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Byseewah Safaris - News letter

11.12.2008

Dear Friends

The end of the season is here at Byseewah a year full of magic made by real people from around the world. Many new friends were made and we suffered the company of the regular gangs! Great evenings under the stars and pages forever in the memory books. Fantastic experiences out in the African bush. Great trophies harvested including many gold medals.

Large steps forward were achieved with the completion of various projects. The biggest was the installation of the new electrical system. We had already installed the two new 80KWA generators and this year we built a new generator and battery room. We installed solar panels on the shed roof and this plus the genny loads the batteries which in turn are converted to 220V electricity for everything. So this means that the rondawals as well as everywhere else has full electricity. The ladies can now plug in their hairdryers!! Even though we now have 24hr electricity in our house, we still creep around at night with a torch – some habits are hard to break! Or stand on geckos when we forget to switch on a light!

We have also completed a laboratory for Anneke so we can start our research projects on our wild game, etc. The thatchers have just finished in time, as it has started to rain heavily. They put a thatched roof on the new gym that we built next to the pool area and cleaned up all the other thatched areas. They will come back in January to thatch the roof of the observatory. Lynda redecorated two of the rondawals complete with new beds and linen and the last one is for next years project. We now start building ten new houses for our staff. A small village with a central Lapa which will also have a small classroom for the children. A teacher from James Buchanan-Michaelson’s old school will come for their gap year to teach the children and our staff. In the meantime we are also home-schooling two children that could not get a placement in a local school. A French lady will be helping us out for a few months.

A great step forward for all of us. We introduced Black-faced impala into the area and another 96 springbok which are always targets for the predators such as Leopard, Cheetah, Spotted Hyena, Rooikat (caracal), Jackals, etc.

The rains are here. The smell is fantastic, we are hoping to see the river in spate, full land dams, plenty

of green grass, the experience of sliding about in the

Our new species – The black-faced impala

mud again, four wheel enthusiasts (get pains just thinking about it). Ken’s favorite saying: Why did you let me come this way? He has been known to say other things, like – Oh dear!

Birds are building nests. The secretary birds are back on the plains. An interesting observation! We have experienced two drought years over the past 20 years; during these droughts the Secretary birds were absent.

We are seeing a lot of new Oryx calves. Eland are trying to do a takeover in the area as their numbers have exploded! We are seeing herds at the Aurib side. Some very big kudu bulls are moving in that area. All the waterholes are working well. We removed some of the two-legged culprits that have been damaging the solar panels. In fact, it is quite risky going anywhere near the panels now.

Here I should like to thank those who helped me get sorted out health wise. They put me through the mill so to speak. Some things one never forgets. The overweight, semi- alcoholic has left for good. It took some time and some very special friends to put me right. You know of course that I will be in good shape, and then I will get run over by a bloody bus, or something. There is always a twist in the tail?

All the team are doing very well including Byseewah Guest House run by Annel and Jaco (who have just got engaged). Most of our staff are now on holiday. As many of you know, nothing can get in here at this time of year, so we are limited to what we can get done. But, there is always the big shed, tool room to sort out and painting to do.

For those of you who will be going to the Reno SCI show – Lynda will see you there along with the rest of our friends/clients who will be helping her.

 

                                    We would like to take this

                                    Opportunity to wish

                                    Everyone happy holidays

                                    And a peaceful new year

 

                                    From

                                    Ken, Lynda, Anneke, Elafus,

                                    Naftal, Moses, Emmanual,

                                    Mateus, Leonard, Lukus,

                                    Nandina, Salome, Sanna,

                                    Najira, Salotie, Martha