Senior Missionary Couples Conference

As I mentioned in the last post we were privileged to attend a conference for all Senior Couple Missionaries in the South Africa Durban Mission, which was held at the Nambiti Game Reserve near Ladysmith, South Africa.  It is a 10,000 hectare park that used to be a cattle ranch.  We were able to go on four game drives where we are driven through the park by rangers that are trained naturalists.  This was the main lodge where we had our meals and meetings

                                                                                 Each Couple stayed in a "tent" that was nicely done with a king-size bed and bathroom.  It was a bit cool at night--there was a heater, but outside, it got to -3 C which is about 28 F.  Remember it is winter here and this place is about 4500 ft in elevation.  Mornings were quite chilly and the moment the sun went down it got cold.  Just like Burns.

So what did we see?  We had an incredible experience.  The reserve is all natural in that the animals are left to fend for themselves and carry out their natural activities.  There is absolutely no artificial feeding of the large predators--they make regular kills  and must feed their young.  And, there is lots to feed them in the reserve.  And we saw many many species.  As with wildlife photography it is really hard to get a good picture.  I took many photos but some species were just too far away and some were moving and others poor lighting but here are some that turned out okay.

Ostrich (in the center) and Blue Wildebeest

 Blue Wildebeest.  The Zulu say that it is the left-over animal.  That when God finished making all the animals, He took all the left-over part and made the Wildebeest.  They are very strange critters

 Red Hartebeest.  Name for the heart shape the horns make.

 The Gundersons at the ruins of and old farm house. The tree is a strangler fig.

 The end of a great day and a beautiful African Sunset.

 A great sunset should be followed by a spectacular sunrise.

 The guides keep contact by radio and we were heading down a draw where some elephants had been seen and out of the brush came a pride of lions led by this lioness.  There were three cubs--really "teenagers" about 14 months old.  Two male and 1 female.  The last one out of the brush was the pride male.  They walked right past the vehicle and really paid us little attention.  They are pretty used to the tour vehicles at least most of the year.  During mating season they can be aggressive.

 They headed up the hillside paralleling the road and the male lay down and let us approach him in the vehicle.

 The lioness just flopped beside the road and the teenagers went into the thickets.  After many pictures we went down the road to where the elephants had been seen and we did find them--see pictures below.
But...while we were gone one of the vehicles in our party stayed and a very unlucky warthog ran right into the pride of lions.  They could not actually see the kill but heard the warthog screaming and squealing.  When we got back.  The lions were eating the kill and we could see them through the brush.

 Two lions at the site where they ate the warthog.  At one point two had a hold of a leg and rib cage and pulled it opposite directions tearing it in half.

While we missed the actual warthog kill, we did find this bull elephant that was rather camera shy and seemed content to hide his face in the brush.  He did start to back out and we were hopeful that we might get a better picture.

Well he came out alright and was not happy that we were there.  He threw dirt in the air and really did not charge us as such but was stomping and shaking his head and throwing dirt with his trunk and coming our way.  I snapped this as the driver was backing away.  This bull apparently broke his tusk off just a short time ago.  There were about 5-7 other elephants up the hill out of good camera range.

 Helmeted Guinea fowl.  They get in the road and are not smart enough to go to the side or fly and just run ahead of the truck.   Our driver said that he regularly helps them stay in shape.

 A pair of Plains Zebra or as they say in South Africa "Zebra" - rhymes with Debra

  A little better shot of the same two.  We saw lots of these but most were back in the brush and hard to see with their stripes.

 Kudu.  Friday night we had Kudu for supper.  That animal came from a game farm somewhere.  The game farms have a good market for the meat from the antelopes of Africa.  This is the most plentiful antelope on the reserve.

 An Impala Buck.  Their rumps are marked with stripes in the shape of an M.  They say it stands for McDonald's of Africa because everything eats Impalas.

 Giraffes   There are four in the picture including the young one.  About a month ago there was a female that had a breech birth that could not deliver.  We saw her carcass.  Good for the scavengers.

 There are a number of reservoirs on the reserve and a fair number of Hippos.  Our guide told us that this is the most dangerous animal in Africa accounting for more human deaths than another other animal but the mosquito, that transmits diseases.  They are nasty tempered and attack anything that comes too near especially in the water.  This was early in the morning and they were cold and docile.

 Waterboks They are one of the few antelope that are not good to eat because they have an oily layer of the skin that, when skinned, gets on the meat and makes it unpalatable.  They get their name from their habit of jumping in the water to escape predators--a good strategy where there are no crocodiles but sometimes not so good where there are.

 White Rhinos  Two are pictured here but there were five together.  They were heading up the hill toward us and we thought that they might come out right in front of us.  They went into a draw and we did not see them again.  Our guide was not willing to go down an flush them out.  Imagine that! They have darted and captured all the Rhinos in the reserve and de-horned them because of horn poachers that would otherwise poach them for the Oriental markets.  A terrible threat to Rhinos throughout Africa.

 A Warthog that so far is much luckier than they one that blundered into the lion pride

 A very nice Kudu buck

 On our last day we were trying really hard to see a Cape Buffalo.  we had seen one earlier but he had gone into the brush.  After hearing a male lion roaring in the area we came upon these two sub-adult males following a bull Cape Buffalo down a road.  He is over to the far right of the picture.  They are young and not very experienced hunters.

 They followed him a little too close and he finally had enough of that and just stopped and had a face-off.  Until.....

 The buffalo got mad and then just took after the two lions.  They split, one going one way and the other in the opposite direction.    The bull chased one then the other as I think that instinctively they thought that perhaps they could wear him down.

 This lion just hid out while the bull chased the other. Then the bull chased this one away and the other lion by that time also had enough.  I think they finally  figured they would let Dad take on something this big and ornery.

The bull here is sniffing the air to make sure the lions are going away.  Our driver was quite leery at this point because Cape Buffalo are foul tempered and will charge the vehicles.  The truck that we rode in the first two days had a dent in the side from a buffalo.  Our driver was concerned that this bull might be in a mood to fight, with only our vehicle to take it out on.  

Beside these in the photos we saw Eland, Oryx or Gemsbok, a Duiker (a very tiny antelope), Steinbok, and jackals; plus many many bird species.

It was a great trip and also served its purpose of building friendships among the couples that depend on each other to carry out our various assignments

So, for all Grandma Gaye's primary class here are the pictures you asked for when she told you she was going on a mission to Africa.

We are still really enjoying our mission.  As great as seeing all these animals was, the real thrill in South Africa comes from working with the people here.  Everyday I am so impressed at their faith and wonderful character.  We are very fortunate to be here and feel so blessed.