Last week we talked to E/S Dummers about going to a game preserve that is about 2 hours from our house. I had checked and they opened at 7 every day of the week. So E/S early Monday morning they arrived at our house and we loaded up the car and headed off for a P-day adventure. We were excited because about the only wild animals we had seen were the guinea fowls that are sometimes along the road.

 

We had planned to go to the Suikerbosrand game reserve. I had called earlier in the week to find what time they opened and that they were open on Mondays. As we were making the abur two hour drive I kiddingly said that it would be just our luck to arrive to find that it was some kind of holiday and the park would be closed. I should have kept my mouth shut because when we got to the gate we were told that due to a large fire over the weekend the were closed until it was cleaned up. We did not even get to see a single animal!

Elder Dummer got on his GPS and found that about 30 minutes away was a bird sanctuary. Not wild animals but it sounded OK. When we got there it turned out the sanctuary closed a long time ago and it was now a housing development. However the lake was still there and a few birds but not worth the trip. Strike 2

 

We then decided to go see the famous dome outside of Parys where 2 billion years – give or take a few – ago a meteor hit and changed the landscape for hundreds of miles and put dust in the air that changed the climate for years afterwards. On the way we stopped to have lunch at a park we knew about along the Vaal river. That went well and it was nice to sit in the sun and enjoy a quiet lunch.

 

The river is very low – notice the white lines on the rock. In january it will be as high as the top of these stairs or higher. It floods part of the town each year.

 

We got to share the area with a couple of dogs who obviously know where to go for some lunch. The bridge in the background use to allow you to cross over onto an island but the island end has been blocked off but you can still go to the middle of bridge and take some nice pictures.

We shared part of our lunch with a stranger who was near the bridge. i gave him a Faith in Christ passalong card which he seemed to be as happy to get as he was the sandwich. We then left to go to the dome and along the way saw some antelope on a ranch that raises them to sell to other parks and to places who offer exotic meals. We had never seen either the Springbok above or the Bontebok below on any of our many trips to game parks on our first mission to Africa.

  

While we were in Parys we stopped at the local tourist information center and asked about the road to the dome entrance. We were told it was 15K of good road and we could make 60 to 80K per hour. When we actually got to the road we found that it was terrible. A really rough, washboard that limited travel in our car to about 10K per hour. As we did not want to spend 90 minutes or more bouncing all over the place we turned around and made for home.

So we did not get to see any of the attractions we tried for but we had a great day with E/S Dummer, a lovely lunch along the river and we even saw a couple of antelope species we had never seen before. So it was a matter of counting our blessings instead of counting animals!