Cruise day 2
I’ve given up trying to get photos up here until we get home. I promise lots of them then. Until then, I put a few on Facebook, and that’s it.
This morning we headed out to the Simangaliso Wetland Park or “Hippo Haven”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISimangaliso_Wetland_Park
It was about an hour and a half on the bus getting there. We were told that some of the area we drove through is an “elephant” area and sometimes you can see them along the road, but we were not lucky enough to do so.
We were stopped on the highway to have the bus weighed. I’ve seen lots of places where trucks get weighed to make sure they aren’t hauling too much cargo. Never seen it required for a tour bus before…
When we got there we got on a boat that went out on the lake. We were near the end of folks getting on, so the lower deck was pretty full. I had wanted the upper deck anyhow.
The upper deck was not very popular due to on and off rain.
But, we had our rain coats and liked the better view.
The boat ride was about two hours up and down the lake. We saw a lot of hippopotamus, a few dozen at least.
We saw one crocodile that was up on shore hoping the sun would come out.
There was a duck standing behind the crocodile that looked like it wanted to kick it off its beach, but knew who would win the fight.
We we came back the other way, both were gone.
There were a lot of birds and other animals in the distance, but the hippos were what we saw the most of and very close.
They had a lunch for us on the boat, but I am still not sure what it was. I skipped the things with cheese, which was most. I did get what I think was some kind of chicken nugget thing and some sort of meat based rolled up thing that seemed like a jerky straw with rice inside. But, I’m guessing on that one.
At the end of the cruise they did pass around the tip jar. While our main cruise is supposed to include all tips, the independent operators can still ask.
When we got back to the dock there was a Zulu dance troupe performing on the dock as folks exited. They were good and also had a tip bucket out.
Most folks were putting US money in there, but I had local currency.
As with getting on the boat, we were near the end. I got to the one with the tip bucket who had just finished dancing and threw in 100 Rand. (18:1, so a bit more than $5 US, but it goes farther here. Enough for everyone in his group to get a drink.)
He looked down at it and back up at me.
I could clearly read his look of “I just finished and am tired, but this guy threw me a big tip and he should get a dance for that.”
I looked behind me to where the last person was getting off the boat with a fancy camera and looking over at the dance group hopefully.
I nodded my head towards that guy with the camera.
The dance leader looked, looked back at me and nodded.
Just as that guy came up to them, they launched into a very intense dance, much more than what they had been doing as folks walked by.
It only went on for 30 seconds, but was very impressive.
At the end he looked back at me. I smiled and we both nodded.
I couldn’t count how many times we’ve been doing Phoenix Swords shows and someone has come up to me and said “I just missed what you were doing, can you do one more thing.”
We always do.
The drive home was just as long. Still no elephants. We did see some ostriches, but neither of us were fast enough with the cameras. Sad.
We got back to the ship and relaxed for a bit before dinner.
Maybe that was the best as dinner was very “relaxed” too.
It took us more than 2 hours, and not because we ordered anything special or strange.
Service was just that slow. The restaurant is only open 2 1/2 hours. And, all the other folks went in and out before us. I don’t know what was going on, but the folks who had our waiter were all still there at the end. So…
Tomorrow we’re doing a safari. Hopefully it will be good. It has been spoken of very highly by the folks who have been on it.
Then two days at sea as we go around the bottom of Africa to Cape Town.
We’ve arranged a tour in Cape Town when we get there, and then the next day we head home.
So far, quite happy with things on this trip!