What a weekend! A huge group of the international students decide to go to Jeffery's Bay this weekend to spend some quality time on the beach. I was lucky enough to be able to join them and hopped in a car with a few Germans and Americans. We left at around 9:30 and went to the grocery stores for essentials like chips, water, and rum. We started our road trip and went to The Sea View Lion Park.
I expected something like you see in the movies; you are greeted by a guide who lets you hop into his open-top Humvee and you race across the grasslands chasing animals while a guide in a safari cap tells you what each animal is and how many he has hanging on his walls at home. In reality, this park was not like this...at all. We got to the gate and paid R50 (about $6) and drove our own car in. We were told to stay in the vehicle at all times as we drove to the top. The animals roamed free so it wasn't guaranteed that we would see any so I personally was expecting the worst. After a few turns on the dirt roads, we spotted our first animal. We saw gazelles, cape buffalo, gems bucks, kudu, giraffes, tigers, a leopard and of course lions! There were animals sleeping and grazing no more than 3 yards from our car and it was amazing to get so close.
It got really interesting when we got to the top of the hill and saw the lions. These were all in caged habitats to protect the other animals in the park. We got out and started walking towards the lion habitats. We were told that we could drive into the lion part so we hurried back into our car and drove to the gate. There were three female lionesses lounging towards the back of the settlement and we followed the loop towards them. We took a few pictures and then started to drive towards the exit. We had to climb a small hill and to our dismay our tires began to spin. The lions were not a fan of the noise and commotion we were causing and informed us of this by surrounding our car. I am not exaggerating her when I say there was a lion three inches from my hand. There was a layer of window glass but that's besides the point. After trying to get up the hill a few more times we realized the effort was futile. The lions didn't help when they decided to take a nap directly behind our car. With a manual transmission, you need a little wiggle room when on a hill. We had about three feet between us and the lion. By some sort of miracle, we finally got traction and made it up the hill. As we were cheering, the people outside the cage were yelling something at us about something. When I looked behind us, I saw that one of the lions didn't like that it's play toy was leaving and decided to chase the car! We made it to the gate and parked our car. Adrenaline rush is an understatement and we all were a little shaky. Our driver was crowned the hero of the weekend and he took a well deserved smoke break.
We drove a bit farther and got some nice views of the ocean before seeing the main attraction. There were baby lions and tigers that you could pay to hold but I just took pictures and snuck a pet here and there. They had bigger lions and tigers (1-2 years) as well and some of my friends went into their areas but I had enough with close encounters so I opted out. I saw the most beautiful black leopard ever and it took a liking to us and took a nap less than a foot away from us. We left the park satisfied and exhausted. If you can't see my pictures on Facebook, email me and I will send you some.
We then drove to Jeffery's Bay, about 70km (an hour or so), away. This town is pretty small but gets a lot of weekend traffic. It's a main stop on the pro and junior surfing competition loop. The Junior Championships are there this March so we're already planning a trip back. There are outlet stores for all of the major surf companies so we did a little shopping too. We checked in at the Backpacker's Lodge and our group of ten was given our own bunk room and common area. We then met up with the other international students who arrived earlier and we all caravaned to a waterfall swimming area. There were about 50 of us there so we had a little swimming party. There was a zipline into the water and a few good spots to jump in so we spent an hour jumping and swimming around. Then we had dinner and partied a bit at our accommodation and a club. The next day was spent mostly at the beach before leaving for home. The waves in J-Bay were pretty intense and one got the better of me. I was having a race to a buoy in the water and as I jumped a wave, it caught my foot and I face planted, hard. I got a small sand burn on my side but it will heal quickly. My friends on the beach said it was the funniest thing they have ever seen and they laugh for a solid 15 minutes and chuckled the rest of the day. We ended up paying R90 ($10) for the night and about the same for gas each, things are so cheap here!
Last night, the entire Summerstrand Disctrict, where Annie's Cove and NMMU's main campus is located, had a power outage. I don't know when it went back on but I was happy to see that none of my food had spoiled and I can finally charge things.
Overall, great weekend with plenty of stories that I will remember for the rest of my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment