Tuesday, July 10, 2007

South Africa continued

I suppose this should be called “SouthAfrican-Journal.blogspot” but you’re here now.

Our journey continues...We are making our way along what is known as 'the Garden Route'. An aptly named route, as it is very lush and green and beautiful – yet another stark contrast to the arid lands of the Swazi nation.

We have recently been to Port Elizabeth, which does not have too much to offer except as a jumping off point to the Addo Elephant National Park. A vest parkland, inhabited by approximately 430 elephants. I kind of assumed we would see a hand-full, since it is touted as being an ‘elephant park’... but we were amazed at the number of elephants we did see. At one point, we were heading towards one of their frequented ‘watering holes’ (read: man made pond), when a large heard of ~40 elephants emerged from the hill top and started making their way down to the pond. Our reckless driver decided to place us right in harms way, and the heard passed within less than 10 feet of our jeep. As you all know, elephants are very unstable creatures, and can snap at any moment, crushing tour jeeps with their feet and ripping tourists in half with their gargantuan ‘trunks-of-death’ ! They can also spray fire from their trunks… like a 15 foot flame-thrower.
Fortunately, we were not mauled nor burned in this escapade… so we went back for more. The park has paved roads where those tourist foolhardy enough to risk their lives without the accompaniment of an armed tour guide are able to drive their Toyota Cellicas around by themselves. So in we went, to laugh in the face of death by trying to stick our arms out the window and touch an elephant without it filling our car with napalm-like fire spray ( or worse ...elephant poop ).
Seriously, we did drive back in, and sat at the parking lot next to the watering hole and enjoyed one of natures most majestic ( and frighteningly huge) creatures.
It is also the location of one of natures most hilarious and awkward little creatures… ‘the flightless dung beetle’. See, because of all that elephant poop kicking around, the dung beetle thrives quite well. However, because of the dung beetle’s small population, is has the right of way on the roads. Imagine a 3000 pound car ( or 15,000lb tour bus) brought to a grinding halt and sitting there in the hot African sun whilst a tiny little beetle with a big ball of poo makes its way across the street. There are even signs warning against driving over mounds of elephants poo because the dung beetle lays it’s eggs in the dropping. Crazy dung beetles !

We are now in Cape Town. Home of... well, Capes! Well...where do you think Batman gets his capes from ? If only we were in Crepe Town.

This morning we hiked up Table Mountain. If you’ve never seen a picture, Wikipedia it. The trail was approximately 3.5km in length, but 1078m upwards. This puts it on par with the Grouse Grind. Our journey up was uneventful. No muggings or shootings. The view from the top was quite spectacular... and bloody cold. The winds were so strong, small children and elderly women were carried away on the breeze, never to be seen nor heard from again.

Tomorrow is the African Jack –Ass Penguins. Yes, I know it sounds like an oxymoron... but if God can invent beetles that push around spheres of poo, why not penguins that live in Africa. the African (Jackass) Penguins (Sphensicus demersus) are so called for the donkey-like braying sounds they make when on land.

there... you learn something new every day.

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