My husband and I love the bush-veld. The Wild animals, the Smell of the bush, the Sound of the birds, but also the Quietness and Mystery thereof. Holidays are the time that we use to recharge and get our binoculars focused on the things that really matter in life. What better place to do this than in the bush with our kids and family! As working parents we treasure the time we have to spend with our kids and we want to make the best of every moment. I would like to share some memorable moments of our recent holiday to the Kruger National Park.
As with any other holiday, we started with the time consuming action……packing! I put a lot of thought into this activity as this make the trip less stressful. I remembered how we forgot Danru's pack of nappies at home last year and only discovered this at 6am at the gate of the Kruger! Needless to say, this was an item we could not go without! As no shops were open that time of the morning in this area, we decided to enter the Park, took a drive and then turned back to the closest town to buy this essential item - hoping all the way that nothing disastrous would happen in the only, precious nappy. Nevertheless, we were packed and ready to hunt down the BIG 5.
The excitement levels increased the closer we got - what will be hiding in the bushes this time, and what new discoveries will be made?
We didn't see as much as we hoped for, but that's the mystery of the bush-veld that I like - you never know what to expect. I saw this as an opportunity to learn some lessons from my 2 year old boy as he would appreciate and enjoy whatever came our way, whether it was the ordinary Impala or the scarce cheetah - He got excited even when he couldn't see the animals hiding in the grass we were looking at! We had this one incident where we were driving kilometres and kilometres without seeing anything. This was extremely frustrating and we complained for seeing 'NOTHING'. As we slowed down to double check in the bush, Danru pointed in front of him and said "voeltjie" (Afrikaans for bird) and I could hear how proud he was of his discovery.
All right, I know this sound like a terrible vacation, but this was still the beginning and it did get better! The days were nice and warm and we saw the big 5, a cheetah, various other animals and a lot of water birds. I think the highlight was when we met an elephant family along the way with a tiny little elephant, who was just a few days old. It was so playful and full of energy and the thought crossed my mind that we should leave children to be children for as long as possible - soon this little creature will discover the dangers of the scary bush and these care-free days will only be a memory.
We realised once again that when having this type of holiday with small children it is important to adjust the pace and activities to make it fun for them too. Initially we experienced some difficulties and therefore came up with the following 'GAME PLAN' (I am definitely keeping this for next year as, ironically, we had the same problems last year!):
During our holiday, as we were appreciating all the different animals, I wondered - Which specie best represents our family?
The Glamorous Leopards; the Important, Proud Lions; the Elegant Giraffe; or maybe the Slow Gracing Rhinos; or Noisy Monkeys? ......... No, I think we are the Warthogs, not satisfied with the easy-to-get leaves, digging for something deeper beneath the surface to find our Strength. And when we are on the go, antennas up......... And on the run!
I can still hear the teasing debate between my husband and Danru of whether we are looking at a buffalo or a blue wildebeest! Memories were made and even though these 2 kids might not even remember this later in life - this is the first blocks in creating a love for the bush for them too.
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