This Too Shall Pass
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Giraffe Manor
Giraffe Manor is a unique property and hotel in the Lang’ata suburb of Nairobi, Kenya, famous for its resident herd of endangered Rothschild giraffes that live in the extensive grounds of the manor house. Every day shortly before 9am, the mammoth beasts stroll up to the house and poke their heads through the windows and doors in search of morning treats.
Guests could feed the giraffes from their breakfast table, photograph them and interact with this graceful animal through the open window, at the front door and even at the second floor bedroom window. This is the only place in the world where one can share breakfast with the world’s tallest animal.
The Giraffe Manor was built in 1932 by Sir David Duncan, in 150 acres of land running down to the Mbagathi River, the southern boundary of the
city of Nairobi. In the 1960s the Manor was purchased by a local investor who leased it to a succession of people, including the late Dennis Lakin, before it fell into disrepair, unoccupied.
When Jock died, Betty decided to open her house, now called The Giraffe Manor, to visitors. Today, many tourist make the Giraffe Manor part of their East African Safari. Some spend a week here and The Giraffe Manor is reported to have many repeat guests, who have become old friends with the hotel owners.
The Giraffe Manor is surrounded by 140 acres of indigenous forest just outside Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. As well as the giraffe, the property is also home to many species of birds, large families of warthogs and the elusive Bush Buck .
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Amazing Landfill Harmonic
This doesn’t take long to watch, but you will be filled with admiration!!! A feel good video. With all the bad stuff going on here and abroad we need some uplifting. We send them garbage. They send back music. A must-see video about the power of music. This upcoming documentary tells the story of music, hope, children, and the power of recycling. It’s the old saying isn’t it? One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
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Nazi Bunkers Discovered
Three Nazi bunkers on a beach have been uncovered by violent storms off the Danish coast, providing a store of material for history buffs and military archaeologists. The bunkers were found in practically the same condition as they were on the day the last Nazi soldiers left them, down to the tobacco in one trooper’s pipe and a half-finished bottle of schnapps. This bunker was entombed under the sand dunes until a violent storm swept away the sands three months ago.The
bunkers had not been touched since the war.
The bunkers were three of 7,000 built by the Germans as part of Hitler‘s ‘Atlantic Wall‘ from Norway to the south of France.
But while the vast majority were almost immediately looted or destroyed, these three were entombed under the sand dunes of a remote beach near the town of Houvig since 1945.
They were uncovered only because recent storms sent giant waves cascading over them, sweeping away the sand and exposing glimpses of the cement and iron structures. Kim Clausen, curator of the Ringkoebing-Skjern museum views a heater retrieved from the bunker.
Stamps of the German Eagle of Adolf Hitler and the Swastika were also retrieved.
They were located by two nine-year-old boys on holiday with their parents, who then informed the authorities. Archaeologists were able to carefully force a way in, and were astounded at what they found. “What’s so fantastic is that we found
them completely furnished with beds, chairs, tables, communication systems and the personal effects of the soldiers who lived inside,” says Jens Andersen, the curator of the Hanstholm museum.
The discovery of the fully-furnished bunkers was ‘unique in Europe,’ said Bent Anthonisen, a Danish expert on European bunkers.And a third expert, Tommy Cassoe, enthused: “It was like entering the heart of a pyramid with mummies all around. What I saw blew me away: it was as if the German soldiers had left only yesterday.”
The team working with Cassoe emptied the structures within a few days of boots, undergarments, socks, military stripes, mustard and aquavit bottles, books, inkpots, stamps featuring Hitler, medicines, soda bottles, keys, hammers and other objects. All of the objects from the shelters have been taken to the conservation centre at Oelgod museum, some 20 miles from the beach to be examined.
The centre’s German curator, Gert Nebrich, judged the find “very interesting because it is so rare. We don’t expect contemporary objects like these to be so well preserved. Maybe it’s because they were kept for 60 years in the cold and dark
like in a big vacuum,” he said, carefully showing four stamps featuring Hitler’s image and the German eagle, found in one bunker. The Germans left the bunkers in May 1945 after the Nazi surrender.
Historical records show that Gerhard Saalfed was a 17-year-old soldier with the German army when he arrived at the bunker in January 1945.Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, but it wasn’t until two days later that he and his
fellow soldiers left their remote station. They shut the steel doors of the bunker behind them on their remote beach and went to the nearest town ten miles away to surrender. “The remote location of the bunkers and the drifting sands that covered them saved them from being ransacked,” said Cassoe
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Expert Advice
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River Kwai
This is such an interesting piece written by one of the last survivors of that horror. Well worth a read.
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