Mabela Rantjes

December 17, 2012

And so we left Seattle at 2:30 in the afternoon, Saturday, December 15th;  and arrived in Johannesburg at 7:00  in the morning (local time), Monday December 17th.  After about a 9 and a half  hour flight to London, a 5 and a half  hour layover at Heathrow, and a 10 and a half  hour flight to Joburg.  About as gruelling as it sounds.  But then, we`d travelled pretty much half way around the world in  26 hours which is kind of amazing to think about.

Oliver met us at the airport and we headed west for a few hours, arriving at Mabela Rantjes, the family`s farm, by late morning.    We were greeted by Boulie, the German Shepherd guard dog, and Simba, a yellow lab.

Within half an hour of arrival, I was ensconced on the deck with a cup of tea, a South Africa bird book (thanks Tom and Gloria) and my bincs.  The bird song was incredible!  Sara, Jason, and Danika were several hours behind us so we had a great morning relaxing and just taking it all in.

The view from the deck.  Afternoon thunderstorms came in over the Magaliesberg Range to the south.  The light was beautiful right before the storms.

 Mabela Rantjes (either "Wild Apricot" or "Wild Apricot Ridge", not sure) is  333 acres overlooking a valley in the Magaliesberg Range of North-West Province. While at least part of it was a working mango orchard years ago, it is not actively farmed now (excepting Judith`s chickens, geese, and garden).

Judith`s  geese.