Tag Archives: Kwazulu-Natal

Oribi Mom

Oribi Mom

The “Oribi Mom” Column

Newspaper Column Regularly Featured in the South Coast Herald

Since 2020, this little newspaper column has become a standard feature in the Lind household. It’s an actual newspaper – the kind that rubs off black onto your fingers – publishing our comings and goings here in Oribi Gorge.

Part of the motivation behind it was to give the Lind children something in black and white one day after we get old and don’t remember all the details. The local community here also seems to have enjoyed the offering, which tries to share our story 400 words at a time. A few neighbours and friends have appreciated some of the humour, relatability, family drama, and close encounters with nature. International readers just gasp, wondering why we choose to live in a place where Black Mambas do.

Why Oribi Mom Started

Ambitions to be a journalist in the teen years were short-lived. If you’d asked then whether we’d like to just blog for a local newspaper whenever inspiration hit, it would have seemed inferior to “real” journalism. What a crazy idea.

Fast-forward to about a month before the entire world shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the need to share our experiences felt overwhelming. At eight months pregnant, South Africa’s hard lockdown had cancelled just about everything. Things got complicated, including the smooth, quick route needed to reach the hospital three hours away.

Instead of calming soundtracks and earphones, we had to remember to pack our eldest child’s birth certificate in the hospital bag — just in case. What if the police stopped us on the highway to ask why we were out of our home when the government had expressly told everyone to stay put. We’d even rehearsed the speech to say in between contractions. “Yes, he’s our son. Yes, we had to bring him with us. No, there’s nobody to look after him at home. No, we couldn’t go to another hospital because the doctor is at the one three hours away (another long story).”

We hadn’t found much online about going through a late-stage pregnancy during a global pandemic. Nobody else crazy enough to try it? So, we wrote one. And we’ve never looked back.

Thanks for reading!

Oribi Mom

Oribi Mom

Oribi Mom: Must Love Snakes (Yuck!)

I have two small children, and two fluffy white bunnies hopping about the garden. And snakes.

February 4, 2021

 Western Natal green snake. Photo: Heather Lind.

The other day I walked into the nursery to change a nappy and there was another green snake slithering over the baby’s sock drawer.

I had a good look, heart pumping, and phone out to capture a fuzzy photograph for posterity (and Facebook).

Then I closed the door quickly so that it didn’t find its way around the rest of the house.

When we came back with a bucket and tongs, it had disappeared.

The western Natal green snake, exploring the things in the baby’s room.

It was just a Western Natal Green snake, probably the one that lives in the spiky tree right off the porch. What if it wasn’t, though? Snakes are daily features in Oribi Gorge.

A scorching day brings gorgeous cobalt skies and blows away the rolling mist, but it also beckons to the creatures that keep this ecosystem thriving.

We have all sorts on the doorstep, venomous and harmless, which is why my children wear gumboots in the yard.

The deadliest are the black mambas, boomslang, vine snakes, puff adders, and Mozambique spitting cobras, but there’s a long list for herpers to tick off.

Natal black snakes are common but rarely seen, and night adders seem to find my house the most attractive place on earth – I have been bitten once, and my poor builder twice!

There are also perilous green mambas, though not endemic to Oribi Gorge.

I’ve no idea why someone would put us in that danger, but these ones are dropped here from all your coastal ‘rescues’ to upset the balance of nature (and give this Oribi Mom slithery nightmares).

We live at peace with the vast number of harmless or mildly venomous snakes that keep our rat and frog population in check.

There are feisty and fearless Heralds, lightning-fast grass snakes, and the super green climbers, like the dainty spotted bush snakes with their orange eyes and pretty black spots.

I wasn’t even going to mention the python population as those are ‘safe,’ right? (not in Francistown, Botswana, apparently). I’d rather have the egg-eater that visited our chicken coop – no teeth or venom!

A Wild and Beautiful Life With Snakes on the Farm

I have two small children, and two fluffy white bunnies hopping about the garden.

Many people are horrified by our close encounters, like the huge baboon spider in the bathroom, harmless but hairy.

For two days, it kept watch over the toilet paper, which lay unused until he moved off.

Scorpions abound, but most are harmless to humans, though the sting is like fire.

This is Africa, but not always that wildness we associate with Jock of the Bushveld characters. It’s also home.

Perhaps, this is how we are meant to live – a bit of healthy awareness never hurt anyone who walked closely with the living things of the earth.

So far, it’s working for us, even when lines are crossed by cheeky green snakes in my baby’s room.

Published here.
Oribi Mom

Oribi Mom: Must Love Birds and the Adventure of the ‘Chase’

I’ve also loved flitting about the South Coast birding community on Facebook bird groups.

January 14, 2021

A pretty white-eye photographed by Heather in Oribi Gorge.

I’ve always loved nature, but since our move to Oribi Gorge, my blood is emerald green, just like ‘Hello Georgie’.

I may actually be obsessed with the feathered friends that fill this beautiful country.

An overseas friend asked if I was a twitcher, and after a quick Google search, I solemnly declared myself a true bird lover instead.

I’m not a tick-off-the-list ‘twitcher’ who loses interest after they’ve seen every one of South Africa’s 850 recorded species once (725 resident species).

No, I sit on my porch for morning coffee and daily appreciate the wine-red firefinches, melodious black-headed orioles, opportunistic Black Sparrowhawk (which hunts our free range chickens), and the soaring vultures high above our Umzimkulu cliffs.

I’ve also loved flitting about the South Coast birding community on Facebook.

Hugo Voigts in Paddock is phenomenally dedicated – he once sat for over four hours in camouflage to capture elusive flufftail chicks (and this wasn’t his only comparable effort).

Lia Steen in Shelly Beach has the most magnificent finds right in her garden. She must have a brilliant camera to capture that much detail, too. I’ve learned a lot about birding habits from her fascinating posts.

The luckiest South Coast birder must be Stan Culley, somewhere near Port Edward maybe? ‘Culley’s Dam’ boasts fantastic bird visitors daily, including the cutest baby white-starred robin I’m yet to find in my patch of paradise.

Why birding? I think it’s the chase.

Some days you see a new one that you have never, ever noticed before. You read about it (maybe you’ll get a Roberts bird app for your birthday like I did) and learn the sound. The next few weeks, you realise that it is a screech or a song that you hear constantly. It wasn’t a new bird in your garden at all, just a hidden gem.

Once you see it, you can’t un-see it and then you start to appreciate the immense beauty of this country.

Birdwatching Is Good for the Soul

Next time coronavirus has you down, sit at your window or put your binoculars next to you on the porch.

Take a breath, laugh at the bobbing wagtails and the fluttering sunbirds and open your eyes.

You might see that martial eagle gliding above the clouds or you might notice the white-browed scrub robin around your fallen leaves for the very first time.

Wonder is the beginning, and from there, joy.

Published here.