New Beginnings

Some years begin quietly. And some years begin with amazing experiences.

We ushered in 2015 in Durban, South Africa. This has been a special place for us since we lived there a few years ago. And to be there at the start of a new year is always wonderful. Friends, happy times, great food. What more could one ask for?

Wildlife!

That is for us, of course, a foregone conclusion. On the first day of 2015 we visited Tala Private Game Reserve, about an hour’s drive out of the city.

While the hippos had already slipped into the water by the time we arrived, all the other herbivores were walking around in the warm morning sun browsing and grazing and just being content.

In the midst of this verdant, serene land we found ourselves a part of that most incredible of experiences – a new life being born. To be exact, we missed the actual birthing by a few minutes. But we were in time to watch the baby Zebra wobble precariously onto spindly legs. The first tentative steps. The look of wonder at this brightly lit world …

 The mother nuzzled and licked her new baby. For a few minutes she watched the little one struggle with the weight of the attached afterbirth. She tried to bite it off and was not very successful.

So she stepped on the umbilical cord and gently nudged and pushed her baby. The baby took a couple of steps. And walked free! It was an amazing form of surgery. Quick and clean and apparently painless!

To be allowed to share such intimate moments is a privilege beyond words … Could any year begin on a more positive note? Happy 2015, everyone!