A windy day at KEP

Yesterday was a super sunny day and I got a little colour. Today is windy and there was some drizzle this morning as I got up at 6!!!!

Last night I ate out in Plett with 3 of my "buddies", Geoffrey, Aubrey and Andrew. We had a lovely time together and it was really nice to be able to chat about everything and anything and hear their point of view on animal conservation in Africa which is a topic I am very much interested in.

Andrew, me, Aubrey and Oom Geoffrey

On the way back to the park, our cab got stopped by a police car and I really wondered what could be the problem but the policeman just wanted a friendly chat with the cab driver whose uncle he is befriended with. Well, at least it was a good reason to be pulled over!!! ;oP

This morning I joined the morning walk again and I enjoyed hanging out with the ellies and the guides on a field very much. Later on I went back to the field with a bucket full of veggies and fruits so that I could feed the ellies again. It is a lot of fun, especially with Sally always stretching out her trunk so far out to catch any piece she can get. You feel their warm breath on your hand and it just feels good to me!
There were several schools visiting the park today. Some of the kids were trying hard to smile at the camera while feeling very much scared at the same time, standing right next to one of the elephants.

Mother and daughter, Nandi and Thandi

My Baby-bull, Mashudu

Tomorrow I will be leaving KEP in the early afternoon to take the bus to Port Elizabeth.

You will not believe my luck but sometimes the coolest things can happen in life!

I will be staying from Friday to Monday at Amakhala Game reserve, in the Eastern Cape. I had booked a tent in the Woodbury tented camp because all the other types of accommodation there were very expensive. As it happens, no-one but me would be at the Woodbury tented camp during my stay. So the lovely people at Amakhala suggested that I upgrade my stay to another accommodation, which is called Woodbury Lodge, http://www.amakhala.co.za/lodges/6-woodbury-lodge, a much fancier place to stay for sure, since it costs per night around EUR 100 more than the other place!!! So there I will be, staying in a better place for little money!!! Isn't that cool?
I can already say now that I am gonna miss KEP very much. Everybody has been very friendly to me, with many guides remembering me from last year. So, of course, I will be back since it is a bit like my family here. :o)
Wish you all a good evening wherever you are!

Back to where it all began!

Hello everyone!

I am back to SA, sitting on the terrace at the lodge at Knysna Elephant writing you these few lines.

I had a long trip and the flight from Zurich was a little shaky to start with - there was a thunderstorm from Italy to Tunisia - but soon enough I managed to doze on and off. I happened to sit next to a – not famous – French film director who is involved in making movies with foreign film makers. He was on his way to a conference in Jo'burg. I did not get his name but I definitely had an interesting conversation with him.

Important note to anyone going through Jo'burg airport: make sure to plan 2.5-3 hours to catch your connecting flight.
They have changed things around and to get from Terminal A to Terminal B took me much longer than before. I literally rushed from the plane to passport control, then to the luggage reclaim, then to Terminal B to check-in my suitcase and fetch the next plane. I only had 2 hours and it was almost too short.

To get a feel of the incredible difference in the landscape between the region around Jo'burg and the south-west, just check the following pictures.

 30 minutes flight away from JNB

 60 minutes flight away from JNB

 90 minutes flight away from JNB

 90 minutes flight away from JNB

 120 minutes flight away from JNB

At George airport, a nice chap was waiting for me. I told him that I had no time to get a SIM card at the airport so he drove me to a Vodacom shop in town to get that organised. Lucky me!
I finally arrived at KEP just before 3:30 and got to greet my good friend Geoffrey, the head of the elephant handlers.

After having taken a shower and had my dinner booked as take-away at the restaurant I waited for the ellies to be back from the field. They rushed into the boma to enjoy their dinner and lie on the new saw dust in their pens and I got to see Mashudu, my favourite bull, who has not really grown taller but a lot fatter than last year. ;o)

It was good to talk with some of the guides and very sad to hear about Fiela, who passed away last June as she was only 3 months old.

After having had my dinner in the bedroom I headed for the balcony overlooking the boma and sat there next to another guest from Germany watching over the ellies. Keisha was already sleeping and the others were munching their way through the pile of branches. I stayed about 1 hour there until they got the next feed and then went to bed to recover from the lack of sleep of the previous night.

No, Keisha is not playing dead. She is just sleeping.

This morning, Tuesday 17^th, I got up at 6 to go on a early morning walk with the ellies and spent 2.5 hours out on the field talking to my friend Geoffrey, having my picture taken with Mashudu by Wilfried and just feeling happy and relaxed in this beautiful scenery that you get at KEP.

 The ellies enjoying a drink at the dam.

 Mashudu enjoying his mix of fruits and pellets

 Giving Mashudu a rub on his trunk

 Putting the food right into the trunk

Then I went back to the lodge to eat breakfast at the restaurant after 9 a.m.

Later on I went to the orchard to have a chat with Aubrey, another guide there who is watching over Clyde and Shaka, the two big bulls. Unfortunately, Clyde will have to be moved to another place because he is getting more and more aggressive, but he is probably gonna have a better life at a nearby game reserve anyway. 

Tonight I am off with some of my guide friends to Plettenberg Bay. Don't know yet exactly where but Plett has a few good restaurants anyway.

It is good to catch up on the people and the elephants too. It is like being back home.

Wine tasting tour

Hi everyone!

Just came back from a wine tasting tour through the Stellenbosch region. Our driver was Niel Oosthuizen from Afrivista - http://www.winelandstours.co.za/- , a very friendly and knowledgeable guide.

We went to 4 wine estates:
Kanonkop:  http://www.kanonkop.co.za/
Muratie: http://www.muratie.co.za/
Solms-Delta: http://www.solms-delta.co.za/ 
Tokara: http://www.tokara.co.za/

At Kanonkop we tried 5 or 6 wines and the staff was very friendly, since it was just about 10:30 in the morning I wondered how I was gonna survive the rest of the day but somehow, it went fine!

At Muratie, we had four types of wine including a "Champagne"-like wine. Luckily enough we tried that Cape Vintage port wine - http://www.muratie.co.za/index.php?id=62 - I had fallen in love with last year, and it was - again - A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! Since they have a wholesaler in Germany, I did not buy a bottle there, I will buy it once I am back home. Hehehe!

View of the vineyards at the Muratie Estate

Lovely patio-like surroundings

Then we went for lunch to Le Pommier - http://www.lepommier.co.za/ - where I had a lovely vegetable lasagne with a lovely red wine and yummy bread. :o)

View from the garden of Le Pommier

Then around 2:30 we went to Solms-Delta for cheese and wine tasting and this is where I ended up buying 6 bottles of wine, of course I am not carrying them with me; they will be shipped to Germany, at a spot price of just above 70 Euros including packet and postage!!!! On top of that you buy 6, you get 1 free!!! Absolutely crazy!!!
Here are the wines I got: Amalie, http://www.solms-delta.co.za/wine-range/solms-delta/, Langarm and Cape Jazz Shiraz, http://www.solms-delta.co.za/wine-range/astor-range/.

View of the mountains at the back of the building

Then to round it up, we ended the tour at Tokara, a wine estate in a stunning location. I tried four different wines there but got to also try a dessert wine which just tasted soooo good that I could not resist buying a bottle of TOKARA Reserve Collection Noble Late Harvest 2011 -
http://www.tokara.co.za/wine/reserve-collection-noble-late-harvest/.

View of the vineyards with Cape Town in the background

Now people, DO not think I am going to organise a wine tasting event at my place!!! But I hope I will have made feel like coming to SA to try it yourself!

Cheers! ;oP

Bye Bye elephants!!!

Hi there!

Before I left KEP, of course, I got to have my picture taken with my fav ellie, Mashudu, a beautiful young bull of 5 years, a little plumpy but with beautiful brown eyes and eyelashes to make any woman envious!!! He is also very cheeky and playful.  I am just crazy about him!!!!

Mashudu with flat ears

Mashudu flapping his ears

News from Stellenbosch

Hi everyone!

I left KEP yesterday and arrived in Stellenbosch around 7 p.m. last night.

Today I went on a tour called the Four Passes. You get to drive over beautiful mountain passes. Here are some of the pictures I took.

Enjoy!

False Bay

Theewaterskloof Dam

Theewaterskloof Dam

View from Franschhoek Pass

Night watch with the ellies

Hi everyone!
Last night every volunteer had to spend one hour in the boma watching the ellies.
I had the shift from 10:30 to 11:30 p.m.
I got lucky since most of the action last night took place while I was sitting on my own on the first floor of the boma overlooking the pens where the elephants sleep. Here is the picture of the boma when the lights are on.

Boma

 

Since it was later in the evening I only had dimmed lights upstairs and the torch which I had to use every 5 minutes to see what the ellies were doing and note it down on a sheet. Almost all ellies were asleep, some standing and some lying on the ground. Suddenly I heard some noise against the metal bars, such as big elephant bodies rubbing themselves against metal-kind of sound. Then out of nowhere I heard a really loud trumpeting. I startled because in the boma, it echoes quite well! I turned on the torch and saw that Shaka and Sally, both third pen from the front, were awake and Shaka was standing on the far side of his pen on the left and Sally was doing the same on the right. It looked like both had some argument again - which is nothing new by the way!!!!
Then I turned off the torch and wrote down something like "loud trumpeting" on the sheet since we have to monitor the behaviour of the elephants in detail.
Suddenly I heard Clyde playing with the chain around its gate. So I wrote down "Clyde playing with chains". A few minutes later as the lights were still off I hear a loud noise like "wham-bam-crash". I turned on the torch again and saw that Clyde had broken the rope holding the bucket above his head, a bucket which is filled with goodies twice a week. Then he used his trunk to smash the bucket again the nearby door and made incredibly loud noises. Poor Mashudu who is sleeping in the first pen on the left got a "rude awakening" and looked completely bewildered as he tried to get on his feet. What a scene!
So far the night had been quiet with long and slow breathing of sleeping ellies, the loud cracking of ellies munching on branches and the very recurrent farting of one of the big grey bodies - at least once every 5 minutes!!!
But you know what? I just loved it!

Keisha showing her mouth

Mashudu sucking on his trunk

Here two pictures I took today.
I was out for an hour with the ellies this morning and they were putting mud on themselves because they were too warm.
In the afternoon I went to a place called the Wolves' sanctuary and walked right next to some of these animals. They had imported by the SA army because they wanted to crossbreed wolves with dogs but the crossbreeds did not turn out to be as agressive as the army wanted it so in the end the wolves remained in SA. They are such beautiful animals but not made for the SA hot weather. Shame!