OK, it was only a week. But what an action packed week it was. The highlights were ostriches in Outdtshoorn, elephants in Addo, waves and beaches along the "Garden Route," and wineries and unbelievably beautiful scenery in the "Little Karoo." Check out some of the photos that I've uploaded. If you don't see any pictures of elephants, its because I'm still editing down from the 600 some pics that we have! Truly amazing... I'll follow with some more detailed blogging.Chasing Ostriches in Oudtshoorn
Whenever you tell a South African that you are going to Oudtshoorn, they immediately say: “gonna ride an ostrich?” It turns out that about 90% of the ostriches in the world live in and around Oudtshoorn. What was once a big ostrich feather industry has now seen a resurgence as the “new healthy white meat” of choice in the region.
The drive to Oudtshoorn was beautiful, through a wine and wheat growing area known as the “Little Karoo.” Surrounded by rugged mountains, the valleys are gorgeous, dotted with beautiful vineyards and orchards and pretty towns with names like Montague and Robertson and Worcester and Barrydale. As spring is just beginning, the vineyards and orchards were alive in color, sprouting out in flowers everywhere. This made for an even more beautiful, picturesque drive. However, the shadow of apartheid is evident everywhere, even in the beautiful picturesque hills of the Little Karoo. Because, every picturesque little town, has its not so picturesque township –shacks covering the hills, dirt roads, outhouses, water spigots, and people hanging out. It is a feature of life here that we just are still not used to.
After about 5 hours of driving, and about 10 miles up a dirt road, we arrived at “Red Stone Hills,” our home for the night. It is a working farm (wheat, sheep and of course, ostriches) currently being farmed by Hermanus Pottgeiter –the 6th generation of Pottgeiters farming this land! You can’t get more traditional Afrikaner than that. His wife Petro met us when we arrived, showed us our cottage (one of 8 dotted around the property, dating back to the 1890s), introduced us to our ostrich neighbors, and then took us down the road, where we did a beautiful 2 hour sunset hike through the hills. We made it back and were introduced to the newlyweds next door --a mating pair of ostriches, sitting on 8 eggs! It turns out that the male (dark black) sits on the 
eggs during the night, while the female (gray) sits on the eggs during the day --perfect camoflage arrangement. We were lucky to get a picture during the transition, when the eggs were exposed.In the morning, Alex and I took an hour horseback ride around the farm, led by one of the “boys” (ie, “farm hands”). It turns out that the farmworkers have also been there a while, in fact, Jacob our guide on the ride, was the 4th generation of his family to be working on the farm. Petro told us about their relationship with the workers. She said they are all very close with each other, attend each other’s funerals and visit each other in the hospital when someone is sick. Although, she did say that things have gotten complicated with the new laws that were passed, and so the workers are no longer housed on the property. We saw their empty homes, and wondered what the deal was. Well, it turns out that the new laws were designed to prevent families from being separated. So, if a worker family is housed on the property, any of their extended family are allowed to join them. Petro said, “before you know it, you have your own shanty town going.” Things are so difficult in the cities, that once someone is well-housed and employed, relatives flock. So, now, from Petro’s perspective, it makes more sense NOT to house the workers on the farm anymore, but rather, to pick them up each day from down the road. They now have plans to turn the workers homes into additional --and more modest-- accomodations? Interesting transition.
New Years with "Ellies"
The highlight of our trip was definitely our time in Addo National Elephant Park. We arrived on Erev Rosh Hashana, and were offered an amazing glimpse of God's creation. What a way to start 5769! Within seconds of entering the park we saw kudu, cute little warthogs, and a huge leopard tortoise. But no ellies (that is was folks affectionately call them here --no offense Mom!). Then we stumbled onto a
jackal, more kudu, red hartebeast antelope, small duyker antelope, but not ellies. We even went to a "hide", a place near a water hole where you can hide and watch the action. But no action. The best thing was the sign outside the "hide." After we left the hide, another car signaled to us, that there was something interesting ahead. We drove down around the corner, and saw what looked like a kudu carcass. Wow, we thought. That wasn't so special. Then, we turned the corner, and there along the side of the road was our long awaited first Ellie! Munching a few leaves right along the side of the road. This was the real wow!
We sat there and just watched as the youngster (maybe 10 years old) munched away. Then, we drove around the corner and found the rest of the family, another 5 or 6 elephants, including a real cute youngster who was waddling along next to mama Ellie! The mama stood very still, between us and the baby, with one eye on us, and another eye on the car ahead, and her huge body keeping guard of the little one.
Well, before our two days were over, we were able to see dozens of ellies, and we must have taken hundreds of pictures! Alex got some great video, and I hope that she'll put it up on her blog. I've put a few of my favorite pictures up for you to see. Enjoy. Wish you were here with our ellies!
Blog ya later. Seth./.
