Elephants, Monkeys, and Birds

Our next stop was the Elephant Sanctuary.

We could see elephants out in the fields.

We were momentarily distracted by these adorable meercats that came up out of their burrow and started wrestling with each other. We all wanted to take them home. They were way cute.

After a brief presentation about the elephants, we all got a chance to walk hand in trunk with an elephant. This, for me, was the coolest! Elephants have two little "fingers" on the tip of their trunk and this sweet thing actually held my hand. It was amazing. I think that out of all the animals we saw on this trip, the elephants grabbed my heart the most. They were so beautiful.

Once you were finished with your walk, you had a little "elephant love" on your hand, but that was okay.

Dad, me, Mom, Dave, Joyce, Abby, Kendra, and Karin

Me and Mom (How cool is this?)

Joyce and Dad checking out an ear

After we got up close and personal with the elephants, we got to feed them. They are very smart and would find the food no matter where you were. Those trunks can reach a LONG way!
Finally, it was time to ride. Whee!!! As you can see, I'm not letting go to wave. It was very high and a pretty bumpy ride, but what fun.

Joyce, me, and Dave with our guides.

Grandma on an elephant!

Grandpa on an elephant! Getting up and down was pretty scary. We had to hold onto the guide for dear life and they had to hold on the the elephant's ears.

After the Elephant Sanctuary, it was off to Monkeyland and Birdland. There were monkeys everywhere. There was no way to get a picture to show that because they all move so FAST!

This guy was king of the forest.

This is a ring-tailed lemur that really blended into his surroundings.

Karin's looking a little worried here. These were tiny little Vervet monkeys and they were not at all afraid of us. (It was raining, so we put on our lovely rain ponchos. We were thankful to have them. It got pretty wet.)

Kendra and Abby get up close. Right after this, one of the Vervet monkeys jumped right into Abbys lap. We were all so shocked and it happened so fast that nobody got a picture. Darn!

In Birdland, there were all kinds of birds. It was dark and raining pretty hard by this time, so the pictures are not great.

Animals of all kinds LOVE Dave. These two would not leave him alone.

So, all in all, it was a fantastic, exhausting day. We all fell into bed that night.

More Africa Stuff

On Sunday, we went to church with Mom and Dad in George where they had been missionaries for the first nine months of their mission. I am so sad that we didn't take pictures with any of their friends there. I don't know what we were thinking.

After church, we went to the condo and fixed lunch. I am ashamed to admit it, but I was still not sleeping at night, so I went upstairs to take a nap and everyone else went to the Indian Ocean beach. As you can see from the pictures, it was beautiful and I slept through it all.

Karin, Abby, and Kendra having a blast.

Monday was a HUGE day. We started out by getting up at the crack of dawn and heading for the zipline. We were the first group of the day. First we watched a video telling us what we were about to do and then, we went to suit up. Mom and Dad were not sure that they had the upper body strength to go with us, so they stayed behind while Joyce, Dave, Kendra, Karin, Abby and I pressed forward. I have to tell you that I was pretty nervous. I'm not a great lover of heights and some of the platforms are REALLY high up in the trees.

Abby, Karin, Kendra and I admiring our hineys.

Joyce and I showing our true feelings.

Me, Abby, Kendra, Karin, Dave, and Joyce, trussed up and ready to go. Dave looked just like Fireman Bob. I think we finally just called him Mr. Fireman for the rest of the zipline experience.

It was a great adventure and, surprisingly, I would do it again. It really wasn't very scary. We couldn't carry cameras while we zipped through the trees, but I do have some photos the company took. I'll post some of them later.

After we finished at the zipline, we went to the Elephant Sanctuary, Monkeyland, and Birdland. It was a very full day.

More from Africa

On our second day in Port Elizabeth, we did a drive through game park called Kragga Kamma. We again saw every animal you can imagine.

It was really exciting because we saw a rhino which was one of the animals we wanted to see the day before, but couldn't find.


We also saw beautiful cheetahs.

In fact, one of the cheetahs was used in the Disney movie Dhuma, and really liked people, so we got to go play with him. It was pretty cool. He was just like our housecat, Sylvester, only WAY bigger. He purred and wanted to be rubbed and played with. It was very funny.

Karin and I with "Dhuma"

Later that evening, we had dinner with some of Mom and Dad's friends. Sister Bundy-Palmer prepared a traditional South African meal for us which included some amazingly delicious roasted potatoes and these tiny pumpkin pancakes that were the hit of the evening.

The next day, we left Port Elizabeth and headed down the Garden Route for Knysna. Our first stop was at Jeffries Bay, a local surf spot. I had promised Joe I would stop and take some pictures for him since he had dreamed of surfing J-Bay since he was a 9 year old boy. Kendra and Karin and Abby took off their shoes and went into the water while I gathered some beautiful shells and sand to take home to Joe.

Mom and I at J-Bay.

Our next stop was at Bloukrans Bridge. The highest commercial Bungy Jump in the world.

Karin and Abby decided to go f0r it.

Joyce and I walked out to the jump point with them. That was more than enough adventure for me. It was unbelievable to watch them jump off. They were so brave! (or crazy.)

Karin

Karin

Abby

Abby

After the bungy jump, we drove the rest of the way to Knysna and checked into our condo there. We were all pretty bushed (especially the jumpers), so we cooked dinner and went to bed. The next day was a huge adventure of its own. I'll write about it in another post.

South Africa

So, I've been back from South Africa for a week and a half now and haven't blogged a bit of it. I wish I had taken my laptop with me so I could have written each day. Now, I've forgotten so much of the good stuff. But, here's a short recap. June 9, I flew all night to London and met Dave, my brother, Joyce, my sister, and my nieces Kendra, Karin, and Abby.

We had a layover for a few hours and then we flew all night again to Capetown, S.A. My parents (who were just finishing their mission) met us at the airport and we went to the mission home to shower (badly needed!) and change clothes. We then went immediately back to the airport and flew to Port Elizabeth. We stayed in a lovely 5 star hotel right on the Indian Ocean. It was gorgeous.

This is us eating breakfast in the hotel dining room.

The first night we were in P.E., we went out for Chinese food. That's pretty funny, huh? You'd think that in Africa we might eat African food.......

This is Karin, Mom, Dave, Dad, me, Abby, and Joyce. It was our first night together in over 21 months. It was wonderful!

The next day we got up and went on a Pumba Day Safari. It was amazing.

Dave, Dad, Mom, Abby, Kendra, Karin, me, and Joyce

We all got into a jeep just like the jeeps you ride in at Disneyland on the Indiana Jones ride. Our guide was fantastic and he drove like a maniac. If we didn't hold on, we would have bounced right out.

That's Karin, me, and Joyce in the front, Kendra, Abby, and Dave in the middle and Mom and dad in the back. (You can't see Dad. Maybe he took the picture?)

We saw every possible animal. We were close enough to the giraffes that I thought I could reach out and pet one. The highlight of the safari was when our guide got the jeep high-centered on a termite mound about five feet from a white lion eating an impala that the lioness had just brought him. Eek!


This lion was actually pretty bored with us. Our guide said that the animals see the jeeps so often that they consider them like other animals. BUT, if you get out of the jeep, it changes things completely. So, we are high-centered, the jeep won't move, the lion is watching us, and we can't get out of the jeep. What do we do?????

Finally, the lion picked up the carcass and walked around to the other side of the bush. Our guide then put us on high alert to watch for his movements and also for the lioness (we didn't know where she was) and he quickly got out of the jeep and jacked up the front tires so we could get some traction and get out of there. As soon as we were free from the termite mound, the guide drove right up to the lion again so we could watch him finish his dinner.

Speaking of food, Pumba fed us an amazing lunch. It was out in the middle of the reserve and was authentic African food and was delish and such a fun experience. We felt completely pampered.

Karin, Abby, Zoolani (our guide), Mom, Dave, Dad, me, Joyce, and Kendra.

After lunch, we got up close and personal with many more animals. During the day we saw, a leopard, elephants, hippos, giraffes, cape buffalo, lots of wildebeests, lots of warthogs (they are pretty cute), and lots of impala. I'm sure there was more, but that's all I can remember right now.

That night we went on a night game drive. I'll write about that in my next post.

Michele