I’m down in Jeffery’s Bay South Africa, in the Eastern Cape. You’ll have to find that on the map. It’s just west of Port Elizabeth were we raced to yesterday. We rented a Ford Focus and drove it 10 and a half hours down through the country and got to the peir last night at 6:30. It was a wonderful time and the last race of the year. We await the final results.
We just went on a safari and it was spectacular. We went to Pilanesburg National Park, northwest of Pretoria. I didn’t think I would like it, but it was sooo cool. I thought you would go and pay a lot of money to get into some cramped safari truck and ride around a cricle for two hours hopefully seeing something neat. That’s not it at all. We rented our own vans and you get to drive yourself around the park, taking back trails and getting out to go into the hides and watch the animals at the watering holes and everything. It was sooo neat.
We took about two hour shifts out, 3 shifts the first day, and then the next morning we got up early and went out for the 6:00 AM last shift. We saw about 22 different species or something like that. It was fun trying to spot them in the grass or the trees or rocks. If it weren’t were the South Africans we would not have known the names of any of the animals.
They sure were pretty, espeically the Impalas. We saw hippos…a little baby that opened it’s mouth real wide to yawn. We saw lots of zebras and giraffes. One giraffe walked right out in front of the van across the rode and stopped on the other side to eat. Their tounges are sooo long. Half the park just got burnt down in a big fire, and some of it was still smoldering. We were driving through a burnt section and didn’t expect to see anything and then this HUGE african elephant with big big tusks walked across the road in front of us. It was awesome.
Later in the day we started to see some Rhinos, but they were really far away. We kept looking for lions and all sorts of cats but to no avail. I would have burnt a hole in the tall grass the way I was trying to stare through it and see the cheetahs and stuff. We saw ostritchs, baboons, warthogs, and impalas in the gated area where we camped out! Warthogs outside by tent!
The last morning we wanted to try and find the lions, so we got up early hoping to catch them after a long night’s prowl. We started out on the main road and what was the first thing we saw…standing right on the road…half of it’s feet on the pavement… two HUGE rhinos! IT was a mama and a baby and we had to be careful passing by them because the mama was getting nervous. You should have seen the horn on this thing. We kept going and I saw a tiny little cat thing in the road… it was a linx type animal called a caracal.
As we continued driving around we saw most of the normal animals and two more rhinos on the roadside. Finally we flagged down a car and asked if they had seen any lions and he pointed out on the map where two males had been spotted that morning. We drove around the waterhole to where they would have been. As we got closer I noticed a pile-up of cars ahead… and I knew it was there. We pulled up and there, on the burnt land headed toward the waterhole, was a big big lion. He had a nice mane and just walked like he owned the place. I felt sorry for the wildebeests that weren’t to far away. We backtracked to a hide by the waterhole to see if he came out and chased any of them down. We really wanted to see some predetor/prey action. It’s one thing to see all this in a zoo…but it’s another to be out in the wild. Granted it’s a nature park and preserve, but it’s huge and these animals can do whatever they want in there. It’s still nature. So to be a stone’s throw away from a lion, rhino, african elephant, and all sorts of other animals is just crazy. I could have stayed longer doing that stuff it was lots of fun.
Out of the Big 5, the biggest and most precious animals to hunt in Africa, I saw three. I saw the Lion, the Rhino, and the Elephant. I missed out on the buffalo and leopard…they have to be hard to spot because they only prowl at night in trees and rocky areas.
Now we are down south getting ready to do some ministry in the schools promoting AIDS awareness. We are at Jeffery’s Bay right now, the place all the surfers long to come. It’s supposedly got the best surf in the world. All I know is that I stuck my toe in it a minute ago and it’s ice cold. And….the hot surfers look better from the safety of the beach! We are all exicted about our time ministering in South Africa, the homeland of our travel buddies. We’ve got lots to do and we’ve still got to prepare our minds and hearts for home. How in the world do you talk about this year when you get home. It’s so much to process. Pray for us as we finish up the last weeks of the World Race! (Hopefully there will be pictures up soon!)
