I "see" you are back! Hope you enjoyed your visit with family and friends. Life has been getting in the way of my pond viewing time lately so I wasn't watching most of the time you were away and really need to get caught back up to speed.  How are the wild dog pups doing? The Pond looks really dry and windy, alot different from July. Have the rains started yet?

 I have posted about 10-12 very short videos from Mashatu and Mala Mala on Facebook under my name Carla Mitroff. For some reason it was easier to load them there than YouTube. I continue to update my galleries on www.pbase.com/carlam as well.  I am sure you are so happy to be back at the pond and we are happy to have you back.

Pond hugs to you!

Carla

Thanks Margaret :o) Be careful to volunteer for a counting job though. Before you know it you're stuck with it! ;o)

We will have another group of guests coming to the hide, probably tomorrow or Saturday morning. They are friends of guests we had here a few weeks ago and I am really looking forward to meeting them and spending some time with them at the hide. I just hope the Impala doesn't smell too bad... let me refrase that... I hope they won't smell the Impala too much ;o)

EDIT: Friday, the guests haven't been here yet, but I hope they will be able to make it tomorrow.

I did have one guest though. Tor, a volunteer at Horsesafari's, spend her last morning in Botswana at the hide. She enjoyed it very much and worked with the cam for a while. It was such fun having her here! We met regularly at Horsesafari's whenever I popped in for a rooibos tea and we kept wanting to spend some time at the hide with her. Luckely she made it! She promised to pop in on the forum mwhen she gets back home. Looking forward to that! Sorry you missed the Giraffes Tor! But we had a fun morning with lots of great sightings :o)

 Afke - I hope you have a wonderful visit home.  You are surely going to be missed.  Will be counting the days when you will be back.  It's very much appreciated that there will be others manning the cam.  Betcha the animals will miss you, too!

Have a safe trip.

Margaret

Thanks Lilly, I think I might get some of those chocolates :o)

I don't thik I will be bale to take pictures of Wild Dogs there though ;o) How are your pictures? Craig spend the night at the pond last night. Ian and Craig wanted to join the dogs early this morning. They are trying to take ID pictures of all the pups.

:o)

 Have a wonderful visit home. I hope you fill up on those wonderful chocolates you were discussing with the Belgian family during my visit.

 I will be on leave from Sunday. I will go and see my family for a few weeks :o)

I hope I won't miss any pondie visits, but if I do... I wish you a wonderful time here!!!

In the mean time I hope pictures and stories will be shared here. I will pop in regularly so I can keep in touch with you and the pond :o)

Enjoy the pond!

:o)

 Hi Beth!! Good to see you here at the forum again :o) It was such fun to meet you and spend some time with you and your company at the hide. From the first moment Fatty was the star of course :o) Did the picture of the termite mound on the screen work out? 

Yes, I remember you were taking lots of pictures, but that's what you HAVE to do while you are here. :o)

I'm looking forward to seeing some of them here and of course I am looking forward to some of your stories as well!

Don't get used to normal life outside Africa too soon!

:o)

 Afke, it was great to meet you!  everyone in my group couldn't stop taling about the time we had spent at the pond.  I'm still going through my pictures and trying to sort through everything. It was such fun to see all of the animals live!  seeing George and Gracie, and Fatty was a real thrill!  I will be posting my pictures soon, As you know I went a little crazy with the camera!  As I look through them I wish I had taken more! 

thanks again for letting us come and vist with you

My niece was thrilled that  you mentioned her pictures!)

Beth/Murphy

 We have another group of stranded guests at the hide at the moment. They are so quiet, you hardly notice the ten extra people in here! :o)))

The pond is quiet, but waiting here beats waiting at the workshop untill the car get's fixed I think :o)

EDIT:

It got quite busy for a while. A huge herd of Impala's (around 150 I think), a herd of Wildebeest (around 25), a group of Baboons, a Warthog or two, and a large flock of Quelea's taking a bath. Lovely! The car is fixed and the guests have left. I hope they'll pop in on the forum once they get back home

:o)

 Today we'll have another NG group visiting the pond. It is a big group, 25 people, and I met them at the airstrip and at Main Camp already. It will be fun to have them here so they can see the pond in real life. I hope we'll have some animal visitors at the pond while they human guests are here :o))

This year the NG groups travel by Dakota, an old plane build in 1943. Such a lovely plane... You'll probably hear it take off later this morning :o)

EDIT: the guests have left and all loved being here. Some of them already view the cam at home, some of them will from now on. Most of the guests were from the USA, but we also had four Spanish guests this time. I like meeting people from all over. They promised to visit the forum, so I hope we'll meet them here :o)

 Hello Diane!

I'm so glad you got to finally see the dogs! It seems the pin I gave you really was a good luck charm! The rest of our trip was amazing as well. My friend Linda said of all her 6 safaris, this was the best one. We are already plotting and planning for a future trip. And Mashatu will definitely be a big part of it.

Lily

 Hello Diana, good to see you here. I am so happy you finally got to see the Wild Dogs after your 7 year search!

It was lovely meeting you here at the pond. Great to meet others that have the Africa bug :o) I hope we'll meet again someday

:o)

Yesterday we had 10 unexpected guests from South Africa at the pond. Their gamedrive vehicle broke down and they were waiting for it to be fixed at Merryhill. We desided the pond was a much better place to wait and we had a really good time here watching the pond and it's animal visitors and talking about them. It was fun! They promised to pop in here when they get back home. Password peanutbutter ;o)

 Hello,

Nice to meet you here again. You gave me the wild dog pin in Mashatu to whish us luck in finding the dogs. We were very lucky and we've seen the dogs in Mashatu and afterwards in Mantobeni ( Sout-Africa). It were magical moments. So I want to thank you again for giving me the pin, it really brought us luck.

Hope you enjoyed the rest of your stay. ( except for your game drive with those "special people that really didn't care about nature)

greetz

Diane

 Hi and nice to meet you here. You gave me a Wild dog pin in Mashatu to whish us luck in finding the dogs. And... it worked, we saw the dogs in Mashatu en afterwards in Mantobeni -South-Africa. It was a magical moment.

So thanks again, hope you had a nice trip

 Hello Lillipets! Great to see you found your way to this forum :o)

It was wonderful to meet you. The pins are on a stuffed Elephant I got from a dear pondie. Thanks again, they are really lovely.

I am so happy you saw the Wild Dogs. They are wonderful animals and every sighting is exciting. Wasn't the "hunt" to find them exciting too?? It was such fun to talk to Richard on the radio, then see you arrive behind the hide and drive off into the bush to try and find the Wild Dogs. You were giving me the wild dog pin while Richard was already driving off! Still makes me smile.

Mashatu IS a magical place and I do hope you will come back. For now I am looking forward to your stories and pictures

 Hello Afke and all the pondies,

I'm the one who gave you the warthog and wild dog pins for good luck-well it certainly worked since we got to see the dogs! What a thrill to see the pond and meet you. And I'm relieved to hear the lady from Belgium finally got to see the dogs after a 7 year search!

Unfortunately the other family in our vehicle weren't impressed with the dogs -they had no idea what a special site they were witnessing. After about 10 minutes with the dogs the husband wanted to leave because he was afraid we wouldn't have time to stop for sundowners!  Despite our wanting to pitch him out of the vehicle, my friend and decided to be grateful for the sighting and off we went. Later we found out that the 4 dogs brought the rest of the pack and there were eventually 11 dogs there! Then we wished we had pitched him out of the vehicle! (we would have left him plenty to drink for his sundowners of course!)

I'm shocked and saddened to hear about Paul. My thoughts go out to all his friends and family during this difficult time.

I'm not the most computer litterate person,but as I get the hang of using the forums I will keep posting. I'll try and post some photos too.

Mashatu is a magical place and I will be back!

 Murphy and her friends just left. We had a great time together at the hide, watching the Kori's chasing Impala off and admiring that magnificent Eland bull. We had a lovely chat and they had a good look around at the hide and the boma. Murphy told me she only took 3090 pictures so far... :o)))

Next stop for them is Djuma, but they'll be here for a few more days. They went on an Ivorydrive with Jeanetta yesterday and saw lots of Elephants. And tonight they will go out with Andrei to look for Leopard. Oh... and they saw the Wild Dogs :o)

She and her friends will be back online when they get home and tell us all their stories

:o)

Sofia (she's five years old and asked Murphy to bring her drawings to Africa), thank you so much for the drawings! I got the drawing of the Elephant and the one of Fatty. :o)

 Murphy is here and will write to you now :o)

Good mornig everyone! this place is amazing!  I just saw fatty and am watcing the fleas.  WE saw the wild dogs, cheetah with a kill last night.  I"m taking lots of pictures to share with you all when I get back.  I hope everyone is well.  Chat with you all wen I get back

 We just had nine visitors here at the hide, all people from Murphy's group. It was very nice meeting them and talk with them. They all watch PP at home and were happy to see it in real life. For us it is always such a pleasure to meet viewers. It does make a difference when you meet people that are watching the pond. Puts faces to the word viewers. We enjoy spending some time with every one of them.

Murphy will be here tomorrow morning. I am looking forward to meeting her! I'll ask her if she wants to type a few words here, live from the hide :o)

 Hi Everyone,

I've created a thread for messages to Afke to support her during this difficult time.

http://forums.ngm.com/forums/p/7934/317406.aspx#317406

Take care,

Mary, NGS

So sorry to hear this.  Condolences to Afke, Makena, all of Paul's friends and family.  Such sad news.

Oh Carla, what terrible news. Thank you for letting us know. 

 My condolences to Afke, Paul's friends, family and all who met him. Including yourself, of course. 

 I just found out from Afke, that yesterday, while cycling the Tour the Kruger, Paul died suddenly.  It just doesn't seem possible! We were just with him a month ago. Paul was amazingly fit, had such passion for his work and love for the bush. He will be greatly missed.  Afke and Paul were close friends and she is going to have a tough time dealing with this. Paul was a well known cam operator and a great source of information for the pond and pondies.

Sending hugs, love and support to Afke and all of Paul's family and friends. We will miss you.

http://www.pbase.com/carlam/image/100889610

Carla (Makena)

This is my "project in the works" that I will let you know when I have updates. None of my photos have been cropped or photoshopped yet and I hope to get the captions on the rest of them soon. Click on each photo to see the full size. Enjoy!

http://www.pbase.com/carlam/petes_pond