Lions, Tigers, Africa...OH MY!

This past school week didn’t bring anything that exciting with it, though Thursday morning brought with it some rain.  Shane and I opted to leave our bikes at home to try and catch a Kombi (normally they are everywhere) naturally we were unable to get one and ended up walking the thirty-minute stretch to campus in the pouring rain.  By the time we arrived both of us were thoroughly soaked and dripping.  Sitting through Xhosa was torture, but the day improved once we finished with it.  The sun was back out and not a cloud was in sight (after Xhosa Culture) so we sat on stairs by the food court and dried out for the hour or so before Tourism.  After classes that day we spent the rest of the night hanging out with friends at Annie’s Cove where we taught some people “ratfart” and “peanuts” and ended the night with more of Roman’s pizza!

Female and Male Nyala

            Most of Friday was spent coordinating our weekend plans and getting transport figured out.  We quickly discovered that an international drivers license is required to book a car with the company we had originally selected, so a couple of changes were in order.  Shane filled out a form online, pasted a couple of photos (picture of his Iowa drivers license, photo of himself, and a photo of his signature), and submitted it.  Surprisingly, the international ID was delivered to our house today (Monday)!  Back to Friday, we knew we couldn’t use the first company so we acquired the number of a family with an extra car (after a lot of back and forth communication with our friends) and were able to book with them.  

            Saturday morning started early (for us) at 6:45, as the car would be delivered at 8 o’ clock.  We had no idea what year the vehicle would be, but were not anticipating it being older than 10 years! 

Go-cart run by Gerbils

The car got us from A to B, so I guess I cannot complain too much.  The early 90’s or late 80’s Volkswagen Jetta was sometimes reluctant to open the rear passenger door and required someone to open it from the outside, it also had a brake that required extra effort (as in, it required you to mash it to the floor), and it had a tendency to vibrate while idling (which we did a lot of while driving through the game park).  Shane drove us from our home at Southport Road to Annie’s Cove, without too many issues.  I reminded him a couple of times to stay on the left side of the road (as everything is backwards here) and navigated a short roundabout.  When we arrived at Annie’s we were greeted by a drunken man, who incoherently talked about South Africa and asked about our origin (I think he may have said something about “Calfernya”-California).  To avoid him we had to go back into Annie’s and wait for him to walk away.  After that we were able to pile into the car (Scott drove) and stopped at some ATMs.

            The first destination was Seaview Lion Park, which was about a 35-minute drive from Port Elizabeth.  There were constant reminders to, “stay left,” along with two abrupt U-turns because of the poorly labeled roads here.  Somehow, we made it.  The first part of the park had us driving through open land with wild animals here and there (though no predators are free-roaming).  We were able to get some fun shots with a giraffe and other antelope/deer species.  The drive was rough, as the Jetta did not negotiate hills well, rest assured that those gerbils got a workout!  A short while later we found the beginning of the park 

where the adult big cats are kept.  It was odd here as the walkways were all sealed and we did not see even one employee!  We attempted to take a few photos here, but gave up pretty quickly.  We piled back into the car and drove up another challenging hill and came to the sanctuary where the cubs and café are situated.

            We purchased our tickets to get into the Lion, Tiger, and Serval enclosures.  The Lion cubs came first, after being told not to touch their ears, paws, or allow them to bite you, we entered.  These guys were pretty lazy and didn’t do much, though they were still adorable!  One of the males scratched me and started to bite at my knee (this is on video), but it lasted a short couple of seconds.  The Tiger cubs (two females) were much more active, though uncooperative in terms of photographs.  These guys had a small pool in their enclosure, which both visited and consequently got covered in sand.  Each time the Tigers shook themselves sand and water stuck to my legs. 

Galia - Female Serval

Lastly were the Servals.  Both of these cats were adults and were incredibly relaxed, though the female apparently does not care for men (thus Shane kept his distance).  At around noon we opted to eat at the café and enjoyed some Chicken/Mayo sandwiches (you can get them everywhere here), chips (fries), and a Coke.  We topped this off with the equivalent of fudge bars while sitting on the deck and ogling a Bulldog puppy that was playing with another table.  After all of us were fat and happy we climbed back into the “giant-vibrating-go-cart” and drove to the Kragga Kamma Game Park.

            We arrived after another U-turn and an incredibly bumpy road.  After purchasing our tickets we switched drivers (Shane was now behind the wheel) and headed out.  We were met with a plethora of deer/antelope, Giraffe, Zebra, and birds.  Our goal for this park was to see the White Rhino, which we subsequently found at the very end!  The Cheetah enclosure was interesting as we drove the entire circle with our eyes peeled and saw none; not until we were at the gate to leave the enclosure did we find the three of them hiding from the sun about 5-feet from our car.  Back on the trail, we came across a Warthog (subsequently named Pumba) who refused to move off of the road.  The Jetta made some protests to this as we were on a steep hill and shuddering heavily.  After Shane practically tapped the Warthog, she moved away along with her two little ones.  About halfway through the reserve we came to another café and found an Ostrich just floating amongst parked cars.  On the trail to the café we came across two Cheetahs in an enclosure and shortly discovered that we could pet them (Shane, Allie, and I promptly bought the tickets which were only like 5 dollars).  Mark and Monte met us with indifference.  They had been exposed to people since they were five months old (now four years-old).  These two were marginally softer than the Lions and Tigers (and calmer).  Monte scared me at first because he began purring when I started petting him and it sounded more like a growl, much deeper than Binx is capable of!  Mark gave Shane “kisses” by licking his hands with his incredibly rough tongue (apparently he has never done this to any women, just men).  We were able to get some neat shots with these two and were reluctant to leave.  After that we briefly traversed a monkey walk (only saw a very large grasshopper that Shane avoided) and got back into the car while simultaneously avoiding the Ostrich standing five feet from the passenger side.

 

            Back in the car we saw more of the same thing, until we finally came across the White Rhinoceros.  He lumbered in front of our car and continually came towards it causing Shane to freak out and reverse (this became difficult as there was a car right behind us).  After giving us all a rise in blood pressure, the Rhino moved off of the path and we were able to pass.  The drive back went smoothly and required a stop at the gas station to top off the tank and figure out how much everyone owed us.  While the attendant pumped the gas (you do not do it yourself here and you tip the man when he is done) we calculated the bill.  Scott, Annie, and Sarah got dropped off and Shane and I took advantage of the car and stopped at Superspar.  Typically we ride our bikes to the grocery store and load up our backpacks, which is a lot of work, so this was an opportunity that would not be missed.  After grabbing all of the heavy things we could we drove back to Southport, somehow managing to stay under the allotted 100km of free mileage we got with the rental (we ended up doing exactly 100).

            Sunday was busy as well as we spent the afternoon at the beach with a group of people alternating between swimming, sunbathing, and kicking a soccer ball around.  After a couple hours of this, Shane and I headed back to clean up before we went to Annie’s to have our first braai (grill-out).  We only brought a couple of things: chicken breast, fire-starter (kind of like a block of wax coated in kerosene), Coke, Pringles, and a Melk Tert (South African pie that tasted like vanilla pudding with Cinnamon sprinkled on top).  Scott did all of the cooking while the rest of us socialized and hovered around.  The food was very good and filling (finally)!  We spent a little more time there and made the short bike ride back home. 

            Today (Monday) won’t have too much going on though we will be watching our first Rugby match tonight.  This weekend we will be taking a “Frontier Trip,” so until then, more school and enjoying the beach!