Tuesday 12 November 2013

Day trip to Dullstroom Bird of prey centre!



So, today we had a school trip out to Dullstroom bird of prey centre! The kids were so excited, and oh so proud when they turned up in their uniforms all ready to go ! It was hilarious when we got to the gas station at one point so that they could go to the toilet and they all asked "home?", as if they thought the whole trip out was to take them to a toilet ! Haha, well I guess since ours was completely demolished it would make sense to them that we would show them a real working toilet..... 


It started off cloudy but it burnt away into the most glorious day we have had in ages! Sadly, my English legs were not up to the sun. My pale milky white legs have only ever heard about the sun and so they just couldnt survive in todays sun. I now have bright red thighs that are burning into my jodphurs like radium. Ouuuccch! That will teach me to go out without sun screen on! And by the time I put some on, I already knew it was too late. Like a ticking time bomb. So, yeah, the front of my legs look like a red traffic light and the backs look like vanilla ice cream. I look like an unfinished picasso painting, it is NOT pretty! 
Anyway! Back to the day at hand ! We arrived at the centre and the kids finally got to see what an owl and eagle are! So that is going to make the doing the alphabet a lot easier when we say "O for Owl". It was so good to just get them out and introduce them to all these different sights and experiences!


We had lots of drama as well. When we were all seated waiting for the show to start, the lady in charge Anna came out with her beautiful little falcon Norman. Now, Norman was doing all his tricks beautifully and swooping and diving for the kids when suddenly we all saw a huge bird of prey, foreign to the centre approach. In about five seconds we all thought Norman was dead, Anna was screaming for Norman to return, running down the bank to try and get him while this bird tried to attack him. We really thought we were gonna have to watch as Norm got dragged away, but thankfully he survived and Norman shall live for another day! 
Next, they brought out a lovely barn owl who only weighs 29Og! I cant believe they are so light, and when Anna asked if anyone wanted to try feeding him, I had my hand up straight away haha, stuff the kids, I was at the front of the line for that! Haha! He was such a beauty and I kind of felt like I was in some kind of tropical Harry potter with my own owl, coz I am a tiny bit of a geek ....Now, as soon as the kids saw that I had done, ALL of them wanted to do it! Their little faces were amazed when they saw the bird up close, it was so sweet!


Next, out came a crow, who did all kinds of tricks like pick up litter and turn over cups to find food, he was so smart....and then he found a lizard and ate it in front of our kids and Wendy's kids, including two year old Savannah who started crying, so we had to say that the lizard was in fact made out of jello and all part of the act.....oops.....poor lizard......
After, the kids were able to play on the centers jungle gym and they had so much fun! Especially when I got on the seesaw and was able to balance out pretty much the whole class with my own weight! Haha. I am the equivalent of a about seven African kids.....maybe I should cut down on the chocolate....get it down to five kids.....


But, all in all, the kids seemed to love it. Anyway, on the way back we bought them some chips and then drama errupted when we heard crying from the back. We pulled over and went to see what was happening and patience was crying away, and the rest told us that percy had thrown her special juice bottle out of the window onto the road. He was in huge trouble and got told off badly. So, you can imagine how bad we all felt when offloading the kids, that we found her bottle and the lid in the back....so they made the whole thing up and poor percy got a telling off for absolutely nothing! I plan on having a very serious talk with them tomorrow. They absolutely LOVE telling on eachother, even if they have no idea what they are saying. poor percy ..... I must give him a hug tomorrow. 


Anyway, we have a HUGE storm coming in, it stretched all the way to pretoria, so we are bracing ourselves for a heck of a storm in about five minutes. Having to rush this blog coz this power is probably going to die very very very soon! Darkness for us tonight haha. Anyway, night night, Lekker Slaap! We lost the toilet in the last storm, fingers crossed we dont lose the school in this one ! Lekker Slaap! xxxxx

No comments:

Post a Comment