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.  :)

Phalaborwa - Kruger National Park

It was only a short flight on that little plane from Jo'burg to Phalaborwa.  I think there might have been 24 seats on the plane, and we had to put carry ons with our luggage since there were no overhead bins.  Even though it was less than an hour in the air, we got snack and beverage service.  I chose tomato-flavored potato chips for my snack.  It was like eating crunchy ketchup, but really not that bad.

Isn't this the cutest airport ever?

We were met at the airport by our new guide, Heinrich, and driven the short distance to Sefapane Lodge near the gate to Kruger National Park.  Crystal was my roommate for this stay, and we got to stay in the Hippo rondavel.  It was wonderful!

 

Those are fresh flowers on our beds.

The plan was to do a little stargazing before dinner, but it was cold, and not too many people were that interested, so it didn't last long.  It was very exciting, however, to identify the Southern Cross for the first time!  I tried to take a photo worth sharing, but all mine turned out pretty dark, so I found this one online.

One of the few constellations I remember from college astronomy is Orion.  It was visible as well, but upside down from what it looks like at home.

Everybody had been really looking forward to this part of the trip.  Kruger National Park is THE place to go for wildlife.  Phalaborwa is in Limpopo Province, is the only town that borders Kruger, and is known as the true gateway to the park.  You pretty much enter right in the middle of the park.  Phalaborwa means "better than the South" (named after Sotho tribes that migrated north).  We were all sooooo excited about our game drive the next morning that nobody complained about the early hour or the cold...much.  We started at 5:30 with breakfast and blankets to go. 

The first animal sighting for me was this white bunny just after we entered the gate.  Not exactly what I was expecting, but it made me happy anyway.  It moved really fast right as I took the picture, thus the white blur.

African Sunrise.  I think I might frame this one.

We spent all day Monday and much of Tuesday morning on game drives, and saw lots of animals.  I easily took 1,000 photos just in that time, but here are some of the highlights.

We stopped to have lunch at Letaba Rest Camp.  There are a number of animals at the watering holes in the background, but they are hard to see.

We had some time to visit the displays in Letaba Elephant Hall. 

A weaver's nest.

Impala are easily identifiable by the "M" on the backside.

We stopped each morning to have our breakfast packs at the Masorini Archeological Site.

Watering tanks for elephants.

Kudus.

You have to look carefully to see this monkey.  I'm not sure what kind it is.

Those bumps in the water are hippos.

Baby hyenas.

Cape buffalo.

Apparently, baboons don't like water.  We watched this troop sit on the side for quite a while before one brave baboon ventured across, and then a few more.  They went as fast as they could.....

 ....and leapt as high as they could to avoid the water.

 Sunset on Day 1 at Kruger.

 Our vehicle was stopped on the road by a couple of rangers who told us some lions had been spotted nearby with a fresh kill.  We came across several lionesses right at the side of the road. 

 Lionesses do the majority of the hunting. This buffalo was probably one of the herd we saw yesterday.

 Pumba?