My days out the Game Parks
I don’t think any trip to South Africa would be complete without a trip to a game park. It’s always been on my list of things I’d like to do and I’m pleased to say that I was not disappointed. I have been privileged to go on two wonderful drives this trip. The first, last Sunday, we organised ourselves with the help of the local tourist information office. Kariega Game Reserve is a private reserve, quite local to the school.
We spent the day in what I think is called a ‘land cruiser’ a sort of open topped Land Rover with 10 seats –. It was driven by Judy, a young slip of a girl who came from England. Typical, I come all this way to South Africa game reserve to be driven by someone from Bournemouth!
It was a good day to visit the park because the weather, as usual was overcast, and there were few tourists. We were well wrapped up, so didn’t mind the cold too much, and, I know this is very British, but I think we were all quite grateful that it wasn’t so hot. Sitting in the bus in full sun would not have been at all pleasant. The first half of the journey was quite sedate – we saw water buffalo and zebra, waterbuck, Ostrich and several different types of buck. Then we were given a choice – either we could carry on at a sedate pace and see the rest of the east side of the park – or drive like a bat out of hell to see if we could find the Lions and the Elephants.
The was no choice – it had to be the Lions. So we set out on a theme park type ride of epic proportions. As we slipped and slid up and down mud trails, off road and through streams, Judy drove the bus as though it was a racing car. She had a great time and laughed, at the sight of me, grim faced, holding on so tight to the roll bar in front of me, that I lost all feeling in my fingers. We were so high up we were drenched as we drove through rain clouds but finally, after what seemed to be at least 3 hours, we turned a corner to find a lone bull Elephant grazing in a valley. He took absolutely no notice of a very muddy bus of spellbound, wet and windswept tourists, as we took, copious photographs, our cameras destroying the total silence with their electronic beeps.
We left the Elephant to his solitude and headed over more muddy paths to find the Lionesses. Luckily they had been spotted earlier in the day by another game warden and we were able to find them sitting in a patch of buttercups relaxing in the warm sunshine that had managed to fight its way through the clouds at just the right moment. What struck me was how like my own cats they were (or is that the other way around). Sitting cleaning themselves, totally relaxed in this beautiful setting, they could have been my two at home, sitting on the sofa in front of the fire. They were so totally different that than their cousins locked up in the Zoos back home.
Our Trip to Adowa the next week was much more relaxed thank goodness. Although pleased to have the experience of the game drive, I don’t think anyone wanted to repeat the experience. One of the Cadets Ralph, drove us in the nice warm and dry school bus. The game park was quite near Port Elizabeth, about an hour and a half away, and was famous for its Elephants as well as the other ‘big five’ animals. Adowa has the most incredible scenery, great rolling green hills and wide flat valleys and what bliss – proper tarmac roads. Once again we saw assorted varieties of buck, Kudu, Zebra and Warthogs, that were cheeky little characters who ran and jumped by the side of the road as we passed. We saw Monkeys playing in the trees, Wildbeest and a whole troop of Elephants. It was another wonderful day, this time the weather was kind to us and we were able to enjoy the experience of being in the most beautiful country in the world.
The game park also housed an excellent restaurant where I ate Kudu, which I’m ashamed to say tasted wonderful, and thank goodness, at last, a gift shop. The one thing that this trip to SA had lacked so far, was any decent shopping experiences. The local Pick and Pay supermarket at Port Alfred just didn’t provide the right ingredients for tourist shopping. Martine, Kath and I hit the gift shop like a swarm of Locusts – We got back to the bus a half hour later, happily loading our brown paper bags on top of the various medical aids that travel with us wherever we go.
Originally I was disappointed that both trips were scheduled to be on Sundays, and that I would miss my trips to church which I so enjoyed. But I really think there is no better way to worship the Lord that to spend a day experiencing his wonderful creation.
I don’t think any trip to South Africa would be complete without a trip to a game park. It’s always been on my list of things I’d like to do and I’m pleased to say that I was not disappointed. I have been privileged to go on two wonderful drives this trip. The first, last Sunday, we organised ourselves with the help of the local tourist information office. Kariega Game Reserve is a private reserve, quite local to the school.
We spent the day in what I think is called a ‘land cruiser’ a sort of open topped Land Rover with 10 seats –. It was driven by Judy, a young slip of a girl who came from England. Typical, I come all this way to South Africa game reserve to be driven by someone from Bournemouth!
It was a good day to visit the park because the weather, as usual was overcast, and there were few tourists. We were well wrapped up, so didn’t mind the cold too much, and, I know this is very British, but I think we were all quite grateful that it wasn’t so hot. Sitting in the bus in full sun would not have been at all pleasant. The first half of the journey was quite sedate – we saw water buffalo and zebra, waterbuck, Ostrich and several different types of buck. Then we were given a choice – either we could carry on at a sedate pace and see the rest of the east side of the park – or drive like a bat out of hell to see if we could find the Lions and the Elephants.
The was no choice – it had to be the Lions. So we set out on a theme park type ride of epic proportions. As we slipped and slid up and down mud trails, off road and through streams, Judy drove the bus as though it was a racing car. She had a great time and laughed, at the sight of me, grim faced, holding on so tight to the roll bar in front of me, that I lost all feeling in my fingers. We were so high up we were drenched as we drove through rain clouds but finally, after what seemed to be at least 3 hours, we turned a corner to find a lone bull Elephant grazing in a valley. He took absolutely no notice of a very muddy bus of spellbound, wet and windswept tourists, as we took, copious photographs, our cameras destroying the total silence with their electronic beeps.
We left the Elephant to his solitude and headed over more muddy paths to find the Lionesses. Luckily they had been spotted earlier in the day by another game warden and we were able to find them sitting in a patch of buttercups relaxing in the warm sunshine that had managed to fight its way through the clouds at just the right moment. What struck me was how like my own cats they were (or is that the other way around). Sitting cleaning themselves, totally relaxed in this beautiful setting, they could have been my two at home, sitting on the sofa in front of the fire. They were so totally different that than their cousins locked up in the Zoos back home.
Our Trip to Adowa the next week was much more relaxed thank goodness. Although pleased to have the experience of the game drive, I don’t think anyone wanted to repeat the experience. One of the Cadets Ralph, drove us in the nice warm and dry school bus. The game park was quite near Port Elizabeth, about an hour and a half away, and was famous for its Elephants as well as the other ‘big five’ animals. Adowa has the most incredible scenery, great rolling green hills and wide flat valleys and what bliss – proper tarmac roads. Once again we saw assorted varieties of buck, Kudu, Zebra and Warthogs, that were cheeky little characters who ran and jumped by the side of the road as we passed. We saw Monkeys playing in the trees, Wildbeest and a whole troop of Elephants. It was another wonderful day, this time the weather was kind to us and we were able to enjoy the experience of being in the most beautiful country in the world.
The game park also housed an excellent restaurant where I ate Kudu, which I’m ashamed to say tasted wonderful, and thank goodness, at last, a gift shop. The one thing that this trip to SA had lacked so far, was any decent shopping experiences. The local Pick and Pay supermarket at Port Alfred just didn’t provide the right ingredients for tourist shopping. Martine, Kath and I hit the gift shop like a swarm of Locusts – We got back to the bus a half hour later, happily loading our brown paper bags on top of the various medical aids that travel with us wherever we go.
Originally I was disappointed that both trips were scheduled to be on Sundays, and that I would miss my trips to church which I so enjoyed. But I really think there is no better way to worship the Lord that to spend a day experiencing his wonderful creation.
posted by judith | 9:49 AM
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