The animals in the park

We had many unforgettable moment in the park surrounded by the animals. Here are some pictures of the ones that I've seen.

The sleepy lions.






The running elephants. There are 240 elephants in the park, so it is impossible not to see them.





A red hartebeest. There is something mysterious about these animals, but I haven't quite figured it out yet, what. They seem somehow unreal.









The ostriches. They are not too clever: the guide told us, that if a lion is chasing an ostrich, the ostrich runs maybe 20 meters, then thinks that the danger is over, stops, and the lion just comes and eats it.




The burchells zebras. They are a bit more difficult to see. We only saw them twice from a long distance, and then on the last day we finally saw them closer.






The warthogs. These were one of my favourite animals there. You see them easily, and they are so ugly that they are cute.




A buffalo. You wouldn't want to make him angry!







A back-backed jackal. You only see these very early in the morning and when it's dark.










A bokmakierie. These yellow birds are really pretty.








A kudu. There were a lot of these. This is the animal that the Africans like to eat, and they also make beautiful jewellery of its horns and bones. (But they don't hunt it just to get the bones and horns.) You can find out how old a kudu is by counting the turns in its horns. This one is about 6-7 years old.






A leopard tortoise. Usually they don't move much, but we noticed that they get very active in the afternoon. This one is almost running.





We even had the privilege to see a tortoise having a shit. I know, it's disgusting, but it was just so funny!






A gorgeous bird that I don't know what it is.








And last but not least, my favourite: flightless dung beetle. The ball that he is pushing is made of elephant's dung and it is the same size as a tennis ball. So you can see, the bug itself is also big. They roll their dung balls on the roads and you are not allowed to drive over one. When they are on the move, the roads are full of them, and you really have to be careful not to kill one.


There are still some more animals, that I have seen, but I don't have pictures of them.

A day out in the sea (25.3.2009)

After seeing many thing in the park and its surroundings, we wanted to see the sea side of Port Elizabeth too. We found out, that there is one company, which takes people on whale watching cruises. So we gave them a call. It turned out that they didn't do whale watching at this time of the year, but that they would take us to the Penguin Island to see penguins and that we might also see some dolphins. The only problem was that the would need at least three paying customers to give the cruise, but because the boat owner "had his soft spot for the Vikings", he decided to take just the two of us on a cruise anyway.

So very early in the morning we started to drive towards Port Elizabeth and the harbour. At the harbour we met a talkative man in his fifty's, his son and a girl who voluntarily works for the company. They had a twenty people yacht with two big motors, and we got the luxury to be the only passengers on the boat! After them giving us short safety instructions, we left the harbour to the sea.


Even though we weren't supposed to see any whales we saw a pride's whale. It appeared and disappeared very quickly, but we saw it! We also saw a lot of penguins and birds fishing for their lunch. And I even got to climb on the roof of the boat and see the views from there, and I really enjoyed my being up there!


The Penguin island was an amazing place to see, even though that it was just a rocky mountain in the sea, where the penguins live.


On the way back I spotted a school of dolphins swimming in the sea, and we stopped there to see them for a while.


And just when we were about to arrive back to the harbour we saw a seal. So we were very lucky to see so many creatures living in the sea.

To see the dolphins even closer, we yet went to The Bay World, where they have fishes, sharks, dolpins, seals, penguins, snakes, crocodiles and tortoises kept in captivity.

And ones we were in the city, we went to do some shopping to an African flee market on the beach and bought some souvenirs from there.

The African hiking experience in Zuurberg Mountain (22.3.2009)

It was a pleasure to drive around the park and see all the animals there. The only minus point in doing that was that you had to stay in your car. We wanted to really experience the nature in South Africa and decided to drive up to Zuurberg Mountain, which is part of the Addo Elephant National Park, and go hiking there. Here are views from the way up to the mountain.



We had read in the brochure, that they have two route potions, a 1 hour trail and a four hour trail. We had first thought that we'd take the 1 hour trail, but then we changed our minds, because the people at the gates told us that the 4 hour trail is much nicer, and that it is not difficult to walk at all and that even old people can walk it within 4 hours. Ans so we started to walk. The picture below is taken from the beginning of the route.


As we walked on the scenery turned more and more to a forest like. Here are a couple of pictures.



It turned out that the route actually took us 400 meters down to the forest surrounded by mountains. From the next pictures you can see how it looked like down there:



What was different in the forest compared to the forests in Finland?

- The climate. + 30 degrees felt so hot in the forest that I'm not sure if we would have survived alive without our 7 liters of water.

- The butterflies are almost the size of a bird.



- The animals. We bumped into to two baboons. The first one was just a small one, but the second one was big, and he was really trying his best to scare us away from his territory by making different scary sounds. We just stood still until it stopped, and then as slowly and as quietly as possible we continued our way.


- The bugs. Can you see the green stick attached to the back bag? Well, it really isn't a stick.


At the half way of the route there was a really small but beautiful natural pool, by which we sat and ate our sandwiches. It was also nice to wet out heads and rinse our faces with the refreshing water.

It started to look like we would definitely not be able to walk the whole way during four hours, but we weren't too worried about it because we still had 3 hours time before sunset. But at that point we didn't know what was still ahead of us.

At one point of the route we had to climb over a fence and walk across a private field and through a dining cattle. I can tell you, that I was more scared of the cows that I was scared of the raging baboon!

Of course, because came down to the forest, we had to climb back up to the mountain. And this time it was really steep, and the burning sun didn't make the climbing any easier. Basically we walked from one shade to the next shade and had to sit down to rest after every 15 minutes. Here is one picture taken from the way up.


When we finally reached the top of the mountain we had been walking 6.5 hours and we still had a couple of kilometers to go. It was getting dim as the sun was just about to go down.





Just before it got really dark, an African man called Elliot, who works for the park, walked towards us and told that him and two other people were looking for us because it was getting dark. And so he guided us back to our car and on the way told us many interesting things about the African nature and its animals. The most "interesting" thing that he told us was, that there are leopards living in the Zuurberg Mountain. When I heard that, I was really happy, that it was only a baboon that we saw!

Elliot also told us, that it happens a little now and then that people don't come back on time from the trail, and then they have to look for people there. And sometimes people are so weak when they finally find them, that they have to come with a jeep as close as possible and drive the tired hikers back to their own car. So we weren't the first ones that they had been looking for there.

Lesson of the day: when an African says that a trail is easy to walk, don't believe him. It may be easy for them, but it won't be easy for an European!

Addo Elephant National Park

As planned, we were staying in a forest cabin in Addo Elephant National Park. The cottage was much like a Finnish summer cottage: it was made of wood and it had a simple path room. There was no kitchen, but a communal kitchen was just around the corner.If there had been a kitchen, you could have cooked a fine meal of all the bugs you found in the cottage. There were lots of them! Here's a picture takes from the outside of the cottage. It was impossible to get a better picture because the cottage was surrounded by thick bushes. Notice the fridge on the terrace!

We had thought, that it would have been more primitive there, but it really wasn't. Cleaning ladies came every morning to your cottage to wipe the floor, wash the sink in the path room, make your bed, take the trash out and on some days they even did our dishes!

There was a tourist shop, where you could also buy some food stuff, and a restaurant in a walking distance, where you could have your African food experience by having for example a kudu stea. (I'll introduce kudu to you later). For now I haven't eaten any of the African animals, so I can't tell you how it tastes like.

The wide (and luckily fenced) game area was right next to our cottage. There you could go driving around in your car and see the animals. And I can assure you, there are a lot of animals there! You also could go on a guided game drive in a big safari car.

On those days when you just felt like relaxing, you could go to the pool and enjoy the sun. Not so many people went there, so usually you got to be all alone there. If you were lucky, you could get company from the tortoises that crawled into the pool area.

As a conclusion, I have to tell, that the service in the park was very professional, kind and trustworthy. There was nothing to complain about, but so many things to thank about.

Port Elizabeth and the challenge of driving a car which has its wheel on the wrong side

After we had arrived to Port Elizabeth, there was only one thing on our minds: get a car and get into a hotel to sleep. We rented a nice Toyota Corolla 2008.


The car was spacious, handsome, it had air conditioning and everything that you could ask for. But it had one small disadvantage: the wheel is on the wrong side of the car. But what can you do? You just have to learn to drive it. Here is a list that are good to keep in mind, I noticed!

1. Drivers: enter the car from the right side. Passengers: enter the car from the left side. Extra tip for the passengers: do not follow the driver to the right side of the car. You'll look really stupid if you do that.

2. The gear stick is on your left. You'll learn to remember that when the knuckles of your right hand are on bruises because of hitting the window with them.

3. The blinker is on the right side of the wheel. It is of course ok, if you try firt the lever on the left, but you'll only start the windscreen wipers by doing that. And that looks really clever, especially when it is +25 degrees and the sun is shining from the cloudless sky.

4. When you have anyway started the wipers instead of the blinker, you shouldn't let the embarrassment disturb your concentration on your driving. Why? It is for sure, that you'll now find the right lever quickly, but you'll forget that when turning to right, you'll press the lever down, and when turning to left, you'll push it up - and not the other way around as you are used to doing it. And this is the moment when the drivers in the other cars will shake their heads; first she starts the wipers, then she blinks to the right, but anyway turns to the left!

5. How to make sure you are driving the lane you are supposed to be driving? Just remember, that you (the driver) should always be next to the line that divides the lanes and not next to the ditch. Complicated? Yes, I know. It is really easy to look like you are a drunken driver when you - regardless of all the effort you make - still end up driving the wrong lane a little now and then.

6. After you have learned to remember all this, you should note that left is still left and right is still right.

After all we got to our hotel (Hotel Paxton), which was a really nice one, and I was so happy to get to sleep in a bed instead of the benches at the airport.

In the evening after a good sleep we went to a restaurant called Cafe Brazilia to eat and to celebrate my 30th birthday. This place actually became our favourite place to eat in because of the delicious food, great service and the relaxed atmosphere. And they even have one waitress from Estonia!

The journey to Africa (13.3.-16.3.2009)

When I decided to travel to Africa, I didn't expect it to be easy. I just thought that at least there would be no trouble on the way there. It turned out that my patience was going to be tested a little bit earlier than I thought...

Friday's task: Fly to Stockholm.
Trouble: Too heavy baggage.
Solution: repack some of my belongings to my aunt's bags in Sweden.

Saturday's task: Be full of energy and go aroung the city with your aunt.
Trouble: I had fever.
Solution: never mind the fever.

Sunday's task no. 1: fly to Munich and spend there 8 hours waiting for the connecting flight to Cape Town.
Trouble: I still felt sick, I had slept only 45 minutes last night and I got the most terrible stomach gramps.
Solution: find a cozy bench in a non-crowded place in the airport and go to sleep. When you wake up after a couple of hours, and you realize that you are definitely not alone anymore, you can't do anything else except wish that you haven't snored, drooled, whined or farted while sleeping. (Why are these people staring at me?)

Sunday's task no. 2: Get yourself on the Munich - Cape Town flight.
Trouble: A huge airport. Where do I go? (Well, I managed.)
Trouble: I didn't have a return ticket from Cape-Town and I was almost prohibited from flying to South Africa because of that.
Solution: explain your situation.
Trouble: The official at the Stockholm Airport had made a mistake concerning my baggage and because of that the offocials in Munich ran after me two minutes after they had first finally let me check in. My baggage had to be re-checked in.
Trouble: The security control official noticed that I have a swiss army knife in my hand luggage. I really didn't put it there on purpose!
Solution: explain, explain, explain, and you'll finally get to keep the knife.

Monday's task: Get yourself through the passport control in Cape-Town.
Trouble: No return tickets to Finland.
Solution: Prove that you'll leave the country within three weeks and tell that you have a friend and an aunt in South Africa. Don't bother to mention that "the aunt in SA just arrived 6 hours ago. Tell where you'll be staying while your stay.

The last flight from Cape-Town to Port Elizabeth went without trouble.

Yippee! I made it to Africa!

Ready, steady, go!

My backpack is now packed, and I'm just about to step out of my home and catch a bus to the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. I feel calm and determined - even though that I also feel like I'm just about to jump off an edge of a mountain, and have absolutely no idea into what substance I'm going to land. I don't feel sad at all. I know, that I have to go now, and there's nothing to cry about that; my dream is just about to come true.

But what did it actually take to get to this moment? Here's the story.

March 2008

I arranged my summer holidays so, that it was possible for me to go and started going through options on where to go and what could I do there - where ever it would be.

July 2008

I made my decision on the destinations, booked flights and the projects that I'd be volunteering in.

September 2008 ->

I went on a Swahili course. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to concentrate on that properly, which means, that I will have to carry my Swahili studybook with me in Africa.

December 2008

I started taking inoculations. By March 2009 I have been vaccined against hepatitis A & B, polio, meningococcus A & C, cholera, typhoid, salmonella and yellow fever. Atleast those. I'm not sure if I remember them all now.

January-March 2009

I competed my TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) course and got my TEFL teacher's sertificate, got visas, got an international drivings licence, rent my place, and did all the other arrangements that still needed to be done.

11.3.2009

My first day off from work. I woke up with an acheing back, having fever and cough. Regarless of that I got up, went to the hairdresser (a girl would never travel away for a long time without having her hair cut...), went to meet my dad and brother, came back home, went to see a doctor (got antibiotics against an unidentified illness), came back home, cleaned up, and did some last minute arrangements.

12.3.2009

Did more laundry, carried a lot of things into a cellar (to get space for the person who is living in my flat while I'll be away), went shopping for necessary items to take with (and don't even want to think about the amount of money that I spent), had lunch with friends, did some more laundry, packed a bit, went to the sauna and almost burned my skin there (I thought that it's better to do it properly since I won't be having sauna for a long time).

Now

I'm going. Bye!

P.S. If you like singing karaoke, or like to watch cartoon characters make a fool of themselves, or like to learn funny dance choreographies, you'll love this: In the jungle.

Farewell dinner - thanks and a poem

I had an unforgettable evening with my friends yesterday; thank you all for coming to my farewell dinner, and thank you for the presents that you gave me!

Two of my dear friends, Laura & Heidi, had found a poem written by Francis Duggan, and modified it so, that it was perfect for my card. It was such touching piece of poetry, that I wanted to share it with my readers. Here it is:

She'd love to live in Africa

She'd love to live in Africa
in the land of the Maasai
And with the tribal people dance
under the moonlit sky
The rhythmic drummer beats
his drum and the dancers rock and sway
She'd love to live in Africa
twelve thousand miles away.

The hungry male lions cough and roar
in the African night
And the sounds of galloping hooves and zebras
whinnying in fright
And the elephants are trumpeting
and the the wild hyaenas scream
And to live in distant Africa
has always been her dream.

Now her dream is coming true
And she'll be in Africa soon.