Times have changed and not for the better...

Many of you will know that my parents live in South Africa and that we are very lucky in that we have spent many happy times visiting Grandma and Grandad Africa, since the boys were born.

On our visit there this summer one thing had become abundantly clear. Times are changing... For wildlife especially.

Our arrival on African soil coincided with the slaying of Cecil the Lion in neighbouring Zimbabwe. The TV stations and local papers were all covering the story and discussing the plight of Africa's animals in response to this. Unfortunately poaching is so endemic to Africa in general that the loss of Cecil garnered more of a reaction from the international community than it did from Africa itself.

One of the big differences now though in the fight for wildlife survival  in recent times is social media. Did you know it can in fact aid the poachers?

I will be honest, I hadn't actually given it much thought. I am in no way a fan of trophy hunting. I think that the slaying of endangered animals for sport is just plain wrong. As is the needless killing of an animal for its horns, tusks or hide. Now if you're an indigenous tribe that had hunted elephant or rhino or lion for 100's of years and that that animal will feed your village for a month then I can understand sustainable hunting for survival. But chopping off heads or horns and leaving a carcass behind for the scavengers... No!

So what's my point? Well this is. These 2 White Rhinos pictured below are 2 of 3, that lived for several years at Tala game reserve just outside Durban.

2 of the 3 Rhinos at Tala in 2012

Tala is small, tiny in fact in comparison to others in South Africa which can be the size of UK counties or even countries. Its probably the size of a small town. Well my family and I have seen these same 3 rhino on our visits to Tala since Jake was 1 year old.

 So imagine my shock when I visited this year to take the picture below. Can you see what is wrong with it?

Talas 2 current Rhinos.

Did you spot the problem? Well the rhino on the left of the picture is missing something rather obvious, her horn. Now what if I tell you that of the rhinos in the first picture at least one of, possibly both, are now dead. You see last year poachers went into Tala and darted all 3 rhinos, removing the horns from all 3 while they were still alive. 2 of them sadly didn't make it and the third lived to tell the tale albeit without her most recognisable feature.

What you can't see just out of shot in the second picture is the pick up truck with  armed security guards, whose sole purpose it is to follow these 2 rhinos around, wherever they wander in the park and ensure their safety.

So what about the bigger game reserves? We saw changes there too. Every visit we have made to South Africa wouldn't be complete without a visit to Hluhluwe/Imfolozi -the oldest proclaimed nature reserve in Africa - and 3 hours North of Durban. Hluhluwe/Imfolozi is the birthplace of rhino conservation and the home of Operation Rhino the project that started rhino conservation in the 1950's and 1960's.

The 2 camps have sighting boards with animal numbers and you can update it daily with what you have spotted and where you saw it.

This is the board from one of our first visits several years ago.

Approximate number of animals in the park.

I've actually decided to blank out the numbers of Rhinos in the park anyway just in case anyone can use the data nefariously, despite it being several years out of date.

And here are the tokens to tag your sightings and the board to show where in the park you spotted the animal.

Tags

Sightings board

The boys have enjoyed on previous visits spotting the animals on the board, seeing where others have seen them and adding our own sightings to the board.

2015 had some glaring omissions. Gone are the numbers for rhino in the park as are all the markers for both black and white rhinos. This is to ensure their safety so that poachers cannot easily locate them. I can completely see why the park has done this. Why leave what almost amounts to a neon sign flashing over an animals head saying "Here I am?" But at the same time it makes me sad and angry that they have had to do this in the first place.

This also ties in to my earlier comment regarding social media and how it can affect the rhino population. There are signs up in various locations around the park and at all entrances not to post pictures of rhino on the many social networks available as most phones enable GPS co-ordinates to become embedded in the picture data. That cute rhino mother and baby you've just uploaded to instagram or twitter has now perhaps given poachers the means to track her at her last known position so her horn can be stolen. It certainly made me think and my social media postings of photos were limited to my friends list on facebook. I feel they are a trust worthy bunch and I don't have any poachers or trophy hunters hiding among them as far as I am aware.

So far this year in Kwa Zulu Natal where Hluhluwe/Imfolozi is located, 75 rhino have been poached for their horns with very, very few of them surviving the ordeal wither from the overdose of drugs used to dart them to bring them down quickly or the trauma of having their horn sawed off while still alive. This figure doesn't take into account the rest of the provinces or indeed the rest of Africa but statistics do say the problem is getting worse not better.

This picture is the statue at the Rhino Centenary Centre. I really do worry that the legacy for my children's children, will be visiting here and it will be the only rhino left to spot in the park.

I really hope that after the whole "Cecil" furore that African nations can get their act together and stop the both the trade of illegal ivory and horns and that sport hunting in the main can be eradicated.
I have to be honest and say I struggle to get upset when I read news stories of poachers that get their just desserts.

Sorry for the rant readers but I really feel strongly about this and needed to vent. If anyone wants to add anything please comment.

On a happier note we did see several rhino on our visit but I won't be telling you where. But here is a happy picture of a sighting we made over the summer :)

Till next time x

Malham Cove In the Sunshine

Sorry the blog has been quiet for a while, we have been visiting Grandma and Grandad in South Africa and the internet is not quite what it is in the UK. Also I have a new PC with windows 10 and cannot for the life of get photos to upload with their internet browser so have had to switch again!

I will do some posts about some of the stuff we got up to while we were there over the next week or so but for now I wanted to write about the visit we took to Malham Cove as a last hurrah for the boys before they go back to school and because it was actually a change to go somewhere in the sunshine.

I have to say we are so lucky to live near such a beautiful area. I have many fond memories of the Yorkshire Dales and living in Leeds means we are less than an hour away from the traditional "Gateway to the Dales" Skipton.

So Sunday morning the sun shone and as we had a leisurely - if chaotic breakfast, we all packed our rucksacks with drinks and snacks and in Bears case an optimistic Frisbee. The GPS was loaded with maps of the area and geocaches and off we went.

An hour later we were pulling into the overspill parking field which was a more than reasonable £4 for the day and off we set towards the Cove.

No trip was complete for us without a moan by at least one of the boys and on this occasion it was the youngest who wanted to stop every 10 steps for a drink, a rest or a snack. Nearing the final gate for the cove Bear through his rucksack on the floor in disgust and sat down while Dad and Jake wandered further on pretending they didn't know him. As I hung around trying to cajole him the last 100 or so yards, a family with two young ones of their own took pity on me and their lovely daughter handed him a packet of sweets which made him recover immediately. In an uncommon fit of good manners Bear politely said thank you very much ( I do try to instill my children with good manners but my youngest seems to have a will of his own which can make him unpredictably contrary).

Little Monster loves the troll Bridge

Glorious Day at Malham Cove

After the impromptu sweet stop we continued the walk to the head of the cove and sat down for our snack. At this point my husband began to regret his lack or preparation and tried to cadge a drink and snack from the boys who were reluctant to share with him on the principle that he was disorganised.

The walking boots purchased at the beginning of the year from Mountain Warehouse are still going strong and having just had both sets of feet measured for school shoes I'm pretty sure they will both get use out of their current boots till the end of the year.

Rest stop

With the pit stop finished and they boys recharged it was time to tackle the steps up the side of the cove and head up to the top towards the first geocache of the day. The boys thought it was great fun jumping off the rock formations and enjoyed the informal lesson on geological rock formations and ice ages.

Son no 2 

Son no 1

After some jumping about, throwing a frisbee that Bear had brought with him, among other things and hunting down the geocache without been spotted we plotted the route back round to the car and opted for the much quieter walk through Dry Valley up towards the tarn and then back down towards the cove and approaching the village via the road.

The gorgeous Dry Valley

This curious herd of cows/bulls approached us 

So after a perfect day in the sunshine and a few miles on the pedometer, we made it back to the village for a well deserved ice cream and an hours drive back home. The kids had a perfect day and managed to burn off some energy before they head back to school on Tuesday.

Thanks for reading.

The RAD Color Run

A while ago my son started doing junior park run and I offered (foolishly) to run a 5k with him.

We rather liked the sound of the RAD color run held at Harewood House, so I duly signed up on the website and entered us both into the race.

What was I thinking? I am not built for running - unless it is to the bar or I'm getting chased in a zombie apocalypse. In which case I'm heading straight for Daryl from The Walking Dead, he's still alive after 5 seasons so he knows what he is doing.

I had in in my head that I was going to train and not show myself up too badly... I got distracted... That wine was just too damn good, so race day found me ill prepared for a 5k race with a speedy 8 year old in tow.

Start of the race before we got bombed by paint

We waited for the paint to fly and the gun to fire as we lined up for the first wave of runners.

Waiting patiently

and we are off

Personally i was fine for the first few hundred metres while Mr young stuff (Jake) bounced around all excited and tried to spur me to go even faster.

Personally I just wanted to be left to walk after the first 1km and even resorted to offering the walkie talkie over so he could meet his dad at the finish line while I ambled around/semi jogged occasionally, so that I didn't feel I was going to pass out from lack of oxygen.

Jake was having none of it and insisted on dragging my butt around the course as fast as I could go (this still involved a lot of walking on my part.

Blasting around the course

Not quite as pristine now

 

















As we headed towards the finish line it was a downhill gradient and I managed a respectable jog for the last 1/2km. It was nice Jake had waited for me and we crossed the finish line together and we had actually had a great time. So much so we have signed up for another one in aid of the local hospice in September. I best get training properly this time.

The Finish Line - we did it!

Climbing Pen-y-ghent

We have been planning a summit attempt on Pen-y-ghent since the beginning of the year when we received an email from a friend asking us if we would like to join them. The idea was that we would all meet in Horton-in-Ribblesdale in the morning and have a leisurely hike up the fell at our own pace. No racing, no time limits just good old fashioned family and friends time.

I've always being slightly concerned that our youngest wouldn't make the distance as he has only just turned 4, he was the youngest on the trip and to get him to walk 8 miles or so was always going to be a challenge, however we have had him in "training" this year by getting out and about geocaching and planning routes that got steadily longer and steeper.

Our eldest child, Jake is also going to use this walk to go for his first hike away badge at cubs so he was prepared to lead the way and packed his rucksack accordingly.

Be prepared!

 48 hours before we were due to set off, our first disaster struck - the weather forecast called for high winds and rain! Never a good mix with kids so to avert a crisis it was agreed we would delay 24 hours and hike on the Sunday as the forecast was better. This proved to be a good decision as despite the sun only occasionally peeking out from the clouds the wind and rain stayed away to make for more favourable walking conditons.

So off we set bright and early and having misjudged the amount of time it would take us to get there we arrived... 1 hour early! As we had the youngest team member with us we figured it would be wise to set off early and get a head start on the others knowing that they would have no problems catching us as you're only as fast as your slowest team member and we weren't in a rush. The idea was for us all to enjoy the trip so we had always anticipated it would take us a few hour to summit. We had the GPS with us and planned to grab the geocaches that were on the route as they made perfect pit stops for little legs to have a rest.

 We encountered a couple of seasoned walkers at the start of the path who expressed surprise that we were heading up with Bear and they wished us luck . Within the first 1/2 hour little legs was moaning about wanting to go home. Not a good start to the day.

"I want to go home, I'm tired now"

However the first geocache of the day was a couple of hundred feet away so we went to find that and stopped for him to have his first snack of the day.

My eldest son was with his buddy from school and they wee having a good old yomp all over the place running up and down the path and generally lapping us so we whipped out the walkie talkies to ensure they didn't get too far ahead or stray off the path without yelling the hill down.

On the path to Pen-y-ghent

Spot of scrambling

A couple of more stops up the hill to rest youngest ones legs and we were ready to hit the scramble up the "nose" of the hill. Some of these steps aren't really designed for little legs and with a couple of steep drops that head straight back down we stuck close together and gave a leg up or two to Bear as his little legs couldn't quite make a couple of the steps.

At this point the going was slow, but we were all still plodding on. This bit near the summit is a bit of a bottle neck and we were worried that we were going to start holding up the fellow walkers that were regularly catching us up. We needn't have worried as with no exceptions when they encountered our little man they all stopped to say hello and to give him lots of praise and encouragement. They were so patient, giving us plenty of time to manoeuvre Bear up the slopes and he loved speaking to everyone that stopped to talk, and congratulate him on making the summit.

Quick rest stop before the final slog

Heading up up up

As we looked below us after the final step up we could see our friends below us on their final climb. It had taken us about 3 hours to reach the summit and as we slowly hiked towards the trig point our friends (and their kids) caught us up and we all sat and had lunch together at the trig.

Panoramic shot on top of Pen-y-ghent

After a hearty lunch which we had to share with Bear - he'd eaten most of his on the walk up and he decided ours looked yummy we had the obligatory group shot and set off down via Hull Pot which our little man had been talking about going to see for days.

Group Shot at the top!

So summit conquered and its down the mountain via Hull Pot. Disaster strikes and Bear trips over his own feet and faceplants. A few tears and a couple of cuddles and the promise of some sweets in my pocket and we are back on track to continue the descent.

Now we are all together as a group the kids have seperated into a mini group and are running about jumping over ditches and bogs and generally have a great time together, while the adults have a catch up chat.

As we approach Hull Pot the others decide we will all go have a peek into what is apparently one of the largest open holes in England! We also have a travel tag from Mountain Warehouse whose mission is to get photographed at geocaches so we took him along for a picture (Hull Pot is an Earthcache).

Looking into Hull Pot

Mountain Warehouse travel tag visiting

The final leg was a leisurely stroll back to the starting point and the local pub for a well earned refreshment. Although the older children swore they weren't tired at all, Bear did say his legs were tired but after the initial whine at the start of the hike he had a fun time which he really enjoyed. 8.6 miles in total and the walking boots we've been breaking in all year did the job perfectly.

The boys at the trig point

* Sorry 1 of the boys is shaded out - he doesn't belong to me :)

A New Hobby In The House

So my eldest son turned 8 at the beginning of January and with his birthday being so close to Christmas we (and others) always struggle with what to buy him.

This year we all gave him money but until recently he was unsure what to spend it on.

He had ideas of an iPad, (we didn't give him that much money) yet more skylanders to join the pile gathering dust in the playroom or other related tech items that he could while away the days on sat on his butt being lazy. I will be honest, I didn't want him spending his money on that as I think he already spends enough time on my ipad or some other handheld looking at minecraft videos or pretending to do his maths homework while watching minecraft videos.

So I looked on the internet for something and stumbled across Mountain Boarding. I am not sure what I was thinking, or if I even was, when I called him over to look at this snowboard on wheels and asked him if he wanted to have a go.

I should have thought it out more, this actually looks dangerous, but now on a quest to find something outdoors away from devices I hit up the internet to see if I could find anywhere local that does this. As luck would have it there was a centre about 15 miles away who teach mountain boarding among other things so I booked him in for a lesson and off we went.

Place all to ourselves

Not to miss out youngest tried grass sledging

We saw no other people for the hour we were there and both kids had a fantastic time bombing down the slopes. We did not feel rushed and Jake's instructor Alex was friendly and patient. Now I just need to work on getting the youngest to tow his own sledge back up the hill and I've cracked it.

Next on the agenda, to invest in the board because I think he is hooked!

We paid £11 for the mountain boarding session and this included rental of the board, helmet and pads as well as coaching from the instructor.

You can find out more about Another World Adventure Centre by clicking here.

www.anotherworldadventurecentre.co.uk



       

The joy of walking boots and what is on your doorstep?

Keeping your little ones entertained is hard work.

If mine could, they would spend hours playing minecraft, watching videos of minecraft on youtube or watching Phineas & Ferb on TV. As the worst mum in the universe - a title I have earned because I limit the usage and access to electronic devices. I have to find other ways to keep my little darlings busy, that doesn't involve the house resembling a war zone or bomb site. See examples below.

The books didn't want to be on the shelf

Apparently the Dinosaurs had an adventure

So off we go for another outdoor adventure. The weather wasn't fabulous so we stayed close to home, but it gets us out of the house and doing something a little more physical. This is where planning also comes in. I've found through experience that when walking with kids its worth the money to invest in a pair of walking boots for them.

When its muddy or wet you can guarantee their feet are going to get wet if they are wearing shoes or trainers. Puddles in case you didn't know, have a magnetic attraction for little feet and wellies while fine for splashing around in puddles and mud, I have found that they aren't very comfortable for little feet when walking over any distance they tend to slop on the feet and rub leading to very unhappy kids. (I learnt this the hard way with my eldest) As soon as i invested in a pair of walking boots the level of moan dropped considerably and  he could walk a lot further than I expected.

Walking boots for kids don't have to be expensive. Lets be honest you don't want to be paying a fortune for a pair of boots that won't fit them for long. I've also found that you can get away with up to a size bigger with a decent pair of thick socks. Mountain Warehouse do a great range for small feet with the added bonus that for really small feet they fasten with velcro so you don't have to worry about constantly unfastened boot laces. The youngest's boots cost me £14.99 and the eldest's were £19.99  for this pair if memory serves.

See? Another reason why our geocaching name is Muddy Monsters.

So what did we get up to to get the boots muddy? We didn't have to go far. We jumped into the car (now also muddy) and  headed into the nearby town of Guiseley. We hunted for clues in and around the town centre and came across an area we didn't even know was here, Guiseley Wells. Apparently the spring is the reason people settles in the area and it is mentioned as being a settlement area since Saxon times and is mentioned in the Doomsday book.

Typically of the 100's of pictures I got not one
has both boys with eyes open. 

We then headed out into the countryside to find tranquil fields right on our doorstep. A deserted pond and friendly muggle horses which followed us across the field. On this occasion it didn't result in the youngest having a melt down. He was clearly in a better frame of mind today. There are tons of footpaths right on our doorstep, which provide endless opportunities for fun with the kids. Many of the urban ones run near train lines (safely fenced off) and what young kid doesn't like to see a train race past? as well as seeing wildlife and finding treasure. We enjoyed our day our treasure hunting despite the lack of sunshine but in the words of my wise friend "There is no such thing as bad weather only bad clothing"

The walking boots were purchased by myself and I have received no incentive for my comment's or review of them.

Till next time x

Ooooohhhhh Dinosaurs! (Dinosaur Zoo)

I've been a bit slack and neglected the blog recently as life got a bit away from me and I've been busy, busy, busy! So its time to catch up.

During the February 1/2 term - seems like a lifetime ago right? We were invited by friends to attend the theatre to see Dinosaur Zoo at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. This sounded like great fun to entertain the kids and get them out of the house but I did wonder about how my youngest would cope having to sit in a packed theatre without causing havoc for an hour or so.

I wasn't feeling confident after a trip to the cinema the month before turned into a game of musical chairs and constant demand for more snacks, more drink and trips to the toilet. I can only thank my lucky stars that the cinema only had 2 other people in who sat so far away from us that I hope the ants in his pants and constant question asking went unnoticed.

I'm glad I said yes - after arming my pockets with enough sugary treats guaranteed to quieten the loudest of tantrums. The kids (young and old) had a wonderful time. The show was long enough to hold the childrens attention and short enough that they didn't start getting ants in their pants.

Interactive Dinosaur Puppets!

The puppets clearly seemed very realistic to the children - as seen when one was called onto stage and when asked if he'd like to be fed to the dinosaur promptly exploded into tears - I know I'm a bad mum for finding this a teeny bit amusing but no children were actually harmed during the entire show (honest). 

It gave just the right amount of information on the dinosaurs to keep kids interested but not overload them with info and there was enough audience participation to keep us all engaged.

 Best of all we got to meet the dinosaurs at the end. A big thank you to my friend for arranging the visit (you know who you are). 

  I would definitely recommend the show for kids who love dinosaurs and will also no longer be afraid of theatre trips with the boys. 

What To Do With A Moaner!

So today we went for a walk.

Normally this wouldn't pose that much of a problem, as we have the GPS preloaded with geocaches to keep the boys entertained on the route. Only this time it didn't.

We have been invited by friends to walk up Pen-y-Ghent in May as a family group, so one of the reasons for the walk was to ensure that the youngest Muddy Monster could cover the distance and we thought we would start with a local 2-3 mile walk that wasn't too arduous to "break him in" gently. He has covered this distance before with no problem and in fact walked further over steeper terrain last weekend!

Elder Muddy Monster was dragged away from his tech to accompany us - although I have no doubt he is quite able to jog up the hill when it comes time and he soon proved why we are called Muddy Monsters by promptly getting mud pretty much everywhere including in his eye, within 5 minutes of hitting up the bridle path.

There is a good reason why we are the Muddy Monsters

So the first mistake I made was letting my lovely husband get Bear ready. This resulted in no hat or gloves to start the walk and as it's only about 4°C then the moaning started pretty much as soon as we left the car. To distract him I put him in charge of the GPS to find the "treasure" boxes and this did help to curb the whining for a while. However after 2 geocaches it started up again, not helped by the fact that the 2 caches we had found were soggy log books in film canisters not capable of holding any swaps. Next we tried distraction with a pine cone but this was too prickly so in the end we settled on a stick with various branches just like big bro was carrying.

Jake demonstrating stick antlers and mud.  

This was working a treat and distracting Bear from his various gripes about being tired/cold/wanting to go home until daddy made the fatal mistake of throwing the stick away. This resulted in us then taking about half an hour to walk across one field due to tears, runny noses, more tears because of the runny nose, an inferior replacement stick and to add insult to injury all the noise attracted the attention of the resident horses in the field and naturally came to investigate who was getting tortured, thus resulting in more offence taken and tears at the fact these equine monsters dare follow us and investigate our rucksack!

Equine Stalkers!

So we can take a couple of lessons from today's disaster of an expedition. Double check your other half has dressed your little muddy monster in suitable attire for a yomp. Don't let them chuck away the stick that said muddy child is happily entertaining himself with. Give them something to do to on the walk and finally if all else fails... Offer to walk ahead and retrieve the car and double back to pick them up to give your ears a rest!

  

The Search for Old Jacks House

Ahhhh Staithes...

I have kind of fond memories of this place. I first visited when I was at middle school on a residential trip and stayed in the cabins at the top of the hill. The cabins are still there but I am not sure if they are still used as a site for kids outdoor adventures. We crabbed in the harbour, spent time in Whitby and walked to Sandsend nearly getting cut off by the tide in the process. That was 26 years erm... several years ago.

Since having muddy monsters of my own, I have been tortured subjected to a variety of children's TV programs to view, a recent one is a CBeebies creation called Old Jack's Boat, which is filmed on location in Staithes. The youngest muddy monster being 3 years old quite likes watching this program and was very excited to hear that we could possibly visit Old Jacks house - if we could find it.

Having checked out the geocaching map we discovered there was also a rather lovely multi-cache in Staithes ,which required us to explore off the beaten track, round some of the old footpaths to gather information and find the final spot. This served a dual purpose - more of a chance of finding Old Jack's house by wandering about and the incentive of finding treasure if case we failed.

If any of you are familiar with Staithes you will know that access to the village is very limited and parking is at the top of a very steep hill with a yomp down to the sea (and back up again to get your car) so i have to give brownie points to the youngest muddy monster, Bear who traipsed up and down the road and around the many footpaths without complaint, no mean feat for a 3 year old.

We headed straight down to the harbour front and worked our way across the village and eventually back up to the top of the hill. Our first stop was Captain Cooks cottage where he lived as an apprentice and discovered his love of the sea.

Not Old Jacks House but it was Captain Cooks

 On the harbour front we discovered this art installation. Neither boy quite knew what to make of it and Jake found then "scary". Bear wanted to know what was in the girls bag.

The boys weren't sure what to make of these

 There is a geocaching clue facing the sea, just around the corner of the bench.

Harbour front

 Barometer clue in the wall think it needs checking as the time was wrong and the weather was more "stormy".

another clue.

 We finally found all the clues needed for the geocache when a kindly gentleman overheard us discussing where "Old Jack's House" could possibly be and he pointed it out to us. Its actually situated on the rather steep "Cowbar Nab" but the boys had no problem rushing up there to see it in close up.

Old Jacks House!

Outside Old Jack's

Not the real Old Jack and Salty I'm afraid.

Outside the wonderful Lifeboat station Jake was a bit gutted it was closed.

 We spotted this lovely Noah's Ark artwork above a garage near the lifeboat station.

Artwork

Staithes

So that was our wonderful afternoon in Staithes. We found Old Jack and Salty's abode and discovered all the clues for the geocache by having a lovely stroll around the old houses of Staithes. We will leave the collecting of the actual cache for another time and the tide was in which would have hindered our path to the treasure somewhat. We will have to visit again.