11th May

11^th May Zebras & Reindeer Meatballs.

Mountain Zebra NP was inaugurated for the purpose of saving that type of zebra. Their numbers had dwindled dramatically as their habitat was taken over by farming. The stripes on the Mountain Zebra are more distinct, wider and don’t go all the way under the belly. They have a distinct dewlap which the plains ones don’t. There are now over 350 in the park. We have seen them in small numbers elsewhere.

Reidar & Ellen were waiting for us when we arrived mid afternoon. We had last seen them in Nairobi when we headed west to Uganda and they continued south. That was in 2008. It was great catching up with them and finding out the extensive areas they had travelled in Sth Africa in the mean time. They also leave their vehicle in SA and came back once or twice a year.

Unfortunately Ellen had a bad cold. That and the cold weather made us decide to hire a chalet for the 2^nd night here. As we were unpacking Ellen said to us that she was going to cook dinner tonight which would be reindeer meatballs in rich gravy. So here we were in a chalet in the park, a raging fire in the hearth while we sampled the unusual flavour of reindeer washed down with a sturdy South African shiraz.

Earlier we had spent the day in the park travelling the different loop roads looking out for the various animals. We saw antelope we hadn’t seen before namely the black wildebeest, blesbok, steenbok and grey rhebok, but seeing an aardwolf close to the road was a highlight. They are normally a nocturnal animal but this was in the middle of the day. Thought to be part of the hyena family they are the size of a large dog with distinct stripes running down their sides.