The lodge was fantastic, and the food was very good as well. The kids actually behaved, and the meal was a pleasant experience. (For those of you with two small children, you understand that if you go through lunch without repeating, "Stop that. Sit down! Don't blow bubbles!" then you've had a good time.) Then, our waitress said we should go down to the wall overlooking a field, as that was the next part of the brunch.
We walked to the wall and looked as Zebra, Warthogs and Wildebeest walked by. Crazy Little Man almost ran into this little boy, and I quickly stopped him and apologized. The little boy looked at me and said in a South African accent, "Are you an American?" I confessed that yes, indeed I was. He then asked, "From America?" His father, looking at him as if he was soft, said: "Most Americans are from America, you know." Feeling sad for the little boy I then said, "Well, Canadians and Costa Ricans are Americans too." The guy grunted at me and walked off. He did have a lovely Mullet though.
Suddenly, everyone quickly turned and faced the field, as two men drove three elephants up to the wall.
A large tub was placed behind us filled with whole carrots. The ranger in charge explained that we should place the carrots in the elephants' trunks so they could eat them. Also, not to sit on the wall because if you don't have carrots the elephants will pull you over.
So everyone raced to get a carrot to feed the mama elephant and her two baby elephants. (Daddy was probably watching soccer or cricket. Not sure, really.) Everyone that is except for my two kids, who were scared. Lovely English Lass took a carrot, gave it to Lovely Little Girl, and showed her how to hand it to the elephant. She was a bit scared, but after petting the trunk, and watching the elephant use the trunk to grab onto the carrot and put it into his mouth, both Crazy Little man and Lovely Little Girl were hooked. They ran back and forth getting carrots for their new 2 ton friend. As LLG gave a carrot to the little elephant, I reached over to give his trunk a pet. I was thanked for this by him sneezing on me. Nice.
Gesundheit!
After about 20 minutes, the carrots were gone, and the two men again drove the babies and mama back to their area on the lodge. Crazy Little Man, who earlier had told me he didn't like elephants because they were scary, talked and talked about how much he loved feeding the elephants. Considering his issues with texture, this is a definite good thing.
All in all, a really great family outing. And to think, it was all because of a show in the UK that stars Hayley Mills. Crazy country we live in.
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