We left Thursday afternoon with the Skyview Church Team and
Scott our animal expert/braii master (Scott works at the Seed and a braai is
like a barbeque with less potato salad and more meat than you could ever
imagine) It’s about a three hour drive which was long and hot, but full of fun
and fighting between dad and I over whose music would be played in the car…
“Music died in ’89!”… That’s his only argument.
Anyways, 5 minutes into our time at the camp there was a
warthog sighting followed by a chorus of “a wimoweh a wimoweh a wimoweh a
wimoweh” in one of our first numbers from the Lion King Soundtrack. It was impressive.
We saw a few more animals on our way into the park which was cool, but not
nearly cool enough to be mentioned in this paragraph. We got settled in our
chalets which were super nice and lovely minus the bugs and the unidentifiable
cat sized thing that jumped on Shelina in the middle of the night. We had a
braai prepared for us by Scott which was quite impressive because preparing a
braai is an art form. It requires skill, timing and a great resistance to the
meat sweats.
The two full days we spent there were long and filled with
driving and animals, some of my favourite moments included:
-
Our up
close Rhino sighting: We saw a whole lot of Rhinos on Friday, almost to the
point where we were becoming Rhino snobs and we were caught saying things like “Come
on, another Rhino?! I’m sick of seeing Rhinos.” But at the end of the day,
there were two giant Rhino’s on the side of the road that we were literally 20
feet away from. It was both terrifying and exciting and I got some golden
pictures that will be shared on facebook in the near future. So awesome.
-
Elephants:
They are HUGE and beautiful and so scary up close. We witnessed one of them
knock down a tree and it made me a little worried for our safety in our tin can
Avanza.
-
Lions:
Dad had been to the game park twice before and had yet to see any cats, so I
wasn’t holding my hopes high for anything, but we saw 4 lions Saturday morning
at about 6:30! There had been a kill nearby and there were vultures circling,
hyenas and lions watching it all unfold. So wild.
-
Cheetahs!:
At this point we had seen Elephants, Lions, Rhinos, Water Buffalo, Nyalas, Wildebeests,
Giraffes, Zebras and so many other animals, that we felt like we had gotten our
money’s worth. But then all of a sudden out of the blue we got the bonus of
three cheetahs sitting under a tree. They are so lean and so beautiful and they
really gave me a new appreciation for non-human life. Haha
All in all it was so great and crazy to be 20 feet from
animals that could kill you if they wanted to. We also got to know the team
better, now I know that Gary Henderson is a mad man and totally fearless (which
I’m not always convinced is the best thing for his safety. Ha!) And Shelina is a lover of animals and can
remain totally calm when faced with what could be a traumatizing event. It was
such a blast and I can’t wait to come home and bore you all with a million pictures
of animals you don’t care about! And then to make it fair you can show me
pictures of your pets!
xo
Alanna
This animal-centric entry was pretty solid. I'm not the biggest animal lover either, but I enjoy wild animals like the kind you encountered and your brief tales of encounters with them entertained me greatly. Once again, I am jealous. There was even an emotional component as you touched on your relationship with animals prior to this post. Solid return. 8.2/10.
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