It’s our last day on safari! So sad to leave because it has
been such an incredible experience but we also felt like it was the perfect
amount of time—and we’re excited to fly to Cape Town tomorrow for that leg of
the trip! We headed off to see if we could find the lions for our last drive,
and not too shockingly we did! Atop a rock, they were all sacked out and
napping—definitely not the action of yesterday am but it was still nice to see them
all again before we left. The rest of
the time was fairly anticlimactic since we were still searching for our elusive
male rhino. Unfortunately it was the
only one we missed of the major animals on property but it gives us something
to look forward to for next time!
Drove back to Joburg without incident and had a relaxing
rest of the day repacking, etc and getting ready for the next leg of our trip. We love our Nando's (South African Peri Peri Chicken) at home in Alexandria, so when we found out the ridiculously large and semi-fancy mall around the corner had one, we decided to try the authentic in-country experience for a lowkey dinner. Turns out their hot is hotter than ours at home-- thank goodness we didn't go for the Extra Hot (though I'm not sure the woman taking our order would have allowed it anyway!). Flying to Cape Town tomorrow morning and so excited about it!
To close out safari, here are some additional fun facts that
stuck with us but didn’t make it into the entries themselves:
- Giraffes start off light-colored and turn slightly darker as they age. In addition to that, when males fight their testosterone levels increase. The more they fight the darker their spots turn. This is actually true for male lion’s manes as well—female lions actually won’t accept him as the leader of the pride unless he has a dark mane since it means he is the strongest and will protect them.
- The Cape Dove has this great birdsong that goes ba-BUM-ba and you hear it all across the plains. Celebrate told us that when he was growing up he was told it was saying “work hard-er” in the morning and “drink lag-er” in the evening. Every time we heard it after that’s all we could hear!
- Rhino horns aren’t part of their skulls—they’re a separate piece that is made of the same thing as our fingernails and hair. Makes you wonder why some cultures created the poaching endemic when it’s really nothing special…
- Candelabra cactus is poisonous and bushmen dipped their arrows in it before they hunted
- Male wildebeests horns start closer together whereas the females start further apart. They can either be in a bachelor herd or on their own if they’re bigger. They’re very territorial and mark their scent by rubbing the orbital gland that’s on their face on trees in their property.
- A big group of giraffes is called either a journey or a tower.
- Giraffes regurgitate and chew their cud just like cows do. The actual name for giraffes is something like Leopard Camel since they actually have a lot in common with camels in terms of digestion & hydration as well as how they walk with both feet on the same side moving in tandem.
- It’s a myth that ostriches bury their heads in the sand. It’s also a myth that elephants get drunk on the marula tree’s fruit.
- Hippos are very territorial—they feel safe only in the water and can be very aggressive on land. Apparently in rural areas there tend to be many incidents with hippos when they’ve gone down to the river to do the laundry, gather water, etc and surprise them.
- Biltong is far superior to normal jerkey:) Traffic lights are called robots!
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