Pink in Pilanesberg

[BunnyHugger]

Yep, the pink people are surely getting around the place. It all started as some silly idea a long time ago in another world. Someone made a joke and it became reality.

For those not familiar with the Pink Peeps, six of us met in May last year as a "lonely hearts club". Since then we have had several gatherings and adventures including a picnic gathering at Suikerbosrand, we attended the Pring meeting and a few others.

Tomorrow sees us off to Pilanesberg National Park for our first weekend gathering.

With all the rain and flooding in the eastern part of the country, and having had much rain in Egoli for the past few weeks, what will tomorrow bring for the intrepid pink explorers?

It's been about 12 years since my last visit to Pilanesberg so I am looking forward to it. Amoli is about as exited as a Kid with a new toy, and it will be a first time for Hunny to experience this neck of the woods.

To those who could not join in the festivities, this will be your link. Follow us as we go "Pink in Pilanesberg".

With some luck, someone will have a laptop and some internet exposure and we might just have time to take you on the journey as it unfolds. (Or we'll just make you wait like everyone else does.)

The parts played out this weekend will be something like this:

The part of the Flashers will be played by JustN@ture and the Crazy Elephant. Amoli will pay close attention and try her hand at same.
I'll do some jockeying to get the part of the narrator.
Chief Cook and bottle washers will be played by all. (Yes indeedy, it is possible for men to multitask although I doubt they will be operating such heavy duty equipment as cameras while food is being prepared or while dishes are being washed, even though we have some angels to which this duty should be assigned. It's just too important to get it right and not give it to men to do.

"Who knows what tomorrow brings, in a world....."

EDIT: This is a trip report so if it's in the wrong place, will one of the broom brigade please move it to where it belongs.

[JustN@ture]

You say the crazy elephant an I are the flashers....does this mean we need to take along the long heavy raincoats



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[Amoli]

That hat will have me spinning.... wow.... feeling quite faint now... :lol:

I am taking the electronics and flash I will flash - you dare turn around and you will be staring in my camera light.... -O

Seriously, this is going to be great. We are taking a new 'member' with, so all intentions are to behave best we can...
and to promote the nature and parks that we love

Car washed and packed, 3 pieces of clothing in a suitcase, 30 seconds under the seat, amarula in the freezer....
think we are ready.... let's make this happen.

Z1 - See ya later... :P

[Amoli]

Enjoy - I think there will be more water in the Dams than last weekend. I hope Henry the hippo is back in Ratlogo waterhole. It was only hard and cracked mud last week.

I'm seriously shocked to hear my 'pregnant' lazy hippo is a male. But then..... -O

There must have been some kinda storms as a lot of top soil has been washed away and the traces of overflowing spruits are visible.

[Penga Ndlovu]

Brrrrrrrr.

What a weekend.
(Can we please have a Noga smiley?)

It was a weekend filled with good friends, great sightings and one particular fantastic sighting.

Still you have to wait for that one a long time. //\0-- //\0-- //\0-- //\0-- //\0--

[Penga Ndlovu]

Thanks Fluts.

Because I still have to process my pics.

Then they will be posted in sequence of events.
And it was one of the last things we saw.

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[BunnyHugger]

It was a fantastic weekend, but that was how it ended....

Starting at the beginning is probably the best place and maybe some history to set the scene. Some months ago, I discovered that the morning chorus and wake-up alarm had changed tones. In addition the the noisy Haded Ibis, I found some Egyptian geese added to the flavour. At first, I thought it was awesome. Several weeks later, I'm thinking that these are probably the noisiest animals on the planet, with the exception of humans.

I have also noted that the time for this chorus to begin has changed from around 4 am to around 4h15 and getting later every week.

Friday 27 Jan 2012. Day 0.5 to 1.

The alarm failed to have it's usual effect of having me sit bolt upright in bed in fright thinking that a war has broken out. Too many late nights (or early morning or most likely a combination of this, have me sleeping right through the cacophonous sounds of the morning, having only got to bed at about 3 am.

The morning, when it did get under way, was a mad rush of all sorts of domestic stuff to get ready to collect one crazy elephant, pack the by now clean car and head to Pilanesberg.

Many months of planning and thousands of e-mails and the time has arrived. The Pinks go to Pilanesberg. In between all the mayhem is that some (ok all) the shopping has to be done at the eleventh hour. (I think it would be safe to say that shopping always takes longer than planned, especially when an angel is involved.)

So fast forward several hours and I am now finding I am about 2 hours late, and fast getting even more late. After leaving Hunny at home to pack the food and stuff, I rush off to pick up the crazy (and probably by now irritated) elephant.

With Short messages and BBM's flying between the major players, and one bunny making a passable imitation of Speedy Gozales, we finally arrived at the main meeting and departure point. After meeting Amolis friend briefly, we get under way. Still around 90 minutes later than planned. At Harties, the crazy one tells us of this little Billie shop and it's too much to resist. So after getting even further behind schedule, we eventually got back on the road armed with biltong and cool drinks.

We arrived at Pilanesberg just after 4 pm and drove around Bakgatla for a good 40 minutes choosing an optimal spot. Amoli wanted to be close to the pool and the ablutions. The ablutions, I can understand, the pool, that one :? got me a bit. I don't even know that she even so much as looked at it the entire weekend. :)^

Once camp was set up (and for some this was seriously fast. PN having one of those tents that says press here and before you can say floop, boing and thwap, it's up. I think he had a cold one in hand before I even got my borrowed one of of the tent bag.) We sat around debating going for a game drive and I think a swim in the pool finally won out. Afterwards, we did some serious planning for where to go the next morning. This planning though was heavily interrupted by events happening in and around the camp. Mostly this consisted of identifying bird calls and the consumption of cold ones.

Day 0.5 to 1 was well advanced and thoughts began to drift towards food and sleep. Time to light fires, sit around and have a sundowner or two. But wait, I thought we had a few sundowners before the sun even got close to the horison.....It was special to be back in nature again and especially so to be there with good friends.

Somewhere along the line the topic of coffee came up and it kinda went a bit pear shaped then. Coffee became an education in the NOGA. An extremely fine beverage whose main ingredients are..... (no not secret, I just forget.)

I think we crawled off to bed around midnight. (Damn, another late night when all I wanted to do was drift off early listening to the night symphony.)

Some of the others may have other views and events. Those were the ones that stuck out in my mind.

[mma_ramotswe]

Yep those Noga's are something else :D

And that was a great sighting PN but I'm not telling //\0--

[BunnyHugger]

Was it a bird? Was it a plane?

No it was a .........

(something very, VERY AWESOME.)

[Penga Ndlovu]

Damn Superhugger.

Leave those peeps alone or there will be more poweroutages than there already are as they will all be drooling over there keyboards.
Electrocuted peeps etc etc etc.

-O -O -O -O -O -O -O