1 week in South Africa

Almost a week is by and we have settled in quite well. Been a busy week but we are well organized now and it feels like I have plenty of time until first tour starts..that I say now, but wait till it is a few days to the first tour and Im will be running around like mad:)

This weekend we spent at small game reserva called Buffelsvlei. We celebrated Nicos mom& dads 40th anniversary, lots of family arrived, almost 70 people, from far and close by. It was an enjoyable time, we had a spitbraai ( for my finnish friends who does not know what it is: we grilled a whole lamb on a stick) that was the first time for me, interesting and very tasty:) and most of the people stayed over night.Nico did not know that his brother James with family was coming, it was a suprise and as Nico already stressed he wont see him during our stay , there was tears when he saw his dear brother.

Kids loved playing in the mud...I can tell you the mud is red, not so easy to get clean, but you get to a point when you either tell the girls not to play in it..or just let them enjoy it and get dirty.And we let the go crazy, as you will see from pictures I will put on here soon. We also did a small game drive and Liina, Viivi and their cousin Jamie loved it. We saw zebras, a curious giraff that came close up to see what we where up to, springbook, ostriches( strutsar) impalas and many more animlas. Even Viivi spotted the animlas from far away and she gave us a happy scream .

The mornings starts early here ,as we used to get up around 8.30am in Finland, the normal time here is 7am, and I must say it feels like getting up 9am, Im all rested and ready for the day,even the girls are up then.

The weather is nice today, a hot day ahead of us. The weekend was also warm, more cloudy, but I managed to get some sun in my pale face.

Will keep you uopdated how the week goes, Tomorrow Kira( my friend from Finland) is arriving, we are going to meet her at the airport.She is quite nervous as it is her first time in South Africa, but she will enjoy it. On wednesday we are going to Sun City for 2 days, doing some site inspection, part of the job:) and then weekend we are spending with Nicos brother, checking out another game lodge and then we are going to Entabeni Game reserve on monday next week, and back in Jburg on tuesday. That is in short ourplans for the coming week, But I write soon again.

All of you have great start to this week.

Jannika