Into the Wild

On Saturday, I got my National Geographic on. I went on a Safari, and even though it is such a touristy thing to do, it was so fun. We had this amazing guide who knew everything about the animals. I thought his name was Danny, but no one seemed too eager to back me up on that. Maybe that's why he ignored me every time I shouted things at him. He pointed out ostriches, zebras and springboks. Springboks are the national animal of South Africa and the national rugby team is named after them. They are like gazelles that hop. It is pretty sweet. Danny told us that when they hop, they release the smell of flowers to confuse predators. Danny filled us with knowledge, explaining to us that hippos kill more people each year than lions and crocodiles combined, but they will only attack you if you get between them and the water. He also told us that lions sleep twenty hours out of the day and hunt the other four. When the female lion is in heat, the male mates with her seventy-six times to ensure that she gets pregnant. Leslie commented that being a lion would be the life. What with all that sleeping and sex. While it was a slightly inappropriate thing to say to Danny, I thought it was a valid point. One of the coolest things that Danny told us was that when elephants get old and are ready to die, one of their friends takes a journey with them to a place with plentiful food and water. The two stay together for about three days, and then the young elephant leaves the other. In a year, the younger elephant returns to dig a hole in which to bury his friend. He won't forget to go back. It is true that elephants never forget.

On Sunday, we went to the Cape. We made several scenic stops on the way, including Hout Bay. Farid, our driver, told us that we could go on a boat trip to seal island, or that we could just go over and look at this guy with a seal on the pier. I went over and there was this massive seal staring lovingly at a haggard-looking man. I was appalled when the guy bit down on a piece of raw fish, and the seal took it out of his mouth. I looked around to see if anyone else was about to lose their breakfast, but they were all oohs and ahhs. When he kept doing it, I decided to take the tour to see the normal seals in their natural habitats, without skinny, nasty sugar daddies. It was worth it, because Seal Island was a small patch of jagged rocks completely covered with seals. It was beautiful. We traveled on to the cape, and had lunch at the restaurant there. Someone pulled into Farid's spot, and I thought that he was about to go postal on their asses. He jumped out of the van, and yelled at them in one of the many languages here that I do not speak. We parked them in and didn't get killed, so it was enjoyable. We went up to the lighthouse after lunch and took pictures of the Cape of Good Hope. Then we went to the bottom and stood at the end of Africa. It was one of the most beautiful places that I have seen. On the way home we stopped at Boulders Beach to check out the penguins. There were several whales swimming close to shore. None came out of the water other than to skim the surface for air, but it was so cool to know that they were right there. The wildlife here is spectacular.