Day 3 - Up and awake at 5:20am! Coffee and rusks were being served at 5:30 so we all wanted to wake up a little and have a snack before riding elephants. Rusks are a kind of biscotti that many people here eat with their coffee by dipping it in like a cookie. They were really good with the South African coffee they served. You have to dip the rusks into the coffee because they're really hard. We headed off to a inn at about 6:15am and on the way it was a dirt road with a lot of dips. It was the kind of road you think only trucks would go on, but our big coach bus headed off onto the road and to the inn. We had to stop at the inn and couldn't go all the way to the elephant rides because it had rained the night before and the roads are all soil and rock. At the inn, we jumped into the 4X4 open vehicles and headed to Addo Elephant-back Safaris. It was a really long hour drive up, down, and between the mountains and hills. It was still early morning too so it was cold in parts where the sun had yet to hit. We got to the safari place and found out that 12 people would go first, taking turns on 2 elephants while the other 8 went to go eat a full breakfast at their restaurant down the road. I went in the second group thinking it would be better in a smaller group. The 8 of us headed to the restaurant and had a huge meal with cereal, yogurt and granola, muffins, eggs, Canadian bacon, fresh toast, and baked beans. When we got there they had the cereal, yogurt, granola, and muffins laid out and we thought was an awesome breakfast already. About halfway eating all of that, we found out that they were serving us the eggs with everything else! We all were really surprised and happy we were getting so much food and at the same time thinking it was too much already. After eating, the other group still had not come back and so we sat around, talked story and found out that there was wifi so I took the time to call Zoey and talk to him for a little bit. I made a mistake on the time diffrence and thought it was 7 at night for him, but it was actually 11 and he was asleep already....Oops! We finally got told that it was our turn so we headed back up to the safari place and waited for the elephants to have a break from taking everyone else. They were cooling themselves off and drinking water at their watering hole. Then it was time! Molly and I rode together with our guide, Reason (Yeah that's his name! Not lying!) on an elephant named Taba. Taba is 25 years old has been with the group of workers since he was a baby elephant. Reason, Molly and I rode Taba bareback and I was on last so Taba's spine didn't feel very good on my butt >_< Getting on him was a little hard because he was so wide and his skin felt like really hard dirt<<<---it felt like dirt too! His skin was just really rough and probably had layers of dirt on him. We walked around the property for about 20 minutes at a slow pace so we were sure not to fall off. The guide directed Taba by using his feet and a prodder with a tiny dull hook. (Sorry I don't have any pictures of me riding the elephants. I have to get it from other girls.) With how think the skin was I think Taba could hardly feel it and it didn't hurt him. We walked along the property, got off and let the other 4 girls ride the two elephants around the property. When they got back we took pictures with them while they were busily eating their favorite snack, pellets. Went on a walk with them down the road and let them graze in the bushes. We went back up behind the building and fed them pellets by hand into their trunk! Taba and the other elephant were super hungry and would clamp with their trunks on your hand because they knew you had food in them! They would make their trunks super long to try and reach for you as soon as they could. It was fun feeding them and quite slimy too! Their trunks were wet from the water earlier and got all over your hands when they tried to get the pellets from you!
We booked it back to the inn after that because we were running about an hour late, got on the bus and headed towards a town called Tsitsikamma. It was about a 3 hour drive so I passed out the entire way until we almost got to Storms Village. Storms Village is named after a river that is near it that is popular for it's bungee jumping off the bridge, black water tubing and canoeing. There is also a national park at the end of the valley where it meets the ocean called Tsitsikamma National Park. It's a beautiful park where you can do a variety of things such as visit their famous suspension bridge that cuts across the opening of Storms River to the ocean, canoeing/kayaking up the river, snorkeling/scuba diving in the ocean where dolphins often swim, and much more. Sadly we were only there for less than 2 hours, but we had enough time to hike to the suspension bridge and back, and some of us went swimming. We left the National Park and headed to Storms Village where our backpackers lodge was. This backpackers lodge was not as cozy and cute as the other lodge, but was a higher class of backpackers lodge. It had 2 dorm style rooms with 3 bunk beds each (indoor bathrooms), but also had tents outside that were set on large patios and even had beds in the tents so you would sleep comfortably. I got one of the dorm style bedrooms with several other girls and we even had our own bathroom which was nice to have compared to the last lodge. It was just one of those things that it's nice to have and you don't have to go out into the cold just to go to the bathroom. This lodge had a pool and foosball table and unlimited wifi (the other lodge ran out of data usage shortly after we arrived). It was decently fast and most of us were using it to catch up on Facebook and to skype with family and friends. We had a pretty good dinner that was like chicken stew and rice. Everyone just chilled and used the internet, till we got tired and went to our rooms/tents. The next morning wasn't going to be as early, but breakfast was at 7 and we had to leave to go zip-lining at 7:45! Again it was yet another awesome, fun-packed day with an amazing interaction with the elephants, exploring nature, and talking with the friendly staff at the lodge. It seemed like everywhere in South Africa the people are overly nice and willing to help you and talk story with you!
Miho =]
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