In the home of ‘The big five’

The thrill began around January when a friend proposed a trip to South Africa. It seemed a bit long and high budget trip, however it was an opportunity to see wildlife in another continent.

After researching where to go and what to see and getting a few estimates and budget planning, we asked Swapnil (Daffodil holidays) to plan the trip for us and accompany us to Kruger national park.

We reached Johannesburg, South Africa really early in the morning on 1st May, and had breakfast at the airport. Swapnil had hired an eight seater van for all of us and we immediately started for Kruger. The most convenient way to travel in South Africa is Self drive cars and there are many companies who rent cars. On the way to Kruger, Swapnil briefed us about how we were going to go, where we will be staying and once we enter from the Kruger gate the safari will start etc. 

Since we were going to stay in the core area, there was a higher possibility of seeing wild animals anytime anywhere. We entered Kruger around noon. The first animal we saw was an Impala. A beautiful animal with a shiny golden brown skin and wavy horns with a design of rings on them. After that it was a treat for the next 4 days :D. 

A well spent day at Doha

We had planned a trip to South Africa. Due to rescheduled flights we had a 15 hours lay over at Doha.

We started early morning on 30th April from Mumbai. It was a long night with 3 children, 4 sleepy adults waiting to board the flight. We reached Doha at 5 am in the morning Doha time. 

We were worried how we will be able to keep children engaged and happy for that long, considering certain restrictions in public place. But they started playing the minute they saw an empty area on airport :).

We had checked whether we can go out in Doha city and visit places. By the time we reached Doha we knew 'On arrival' visa was possible for Indians with certain bookings in place. 

A memorable trek to Ratangad

We went to Ratangad, near Bhandardara on 17-18th June 2023. We had taken Shravya, our 4.5 year old daughter for the trek. We have been following 'say and do' with her since we learnt about it. We love trekking and have introduced it to her since she was 11 months. We took her to Lohagad then and fortunately there was very less crowd and she could crawl on the steps of the fort. We have been blessed with a child who is eager to climb wherever possible and she enjoyed it. 

We have been taking her to different forts since then and she has climbed very well considering her age. We have seen how powerful 'Say and Do' is every time in this case. 

More on coins and notes collection

Since last time I posted, it has been a wonderful time for me.
I bought the largest coin album Venus had (192 Coins) since they didnt have any smaller ones in stock, and I was wondering how much of it will be filled once I start placing coins in that. To my surprise, I had 87 different coins with different pictures on it. As I started checking more coins for different mints, my collection increased very fast. For starters I found out that there are four mints in India, that is coins are made in Noida, Kolkata, Mumbai and Hyderabad, which has their specific mark. While scanning coins for these mints, I found few more mints which I could not recognise. Then I found that, in past years Indian government has got coins from some foreign countries and all the mints I could not recognise were foreign mints.

Interesting Hobby - Coin Collection

Recently one of my friends, Pinakin showed me his Indian coins & notes collection, nicely put in an album. It was very interesting to see those coins with so many different pictures and variations. I have been collecting coins since I was in school, but used to use a small carry bag to put them all in it. After I saw Pinakin's collection, I just couldn't stop thinking about getting an Album and organizing my collection properly.