The Last Night

Well, today marks my last day in South Africa!  It's been really great, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't ready to be home.  My flight will be leaving in less than twenty four hours and I'm stoked. :)

This past weekend was chill - headed to Cape Town to see Cape Point, Table Mountain, and Boulders Beach (aka: PENGUINS.)  Unfortunately forgot my memory card in the room so all I have are cell phone photos, which is fine.  I think I'm a little burned out on photos anyway.

Stayed at a hostel in Muizenberg, which was a new experience for me.  Hah.  It overlooked the sea, though, and that was amazing.

Yesterday headed into Cape Town itself and visited the aquarium and did all my shopping. It's legit - I've run out of money.  I've got about 80 rand to hold me over during my seven hour layover in Johannesburg - that's like eight bucks.  Haha.  Hitting on some hard times, y'all!

But, really, Georgia is on my mind and that's the truth.

This is a quick post because I'm trying to catch that small opportunity of wifi that my laptop gives me!

-K.

ek is lief vir Mosselbaai

A week from today I'll be walking off an airplane back stateside.  Well, after a nineteen hour plane ride, that is.  Until then, I'm just going to enjoy these last seven days to the best of my ability.

I ended up with so many photos from last week at Plettenburg Bay and then the past weekend from Schotia. 

I have to admit, living in a bush camp for the weekend was quite the experience.  I really don't know how else to describe it.  Haha.  But it was a great weekend, that's for sure.  I think the highlight had to be the discovery of four lion cubs during the Schotia game drive.  Absolutely the most adorable things I've seen so far.  I couldn't help but take hundreds of snaps of them; might have gone a little crazy there for a moment.  I could watch these cubs all day long if I had the choice.  Also got the joy of seeing a day old giraffe baby; could I be any luckier, really?  And living next to rhinos - well, that's pretty amazing, too.


And then ended the weekend with a 216 meter (709 feet) bungee jump off a bridge, because this is South Africa and why not!  Google Bloukrans bungy bridge - yeah, been there, done that.

This week has been pretty chill and low key.  A lot of editing going on, which is fine by me; it needed to get done anyway. 

Here's to Cape Town this weekend!

-K.

Love Bites from Honey Badgers

Today was an experience.

I was woken up by baboons on the roof and porch chattering and jumping around at seven this morning.  That was a crazy thing!

Horseback riding in the AM.

Tenikwa wildlife preserve in the PM.

The horseback riding was not my favorite.  I'm fully convinced my horse and I just didn't like each other. At all.  Really made me miss those UGA horses back home.  I mean, a lot.  Spent two hours going through African wilderness trying to keep him from not eating. Failure.  Even lost my camera lens cap somewhere. A little bit of me, always in Africa!

After lunch, though, headed to Tenikwa, which really specializes in large cats native to Africa.  You'll allowed to walk inside the enclosures with all of them (except the leopard, ha) and chill.  Hung out with wild African cats, servals, cheetahs, among others.  It was a great experience and I think I got some amazing shots from it.

It ended with a bang, though. I do always say go big or go home. I guess I got what I asked for.

I had the privilege of going behind the scenes and seeing the animal handlers work with their animals in rehabilitation.  So I got up close and personal with penguins and an adorable little bushbuck.  Hearing all their stories was humbling; knowing they could be released back into the wild was reassuring.

As timing would have it, I was just in time for the feeding of the honey badger.
The honey badger.  For anyone not familiar with just how hardcore the honey badger is, look it up. You won't be disappointed.

"Want to come with to feed the honey badger?" Oh, why not!  We meander our way to the animal's large enclosure, and there he is, highly anticipating that raw meat coming his way (no, not me).

I watch the handler enter the enclosure and shut the door behind him.  I figure I'll photograph from the safety of behind the electric fence.

"Come on in, yeah?" Oh, why not!  So I'm a little nervous, but I excitedly head on in to check out the honey badger, who is equally excited and heads straight for me.  I stand incredibly still as he sniffs all around my legs, circles me, judges me, and gives me a look of approval.  He runs back and forth between the handler and me as I snap away. 

A tour of other people passes and one guy asks, "Oh, can we go in with him?" to which the handler vehemently responds, "Oh, definitely not. This is a highly dangerous animal!  He isn't even normally part of the tour."

Awesome.

Honey badger comes back to me a good bit of times, always sniffing, but finally jumps up on my leg, licks me, and shuffles his way through my legs.  I take a snapshot, and he jumps up again and gives my leg a love bite.  Undoubtedly the most frightening moment of my life!  Never will forget.

Turns out honey badger DOES care! :)


-K.

Blogging From the Phone! + Made it to Plett

This will more than likely be short and sweet, considering I'm blogging from my phone now.

Yesterday drove up to Plettenburg Bay, where I'll be staying until Friday morning.  It's gorgeous here, despite the fact that I have to hike up a hill to shower.  Went shooting yesterday at Jukani, a cat sanctuary, where I got to come eye to eye with lions, leopards, tigers, and pumas, among others.  It was a wonderful experience, just incredibly sad to see these creature behind bars, knowing their numbers are few in the wild.

Today called for an early morning and a drive about thirty minutes away to Knysna Elephant Park.  This was a truly unforgettable experience, and not just because I was almost walked over by an elephant.  Seeing these beautiful, giant creatures just doing their thing was fabulous. 

And yeah, almost was squished by one.  I should not assume elephants respond the same as horses do.

They don't.

Subsequently, had chocolate cake for second breakfast. No regrets there.

Spent the afternoon photographing monkeys and birds at Monkeyland and Birds of Eden, which made for a lovely time.  So many baby monkeys! I couldn't get over how adorable they all were. Plus learned lemurs aren't the most clever of creature; watched one struggle to smell a leaf, then fall over.

It's okay, buddy. We've all been there.

The birds were gorgeous.  Walked through an enclosure with free flying birds all around me, creating a symphony of calls and wing flutter.  Just an all around wonderful experience.  I attempted to talk with an African gray parrot.  Did not succeed.  Can't wait to see how these photos come out, though!

It has been a busy couple of days and has left me quite exhausted. But it's worth it.

Always is.

-K.

PS. Pictures soon! :)

That South African Wifi, Y'all

I had a nice little blog post all typed out and ready to go Monday night, but for whatever reason my laptop and the wifi here don't get along well at all.  So unfortunately, my beautiful post about Mondays in Mossel Bay is no more. So here I am, five days later, trying to make somewhat of an update.  Haha.

This is really my way of saying my blog posts are going to be few and far between until the wifi here decides to work well with my laptop.  Or until I figure out how to blog from my phone, which sounds like a ridiculous hassle.

But honestly, with the sun shining on my face and the breeze blowing through my hair, why would I want to be anywhere else?  I want to find more reasons to stay here.  Or the funds.  Hah.

-K.

PS.  I'll try to update with something more this weekend.  Should be a relaxing weekend; I'll be spending it by the pool and the beach.  Yeah, now I'm just rubbing it in.