Lesotho, etc.

Oops, it's been awhile. Since last update:
We stayed 2 nights in Wilderness just lounging around. It was a cool hostel with nice people, so why not? Then we headed to Addo, and the next day into Addo Elephant National Park. It's a great place, they started with only 11 elephants and now have over 400, and we may have seen them all. Just kidding, but we did see a lot. As well as a lot of kudu, warthogs, birds, a few zebra, some ostriches, AND a dung beetle!! We were very excited for that one. Also, just as we were leaving the park with no hope of a lion sighting, there were 3 just laying by the side of the road. They actually looked so cute, it was tempting to try and get out for a quick snuggle...but we didn't. There is a photo of a cute ellie down below, as well as a shark that didn't make the cut in the last post.

Our new friend

Coming towards the car, but still cute

After we left the park we drove towards East London. The goal was to stay at a guest house on a nature reserve that we heard great things about, but they were full. So instead we drove on to Chinsta and stayed at Buccaneers Backpackers, which we heard was the "best Backpackers in South Africa". Maybe it would have been, if it wasn't freezing with torrential rains. We did get a cozy cabin with a deck overlooking the ocean, but again, the rain. Oh well, can't have great weather all the time. Below is a photo of me learning to drum in the Buccaneers bar.

After we left Chinsta and went on to Bergville and after an 11 hour drive landed at Amphitheater Backpackers in the Drakensburg Mountains. We took a tour with them to Lesotho, so we got another country! Lesotho is a very poor country and we went into to a rural village for the tour. We visited the primary school that was built wth the money from the tours, so that was cool. dint then took a hike very high into the mountain. We got excellent views and almost passed out...not running any marathons out here. We also saw old painting on the rocks from the stone age, drank homemade beer (I faked a sip, it looked like pink vomit), had traditional food, and visited a traditional healer. It was a good trip, and very interesting to see another side of Africa. Photos below, one of the mountain and one of their traditional round homes.

Now we're in Blyde River Canyon for the night before heading into Kruger tomorrow. I'm not sure if there's Internet in there so if we're off the grid awhile it's either that, or we got eaten. So, cheers!!