Today’s post is in memory of Diane R., who passed away a couple of weeks ago. Diane was a dear friend of Steph’s Mum. Mum and Diane grew up in England and were on the Bedford women's rowing team together, where Diane was the tiny person that sits at the front of the shell (the cox) and yells at the others to steer and coordinates the rhythm of the rowers. Steph's mum was the stroke, who sits closest to the cox, and sets the pace. When Steph decided to leave England and come to the U.S.A., Diane happened to also be here, providing friendship and fun over the years. Diane’s recollections of her trip to Africa were one of the things that inspired Steph to do the same six years later (see “May 2, 2020” – Side Story). And you know the rest of the story.
Traverse
“Traverse” is a complicated word; at least with respects to its use in Sub-Saharan Africa. It means (I think) – a permission to drive around a specified area of land to look for animals. But not to hunt them! Kind of like, “the Marx’s have traverse rights to go onto the Gillings’ (our cousins) 40-acre field, riding on the hay wagon pulled by the tractor while drinking beer.” Something like that.
So, when we purchased our property, it also came with traverse rights to neighboring 3500-acre Khaya Ndlovu reserve. Khaya Ndlovu – meaning “house of elephant”. However, the reserve currently is not home to elephants. Yet. The land is also referred to as Welverdiend – an Afrikaans word that we are still trying to figure out how to pronounce. Khaya Ndlovu is a portion of the greater Rietspruit Reserve (13.5k acres) The Rietspruit has pretty much all the animals, except for cape buffalo – who are good at killing you when they are too grumpy. Nor elephant. Yet.
Lycaon pictus. A gift from Diane R.
The gate into Khaya Ndlovu. Just over a half-mile from our property.
More giraffe. Because, why not?
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