Of course, around here, the ubiquitous aloe vera plant, valued for its medicinal properties (by humans and animals) and its succulent gel like centre, to soothe scrapes, burns and chapped lips. Can't quite believe I've written that entire paragraph just so I can have that cringey title. But there you go, I'm that sad!
Back to the point, such as it is. We've spent the last 48 hours in yet another exquisite place, a kind of cross between a wildlife reserve and a sanctuary. Admittedly we were drawn by its location next to a hippo waterhole, but the hippos have steadfastly refused to put in an appearance, other than a brief paddle on the far side, well out of decent camera distance. Oh well, I got my award winner at the last reserve, so I'll relax and just enjoy the view.
Which somewhat bizarrely for this part of the world now includes SNOW on the mountain tops. It was bloody freezing last night and the rain deposited on our "tent" inevitably fell as white stuff higher up. It's supposed to be a desert! Hasn't stopped us though. And I'm still steadfastly hanging on to wearing shorts, even if my top half is covered in multiple layers of fleece and down!
And being fascinated by the nest building skills of the local weaver birds.
And so to my question for the day. When is a sanctuary not a sanctuary? This place is undoubtedly remarkable. 3000 hectares of bush reserved for a range of animals in their natural habitat. But ... the cheetahs and the lions are separated because they are all rescue animals and are not capable of hunting (so we are told). So they are fed, and you can pay extra to take part. Likewise the elephants, which are free to roam extensively and have been hand reared because their parents were poached (no, not like eggs), are rolled out several times a day to be fed by the punters. At first I thought this harmless, as the elephants appear happy and comfortable in human company - they were apparently bottle fed 36 litres of milk, by hand, every 4 hours for the first two and a half years of their lives! So the handlers are like their parents. BUT, does that mean they should be trained to effectively do tricks? Hmm, I'm not sure. We took part, because we thought we were just meeting them and feeding them, but on reflection I have become more and more uncomfortable with the charade I took part in. I don't doubt that they were rescued from certain death, that they are very well cared for, and that they have extensive land on which to naturally roam. But do they need to be taught to do "tricks"? As Henk said: If we intervene it's no longer a park - it's a zoo. I now wish we had just fed them and moved on, even if we did get some crazy pictures.
Not sure about this!
There endeth todays sermon!
We have also enjoyed game drives here seeing wild animals in entirely natural habitats. So despite all of the above it is still an amazing place - well run with brilliant staff and with opportunities to find a whole range of animals in their natural habitat. So not all bad then!
Although the hippos stayed firmly on the opposite side of the waterhole, we got closer to rhinoceros than before - so that is twice I've seen rhinos in the wild now!
And the nyala antelopes wander in and out of the camp at will. I'm pretty sure the rhinos could too - they just don't!
And we managed an up close an personal with ostriches - admittedly at an ostrich farm!
Pretty much like a beef cattle farm. And the meat is very good. Treated myself to an ostrich steak last night, overlooking the hippo pool - although we were inside!
Yesterday's weather didn't cooperate that well, but we chose that day to visit some caves at Cango - constant 20º underground, some formations, and a chamber underground large enough for concerts.
Our guide, Kaya, having just taken the piss out of Scotland for losing to South Africa at rugby the night before, then invited anyone who felt the need, to sing. So you know what happened next don't you? Yep! Thankfully nobody recorded it. But to my knowledge it was the first rendition of Flower of Scotland in Cango Caves. Kaya followed it up with an African gospel song. Quite a visit really! Kaya says hardly anyone takes up the invite to sing. But then he hadn't met me!
So whilst it could have done to have been a bit warmer, we can't have everything, and this is my view as I write.
Seems a good place to sign off. A few more pics. Tomorrow we hit the Atlantic (just).
Not sure about this elephant stuff.
It just licked my ear!
Andy and his new mates.
And finally some shots of the inside of Cango Caves. (I promise, no video of me singing)
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