April 4, 2024 Richards Bay, South Africa, 31 days left of 138

Today started off with our port pilot arriving on our world cafe outside deck by helicopter. He and his assistant were lowered down to the deck, met by our crew and led off to the bridge. This was a first for us. Someone asked him what was up, and he said it was quicker then the pilot boat. LOL

Our immigration process will be a face to face immigration on board ship.

The top picture is the South Africa immigration staff, we don't know what the hold up was, but they were there about 20 min before first our excursion staff was called up, followed by passengers who were getting off the ship for excursions. We were first as we were to be first off today. Once it got started it was a quick process. We were excited that today our passports were stamped. There are so many countries who are doing everything electronically that it does not show in our passports.

This sign is outside of the park. Hippos get out of the park and wander across the roads after dark. Can you imagine hitting one of those?

Our first warthogs, even before we get into the park. We also saw numerous Ostrich, which I don't have a picture of, but they were way bigger than expected.

This is our guide Dumi was our sharp eyed driver. He could drive, talk, see everything, and find us the best spots to see wildlife. Mission Rocks which will be a late breakfast stop is a place the missionaries would come to pray. We don't know why this place was picked, but now the Muslims come in the months of July and August to pray here, so there is something that speaks to people.

See the fruit on this tree is called Monkey Orange. It was not ripe, as it will turn orange when ready to eat. He looked all around the tree to see if he could find a ripe one. He let us know that this fruit has medicinal qualities. If bitten by a venomous snake you cut this fruit and lick the fruit. It will cause vomiting and you will survive the bite. I did not understand how vomiting could get the poison out of your blood stream, but I did not question our guide.

This is a beautiful male Impala. He seemed ok with our presence and posed for us.

Below you will see as we sat there more appeared.

A baby Nile Crocodile, which are a fresh water species. The picture below was the Lilly pond he was resting beside. We expected to see Mom somewhere nearby, but she may be off hunting.

These three Zebras were Cape Mountain Zebras. They are black, white, and brown. 

This one you have to look closely to see a Mom and her little baby ducks in the pond.

This big boy on the right is a Kudo. He was traveling with 8 females ahead of him.

We encountered this group more than once. Here they passed right behind our truck.

Here is a Bush Buck. You can tell him from his spots. They are a solitary animal. He did not mind posing for Mike.

Our guide packed a light breakfast for us that we enjoyed at Mission Rocks. This is on the Indian Ocean. It was a beautiful rocky spot. He served Coffee or Tea which was really hot, he had milk and sugar with it. Then we could help ourselves to rice cakes, biscotti, muffins, and fruit. It was a nice break to our very busy morning.

Here is a Steenbok Antelope. You can tell them by their enormous ears. We at this point were getting pretty good at spotting something moving in our sightlines. We all were calling out when we would see something. I can't even begin to explain how exciting it is to see these animals up close and personal. You see them on TV and movies, but in their natural habitat was a real thrill.

Here are three male Water Buffalos. They have lost their dominance in their group, so are on their own. For protection they group together as they are targets for predators. They become more aggressive at this stage. They are one of the big 5 to see in South Africa.

Not the best picture of this Hippo, but when it is the only side it will show you, you take what you can get.

Mike's picture on the left, mine is below.

Here we are at the Indian Ocean. We are unable to snorkel as the tide is in. I attempted to swim, but the undertow was strong and almost took me off my feet. I did not get all the way into the water, but I celebrated not being pulled under and successfully got out of the grasps of the ocean. Ha-ha

This was our lunch stop. While we were on the beach, our guide was starting the briquets and cooking steaks and sausage.

Lunch was good. The monkeys were eyeing our food, but did not approach.

On the left is our truck, you climbed up the sides to get to your seat. It gave a great 360 degree view.

Below there were monkeys in the trees where we were going to eat.

At the beach there were two fishing boats. They must have been for hire as they would drive them to the beach, a tractor would then drive them toward the ocean and launch them. We saw one come back in, and they gun their motors and drive themselves up on the beach. Then the Trailer is brought down and the boat is winched up on the trailer, and driven off the beach. While we were eating we saw the fish being cleaned. Look at the number of fish with this one guy. I don't know what kind of fish they were catching, but there were all sizes. One person was wrapping his fish filets in saran wrap. They were serious about their fish.

Here is a group of pictures of our Rhinoceros sightings. In the morning we saw the male, on our way out of the park we saw him again with his family, two females and an infant. They came out of the bog and walked across the road right behind us. I took the selfie to give you perspective on how close we were to these large animals. This is another of the big 5 we are looking to see in South Africa. The big 5 are Elephant, Rhino, Water Buffalo, Lion and Leopard. Today we have seen 2 of the 5, and many more that were amazing to see, but not on the list.

We saw evidence of Elephants, footprints and dung, but never saw one. Others out on safari in different parks did see Elephants. It is always the luck of the draw. Today we saw Ostrich, warthogs, monkeys, Rhino, Zebra, Water Buffalo, varieties of Antelope, Hippo, Impala, and crocodile.

Our day weather wise was perfect, not as hot as predicted, and the humidity was tolerable.

On our way to the park we saw many crude stands being set up to sell avocados, pineapples, soda, and  something in Styrofoam take out boxes. We were told that South Africa is facing the highest unemployment of 35%. They are doing this to survive. Crime is also rampant, evidenced by walls with razor or electric wire on the top to keep looters out of private homes and apartments.

They also have a problem with teenage pregnancy rate of 40%. South Africa has a dowry for a virgin girl being married is 11 cows. If she has a child it goes down by 1 cow, as she has more children it continues to go down by 1 cow. When a woman has a child her father continues to support them all. The government does pay the family for each child. They have cow herds that graze along the roadways. When it is a large herd, our guide would say oh that father has many daughters. LOL

It has been a full exhausting day. We were the last to get back to the ship almost an hour after we were suppose to be there. Our ship waited for us as we were on an included tour. They almost brought up the gangplank right behind us. LOL