12-21-2006

[Quick Side Note: Dad reminded me that Brett's mother's name is Pam. I never addressed her as such so I kinda forgot it.]


I'm still not quite acclimated to the time change or the weather. Coming from ice storms and snow to the hot 40+ degree C (104+F) days is a bit of a shock. I've also found myself waking up around 5.30 and wanting to go to bed around 8. At home I usually go to bed around 2 and up at whatever time I need to be.

Today we (Brett, Gareth, Murray and I) went to the zoo. It is a rather small zoo but they had some nice animals. There were a few though that I had not seen before. Namely, the white lions and Puff Adder. We had lunch there as well. Toasted bacon sammiches and milk. The sammiches were OK but I didn't like the milk much. It was too warm and rich for my liking. I'm an ice-cold 2% kind of guy. The zoo also has a house that they give tours of. It's the home of the second mayor of East London, John Gately. It was pretty and all but nothing I hadn't really seen before. The biggest excitement came as we were just about to leave the house grounds and go back down the hill to the zoo. Just across the path were two snakes, one eating the other. Specifically, a brown house-snake was eating a mole snake. The four of us watched in fascination as three of the grounds workers watched in terror. They liked watching but were terribly frightened by the snakes. They stayed at least 2 meters back and usually jumped back another two if the snakes suddenly moved. Gareth explained that a lot of the black people in S. Africa are very superstitious about snakes.

I filled up my memory card at the zoo so I hope the one's from Uncle Steve arrive over the weekend (as far as I know, they're still out in limbo somewhere). This weekend we're going to Port Elizabeth to meet the rest of our Cederberg crew. Monday is Christmas and the day after that is when we leave for Cape Town and then on to the Cederberg. So, unless they come tomorrow or Saturday, I don't think I'll get them.

Here's some of the photos from the zoo. I'm not going to caption all of them.

This is the Springbok, the national animal of S. Africa (and the highest rank in SA Scouts). They're about 1m tall but can jump terribly high. I tried to get a better picture of one but they were not cooperating much.

Here's the Brown House-Snake (after sliding into the bushes).

There's no tall enclosures or anything of that nature here in this zoo. You get to get up close and personal with the wildlife.

These are the white lions. You really only see them in captivity b/c they've lost their camouflage.

Tiger, tiger burning bright!...

Ferocious!

Just to let you know.. I didn't use zoom at all with this shot. The pen was maybe 3.5' tall. I could have easily reached in and touched the croc.

Today's Entry in the SA/A (South African/American) Dictionary: Lekker - nice; delicious (not always concerning food)

Ex: This pie is mmm... lekker!