She has such a gentle nature and is a very special horse to us.
My mom and dad with Biddy after her training session and before she went back into her box.
Biddy is really a lovely horse with a gentle nature. Everytime Dereck goes to see her, she recognises him. She has grown well and is training very well and we are all looking forward to going to see her in her first race which hopefully will be soon.
I must say eating crocodile was very enjoyable. Don't know what the crocs though of us eating one of them in their pit.
There we are enjoying our meal.
And just in case you thought the photo was taken elsewhere, we turned around so that you can see we are all in the pit with the crocodiles. 
This is a close up of the one on the water's edge closest to us. He just kept opening his eye and looking at us and then closing it again.
There is our "watcher" with his stick. We were told that when it is cold the crocs just chill in the water and don't move around too much. It is when it is hot that they come out of the water to find shade and often it is under the table we were sitting at. Apparently crocs can jump, so getting on to the table if they came towards you is not an option either!!!
Once we were finished we headed back to the restaurant where we were each presented with a certificate stating that we had survived the "Fear Factor Challenge" and were alive to tell the tale.
We booked to see the cultural show, followed by the crocodile park and finishing off with the snake park. We enquired about doing a game drive but due to the rain on the previous few days they advised that they would have to check to see if the roads were okay and would let us know. We went in to the cultural village where we were taken through two rondavels and explained what happened in there and the tools and things that were used. It was rather stuffy as there was a very smokey fire on the go. I am not sure how the Africans manage to live in places like that with all the smoke - it was quite a relief to get out into the cold, but fresh air. After the cultural talk we went to watch the cultural courting dance having already been told what the procedure was. These dancers are amazing and have so much rhythm.
Then it was in to the crocodile park. This is the oldest crocodile there, I think about 106 years old and weighed over 400kg's.
We saw a variety of different sized crocodiles but I am not going to post those pictures as they are really all the same.
At the end of the crocodile and snake parks there is a gallery where they have skeletons etc of the various different crocs and snakes and off course we could not resist in playing around with this dead, stuffed crocodile!!!
Our wonderful guide - Brian, who was very knowlegable and told us all we wanted to know about the crocodiles and snakes. I could not bring myself to hold or even go close to this snake he was holding, even though he assured us it was totally harmless!
After we came out of the crocodile/snake park we were advised that a game drive was going to take place. I went and booked our tickets and then off we went. It was freezing so our guide got us blankets to put over our legs.
We saw a Wildebeest (known as a Gnu).
Some buck and Zebra's.
Mommy Zebra with her baby and it just stayed by her side all the time. Most of the Zebra females were pregnant.
The baby buck, who were jumping around for us. They were practising their bucking and were jumping and bucking their back legs quite a bit. It was really fun to watch.
There were two giraffe who had names, but I cannot remember them. A male and a female.
After our game drive we headed back to the restaurant for some lunch. That story is in the next post.
One of the guys who made a speech. All the speeches made were just so true of my dad. He is never one to sit around. If something needs to be done, he gets on and does it. He maintained the books of the club as well as keeping the bar stocked and apparently he used to tell the barman not to throw away the empties as he would count those against what was left in the fridge to balance against the money received!!
Val Maiden giving a speech. She reminded everyone of the brilliant "falls" my dad had. The "off the fence run" where my dad ended up running up the fence due to the momentum in getting a shot. There was also one where he could not stop and ended up rolling on the ground and then getting up and carrying on playing. Another when he could not stop at the net and ended up going over the top!! I must say I did witness one or two of those and they were spectacular - funny too!!! When I was younger and went to the club I used to play with Val's children who I think went on to play tennis themselves. I played for a short while, but preferred badminton and squash.
Inside the pub looking out onto the lounge my dad built.
The club from the main entrance.
The club from down on the tennis court.
Our family at the club.
My mom and dad.
In 1962,63,67 and 68 my dad won the men's singles competition. In 1961,63 65,66,67,68 and 69 he won the men's doubles competition. In 1963,64 66,67 68,69,70,71,72 and 76 he won the mixed doubles competition.
We found a nice spot under a tree on the grass and close the the rides and set ourselves up. Grant, Lauren and her sister Michaela and Leanne went off first to check out and sample the rides while Dereck and I waited with all our things. It was so nice to just lie around enjoying life and watching the other people around us.
This is one of the rides we went on - yes, even I went down quite a few of them, but this one was hilarious as you go down in a tube and at the bottom there was another tube in my lane and when I hit it, I got knocked out of mine - I was hysterical laughing!!!! and trying to make sure that my costume was still in all the right places - ha ha.
I felt like a kid going on all the rides and then having a good laugh at the end. Each time Dereck and I went on a ride, he would start off first, I would wait a while before going down and ended up catching up with him and pushing him down and then landing on top of him in the pool at the end - we really had so much fun and laughter!!!
At 2:30 we went to the Acquarium and watched the sharks being fed and thereafter headed off to watch the dolphin show. They said they were looking for someone to meet a dolphin and you had to shout or jump around to be noticed and guess what - I was noticed!!!! I was called down and went into the dophin show area and told to sit on the rock above and wait to be called.
Then I went to meet Kelpie an Indian Ocean bottlenose dolphin. I stroked his chest. What an amazing feeling - he was so soft.
Then I gave him two pieces of fish and the best was giving him kisses. He just balanced while I gave him quite a few kisses - a memory I will treasure forever. (sorry this picture came out the wrong way).
After that I had to waive to him and he rolled onto his back and waved his fins. It was such an awesome experience.
After wandering through the shopping mall, we eventually left uShaka at about 4:15. We all had a wonderful, fun filled day. Although I did put sunscreen on me, I did get a bit burnt, but I am not sore, just look nice and healthy.
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