morning until late afternoon, the animals tend to lie low, so generally we relaxed around the camp during those times. We enjoyed the pool.
Especially the part when a raptor swooped down on us and made off with a bit of our pool-side picnic. Way too fast for a picture.
And the part when we were debating, after noticing nappy-less Stephen patting experimentally at a nearby puddle, which would be an indicator of worse baby-care - a puddle of wee or a puddle of Spin.
It always take us a while to unwind when we go away - but after that particular afternoon (I think it was the afternoon of the second full day), I finally felt very relaxed. We decided to extend our trip by an extra night - so in the end we had five nights instead of four.
On one occasion at the pool, I was rough-housing around with the kids in the water. It was a chorus of 'my turn, my turn' and then there was a voice I didn't recognize saying 'my turn, my turn' and it was a child that we had definitely not brought with us. (I'm sure of this; I did a head count.) Well, not being at all sure that the sun-bathing parents would appreciate their precious daughter being dangled menacingly over the water by a loony strange woman, I managed to wriggle out of this one, feeling a little bit sorry for her though. The poor child didn't seem to think it worthwhile asking her own parents to play with her; said parents were very firmly attached to their pool loungers and magazines. A few minutes later I heard her asking, 'Please will you play with me?' I looked up, pleased, and slightly curious as to how the parents would respond, only to find she was asking another unknown (and slightly nonplussed) guest to play with her!
Perhaps the parents are incredibly hard-working and dedicated 99% of the time and were simply taking a well-earned break. That must be it.
You have to drive really slowly in game reserves and the roads are very quiet, so we made use of some alternate drivers.
Certain members of the family came on the holiday armed with technology. Between us, we had the following: three cell phones, two laptops, one Nintendo DS, one iPod, and one car battery inverter. With the exception of something to play our audio book on (on the way there and back) I'd quite happily leave all this stuff behind, and most of the time my phone is switched off and buried deep in my bag.
The girls were stunned to learn that you can actually play Klondike with real live cards (note the iPod set temporarily to one side).
What a fantastic holiday.
