The elephant in the room has left the building

This last week, we joined Emron in his weekly trek out to the bush 3 hours north of Johannesburg. We stayed at a lovely hotel situated on a game reserve near the mine where he works every day. The chalets were charming and the kitchen staff fell in love with Wendy since she kept sneaking into the kitchen. You can check out the hotel website here.

We saw bushbabies at night jumping above our dining table--and they are REALLY cute. Since all it did was rain, it was too muddy to go on a game drive to see the giraffes and wharthogs. We hope to go again when it is sunnier.

However, on our last day, we did drive out to the fourth largest game preserve in South Africa. (I think after third largest, guidebooks should just say "one of the largest." Anything beyond third might as well be seventh, eleventh, etc. Am I right?")


That was just juice in Sarah's sippy cup, we swear.

We saw zebras running in the hills, rhinos far off in the distance, giraffes eating tree leaves, and tons of bok types--we think they were variations of kudus.

But the most awesome sighting was a magnificent dark brown male elephant with beautiful ivory tusks. He was just hanging out and we almost thought/yearned that he would walk over and talk to us. He took a rain check, literally, because right then it started pouring and we booked it out of there, hoping to get to a paved road before the dirt ones turned to slush. We got a flat tire and Emron changed it in the rain. I think it was worth it in retrospect. In the moment, however, I don't think Emron would have agreed.

Unfortunately, only the bok pictures turned out, so the elephant will remain a hazy mist in our memories...since the picture turned out really hazy.