23/2/11

Marylou came down with what I had but braved through it to endure an awesome day of safari at Kwantu Game Reserve. We made it to Kwantu for half 12 following a quick fuel stop in Grahamastown.

Our first fun of the day involved interacting with African elephants. The Zimbabwean guide provided us with plenty of information before a few more of the guys dragged the four, young, female elephants from their afternoon walk. There was lots of room for the big beasts to stroll about in the enclosure but these girls were the lucky ones. They cull the populations in the wild in some areas because there are so many they smash down villages and leave a trail of destruction. So these guys 'saved' these from the areas where populations are being culled.

It was quite an amazing experience seeing how the trainers had taught these juvenile elephants so much. How to kick a football, sit, parade, show off their trunks, who knows what they will be able to do with a few more years!

We then got to feed them. It was incredible. All we had to do was pick up a handful of the gnosh and handle the elephants trunk up gently. I went a bit further and got my hand in their mouths. Their tongues were huge and sloppy! Was even handing them some food to their trunks which they would snort up from my hand and then ram into their chops!

The elephants were boiling in the scorching midday sun and we learnt how they store some muddy water inside their trunks to spray over themselves later when they need cooling down. We ended up on the end of a few mud splashes!

Deeply satisfied by the experience, we followed them back to their watering hole where they were joyfully splashing water all over themselves.

Down the road we went to the game reserve where we were welcomed by 'Lucky'. Most of the black guys like to give themselves some kind of funny touristy nickname. We've had fireman, lucky, giraffe, happy to name just a few.

We waited and had a starter at this superb five-star resort before 'Wilfred' (see, another name blatently not Xhosa!) took us on our game drive. It was unforgettable.

Marylou had told Wilfred (which each letter he said stands for one of the animals' names eg. w for wildebeest, i for impala, l for lion) that I wanted to see a lion. So he made me sit in the front and he brought a tracker for me to use. Sure as he said the tracker worked to find the only two lions in the reserve which weren't far from the resort. The tracker beeped when held in the direction of the male and female lions and Wilfred, to satisfy my requirements, went proper off-road and steamed the 4x4 over bushes and rocks and deep vegetation to where the lions were relaxing underneath a tree. And he got close! You feel quite vulnerable so close to these big killers! It's a lot different to driving around the safari park!

Off we went out into the bush in search of elephants and buffalo (which we didn't find) but we came across plenty of wildebeest, bontebok, springbok, impala, reedbuck, burchell's zebra, warthog (with babies which most of these animals had with them), waterbuck, eland, kudu, giraffe, rhinos, cranes, a leopard tortoise and ostrich. Again, instead of watching at a distance, Wilfy drove straight over the plains giving the 4x4 some good use and getting us up close and personal with many of the types of deer, giraffe and zebra. The animals weren't tame or anything either, most would run away if you got too close.

I was in the front of the car, top-off, enjoying the scorching sun all day. And it was to get even better.

We got taken around the lion, white lion and tiger pens, and to get them off their perches, I kind of made them go a bit wild. I started running up and down the fences and they got angry. They jumped up, following me up and down, some of them even just ready to pounce at us (the young males), who were just really aggressive! They were actually bearing teeth. The keeper told me not to run (oops) so I got the impression that the fences couldn't have been that safe! They then explained how they feed the lions only occassionally because when they release them into the game reserve, they want them to become back to what they were like in the wild, so basically them not becoming lazy and losing their instinct to hunt and kill prey (as opposed to waiting for a man to throw them some chunks). But before they could release them, they needed the prey numbers of the deers, zebra etc to expand.

Marylou was sick a few times but she stayed strong and kept going and if what we had wasn't enough, we got to hold baby tigers and see the baby lions. The guy again was warning me as without my top on, to the lions, they just see me as fresh meat. But I fancied my chances against a one-metre babby, and cuddled the stunning tiger cub. In a girly voice, they were sooooo cute! Especially the tigers high-pitched raptor noises!

All of this today was about the price of 50 pounds and to round it off came a five-course meal with lamb, chicken, burewurs, salad, potato salad, soup, scrumptious desserts, hot drinks, appletiser, grapetiser, alcohol-free wine which was delicious and bottled water. What a day.

And driving back we saw a group of bushpigs in the wild. Yep, I think that was it....

24/2/11

Lazy last day with our fantastic friends Marylou and Simon, whom we made peachoffee and a braai for on our final evening. Jack, Mike and Heidi did horse riding on the beach, I missed out. But we did have one last relax on the beach and the braver ones endured the colder water.