Joe Nemelka is at the SCMDPR race in South Africa and here is what he has been doing. I wish I was there!

• This morning I was able to have breakfast with Leon Petzer.  Leon is the moderator of the South African Pigeon Mailing List and also very active in the pigeon racing community here in South Africa.  He is very well connected to the Sun City Management as he helps them in certain areas and is actually the photographer for the winning pigeons.  Leon has been an extremely gracious and accomodating host for me.  I cannot thank him enough for going out of his way to educate me on the inner workings of the Sun City Race and provide me a view of the race that very few likely every get the opportunity to experience.
• After breakfast, we went to the loft and I was able to see the lofts and the pigeons and - in typical Leon fashion - he made a point to introduce me to Corrie Naude, the official trainer for the Sun City Pigeons.  I spent a good 20 minutes talking with Corrie about what he has learned in his many years of caring for the Sun City pigeons.  Another gracious host who took considerable time out for me to talk with him.  One thing Corrie emphasized to me is that a pigeon should never be trained before being sent to Sun City.  He says it is 100% a fable that pigeons that are trained prior to being sent do better than the other pigeons.  He also shared some other "tips" with me, but I will talk about those later.
  • A quick comment on the lofts - are they perfect pigeon lofts that I would be happy to have in my backyard?  No, absolutely not.  Are they extremely functional and capable pigeon lofts?  Absolutely.  I don't think anyone can complain about the lofts as they are definately capable and functional.
• I then had the opportunity to meet Zandy Meyer, the founder and Race Manager for Sun City.  What a great visionary man - I would guess he had no idea when he started this race that he would be creating the biggest and most prestigious race in the world.  To show you what kind of man Zandy is, they had a bbq for those that were looking at the lofts and it was Zandy that was doing the most work - cooking, entertaining, etc.
  • I should interject here that I have met so many pigeon fanciers from around the world and I have been extremely impressed with how friendly they all are to me and everyone.  I will certainly take many things away from this experience in Sun City, but without question the  most important thing I will take is the friendships I have already created with so many pigeon flyers from around the world.
• After eating some food, Leon took me to the Superbowl for basketing.  We arrived early and spent time talking with Michael Holt, one of the Sun City Managers, and learned a lot about the history of the race and how they were constantly seeking to improve the race every year.
• Once everything was set up for basketing, they asked as many people as were willing to basket pigeons.  We all pitched in and had the opportunity to handle the pigeons and go through the process of pulling off the ring cover, checking the band number with the e-band, wing stamping the pigeon, recovering the band and putting the bird in the basket.  I probably handled 75-100 or so pigeons in the race and I will say that overall they felt very good.  There were certainly some issues with moulting on several of the birds, principally the birds from the southern hemisphere.  I will also say that, to me at least, the Belgium birds felt the best as a group with the German birds being a close second.  I did have the opportunity to talk with Gerard Koopman as we were basketing birds and I spent even more time talking with his loft manager - Kjeld Spithoven.  I will say that they were both two of the most gracious men I talked to.  Very unassuming and enjoyable people in spite of their fame and fortune in the pigeon sport.
  • As you can imagine, when you are there you are standing in a line and they are handing you a pigeon and the chances of getting the opportunity to handle your own pigeons are very small.  However, each of the guys standing in line with say "If you get a pigeon with xx band...please let me know."  So as we were going through the birds, I got a couple Koopman birds and Frank McLaughlin was able to handle a couple of his birds and Dr. Al Piaget got to handle one of his birds -- then Leon said "Hey Joe, NRPL 0023 - is that yours?"  Wow, I couldn't believe it - I got to handle one of my birds.  Alfie's wing was about as good as can be expected and she felt very capable.  As you might extpect, there are 100's of birds that were capable, but I was glad to see she wasn't moulting heavily and/or had any issues.  She did feel very good to me and that gives me some additional hope however misguided it may be!!!
• After about five hours we were finished basketing...I am now back in my room waiting to go to dinner with Noel Certain, Frank McLaughlin Jr., Frank McLaughlin Sr. and Leon.
• I am presently uploading some YouTube Videos -- they will be here when they are all finally uploaded.  It will take several hours to get them uploaded so bear with me!
• Talk to you tomorrow...tomorrow is a down day and I am planning on going for a drive through the Pilanesberg Game Reserve that surrounds Sun City.