Adventures with Elephants

On April 7th we went with out missionary friends, Rod & Barbara Williamson to Adventures with Elephants near Bela Bela, about a 2 1/2 hour drive in Limpopo province to the north. We were first given a short lecture on elephants and our encounters with the "ellies." Then the ellies arrived!!! First our big group was divided into 3 smaller groups and we were introduced to all the elephants and their unique training. One elephant can recognize people by their name (3 people were introduced to the ellie and then a few minutes later the trainer asked her to give a hat to the person by name). She then was given 3 peoples shoes and was able to return them by smell. She had a baby named Bela (the mother is the one Dave rode later so you see her baby). Another elephant was able to kick a soccer ball and another gave us a shower. After spending an hour with the elephants those who wanted to (and had paid!) took a 20 minute ride through the bush. It was a fun day!

Pap Lunch March 28

We had taken James and Kristy's family around the Area Office on the 19th. They had been asking about traditional foods. We introduced them to Rene Gorman, Supervisor of Patron Housing for the Temple and Maria Lediga, her assistant. I knew Maria would be the one to ask about making pap, a sort of corn mush which is a staple here in South Africa. She explained how to make it and then Rene said we ought to come to lunch and have Maria demonstrate! We ended up scheduling it for James and Kristy's family last day here. The photos show Rene's apartment (they have a home about an hour away but need to be available evening and early mornings for the temple patrons) where we were shown how to prepare traditional food! It was pap and a chicken vegetable dish.

The food was good and we enjoyed visiting with Maria, Rene and Rene's husband Stan who is not pictured. Their office is closest to ours so we have enjoyed knowing them while here on our mission.

St Lucia 25-26 March

We drove from Mlilwane to St. Lucia on the 25th. We went on a Hipo Croc Boat Tour in the afternoon after first checking out the beach near St. Lucia. The next day we drove to Cape Vidal so those who wanted could swim in the Indian Ocean (most of us just got wet to us knees but James and Joey had a good time in the water), We saw some wonderful African Buffalo and a huge male kudu. We had a flat tire and we were glad to have James and Joey around to change the tire (and we drove home on the full sized spare as there was no convenient [like an hour from St. Lucia!) places to get it repaired].) We also stopped at the Crocodile center which was interesting!

New born baby hippo!!!

Ocean Basket Dinner in  St. Lucia

We drove home on the 27th which is nearly an 8 hour drive.

Swaziland 23 -24 March

We left early on March 23rd in heavy rain for Swaziland. It had been raining there so our visit to the Mantenga Swazi Cultural Village was done with umbrellas. We enjoyed the dancing before we visited the village. After a peanut butter sandwich lunch we did a little shopping on our way to Mlilwane Wildlife Park.
As we turned off a main road to the park we were flagged down. Here you never know the reason someone is flagging you down, so we started to keep going when we saw the dirt road was a mess! We backed up and asked the man and he told us the road was closed and we needed to call the park to be picked up by them and for a place to park the van. We found our phone doesn't work in Swaziland so we asked Humphry if he could call for us. He did and it was arranged for him to go with us to the police station to leave our car and be picked up by 4 wheel drive safari vehicles to be driven to the park. We weren't the only ones waiting for pickup! Dave & James were in the last group and got to the housing area at 5:50 pm after nearly 3 hours from arriving at the police station. We were told we didn't have to pay for both nights, but the next morning we awoke to beautiful blue skies and sunshine. While hiking around was muddy it was lovely.

James & Kristy's family with Shonalanga cottage

Our little cottage

Loading up to come into Mlilwane

Treacherous road to Mlilwane, slipping all the way!

Baobab Batik shop

Dung Beetles at work

Jaden with warthog

Jaden & Joey biking

Nyala visiting?

We had nyala come close to James and Kristy's family cottage.

It was a great visit to Mlilwane!