April 6, 2024 Port Elizabeth South Africa, 29 days left of 138

 We woke up to calm seas, and lights arounds us from the fishing boats as we enter Port Elizabeth, which was renamed to Gqeberha in 2021. It is said with a click at the beginning in the language of the people who live here.

Today we are going on our second Safari. I missed getting to see and hold a Koala because we missed the stop I had an excursion to go to Steve Irwin's Australian Zoo where you could take a picture holding a Koala. I had not chosen to go on the other excursions at the prior ports where you could do this also, as I put all my eggs into one basket. Now I am jumping on the first of anything I really want to do, so I don't miss anything more.

We are one of the first several buses to load and get out of the port this morning. We are off to...

Our guide was a good guy and asking us questions, but we had to get what he wanted before he would go on with his commentary. We were sometimes slow with the answer he was looking for. He is proud of his country and the steps they have made to all live together as one. He seemed to want to point out we could not say colored in our country, but in his country they say white, black, and colored. Colored identifies anyone who is not white or black, so Asian, Mulatto, Indian, or Vietnamese. I could not stand it, so I went up to him later and told him we have freedom of speech, so we can say colored, but the people called that requested to be called Black, so most of us choose to call them what they desire. I also let him know it was used different in our country from his. It is educational to listen to our guides and find out their views of us as well as their country. Someone on another tour said their guide hinted that South Africa was still just as segregated as before Mandela. It is a work in progress, and everyone has a different view.

We had a great day once we arrived to the game reserve. We were looking to complete the big 5 of Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Rhinoceroses, and Water Buffalo. We are also looking for Giraffes. This is what we saw.

What beautiful graceful animals. You would think they are so tall you could just scan the area and find them, but it was not so easy.

We saw one male Lion earlier, but he was walking away from us through the brush, so difficult to get a picture. This group just sat there for their pictures to be taken. We all felt privileged to see this sight.

These are Cape Buffalo, it was fun to see the young buffalo. It was a much larger herd, but I wanted to get the big guy in my picture as well as the calves.

Our driver said that the buffalo would not charge our vehicle because of its size, but if you got out of the vehicle, they would be all over us as they see us as a threat. We did not test them.

This is one of about 6 elephants we could see. They were moving into the brush to feed, and once in the brush we just had glimpses of them. How do you hide a large elephant, I don't know but they were very good at just disappearing into the brush.

On the left is a Red Harte Antelope. We saw a herd, but again I wanted to show something closer. 

Below is a picture of the vehicle we traveled in. The day was cool in the 60's with light rain off and on. You could see evidence of recent rain as we drove around the area. This meant for a cold ride, but no dust. When we stopped at the lodge several people bought coats to wear to keep warm. One couple asked that we drive slower to keep warm, and our driver said the animals are out there, but we must drive fast to see them, what do you want. We said lets see some animals. Majority ruled Ha Ha

Mike got pictures of the lodge we had lunch at. When we boarded our vehicle to go back to the bus some of the guests got pictures of 2 Hippopotamus in the pond behind the lodge. Our driver stated he forgot to tell us about the possibility. Darn.

On our drive home we saw two churches, and a memorial to Mandela and the blacks standing in line to vote for the first time. I loved the statement that history is a look back at where you have been, and needs to be remembered, but the idea is to look forward to what you can become.