I requested a 5.30am call as I was totally unable to find the alarm clock on my iphone (anybody got any clues?). However my confidence wasn't a 100% so I kept waking up every couple of hours and was actually up when the call came through promptly at 5.30. I had a coffee and read the paper and was duly picked up at 6.30. We went on to pick up a second tripper, a young Rumanian IT guy who had lived in the USA but had returned to Belgrade and was attending a convention and had a day to spare. The safari park is set a green oasis in the arid Karoo, about two hours drive from Cape Town. Whilst the weather in town was overcast and threatening rain, by the time we had driven across the Paarl Mountains and then through Wellington going through the wine making and fruit growing districts, we were in bright sunshine, albeit it was a trifle windy. Refreshments in the form of tea, coffee and biscuits awaited us at the Inverdoorn Game Reserve. We were then introduced to tthe tame cheetahs and their attractive keepers. These youngsters are looked after all day by the keepers and are only alone at night.
We were encouraged to come up to the cheetahs and stroke them. However we were told to approach them slowly and take off our sunglasses as they didn't like big eyes! I did as bidden and the animal purred, so loudly at times that it almost sounded like a growl! Our attractive blonde ranger Natalie then took us along to the 4x4 to drive us into the game park.
The first animal we found was a male lion - we failed to find the females (isn't that often the case!). Obviously we couldn't get too near and I used my zoom but the photo is slightly out of focus. However being my first lion in its natural habitat, here goes:
In case you fail to spot it at first it is asleep between the two bushes in the centre of the picture. Apparently not only does the lion sleep all night, it also sleeps most of the day - in fact 22 hours. We moved on and found loads of other animals.
In the first picture you can see a wilderbeest in the background (black) with zebra nearer the camera. Some of the female zebra are heavily pregnant. There were a couple whole had been thrown out by the herd and so teamed up with the springbok.
In fact there were all sorts antelope around, the names of some of them elude me. We next came across some hippo in a lake. Surprisingly hippo are responsible for killing more humans in Africa than any other animals. Their lazy yawns decieve people into thinking they are harmless when in fact they are extremely dangerous.
The giraffes provided us with a lot of entertainment. We saw several including a pair of teenagers who were playfully practising fighting by swinging their necks and hitting their opponent with their horns. The horns have tufts of hair on top of them. Apparently when the hair is nearly gone this makes them more attractive to the females as it demonstrates that they have taken part in numerous fights, which the adults do when they dispute their claim to a female. (I see now why you cut your hair so short Jim!).
Finally we went in search of the cheetahs in the wild. These animals can apparently attain speeds of 85miles/hour and accelerate to it in just 3 seconds. They also have phenomenal eyesight and can pick another animal out at several miles distance. With the strong wind that was blowing they were all lying down together under some bushes and very difficult to spot, but Natalie eventually found them.
We then had lunch out in the open, and our driver took us back to Cape Town, this time going through the amazingly long Huguenot Tunnel through the mountains. When we got back to Cape Town, Table Mountain wasn't visible for the cloud and the pavements were all soaking wet. Nothing better to do than compose this post, I thought.
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