Our Last Day

Our last day in Africa.  I think we all have mixed feelings.  We're sad to leave, but anxious to get home to our families.  After we got back from the morning game drive, we checked out of our rondavels and split into two groups again.  One group was headed back to Johannesburg, and mine was off to The Centre for Animal Rehabilitation and Education (C.A.R.E.).  However, before I checked out, I had to take a picture of water going down a drain.  (This one's for you, Tim.) There's a widely held belief that water in the southern hemisphere spirals down in the opposite direction of that in the northern hemisphere.  It's known as the Coriolis Force.  This photo shows the water spinning counterclockwise.   How does it spin where you live?

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A gypsum mine on the way to C.A.R.E.

After we got off the main road and onto the road to C.A.R.E., our ride turned into quite an adventure.  The road was not paved.  It was not even what I would call graveled--unless gravel includes boulders.  It was quite a wild roller coaster ride except without the safety bars.  I had to keep a tight hold on the rail in front of me or be bounced out of my seat, and I kept my jaws clenched so I wouldn't bite my tongue.  Once in a while there would be a stretch of pavement, but mostly it was rocky, and it went on forever.  I would love to have taken a picture, but couldn't hold my camera. 

It was such a relief to finally reach the Centre, and to stop bouncing, that I didn't even notice the smell...at first.  When you have hundreds of baboons all in one place, and that's not counting the wild ones that are constantly roaming through, there's going to be quite an aroma.  We had to move our vehicles off to the side and leave guards to keep the wild baboons out.  C.A.R.E. was established in 1989 to rehabilitate injured and orphaned baboons.  The intended residents of this facility are housed in big enclosures,

but the wild baboons come through to forage for whatever food they can reach through the wire.  Today's take was maize (corn) and oranges.  I asked if they always fed them the same things, and was told that it depends on what they get donated from the local produce market. 

Sometimes they just hang out.

 It was a little weird walking around with baboons on the loose.

 

Sometimes other visitors drop by.

 

It was fun to watch the babies play on this roof.

But then it was time to get back in our vehicles for a repeat roller coaster ride down to the main road, and on to the Phalaborwa airport to start what, for me, would be a 32-hour journey home through Johannesburg, Washington, D. C., and finally, St. Louis.

We met up with everybody again at the Johannesburg airport, but it was time to say goodbye to Mike and Rhonda who were staying on a few days to scout some locations for next year's trip.  We got some dinner and did some last minute souvenir shopping, and went through an extra security check before boarding our flight to Washington. Exhausted, we stumbled through customs, said our goodbyes, and went our separate ways, but we will keep in touch. We were a much different group of people than we had been when we first met.  We had come together as strangers, but were leaving as friends who had shared an experience we would never forget.  Thank you, Toyota, for making all of this possible.  Thank you, Reader, for coming along on my journey. 

And thank you, Tim, for the warm welcome home.  :)