Jen and I awoke early again on our fourth and final day at Kapama. We had some packing to do, and also a morning game drive. We were both excited to head out one more time and see the animals. By this point I had seen everything I wanted, though I will say that Africa has some amazing birds that I would love to explore more. I’m not sure I have the patience for bird-watching, but the colors are fantastic! I’m hoping to go through photos and will share some. For me, this day was an extra day, almost, show me any animals… and I’ll be happy! Joe and Foster didn’t disappoint!
As we drove along just as we started the game drive, you could see tracks of something big being drug along the road. “See here?” Joe called to the vehicle, “a hyena was pulling its meal along”. I’ll admit I didn’t believe him, how could you know? I shouldn’t have had any doubt, because around the next corner in the daylight (which is not at all normal) was a hyena.
This is a good time to mention that Disney, to some degree, clouded my thoughts on what a Hyena looks like. I’m sure I’ve seen real pictures, but they actually have spots and are not just a grey color. Everything else was about right though, minus the talking. It was larger than I expected it to be, and sat happily tearing apart a rather old skeleton. Joe said they will even chew and eat the bones. I don’t even really like bones in my chicken! It was fascinating!
Leaving the hyena to breakfast (dinner? I’m having visions of working nights now…), we continued on our way… and for the next few hours Joe and Foster tried to locate a leopard. We’ve been told it is one of the hardest animals to spot due to its nature and camouflage, though Jen and I had seen one with Joe and Foster on our first game drive at Kapama a few days earlier. The rest of the car had not (couples had cycled in and out over the week), and it was apparently a very rare occurrence for those seeking the “big five”, or the five most popular animals for tourists, so many were hoping to complete seeing all five animals of the “big five” by seeing the leopard. We sat back, and helped keep a eye out for the leopard as well.
As it turned out, the leopard we had been hoping to spot appeared to no longer be inside the grounds of Kapama, thought it took the rest of the game drive to determine that we weren’t going to get to see him. It was okay for us, but I know there was some disappointment as well for Jen and I. It would have been great to see it one more time. As we drove into camp, we both lamented the end of our game drives, it’s hard to believe it was over. We did have one more experience planned that day, though, an elephant meet and greet!
We got back to camp, packed our suitcases, and went to check out of the room. The camp manager here really seemed to like us, and we talked about all sorts of things including that she said we looked exactly like two separate past employees from the park, and it was weird for her. We talked about cooties again and told stories… pretty soon we were late, and Joe had to come break up the reminiscing or we’d miss the elephants! We climbed into the safari vehicle, luggage already in the seats, and headed to see them.
The elephant experience was considered an “extra” that we had purchased as an opportunity to get neared to the animals and interact with them personally. I was excited, though they are very big animals, and it only furthered my excitement when in front of us we saw a man riding on the back of an elephant. “This must be the place!” I joked to Jen, and it was. I believe Jen remembers the older elephant’s name, I unfortunately do not, but the elephant we started with was the first elephant reared by the Kapma elephant sanctuary part of the park. They told the story of how the elephant and been trapped, and abandoned by his group. Discovered by rangers, he had been reared from a very young age by humans. The result is an elephant that loves wandering around the brush, but dislikes other elephants and is only happy when he is around people. They let him roam where he wants, but if they stand still, he won’t roam outside of where he can see them. They’ve added more elephants since, all which get along now, and have started rearing baby elephants into the program once they are old enough as well.
We first said hello to the elephant, and he greeted us back when the trainer said “talk”. They had a bag of treats, and fed him when he did the right thing (he pretty much always did). They walked him around, and we were able to feed him by dropping the treats into his trunk. It was cute! Then you could wrap your arm around his trunk, feed him, and get a picture. I had a really good time! They told us more about the park, let us touch their ears, legs, take a few more pictures, and then brought out a baby (well, a few years-old baby) elephant to see as well. Even at such a young age, he was massive, and we petted again before it was time to leave. I’m glad we included this on our trip! Elephants do not feel how I had expected them to. While rough and wrinkly like they look, they are also somewhat hairy! Also, I forgot to mention, I got to touch his tongue! When they were showing us his teeth they asked for volunteers to touch his tongue, and you know me… I couldn’t pass it up! It was big and squishy as you’d expect. Don’t worry, they had soap and water at the ready for me as well.
Yep! Touched that!
Well I had to feed him…
From the elephant experience, we headed back to Hoedspruit airport, where I said a hurried goodbye to Joe as the luggage guys disappeared with our bags. I wanted to say a longer goodbye, thank him, etc., but when someone just comes up, grabs your luggage, and carts off in a different direction… it’s hard to trust. I thanked him as best I could, and took off to find the men. They had, without asking, carried it to the check-in booth (there are a total of two check-in windows in the hut for the entire airport). Of course, this meant a tip which they were happy to remind me of, so I decided they did carry the bags for me, and gave them a thank-you tip. You actually have to fight off “services” here, meaning people who will gladly do menial things for you and then expect recompense, they’d just caught me off guard this time and I wasn’t in a mood to argue about it. I was headed home!
The “Arrivals” hut is actually nice!
We checked in, and our plane was listed at “Gate 01”, because of course it was. There’s only one gate! Our carry-on items were searched by hand and we continued on our way to the plan. It had actual jet engines this time! Arriving in Johannesburg we were required to check our luggage back in for our final destination, which made me think that Johannesburg really didn’t trust Hoedspruit security, either. With that said, though, we began our flights on September 11th, we were in for some additional security. We checked our bags, headed into the international terminal (which more-closely resembled a mall… if it weren’t for the gates you would think you were in one!) and got a bite to eat. I had a pretty good airport pizza made by a company called “Piece-a-Pizza”. This particular location was a “diner” option so we sat down to order, etc., but it was essentially a food court. The food, however, was definitely restaurant quality. My chicken pizza was delicious if a bit salty. It hit the spot.
More of a “do it yourself” vibe in Hoedspruit
We meandered around the airport for a bit looking at shops before realizing we were going to be late for boarding. this wing of the international terminal had so many stores that we had about a ten-minute walk just to get to the gate. Boarding began in twenty minutes, but I needed to use the restroom (which I do not do on planes, ever, not even eighteen-hour flights!), and we would be cutting it close. Jen was going to do some more shopping quickly, and I took off for the restroom and gate. I met Jen at the gate, where big TSA banners announced that we had additional screening. About the same time, Jen said she had bought waters for the flight, and of course they made her throw them away at the secondary screening. It’s all normal procedure in the US now, but it hadn’t been so far in South Africa. The TSA and Homeland Security have quite a lot of reach! We’d have to hydrate on the plan, we guessed!
I’ll skip the flight, all in all I slept maybe two hours, maybe a bit more, but it was not my favorite day ever. We did get the same two bulkhead seats after some trading and light begging at the check-in counter, and we set in for the long flight. We arrived in Dakar without incident, and then into Dulles nine hour later. One more hop, and we were home.
At Dulles, we were able to fulfill a life-long goal of mine, and rode a people-mover from the international terminal to customs! It wasn’t as much fun as I imagined, really it’s like a subway car, but now I can say that I have used one! I actually have to stop here to give Dulles a lot of credit. On the people-mover, they had a man who described the entire immigration/customs process, where to get our bags, where to re-check our bags for connecting flights, what to do if we had any trouble, and encouraged us to come find him if we had any concerns at all. This was very different from New Jersey in March, when I just sort of bumbled through assuming I was doing the right things. I was, but this type of treatment made it much, much easier. We grabbed our bags, went through airport security for the second time in the US this trip, and for the eighth and final time overall, and we were ready. One more flight, but before that… I hadn’t had a mocha in about two weeks, and there was a Starbucks mid-terminal!
After that much time on a plane, I imagine I wasn’t he most pleasant person to be around from a hygiene perspective. You can brush your teeth to some degree, sure, but I wanted a shower and shave as well. Oh well, it was going to have to wait. The coffee made me feel better, and we grabbed a doughnut before Jen destroyed me at Uno for about an hour. She’s tricky, don’t ever offer to put money on Uno against her, you’ll lose it!
We boarded the flight for Denver, and I watched movies to pass the time. I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes with Rifftrax commentary, which was both awesome and consumed two hours, as well as part of Oceans Eleven (also with Rifftrax) before they announced we were descending. I’ve never been happier to touch down in an airplane. We were home.
After a bit of confusion at the baggage claim, we discovered that TSA had been through our luggage (yay for TSA luggage locks!), and after arriving home I can confirm nothing was stolen which is both surprising and makes me reconsider having faith in people… but I think I’ll hold off for now. I took my shower, did get a shave, and started laundry and all the boring things that have to happen after a long trip. It was a great experience, one I would recommend to anyone considering it. I’ll be writing a reflections post as well soon, and highlight my favorite experiences on the trip as well.
