Langley Safari Adventure: Part 1

Top of the morning to ya!!  

     My family and I just returned from an incredible weekend with our Swedish friends: the Langleys family. They own a tourism business in White River and invited us to join them on a trip to Kruger Park for their daughter, Katelynn's, 18th birthday. 

     We saw an incredible amount of animals and learned so much from Hylton, Katelynn's father, that I am dividing this into parts... I think it may end up being four parts. 

     I'll try to be as brief as possible and share photos and a couple of videos if they load. Intertwined between the photos, I'll give you some facts I learned today!

  

Katelynn said most people say her dad looks like George Clooney... I initially thought he looked like Cary Grant; but now I agree that all three look like brothers. haha! - He is such a knowledgable man who is clearly passionate about what he does. He also has a great sense of humour! He taught us new words like "Gabro", which is the area of land that is more open and the trees are more sparse. Kruger, for instance, is mapped according to its various soils. You can go from thick bush with tall trees to flat lands with little bushes and sparse trees. That is simply because of a soil change. 

The lovely Katelynn, herself! In the short time that we have known her, she has already been a blessing to each one of the Whitlocks. She is such a mature young woman with a heart for the LORD. 

Dad was REALLY excited about using his GoPro... He actually captured a fight between some male lions we saw. I'm hoping that one will load. Frighteningly spectacular(!!!!!!!!!)... Especially since all 8 lions were - roughly- 50m from our vehicle.

This Silver Cluster Leaf was one of our first lessons... Hylton had us each pick one and simultaneously put them in our mouths and chew. DISGUSTING. With a high concentration of tannin, it completely absorbs every ounce of liquid in your mouth... It is the substance that makes dry wine... well, dry.

This was my reaction to the leaf... I would never survive Bear Gryll's show.

This is a Black-bellied Bustard. If you are a nerd like me and love watching NatGeo with your family, you may have seen the mating display this bird puts up on one of David Attenborough's shows. The Bustard flies vertically into the air and then drops gracefully to attract females.

A herd of female and baby Impalas. The "fast-food" of the bush. They have "M's" on their rear ends that looks like the McDonald's "M".

Mo, Katelynn, and I.

Graham and Dad.

Wildebeest. So majestic.

Zebras... Another animal you see A LOT.

I was all proud of my iPhone photography... But look at the next post that has SOME of the photos Gabbi captured. Blows mine out of the water, for sure.

"Well... That's all I have to say about that."

"Hamba Kahle, Tata Madiba"

     December 12^th and exactly a week after the death of Madiba was publicly announced.  Aside from the politics and peculiarity of the chronology of key events leading up to this announcement, I couldn’t help but notice that many world leaders came together and could agree on one point:

Nelson Mandela was the most powerfully humble and impacting world leader in history.

     Today, his casket was taken to Pretoria in Gauteng province. There, the masses queued at fields where buses and shuttles drove them up to the Union building where the casket was displayed under high security.

       

   My family and I drove the 3.5hrs to Pretoria so that we, too, could commemorate the life of the man we all (and especially my father) wanted to meet. Although my dad had the opportunity in the past, he chose to wait until the day we, as a family, could be introduced to Mandela. Sadly, this was not God’s will for us to meet him alive.

    

   When we arrived at the public park and ride area, we found the lines so overwhelmingly long that we knew many of those people – and especially those of us who had just arrived – would most likely not get the opportunity to see Madiba. We took some photos of the queue and headed back to our vehicle.

When we arrived in central Pretoria, all of the flags were at half-staff.

The public parking and ride area was FLOODED with people.

Dad has that look on his face where he is thinking about a Plan B.

Taking in the scenery...

Walking back to the car in pursuit of Plan B.

These are the lines we encountered when we arrived. I'm not sure if you can tell by this picture just how thick it was. 

    My dad, who will exhaust every avenue before defining a new realm to pursue, decided that we would try getting in another, less-trafficked area. Our new objective: the VIP Park and Ride...

    We arrived at Plan B and found a sweet-looking Afrikaans policeman who asked us where we were from.

   South Africans LOVE the American accent for some odd reason and God worked that in our favour. Dad told him we were from the states and he let us pass. After a few more layers of security, our family settled down in a shuttle with government workers and policemen. From there, we were driven to the front of the line with a few other secured shuttles.

  

   The Union building is a spectacular work of art. It also has a breath-taking view of Pretoria. When we arrived, we were conducted and watched by many police and military personnel who kept the queues flowing smoothly past the cameras and Madiba’s casket.

The ride up to the Union Building.

The Union Building... I was greatly impressed especially when I saw this F-250 

police vehicle. Oh yes!

   I have been to several funerals and looked at the lifeless bodies of loved ones. But it was never a reality to me at the funerals when I would see a once vibrant human lying still. I remember looking at my great-grandmother, Elisabeth, and expecting her to open her eyes at any moment and smile at me. Or when I stood over my great-grandfather, Morgan Thomas, waiting for him to sit up and break out into some spectacular operatic piece.  – I wept before both of their viewings; but I found myself almost void of emotion (or too mixed up with several) at their funerals because it just wasn’t real to me.

   

   Knowing this about myself, I was surprised by the great emotion I felt when I passed Madiba’s lifeless body. I had travelled three hours with my family, queued, and then caught all but 5 seconds of the face of a man I had read so much about.

   I looked at a little boy beside me in queue who shared heritage with this great leader. A guard greeted him by referring to him as a “young man”. His mother brought him - no doubt - as an investment into her son's future. A call to manhood as the policeman confirmed in the choice of words he used to address the woman's son.

    I looked at the thousands of people standing in the warm sun to see their “Tata”. I looked at the soldiers and security guys who organised the routes, transports, queues, display, etc. for their beloved leader. I looked at the many nations that came together. And then… as I turned my head away from where he lay, I saw some policemen holding boxes of tissues for those who passed.

“Feet away. Yet, a lifetime away.” –Abba

   

   The culmination of observations and thoughts welled up inside of me. I was sobered and near tears. I read  “Long Walk to Freedom”, heard Mandela speak on television, recalled his struggle, recalled his forgiveness, and listened to the endearing words of whites and blacks, alike.

    I do not intend to idolise a man. However, we worship celebrities and fools. Yet, here lay an honourable man who was honest about his sins and reconciled himself to those he could.

   Madiba has left a legacy that – as Morgan said – could last as long as 200 years if we remember and recount it to our children. The LORD did an amazing work through this man and gave him favour with man.  

   We - my family and I – are sobered and honoured by the fact that we can be a part of such a great history and share with our children and grandchildren.

     I see it as a mercy from God that despite our disobedience, He allowed the world to be led by such a man as Nelson Mandela.

“Hamba kahle, Tata Madiba… Go well, Father Madiba.”

Thanksgiving Week

Top of the morning to ya!!


     We have had an INCREDIBLE week! God has blessed our family tremendously with great friends and meaningful fellowship. I am at a loss for words. My heart is overwhelmed with gratitude. There were around 51 of us for Thanksgiving feast and we had a lot of help!

    I have also included photos from our time on Saturday at Induna. We were invited to join friends geckoing and then a lovely dinner at Summerfields in Sabe.

We were honoured to have our grown-up-too-fast Melina as she prepared to head to the states with Sarah and Roberto for the holidays. She is SO beautiful!

These are mom's apple pies. She made 2 apple pies, 2 lemon meringue pies, 4 pumpkin pies, and I made 4 pecan pies.

Graham working his magic in the kitchen. (Not sure what he was making.)

Carl and Kyle making their AMAZING potato mash... They did not half-step and our taste buds went ballistic.

Caiden was dedicated to chopping garlic for a VERY long time. I lost track of how many cloves of garlic he used.

Never muzzle the Ox! We had some fingerfoods: caprese, crackers with cheese, and stuffed dates w/ spiced pecans.

The glorious mash. They used dried, sauteed biltong to South African-ise it. So much flavour!

We set the main table how we would at home... But with 51 people and limited supplies (our shipment has not arrived, yet), we could only do the main one.

The Brundyn children actually looked the part! Gabbi got them all excited about dressing up like Native Americans. Several Afrikaans guests asked me where they were from... They couldn't believe it when I told them that they are pure Afrikaans, as well!

Carla Brundyn, Melissa, and Rene chatting.

Caiden and Carl

My lovely friend, Charlotte! She is such an elegant young woman. I found an idea on Pinterest to use washi tape for labels on glasses. That way everyone could write their names down and keep track of their glass.

Dad carved the meat with the help of Shaun and Jesse...

The partners-in-crime! Martin and Graham.

As you can see by the edit, I stole my mom's instagram photo of the tables. By the grace and provision of God, we ALL fit. 

Carl invited us to join him and the boys at Induna for some geckoing. It. Was. Spectacular!

Yea... The sun was in our eyes.

Dad called ahead and had Induna charge a GoPro camera for him. We enjoyed watching the videos he got of our trek downstream in tubes. He also got a video of himself as he jumped off a cliff into the water. We're already planning new adventures to maximise the use of this camera.

After about three hours of geckoing, we all went to dinner at a beautiful organic restaurant at Summerfields  just 5k's from Induna.

They have freshly-cut roses and other floral arrangements on every table. The ladies all received a rose as a gift at the end of our meal.

Mom and Dad... They're so photogenic! 

Craig had to get a photo with Mom, too. :-)

Kyle, Caiden, Craig, Graham, and Mo. 

Gabbi and I. 

Mom took a photo of this for my grandfather.... We were loving all of the details at the restaurant. I look forward to going again, one day! 

"Well... That's all I have to say about that."