I can barely believe I just typed “month 12”. The realisation that we’ll soon be marking a whole year in South Africa is mind-blowing to me.
The past month disappeared in whirl of family visits, special occasions (hello, NYD), work around the home, and managing uninvited wild guests.
And in between, we managed a few excursions, including brekkies out at one of our favourite stops – a Woolies cafe …
We celebrated 2+3’s 31 December birthday in a rather more low-key manner than has occurred in many past years, but this one was truly exceptional!
This year we walked with elephants!
About 10kms from our house is the “Elephant Sanctuary”, where rescued elephants are rehabilitated and – where possible – returned to the wild. There are currently four elephants at the sanctuary that can, for a variety of reasons, not be re-wilded. These magnificent animals live at the sanctuary and are comfortable to have limited interactions with visitors. They spend most of their days foraging in the mountains behind the sanctuary (accompanied by their keepers), but at night they sleep safely indoors.
It was such a privilege to learn about and interact with these gentle giants. And getting a kiss from Temba – priceless, albeit a little muddy!
One of the reasons we moved to South Africa was to be close to old friends and family. NYD delivered that in spades!
Joined by some of my cousins, my nephew, and old and new friends, we started 2026 on the best possible note. There was good food aplenty, bubbles, and enough laughter to last well into the new year!
After new year we welcomed a house guest. Urbain’s sister, Francet, has lived in the UK for over 20 years and she spent the last few days of her South African sojourn with us.
It was great having a few days to get to know one another again, having barely seen one another over the past years. And we also loved sharing a little of our African life with her.
No visit to Africa would be complete without wildlife! With limited time, we couldn’t get to a proper game reserve, but we did manage to visit a conservancy close to home where they care for injured animals that cannot be re-wilded. There are wild dogs, cheetahs, hyenas, antelopes, and these fine creatures …
Now, our little part of the world is home to many wild critters, some less welcome than others.
We love our regular bird visitors, adore the neighbourhood squirrel, and even find the monkeys cute, but we draw the line at baboons, especially when they make their way into our home. We’ve had two visits in the past 10 days, and replacing all the fruit, chocolates and snacks, and cleaning up after them is wearing a little thin. We also do not appreciate their wanton destruction of things we value and love.
Mercifully, the baboon visits made up a small part of our African life over the past weeks!
We also finally got around to replacing some of the really ugly light fittings that have been annoying the bejesus out of me.
Urbain crafted a fabulous chandelier that has true provenance. The wooden frame was made from a recycled outdoor bench, ripped out when Monash University had landscaping done. The ceramic pieces were cast by ceramist, Jack Latti, from floodlighting lamps (globes) and a reflector that Urbain has used in his career as a lighting engineer. These pieces were fired in Jack’s anagama wood-fired kiln, and are hanging from bits of rescued and recycled fascia board rescued from our friend Dewetia’s house. The metal shades are IKEA fruit bowls.
We also made the acquaintance of spectacular looking bugs …
Had a tipple or two at newly-discovered haunts …
And found treasures in forgotten bits of our garden.
Here’s to the 2026 we all wish for ourselves!
Until next time, sala kahle.
African Scatterlings 
Leave a comment