Today was the day that M started walking with us again. I chose a short walk in Rondevlei for her first outing, just to test the waters and see how it went. We didn’t want to break her before she was fully back on track.

It was a nice surprise that entry was free to Rondevlei today, even though R12 is not going to break the bank.  Right at the start, I told F that she and I were going up the viewing towers. M had an excuse to stay below, but we didn’t, and if we were going to have such a short walk, we at least needed to climb some steps. So up we went and this is the view from the top.

M stayed below and wandered off to see the function room that they hire out on the water.

We were careful to keep our talking to a minimum in the bird hides, because if you walk in laughing loudly you tend to get frowned upon by the birdwatchers. (I was going to call them twitchers, but apparently that’s offensive to a serious birdwatcher – I looked it up. Birdwatchers monitor all birds for changes in migration patterns or habitats, and twitchers compete to see who can spot the most rare birds.)

F and I did go up both towers. So we achieved our goal, and M managed her first walk with no problems.

It was slow – we stopped and sat a while at each hide. It was a lovely day for it. And it was great to have all members of the team back in action, although we discovered that M does not like to be “mothered”!