Yowsa!

I should have been posting to the blog for the last three weeks, but sometimes one gets so into doing things that they forget to document exactly what they did (hence the entire purpose of my job--to make up for undone documentation!).
I'm in Durban, South Africa. I arrived here last Sundy for a conference on health informatics and an open-source medical record system, on which I'm currently developing a case. The conference was really interesting, but what was really awesome was my trip to Hluhluwe Park this past week.
Myself and four others from the conference rented a car and drove north about three miles to a beautiful park. We drove around in the afternoon, and spotted a variety of wildlife--small groups of zebra, that alternated between turning their butts towards us or posing for the camera, giraffes that looked at us quizzically but never stopped munching, and grazing buffalo, which while they sound like peaceful animals, are one of the most aggressive and dangerous animals in the park. They were one of the "big five", the animals that South Africa strove to exterminate in earlier years (along with rhino, elephant, leopard, and lion). The animals, while clearly wild, had no qualms about letting the car drive up right beside them. I've never gotten so close to animals in the wild, much less, huge, exotic animals in the wild! Impala and Nyala, both deer-like creatures, were also visible grazing in various parts of the park.
We checked into the hotel and ate a quick lunch on the top of this mountain, looking out across a valley. Just before sunset, we hopped back in the car and drove to a water hole, where we found a dozen white rhinos. This was doubly lucky--they are a very endangered species but thriving at Hluhluwe, but much less aggressive than their black counterparts. Nonetheless, I stayed in the car. On the way back, we stopped for a look at a hyena napping in the distance (one of the few times in my life I've really wished that I had binoculars), and then, we had to stop because an elephant was crossing the road, and decided to stand in it while he was eating! Hardly surprising--evidently they spend about 20 hours eating A DAY. Man, I envy that schedule (though not the diet, they seem to really like tree bark!).
Off to enjoy the city--more soon.