Surfin' and smells!!!

This weekend, we stayed in a backpackers’ hostel in Jeffrey’s Bay, about 2 hours from Kwantu. I was hoping to go diving but there were no dive centres there after all :-( so instead, I had a surfing lesson!! Three of us had a go but the swell was actually quite big and very difficult to deal with so I admit that I gave up after about 20 minutes of trying! Donna also gave up but Claire was really good and managed to almost stand up on the board!

Unfortunately, 5 of the girls were moving on this weekend so we made sure we had a great final 2 days together. And the remaining 3 of us got back yesterday – though due to a lack of communication, I nearly got left behind in Port Elizabeth where there other 5 girls were spending the night!!!!

We started this morning by checking the fences with the ranger but the wheel fell of the pick-up truck! We got taken back to the reserve workshop and then went with 3 of the reserve staff to a town about 45 mins away called Alexandria – to collect a dead cow! It had been dead for a wee while and stank – yuk! The other 2 girls traveled back in the cab and I was in the back with two of the guys and the smelly beast – I don’t think I will ever forget that smell!!! When we got back, we took it to one of the lion enclosures and watched as they pulled it off the truck and tucked in!

We then took more smelly, dead bits of various animals (zebras and cows!) and fed the other predators – lions, serval, cheetahs, wild dogs and tigers. Finally, before lunch, we checked the fences and had a mooch around the reserve and the ranger took us to see the rhinos.

After lunch, we helped to collect bones from some of the predator enclosures – yes, bones!! We did the tiger/lion cubs, older lion cubs, serval, cheetah and wild dog enclosures! The cheetahs didn’t like me photographing them and they do this weird thing of doing a little jump and snarl to try to scare us off!!!!

Finally, we went to the elephant sanctuary to help prepare their food and that was the end of our working day!!

P.S. I found out that the tigers are part of a breeding programme but many of the reserves here have them!!