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It was a beautiful room with a massive king size bed, soaker tub, and beautiful furnishings. We were pretty tired from the drive and I wanted to get an early start to the day, so I set the alarm for 0530 & headed to bed.
The animals are most active in the early morning & late afternoon. The Park is closed in the evenings. Basically from sunrise to sunset you can drive & look for animals. Neither Jaco, nor myself are morning people, so you can imagine the enthusiasm! I do tend to get a little more energetic when I’m going to be photographing African animals!
Well, wouldn’t you know it, my iPod alarm let me down. I woke up at 0718 & I was furious! NO!!!! I’ve just missed a good 2 hours of light! Well, by the time we got ready & drove to the park, it would be 0900 & daylight well under way. ARGH!
We managed to still see a lot of animals, so the day wasn’t wasted by any means! We saw a lot of kudu, warthogs, jackals playing & heaps of cranes! I’ve never seen so many cranes at Addo before – maybe they were lost?! We saw ostrich, hartebeest, zebras and of course, elephants!
The elephants came right past our car. I’m sure if I had stuck my arm out the window, I could have touched the massive bull that strolled past our car! He was that close! There were also several baby elephants. Too cute for words!
I felt like a kid in a candy shop! Now THIS is what I’m talkin’ about! I could easily live in Africa if I could wake up every day & photograph wildlife.
We left Addo early afternoon & headed for the Croc Ranch. Jaco hadn’t been there & I had stopped there 2 years ago when I was with my Mom & Brother. We had enjoyed the lions, big & small, (they had 2 week & 3 month old cubs), rooicats, tiger & crocodiles. But when we pulled up to the gate, it was locked. It was 1545 in the afternoon. Why were they closed? In any case, we headed for Daniell Cheetah Farm.
I had also visited there with my Mom & Brother & we were able to pet cheetah cubs. This time they also offered a walk with the cheetahs. We wanted to know if we could set one up while we were in the area. Just our luck, they were closing for the day & by the way, the cheetah walkers were on holiday until the 23rd of May. Phooey. The good news was that they had 3 week old lion cubs & we could also visit a full grown cheetah if we came back another day & a little earlier in the day. Good stuff!
Exhausted from our day, we headed back to Kirkwood. Kirkwood is in a valley – the Sundays River Valley to be exact. The valley is filled with citrus groves & the trees were heavy with ripe oranges, lemons & grapefruits. It was a beautiful sight. We stopped at The Lookout, a restaurant/lodge on the top of a hill overlooking Kirkwood & the entire valley. It was close to sunset, so we enjoyed a makeshift virgin piña colada & the incredible scenery. What a wonderful day & a great day to be alive!
We drove down the hill & back to Kronenhoff for the rest of the night. Jaco went to the gym & I fell asleep COLD on the bed. He woke me up about 2000 & we went to the main building. We enjoyed dinner with Jurie & Hendrien, also enjoying a wonderful visit with them. Hendrien made arrangements with Schotia Safaris for us to go on an afternoon/evening safari, along with Tanja, the Austrian girl working at Kronenhoff.
And then it was time for bed. Tomorrow we’ll head back to Addo to see what we can see. I’ve got 3 alarms set on my iPod. Surely ONE of them will work & we’ll be up on time!
G’night, sleep tight & don’t let the lions bite!
xxxxMaria
Hello!
Kudu
Birdie chirping
Jackals playing
Yellow bird
Peek-a-boo
Warthog
Crane
You can see both eyes!
Zebra
Hartebeest
Hawk
Lizard
Aloe
Another lizard
BIG snail
View from The Lookout
Citrus groves in the Sundays River Valley
2 comments:
Beautiful and surreal!! Keep shooting, keep sharing. You have amazing talent girl :) Love you!
looks like you guys are having loads of fun....enjoy every minute...love reading your articles..they're really inspiring.
have fun and hope to see you soon.
love ya girl...Marisa
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