Saturday, July 5th

We spent the day in Hluhluwe park, entering the gate at around 11 or so. Outside the gate, drums began to pound and small children began to dance in Zulu dancewear.

Inside the park, we immediately saw some zebras and warthogs, which are much uglier than you expect They just might be the ugliest things I have ever seen. They lazed out on the roadside, leaving a dark wet spot on the pavement where drool seeped out of their open mouths.

Further along the trail, we spotted some elephants far below us in the valley. We left the paved road for the dirt roads, correctly assuming this would give us a better chance to view the wildlife. We ended up at a dead end and as we turned around, we realized that the elephant we were looking for was less than 20 feet away from us, partially hidden by a large bush he was eating. We were frustrated at first, because we couldn't get very good pictures with the bush in the way. This problem was quickly fixed. The elephant decided that the bush behind our car looked much more appetizing and headed in that direction very quickly, pushing right over the large bush. I got an excellent shot of the elephant heading straight for us, while I basically wet myself. Multi-tasking, you could call it.

Fortunately, the elephant was kind enough to go around our Avanza rather than over it, which would have required about the same effort. I ended up getting some great photos and thoroughly enjoyed my heart leaping out of my chest for the next 5 minutes.

We also saw some white rhinos from about 25 feet which were very cool as well.

That night we stayed at the Bush Baby Lodge, located near the park. We sat by the fire and played cards, which was a lot of fun. Whenever we heard a bush baby cry we would run and search for them with our flashlights aimed into the trees. If we found it, we would follow it from tree to tree before inevitably losing it. It sounds like fun in itself and it was an absolute adventure with a few glasses of wine.