Mucky Macclesfield!

We've had a lovely the days here. The weather started off beautiful, but quickly got wet and stayed wet. We had bike rides, fishing and a few movies. Now it's time to move on to Bury... let's hope the weather improves!

Cycle t'pub!

We had a jolly from our campsite in the woods to the pub in the village. Will had his first bike ride along country lanes whilst I ran alongside, with Lily in Bernie's bike seat... the reward was done delicious Cheshire ice cream!

Three Peaks Challenge; Day -1 Planning

Emma and I set ourselves the goal of completing the Yorkshire three peaks challenge in twelve hours.
We set off tomorrow, but first things first, we had a planning meeting - over a bottle of wine - to determine the best route, meal plan and who will sleep in the comfortable bed. 1-0 to Em. Game on!

Crabtastic!

Crabbing has been a Whitaker tradition for a few generations now, so it was lovely to introduce the kids to this Suffolk pastime. It's a far cry from catching kingfish in the Bay of Islands, but great fun was had by all... Apart from grandad who seemed a bit rusty and landed only seaweed!

Make over time!

Free face painting at Southwold pier

Back in Southwold!

It is hard to believe that this is Lily Bell's first time to Southwold. We didn't plan for a skinny dipping session, buy that's what quickly unfolded!

We walked up, got a bag of sweets and enjoyed the smells of the Adnams brewery on our way to the church Bernie and I married in, and it's fab playground. Just like the good old days

Beer festival!

Blah

Gorgeous guavas!

We compete with the resident black faced vervet monkeys for the delicious guavas that grow in the garden here. There's plenty for everybody fortunately and it's become an almost daily ritual to climb the tree, pick the ripe ones we can reach, leaving the bulk of then for the cheeky monkeys.

Catching up on the past few weeks...

Here at the farm, we mostly have weather in the high 20's - low 30's and need the pool to cool down. Fortunately there have been some periods of rain so the place is looking pretty lush.

Each evening we are treated to a stunning sunset:

Last month we were joined by Nana and Grandag Whitaker, and they kindly brought a bit of the cloud and drizzle they are used to in the UK to lush the place up and aclimatize them before the heat turned up:

They kindly took us away to Hluhluwe Game Park for a few days of safari fun. The kids loved the games and dress-ups they kindly bought for them:

On our first evening at the game park, the local Zulu people came to put on a show including drumming:

And lots of singing and dancing. Will, Lily and I were pulled out of the small crowd to join in and we all took it in turn to go a solo dance! The kids were amazing, they both really went for it and there were smart phones and smiles all round... unfortunately the light did not lend itself to photography:

The following morning we had our first safari and were quickly welcomed by many Zebra, Rhino and this dead buffalo. We were treated to the sight of a few lions asleep in the bushes after they had gorged on the dead beast:

Lily whiled away the boring patches by dressing up to look cool:

I busted out the selfie-stick to get this lovely picture, a lovely memento:

And we got to see cool creatures of all shapes and sizes; these diminutive dung beetles were some of the most impressive despite their small stature:

Another of our favourites were the warthogs; ugly, but beautiful at the same time:

Our second morning drive past the buffalo kill made for an even more impressive lion encounter,  few metres from the passenger side of the car:

Giraffe were hard to find. We only saw two, but they're always impressive to see:

We began to joke about the prevalence of White rhino, which fortunately, were ubiquitous in the park and not very shy or aggressive:

The kids were incredibly calm and patient, particularly given that we were sat in a car for around 6 hours at a time:

White rhino #76 on the move:

The most elusive of the big 5 are leopard and I've not seen one in the many safaris I've had, but elephant were very hard to find and it took us until the 11th of 12 hours of searching to find one. It was well worth the wait when we finally did:

Wildebeast, all kinds of buck (deer) and zebra were very common indeed and also not shy:

The hotel pool was a great place to cool off at the end of the day:

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My Little Pony!

The kids are still really enjoying the rides Braveheart gives them. I was leading the pony on one fine day when he spontaneously broke into a trot, which Will absolutely loved. It was only when Will got off that Liz told us that she was given the pony for free because he used to buck whenever the previous owners tried pushing him into a trot! Hopefully he feels comfortable enough to do it again and refrains from bucking!

The kids don't need much encouragement to feed their favourite horse:

Bernie has Will completing the exercises she used to do as a kid:

Bernie also rides Heart, a lovely horse. Will was keen to get in the saddle too:

Will also gets to hop on Pappy's tractor every now and again to help slash the grass:

 Lily also loves her Braveheart and takes great pleasure in feeding him apples, feed and going on walks:

Will will soon join the group rides with Liz and Bernie, his balance and posture are very good... his toes are usually better placed: