Friday, December 14, 2012

Day 37: Adventures at the Pretoria Zoo

This morning looked questionable to start, but after double checking the weather which stated a 'slight chance of showers and thunderstorms', we decided to risk it and head out.  We got up and around and then hopped in the car to head to Pretoria (which is about 45 minutes from our guest house).  The drive there was pretty uneventful.  A little traffic, a little construction, but nothing too crazy - until we hit downtown Pretoria.  We got to see the crazy street signs that Bev had told us about.  She mentioned that South Africans like to rename streets (which wreaks havoc on GPS!) and that in Pretoria they just leave up the old sign, cross it out, and put a new one above it.  Can't make this stuff up.  Seriously, see?


The traffic was a little chaotic ans we managed to miss the parking entrance, but a scenic around the block lead to a successful second attempt! :)  We got our tickets and our map and we were off!  One of the first things we noticed (beyond the animals, of course) was that there were golf carts.  Assuming they were for workers, we moved on.  But no my friends, they aren't for workers....they are for people to drive through the zoo.  What happened to good old fashioned walking???  This picture is priceless.  Maybe he couldn't walk and eat ice cream at the same time??

Also, notice what side he is driving on.....at least they got that right! :)

We had lots of fun wandering around (on foot!) and seeing the animals.  We were especially excited to see the elephants, and they gave us a show!  Apparently it was too warm, so they were giving themselves a mud bath.


It is a pretty large zoo, so we backtracked to the restaurant for lunch.  After refueling, we headed toward the back of the zoo where some of the larger animals were.  Being mid-day, we did catch a lot of animals sleeping.  We were bummed that the kangaroos fell in that category!  There was even a baby joey!

My boys :)

In addition to the big hippos, they also had these pigmy hippos which are much smaller in comparison. We weren't sure if he was mad at us for interrupting his afternoon swim or if he was showing off.

Pygmy Hippo

Headed to Australia!


When we got to Australia, I immediately thought of Ingrid (one of my coworkers) who loves koalas.  She asked me if I would bring one back  if I saw it.  Hmmmmm.......do you think they would notice? :)  There were two of them who were also napping, but so adorable!!!


Another fun stop was the seals.  They were showing off - jumping up on rocks and flipping in the water.  Then this guy (or girl) started talking to another seal who was on the back of the enclosure.  It was so loud!



Here's Nicolas giving a little lesson on South Africa.  The test will be after we get home.  What are the national bird and mammal of South Africa?

Next stop was the Bird Gardens aviary.  We didn't really see that many birds and those we did see flew too quickly to photograph, but it was beautiful nonetheless.  Nicolas will tell you that I faced my fear of heights!  I definitely had sweaty feet (yup...I know it's gross), but I did it!  See how high up I had to start???

It's high, really!

Our last stop was the reptiles and aquarium.  Nicolas was excited to see the komodo dragons and both crocodiles and two giant alligators!  Just as we headed into the aquarium, we felt a few raindrops.  Nicolas' favorite part of the aquarium was definitely the two sharks, but we also spotted Nemo, Dori, and Gil from Finding Nemo.  Kevin already wanted to get a fish tank, so after that visit he is excited to get home and start researching.  It did, indeed, rain while we were inside - and quite a bit I might add.  We figured we missed it.  So, we hopped in the car and set the GPS for the guest house.

Let the adventure begin.  First, taxis do not care if they practically take you out - person or vehicle.  We watched a woman practically get hit crossing the road.  Minutes later, we sit in traffic because there is a stalled vehicle.  Turn corner - go one block and stop again.  This time, a semi trailer is stuck in the middle of the road and the middle of an intersection.  Turn left - go one block.  Now another work truck is stalled out in the middle of the road.  Geez!!  We are less than 2 miles into our drive home.  We finally get moving and the rain starts.  Then it gets a little heavier.  Then, monsoon downpour!  I wish I had taken video of it was heaviest - it was insane!!  Tons of cars pulled off the highway to wait for it to let up.  People had their hazard lights on and we slowed down to a crawl.  I took this video after it had let up a good deal.


Of course, the rain caused accidents - lots of them!  We saw a few going the other direction, but soon we also slowed almost to a crawl.  We couldn't tell if it was one accident or two, but the front end of one of the cars was barely visible.  Yikes!!!  Once we got past the accidents, it was pretty much smooth sailing home.  Nicolas had been drawing most of the time in the car, but piped up when he knew the song on the radio.  While he didn't know this one, he liked to dance to it!


Love this!

Whew!! We made it back from another adventure in South Africa in one piece!  We went out into the garden to see how high the river had risen from the rain and this is what we saw.


Wow!

Reminder, this is what it normally looks like:


It's amazing how heavily the rain comes down here and how it seems to flood everything!  It rained a little more while we ate dinner as well.  Even if the skies clear and bring us sun, I wonder if the pool will warm up enough for Nicolas to go in anymore before we come home.  I guess we'll see!!

One week left!

The Longstreets

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