Just Chillin' at Sanbona

Chillin, meant both figuratively and literatally I am afraid. I am writing having just completed a Hot Stone Massage in the luxury of my room, complete with fireplace burning and lunch brought on a platter. Chillin also though on these game drives, where I set huddled in a sweatshirt, wrapped in a blanket, feeling the cold winds blowing and wondering to myself where on earth the sun has gone. Isn’t it supposed to be summer in South Africa? We are driving in an open vehicle and depending on the speed at which Natasha is driving, I go from very cold to totally freezing.

At least this morning the game was worth the freeze. We piled into the Land Cruiser promptly at 6:30 and headed out a further distance than yesterday. Almost immediately we saw Hensbok, Zebra and Springbok, and not much later the two male White Lions sauntered away from us to snooze away the day under a tree. They are huge! No wonder they are king of the jungle.

Moving away from the lions we stopped to watch 12 giraffes in a group chowing down on the sweet new green leaves at the tops of the thorn trees. There were several males, females and babies. Lynn, I thought of you!

We followed the giraffes up the road a ways until we found three Rhinoceros. Does anyone know the plural of rhinoceros? Anyway, we saw three sauntering along a ravine and drove a ways trying to get a better view. Finally we decided we would just have to circle back and catch them from the other direction, which was very successful.

We had breakfast outdoors, cooked for us fresh on a clever little gas stove and that fresh air made us all hungry. Muffins, yogurt, eggs, bacon, tomatoes…a traditional English breakfast with extras.

We left breakfast to start the long trek back with stops to view more zebra, kudu, and an adorable little fellow called a klipspringer which means rock jumper and that was just what he was doing. It was a day for a lot of animals but by then we were ready to come back and thaw out. We had been out for more than 5 hours!

Haneen, my wonderful massage therapist awaited, with hot stones and relaxation. I have thawed out just in time to get back in the Land Cruiser for the late afternoon drive and do it all over again. We are still hunting the Cheetah, the lionesses and the hippos, who continue to elude us.

Sorry for describing more pix than you saw yesterday, I am still having massive problems uploading files, and I am going to steal the best photos of animals from Scott and Mike to share later instead.

Hope all of you are doing very well…curiousity about Obama abounds. We have raised our standing in the world dramatically, no doubt about that.