by Art Pamplona

On June 25, 2009 my wife, Jackie, and I travelled to South Africa for the first time. It was a really fantastic trip. We met many friendly and generous people everywhere we travelled within the country starting with Stuart Patterson who picked us up at the Johannesburg Airport upon our arrival.



Jan Lombard SA, Stewart Patterson SA, Jackie Pamplona USA, Ann Hammer Holland, Dick Hammer Holland, Jerry Sindela Canada.


Dick Hammer Holland, Jackie Pamplona USA, SA tour guide and Christo Brits SA Bloemfontein.

Shortly after landing at 7:30 AM local time, after a 30 hour journey, we dropped our luggage at Stewart’s house, freshen up a bit, and then the nonstop action began. We participated in a visit to the local Montecasino Bird Park which had been organized by Jan Lombard. At the Bird Park we meet some of our travel mates who we would share the South African experience with for the next couple of weeks. We joined Ans and Dickey Hammer from Holland and Jerry Sindular from Canada. It was an amazing day at the Bird Park both in observing the on stage performance of several species of birds and walking through the large open air aviary containing many brilliantly colored birds of all types. This was “photographer heaven” providing many colorful subjects to capture in digital photos.

After the bird park adventure we were treated to a visit to the home of Eddie Quick. What an amazing collection of pigeons he has. I have never seen so many breeds of pigeons at one place in my life. Eddie obviously has a lot of love for his birds and is a very successful breeder as well. Eddie also produced some exceptional judge’s awards for the National Show featuring a Frank Cook pigeon painting print.

That evening we were honored to accompany Stewart, his wife Gill and his son and daughter-in-law to a local restaurant for a great fish dinner. What a great way to end our first day in South Africa.
The next morning we were at the home of Jan Lombard at 5:30 AM and added Dr Freidhelm Bartnik and his son Marcel to our group to travel to the Kruger National Park for a 6 day 5 nights Safari. Our guides for the Safari, Christo Britz and Jarrie van Jaarsveld packed up our entire luggage into a small travel traveler and we were off for Kruger in two vehicles for our next adventure on the trip.


The awards evening all the Int Judges where awarded with a certificate, from left to right, John Graves U.K, Fadiel Hendricks Pres NFPA S.A, Dick Hammer Holland, Dr Friedhelm Bartnik Germany, Jerry Sindela Canada/Czech and Art Pamplona USA

Shortly after checking in at the ranger station inside Kruger Park, Jackie mentioned that “I hope we see some Giraffes on this trip, they are one of my favorite African animals”. Not more than 10 minutes into the park we spotted several giraffes munching on the tree tops just off the roadway. Our first wish had been granted almost immediately.
The cameras all started clicking at that point and continued throughout the trip.  I think Dickey set a world record for the number of photos taken in 6 days and Dr. Bartnik displayed many photos of outstanding quality during the trip, a tribute to his expertise and fine photo equipment.
Everyday in the Kruger was a new adventure. We observed much wildlife daily including spotting the “Big Five” in a single day. Our expectations of what we might see each day were continually exceeded. Christo and Jarrie were superb guides for the trip, organizing each day to maximize the wildlife viewing and providing great meals and accommodations everyday. They were an integral part of our very friendly safari group and took care of all the daily details which made the trip go very smoothly and enhanced the enjoyment for all of us.

After the safari we flew from the Mpumalanga Airport near Nelspruit to the Durban Airport and then journeyed by van to the Pietermaritzburg area where the show was held. Jonathan Dent met us at the airport and was able to fit all seven travelers and much luggage into a large van. While attending the show we stayed two days at a local bed and breakfast and two days at the ranch of Neil and Angie Raw.

Once again we met a lot of great people in the north -eastern part of South Africa. Everyone was fantastic and most hospitable. We also meet the fifth International Judge for the show, John Graves, and his wife, Marion, in Pietermaritzburg. What a delightful couple. We certainly enjoyed visiting with them and John’s sense of humor.

Preceding and during the show Angie Raw and Allison Dent provided transportation to and from the show grounds and also conducted a few field trips to show us the local sights including a meander tour one day. On judging day they also arranged a special site seeing trip for the wives. While at the show I had the opportunity to meet Fadiel Hendricks in person for the first time. Although we had communicated by telephone and e-mail in the past we had never met before.

We particularly enjoyed his enthusiasm for the birds, the club and the pigeon fancy in general. Fadiel and his fellow officers in the NFPA have created a very dynamic and progressive all breeds pigeon club. I expect that the club will accomplish much in the future in promoting pigeons in South Africa. It is already amazing how much the club has accomplished during its relatively short history. It was a great opportunity for me to participate in the judging for the NFPA National Show along with Dr Bartnick, Jerry, John, Dickey and several South African judges. They were a great group of friendly people. I was pleased to see the recent advancement that English Trumpeters have made in South Africa.

Although the show was rather small in comparison to most U.S. shows the top birds were of good quality. The top three birds all exhibited some very good features. As I understand it, all three birds in the point card finals for champion were bred in South Africa from recent imports. It’s good to see birds bred in the country take the top awards.

The champion yellow hen of Fadiel Hendricks displayed great style and type, good feather quality, nice crest and skull. She was a very stylish show bird and would be competitive at any E.T. show.

The second bird in the finals a red splash cock of Stewart Patterson demonstrated good power, nice skull and crest. Third in the finals and best young of the show was a dun self hen bred by Fadiel. This bird showed good body and nice full muffs.

The best junior ET bred by Daniel Berman also demonstrated some good qualities in body and type. The color was not very strong but otherwise it was a nice bird. The senior members will have some more competition next year as Daniel graduates from the Junior Division.

According to the local exhibitors the quality of the E.T.’s has improved significantly in the last 2 to 3 years in South Africa due to the importation of additional breeding stock. It was good to see the progress which has been made. Hopefully the number of English Trumpeter breeders and the number of birds shown at each show will increase in the future. With the existing enthusiasm for the E.T.’s and an apparent willingness to share resources among their breeders, hopefully the English Trumpeter breed will grow rapidly right along with the NFPA club and it’s many other breeds.

From what I could see the club has an excellent potential for future growth and has a strong nucleus of officers and members who are willing to promote the pigeon fancy. I wish everyone the best of luck in this endeavor. After the judging Fadiel did a great job in showing our visiting group some of the local sites in Durban and taking us down the Garden Route to the Cape Town area. It was a great two day trip with many site seeing opportunities along the way and many photo stops.

The trip included a stop at Pieter Celia’s restaurant and bed and breakfast where a wonderful multi-course meal, great dessert and a musical show were part of the menu. We also made a stop at the home of Quinton Oosthuysen and family where we enjoyed his outstanding home, pigeon loft, and the fish fiest which was prepared on the barbeque.

Once we reached Cape Town we stayed at the home of Otto Steinhofel for several days and enjoyed his birds, his hospitality, and a great barbeque he hosted with a number of the local fanciers in attendance.

Fadiel’s wife, Madnaih, made sure we saw many of the sights in the Cape Town area including Cape Point, Table Mountain, the waterfront, several old vineyards, and the Moyo African Restaurant. Since she is a professional tour guide she knew where all the great places were and made sure we got to see many of them.

Our very last visit before leaving for the airport was a quick visit to the home of Donald Bland. Due to a health issue Donald missed his first National Show in about 15 years. We enjoyed our short visit viewing his birds, his bar and hat collection. It’s unfortunate that he missed the show but I was glad we had the opportunity to visit with him before leaving Cape Town. Donald had made another award for each judge with a colorful club emblem on it. They were very nice. L-R Dick & Ann Hammer, Pieter Nettling Oudtshoorn SA, Jackie Pamplona and Fadiel Hendricks SA. Jackie and I would like to thank everyone for the great reception and great hospitality that was exhibited by everyone we met on the entire trip.

Our expectations for the trip were exceeded by far thanks to all the people evolved. The great scenery, exceptional wildlife and outstanding people made the trip very memorable.

The trip and the new friendships made with the international judges and the people we met in South Africa will not soon be forgotten.