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American Spirit II - Day 327; Last Day of Safari Includes Cheetah and Eland; & a Special Dinner with a South African Couple; Friday, November 28, 2014



Up at 5:00 AM. Light breakfast; then we depart on our last range ride at 6:00 AM.

The first thing we see, only a couple of hundred yards from our compound, is a small herd of Common Eland Antelope. This is the largest antelope in Africa and has an ox-like appearance with a fawn to tawny-grey color. The male or bull develops a large 'dewlap' on its throat and lower neck. This dewlap is a large sagging sack of skin. Males are twice as large as females, reaching a weight of up to 900 kilos or almost 2,000 pounds. In ancient days, the African Bushman, to become a man, had to hunt and hill an Eland; a task that took three days of tracking after it hit the animal with a slow acting poison shot from an arrow.

A minutes later we drove up to a group of 15 Zebras. A good start for the day.

Next we came upon a walking Cheetah. We followed her (it was a female) for a while before leaving it. A very nice looking animal to see walking. The end of a Cheetah tail is apparently unique to each Cheetah, like fingerprints; so that its young can follow it easily thru the tall grass. And its spots are not on its fur but actually on the skin under the fur.

Next we saw an elephant on a hill far away; then a Yellow Mongoose. A fairly small, usually reddish-yellow to tawny-yellow in color. There are 8 types of Mongoose in Africa. Next were two running Red Hartebeest's; followed by 4 grazing Red Hartebeest's. As we were looking for lion, we came upon lion and hyena tracks in the sandy roadway in the process. Then more Warthogs. They are apparently everywhere.

At 7:50 AM we stopped for our morning coffee, tea and a snack. A half hour later we were on the hunt again for lion.

Besides more warthogs, we saw a green snake called a 'Boomslang' that our guide said was one of the top five most poisonous snakes in Africa. Our guide said that the one we saw was very large, compared to what is normally seen. He tried to catch it to show it to us, but it took off at a really fast pace. I Googled it later and found out that 'boomslang' means 'tree snake;' and that it is the most venomous 'rear-fanged' snake in the world.

We were back at our compound at 9:05 AM, where we packed as we were leaving at 11:30 AM today.

Breakfast was at 10:00 AM, then we were driven to reception to await our transport back to Port Elizabeth. We departed at noon and arrived back at the boat at 1:15 PM.

Once at the boat Tommy from Alpheratz told me that the weather at the marina when we were gone was quite windy and wavy; and that winds were up to at least 45 knots, if not more. Marco, on Civetta II, stayed up two nights dealing with the weather. Apparently a boat next to them suffered a snapped line. Tommy said that lines were parting all over the marina. That's the reason we put out more lines before we left. Also, a ship in the harbor only a quarter or half mile from us, was loading magnesium and it blew all over the boats in the marina, including ours. When you touched a stanchion or piece of stainless, your hand came away black. We hosed off what we could, but will probably need a good rain to get rid of most of it.

Joel and Jeanine napped for a couple of hours while I worked on the computer.

Chris, a high school graduate and friend of Chuck L. in Tampa, picked us up at 6:40 PM and we stopped at a grocery store on the way to his house. I needed to pick up some eggs, coke and bread for the boat; and he picked up some items (presumably) for dinner. I also picked up a bottle of wine. Due to the low cost of food and liquor here, the bottle of whine cost me under $4.00. On the way to Chris' house he gave us a tour of 'old' Port Elizabeth, showing us homes that were built in the 1820's by the Dutch.

Once at Chris' house we met his wife, Helene, and two dogs. Dinner was cooked on a brick grill in the back of the house. We sampled some great Australian wine that Chris poured for us while the food cooked. In America we would call the cooking of the food a BBQ; in South Africa is called a Braai. Dinner was fabulous and included ostrich steak, fish, chicken, sausage, potato, curried green beans and pecan pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert. It was interesting to talk to Chris and Helene about life in South Africa, pre and post apartheid.

When being driven back to the boat, we had a delay in getting thru a security checkpoint at the port because the security officer controlling access told us that the Algoa Yacht Club Marina was now closed for the evening. It took a few minutes to explain that we were sleeping on a boat in the marina.

We arrived back at the boat at 10:05 PM. Joel went went to bed at 11:20 PM while Jeanine and I stayed up a little later. We had an early day coming tomorrow as we're getting up at 5:00 AM to leave at 6:00 AM with Civetta II for Mossel Bay, 189 miles away.

Brian Fox



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