Day One At Addo

Our first day at Addo Elephant Park was wonderful. We even managed to find some elephants! Imagine that! We had arrived at Kronenhoff the previous night about 2100. We had supper with Oom Jurie & Tannie Hendrien & then they showed us to our room. The Honeymoon Suite! Sweet!

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 23^rd 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

 Um, a Piña Colada?

Day 467 - White Noise App

I must say. I. LOVE. My. iPod.

The white noise app will save my life this week. Neil is a real sweetie, but man, the snoring is pretty out of this world! If it wasn’t for this little app, I don’t think I would survive the week. I am grateful for Jenn suggesting I download it – way back in the summer when I was babysitting the kids. She uses it to help them sleep from time to time. I can understand now!

Today I had a 15 minute consult with Anna Maria. She is a wonderful woman. She is patient, warm hearted & caring. She answered my questions & helped me gain some confidence in doing this program. I’m still nervous to take the program to the ship – how will I find seeds, how will I sprout, where will I get the tools from, where will I find organic produce… There are plenty of obstacles to overcome!

I also had an appointment with Tom the Nurse. My first appointment last week was with Nurse Caron, but she forgot about my wet blood slide. They prick your finger & look at your blood on a slide. Actually, it’s two slides. One slide is exposed to air & is a ‘dry’ sample. The other one is given a cover & is still ‘wet’ when you observe it under a microscope. I went back again & she forgot the ‘wet’ slide again! So, I decided to see Nurse Tom & get another look at the blood. It was quite fascinating. He explained what everything was.

My blood is pretty yucky about now. The detox mode is in full swing. Parasites, fungus, acids, fats, sluggish white blood cells, clumpy red blood cells… It ain’t pretty! At least I know that things are happening!

We also had a lecture from Pam about water. I was really impressed with her knowledge! She talked to us last week about buying organic produce & what it means to be ‘organic’. It was really fascinating! This week we learned about water & what filtration & purification systems really do & what is best.

Reverse osmosis followed by an ionizer to increase the pH.

Today was our fasting day again. Green juice, fresh coconut water & green soup was the cuisine for the day. It’s interesting – just when you think you’re getting tired of the food, you fast & then on Thursday you’re famished & so excited to eat the food again!

I can’t believe that the 2^nd week is almost over! Where is the time going? It’s just flying by! I’m thinking I should have stayed twice as long! Will I be ready to leave? Right now I’m pretty worried to leave the ‘bubble’. I will find the temptations of the real world pretty strong! I am feeling so much better eating this way. My detox symptoms have been pretty minimal – a few migraines & that’s about it. We’ll see!

xxxxMaria

The Enema Fountain