Elephants and more elephants, as well as a few zebras!

Here's a taste of what you can see at Knysna Elephant Park.

Ellies do not like windy days and look for shelter just as humans do

Ellies love to munch - here is Mashudu

Ellies love to munch - here is Keisha

Ellies pushing each other to reach the barrier first

Big Mama Sally

Cape mountain zebras

2 beautiful ladies, Thandi and Keisha

Knysna Elephant Park

It was great to be back at KEP.
Some of the staff has gone but at least some still knew me.
Of course I got to see my friends, Geoffrey, Aubrey and Ndyebo again.
Thursday night we ate out at a nice restaurant in Plett and had a lovely evening there.

Ndyebo, front left, Aubrey, back left, Geoffrey, back right, me

Friday I went to Knysna, which is a sea resort 20 km away, with Aubrey and Ndyebo. Unfortunately the weather was not the best and it was too cold to go on a cruise so we left after 4 hours.

Aubrey, back left, Ndyebo, front right

Last night and tonight I am staying at Bekaru Lodge, a 4-star lodge. The bedroom is almost as big as my flat in Constance!!! Everything looks great in this lodge. The decoration is very nice. It is a really good place to spend a few nights. Once again I feel very spoilt!!!
 

Today I walked, 1.8 km, to KEP and spent the day there on the field and got to feed Mashudu 2 buckets. Lucky boy!!!

Mashudu!!!

Mashudu!!!

Bye bye Inkwenkwezi!

The next day I got up at 5 and Branden picked me up just before 6. As we had almost arrived at the gate of the reserve he remembered that no-one had given up the key to open the gate!!! So here we were on the one side of the gate and my cab on the other side. Branden suggested jokingly that if I felt like an adrenalin kick I could just climb over the gate!!! Of course, it would not have been possible or it is something I might have considered if I had a bunch of lions at my back. So he had to make some calls so someone would turn up with the key. Since we still had plenty time until take-off I did not worry. In the end I made it on time at East London airport.

The plane was quite small but not full. Since the weather was rainy, we had a bit of a shaky ride but by the time we reached Cape Town the weather had improved. At CPT I only had 1.5 hours before take-off for George Airport. As I arrived at the gate, the stewardess asked me, “Do you know how many you are on that plane today?”, of course I did not. She then said we were only 3!!! That was cool! The plane was even smaller than the one before but at least the flight went more smoothly. I even got to make some good pictures of the coast below. 

At George Airport I found out that my suitcase has not followed so I had to fill out a document and then luckily enough they managed to forward me the suitcase on the same evening. Zacchary from Dolphin’s cabs was waiting for me and then we set for Knysna Elephant Park (KEP). It is quite a long ride, because it is about 90 km away. I had a nice chat with Zacchary who is the younger brother of Johann, the owner of Dolphin’s cabs. Johann is the cab driver who drives around the KEP volunteers, so of course I know him too.

Last day at Inkwenkwezi

This morning we left a little later and met again the rhino of the previous day. This time Greg walked his way through the bushes and told us to do the same. So here we were, stalking a rhino! We saw it and he kinda looked in our direction so Greg said it would be better if we backed down slowly.
To sit in a big Land Rover and look at animals is very different from walking in the bush trying to stalk them! Basically you hope that all goes well because there is not much you could do to save yourself! 

After that we went on a long game drive back to the reception area.  We then got to interact with the 3 “tame” cheetahs. They are 2 males and 1 female, all siblings, who have been hand-reared after their mother had died. I love cheetahs, there are my favourite wild cats. I was standing right next to the female who lied there taking a nap. I did not want to touch it because I am already allergic to cats; so wild cats??? Anyway it was still great. They are such pretty animals and were completely relaxed and did not mind being petted. They even purred!! Not exactly like a cat, since it was a deeper sound but it was clear that they were feeling good. Right after that we had our lunch and then first went on a short game drive. 

We saw a big tortoise and we stopped there to look at it. I was impressed how fast it was actually moving. 

Then we finally found the mother rhino with its young ones. 

Finally we went on the walk with the elephants. The guides there repeated some of the stuff they had said at the other “elephant interaction” but since we were only 3 people we got to spend more time with the ellies. The young male we were walking behind is 13 and a real cutie!

Carole loves feeding pellets to elephants

Handsome ellie

As we were following our elephant the rhino mother, its baby and older child, just happened to be close to where we walked. Some of the guides were saying it is ok to walk past them while others feared that the ellies might have a go at her! For a few minutes I wondered whether we would become witnesses of a ferocious elephant attack on a rhino but the rhino mother was smart enough to leave with her children. So we could all relax! On the way back to the tents we saw a few warthogs hiding in the bush! These are very funny looking animals! But somehow I like them!!!

On my final night at the camp, I had a really nice dinner with the German couple and we chatted with the guides after as well and had a really good laugh. It really felt like family! Thanks, Michaela, Dirk, Branden and Greg!

Beach and more game drives

The next morning we decided to go and walk on the nearby beach and spent some time there. The weather was perfect, sunny with a light breeze. 
 

Cintsa Bay

Then we went back to the lapa to have lunch and I saw a few nyalas roaming freely around the building. I was just 2 meters away from them and managed to make a picture of the youngest one. 

Young nyala

After lunch we went on a game drive and stopped to say hi to one of the reserve ostriches. This one is a female and apparently kinda crazy because she sits down for mating anytime anyone approaches her. So here she sat and moved her wings as if she wanted to dance and we could come close and touch her!!! I touched her soft neck and it felt like a soft toy!! 

A very submissive ostrich!!

Greg was trying to find one of the rhinos and found some tracks he was able to follow until we came up to less than 10 meters away from an adult rhino with its horns shaven off to prevent poachers from killing it. He was busy grazing and did not pay much attention to us. It is a very muscular animal and you would not want to be on its path!

Just after leaving the rhino we saw several giraffes far way and stopped to take a better look at them. We did get some nice shots of them. 

As we walked back to the Land Rover we passed by 2 ostriches who were picking food from the ground. Apparently we were too close because one of them lifted up her head and opened her mouth before hissing at us like in some crazy vampire movies!!! So, of course, we backed down and left her alone!  A little later we had a sundowner with an incredible reddish sunset over the ocean. 

White and tawny lions and elephants

Sunday morning we went on a game drive around 9:30 and drove as far as where the white lions are kept. Several white and brown lions and lionesses live there within a very large enclosure. Since they have been hand-reared they cannot hunt and get fed local farm animals. I was not really nervous getting in there but as I saw how close Greg drove up with his Land Rover I did wonder whether it was such a smart thing to do!!! Basically we were 4-5 meters away from a resting white lion! His beautiful mane looked very clean to me. Whether he gets it shampooed every day?? Hahaha! Of course not, but he looked really stunning. See the pictures for yourself. 

Suddenly another lion called him and the two of them starting roaring at each other. The roaring was so deep that I felt the vibrations through the car door. Absolutely crazy! Then a white lioness came by and lied behind the lion for a bit before she went further. 

Another white lioness nearby was just rolling on its side to take a nap. 

To be so close to such majestic animals is really powerful. Of course real wild lions would not let us come that close. They would eat us first for sure!

Later we went to see the 3 elephants they have there for some “interaction”. There were 2 young males and 1 young female. We were only allowed to interact with the female elephant that day.

Carole feeding pellets to the elephant

A little cutie!

The elephants looked very beautiful. At first they had only brought in the youngest male and female. As we were listening to what the guide was saying we heard some loud trumpeting. The older bull had joined us and was a little upset at having been left behind while the others were getting fed yummy pellets. They trumpeted like crazy at each other and for one moment I wondered whether it was going to end well but soon enough they relaxed again. And we all were able to breathe again!

After the elephants we first went back to our tents to chill out a little.

My bedroom

My bathroom

Around 4:30 we went on another game drive. We saw impalas, wildebeests, blesboks, water bucks and nyalas. There were also some elands, the largest sub-Saharan antelope. 

Eland

Hungry lions

In the evening we went to see the lions again. This time the big male was having dinner and was surrounded by its pride, which means there were about 8 or 9 lions facing us and having a bite. 

Curious young lions

Some young males were curious about the Land Rover and were coming closer but Greg, our fearless guide, was really relaxed about it. We got to make great pictures but it was a very strange feeling to see all these pairs of eyes watching the car. 









 
Then the big male decided it was time for a big roar and he started roaring and several lions joined in. That was blood churning! 
I will try to upload the video when back in Germany.

 

Lion resting after its roaring

 
Thankfully enough we left soon after that because that early evening roar means “it is hunting time, guys!”. Although they do not hunt at all it is the time of the day they start being more active. So it was high time to go!

We went to the lapa where the restaurant is located. The German couple sat together and I sat with the two guides and we had a lot of fun chatting that evening. The other evenings we decided to all sit together because we all got on so well. It really felt good!