On Wednesday we drove out to a wild animal reserve and had a taste of the Africa many people envision. We saw several types of bucks, impalas, lions, cheetahs, wild dogs, ostriches, zebras, warthogs, crocodile, meerkats, buffalo, hippo, and tigers (though they aren’t African.) Sidney got to “play” with some lion cubs that were about two months old. Two of them were white lions, which are quite rare. They were very soft and pretty gentle with her.
We also saw a guy doing a little weed-eating. I must say, they couldn’t pay me enough to do this job. I am sure the lion appreciates it (as he licks his chops!)
On Thursday we visited another reserve very close to Regina and Bill’s house. There we saw more deer, bucks, etc., and got to see giraffes. There were some very cute baby zebras, which I will mention in a minute again. We also got to do some four-wheeling, though Regina didn’t want to push it too hard with the kids and us in the truck.
One note on the game reserves – the animals roam a natural area freely. The reserves that have predators generally keep them separated from the other animals. In the first reserve we visited, all the animals receive some feeding but in the second reserve, they forage naturally. The reserves act as a way to protect the animals from human encroachment and the humans from being eaten in their backyards.
We were going to visit an elephant rehabilitation center on Friday but didn’t quite make it in time. Instead we visited the monkey rehabilitation center next door. There were several species from Africa and South America, as well as lemurs from Madagascar. The center has only been open about six months, and it is very nice. The animals are starting to socialize in groups and act like they would in a natural habitat, though some are a bit “friendlier” than others.
After the monkey center, we went for a spectacular lunch at a restaurant called Carnivore. We’ll give you one guess here as to what is served. We had chicken, pork, beef and lamb, as well as exotic meats like crocodile, kudu, and zebra. The zebra was probably the most surprising, being very tender, moist and flavorful. It made me think back to the baby zebras we’d seen the day before and view them in a little different light.
We went home and had a nice little swim, then decided to go to a drive-in movie. A mall near the house has a drive-in on the upper deck of the parking garage, and there was a double feature of “Old Dogs” and “2012.” I must say, it was a little surreal to think about watching movies at a drive-in under an African sky.
Saturday was more of a “relaxation” day. We visited a mall that would rival almost any “outdoor” style mall in the U.S. and had a very nice Italian lunch. On a side note here - Kimber and I are almost overwhelmed here by a) the prices and b) the “normalcy” of the shopping (according to our perceptions.) There are a lot of brands we find in the U.S., and it is refreshing after eight months in Norway to see them again.
After shopping, we came home and packed for Cape Town (our next blog post) and spent the evening in the pool. We played a little water volleyball, though our longest volley was only about six exchanges. It was fun, though, and it worked well to cool us off and wear the kids out. The evening ended with a relaxing thunderstorm as we went to sleep.
Next blog post – Cape Town!
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