A Parade of Elephants

This is not a tale of bunnies, but of something much bigger... Valentine's Day. And elephants. There were some of those, too. Kathy and I decided to treat our long weekend in February as a Valentine's Day getaway, and we chose Addo Elephant National Park as our destination. On our first day, though, we went to Kwantu Elephant Sanctuary, where whilst enjoying a freshly brewed cup of coffee, I discovered these rabbits.

After the coffee, and admiring just how cute rabbits can be, we were off to the main event: the elephants. It began with a show, during which four elephants demonstrated their comprehension of verbal instructions:
But, truth be told, we were not there to watch the elephants, but... to ride them! Seriously. Here I am just after securing my seat, with the help of Heward, my guide:

And, of course, my lovely wife, looking far more photogenic than I:

Riding an elephant feels much like a cartoon of an elephant walking, just rolling back and forth, loping along. It is a sensation more akin to what I might expect at sea rather than on land:

It just looks like fun, doesn't it?

Talk about the experience of a lifetime! Even just the short ride we took, watching the blesbok run by and admiring the view -all from the back of an elephant - felt absolutely exhilarating:Later, we got to feed them:

And then pose with them (can you see that one checking for more food in my hand?):

On our way to our lodge, Chrislin, we passed a field where we spotted this lonely elephant...

Except it was not so lonely:

It is rather remarkable to be driving along, look out, and see a parade of elephants! (That is the proper term.)

Our accommodation was quaint and comfortable, here graced by my beautiful wife:

Apparently, the owners built these themselves using techniques they had learned during their years working with traditional builders. Also, I should mention that the service at Chrislin was top rate. In fact, they did such a good job with the food our first night, that after eating out at a local restaurant our second night, we went back there for dinner our third and final night. And we were glad we did. The atmosphere was wonderful, and the staff were great, sometimes seeming to know just when we had a question and magically appearing to answer it...

Our second full day, we went on a guided game drive, along with two other folks: one from Germany and one from Colombia. (We ended up dining with the latter that evening and quite enjoyed his company. He was a very talkative but also very interesting microbiologist who teaches at the University of British Columbia.) We began our drive by spotting this kudu:

Here you can see it against the backdrop of the Park:

Soon after, we spotted this Cape buffalo:

Who was soon joined by a friend:

Later, we saw this pale chanting gosshawk:

And this dung beetle:

But, ultimately, Addo is about the elephants:

Of all ages and sizes:

Like this one nuzzling its mother:

Or this young bull, staring us down:

Of course, traffic was a bit tricky:

But we managed!

We did not get to see any lions, but we know they were there, somewhere...

This ostrich was fascinating to watch, the way it moved and the shapes it took as it shifted its head and neck:

And the zebras were, as always, cool:

Our guide, Brett, a South African, pronounced it "zeh-bruh", but here the last letter of the alphabet is "zed", not "zee". And, regardless of how you pronounce it, it is a notable moment when you realize how close they are:

We all had to pause and admire these flowers, especially our biologist companion:

We also saw warthogs, though none came as close as we would have liked:

Then, we came across these rather laid back red hartebeests:

And, lest you thought the dung beetle was merely a bug, I present evidence that they are among the park's most honored and respected residents:

Also, while in one sense the zebras were cool, in another, they were not. This poor young one had had enough of the heat! (It was ok, though. We saw it move later. Just in case you were worried.)
Another buffalo peaked out to examine us:

Our guide inspected some fresh remains;

And then we encountered some more elephants, who had their own way of dealing with the heat:

And who, like the zebras before them, were amazingly close:

To me, they look like they are smiling:

This little guy seemed particularly curious:

Note how little concerned they seem by our presence, almost as if they could squash us easily:

It is not as if they were so much bigger than our cars, or anything...

This forest buzzard appeared more regal to me than I would have expected from a bird called a "buzzard", which shows how much I know:

We could not see what this brown snake eagle was after, but it gave us quite a show:

This black-headed heron was fun to watch, in part because its throat vibrated almost constantly:

Another kudu, apparently making sure we were supposed to be there:

As was this rather muddy elephant:

How close was it? Take a look:

Then, one of the highlights... I spotted this:

It was apparently waiting for the watering hole to free up. I think of this as queues of the animal kingdom...

After the elephant left, it began to peak out. What was it? A black-backed jackal. They are rare enough that our guide got more excited than at any other time during the day:

If you look closely, you can see that it has a patch on its back that really looks like a small, rectangular, black and white blanket:

And speaking of patterned backs, here is a leopard tortoise:

And more red hartebeests:

A secretary bird (too far off, I know, but we were happy to see one at any distance):

The Park itself stretches far enough south that we even caught glimpses of the ocean:

And, of course, more elephants:


Another red hartebeest:

And a buffalo demonstrating the proper use of a mud hole:

Evening eventually forced us to head back to the lodge:

Where we spent another lovely evening and relaxing morning before we had to head home:

What better way could there be to spend Valentine's Day than having such an adventure with the love of my life?

Just Don't Look Down

So I recently celebrated my 47th birthday by doing the craziest thing ever. But I get ahead of myself. Last weekend, for my birthday, my darling wife treated me to a weekend in Semonkong, the last major destination in Lesotho that we had not yet visited. I was quite pleased by the prospect. The drive there was filled with the usual beautiful vistas and picturesque villages:

A big part of the trip, I must confess, had nothing to do with my birthday. We were visiting a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) who is doing work with health clinics in the area. Here she is (on the right) with one of her local colleagues:

We visited one of the clinics that first day, and I was left with the impression of a fairly modern clinic sited way out in the middle of nowhere. She (the PCV) later showed us the other clinic in Semonkong, as well as one under construction. It is hard for me to describe how crucial these clinics seemed to be to residents of Semonkong and the surrounding villages, especially given the waiting queues I saw.

Later, we visited a new residence that particular PCV will be moving to, as her current residence is too isolated from the town. (We moved some of her stuff for her that day, but try as she might my wife could not convince her to let us move her completely. Those darned independent volunteers!) While visiting her soon-to-be new home (which featured neither electricity nor running water), we were in turn visited by two of her soon-to-be neighbors, who insisted on being photographed:

The PCV then gave us a quick tour of town, where the big news was this new off-sales market (a bottled beverage store):

We then got to see the local air field (upon closer inspection, that plane looked rooted to the spot):

And its control tower:

But do not mistakenly conclude from these images that the field is no longer operational. Quite the contrary. Just that day it was being used as a local distribution hub for the delivery of HPV vaccines to places too remote to be reached effectively any other way than by helicopter (the Lesotho Ministry of Health recently initiated a national program to vaccinate all of the nation's young women):

We saw local families out and about, perhaps on their way home from school:

In places, Semonkong gave off a Wild West vibe - like here, where there are horses tied up outside a pub:

We eventually made our way to the lodge where we were to be staying, passing this grazing horse...

... this rock wall...

... and this peaceful stream (usually a river but we have not been getting enough rain this year)...

... before arriving at Semonkong Lodge:

We had a lovely view from our room:

As well as a lovely room:

After we checked in, Kathy and the PCV went back to work, with more meetings, etc., while I relaxed at the Lodge, exploring its views...

... its grounds...

... and eventually finding myself a perfect spot to sit and play guitar for a bit:

It was there that I made a new friend, who apparently appreciates a good Dylan tune:

The next day, the PCV led us on a hike, which began here, just up the hill from our lodge:

Here are Kathy and the volunteer seemingly walking off into pastoral perfection:

We passed another horse, living the legendary good life:

Alongside streams like this:

And fields of sunflowers like these, which have been partially obscured from view by a large dork-like creature:

After hiking a while, we began to approach this chasm:

Along the edge of which we strolled for a bit:

We finally reached the end of our trail, this view of the Maletsunyane Falls, the highest waterfall in Southern Africa (196 meters):

Take a good look, as we will be returning to those Falls soon enough, albeit from a radically different point of view. But for now, here I am posing casually at a safe distance:

And here are the two Peace Corps women, looking ready for action:

Now, about those falls...

You see, one of the activities offered to guests by Semonkong Lodge is an abseil. Specifically, they offer the longest single drop commercial abseil in the world (it is in the Guinness Book of World Records). Somehow, my wife talked me into trying it. So, that Sunday, we got into a truck with a few other Lodge guests (medical students from Australia) and headed for the top of the Falls, where this member of the Lodge staff was kind enough to ask me if I were sane or actually wanted to go through with it:

Apparently quite insane, I proceeded:

This is what I looked like, starting out, from the ground some 200 meters below (please keep in mind that none of the images here give a really good sense of the height we were dealing with):

This is me, lounging partway down, enjoying the view (I was admittedly freaking out a bit from fear while we were up at the top waiting, but once I had the rope attached I felt much better about the entire situation):

Here I am a little farther down:

Both Kathy and I experienced something similar while making this descent: we kept looking down and expecting to see the ground getting closer, but for the longest time it did not. So we kept on, as I was doing here, beside the Falls (yes, the same Maletsunyane Falls we had seen from a safe distance the day before):

Here is Kathy, the real and fearless adventurer in our family, setting out:

Note that she does this all smiling:

Look closely, you will see her here, descending but still near the top of the falls (or maybe you will not see her, as she is so small relative to her surroundings):

But you can definitely see her here (at this point I was already down at the bottom and bragging to one of Lodge owners about my wife and how extraordinary she is):

In fact, here I am shortly after arriving at the bottom - and looking suitably dazed:

In contrast, my wife arrived all smiles and thumbs up:

Of course, after she joined me, I began to feel more like smiling:

After hiking out of the gorge, which reminded me exactly how out of shape I am, we had lunch with the PCV at the Lodge and then headed home, passing this wall, where we had practiced our abseiling skills the day before doing the full 200 meter drop (I actually hurt myself here but not on the big descent, giving myself rope burn blisters that I still have a week later as I write this):

Naturally, on our way home, we hit traffic:

And here is some of that traffic looking back at me:

We also saw these strikingly tropical looking flowers. We do not know what they are, but had seen nothing like them in Lesotho before:

All in all, not a bad way to celebrate a 47th birthday... thanks mostly to my wonderful wife! (With an extra Thank You added on for yet another Peace Corps Lesotho Volunteer who impressed me immensely).