Arrived Johannesburg in am, then flew out a few hours later to Port Elizabeth. Initial shock was that at every car park there is an "attendant" who you pay to guard your car (bit like Liverpool, really). Checked into nice guest house, then had lazy day at beach and having haircut.
On second full day in SA we went on a safari trip: elephants in the morning, then other animals in the afternoon, with a meal in the evening round a fire with lots of strange foods to eat, including kudu (delicious!).
Elephants ... there were a lot of them in the Addo Elephant National Park. They are much wrinklier than we thought they would be close up. The dominant male goes round sticking its trunk in females' barcies (that's a family word which we hope will take off).
As for the afternoon safari - this was in the Schottie private game reserve. What happens is that old cattle farms decide that there is more money to be made from wild animals, and buy in rhinos, lions and the like. They then tour these reserves looking for the animals again. It sounds odd, but it means more animals survive in reasonably natural surroundings, and you certainly get close to them. It does mean that the ranger speaks resentfully of the lions, because they keep eating the other animals. A straw poll at the end revealed that the favourite animal (by 4 votes to 1) was the giraffe. Pictures show Browns with Laura and Will (poor people) in the safari vehicle, and one of said giraffes. It was a fantastic experience, ending at 10.30pm back at the guest house with 5 tired human animals. Was hoping to get girls to write about it, but they're currently chatting to current guest house owners and dogs.
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