7. it's all in a day's walk

‘Walking the dogs’ has always had such a romantic connotation. 
One envisages a good looking husband, sporting a tweed coat, Labrador at his side, walking along the misty river banks, occasionally throwing a ball or Frisbee. 
But at Milimani, as romantic as it is, a calm stroll with the Labrador just doesn’t happen.

When it became apparent that our three bushpig orphans needed to ‘get out more’, our three dogs (one is a Labrador, so we do have some of the ingredients), and us (sans tweed coats) started taking them for walks. We’d stroll from the house for a kilometre to the helipad where we’d let them forage. On the way back, a compulsory pit stop at the water tank for a wallow ensured that the trademark of the walk was left all over our legs and shoes. These evening walks became a ritual and guests were invited along.

My uncle, aunt and (favourite) cousin came to visit and a bushpig walk was on the agenda. By now Picollo had grown quite large and loved Velcro. Colleen, Kelly and I were so wrapped up in conversation that we neglected Clive who was being attacked – in a friendly way – by Picollo, hungry for the Velcro on his takkies. Clive’s cries for help eventually stopped us mid-sentence. I instructed him to ‘just ignore Picollo', and he exclaimed in horror: “At which point do I ignore her, Lois? When my foot is half way down her throat?” Clive abandoned the walk and retired to the safety of cricket on TV.

A Blackbacked Jackal, Jacki, came to us from C.R.O.W (Centre for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife). Jacki was tame, and although free to roam, adopted us for a short time. The dogs and pigs were initially sceptical but later accepted his presence. After that Jacki joined us on the walks and they became even more chaotic. Pigs chasing pigs, chasing dogs, chasing jackal. Jacki soon wondered off, and has hopefully settled amongst his own type.

Then Jasper the Friendly Goose arrived. Jasper is an Egyptian Goose, about two-years-old, and used to humans. To be frank he is neither an Egyptian nor a goose (actually a duck), and definitely not friendly. He too came from C.R.O.W. He immediately took over our home, our lives and our nerves. The only person he didn’t attack was Ken. The rest of us had to dodge flapping wings and a snapping bill. Jasper also joined the walks.

When the time came to take two of the bushpigs, Picollo and Wig, to the release enclosure at the restaurant, Jasper escorted us, and discovered that this was where we spent most of our time, so every morning he flew there and strutted around the swimming pool. We were having breakfast with guests when Jasper literally landed on one lady’s head! Thankfully she had a sense of humour and Jasper was chased off what he considered a good nesting place!

Picollo and Wig have settled into their new enclosure and will be introduced to the three other bushpigs that were released six months ago. We take them  for long walks into the forest and down to the dam for a wallow. Soon the other bushpigs will accept them and they will be free to go.

Although it’s often hard to release the animals, it’s far more rewarding to watch them embrace freedom and interact with their own species.

But it looks like Jasper has no intention of going anywhere. Life’s too good beside the pool!

Published in SA Country Life, July 2002

Other blogs by Lois Kuhle:

SMOKE RINGS IN CUBA. A TWO WEEK JOURNEY FILLED WITH SALSA, SUNSHINE AND SILLY PEOPLE: http://smokeringsincuba.blogspot.com/2013/10/smoke-rings-in-cuba-journey-filled-with.html


COOL THOUGHTS. MUSINGS AND OTHER MAD MOMENTS:
http://loiskuhlethoughts.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-impatient-gardener.html

MILIMANI GAME SANCTUARY

In 2002 I was lucky enough to be given a column on the back page of the South African 'Country Life'. 

I submitted 12 articles about the life and times at MILIMANI GAME SANCTUARY, and the adventures we had the privilege of experiencing upon our arrival in South Africa in 2000. 

Sadly, the new life we chose was short lived, as in 2005 Milimani Game Sanctuary was bought by the government under a land claim and handed to the Gumbi community. It was the same year that Ken died of a heart attack.

As a tribute to Ken Kuhle and the amazing animals we lived with in the heart of the Zululand bush, I am re-publishing these stories.

ACCIDENT WITH A CHEQUE BOOK

Being catapulted into a whole new life in the KZN Bushveld calls for an ability to keep one’s cool – and a sense of humour! 

 A friend of my mother’s once said to me, ‘Better to be an old man’s sweetheart, than a young man’s slave'. Following this sound advice, I married a man 22 years older than myself. For his part, Ken had this philosophy that a man should marry a woman half his age plus seven. I was in my late 30s and he was nearly 60 when we married just over four years ago, so I slotted right in.

Ken is Kenyan born and bred. I was raised in Kenya and went back in 1995 on a two year contract. After falling in love with Ken, I was quite content to make Kenya my home again.

We had a good life. Ken was supposed to be retired but he’d spent many years committed to wildlife and conservation projects and became totally involved in a wildlife charitable trust. I was the managing director of a media broking agency. Then Ken had an accident with a cheque book. A piece of land came up for sale in South Africa and, to our total surprise, his offer was accepted. We now sat with 10,000 acres (3,000 hectares) of land in a country we did not live in. My parents are in South Africa and naturally had something to do with ‘the accident’.

So there I was, forty something, having survived the traumatic twenties, fought my way through my thirties, finally reached middle age, established a career, considered myself an adult who was taking life seriously, only to find my sixty-something husband prepared to abandon everything he’d lived for, leave the country he’d been totally committed to for his whole life, and settle in a country he knew absolutely nothing about.

Ken’s impression of South Africa had been sugar cane, shopping malls and white people, but he’d bought a gem of a place just north of Mkuze in KwaZulu-Natal and, without looking back, shifted his whole being to what he now considers the centre of the universe. In the 18 months that we’ve been on the farm, which we’ve named Milimani Game Sanctuary, he’s gone into town less than six times. His old haunt in Nairobi, The Muthaiga Club, never even gets a mention any more.

I was sent back to Kenya to pack up 62 years of someone else’s life. I had always sworn that if we had to move house we would sell it lock stock and barrel, as there was so much clutter in our home that I couldn’t bear the thought of going through it all. But somehow my threats went unheard. This was to Ken’s disadvantage, as my mother and I went from room to room going, “don’t like, can’t like, won’t like’, and many items mysteriously disappeared to be replaced by more acceptable recent purchases. Naturally, without fail, all the things that were ‘forgotten’, or ‘left behind’ happen to be the things that are constantly asked for. Blank stares and confused looks are wearing thin. I didn’t even know we had a cupboard in the kitchen, never mind a floor polisher that was at least 100 years old.

Back in South Africa, with an enormous amount of energy, we set out to develop a tourist lodge. In our enthusiasm to get going we adopted a ‘design by chaos’ approach. This is not recommended if you want to sustain sanity or maintain a peaceful marriage. We’ve had to deal with language problems, learning to understand different cultures, living in the bush whilst trying to develop a business, and many other mind altering experiences.

But the biggest challenge of all has been trying to survive a husband who has down-aged about 40 years, found a new lease on life and has this abundance of energy that leaves us all standing. For my part, I’ve aged about 20 years in the past 12 months – and so have completely destroyed his theory of ‘half his age plus seven.’

Published in South African Country Life, January 2002.

Other blogs by Lois Kuhle:


SMOKE RINGS IN CUBA. A TWO WEEK JOURNEY FILLED WITH SALSA, SUNSHINE AND SILLY PEOPLE: http://smokeringsincuba.blogspot.com/2013/10/smoke-rings-in-cuba-journey-filled-with.html

COOL THOUGHTS. MUSINGS AND OTHER MAD MOMENTS:  http://loiskuhlethoughts.blogspot.com/2013/12/we-have-pending-nuptials.html