That Sneaky Lioness

We had such an easy day today. We left the gorgeous campground by the sea, and went to another. The sea here is calmer, but is still going to lull me to sleep. On the way we stopped at an internet cafe, and I finally got a blog post sent. We also stopped to see a tree which is over 1000 years old.

Then tonight we all walked down to a restaurant on the shore. It was a great place. This area is known for large surfing tubes. Years ago a couple of guys would go to this woman's kitchen window to see if the surf was up. When the restaurant opened it was called the Kitchen Window. The food was great and the atmosphere was fun.

We took 2 big tables and the noise was resounding. There were stories and pictures of a group of surfers in the 60s and 70s. One sign said, “If you're not barefoot you're overdressed,” and the staff t-shirts said, “Sleep when you're dead.” And that was the attitude in the restaurant. We had fun and had a beautiful walk back to the campground. I keep thinking about coming back here for about 3 months. As I said there are beautiful campgrounds by the sea, but there are also beautiful cottages, and I bet they are very reasonable. Everything here is very reasonable. Tonight my dinner of an entree, a beer, and a shared appetizer was less than $9.00. Of course, by the time I come back, the exchange rate may be 5 rand to the dollar, instead of 10. It's beginning to make sense to me to spend my retirement in whatever country has the best exchange rate.

Thursday

We drove to Addo Elephant Reserve today. In the afternoon we visited Scotia

Safari Reserve. This is a private reserve. We took a guided tour through the park, had dinner, and drove back to our pick-up spot at night with the searchlights on. Thank God there are preserves for all these animals. If not, there wouldn't be any.

In this park they have the predators in a separate part of the reserve. Our guide said that some of these animals were so very expensive, the owner didn't want to find something which cost him millions of rands eaten by a lion. The lions were majestic and beautiful. There was a lioness who was nursing a babe – three months through a 6 month nursing period. She had sauntered over to a corner of the reserve at the fence shared with the Addo Elephant Reserve.

 

 

 

It seems she wanted the big boy lions to know she was still around. There were 2 young, horny lions on the other side of the fences staring at her. Later we saw and heard her mate calling her, telling her to bring the kids. I guess he has 2 lionesses and 3 kids. The two young males at Addo were beautiful with light manes. The male at the private reserve was very majestic and had a dark mane. I guess he let his women show off during the day, but called them back at night. In other words you can tease, but when the dance is over, you're coming home with me.

We saw some giraffes as they were nibbling the trees. They have an interesting gait, moving the two left legs, then the two right legs. They keep bee hives under some of the trees. The sweetest growth is at the top. When the elephants want that growth, they'll knock over the trees to get it. But....after being stung many times they have changed their behavior.

The guide told us a very sad story. All of the reserves have a terrible time with poachers. This reserve had two rhinoceroses. Somehow 1 or more poachers got in. How? No one knows. They shot the animals to tranquilize them, and sawed off the horns of both. Luckily the owner found them quickly and flew them to a vet, who was able to save their lives. But, the female lost her baby. The rhino horn is thought to be an aphrodisiac, and is ground into a powder which earns the poacher a great deal of money. There are so many sad things about this story, but the worst thing is that the power of the horn is a myth. The two rhino will regrow their horns in about 6 years, and will probably have another child, but it was so sad to see them without their horns. The penalty for poaching is life in jail. The poacher committing this crime was never caught.

We also saw a couple hippopotamuses submerged in a watering hole. They had their nose at the water level, just like you see on TV, and then submerged. As we were starting to leave he yawned, showing the pink mouth. Exactly as I wanted. We learned that hippos are very protective and can be very dangerous and very aggressive. They sometimes will enter into a life and death situation with a predator, scaring off the predator and saving the victim.

Friday, the 7^th

Today we self-toured through the elephant reserve in our campers. I didn't set an alarm and slept until the animals had finished their morning rituals. We saw more than a hundred elephants. They were gathering a ways from and at a watering hole. We saw them drinking, giving themselves mud baths, walking in formation through the hills, running down to the waterhole, and encircling the vehicles in their path. We saw some very young babies. They were so little. There was one small elephant following another young elephant - maybe a sibling? He then spotted his mother and began running toward her. Cute as anything!!

In an earlier post I had mentioned the bontebok had been enticed to stay by being fed citrus. Well, I lied. It was the elephants who were fed the citrus. The older ones still remember and will smell the citrus. It would be hard enough to have a bontebok chasing you for your orange, but how about an elephant? The elephants were staying and intermingling, and a genetic problem arose. The females were being born without tusks. The national park then introduced some new lines of elephants, and the problem was remedied. Every once and a while two elephants from the original herd will mate and the female is still born without tusks.