Elephant Coast (no elephants)

Animal Count: cows, bushbabies (sort of)

To get to our next camp in Zululand, at False Bay by lake St. Lucia, we passed by small town Hluhlewe.  The only way I can remember how to pronounce it is to sing to myself the title song of an classic Judy Garland film: "Meet me in Shu-shlouie, louie, Meet me at the fair"

95% of South Africa's pineapple crop is grown in this area, but I guess it's the wrong time of year as it never materialized on our tableor in the market.  The main street of Hluhluewe is a bustling place.  Shops of varying sizes are lined up on one side, although there is no sidewalk to join them: one must walk out to the road and walk up.  There are small tables set up in between these places where people sell onions, or potatoes, or oranges. 

One the other side of the road are small huts with mostly hand-written signs advertising haircuts, cell phones, or electrical bits and pieces.  These are also accompanied by small tables of vendors similar to those across the street.  Cars and trucks park here and there, and people walk down the roa
d regardless of traffic.

Once we had replenished our bottled water supply, we got to our camp for the next couple of nights and found huge rooms and an outlook between the trees to the lake.  Beautiful.

 We arrived at sunset and sat out with a glass of wine and watched the light change, then switched our gaze to the stars, which are breathtaking our here. I wish I knew more about what to look at in the southern sky.  About 20 odd years ago we went for a wonderful tour in the dark in Ulara, Austratia, with a guide who gave us all sorts of information that we soaked up lying as we did on the ground, facing up.  About 10 odd years ago we were lucky to get in to see one of Peru's astronomical telescopes, bumping along a dirt road for an hour or so to get there by 2am, the darkest hour. There we saw Saturn's rings and Jupiter's moons and all sorts of phenomena, like the horse's head nebula and draves of various hues. But this sky is different. We can easily find the southern cross but it is in a diffferent place  I think I found Scorpio, but I can't be sure.  No one else on the trip knows more than we do so we just gaze in satisfied ignorance at the Milky Way, that swathe of white from one side of the sky to the other that we never see from home, living in a city. 

Then Griffiths calls us to the dinner he has made, a braai in the dark, and we are brought down to earth.