Leaving Ukhozi, and entering Johannesburg

We awoke the next day with some packing still to do, and still a bit hesitant after our trip into the river the day before. We packed as much as possible (I was still missing some laundry the lodge had sent out), and headed to pre-trip coffee. Yesterday there had been talk of a river cruise, but today mum was the word. I have a feeling this was our doing, but it’s hard to say for sure. It would be our choice which animals to track down that day, and Jen immediately said “elephants!”, which was a great choice! We were off and running quickly, and the rangers knew the herd was pretty spread out, so we rolled along the roads, up and down mountains, waiting and looking for signs of elephant.

It wasn’t long before we began to see branches tipped over, trees torn to bits, and grooves cut into the underbrush. Dung on the road confirmed it, they had to be nearby. From time to time, we would shut off the car and listen. Just off the road, it seemed, the elephants were cracking tree limbs while eating and moving, but they were nowhere in sight. A few more hills, and we saw a trunk reach out of the brush, and bend a tree nearly in half. A quick glimpse of very large tusks, and Imogen told us it was the largest bull elephant in the park. He is nearly 50 years old. His strength and size were massive, but impossible to capture on film because of the underbrush. We ended up continuing on feeling a little slighted, but about the time you start getting disappointed, you also find the right about of luck! Just in front of our vehicle, two smaller male elephants meandered onto the road, and as they foraged we pulled in close, took pictures, and eventually there was an elephant mere feet from me on the right side of the car! There is a picture on Facebook for now, I’ll add it here when we return, but I could have reached out with my hand and touched him from the car.

It was exhilarating! It was a great way to receive an appreciate for their size. Soon they also headed off into the brush, and we trekked back to see the big male again, but he had completely disappeared. After a few more attempts, and a few more spotings of different elephant damage, we started heading back and looking for lizards and some other small wildlife Imogen said would be typical for this warm weather. We drove around the high plains for a bit, and headed back. Our safari trip at Kariega was over.

Breakfast was somber, though Imogen did confirm she is a vegetarian. (I’m not shy, I just ask pretty much anything! Jen and I had a bet in the airport that a man we met was between 30 and 32. I lost the bet, he’s older, but I did pretty much come right out and ask him!) There was some confusion about our pickup time… but Imogen cleared everything up, and soon we had checked out of our lodgings, and headed back to the airport in Port Elizabeth to catch our flight.

Overall, the flight and all the airports we have been to on this trip have been just fine, security here is actually pretty lax, but still makes sense overall. They don’t put you through the hurdles, they just make sure the flights are safe. It’s actually quite refreshing. I miss this in the US… before security went crazy.

Through security, we continued onto Johannesburg and met our driver who took us to the hotel. There were a few tense moments when he had a printed page with our names, and really nothing more, and insisted on taking our bags while wearing no insignia at all for the travel company. Jen and I both decided we could jump on him if we had to, and it turned out he was with the company and everything was fine. It’s always better to be over-cautious.

McDonald’s… even in Johannesburg!

We checked into the hotel without incident, and headed up to the room. The hotel is situated in Sandton, which as our driver in cape town put it, is in the “white-safe” part of Johannesburg. The driver in Cape Town had also pointed out the license place code for Johannesburg is “GP”, affectionately referred to in Cape Town as “Gangster’s Paradise”. With this in mind, we were debating leaving the hotel for dinner, but were awaiting a package of something left behind in Cape Town anyway, and this coupled with the warnings helped us decide on the Bull Run, which was the restaurant attached to the hotel.

In fact, the Bull Run is a restaurant known by a few celebrities (including One Republic, according to the signatures on their menu!), as it is across the street from Johannesburg’s stock market (JSE). Everything there is listed in financial terms, and I hope to find a link to post here to a copy of their menu if I can find one. More on that another time. Dinner was a fantastic steak coupled with some good wine and a delicious dessert. I’ve definitely been indulgent on this trip so far, and this meal was too much as well. I loved every bite.

From there to the hotel room, and off to bed. We had plans the next day to visit Soweto and a generic Johannesburg city tour as well. We were in for some interesting experiences in one of South Africa’s most diverse, and largest, cities.