Advertisement
Published: July 12th 2006
This is Humphrey
Stacey took this picture about 2 minutes before Humphrey decided to see what she tasted like.And no, that's not a clever title.
So my friends, it's now time for me to do a quick countdown of animal attacks. Chronologically speaking, the first was the vervet monkey who tried to steal Daniel's candybar. Unfortunately not on tape but Devan does a fairly accurate impression. Number two was the gibbon that swung out of a tree and ran at Devan (Not really an attack per say, but still pretty funny. Also not on tape but word on the street is that the gibbon does a pretty good impression). I'd love to say that the sharks made the list but as we spent the entire day (9-5) on the deck of a boat and only saw one shark, at a distance, from above the water, who then quickly swam away, leaving us nothing to do but drift hopelessly in the sun, marinating in the stench of the isle of 1,000 sea lions (upon which we were informed by Sylvia (who is a story all her own) lay at least 6-feet of sea lion waste) and all this at roughly 9:30 am, even I can't claim that one. Our luck did change however, when we elected to go out
A View From God's Window
This is a lookout on the Escarpment, a long ridge overlooking the Kruger. to the Moholoholo Animal Rehab center.
Side story- Since the beginning of this trip I've been carrying a small black notebook replete with every piece of information we could need for our adventures. Within its confines I had the addresses of and directions to every hostel/hotel/boat/dump we had booked. I also had important numbers and flight info, etc. Well, that book was lost somewhere between Capetown and our flight to Johannesburg, leaving us a bit lost when we got to Hazyview. My confidence that we could find our hostel was shattered when we discovered (as I said last time) that Hazyview is the Bootjack of South Africa. Everywhere that we stopped to ask for an internet cafe responded the same way, "Open now?" That shot down my idea of referencing my online backups and left me with the last option... Phone home. Unfortunately for us, most pay phones in Hazyview aren't connected to phone lines. Enter Mohammed. Mohammed runs one of the gas stations (garages) in town and rescued us as we were trying to get a phone card to work. Not only did he help us eventually find our lodgings, he also suggested that we visit Moholoholo Rehab
Africa Brings us Together
And in some cases, it brings us together in really creepy, inappropriate ways. center and a number of other things. He is, at this point, our favorite tour guide.
At the Moholoholo Rehab center we found we were too early for the tour and had to find something else to entertain ourselves with. So we headed down the road to a reptile... place. Shady. Run down. Kinda weird. Still cool, especially when we finally found the reptile house and watched the keepers feed a rattlesnake and a cottonmouth. After that we went past a very pissed off cobra who tried to bite pretty much all of us.
When we made it back to the rehab center we had an amazing tour that included things like sharing cages with White-backed vultures, staring through chain link at a full grown hyena and a playful male lion charging at Devan through the fence. Awesome. The coolest part though, was Humphrey, a six month old Hippo being hand raised by the staff. He had been found at two days old, separated from his mother. When we saw him yesterday he weighed roughly 340 pounds and was teething. Since he's been hand raised, he's very comfortable around people and apparently views us as fellow hippos. We
Stacey at Berlin Falls
This is just a kick-ass snapshot of Stace taking in the view at Berlin Falls along the escarpment route. all got a chance to touch and interact with him and it was shortly before we were forced to leave that he discovered that Stacey makes an excellent chew toy. He managed to get a partial grip on both her legs as she tried to scamper around the rotund baby and eventually got a decent grip on her purse. In the end, Stacey suffered little more than a good coating of Hippo spit and I think Humphrey had a good time too.
In conclusion, South Africa is the best place ever.
Tonight, a night safari in the Kruger and possibly a late dinner at Wimpy's before heading back for our final evening at the shadiest hostel ever...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.042s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0236s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Brian B.
non-member comment
Hippo Spit
Whatever you do DON"T WASH STACEY'S LEG!!!! Do you have any idea what hippo spit is worth in the States?!?! Priceless. Like marijuana. Even if it's a little crusty by the time you guys get back, I read this article that said we could just scrape the dried spit off and then distill it into a tincture. Money is to be made. I'm just looking out for you.