Delana & I arrived in Sabie Park late afternoon on 12th March. Exactly thirteen months since our last visit! The covid pandemic certainly changed our plans! The house had not be affected by the recent floods but it was terribly overgrown having been neglected all this time. Inside the house was very dirty but no damage at all. So we set about cleaning the place up. Got help from two local girls the next day which made a huge difference & by night fall the house was in good order once again.
Spent the next two days with laborer's who cleared a lot of excess vegetation from the immediate vicinity of the house. The change was quite remarkable!
Spent the morning around the house doing odd jobs. A little birding in the afternoon. One of the nicest things is that a Giant Eagle Owl seems to have taken up residence in the garden!
Drove back to Pretoria on 17th March to meet up with Francois & Juantelle who had brought their large trailer to transport our stuff back to Sabie Park. Arrived back in Sabie Park late on 18th March in the pouring rain!
The next few days were spent entirely on doing jobs around the house & getting the extra furniture & paintings in to the house. Francois also managed to fix our hot water geyser for us!
On 21st March spent most of the day in Kruger & the next day Francois & Juantelle left for Pretoria. Delana & I spent most of the day working on the computers with a little birding around the house in the evening.
On 23rd March Delana & I spent a couple of hours at the picnic site. It was a dull overcast afternoon with little activity but we did see a Black Stork flying down the river. However, we did have a nice nocturnal visitor later!
25th, 26th & 27th March we spent at home mainly working on the house, but did some birding. One morning we recorded 73 species.
30th & 31st March we were again at home but did a little birding.
1st to 3rd April all spent in Sabie Park, working on the house, packing, working on computers etc. Nothing very exciting, but nice days.
We left home early on 4th April to drive to Pretoria. We drove through the park down to Malelane & out through that gate straight on to the N4. We saw two Leopards along this route but didn't get any photos. So ended another stay in Sabie Park, where did the time go?
We returned to Sabie Park on 22nd April & found that the interior painting had all been finished. After a good clean we were pleased with all the work we have had done on the house.
