Moçambique Update

I just wanted to give a quick update while I have the chance and let you know what Mozambique (or Moçambique if you´re using a Spanish keyboard) is like so far. 


Our 13 hour bus ride to Durban wasn´t too bad (I can´t find the correct apostrophe on this Spanish keyboard, bear with me once more). We arrived at the bus depot in Grahamstown, saw bus after bus arrive that was not ours until finally a Greyhound and one other, slightly crappier bus showed up. We were so excited about taking the nice, new Greyhound but it was not to be. Apparently due to overflow we had to get on the budget Plan B bus. This wouldn´t have been such a big deal had Carolyn not raved about how excellent Greyhound buses in South Africa are (they show really good movies the whole time, they serve you tea and cookies, there´s a bathroom...). Our bus ended up showing us a bad Robin Williams movie that skipped until about halfway in, two really bad kids movies that we both chose to sleep through, didn´t have a bathroom and served us tea in cups with lids that didn´t fit, resulting in a tea-covered floor and wet flip flops. One upside was that we both were able to have an entire row to ourselves to "stretch" out in, rather than awkwardly touching elbows with a stranger for 13 hours. 


Once in Durban, a very nice Indian lady gave me her blue wool sweater (Carolyn says it´s a sign that winter misses me) and we were picked up at the station by the owner of the bed and breakfast place where we spent the night. After a nice meal of risotto, red wine and strawberries we hit the hay and set the alarm for 6:00am.


After some complications that are too boring to get into, we ended up getting picked up at the Durban airport by Arne, the owner of DevOcean in Ponta D´Óuro. He got us safely to the border where we got our visas and flirted with the Mozambican border guard. Basically it went like this:


"Name?"


"Jillian Leonard"


"Single or Married?"


"Single "


"Single? Not married? You should find a Mozambican husband."


"Why do you think I´m going to Mozambique?"


Probably not the smartest thing to tell the border patrol but apparently they take bribes on a regular basis so I´m not too worried about my little confession.


We travelled in Arne´s 4X4 on the sand dunes (only got stuck once) and arrived at DevOcean Diving around 3:00pm. The sun was hot and we stopped for a beer (or two) before being shown our tent, which is one of those safari type tents you may have seen if you´ve ever watched Born Free. There are two little beds, a wicker shelf, a fan and a night table. I´ll post a picture soon. All of the tents around the camp are named after reefs in Ponta and ours was Creche. After two mornings of waking up to the sound of trucks  and tractors starting right next to our heads we switched to the Aquarium tent, which is a little further from the driveway. 


Our first two full days were spent recovering a little from our journey and exploring the town. There is only really one main road with a few other things branching off of it, and we´re a five minute walk from the main market. We are also a five minute walk from the lovely pristine beach! Needless to say we´ve been using our sunscreen and had to buy a beach umbrella. We´ve also been trying out some local restaurants and figured out in less than 1 hour how to get Mozambican SIM cards and internet. 


Even though the place is small there are a lot of South African tourists with ATV´s and jet skis. It took us a while but we finally decided what this place reminds us of: Afrikaans Jersey Shore. Lots of money but not a lot of taste. There is an abundance of tribal arm tattoos and trucker hats, and the mullet seems to be back in full force.


The locals are great though, and seem to be either ex-pats who have started businesses in eco-tourism, or the darkest, most beautiful people you´ve ever seen (I´m starting to wonder if my comment to the border patrol wasn´t as much of a joke as I intended it to be). They´ve been very forgiving of our complete lack of Portuguese and seem to be happy enough that they break into dance on the beach for no apparent reason. Even the stray dogs at the beach are friendly and don´t mind if you don´t give them any of your jelly baby candy, they just want the company. 


I went diving this morning at a reef called Steps and although the visibility wasn´t the greatest on account of the weather we did spend some time with a pretty large hawksbill turtle. We also saw a small spotted eel that has yet to be named, but looked like a snake at first glance. I´m planning on doing more dives (hence sleeping at a dive camp) and will write more when I have more reefs under my belt. We´ve also booked a trip to snorkel with wild bottlenose dolphins on Boxing Day and are booking surfing lessons tomorrow. We´ll see how that goes....hopefully we´re not in too much pain the next day. 


I´m sure there are some things I´m leaving out but the light is getting low and it´s time to wind down for the night. Hope everyone at home is well and that you´re getting Tipsy! 


xoxo
Jill

Slow Days and Mo-Mo-Mozambique

Get it? Ho-Ho-Ho-Mo-Mo-Mo? Not the best caption I guess, but it's 2:00am here and about 30 degrees Celsius so bear with me.


Nothing too exciting has happened since my last post, just work life in Grahamstown. We're winding down from COP17 and planning our work for January, which will be a lot more science based. All of the Rhodes students are gone and like any university town the place feels empty. A few of our favourite places have closed for three weeks and sometimes when I walk down the road I can faintly hear that cowboy whistle music that is often followed by a tumbleweed blowing across the sand. 

It doesn't really feel like Christmas, even though there are decorations everywhere, and when you shop for new sunscreen you hear White Christmas playing on the radio. Rather than feeling like 2011 is ending I feel like the year is just on pause while I finish this excursion down south. Sometimes I have to remind myself of what everyone at home is in the middle of, and it makes me a little jealous. There are times when I wish it would snow or that I could be magically transported home to eat turkey dinner and listen to Kenny and Dolly. 

Tomorrow the jealousy disappears though, because Carolyn and I will be getting on a bus headed for Ponta D'Ouro in Mozambique. We'll be there for 12 days and will be spending our time diving on the world-renowned reef, learning to surf, hiking, eating and just generally beaching. After that we head to Maputo for 4 days and then on to visit family friends in Johannesburg. There will be a lot of time spent on the Greyhound but I've armed myself with some good books and snacks. I'm expecting to either meet a lot of fellow travels on a budget or develop a hatred for all public transport systems. 

As for everyone at home, I know you're all shovelling snow (or cursing global warming), wrapping presents and wearing your homemade wool hats. As excited as I am for this Mozambican adventure, I wish I could spend Christmas a little closer to you all. I won't have internet in Ponta D'Ouro, except occasionally at the internet cafe, but I'll be regularly checking my email so if you're feeling sentimental I'd love to hear from you. Maybe you can take a break from drinking hot chocolate around a fireplace and remember your friend who is battling the sun with SPF50. 

I hope everyone has a relaxing holiday full of family and food. I'll be missing you all and thinking of you more than I'd like to admit.

Love,

Jill 

My Suitcase. My Home.

When I was still a wee youngster growing up in Newfoundland, I had big dreams about lots of things that I wanted to achieve in life. For the most part they were silly dreams that I grew out of, like wanting to marry Tiger Woods (dodged a bullet there), becoming a professional stunt driver, playing Olympic volleyball or pitching a baseball to Joe Carter. One thing I did NOT dream about was being a famous, touring musician, and yet in a weird way I’m starting to feel that an unrealized dream has come true. And in South Africa no less.

From October 12 – November 15 I lived the life of a Rockstar (minus the drugs and loose men). I lived and worked out of my suitcase, pulling 12-16 hour days and passing in and out of so many hotel rooms that I’m no longer excited about the little soaps. My days were spent driving, sending emails from the car and promoting SEA Pledge. I met countless sailors, divers, anglers, surfers, lifesavers and shark experts. In every town there were at least a few gems who made me re-think my travel plans for Christmas. I feel that I have reached the rank of travelling biologist, which is something I’m sure everyone aspires to.

You can imagine that the stress of travelling and working for that long would get to anyone, and there’s no hiding it – I was frustrated at times. But the good moments far outweighed the bad, and now I can fill three suitcases with stories from my adventure. 

Sometimes it's hard to find a bathroom in the Eastern Cape

Although I’ve seen my share of restaurants along the way, I’m also learning the ways of the South African fruit vendor. The small queen pineapples are the best I’ve ever tasted and there is an abundance of guilt-free bananas everywhere. I’m also slowly becoming a fan of biltong and rusks, and cannot omit from this post the saga of the Crunchies. 

Crunchies are delicious oatmeal and sesame seed bars that our supervisor’s lovely and amazing wife made us before we left Grahamstown. Although we were not supposed to touch them until we were officially ‘on the road’ I made an attempt to sneak one after everyone had left the room one hungry evening, and got caught red-handed in my heinous act. I couldn’t help it. I had worked a long day with few snacks in between and if you know me at all you know I’m not good to be around on an empty stomach. After my little indiscretion the Crunchies had to be monitored. They went on the road as a high security item and I was to be watched. In my sneakyness however, I somehow found a way to sit alone with them in the backseat once or twice. Below is a pictorial description of what happened next… 

Nelson Mandela was also a very important travelling companion of mine during the road trip, in the form of his autobiography, The Long Walk To Freedom. I am amazed that I was never urged to read this book before. This is a great book to read if you ever find yourself complaining about the hardships of your own life and  need a reminder of how lucky you are. Even if you don’t need a reminder it’s just a juicy read. The entire thing, from his childhood in the Transkei to his reign as South Africa’s superhero freedom fighter is a monument of human strength and resilience. I’m not trying to sound like a book critic here, but I cannot stress how important it is that everyone read this book and learn more about South African history. There are even messages in there that us sheltered Canadians can benefit from. 

Groggy view from the backseat

Of course it was only too fitting to be travelling around the country with this man of such historical significance in my bag. We passed  the places he spoke of while I was reading about them, and when I first saw Robben Island in the distance I was reading about how horrible his life was for the first few years he was imprisoned there. It was definitely a humbling way to travel.

Sometimes we would get a chance to see some wildlife and the stop in Hermanus was particularly nice for that. We took a stroll down the main boardwalk of the town one evening and watched a few southern right whales playing around close to shore. Hermanus is known for very good shore-based whale watching and it was great to tick another ‘life whale’ off my list (you're welcome whale people). I had seen zero southern right whales before this and only one northern right whale, but in my experience whale watching never gets old. You still feel like a kid watching someone pull off their thumb. How do they do that?

Beautiful Hermanus

Besides the whales in Hermanus there are smaller and less well-known critters hanging around the shore. These rock hyraxes are the closest genetic relatives to elephants and sirenians (manatees and dugongs). They were more interested in the contents of the garbage bins than they were in the whales or me. There were probably ten or more of them hanging around the area and I would imagine that people think of them as sort of a nuisance. They struck me as the raccoon of the southern hemisphere. 

Looks kind of like an elephant.....

Now that I'm back in Grahamstown and reflecting on all that happened on the road, it seems like all my stories would take pages and pages to explain and write out. Maybe that's where the saying 'what happens on the road stays on the road' comes from - they weren't naughty, they just didn't have the energy to go into detail. I'm sure one day when I'm old I'll look back on this as one of the best road trips of my life, but right now I'm still trying to digest it all and decide which places to visit again. It's going to be a hard one.

Mountains on the way to Cape Town

House in Pringle Bay

Why did the Egyptian Goose cross the road?

Don't worry mom, this is my new mantra

The Lion's Head in Cape Town

I like to walk on the wild side

Royal Cape Yacht Club at dusk. So many masts!

These chips were moreish...I ate the whole bag

Unknown bird that flirted with me for a while

A couple of baboons

Mossel Bay

Hopefully after all that you can see why there was such a long pause between posts. I won't keep you waiting as long for the next one.

Jill

Sodwana, Plettenberg Bay, Knysna and Hermanus

Tonight I rest my head at a backpackers lodge in breathtaking Hermanus! This is the southern-most point on our trip, and we are just 2 hours from Cape Agulhas, the very tip of the entire continent. Everything I've read about Hermanus discusses their phenomenal whale-watching, but the swells were at 7m today and tomorrow is supposed to be much the same, so I doubt we'll get out on the sea while we're here. Even still, this place is like nothing I've ever seen before and I am adding it to my official holiday travel list. I realize I'm starting to sound like a broken record when I talk about how beautiful each place is, but they are all so unique and each one has something about it that makes me want to stay longer.

We spent Thursday night in Plettenberg Bay, a seaside town made for tourists and movie stars. We started the second half of our tour there after a quick break in Grahamstown. Plettenberg was so clean and tropical that I felt as though I was back in Sarasota, FL. We met with some great people at the Plett Surf Lifesaving Club who start training children as young as 6 years old how to rescue people who are in peril near the shore. They are basically training people for Baywatch in real life. 

The club is along a great stretch of beach right next to a former whaling station that was so unsuccessful (they only ever caught one whale! ONE!) that it shut down shortly after being built and was eventually turned into a 5-star hotel. The whole town feels relaxed and focused on sailing, surfing and general ocean play, but much more based on the tourism aspect than any other place we've been so far. They are also still recovering from an accident that happened this past August where a surfer was fatally wounded by a shark. Instead of hunting down any shark they can find these people are actually going about things the right way. They're holding an Ocean Festival on 12th November and have created a shark attack fund for the development of ocean skills and education, in memory of the lost surfer. Their theory is that we all share the sea with these dangerous wild animals, so the best way to keep accidents from happening is to educate marine users and train them to be more careful. We will be in Cape Town on the day, otherwise I'd try my best to be there, but hopefully it goes well and the coverage reaches far and wide.

Before leaving Plett we did a live radio interview with MC 90.3FM which was scary and a first for me. It actually went so well that we ended up doing a second one for KnysnaFM a couple of hours later. Knysna and Plettenberg Bay are only a 30 minute drive from one another so it was a busy day of running between the two places, but we ended up talking to a lot of really interesting people. As we ended the day in Knysna I felt a greater appreciation for the people on CBC Radio 2, and am glad that I chose science over radio broadcasting.

This morning we packed up and left Knysna for Hermanus and on the way saw two elephants. They passed by too quickly to get a picture, but it was a nice reminder of the abundance of life around here. Sometimes we get so busy that I forget just how amazing this place is, from the rich cultural background to the amazing wildlife. I am really starting to feel that I may never want to leave.

 

I'm adding to this post a list of fish from my three dives in Sodwana two weeks ago. This is just a list of the ones I could remember seeing after I surfaced, and although I'm sure there are many more I'm missing here, it's worth looking up these few to see some pretty amazing fish. 

After those three glorious dives with Christo and his crew in Sodwana, I am still searching for ways in which I can convince the South African government to let me stay. I tried hard to think of skills I have that no other South African has, and apart from being able to put down a substantial amount of fish n brewis when I’m hungry, I came up dry. Even if I could use that as a reason, the people here love fish too much to let me stay and eat them boiled with hard bread. I'm open to suggestions though, and no, getting married to a South African is not an option.

Here they are, happy google-ing,

Jill


P.S. If you're having a bonfire tonight watch the flankers.

Powder Blue Tang

Lieutenant surgeonfish

Maypole butterflyfish

Yellow Longnose butterflyfish

Threadfin butterflyfish

Halfmoon butterflyfish

Limespot butterflyfish

Moorish idol

Clown triggerfish

Orange-spine unicorn

Blackbar triggerfish

Honeycomb filefish

Round ribbontail ray

Diamond ray

Blue-spotted ribbontail ray

Blue moon parrotfish

Ember parrotfish

Crescent tail wrasse

Bluestreak cleaner wrasse

Horseshoe hawkfish

Raggy scorpionfish

Twobar anemonefish

Threespot angelfish

Emperor angelfish

My Future Home

Two days ago we arrived in South Africa's hidden paradise: Sodwana Bay. I'm not one for settling (yet) but if I had to choose between all the places I've seen so far this would be it. Tucked away in the northern part of KwaZulu-Natal, Sodwana is beautiful and vast with a coastline that is protected as a World Heritage Site within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. 

The industry here from what I can tell is mostly diving and tourism, and today I saw a shirt that said "Sodwana Bay: A Small Drinking Town with a Diving Problem", which basically sealed the deal for me. There is a laid-back atmosphere and people seem very aware how lucky they are to live in a place with such a unique marine environment in their backyard, but they are also advocates for conservation and protect the reef as they would their own homes. On the reef you are not to take anything or leave anything, including shells, and diving without gloves is necessary to keep people from touching the delicate soft coral and polyps. 

We arrived in Sodwana in the evening and were quickly briefed on our dive for the following morning. After almost two solid weeks of travelling and promoting SEA Pledge, I was more than ready to spend some time in the Indian Ocean. Our first night was spent in a lovely seaside cottage and we had a quick braai before bed. In the morning we met at the beach and realized that in order to reach Two Mile Reef we had to take a zodiac (or rubber duck if you're South African) through the daunting surf. This may not seem like much but when there are foot straps in place to keep me in a boat I'm getting a little nervous, especially being generally unbalanced in daily life.  

Once we descended onto Two Mile Reef we were in another world. The coral was larger and more beautiful than anything I've ever seen, and focusing on just one rocky outcrop provided endless entertainment. Almost within the first ten minutes we saw a hawksbill turtle, and there were more powder blue tangs than I could count. We also saw various species of triggerfish and boxfish, and beautifully coloured parrotfish nibbling on the coral. I'm still in the process of compiling a list and will get it up soon.

This morning we went on another dive on the same reef but in a different area where rays seemed to be more abundant. There were more clownfish and larger anemones as well, which were fascinating to watch. My favourite of the day was a large fish called a clown triggerfish, which seemed to look at me with as much curiosity as I must have had for it. There is something humbling that happens when a fish looks at you that way. 

Tomorrow morning we head out again, and I'm sure the dive will be filled with just as many wonders as the last two. I'm very quickly falling in love with Sodwana Bay, and will definitely be coming back here during the break in December. Maybe I'll even spend Christmas Day with the fish, who knows.

In the meantime I'll leave you with a few good pictures taken in St Lucia the day before Sodwana. We walked along a short boardwalk and came across several monkeys and a hippo that we could hear but not see. He or she must have been camera shy and all we got were some rumbles and splashes from behind long grass in the estuary. We can only guess that it was a hippo based on the sounds, but it may very well have been Jim Carey playing a practical joke.

Off to get a much needed sleep,

Jill

A Sustainable Sea

A little bit of background before we begin:

I came to South Africa to work for Sustainable Seas Trust (SST), a non-profit organization based out of Grahamstown which focuses on issues such as poverty alleviation, food security and marine conservation and rehabilitation to name just a few. It was under SST that the SEA Pledge project came to life, and with it this coastal tour that we are on to promote what SST stands for. With the help of two donated Honda hybrid vehicles, we are roaming across the coast from Sodwana Bay to Saldanha Bay, which if you look on a map basically translates into a sweep of South Africa's extensive coastline. 

SEA Pledge was started with four goals in mind: 

- To raise awareness of the role of oceans and coasts in supporting all life on the planet

- To create a petition encouraging the United Nations to make 2012 the International Year of Coasts and Oceans

- To commit to improving the manner in which individuals treat the coasts and oceans

- To contribute to impoverished coastal communities through Sustainable Education and Skills (SEAS) Centres for employment 

We are also launching around COP 17, which is a United Nations Climate Change Conference happening in Durban this year. Although it was hoped to be as important to the country as the FIFA World Cup, very few people actually know about it, and even less now that it is happening in their own country at the end of November - start of December. Because SEA Pledge is starting around this time we've also decided to make December 3rd a day to be focused on the sea - we are encouraging divers to exchange pledges under water, sailors to exchange them in the wind, surfers to pledge in the waves and everyone else to just enjoy the beach or sun or snow, depending on where in the world they are. 

The link for SST is sst.org.za and you can join our Facebook and Twitter pages if the mood strikes you. You can also find more information about SEA Pledge that I've missed in this post, as it has been a long day of collecting pledges here in Richard's Bay.

The road trip began in Port Elizabeth which is about two hours from Grahamstown. Because it was our first stop we stumbled around a little trying to get ourselves organized, but managed to have a pretty successful day. Along with a video pledge from Simon Gear (South Africa's Jay Ingram) and the official handing over of the hybrids, we received nothing but optimism and best wishes from all of the attendees. 

From Port Elizabeth we then collected pledges in Grahamstown, East London, Port St Johns (in the previous picture), Hibiscus coast and now Richard's Bay. The first four towns were in the Eastern Cape province, with the Hibiscus coast being our first stop in KwaZulu-Natal, a beautiful province abundant in passionate and welcoming residents. 

Our next two stops will be in Sodwana Bay and Durban. After that we'll spend a few days of recovery (aka laundry days) in Grahamstown before heading west into the Garden Route and the Western Cape. We started on October 12th and have basically been non-stop since then, but it's been an exhilarating ride and very much worth the sleep deprivation. 

A few highlights of the trip so far have been learning how to drive on the wrong side of a winding road in the Transkai, the beautiful cliffs at the entrance to Port St Johns, and the masked weaver nests we saw today that made me think of Christmas again. They were outside the Zululand Yacht Club in Richard's Bay and although they made such a racket people just walked underneath them without paying them any attention at all. They're amazing to watch if you can handle the neck strain, and I still can't believe they put in so much detailed work. As one member of our team said this afternoon; "That's a lot of work for a little bit of sex". 

A few older nests had fallen to the ground, giving us a different perspective on the whole operation. So much energy and time goes into weaving these little nests that you have to wonder what goes on in there. I imagine kids not eating their worms and lady birds complaining about the muddy beak marks on the walls. 

It would take forever for me to give you a play-by-play of every stop so far, but I've added a few pictures and explanations in an attempt to summarize what I've seen so far. 

The first is of a sleepy dog in Port St Johns who burrowed in the dirt outside our hotel. This picture was taken outside the main entrance to the breakfast hall, but the morning after this event I found him right outside the door to my room, keeping the boogeyman away.

I also think it's worth noting that as we speak, in this very room, there is a shower like no other. This is probably notoriously boring to anyone else, but I thought it was important to document the hurdle I had to face this morning. 

Yes folks, those are actual stones. You probably have something very similar in your driveway. They come complete with insects and can be moved around and rearranged at any time. It's also quite good for  the core muscles to have to balance on a single ceramic tile while shampooing. I don't think I need to tell you why my legs will go unshaven until we reach the next town.

I'll leave the next couple of snaps without explanation. I don't think they really need it and it's getting late. If you've stayed with me this long then I hope it wasn't too boring, and if you stopped halfway through to make a sandwich then I hope you enjoyed it.

Lastly, I want to send internet birthday wishes to Aunt Connie. I'm wearing my Robbie Alomar shirt and thinking of you and all the reasons why I admire and love you. I'm trying to conquer my fear of heights thanks to you and all your crazy adventures. And that will hopefully last longer than a 4-5 year period.

xoxo

Jill  

The Journey Begins...

I know I promised to explain more about the work I'm helping with here and how it relates to marine conservation in South Africa (did I really say that?) but things with our road trip have been so busy that we barely have time during the day to stop and eat. Since setting out from Grahamstown on Friday morning we've touched town in East London, Port St Johns and now Shelly Beach. It has only been 4 days in real time, but I feel like a few weeks have gone by instead. 


We've met a wide variety of people involved with the oceans and coasts, from sailors to divers and backpackers running seaside hostels. It's hard to find good office space on the road, but we've improvised and seem to be adapting well to each place we encounter. As you can see we've been really spending a lot of time outdoors enjoying the spectacular views and weather.

All jokes aside, the scenery since we left East London has been truly amazing, and I'm blessed to have a guide who can provide historical context to all the places we pass along the way. The driving has been along winding and sometimes narrow roads, but heading along on the hills you can see so far away that the mountains get hazy, and no matter how many photos I take it still feels better to watch it pass by in real time rather than trying to squeeze it all into a tiny frame. 

Although it sounds like I've been spending most of my time working and travelling, I haven't really been lonely. On Saturday night I had two roommates who kept the mosquitoes away very well, helping me get a solid 8 hours of insect-free sleep. Ma and Pa Gecko patrolled the walls and ceilings all night but were gone when I woke up on Sunday morning. I'm not sure where they went but I'm thinking that maybe my snoring was too much for them to handle and they needed to get some rest as well.

Tomorrow should be a day of hard work here in Shelly Beach, but there may be some down time where I can take some more pictures of the area and maybe even get a much needed hair cut. I'm also hoping to get in the water at some point and give a proper description of the Indian Ocean from an insiders point of view. 

Until we meet again, get lots of sleep and eat some oranges - flu season is just around the corner.

Jill

The Elephants on Parade

Last Sunday (Thanksgiving) our gracious hostess brought us to Addo Elephant Park, where I managed to capture completely sub-par photographs of an experience that was anything but.

Although we passed several piles of dung after entering the gates, the first animal we did actually see was a male elephant in a muddy water hole. He must have sensed that he was breaking our wild elephant virginity so he gave us a show and sprayed water and mud on his body with his trunk. By the time we collected ourselves and drove on he looked like a brown sub-species of Loxodonta africana.

Along with dainty warthogs and many, many kudu, we saw the precious dung beetle, whose presence is so important that there are signs warning you not to drive over dung piles, and stating that dung beetles always have the right of way.

The highlight of my day was most certainly towards the end of the trip when we had seen just about every amazing thing we could have seen (with the added bonus of ice cream). The car turned a corner and up ahead in the road there were 30+ elephants all gathered around a water hole. We sat and watched them so long we began to see groups separate and leave. We saw babies being guarded by their mothers with some kind of physical contact at all times. There were juveniles play-fighting with each other. There were loud grunts and trumpet noises and some very excited males on the hunt. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen, and I feel like the Grinch; my heart may have actually grown three sizes that day.

In the background zebras and warthogs tried to get their fill as well, but were of least concern at that point. I have added some pictures below, but even as a pair words and photos can’t capture 5% of the experience. If you really want to know further then you must come here and see it for yourself. 

I’ll keep things work and ocean related in my next post, so keep your snorkel close by.

Jill

P.S. If you notice anything HUGE about one of these bull elephants then you’re not alone. The lady elephants noticed it too, but we all pretended we didn’t for his sake.