Anseth Family Adventures: South African Safari time.

Jan. 2, was off to a cool start, cloudy with a little mist. This was a nice change of pace given the sun and heat the last 3 days. Some had a restful night, others had velvet monkeys dancing on their roof. All arrived at the lodge for our Elephant Safari Experience. Our experience was scheduled at 8. The Swiss half of our team hoped for Swiss like execution of the plan. Around 8:30-8:40, we sauntered down to the platform.

The 3 elephants were then brought in were:

Duma: the dominate male

Tabas: the nervous one

Mukwa: the misunderstood one.

We went as families for a 20 minute ride. The Butners went first. TB in the lead rode Duma, Elle and Sophie in the middle and Lara and Abby on Mukwa, the misunderstood one. It looked like a great time and everyone was smiling on the return. TB seemed to have a great time cause he was really smiling when he got off.

TB and Duma: dominate Bulls!!!!!!

Butners on elephant backs

Sophie and Elle

Lara and Abby.

The Anseth crew went next. Now riding on the back of an elephant is exciting for 3-4 minutes. The next 17-20 aren't terrible if you have been sitting on 55 gallon drums for a week in preparation.

We did have a great time. The guides were great, the elephants "gentle" and the trail was relatively smooth.

Ashley and Katie

Kari and Grace. Grace is on there somewhere

Duma, Donald the guide and me.

What?!?!?

This what happens if you leave your phone lying around in the bush

After our ride I knew why TB was so happy to get off. After the last family went it was picture time.

Ashley

Elle

Sophie

Katie

Anseths

Everyone

After that we had the opportunity to feed the elephants:

Abby

Ashley

Lara

Sophie

After feeding the elephants we enjoyed breakfast. It seemed to come in waves without any warning. Half the table filled up on oats and cereal, then bread appeared and only after the other half had filled up on toast did the sausage, eggs, beans and bacon show up. You know the feeling they had on the titanic when the passengers were watching the crew arrange the deck chairs. That is the feeling we had.

At 11, we schedule a game walk. We began walking at 11:30. Our guide was nice and fairly knowledgeable. We did see a few things on the drive after we finally got everybody to buy into the idea of a walk. Resistance is futile, especially if I am your father!!!.

Blesbuck. Check you Wikipedia for spelling.

Springbok

Common zebra calf like 2 weeks old

When we returned we were treated monkeys and some elephants mud wrestling. TB thought it might me a Wisconsin badger couple on a date but after further review it was two bull elephants

Elephant Battle

Velvet Monkeys

After lunch we retired for a rest. At 3 we showed up at the lodge for our game drive. At 3:30 no one from the lodge knew anything about anything. When was the game drive? what drinks do you have for kids? two notorious beer drinkers were not even asked if they were thirsty. At 4:30 the Australian family went on a game drive. Brownian motion is movement that accomplishes nothing, Addo didn't even have that. A brief discussion with management at least lead to a few free drinks. A troupe of monkey with dynamite would get more accomplished. Finally our game drive started at 5:15. It was a pretty weak game drive. We did see a leopard turtle and a black heron, but it was mostly driving the same route we walked earlier. The most exciting part was watching our driver, Mostaff, try and keep this rickety old jeep running. He was working the clutch and the gas like Fred Astaire.

Dinner was ham and beets. We all put away are phones and had a great time talking as a family. Crazy day which ended brilliantly.

Giraffe on the game drive