Cradle of Life visit a highlight of Rotary’s seniors’ holiday

Pensioners of White River and Mbombela enjoyed a wonderful holiday at the Rotary SWEMB holiday resort in Badplaas. This annual event is organised by the Rotary Club of White River and provided fun events, good food and entertainment to 74 pensioners.

The group enjoyed mornings in the warm baths and afternoons playing games and relaxing. One of the trip’s highlights was a visit to the Cradle of Life, where the pensioners were lucky enough to come upon a red hartebeest cow that had just given birth to a calf. The calf had not even managed to stand and the cow was busy encouraging it, right in the middle of the road. The group also saw Siberian and Bengal tiger, puma, wolve, white lion, cheetah and panther as well as several species of buck.

In the evenings the group was entertained with bingo, André Rieu DVDs and classic Debbie Reynolds films. The group presented a concert in which they sang, mimed and played the piano, concertina and piano accordion. There was also an evening of entertainment with Huffy Pott from White River with his guitar and stories of the Boer War battles at Berg en Dal.

On the penultimate evening everyone let their hair down for a hobo party. It was a resounding success, with everyone acting like genuine wine-drinking, pot-smoking, scruffy down-and-outs. Empty wine bottles were waved about and the cardboard begging plaques abounded, requesting donations for useless husbands, desperate children and food.

On the final afternoon of the holiday, the talented Hardus Hartzenberg performed a repertoire of songs from bygone eras, including crowd favourites that made the audience sing along.

The organisers say the week seemed to fly by and it was a wonderful experience to see the elderly, lonely and generally secluded men and women enjoy themselves thoroughly. It was amazing to see how many emerged from their shell, having been quiet and reserved at the start of the week and blossoming at towards the end.