children's home in komga with jon, mike, jim, amy, mark, the volunteers, aunties, uncles, and the kids!

Our last stop in Komga was very important to all of us--we wanted to see all of the good work that Amy and Mark Rolfes were up to at the Children's Home.  We met some great people--five volunteers that had just graduated from Notre Dame, Aunties and Uncles who keep the kids in order, and of course the kids!

We had a fun morning hanging out with the kids who didn't go home during the school holiday that was happening when we were there.  Jon and I were able to secure a piece of metal from one of the tennis court stands that looked in danger of causing multiple wounds this year as kids were pedaling their bikes past it at top speed.  We were bending metal right and left, but eventually prevailed in moving the nuts that hadn't been spun in 20+ years.  Meantime, the kids were drawing pictures of me on the tennis court with rocks.  Each drawing surpassed the one before it until I was a long-haired caricature with huge breasts and a skirt, ha ha!  I was impressed with the playful creativity of the kids, but needless to say Mike was VERY impressed to the point that he had trouble keeping himself from laughing to tears.

Mark and Amy put us up for the night at a local lodge and we had some great Kudu lasagna that reminded me of all the times I ate my Dad's venison tomale pie.

This time in Komga sealed a great trip and ended our great adventure into the Eastern Cape of South Africa.  We then spent a whole day at the pool, playing tennis, and doing nothing at the mansion to make sure the boys were recovered for their long trip home.

Thanks a ton for coming down here Mike and Jon!  It made the whole South African experience more real for Amy & Mark and me & Jennifer--it is a long ways away from the people we care about and it means a lot!

Below is a joke to start the post, "continue the joke"

This is Mike's form of manual zoom--screenshot, zoom, screenshot, zoom, screenshot.  Killer look from the Dossie!

        

  

Jon preparing some extra food to bring to the Komga Children's Home.  If only we hadn't decided it was best to consolidate the fries into one of the trays, the salad into another, and the pies into another.  We could have just left them all in their trays!  Mike and I enjoyed watching Jon try to close these trays--the task was meant for more nimble fingers.

Jon and Amy under the Acacia Tree.

Mike using the universal tourist symbol.

Curious gazes from Jon, Amy, and Mike.

This is the ravine next to the lodge where we stayed in Komga. 

Looking out away from the ravine.

Must be a typical scene at the Children's Home.

addo elephant park with mike, jon, and jim

Rule number one on game drives:  don't get out of the vehicle.  Most tempting rule to break when one needs to find something in the back of the car:  Rule number one.  We had a good time breaking this rule when I was looking for the talisman Mike brought along to give us good luck.  We were having a relatively crappy game drive (nothing but zebras, kudus, and warthogs) up until this point and really wanted to see some lions--so the effort was to recover our lucky talisman, then we would begin seeing big game.  After a fruitless search I climbed back in the car and began driving around the bend...about 200 meters until we saw a pride of lions relaxing next to the road.  Yikes!  That is why you don't get out of the car, ha ha.

We had a blast seeing the animals, cruising around the park, and saving two German fraulines from a gigantic spider.  Good thing our ladies have us disciplined--we recovered the spider and left immediately to recline to a chapter from World War Z--the zombie epic that we were reading to each other in the car.

One of Mike's best sitings was a hare, sitting next to the road just behind a hill so that oncoming traffic could not see us.  We had time to pause for a picture, then get out of the way!

Other fantastic sitings included rhinos, elephants, leopard tortoises, kudus, and of course--the lions.

This makes me wan to eat a salad.

Or be a tortoise

Not a dung beetle though.

Imagine the scene in Money Python... "Run away!  Run away! Clip clop, clip clop, clip clop" 

shark diving and the tsitsikamma national park with jon, mike, and jim (jennifer was with the sharks too!)

These pictures of sharks top the charts on excitement during our vacation.  All  four of us--Jon, Mike, Jennifer, and Jim had a blast in the shark tank.  At one time Jennifer pinned herself against the back of the cage as a big great white shark came within 6 inches of the front of the cage--moving straight towards us!  Jon and Mike were allowed to go back in the cage for a second dive, but said most of the excitement was when we were all in the cage together.  There is one picture in particular, of a sham about to attack the bait from straight below that stuns me every time I look at it. These creatures were amazing to watch and we were so thankful to have a bit of good steel between us and them!

The second set of pictures covers our hike along the coastline in the Tsitsikamma National Park.  We hiked over many boulder fields, through dens jungle with vines all around, and past huge caves that once housed some of the first homo sapiens over 70,000 years ago.  We ended the hike at a 150 foot cascading waterfall that dumped it's brown, tannin-stained water into the ocean.  The mist, jumping schools of dolphins, rock pools to swim in, and the inescapable feeling of being a pirate about to bury treasure made the hike a great adventure.  

The next step of the journey took us to the mighty South African bush that is conserved as Addo Elephant National Park.

This was one of the smaller sharks if you can imagine that. 

That white belly gives them their name--the Great White Shark! 

This was not one of the smaller ones...

You an see that the wood is scarred from battle--there were a few sharks that dragged this fake seal under.  The bait guy would have to let the shark take the line until they realized they were eating wood.  I wanted to check the wood for teeth, but apparently they don't get stuck too often.

This is the picture that I couldn't believe.  The shark is perfectly positioned to attack from below.

cape town with jon, mike, jennifer, and jim

These pictures show the house and a grand adventure of a hike up Table Mountain.  We had a blast on the hike and continuously referred to Jon's shorter legs--encouraging him to push it hard.  Around 1 pm we prevailed and reached the summit--a long hike from Constantia Nek.  Jon agreed that Mike's background of being dragged out on 12 mile hikes for every one of his birthdays growing up may have had an impact on his enjoyment level of the hike.  Alas, we all had a grand time exploring and seeing the views.  Sorry this has taken me so long to post!

More posts coming soon about exploration outside of Cape Town!

This is the humble abode in which we stayed in for 3 of the 8 nights.

The view of Table Mountain from Jon's window.

Beginning the hike up Table Mountain--we made it all the way from Constantia Nek to MacLear's Beacon to the Cable Car, then down the Cable car to the city side.  Quite a hike!

Jon realizing for the first time that we're making him hike a huge mountain.  The strong goat legs weren't quite the ideal tool for following a Crowley up the incline.

We made it up to a steep cliff and covered about 1/2 of our elevation or so :)

Beautiful False  Bay.