We visited Ekuthuleni, click here for my report and some pictures.
You can also see some more photos here

Since Ekuthuleni we have also been to Hazyview Cabanas, for my write-up and pictures click here

We are just back from a really nice trip to Mozambique - Morrumbene Beach Resort

We have just returned from a glorious week at Mnarani Club, Kilifi, Kenya

We also had a really nice stay at Hole in the Wall and Caribbean Estates

Beacon Wharf in Mossel Bay, Eagles Nest in Sedgefield, and Ocean 11 in Mossel Bay

In June 2010 we visited Ukuthula and Modumela in Botswana. Click the links for stories and photos

Physical description
Adult males have a smooth forehead and their face is orangey-red. Their bills are long and thick at the base. It is also slightly curved at the tip and bright yellow, hence their name. Their necks are also long and slender and greyish white. The rest of their body including their back, belly and breast is solid white with a small hint of pink on the tips of their feathers. Their tail and wing quills are black. Their legs vary from a dark red to a light pink colour and are long and skinny. It's hard to believe that their legs can support their plump, round bodies. The female are very similar to the male, however the males are smaller.

Special Adaptations
They have remarkable adaptation. These birds are known to have the quickest muscular reflex of the neck, allowing almost all food to be caught in the water. Their long, narrow, curve tipped bills allow them only to catch small prey such as small fish, frogs, insects and worms passing by in the water. Yellowbilled storks are intelligent birds. These birds created a technique to help them catch more prey in the water. They typically use one foot to stir up the water or mud which disturbs and flushes out the prey. Then they submerge their heads quickly in the water snapping their bills on small prey. Yellowbilled stork's bills are great fishing tools.

Social Organization
They do not flock in large social groups. They do not socialise much with one another either. These wading birds like to isolate themselves in swamps, muddy rivers and other large areas of shallow, marshy waters. They move around slowly and deliberately. They are extremely inactive, they rest and feed for most of the day.

Reproductive Behaviour
The female approaches the courtship among the male birds. Together they build a bulky nest made of sticks and the male chooses where the nest is to be built. The pair work vigorously together to build a nest and can do so within 7-10 days. These nests are usually built high in trees away from predators. The storks breed almost year round. At breeding colonies the storks make a hissing sound. Incubation period can last up to 30 days and between 2-3 eggs are laid on alternate days.

Words and photo by Anna Eksteen, click here to see more photos on her TrekNature page.

For the latest on happenings in Zimbabwe, go to:  http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/  and subscribe to their newsletter, a really good source of current information

Cathy Buckle has started writing again from Zimbabwe, her letter is below.

Here is Cathy's letter:

Dear Family and Friends,

Its taken eleven years, cost thousands of lives, driven a third of our population out of the country and left a destroyed economy, but we have finally got back to where we were in 1999.
The outreach programme to consult the people about what they want in  a new constitution is about to begin. Once again, eleven years later, the voiceless have a voice. 

What a time it's been, these eleven years, since last we aired our views about the principles we want to guide our lives. Its a time we will never forget and yet a time we would rather not remember. 

For those of us who have managed to stay in the country during the eleven years since we last tried to rewrite our constitution, there is a distinct feeling of exhaustion in the air. There is hope too, but it is tempered with scepticism and fears of interference. The question on most people's lips is: will our wishes be respected this time round or will they be tampered with, at the last minute, by the highest of the high, the way they were in 1999.

For a third of our population (at least four million people) who have been forced to try and survive outside the country for the last decade, one of the burning issues is undoubtedly going to be that of
dual citizenship. Four million people who have lived as strangers in strange lands, worked all hours of the day and night doing menial jobs that no one else would do and sent every penny that they have earned back to Zimbabwe in order to keep their extended families alive. If and when these four million people come home, they will not want to give up their foreign passports and so they will be classed as aliens when they come home. They will no longer be allowed to vote and will have that ugly word 'Alien' typed onto their Zimbabwean ID cards.
A word which is defined as meaning unfriendly, unacceptable, unfamiliar, repugnant.

Multiple hundreds of thousands of people inside Zimbabwe have already had the Alien badge hung around their necks this last few years. People who were born, raised and educated here; people who have lived, worked and paid taxes here all their lives; people who have homes and businesses here; people who have invested here - all are known as aliens if their parents were not born in Zimbabwe and if they are not prepared to forfeit the birthright of their parents. The prohibition of dual citizenship in Zimbabwe affects people of all skin colours and races, regardless of where their parents originally came from including countries right next door like Zambia, Malawi or South Africa or further afield from Europe, Asia or America. 

Undoubtedly citizenship will be a talking point in the constitutional outreach. Citizen, after all, means: "a member of a state, either native or naturalized," it does not mean a member of a political party. 

I end this week on a note of congratulations to Ben Freeth awarded an MBE For services to the farming community in Zimbabwe. Thank you Ben, for giving a voice to so many and for so many sacrifices.

Until next week, 
thanks for reading. 
love Cathy 

www.cathybuckle.com
. For information on my new book: "INNOCENT VICTIMS" or my previous
books, "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears," or to
subscribe/unsubscribe to this newsletter, please write to: cbuckle@mango.zw
 

This South Africa - news headlines

Source: SouthAfrica.info
The all-in-one official guide
and web portal to South Africa.  
 

Recipe Requests

Looking for a specific South African recipe? Email me and I will do my best to find it for you! 
 

The Recipes

Pea and ham soup

Cooking time: 15 min
Ingredients
100 ml butter
2 small leek or onion, finely chopped
1000 g frozen peas
500 g ham, diced
4.0 litre vegetable or chicken stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper
30 ml chopped fresh mint

Method:
Melt the butter in a large saucepan and sauté the leek until glossy. Add the peas and diced ham and stir.
Add the stock, bring to the boil and reduce the heat. Simmer for 15 minutes and season with salt and
pepper to taste. Cool the soup slightly and purée half in a food processor. Add to the remaining soup in
the saucepan and add the mint. Repeat and spoon into hot bowls. Serves 12.

Pea soup
Ingredients
750 ml dried peas
23 ml olive oil
2 large onion, chopped
2 bunch soup celery, finely chopped (optional)
150 g bacon or Russian sausages, cut into chunks
3 large potatoes, peeled and diced
3.0 litre water
3 chicken stock cubes
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
TO SERVE
3 Russian sausages, sliced into rings (optional)

Method:
Soak the peas in cold water overnight. Rinse and drain. Cover with fresh water, bring to the boil (do not add salt at this stage) and boil for about 10 minutes. Drain the peas once more. Heat the oil in a large saucepan or pressure cooker and fry the onion and celery until glossy. Add the bacon and stir-fry until the bacon is just done. Add the peas, potatoes and water. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 2 1/2 hours (pressure cook for about 45 minutes) or until the peas are soft. Mash the peas slightly to make a thick soup, add the stock cubes and salt and pepper to taste. Fry the Russian sausage chunks in a little oil until crisp and add to the soup just before serving. Serves 12.

Popeye's soup
Ingredients
900 g fresh spinach, rinsed
675 g deboned chicken (optional)
salt
pepper
180 ml butter
12 spring onions, chopped
90 ml cake dour
3.0 litre chicken stock
300 ml plain yoghurt (optional)

Method:
Strip the spinach leaves off the hard stalks and shred them finely. Lightly season the chicken with salt
and pepper and sauce in the heated butter until cooked. Remove the chicken from the pan and dice. Set
aside. Sauté the chopped spring onion in the butter until soft. Add the spinach and stir-fry for about 3
minutes. Add the cake flour. Mix well and then slowly add the chicken stock, stirring continuously. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper if necessary. Add the cooked diced chicken and simmer for about 5 minutes. Pour into soup bowls, adding a dollop of yoghurt to each bowl if desired. Serve with croûtons. Serves 12.

Potato and haddock soup
Ingredients
900 g potatoes, peeled and chopped
50 ml butter
onion, finely chopped
1600 g haddock, skinned
1000 ml fish or chicken stock
1160 ml milk
300 ml cream
30 ml fresh chives

Method:
Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender. Drain well and mash. Melt the butter in a large saucepan
and sauté; the onion until tender. Add the haddock, stock and milk and simmer until the fish is done.
Drain and process the fish in a food processor until smooth. Return to the drained milk mixture in the
saucepan, add the mashed potato, cream and chives. Bring to the boil while stirring and season with salt
and pepper if necessary. Serve with fresh bread. Serves 12

Pumpkin soup
Ingredients
1 kg peeled and seeded pumpkin, cubed (peeled weight)
2 onions, chopped
2 thin slices green ginger or stem ginger
1 litre chicken stock
salt and milled black pepper
2 ml grated nutmeg
Pg No: 38
30 ml cake flour
30 ml softened butter
250 ml cream

Method:
Combine pumpkin, onion, ginger and stock in a large saucepan. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Cover and simmer
for about 30 minutes, or until vegetables are tender. Strain and reserve liquid. Purée vegetables with a little of the liquid.
Mix flour and butter into the purée. Pour back into saucepan with remaining liquid and stir over moderate heat for 1 to 2
minutes, or until soup thickens. (If you prefer a thicker soup, reduce by boiling, uncovered, for 20 to 30 minutes then
continue with recipe.) Add cream, check flavour and adjust seasoning if necessary. Ladle soup into warm bowls and
garnish, if you wish, with swirls of cream and a sprinkling of chopped fresh herbs. Serves 8

Pumpkin soup with sour cream and bacon
Preparation time: 15 min
Cooking time: 40 min
Ingredients
55 g butter
2 medium onions, sliced
900 g peeled pumpkin pieces
4 rashers streaky bacon, chopped
5 ml chopped fresh thyme
5 ml brown sugar
600 ml milk
600 ml chicken or vegetable stock
60 ml sour cream
crusty bread, to serve

Method:
Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onions and fry gently for five minutes. Stir in the pumpkin, bacon, thyme and
brown sugar and cook for a few minutes more. Add the milk and stock, then cover and leave to simmer for 30 minutes.
Purée half of the soup, then pour back into the remaining soup to thicken the mixture. Top each serving with 15 ml sour
cream and serve with crusty bread. Serves: 4 Preparation time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 40 minutes Serves 4

Quick butternut soup
Preparation time: 15
Cooking time: 20
Ingredients
40 ml butter
1onion, chopped
pinch of ground cumin
500 g butternut, peeled and cubed
300 ml chicken stock
15-20 ml lemon juice
125 ml cream

Method:
Heat the butter in a saucepan.
Add the onion and sauté for 30 seconds.
Add the butternut and chicken stock and bring to the boil.
Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes until the butternut is soft.
Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice and cream.
Pour into a food processor and blend until smooth.
Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Serve with crusty bread. Serves 4

Quick tuna and asparagus soup
Ingredients
410 g asparagus pieces
340 g shredded tuna in brine
65 ml butter
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
65 ml cake flour
500 ml hot chicken or vegetable stock
500 ml hot milk
30 ml chopped fresh parsley
salt and lemon pepper

Method:
Drain the asparagus and tuna, reserving the liquid. Puree tuna and asparagus and pour the liquid over the mixture. Melt the butter in a large pot and sauté the onion and garlic until soft and aromatic. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.
Remove from the stove and beat in the hot stock and milk. Beat until smooth and return to stove. Heat to boiling point, then add the rest of the ingredients, including the asparagus-tuna mixture. Simmer slowly for 2 minutes and ladle into warmed bowls. Makes 1,5 litres soup.

Real tomato soup
Ingredients
50 g Butter
2 tbsp Olive Oil
4 Onions (finely chopped)
2 Carrots (finely sliced)
5 Garlic Cloves (finely chopped)
4 Whole Tomatoes (tinned)
5 tbsp Tomato Puré e
2 tsp Brown Sugar
2 tsp Sea Salt Flakes
1 tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1.40 litres Homemade Chicken Stock

Method:
1. Heat the butter and oil in a large pot over medium heat and sauté the onion, celery, carrot and garlic until soft.
2. Add the tomatoes, tomato purée, sugar, salt and pepper, and cook off the tomatoes until they have melted down and reduced.
3. Add the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the basil leaves right at the end and process until smooth with a hand-held blender or in batches in a food processor.
4. Stir through the balsamic vinegar and season again to taste (add a splash of Worcestershire sauce if you like). Add the cherry tomatoes and serve warm, garnished with some baby basil leaves. Serves 8

Roasted butternut soup
Ingredients
1 kg butternut
Pg No: 40
30 ml olive oil
1 onion
10 ml ground cumin
1 carrot
1 celery stick
1 l vegetable stock

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Put butternut on a greased baking tray and lightly brush with half olive oil.
Bake for twenty minutes, or until softened and slightly browned around edges.
Heat remaining oil in a large saucepan.
Cook onion and cumin for two minutes, then add carrots and celery and cook for a further three minutes, stirring frequently.
Add roasted butternut and stock. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for twenty minutes.
Allow to cool a littke befor puréeing in a blender or food processor.
Return soup to pan and gently reheat, without boiling.
Season to taste with salt and black pepper.
Top with cream, and sprinkle with parsley and bladk pepper.
Serve with rolls or bread. Serves 6

Spicy pumpkin soup
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
500 g pumpkin, diced
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
15 ml oil
5 ml ground cumin
5 ml ground coriander
7 ml (or more to taste) mild curry powder
15 ml fresh coriander
1.10 litres hot chicken stock
50 ml cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper
TO GARNISH
60 ml sour cream
fresh coriander
roasted pumpkin seeds

Method:
Fry the pumpkin, onion and garlic in the oil for 10 minutes.
Add the cumin, coriander, curry powder and fresh coriander and fry for another minute.
Add the hot stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 12 minutes.
Process until smooth, stir in the cream and season to taste with salt and black pepper.
Spoon into heated bowls and garnish with a scoop of sour cream and pumpkin seeds.
Makes 1.2 litres of soup