Quick Catch-Up II: Beach, Elephants, Zipline, Beach…
(written 10/06/07...the day of the Prescott Air Show. I SHOULD be in Arizona helping Warren today.)
HAGA HAGA
Yesterday was a painfully, excruciating, agonizingly long ride. 14 hours in a cramped little bus. Ugggh, I’m tired of this bus. At one point the overhead compartment on the right side of the bus actually came loose and now threatens to crash down on our heads whenever we hit a bump. We rigged a rather ridiculous temporary brace for it (pictured at right). That has since been replaced by a large branch and a brick…still ridiculous but a little more stable. At the end of our big long drive, I was rewarded with our final destination…a beach. Yep. Another beach.
But I actually really enjoyed this beach because it had miles of tide pools teeming with interesting bitty sea creatures and fascinating rock formations. I spent many hours in the morning slowly taking it all in. Here are some of the many pictures I took:
View of Haga Haga from the top of Whale Lookout hill. We stayed at the hotel at the point:
View from my hotel patio window:
Lots of interesting sea life in the tide pools.
And lots of interesting seashells
Cool art by a sea snail (she's in the picture in the top left):
Amazing rock formations. Warren and I would have spent hours trying to figure out how each was formed. We never grew tired of each other's curiosity.
We saw bigger sea life too. This morning we saw a bunch of dolphins—about 30— swimming along the shore. At one point, about 10 of them turned, in formation, and rode a wave toward the shore. Then, when the wave was done, they turned, perfectly synchronized, and continued swimming parallel to the shore. It was amazing, and those of us that saw it kept talking about it all day.
And, in the late afternoon we also saw a whale playing in the water outside our hotel patio window. Arika and I were sitting in the room, relaxing on the beds and watching the tail end of Oprah, and I said “Now all we need to cap off the day is for a whale to swim on by.” Within 10 minutes, a whale slowly swam by, breaching, flapping around, rolling in circles. Funny coincidence! I think it was an Orca from the three or four times that it breached, but I’m not sure. Great way to end the day.
ADDO ELEPHANT NATIONAL PARK
Our next stop was the Addo Elephant National Park, a reserve for—yep—elephants. This is an area where great herds of wild elephants used to roam, but were then killed off or crowded out by settlers. At the lowest point, there were only 11 elephants left in the valley. Then, in 1931, the Addo Elephant National Park was established, and now the numbers are rebounding, with herds numbering almost four hundred.
After all the elephants I had seen in Kruger, I was glad to be here, but not necessarily excited per se. But what I hadn’t anticipated was how CLOSE we would get to the elephants, how totally unperturbed they would be by our presence. It was unbelievable. Here’s some shots of close encounters:
Even mothers with little baby elephants weren’t bothered by our close proximity. So fun!
One highlight was seeing a genuine Dung Beetle in action. Really. Dung Beetles are cool. In fact, Garreth (a fellow traveler) has been talking about wanting to see one for weeks, always accompanied by a small performance on how they operate—rolling the dung (elephant poo) into balls with their hind legs, and periodically crawling down off the poo ball to turn around and check things out in the area, then turning back around and climbing back up the poo ball with its hind legs, getting back to the task of rolling an ever bigger ball o’ poo.
We spent a good ten minutes watching the little guy. At one point, we were all hanging out the van windows gawking at the Dung Beetle when a car pulled up behind us, then decided to pass…right over where the Dung Beetle was. We all waved him off hysterically, yelling, motioning frantically for him to stay back, then when it was too late for that, to move on. He pulled up next to us, rolled down his window, confused, and we all yelled “Dung Beetle, Dung Beetle”. Clearly realizing what he had just done, he asked if we were calling him a Dung Beetle, laughed at his own oh-wo-witty retort, then pulled away. Dork.
Luckily, our little Dung Beetle survived the horrible encounter, at least it seemed so. For some reason, he didn’t go back to rolling his dung ball, but instead walked in circles for a minute—as if dazed—then crawled off into the grass empty handed. Huh. Hope the little bugger is okay.
ZIP-LINING IN TSITSIKAMA
Yesterday we visited Tsitsikama National Park to check out the area and do a “canopy tour.” This is basically the same “Zip-Line” experience that Warren and I had last summer in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Here’s a shot of me zooming across the canyon:
It was kind of fun. I guess. Better than sitting around doing nothing for hours while the others did it. I just don’t find the experience scary. Perhaps it’s because I had done zip-lining before so there was no novelty factor. It’s fun to do the longer stretches, but there’s certainly no adrenaline involved. You are attached to the main cord in not one, not two, but three different places. 
There’s no way you’re not going to make it to the other side. Oh well, anyway…
This was our guide, CJ. I think it’s pretty funny that he leads these canopy tours with such snazzy shoes like that on. :) And, it's also pretty telling about how tame the whole experience truly is!
PLETTENBERG BAY
I am now at Plettenberg Bay—a coastal city, a BEACH city. Very nice, very Orange County.
Shortly after we arrived last night, Garreth, Laura and I went out for pizza, and we got craaaaazzzzzy. :) I ordered half my pizza “Rock-and-Roll” style—a pizza with bacon and banana. Seriously. It seems to be a popular combination in South Africa, so I figured it was time to try it. Interesting, just as you’d expect it to taste. Garreth also ordered a half and half, and his crazy half was the “CCC—Chicken, Camberbert, and Cranberries.” Tasted like a Thanksgiving left-overs sandwich. Much better than the Rock and Roll.
Today I’m sick, but not from the pizza. I have a cold. I can’t believe I have ANOTHER cold. I just had a cold about six weeks ago. This is a mild version though. I was going to go sea kayaking with a few friends, but figured I had better take it easy. So instead, I am sitting at “Surf Café”, a hip little spot around the corner from the hotel. I have been here for a few hours, sorting through pictures and writing these blog entries. Very very yummy food, and true to the name, full of surfer types.
When first came, there were only about 20 people here but now the place is crowded. Every single person is sitting in a chair facing me and yelling in my direction…yelling at the TV above my head. Rugby is on (an OBSESSION here) and I’m the only one not watching. But I don’t care. I don’t feel like moving. I’m comfy here. Although I wish they’d yell quieter.
HAGA HAGA
Yesterday was a painfully, excruciating, agonizingly long ride. 14 hours in a cramped little bus. Ugggh, I’m tired of this bus. At one point the overhead compartment on the right side of the bus actually came loose and now threatens to crash down on our heads whenever we hit a bump. We rigged a rather ridiculous temporary brace for it (pictured at right). That has since been replaced by a large branch and a brick…still ridiculous but a little more stable. At the end of our big long drive, I was rewarded with our final destination…a beach. Yep. Another beach. But I actually really enjoyed this beach because it had miles of tide pools teeming with interesting bitty sea creatures and fascinating rock formations. I spent many hours in the morning slowly taking it all in. Here are some of the many pictures I took:
View of Haga Haga from the top of Whale Lookout hill. We stayed at the hotel at the point:
View from my hotel patio window:
Lots of interesting sea life in the tide pools.
And lots of interesting seashells
Cool art by a sea snail (she's in the picture in the top left):
Amazing rock formations. Warren and I would have spent hours trying to figure out how each was formed. We never grew tired of each other's curiosity.
We saw bigger sea life too. This morning we saw a bunch of dolphins—about 30— swimming along the shore. At one point, about 10 of them turned, in formation, and rode a wave toward the shore. Then, when the wave was done, they turned, perfectly synchronized, and continued swimming parallel to the shore. It was amazing, and those of us that saw it kept talking about it all day.
And, in the late afternoon we also saw a whale playing in the water outside our hotel patio window. Arika and I were sitting in the room, relaxing on the beds and watching the tail end of Oprah, and I said “Now all we need to cap off the day is for a whale to swim on by.” Within 10 minutes, a whale slowly swam by, breaching, flapping around, rolling in circles. Funny coincidence! I think it was an Orca from the three or four times that it breached, but I’m not sure. Great way to end the day.
ADDO ELEPHANT NATIONAL PARK
Our next stop was the Addo Elephant National Park, a reserve for—yep—elephants. This is an area where great herds of wild elephants used to roam, but were then killed off or crowded out by settlers. At the lowest point, there were only 11 elephants left in the valley. Then, in 1931, the Addo Elephant National Park was established, and now the numbers are rebounding, with herds numbering almost four hundred.
After all the elephants I had seen in Kruger, I was glad to be here, but not necessarily excited per se. But what I hadn’t anticipated was how CLOSE we would get to the elephants, how totally unperturbed they would be by our presence. It was unbelievable. Here’s some shots of close encounters:
Even mothers with little baby elephants weren’t bothered by our close proximity. So fun!
One highlight was seeing a genuine Dung Beetle in action. Really. Dung Beetles are cool. In fact, Garreth (a fellow traveler) has been talking about wanting to see one for weeks, always accompanied by a small performance on how they operate—rolling the dung (elephant poo) into balls with their hind legs, and periodically crawling down off the poo ball to turn around and check things out in the area, then turning back around and climbing back up the poo ball with its hind legs, getting back to the task of rolling an ever bigger ball o’ poo.
We spent a good ten minutes watching the little guy. At one point, we were all hanging out the van windows gawking at the Dung Beetle when a car pulled up behind us, then decided to pass…right over where the Dung Beetle was. We all waved him off hysterically, yelling, motioning frantically for him to stay back, then when it was too late for that, to move on. He pulled up next to us, rolled down his window, confused, and we all yelled “Dung Beetle, Dung Beetle”. Clearly realizing what he had just done, he asked if we were calling him a Dung Beetle, laughed at his own oh-wo-witty retort, then pulled away. Dork.Luckily, our little Dung Beetle survived the horrible encounter, at least it seemed so. For some reason, he didn’t go back to rolling his dung ball, but instead walked in circles for a minute—as if dazed—then crawled off into the grass empty handed. Huh. Hope the little bugger is okay.
ZIP-LINING IN TSITSIKAMA
Yesterday we visited Tsitsikama National Park to check out the area and do a “canopy tour.” This is basically the same “Zip-Line” experience that Warren and I had last summer in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Here’s a shot of me zooming across the canyon:
It was kind of fun. I guess. Better than sitting around doing nothing for hours while the others did it. I just don’t find the experience scary. Perhaps it’s because I had done zip-lining before so there was no novelty factor. It’s fun to do the longer stretches, but there’s certainly no adrenaline involved. You are attached to the main cord in not one, not two, but three different places. 
There’s no way you’re not going to make it to the other side. Oh well, anyway…This was our guide, CJ. I think it’s pretty funny that he leads these canopy tours with such snazzy shoes like that on. :) And, it's also pretty telling about how tame the whole experience truly is!
PLETTENBERG BAY
I am now at Plettenberg Bay—a coastal city, a BEACH city. Very nice, very Orange County.
Shortly after we arrived last night, Garreth, Laura and I went out for pizza, and we got craaaaazzzzzy. :) I ordered half my pizza “Rock-and-Roll” style—a pizza with bacon and banana. Seriously. It seems to be a popular combination in South Africa, so I figured it was time to try it. Interesting, just as you’d expect it to taste. Garreth also ordered a half and half, and his crazy half was the “CCC—Chicken, Camberbert, and Cranberries.” Tasted like a Thanksgiving left-overs sandwich. Much better than the Rock and Roll.
When first came, there were only about 20 people here but now the place is crowded. Every single person is sitting in a chair facing me and yelling in my direction…yelling at the TV above my head. Rugby is on (an OBSESSION here) and I’m the only one not watching. But I don’t care. I don’t feel like moving. I’m comfy here. Although I wish they’d yell quieter.