Under the African Sky

Max went camping this weekend with his Dad and both Grandpa's at the Pilanesberg game reserve. The temperature on Saturday was -3C so it was definitely a trip for boys only. Bella and I stayed at home and had a girlie weekend with lots of retail therapy :)

This was the first time Max has been to a game reserve (other than when he was really young) and from what I heard he was super excited about seeing animals in 'the wild'. Since I wasnt there I have asked Grant to write about their weekend away..

We headed off in a puff of excitement but it wasnt long before Max was telling us "its taking too long Dad". This lasted for about 1.5hrs of the 2 hour trip! Luckily we went through a tunnel on the way which added some much needed entertainment! Once we got there he was immediately off climbing trees and chasing birds and monkeys while we were pitching camp. Not long after, I went for a walk with Max along the camp perimeter fence where we saw 2 elephants (on the other side) in the bushes about 40 metres away! It was a huge thrill and Max was so chuffed. We then went for a game drive and saw loads of animals. One of the highlights was seeing a mother rhino and her calf walking 10 metres away from us for about 5 minutes. Max's favourites were the Pumbas (wharthogs) though! Luckily they were close because I could not get the binoculars away from Max for love or money:)

Once back at camp, the sun began to set and the temperature started dropping faster than you can imagine so we immediately got a huge fire going. We actually had 2 fires because Max brought his own braai along. He had a ball running around and collecting wood and throwing it onto his fire. Anyway, after a few glasses of red wine and OBs (cheap sherry) we managed to get through an absolutley freezing night! The juice and water bottles we had were frozen solid the next morning. Needless to say I think the grandads won't be in a hurry to go camping in the middle of winter again!!

Anyway once we got back from the morning game drive there were monkeys all over the place - drinking our juice, opening tupperwares of coffee and sugar etc. Max had a great time chasing them off with me. We had a quick breakfast and headed home....Max couldnt wait to see Mommy again!

All in all a great time was had by all...