 |
| Baby!!! |
GABBY - WOO HOO! Yesterday,
we found out from John that we were able to go on a full game drive with Sarel
as our guide. A German couple was going,
so that meant there were 3 extra seats in the Condor. We asked Corinne if she wanted to join, and
she delightfully and thankfully agreed.
A full day tour in the park means, you get to the park around 9:00 a.m.,
enjoy a morning of Sarel-guided driving around Addo Elephant National Park,
feast on a braii for lunch, and end with another 3 or 4 hours of driving. It’s actually a super tiring tour because you
are focusing your eyes on the brush to find animals and you are driving in a
car for 6-7 hours. Ben and I were
ecstatic to be in the park again because it is only our second time and it is a
full day tour. The one thing that sucks
about the Condor is it doesn’t have windows that roll down in the very back
seat. Ben and I switched off so that
each of us would spend about half the time in the 1
st row of seats
with the telephoto lens and the window that rolled down. Ben started off and was able to snap some
great pictures of elephants walking directly next to our vehicle. We came across a herd of elephants with the
smallest, baby elephant I have ever seen.
The full grown elephants really guard and protect the babies. It is obvious that the little ones are really
skittish and easily frightened by cars, loud noises, or any foreign presences. Sarel stopped the car and picked up a dung
beetle that was crossing the road. He
gave an up-close and personal view of the creature for everyone to see. One thing I didn’t know was that the dung
beetles try and push the dung balls, which house their laid eggs, under the
brush. Doing this not only hides their
eggs from predators, but also provides a natural cycle of compost and manure
for the Addo brush. Ben and I switched
spots, so that I could get some hopefully frame-worthy photographs. We had a bit of a dry spell until we came to
a watering hole. It was a hot, sunny
day, so the animals were gathering.
There were warthogs (flak farq in Afrikaans), exotic birds, and
elephants. One elephant was particularly
interested in cooling himself off. He
would dip his trunk into the water and either tip his head up to drink from it,
or spray himself with the liquid he collected.
Watching him splash around was the highlight of my day. It was a fascinating sight to see him spray
water and mud on himself to try and beat the heat. We decided to break for lunch at a picnic
site, heavily guarded by electric fences and barbed wire. Sarel started the grill, which meant he lit
the mass amount of coconut shells on fire and added some charcoal. Usually a braii is cooked with wood, but
since this wasn’t the full production braii, charcoal was used. We enjoyed spiced chicken kabobs and boerwors
with rolls and pasta salad. After our
lunch, we got back into the car and saw our first African buffalo on the
southern side of the park! There were
two grazing in the bush to our right. We
continued on and stopped on a hill overlooking elephant, warthog, ostrich,
zebra, and kudu when we heard a lion’s roar.
Sarel’s ears perked up and he immediately stuck his head out the window
and put the truck in reverse. The zebra
and ostrich also reacted to the call by picking up their heads looking in the lion’s
general direction. We waited for a
couple minutes, but decided to move on with the realization that it could be
quite far away, since these calls can carry great distances. We didn’t see any lions, but I would call it
a very successful day in the park.
 |
| My favorite of the day |
For dinner, we had a jambon with a roux sauce, boiled cauliflower and potatoes, mashed pumpkin, and salad. Ben and I helped to boil the potatoes, pumpkin, and cauliflower. I watched and learned as Kait made a roux for the jambon. We went to bed feeling full from the delicious meal and satisfied with the game drive.
Roux Recipe
Ingredients: mushrooms, Worcestershire sauce, butter, flour,
milk, cheese
Sautee mushrooms with Worcestershire sauce, oil, and spices. In a separate pot, melt butter over
heat. Then, take 2 handfuls of flour and
add it to the pot. Next, add milk and
whisk. Continue to add milk and/or flour
until you've gotten the right consistency.
Add mushrooms and shredded cheddar cheese to the sauce. Stir until cheese is melted.
Mashed Pumpkin Recipe
Ingredients: pumpkin, spices, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon
Peel and de-gut pumpkin.
Cut into small pieces and add them to a pot of boiling water. Boil for about 30 minutes until soft. Mash the pieces in a bowl and add butter,
spices, brown sugar, and cinnamon to taste.
No comments:
Post a Comment