lairdandjonelle

Uncritically, Marita and I listened to Noekie tell us that if we wanted to see whales we had to get up early in the morning and we could see them playing in the surf. So, next morning, we got up at O-dark:30 and sped to the beach in Mossel Bay. We got there, parked in front of the ocean and then it dawned on us: it was too damn dark to see anything! All the whales in the southern hemisphere could have been in Mossel Bay and we wouldn’t have seen them! What could we do — we just looked at each other, said, “Bloomin’ hell!” and burst out laughing. We sat staring at the ocean in the dark. Occasionally, Marita would get out of the car and look through binoculars. I think she was looking for the sun. After awhile, a long while in the freezing cold, we got out of the car and walked down to another parking lot to see if they might be there. It wasn’t as if we could see any better, but it was something to do. So we sat on the wall and stared some more at the ocean. The longest sunrise in the history of sunrises was that morning. We got there at 5:45 and it must have been at least 7:30 before we could see ANYTHING more than a foot in front of our faces. In the freezing cold, remember? Sitting on cold stone. A couple of cars drove up, a couple from India walked near us, looking as intently as we out to sea, and then those most hateful of people, early morning joggers, went back and forth in front of us. Them we could see. But no whales. After waiting in the dark for whales, and the cold, don’t forget, they didn’t show up. Marita went over to talk to a man in one of the cars; he and his wife live there and they come to the beach every morning. He reads his kindle while she walks the dog. He said he saw whales a week ago. Later, much, much later, we went to lunch at a restaurant on the beach and Marita tried to bribe them to call her when they saw whales. “Just yesterday,” our waitress said, “about 1:00 in the afternoon, we saw them just out there, blowing and breaching. It was wonderful!” I seriously considered not tipping her. She took Marita’s phone number and she and the owners swore they would call us. We haven’t gotten the call.

Yea, I’m finally back on line! I had to go buy a new computer because Laird’s got crosswise with windows 10 and stopped wanting to work so he took it back to US. I’m now on my own in Computer Land (eeekkkk!) WITH windows 10. I’ve learned some Afrikaans swear words, but don’t know how to spell them, alas — I could use them now!

What a fantastic time we had in the Kruger! I finally saw a leopard in the wild! It was amazing. Astounding. Breathtaking. So now I’ve seen all the Big 5 for real (they are elephant, lion, leopard, rhino and cape buffalo). Took long enough, years. We saw lots of impala, of course. We almost stopped even noticing them aloud. Elephants! Giraffes! Cape Buffalo! FIVE rhinos (though mostly the behinds of five rhinos, as they ran away from us)! Oh, and god, tragically, saw a poached rhino, just from the day before; Olaf was one of the first to find him. Just there, right beside the road, shot and butchered for its horns. Made me cry. Our only lion sighting was of two lions waiting in the bush for that rhino to rot a bit so they could get through the tough hide — they were staking it out so the hyennas and buzzards wouldn’t try to usurp them. On the way out of the park on our last day, we saw another rhino, but very far away. Good! And the best sight of all was a Mama elephant getting ready to attack a car. It got between her and her baby and was she PISSED! Her ears were flapping as she stamped her feet up and down in front of/side of the car, then she began trumpeting. That means, “you’re in big big trouble now, Buster!”. She kept getting closer, then back, then forward. Finally, she started to turn away and the car took its escape, but then she started to chase it! She gave up as it at last sped off, but she was still so cranked (and rightfully so) that she trumpeted at the long line of cars, us included, leaving the area.

On our first trip to the park, just past Orpen gate where we entered, we saw three ground hornbills in a dead tree, a successive line. Calling. We, of course, thought they were singing to us, but at the end of the day, we saw four hornbills nearby and assumed the first three were calling to the fourth. A rare and beautiful sight, and sound.

We, Laird, Marita and I, stayed at N’sele Lodge for two nights — how wonderful it was to see our friends Olaf and Stephanie again and be back there, oh the food was divine, all so lovely — and had a daylong drive in the park with Olaf who had lots of game lore to share and many, many BAD jokes to tell! You know the ones, where you can’t help but laugh just at their awfulness. If you’re ever coming to the Kruger, I can’t praise them enough — definitely stay with them!

Then we went to meet Marita’s sister Sonya and brother-in-law Keith for a night at Swindini, outside the park, but then a drive through the park again on the way to their home in Barberton — that’s when we saw the elephant cussing out the car. They like to laugh as much as Marita so our stay there was fantastic. I missed out on the Geology Tour (Barberton is a gold mining town and famous for its other rocks and strata) because I was worn out and slept very late. We went for a braai at their daughter Suzette’s house — that was delicious and fun. ) We had potjiekos (stew in a three-legged pot; yummy, of course). I believe that all the Afrikaans people I’ve met over the years simply LOVE to laugh — they really are a jolly people! Maybe it’s from eating all that lekker food they make.

Laird is gone and I miss him terribly, we all do. But Marita has moved in with me and we have as our task to do a thorough inventory on all the flats where we’re staying. Four of them. We have lots of Laird’s photos put on canvas — boy, do they look so wonderful! The flat we’re staying in I’ve named the Big Five, because all of them are represented in pictures by Laird. Flat 2 is Flora and Fauna until I can think of a catchier title. Then there is the Penguin Suite and maybe Old South Africa, because it has antiques and old pictures, some of which I bought at the nursery down the street. We’ve actually only gotten one done so far, so we’re going to have to buckle down one of these days. We’re still planning our gin tasting party and Marita has found someone else to invite. She met the Scotsman who is a leather worker/cobbler in our little “shopping center” — he turned out to be a world traveler, with an Afrikaans wife and an 11 year old son. The son and our young friend Carlene, my miracle worker Corinna’s daughter, can taste juices with Matty and laugh at us adults (we have decided that this party will have to include some real food, like mutton curry pies, not just cheeses and crackers or everyone will go home pie-eyed (or is that pi-eyed????)). It’s just as well to invite more folks — we have five bottles of gin and one of rum, not to mention many bottles of wine, to get drunk before I leave. We might have to have gin-tasting at least twice a week and invite all of Dana Bay! Meanwhile, we keep drinking the huge bottle of Amarula we have. So lekker!

So that’s it from cloudy morning but no real rain and we’re still looking for whales and haven’t found them with sunny afternoons (that’s all hyphenated, which is a pain to put in after you’ve typed) — though today was pretty chilly and my afternoon nap didn’t happen because my room was too cold. Did I tell y’all that they build houses in South Africa without heat or air conditioning? What the hell, man?!? It’s HOT and its cold here! Don’t get smug, Sandy, thinking you made the right decision not to come to SA — it was LOVELY until just a couple of days ago. Marita brought her big gas heater she had to buy when she lived in Bulwer (in the Drakensburg mountains, also in a house not built with heat and air con — I understand the no air con, but, really, no heat?????)

To see the whales, apparently we have to be on the Mossel Bay point at like 5:30 in the damn cold morning. I just tell Marita, who wakes up at 4:30 every morning, that I’ll get up whenever she wakes me up. I do so want to see whales before I leave! They come and play in the surf around dawn/sunrise, then go back to deep ocean.

Laird, please feel free to go in and add everything I left out. Nothing much to add. Here at home, its been 95 degrees F every day (35 degrees C). Molly is pretty stressed. So I’d best get the bills paid and finish the installation of the mini-splits.

Keep on truckin’ — your SA correspondent