July 2, 2012

 The missionaries were eager to go to the Addo Game Park on this P-day.  I had a lot of stuff to do and was hoping the weather would cooperate with my scheduled and be rainy, but the Elders won this time, the weather was good and so we went.  Our adventure started when I learned the Elders hadn’t researched how to get to the park, but only had a general idea on where it was. When I learned this, we were too far from home to go back, so “no worries mate”, off we go. 

Elder Scicluna has learned to speak a little Xhosa so we figured we would stop at one of the local farms and ask the workers where we needed to go. Good idea, they knew exactly how we could get to the park and proceeded to give directions. With new found confidence, we were off again to see what adventures and sights lay ahead.  We turned off the main road and hadn’t traveled more than a few minutes when “adventure” found us. I have taken some back roads in my time, driving my truck in quest of a good camping spot, wood to cut, or a Christmas tree to find, but never have I taken a compact car filled with people on a back road that continued to worsen, in the middle of somewhere in South Africa, with no real idea where we were going.

I thought, Hey this is going to be fun!!!!

We had traveled about 10 kilometers, when we encountered a full size game gate across the road. We pulled up to it and a security guard approached us. I tried to explain to him in my very best Kings English that we were trying to get to the Addo game park. I have no idea if he understood anything I was saying, because I didn’t understand a thing he said. He had a clipboard with him on which he proceeded to write down our license plate number, had me sign his sheet and then opened the gate for us. He was very polite and waved as we drove by, but I swear I saw a slight smile and a laughing look in his eyes as we drove away.

We only drove a short distance when I realized that the road we had been driving on, before we went through the gate, was a proverbial highway compared to what we now were encountering. As I tried my best to negotiate the lunar landscape we were on, my mind went back to the ever so slight smile and laughing eyes of the guard we just passed. We must be the source of some great entertainment to the locals and especially that guard. I’m sure we gave him a good story to tell his friends and family about these crazy Yanks. I think he still might be laughing at us.

We drove for quite a while without seeing another person. I was beginning to wonder if we were all alone. Then, off in the distance I saw a vehicle coming. Good we’re not alone, there are others out here. The vehicle was moving fast. It was a big truck coming fast toward us, A BIG TRUCK full of oranges coming fast right down the middle of this “too small for big truck to be able to pass a small car full of people road”. Now I’m no timid driver and can play a really good game of chicken with the best, but I don’t think this guy was going to play fair. People tell me I don’t have any common sense. Well I’m here to tell you that they are wrong. I do have common sense when needed. I just have been saving it for times when it is needed, like now. I pulled over as tight as I could into the brush and stopped, just as the truck flew by bouncing oranges out with every bump. That guy never even slowed down, I wonder if he even saw me.

We survived!!!!! 

As the road worsened my mind began to think of all kinds of things. Can this road get any worse? No don’t think about that, if I think about it, it might happen. Maybe that truck driver was going so fast because he was lost too, turned around and wanted to get out of here before it got dark. No it is too early to worry about getting dark, it must be something else. Maybe the road doesn’t go anywhere, but I’m not a quitter we’ll just have to see where it does go. I wonder who would have made such a bad road. If this really is the road to the game park, I bet they don’t get any return visitors. Why don’t they fix it up some? I wonder if they want it to be this way. What if it’s all part of a grand South African plan? Thy didn’t have enough money to build a game park, staff it, bring in animals and feed them so what did they do? Maybe they built the refuge, fenced it with locked gates on the roads, put animals on it, and then sset a trap. We’ll advertise it to tourists, make the roads so bad that they either break down or get lost and then run out of gas. Then, when they try to walk out, the lions get fed. No.. stop thinking like that.. we’ll, find the real park any time now. What’s that up ahead? It’s a sign at a crossroads. Good now we’ll know where we are and where we should go. Darn, the sign is in Afrikaans, that doesn’t help, nobody in this car knows Afrikaans. Well we’ll just keep going. Be strong, because if there are lions out there watching, we don’t want to look timid, weak or lost. That will get them all worked up, they always go after the weak ones. Is my mind playing tricks on me again or do I see another gate? Did we somehow get turned around and are back to where we started? Doesn’t matter we are going to get out of here either way. 

We survived again!!!!!

As it turned out we had been directed to the back way into the park which must be only used by crazy truck drivers hauling oranges or lost foreigners. Once inside the real park, we started to see what we came to see. There were lots of interesting birds

small animals, mirror cats, impala, wildebeest, springbok, waterbuck, kudu, eland, black back jackal, bushbuck wart hogs,  monkeys, mice, a few zebras 

Wo..wo..wo..a huge herd of elephants crossing the road ahead of us!!!!  No, they were  not ahead of us but all around us.

It was amazing…we just hoped they didn’t want to walk across our car. 

Our missionaries, Elder Scicluna and Elder Dale, were both eager to go out and get pictures.  However, when they did, one elephant took exception and started after them.  Elder Dale bailed reasonably quickly, however, Elder Scicluna, always the over eager one stayed a little longer. Whenever the elephant took out after Elder Scicluna I honked the car horn. This made the elephant backed up a step or two.  That was interesting.  We had elephants basically all around us.  Some walked very close to the car,…only two or three feet away. It was a very exciting experience.  Elder Dale was hoping to see elephants and Elder Scicluna told him not to be disappointed if he didn’t.  There was no disappointment this day!! It was a great day at the game park!!