Time flies, we got up and dressed this morning just in time for coffee and our morning game drive. Since it was our last drive there, we were given the opportunity to choose which animals we wanted to see, so I chose elephants. We loaded up and jumped in the land cruiser, soon we were off to find the elephants! We drive for a while when we came across a few of them deep in the trees. While we couldn’t really see their bodies, we certainly could certainly see their presence with branches snapping, trunks roaring, and trees snapping back and forth. We watched the movement of the trees for a while and turned around for some coffee and snacks in a clearing away from the animals. We watched the sunrise, which lifted above the trees basking into he orange and purple glow of the sky surrounding it. Afterwards we went back into the mountains to check out the elephants. We arrived to find two young males and an older male foraging by the side of the road. One of the young males wasn’t pleased with his food so he walked right past our vehicle, within an arm’s reach of Brad. He found a tree he liked, and continued eating. Afterwards we headed back to the cabin, were we feasted on some breakfast, and packed up. Our ranger picked us up again from the cabin, and we were brought back to the reception where we checked out and met our driver back to the airport.
The ride back to the airport was much quieter, mostly because Brad and I were both tired from the adventures of the previous day. When we arrived at the airport, we checked in, and went through security. The Airport was much smaller than I was used to seeing, but it had all the necessities. Our airplane was a jet plane, to my happiness. We loaded on board where there was announcement about the tail and the air conditioning, but I couldn’t hear the announcement. On board we wrote on our tablets, as we started to descend, our descent seemed…. Wrong. It was very serpent like, where we would go from level, to dropping (lifting me out of my seat), to a steep ascent. We landed safely, and went into the airport where we were greeted by our driver. At first we were skeptical about him, since he seemed in a rush and only a paper with our names on it. It wasn’t the same travel agency we had seen throughout our trip. So we hesitantly followed him to the car, which had the appropriate company on it. We loaded up, and was off for the 50 minute drive to our hotel. We spoke with the cab driver about the area. He mentioned that we would be staying in the Stanton area, which is a nice area that is policed regularly by security. He also happened to mention that much of the surrounding areas are pretty unsafe. With that knowledge, Brad and I dropped our gear off in our room, and locked everything up. We chose to stay at the hotel for dinner for two reasons. One, safety since we didn’t know the areas. Two, while I was in Cape Town I had left my work cell phone in the safe inside the room. They had shipped it to Johannesburg and I was eagerly awaiting it’s return. The phone arrived just as my meal was delivered. Brad had the steak, and I had a much better representation of chicken schnitzel. The food was good, but dessert was fantastic! I had a crèm brulee that was fantastic! I still think about it. Afterwards we headed back upstairs to get ready for bed.
