Wednesday, Sep 25th leaving Swaziland-finding giraffes by side of road

Today we leave Swaziland. It seems like each time we stay in this beautiful place we never have a chance to really enjoy all the beautiful grounds it has to offer. We said goodbye to the place and headed out for our seven hour drive back to Durban. There is not much to see on the drive, but after we get out of the city into the country, we keep our eyes peeled just in case.

In this case, nothing to see. We got to the border and had to wait in line to get our passport stamped and then crossed over into South Africa and did the same thing. We are world travellers now, so it is becoming routine.

As soon as we cross over into South Africa, the roads become so much better, cleaner, plus more foliage along the streets and less dirt. The difference is amazing. After a little while driving in South Africa, Elder Kyle said, "Are you looking for animals?" I told him that I knew we were not going to see anything but cows; however, I began to look when we got to fenced areas that were close to game preserves. All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something and when I looked it was a giraffe (They are hard to miss). I told Elder Kyle that I saw giraffes back there and he did a U-turn and we went back and pulled over to the side of the road where I saw them.





There were two giraffes, eating the tops of the trees. We could only see their ears peeking out.

 



 I took pictures from the car window and kept seeing more giraffes. We saw about ten of them total.








It was quite a sight. One was totally into eating the tree and all we saw was his backside.


















One of them swung his neck around and chewed on his back.










 


Two were walking together. More were in the trees.












We looked down the way and there was a water source with several impalas surrounding it and a warthog.
















The impalas were far away, but I used my zoom.













This one was posing for me. We were pretty excited to see all these wild animals. I cannot complain anymore about not seeing anything but cows and baboons.








Well after all this there wasn't anything that could compare, but I did see some beautiful trees that resembled the Arizona paloverde trees. The trunks were light green and yellow flowers were starting to bloom. The way the sun was shining on them made them seem ethereal. I can't explain why, but everytime I saw one it made me happy...they were like glowing beacons by the side of the road. I thought I was in a Narnia movie or something...ha. I wish the pictures could convey, but alas they cannot.








And other than driving a long way to get home and going to get groceries to hold us over, that's the end of our Wednesday and out trip to Swaziland...Whew, it was a really good trip.