Second to last full month in South Africa. The move is getting real. At least we were able to escape for 10 days to explore Namibia.....
Trying out his travel crate. There is no picture of Bruno in his since he will NOT go into it. Oh dear. We had a hiccup in the animals' travel plans when our transport company learned that South African Airways has downgraded their planes that fly to Nairobi which means the cargo doors no longer can accommodate Jagger's crate! Luckily the company discovered that Lufthansa flies to Nairobi once a week from Johannesburg. We have always flown our animals on Lufthansa so we are happy. Think good thoughts on January 17th when the four of them will fly together to their new home.
Hydrotherapy with Kendall. The two of them often swim together at Guide Dogs. No matter how many toys are thrown into the pool for them to retrieve they often want the same one.
Visiting Alaska who started a second season (yes, very soon after her first!) on October 1st. Here she is rooming with Jagger's mother Brenna (center) and another beautiful Golden Clover (who is pregnant!).
School pictures came back. I guess we will always remember when Maria was going through her unicorn obsession!
Movie Night!
Therapy dog visit to Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital. Joss-Lynn (right) is Jagger's sister!
Almost every morning I take the dogs on a 5K hike at Hedianga Farm. October is the month that the Jacarandas bloom.
Salt trying out Bruno's travel crate. At least someone will go into it. I will wait to tell Salt that his is actually quite a bit smaller!
Another morning at Hedianga. We sure miss Alaska!
Paolo flew in overnight so we could start our 10 day trip to Namibia. Here we are off to the airport with our regular driver Obvious. How I love South African names! Look for more photos where Gio works hard to ruin the mood...
Outside of Windhoek waiting for our 4X4 rental. We were very excited that two Goldens were there to help us pass the time.
Do NOT show Jagger this!
Meanwhile, back in Johannesburg the dogs were on their own holiday staying with Bronwyn on her farm...
After a night in Windhoek we drove south to Mariental. We stopped for the night at a game reserve. We had decided not to focus on animals this trip since we are about to move to Kenya but we did get to do a small safari here.
Continuing south we ended up at a fun rest camp at the Quivertree Forest. We got to spend two nights here where the highlight, at least for the children, was the resident warthog...
....and the 12 dogs! Maria especially loved the puppy Boxer who loved to join her on the trampoline.
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Quivertrees! They are actually not trees but close relatives of aloe plants.
Near our rest camp was an area of giant rock formations called "Giant's Playground". We spent many happy hours there climbing and exploring.
Quivertree hugger.
That is Gio up there!
We spent one morning learning about fossils found in the area.
We saw these giant nests all over Namibia. They belong to the Sociable Weaver. Up to 20 pairs of these birds share the nest, each with their own entrance. Often a Pygmy Falcon also shares the nest and protects them from snakes.
We had some cool companions one night at the rest camp.
Reading to a warthog...
...and to his sister.
A boy's first beer (YES, Mom, it is non-alcoholic!).
Our road map.
Next we headed even farther south to the Fish River Canyon area. Our lodge was build right into these large rocks! It was such fun!
The kids' bed.
Our bed.
Bathroom. And, yes, there is no door. I struggled a bit with that!
Path to the....
...pool!
We spent two relaxed afternoons here swimming, reading and playing cards.
My morning run.
At Fish River Canyon.
Second biggest canyon in the world after The Grand Canyon!
YIKES! A horned adder. Very very dangerous.
Finally got Gio to smile!
It would not be a Belli trip without a bit of car trouble. Luckily these men were able to do a temporary fix and we made it the rest of the trip with a very noisy but functioning brake!
This day was our longest drive. Maria slept through a lot of it.
We drove west and north for about 8 hours finally reaching the Namib Naukluft Park, famous for its dunes. As we arrived at dusk this scene struck me- only the herds of Gemsbok (Oryx) crossing the dessert reminded me we were not on the moon.
Early the next morning we headed toward Sossusvlei, first hitting a few of the dunes.
Paolo letting loose!
Thought this could be our holiday card. Gio had other ideas. You might need to wait until 2020 for a card from us!
Final morning run in Namibia.
Only mountain zebra we saw on this trip.
And just like that our 10 days were over and it was time to return our rental car. Dogs were eager to see us!
Bruno was so happy to see us! He even forgave Gio for all of the Namibian dog hair on his clothes.
Maria never really mastered how to say "Namibia"...
And then we were back home and it was time to begin saying our farewells. Our dear Nomsa has found a job with a lovely American family. She will have her final day with us on December 7th. We are all dreading that goodbye.
Final room to sort- the kitchen!
Maria loves her Wednesday tennis lessons with Celeste.
I told her she had PE. At least she put on sneakers.
The childrens's school put on a fun "Boo in the Boot" event the Friday before Halloween. As a complete surprise to absolutely no one Maria was a unicorn.
Also not much of shock as a costume choice, though he was NOT pleased that there was lettuce involved.
We volunteered to be one of the boots. Guess who is the boss of this family when it comes to decisions??
Waiting in line for face painting.
Maria and I have been having a lot of "girl time" on weekends as Gio has a full schedule of sleepovers. This morning we went to say farewell to our favorite dog park.
Thought this was funny. I had just unpacked Gio's sleepover bag. No room for a toothbrush...or clean underwear.
Many of the other expats in our estate got together to organize trick-or-treating at each other's houses the Sunday before Halloween. It was very hot for these costumes!
Gio with his beloved trainer Willie. They work together 3-4 times a week. Gio loves every minute of it. Wish I enjoyed training as much as he does!
Halloween morning. Maria drew this for her bus driver Mr. Joseph. She adores him.
It took me three days but I finally managed to catch Pepperoni. So off I went with all 4 animals to get their health certificates.
With these certificates I could finally submit all of the paperwork needed for Kenyan import permits.
We finally found a house in Kenya!! Well done, Paolo, for all of your searching. Check back in with us in November when the children and I will fly to Nairobi to join Paolo for Thanksgiving. We will visit the house and let the children pick their rooms.
