Badplaas - (Translation: A place where you bathe)

March 1, 2009: Santi is working hard on teaching me Afrikaans and I keep explaining to her that I have enough trouble keeping up with the "Queen's English". Most of the time I get it but there are times I do have to say, "what????". At least I give her a few laughs here and there. Funny part is that although I have had little experience with Afrikaans, I am able to follow (somewhat) conversations. I also find at times, that because they do speak both English and Afrikaans they will through in an English word every now and then. Or Santi will start talking to Liese in English and then all of the sudden they are speaking Afrikaans.

So, back to Badplaas.... This is a mineral water spa not far from where Santi lives. It's a wonderfully, beautifully, lush spa/camping grounds. The water is very warm and there are several different size pools and temperatures. There was even a Declan size pool, it was maybe 12" deep. Oh, I so have to upload photos of Declan in is "cozzy" (costume)! Because of the mineral content he can't go in every pool. He is adorable and I'm not saying that because Liese reads the blog either ;) Declan is 18 months old now with his mother's blond hair and his father's crystal blue eyes. I have photos, I took over 150 just today. I'm the type of photographer who has to take 100 pictures of the same thing in order to get the ONE I want. Being that we now have digital cameras, I don't have to concern myself with the expense of developing hundreds of rolls of film. Anyway, I'm rambling on, but I do hope to start the Picasa album very shortly.

In my short time here, I've seen some very different birds, ones that only exist in this part of the world. I love the splashes of vibrant colors within the shades of green! It's truly amazing to see and hear South Africa it in all of it's splender, knowing there is even more to come! When we were driving back from the airport when I first arrived, it was kind of facinating to "recongize" regions of home and then in a matter of a few short minutes I was in an alien envirnment! It's hard to express in words what I saw. Unfortunately for me, my camera was packed at that time. I arrived on a Friday afternoon and I didn't take the time to dig for my camera, we wanted to avoid as much traffic as we could.

While we were at Badplaas this weekend it was overcast and there was a fair amount of rain. In my case, I found it very relaxing. Being that I call South Carolina "home", (even though I haven't "lived" there since I was 4 years old), I still miss things like summer rain. So for the campers in the group of 12 or so, I think maybe I enjoyed my weekend more than they did... Well, then there was the part where the "kids" were roughing it and we were in a challet, which was basically a studio with no facilites other than a sink. So it's not like Santi, Peter and I were out in the mud. We did keep Declan with us because of the rain but it wasn't a problem.

I was treated to my first, close up view to a new bird. It was called a ha-de-dah. I'm sur this is not the proper name for the bird, but this is what it is called. he is a bird about the size of a duck but shaped differently with lovely irriodecent colors seemingly floating on top of his main feathers. I have many pictures of this very docile bird and I will select the best photos to upload. Declan had a field day chasing after them and although they did move away from him it wasn't a paniced move. Peter said that the birds in the Badplaas had been around humans long enough not to be terrified of them, much like the ducks in ponds or pidgons.

One specacular tree that I immediately fell in love with was an African Flame tree. it has dark green leaves with a most striking orange flower on it! I spent quite a lot of time focused on that tree. It has bright yellowish gold ruffles on the edges and inside of the flower. Again I have several photos of the tree and Santi tells me I'll be seeing it again as it is an indiginious tree here in South Africa. I am just seeing and hearing so much that once I wait until I have time to sit down I am already forgetting things. I told Santi I'm going to have to get a notebook and take notes as I go so I can share this more easily.

For now though I need to wrap this up, it's midnight here and who knows what time is at home now! I'm so confused! I think a lot of this is going to make more sense once I have the photos uploaded...