Winding Down at Shamwari

Well, only 3 days left in our 8 week stay here at Shamwari.  Where does the time go?  On Thursday of this week, while all of you are eating turkey and watching football we'll be making last minute preparations for our upcoming adventure in East Africa.  We fly to Nairobi on Friday and begin our overland safari on Sunday.  5 weeks from today we'll be home.

The weather here has been awesome the last few days.  It finally feels like Africa - sunny and in the 80's.  Friday we headed out to a cattle farm just north of Shamwari.  The farmer has spotted a hyena on his property.  Rather than shooting it he called the conservation team at Shamwari to give them a chance to trap and relocate it onto the reserve.  So on Friday we collected some bait

And headed out to set the trap.  We'll see if we have any luck.....

I think I earned my dip in the lake after (and yes, I know, I'm beginning to bear an uncanny resemblance to Santa Claus)

This weekend we went whitewater rafting on the Fish River.  The guys who run the company are very smart - they intentionally separate spouses into separate rafts which otherwise they say are referred to as "divorce boats."  

Here's Melanie and her partner going over one of the rapids as Melanie struggles fiercely to stay in the boat

And here's me and my partner experiencing slightly less drama

We capped off the evening with a delicious braii (South African for barbecue) including bacon-wrapped cherries - a new delicacy we'll have to share with you when we get home!