My work at Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital and Walter Sisulu U. ended on Friday. The volunteers, the executive secretary of the African Medical Mission and the chief of orthopedics and his wife got together at Mthatha's finest restaurant, Ebony, for dinner. A fine way to end my time in the Transkei.
Saturday found me driving 6 hours to Addo Elephant Park, with a side trip to Grahamstown for lunch and sightseeing. By the time I got to the park I was too tired to view any game, so instead rested up for the next day.
The park is huge. 38K from one end to the other on mostly a dirt road. And that's just one section of the park. I spent Sunday morning driving around by myself and saw ostrich, cape buffalo, kudu, tortoises and about 60 elephants at a watering hole. Spent a lot of time watching how sociable they were. By lunch I had made it to the main camp and checked out the store, restaurant, accomodations, and signed up for the sundown game drive. Glad I did, since I finally got to see some lions up close. Since I was the only solo person on the trip I rode shotgun next to the driver. At first I wished I had had a gun, but it was still pretty hot and the lions looked a little sluggish when we got close.
This morning, Monday, I went to the Woody Cape section of the park near the ocean. Looked for right whales and great white sharks, but couldn't see anything from shore. Now I am headed along the Sunny Coast on my way to East London for a couple of beach days.
Maybe I'll try again with the pictures. I'm suprised how close I got to some of the animals at the Park. My rental car looked a little like a baby elephant and a couple elephants did come over to investigate. A picture will tell the story better.
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