Long Live the Weekend

No matter where you are, there are never enough weekends. And as much as I am enjoying my job, I am already feeling the pressure of fitting in everything else I want to do during my time here in South Africa. And the longer I’m here, the more the list is growing... not shrinking. There are just too many fun and interesting things to do (poor me, right?)

But to try and start making progress, over the past three weeks, I’ve had three awesome weekends.

Weekend 1: The Durbs

Although hot sun and scorching savannah are the iconic images of Africa, Johannesburg is surprisingly cold (still.) I woke up this morning to 30 degree temperatures and wicked wind. It sounded like there was a ghoul in my apartment because the wind was whistling through the small gap in my balcony door. It was slightly alarming to my sleepy brain.

To escape the cold, three weekends ago, I took a one hour flight to the coast to spend a few days in Durban. Durban, the second biggest city in South Africa, is situated on the Southeastern coast on the Indian Ocean. It is a popular destination because of the glorious tropical climate and the lovely beaches. Even in the winter, Durban is still warm, thus the basis of its appeal at this point in time.

From Johannesburg to Durban

My friend and I stayed in an Airbnb up the coast from Durban in a sleepy little beach town called Umdloti. And It. Was. Lovely. We had a stunning view of the ocean right from the front of the apartment, and we were within walking distance of the beach and a number of bars and restaurants. There are wild monkeys in this area as well, and they are known to try and get into mischief around peoples’ houses. But other than seeing a few by the side of the road, we did not have any monkey encounters. Unfortunately.

View from the balcony

Umdloti Beach

There are also dolphins that frequent the beach, but it was the wrong time of year to see them. However, Durban is the busiest port in the country, so we saw a lot of tankers and cargo ships waiting to dock… just as good? No.

But the beach itself was nice. The ocean does get quite rough though as there is a sharp drop just off the coastline that creates big waves and strong tides. I swam a little, but not like I do at my beloved Bethany Beach. The beach also has a rather large tidal range, which creates some very cool tides pools where you can spy on the flora and fauna. I disturbed a rather large gaggle of crabs on one of my tide pool expeditions.

Tide pools on the rocks

Lots of interesting little coral

Crab being crabby

All in all it was a restful weekend, full of lazing around on the beach, reading good books (I’m on a Ray Bradbury kick at the moment, Grammy, since I know you’ll ask), and eating lots of food.

Weekend 2: Joburg Day

September 1 marks the first day of Spring in South Africa, which feels strange to me because A) its September, but also B) as noted earlier its 30 degrees sill. But in honor of the first day of Spring, Johannesburg holds a huge outdoor music festival called Joburg Day where the biggest musicians from South Africa are invited to perform. And they pack a lot in! Each artist only has about a 20min set so you really move through a lot of artists.

One of my coworkers was kind enough to make a playlist of music from musicians who would be performing a few weeks in advance of the show, so I was familiar with some of the music and could sing along with some of my favorites.

The festival was held about 25mi outside of Johannesburg at an old polo club, and thousands of people come, which is a lot of fun. Everyone brings camp chairs, beach umbrellas, and coolers, and just hangs out all day.

The view from our seats

You can go up to the stage to see your favorite artists perform, or you can stay under the shade of the umbrella and enjoy all the music from there as well. We went back and forth depending on who was playing. They shoot off confetti and huge balloons for the crowd to bop around, and everybody just stands wherever they are to dance ... it was a blast. J

Confetti cannon

Balloons in the crowd

Weekend 3: Hartbeespoort Elephant Sanctuary

Although all of these weekends I am describing were fun, I think I did save the best for last. Yesterday, my friend and I drove about an hour outside of Johannesburg to visit the Hartbeespoort Elephant Sanctuary. The facility also has a monkey sanctuary on site, called Bush Babies, which rescues mistreated or abandoned animals from all around Southern Africa. There are numerous monkeys on site, most of which are not native to South Africa, but are rescued from exotic pet trades or are “donated” by people who tried to keep them as pets and realized that, surprise surprise, monkeys do NOT make good pets.

Angry Capuchins did NOT want us to pass

The sanctuary also has 5 elephants at this specific site, but twelve total including the two other partner sanctuaries they have around South Africa. The elephants all have different back stories. Some were rescued from unsafe/abusive zoos, some were orphaned in the game parks and came to the sanctuary to be raised, some came from holding pens where they were awaiting shipment to China, and some even came from another “sanctuary” that was found not to be a sanctuary at all, but was mistreating the elephants.

I’ll just pause for a second to say that, sadly, this is not uncommon at all, where organizations pose as sanctuaries to lure in tourists, but are not taking proper care of their animals. Thanks to my sister, I’ve learned a lot more about this, and it happens a lot in South Africa. Especially with big cats, who get sold off the canned hunting facilities when they get too large to handle. I couldn’t believe this isn’t illegal, but sadly it’s not. Travelers beware.

Anyway, I did my best to research Hartbeespoort and the Bush Babies Monkey Sanctuary before going, and as far as I could tell they are a legit operation. I hope I’m not proven wrong in the future, but the experience on site was definitely positive. The guides and elephant handlers were knowledgeable and in tune with the personalities and needs of their elephants. All five of the elephants we saw have lived at the sanctuary for 12+ years, and will live there until they die. The organization had to open several other sites because they don’t have enough land to accommodate elephants at the sanctuary in  Hartbeespoort. They also explained that because these elephants never learned defensive skills, having never lived in the wild, they cannot be released because they would not survive.

Tag. You're it.

The guides spent a lot of time talking to visitors about elephant health, anatomy, and behavior. I learned a lot about elephants during this visit. For example, I had no idea elephants on have four teeth, two molars on top and two on bottom, and they shed their teeth several times throughout their life. Teeth are developed from the back and push forward as the elephant ages. Elephants have six sets of molars in their lifetime and as a tooth wears out through grinding, another pushes forward to replace it. The guide demonstrated this process by showing the elephant jaw bone and skull. You can actually tell the age of an elephant by looking at its teeth. In the wild, as the final set of molars break down, it’s harder for the elephant to chew and digest food, which means many wild elephants actually die of starvation or malnutrition.

Guide teaching us about elephants

Elephants molars

I also didn’t know that elephants don’t drink through their trunks. (Although I’m 99% sure that Dumbo does, so you fail Disney.) Other than picking things up, trunks are just used for breathing. Elephants can suck up about 6-9 liters of water into their trunk, but they then squirt it into their mouths. The trunk has 40,000 different muscles, which is insane, and the bottom of the trunk even has two little fingers it uses to pick things up. Or hold your hand, as I found out later…

During the visit, we had the opportunity to feed two of the elephants, who like to be fed but not pet, and interact/pet two other elephants, who either like or tolerate humans, not sure which. The fifth elephant apparently does not really like people, so he gets to hang out away from the group when there are visitors.

Chow time!

I’ve never been that close to such a huge animal before, and it was the coolest thing ever. Elephant skin is much more rough and prickly that I thought it would be, and the trunk feels so flexible and powerful. I think their ears are my favorite though.

Those ears <3

We had a moment

The elephant I got to pet was named Temba, and he was very patient and sweet. He even gave me a kiss on the cheek. It was a bizarre feeling.. like someone was trying to vacuum my face. But I loved every second.

Snotty elephant kiss

I got to walk around with Temba too, as he held my hand in his trunk. Such a cool experience.

Casually just walking my elephant

P.S. Bird Update

I think Humphrey is building a bird army to come take back “his” balcony. I’ve chased him away twice now in the time I’ve spent writing this. And he’s brought a friend. Things are escalating. I need backup.

Of course you realize, this means war!