The Next Chapter: Day Two At Addo & Daneill Cheetah Farm

Hooray! Kind of. My alarms worked! I never dreamt I would be excited to hear my alarm ringing at 0530, but what can you do? A girls gotta seek out the wildlife while she can!

We left Kronenhoff for the day just past 0700. We drove along the wonderful Sundays River Valley towards Addo’s main gate & made our way into the park.

We decided to drive through the southern section of the park, since it hadn’t been open the previous times I’d been to Addo & we thought we could see something new. Of course, we only decided this after scooting over to a certain section some punk had marked on the main map as having sightings of lions & leopards! Argh!

Oh well. We found Jack’s picnic site & learned the differences between white & black rhinos. Jack’s picnic site was named after a black rhino who used to like to hang out in this particular section of the park. Black rhinos are not native to this part of South Africa, but since he was an endangered species, they kept him there, part of a bigger plan. He would have been transferred to another park later on, but he had a weak heart & the trauma of relocation would have most likely been the end of him. Thus, he lived out the rest of his days in Addo.

From Jack’s picnic site, we headed towards the south end of the park. It’s a big park. It took us the rest of the morning & the better part of the afternoon! Yes, I drive slowly when we’re looking for critters, so you don’t cover a whole lot of ground, but nonetheless, it was another great game drive.

The southern part of the park has much more open space & massive rolling hills. It is stunning, to say the least! I loved it! We saw another black-backed jackal, zebras covered in red mud, kudus, hartebeest, one lonely buffalo, a few elephant, warthogs, mongoose, and my first bushbuck!

I forgot to mention yesterday’s sightings of the dung beetle. Yes, you heard me right. Dung. As in poo. The flightless dung beetle is actually a protected feces, I mean, species in Addo. You are not allowed to drive over elephant dung or the beetles themselves. And believe me, avoiding piles of elephant dung is a bit like avoiding landmines in the Falklands. The road is a warzone in places! But it was particularly entertaining to watch these little dung beetles in action. They lay their eggs in & eat elephant dung. Once they lay their eggs in the dung, they roll it into a ball & then roll the dung ball to a certain location. I’m still not sure exactly where they roll It to, but they are definitely on a mission to roll it somewhere! They use their hind legs to roll the balls along the path. It’s amazing!

The beetles look like they are wearing suits of armour. They are solidly built – the front half & the back half are similar, but their heads even look like they have a helmet on, with little antennae probing out.

And the balls they roll aren’t small balls either! We’re not talking about a little gumball here. We’re nearing baseball size! They are big! Most often they are uniform shape too. Not misshapen & oblong, but consistently round. I always chuckle when I see them rolling the balls, as there are usually 2 dung beetles together. They usually work together, as inevitably the beetle rolling the ball will tumble over & end up upside down wiggling its legs trying to right side up itself. The other beetle will often help. As I watch them at work, I can’t help but think that they are Husband & Wife. The wife is busy barking orders at how the husband is rolling the ball in the wrong direction & he should listen to what she’s saying. He’s creating more work for himself & oops, there you go, upside down again. See, you should have listened to me in the first place… and on & on it goes. It strikes me funny, in any case.

Of course, when we stopped to watch the beetles, I looked out the back window & noticed this ‘blob’ of little grey worms inching their way across the road towards the car. Gross. I don’t like creepy crawly things. Jaco couldn’t see the beetles, so he backed up. Then he wanted to see the worms. We drove forward again, overtop of the worms. It was only then that we realized they were baby shongololos! Centipedes! Oh no! We’ve just murdered half of them! I felt terrible! Shongololos are cool little creatures! Not good!

As we carried along the road, we came across our first elephant. He was a big old bull. There was a car in front of us that had stopped to watch him eat. As they sat there in their little red compact car, this MASSIVE elephant, tusks & all, walked right in front of their car, stopped right in front of their car & proceeded to eat away. I bet they had an eyeful from where they were sitting!

Shortly after the elephant, we spotted a jackal playing in the grass & trying to hide around a bush from us. As we watched him trot away, we couldn’t help but notice how light on his feet he was.

Although we didn’t see a lot of wildlife in the southern section, we enjoyed the scenery & what we did see. As we left the park, we decided to head for Daniell Cheetah Farm & visit the cats.

We had to wait about 10 minutes before our tour started. We stopped to see meerkats first. Funny little creatures – I love how they sit up so tall to look around. I think they would be the town busybody if they were ‘people’. We saw two 28-month old cheetahs next. Beautiful. Simply beautiful. We didn’t go into the pen with these cats, nor the next ones we saw – the Serval. They are also beautiful. Much smaller than a cheetah, but I love them just as much. Why? Because they catch snakes! Yes, that’s right. Snakes. Even the poisonous ones.

From here we headed in to see Ola. The full grown female cat that is affectionate & more gentle than your average housecat. She was adorable. She purred like a diesel motor, licked your hand & pressed into your pats & rubs. She is so graceful & striking. God sure used his creativity when he made our African friends!

After we finished visiting Ola, we headed over to the rooicats or caracal. They are also very beautiful cats. They look a little like a miniature mountain lion, only they have tails that are half the length. They are a little more reddish in colour & their ears are blackish grey & tipped like a lynx’s, only the tips are much longer. Their eyes are a striking greenish colour. They were also very affectionate, but unfortunately they are quite a nuisance to farmers, as they do not only kill prey for food, but also for fun. So instead of killing one sheep & eating it, they will kill 20 in one night! And this is a small cat!

We stopped briefly at a pen holding a 3 month old cheetah cub. I leaned in to rub her head through the fence & nearly stuck my head into a golden orb spider. Gross. Thank goodness I missed! The little cheetah was adorable! And energetic. She would rip around the pen in no time flat & then be back for more attention – they are truly fast creatures! We didn’t go into pet her, as she wouldn’t sit still long enough for us to do so!

Our last stop was with the 3-week old lion cubs. Oh. My. Word. They were absolutely adorable. Albeit a little smelly, but simply precious. They made these funny little squeaking noises as they motored around us. They were very affectionate, crawling all over us & cuddling up on our laps. The one even tried to crawl into my bag! I would have gladly taken it home, had it not been for customs! The lion cubs still had spots & their hair was really curly. They were also quite clumsy as they maneuvered around their large pen.

What a great way to spend the afternoon. Have you hugged a cheetah today? Have you hugged a lion today? If not, well then, I guess it’s time to take a trip to Africa!

We left Daniell Cheetah Farm for P.E. or Port Elizabeth. Oom Stephen & Tannie Tersia live in PE & we were going to visit them this evening. Unfortunately on our way in, we hit a hawk. I only saw a big brown thing heading for the windshield & before I could react, a massive WHACK! Jaco felt so terrible, we turned around to see if the bird was okay (obviously not, but was it suffering). We found the bird in the ditch & it was across a grassy patch. I was too afraid of snakes, so we looked around for a stick to see if it would respond. As we observed the poor bird, we could see it breathing & it’s mouth opening & closing, but nothing else was moving. After a few minutes, the breathing ceased & no movements more. Sigh. It’s a rough season for birds & Jaco. Maybe he was a mouse or a grasshopper in a previous life. Or a penguin. I don’t know. But I do know that I hope our interactions with birds & the car are now finished. I’m sure his Mom does too!

After our brief delay with poor Mr. Hawk, we fumbled our way through PE. We eventually found the right house & had a great visit, along with a wonderful dinner. Stephen & Tersia had just been to America to visit their son & his family. I was appreciative of how enamoured they were with the amenities available in the States. I will certainly agree that it is much different than South Africa! We looked at photos of their family from years gone by & I am absolutely amazed at how much Mother & Daughter look alike. They are spitting images of each other at this stage in life! Wow!

Tannie Tersia is recovering from stage IV breast cancer that is currently in her liver – but shrinking! We are all praying for her speedy recovery from this chapter in life. She has a beautiful granddaughter & more grandchildren on the way to spend her days enjoying their company! Please add her to your prayer list if you’ve got one!

We didn’t leave until after 2300, Oom Stephen drove us out of the city & made sure we were safely on our way & not lost! We enjoyed our visit with them very much. And I’m pleased to say that we arrived safely back at Kronenhoff without any animal encounters!

Tomorrow we’re off to Schotia Safaris, but not before a little bit of a sleep-in… Lekker slaap!

xxxxMaria on Safari