Hippo hooray

This morning was our last game drive and last chance for me to see hippos.
Our poor ranger, Allen, knew it was more than his job was worth to disappoint me, so went all out to find them.

The first watering hole drew a blank, but the second (which was close to where we had our sundowner last night) hit the jackpot.
We approached as slowly as we could, but they still spotted us and made a dash for the water.
I counted 7 in the water; Allen said they spend most of the day in the water as their skin is sensitive to sunlight.
We watched them for about 15 minutes, just bobbing up and down for air. I was so happy to have finally seen them and it was a good end to our stay at the reserve.

Our last night is in Port Elizabeth, which we were told was a 'shithole'. Indeed, the bit we drove through to get to our hotel was pretty disgusting; we've not seen any litter while we've been here but it all seems to have collected in PE.
The hotel is on the outskirts of town in a nice little area, so we will stay around there tomorrow and explore the local sights before we are picked up for our flight home.

I fell in love with America on our first trip there, but this place has really grabbed a hold of my (& Mr A's) heart; it just feels right, like we belong here.
We've certainly much to think about when we get home.

Tonight's blip is of our last 'sundowner' on Port Elizabeth beach. I got some good shots of the hippos on my camera, but the iPhone wasn't great, so I'll add the link to Flickr once I've uploaded everything :-)