Boy has this been a busy past few months?!! As normal, my high season is the winter months and I have had one trip after the next with hardly an hour to rest - so again, like last year I have had to combine two months for this entry - I shall try and keep it short. (I hear of some people taking two days to read my previous entries!!)

Keith and Jon have come and gone - a great father and son pair - we spent a number of days at Umfolosi Game Reserve then Hluhluwe followed by Emdoneni Cheetah Ranch. We had some great game viewing and Jon had a sharp pair of eyes - spotted many animals first - well done Jon!! (He also had a tough skin - swimming in the Hluhluwe and Emdoneni pools during the middle of our winter!!!!) Keith e-mailed me on his return home and here is an extract from his e-mail:

"We shared our photos of Durban, Hluhluwe-Umfolozi with friends and family while in Texas during August, and have begun to share with friends here in Saudi Arabia. Thanks for the wonderful experience that you made happen for JON & myself. I cannot imagine a better experience for a father & son, that will provide great memories from now on. My goal from the outset was to share a life experience with my 8yr old that would be in his mind & heart indelibly for years to come. You folks made that happen, and for that I thank you."

Always good to have feedback from my past guests. I was at home for a few days when I had this phonecall from my cousin who needed me to help a Spanish agency out with 4 chaps wanting a Botswana safari - it was to take place next week!! That was too short notice and everything in Botswana was fully booked - the high season in Botswana is from June to October - booked months in advance!! So instead I took them to Zululand and Maputoland - what a great safari we had. It started off at Umfolosi, a bushcamp, from where we went on some great walks - even came across a pride of lions - and as we were leaving the Park, we came across a few elephants, then at Itala, we stayed in a bushlodge - fantastic - wood and thatch rooms sited ontop of huge granite boulders overlooking the Wilderness valley below - and the view from the showers was stunning - we could watch the giraffe, zebra, impala, etc grazing in front of us!! Our first walk in the morning we stumbled across a leopard - eating a baby wildebeest - not sure who got the biggest fright - but he did not stay around to have its photo taken. The game guard was so excited - the first leopard sighted in 3 years in the wilderness section!!!! We went on a great game drive in my 4x4 along some rough tracks, plus came across a human skeleton that had been left in a suitcase in a crack in a huge rock!! Continuing, we departed for Pongola Game Reserve where we went elephant tracking in 4x4 and on foot. They have two elephants with radio collars on them and it was really exciting to track them down. We came across Doe - a huge bull elephant who has become accustomed to the rangers 4x4 so when we turned off the engine, whilst snapping branches and pushing over trees during his afternoon feeding, he approached to within 2 metres of the car - quite heart-stopping!! After Pongola, we had a great time at Tembe Elephant Reserve - especially from the hide, and then we continued to Kosi Bay - where my four guests used the canoes to explore Lake 4 and the raffia palms on the first day there. The following day they enjoyed themselves with a boat ride through the lake system and then a short walk to Kosi Mouth where some of the best snorkelling is along that coastline. From Kosi we went to the iPhiva Floating chalets near Eshowe - and again a great time was had. Luckily Antonio alias "Rommel" and Oscar could speak English, but Milo and Bully only understood basic English, otherwise I would have had a problem! They are already planning their next safari with me, but they are not sure whether to visit Namibia, Botswana or Zambia - just warned me to "Get READY" !! Read their comments in my new Guest Book.

I had one day at home and then flew off to Harare, Zimbabwe to meet John, Denise, Sophie, Natasha and Neil - who were coming to Zimbabwe for their 2 week vacation from the UK. What a lovely family - we drove to Masvingo and the Greater Zimbabwe Ruins via a rural road - very scenic and quite an eye-opener, enjoyed a bit of game viewing both on foot and horseback, and then to a private lodge which is situated ontop of some large granite boulders in the Matopos, near Bulawayo. Whilst there we visited the Matopos Park and some of their caves and San paintings before we headed off to Hwange for 3 nights - great game-viewing - huge herds of elephants, plus buffalo, lion, giraffe etc. Even went on a full-moonlight drive to the one hide. Saw many great bird sightings as well - ask Sophie!

After Hwange we spent the next 3 nights in Vic Falls where I accompanied Natasha and Neil on an elephant-back ride - boy what an experience. Ever sat ontop of a elephants back and then ride it through the bush and gone game-viewing? I have!!! Sophie and her folks went White Water rafting down the Zambezi and it is not fair - they never flipped once! We watched the video that night and had a good laugh. Oh, after arrival, we went to the Vic Falls Hotel for "high tea" - oh, very smart - lots of yummie eats - and a great place to sit and watch people bungi-jump. The dinner at the Boma Restaurant was great as usual and the family spent a good few hours exploring the actual falls themselves. From Vic Falls, they then flew onto Kariba and spent a few days on a houseboat - I have not heard from them yet, so assume it all went well - I believe bad news travel fast! I did not join them for that leg of their journey as I had another safari to join back in Durban. I shall hopefully be able to submit their comments to my guestbook soon.

Returning to Durban, I met Brad and Sophie - fresh from their wedding in California. What a lovely couple - oh, they make me envious - I wish I was married now!! After a few days in Durban - actually in Umhlanga Rocks, we left for Umfolosi Game Reserve to participate in the Wilderness Trail. It is a 4 night trail - with two nights being spent at a satelite tented camp in the wilderness section - where there are no buildings, no roads and no public - just wild bush and animals. We hiked from 10 to 16 kms per day, with donkeys to carry our luggage. We had Ian as the Trails Officer and Zeph as our tracker. Both chaps had to be armed as you are walking in predator country. We would leave camp after breakfast - walk along animal foot paths, stalk up to rhino and buffalo, cross the Umfolosi river a number of times as it winds it way through the wilderness, enjoy simple lunches and delicious dinners in the open and sit around the crackling fire at night as the stars twinkle and satelites pass overhead. We had some rather close encounters with both buffalo and rhino, but none were life-threatening. There are a maximum of 8 people on the trail, so the group is nice and small but it does help if you do not have loud-mouthed people who talk non-stop. Can get very irritating and frustrating for everyone else. None-the-less, we enjoyed it - when we finised the trail, we spent the remainder of the last day game viewing in Umfolosi before driving to St Lucia for the night at a B&B we use often - very nice.

The next day after a pleasant cruise on the St Lucia estaury, we drove to Cape Vidal and after a brief visit to the beach, I bid farewell to Brad and Sophie as I dropped them off at the start of the St Lucia trail - and then I drove back to Durban. Four days later I returned to Cape Vidal to collect them - after an enjoyable trail. It rained the first day, so they had all decided not to walk so instead used that time to visit and enjoy the nearby attractions and facilities. The following day I took them to the airport and bid good bye as they flew to Kariba to start their Zimbabwe section of their Honeymoon. I am sure to hear from them once they get to Vic Falls.

Also during the past few months we have had numerous clients on self-drive vacations or on safaris with my colleagues. Kyra and Michael went on one of my cousins safaris - from Johannesburg to Cape Town along the scenic route, plus they had a short visit to Victoria Falls as well. I hoped to have had some feedback from them by now, but their e-mail seems to be faulty. Jenn & Mark rented a car from us and went on the Giants Cup hiking trail - we know it snowed during their hike and unfortunately have not heard from them yet since their return. Please folks, give us some feedback - we would love to hear from you again. Also during August Howard and his family were driving around South Africa and even popped in to our office to meet Alice who had done all their bookings for their holiday. Always nice to actually meet our clients in person. They seemd to have had a marvellous time. Spencer, his girlfriends plus her sister and mother were out here for a few weeks as well - and spent their time exploring the Cape, Kruger Park and Vic Falls - oh and a quick visit to Sun City as well. I am sure to hear from them within the next week, though Spencer did phone a once or twice and they seem to having a ball - jolly good - that's what we hope everyone will have. Also had an e-mail from Jamie who had been on safari from Vic Falls to Maun with one of my colleagues along with 5 of her friends - and below is what she e-mailed me from Madagascar, where she had extended her vacation to:"hi dean, the safari was incredible. i'm still in africa (in Madagascar, actually). i can't type properly on this french keyboard so i'll write back when i return to the US in a couple of weeks. thank you for everything. we enjoyed ourselves beyond expectation. jamie"

So obviously they had a ball!!

For the future, we have a number of people visiting our beautiful country. Walter, a Tour Operator from Austria who I met at the Matopos is sending some guests of his on a self-drive I planned and then I shall also be taking them on a 5 day safari through Umfolosi Game Reserve for portion of their trip, Alice has been busy planning trips for Hakki and his colleagues from Turkey for a business trip to Johannesburg, Arne and Elly are out here at the moment and will return to the Netherlands at the end of the month, Jean-Pierre and Sonja have returned to Switzerland as I type this, Rhoda and her friend have just arrived in Durban after spending the first part of their holiday in Cape Town, Dawn will be travelling on an overland safari through Namibia en route to Vic Falls, Neil and Tanya arrive next month for their short vacation from Cape Town and the along the Garden Route, Michele and family will be here in November and so will Sophies brother plus Brad's friends to join them on portion of their self-drive through Kruger and also Swaziland, Maputoland and down to Durban. Bob and his wife will also be here soon to enjoy the finer facilities in Zimbabwe, Northern Province and MalaMala Reserve, near Kruger. So, all in all, we have been very busy planning, organising and booking - and as always am grateful to Alice for her able assistance - especially when I am away on safari. It is always nice to get feedback from our guests and clients - both good and constructive comments - it helps us to improve our service. One big downside is we do not have facilities for our own credit card processing but we are investigating this avenue. The banks charge such a high commission that we cannot absorb this ourselves, but if our clients are happy to pay for this service, then we will secure a machine - what do you think?

In November, I am taking 2 weeks 'leave', to visit lodges and destinations where I want to meet the owners and manager and also to places that I want to learn more about. A beautiful lady from Germany shall be joining me and we shall travel by train from Johannesburg to Prince Albert Road (try find that on a map!!), then by various modes of transport via Oudtshoorn to George, then by steam train to Knysna, followed by coach to PE, then car via Addo to Coffee Bay, Sani Pass and to Durban -for a nights stop, before continuing up through Zululand, Swaziland and Kruger to end back in Johannesburg.

Claudia and I are both excited about this trip. You might recall I have chatted about Shannon , a past pupil of mine and friend, for whatever reasons his engagement is off and he seems to be enjoying his 'freedom' again - I hope it all goes well for him - good to hear from friends and past pupils who seem to be scattered across the globe. I had a suprise e-mail from Glenn, who was an Australian Scout back in 1988 - who along with 2 other Scouts came to SA and I was their Guide to show them around. Glenn finished school in Oz and then went to Norway for a year on Rotary exchange - and then back to Oz, where he has had a marvellous life doing all sorts of careers - aparently his dad, Rob, came across my website a few months ago and have caught up on my life and been reading "Dean's Diary" for some months now - eventually Glenn found time to e-mail me - well done mate - keep it up!!

Some of you will know about the unfortunate death of Espi - she was killed in an accident shortly after I had typed my last entry - well the good side is we have a lovely replacement for her. Milly is a cross-breed - with quite a lot of Spaniel in her - and like Espi, she and Didi get on so well with each other. She is still a puppy and naughty, so has to be told sternly a number of times. Didi did not accept her at first, but I guess when you are stuck with a room mate, you make the most of it!

If you remember in my past entries I mentioned Thula Thula Exclusive Private Game Reserve - this is a friends reserve, where they have just recently introduced 5 baby elephants and two mothers - all from another game reserve where a Bull elephant was causing problems. Well, these have given Francoise problems. During the 2nd or 3rd day, they pushed a tree onto the electric fencing to escape from their boma - and Francoise spent the next few days driving around Zululand asking all the locals if they had seen her ellies - you must know what a field day the press had when they heard about a 'French women running around the bush asking the Zulus if they had seen any jumbos' !! Aparently it was on the front page of a few newspapers and proved to show great interest to everyone - well, that was good publicity for them even if it was an inconvenience. They were found in the neighbouring Umfolosi Game Reserve, after having knocked a rangers door down!!

Anyway, renovations and construction is underway at Thula Thula to improve their facilities and I look forward to visiting them soon.

A mentioned in my past entry, I am planning a flying educational trip - this being the fore-runner to a flying charter service that we shall be introducing in a few months time to the Zululand and Maputoland area. At the moment if you are wanting to fly to one of the middle or upmarket reserves or lodges, you have to charter a whole plane - then the cost of an empty plane flying back is incurred - with us, we shall have the plane flying daily to the various lodges and resorts and you pay for a seat and not the whole plane - so it works out much cheaper in the long run. We shall become the only booking agent for this service and so other Tour Operators, Travel agents, Tour Brokers, airlines, Lodges or yourselves have to contact us and book the tickets through us - so business will be getting busier!! This flying service will be able to linked with a land safari as well, so you can fly just the one way if you like - enjoy a few days at one of the lodges and then a safari guide will collect you and continue with your vacation - pretty smart hey!! The scenery is stunning from the air and it also save you that long road journey which is never less than 3 hours.

With all this busy period coming up - I have had to buy a new fax machine, so we can accept faxes on two lines now, and also send on two lines - things looking good hey!

On Monday I attended a workshop meeting hosted by Satour - that is the governments tourism marketing company and who also have controlled the registration of Tour Guides. They came to explain the new law and suggestions for registration of Guides, plus plans to include the "previously disadvantaged" people who are not educated etc. The need to have community Guides was noted as an extra employment opportunity for many people who know an area well and are unemployed - so a new training structure has to be implemented. It was an interesting meeting and I was pleased to meet a few more 'colleagues'. Over the weekend I had been invited to the Millennium Celebrations of Shakaland - their grand new opening of better facilities, new dancing and tribal dress for their staff, plus a brand new dining area. A great time was enjoyed by all - superb dancing, excellent food (as always far too much!!) and excellent Guides. Highly recommended!!!!

As you might have gathered, the servers for e-mails and internet here in South Africa are giving endless problems - I think that more and more people are getting modems and e-mail, faster than the companies can grow and develop, so the bandwidths are becoming full, especially when people (companies) sit "on line" for the whole day or for hours, for no logical reason - they slow the entire communications down - very frustrating!! We reply or acknowledge all our e-mails within 2 working days - if we have not, then we did not receive your e-mail - please resend it, but use our other address.

At the moment we seem to be having communication problems with my colleague who has done our SAA bookings from the USA, please be patient, I am trying to rectify the problem.

My sister Gail, had bad luck a few months ago when her car was stolen when she went to visit her friend in Johannesburg, now she has had more bad luck. She had resigned from her nursing job in the town of Bethlehem and planned to move to Johannesburg - she had been renting her house out over the past few months to some other people and she had been staying on a friends farm closer to Bethlehem. Her hospital gave a lovely farewell party to her and the following day her tenants had 'done a duck' - owing her over R5000 in rent - so now she can't afford to move and has had to withdraw her resignation. This year does not seem to be very good for her. She is often on night duty or standby as she works in Casualty and ICU, so is often away from home for up to 48 hours - her dogs now have to have very long spells without her there - just not fair. You trust people and then they 'stab you in the back'!! My brother Sean and his family recently spent 5 days at Sun City in their timeshare block, and had a ball. Saw 3 cheetah eating an antelope that it had recently killed, saw rhinos, elephants etc all in the neighbouring Pilanesberg Reserve. Aparently Erin enjoyed the baboons the most! They really had a great time with all the activities there, and then went to Pilgrims Rest afterwards for the final 2 nights of their holiday.

We still have a few spaces left on our luxury lodge/camping Millennium safari from Vic Falls to Maun over the Xmas and New Year period - if you are interested, let me know and we shall send you more details.

Summer is on the way, with the springs rains being very weak so far, so not sure how well the grass is going to grow. I bought some fertilizer last week but have not been able to put it down yet as not enough rain. I hope to improve the driveway to our office soon as there is so much sand and it blows into the office and makes everything dusty - but it all costs money, so book some safaris with me, and then I can pay for it!!

There will be some small changes to my website soon, so do pop back in a few weeks time and let me know what you think. Remember to view wildanimals drinking at the waterhole via the video camera. Follow the link to my tripod site and then at the bottom of the page, there is the link to Africam - very exciting stuff!!

OK folks, that is all my news. Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Cheers

ps - as I finished typing this, so Rhoda phoned from her cousins house here in Durban - they have had a great time so far - especially enjoyed our colleague Eric in Cape Town when he took them on some tours. Then I have just received an e-mail from Sonja and Jean-Pierre - here is part of it :"Dear Alice. Just like to inform you that we have thorougly enjoyed our journey and the short stay in your lovely country. Everything was well organised. The accommodations and the food were superb (except in one place inside Kruger Park). We had a first-class tour guide with Peter....., who spoke perfectly Swiss German incidentally. The tour group of 5 people (2 Swiss couples and 1 American man) matched very well.

So there we have some more happy clients - oh I love this job!!