Last gasp africa

Trip Start Jan 24, 2007
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Trip End Ongoing


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Monday, March 12, 2007

A glorious day that had to unfortunately begin in the dead of night with our trusty steed, Tazz the Toyota Terror of Tourist Tramps, leaving JO'berg at 4am and arriving just as the sun was, at Pilanesberg gates. The animals thought that they'd out-jackal'd us but as the famous saying goes- "the early bird gets to pick ticks off the rhino while the late lion misses his deer" (no-one says that) but "if you get there early you see more stuff". We weren't in the park 10 mins when we happened upon not one, not 2,3 or even 4 but 5 Rhino within spitting distance of the car (even if you were a really crap spitter). After messing up all our pictures of them in the trhill of "the chase" (well, "the sit") and lauren in a grump (nothing ever goes right) we knew this was to be no ordinary day (how often does your day start with rhino??)! It was a bit slower for the next 7 or 8 mins until suddely we happened upon 15 or so Zebra within in touching distance (only touch if you're tired of having hands) Cute little Klipspringer
Cute little Klipspringer
 . Great scott josh thought this will be a great day of animal sightings maybe we'll even see a lion (can't believe we messed upt the photos of the Rhinos thought lauren)! A giraffe, 5 impala, another giraffe and some hartebeest later we were glad to have seen such elegant animals, but were getting a little bored and just wanted to see something get eaten! 
The day progressed as most game viewing days do, you see animals till it gets hot then go for a nap and then see some more as it cools down. We got a great sighting of some elephants one of which was gettig a little too protective of her baby (some baby), spoiled only by a stupid loud australian hooting her horn. We saw a giraffe carry all sorts of gymnastics (well, the splits) to get drink, first looking around for 5 mins before assuming the postion. One can only assume all the looking is to make sure no-ones watching it take up that ridiculous pose! We also stumbled upon(well Tazz roared upon) a group of giraffe up to their necks in trees, but this time got some good snaps. We didn't see Lions, which josh as gtted about ad had lauren not been so very hot and unwell feeling she would probably have been gutted by that too. But we saw loads of rhino, with their oversized leather jackets and stacks of deer and wildebeest, so overall it was a marvellous success.
Arrived back in jo'berg after 16 hours driving and amazingly slept well.
Well, singapore's next on the list and itsbeen amazing to stay with Marcelle and Ivan as they've been fatastic hosts, and hope that we cn return the favour some day. Africa is slowly fading into the horizon as asia slowly approaches...
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