Lions and Tigers and Zebras, oh my!

On Wednesday night, our group attended a cricket match. My first ever cricket match! Since I, along with many others, knew very little about cricket, we had to ask around at the stadium to find some locals who were kind enough to explain the game to the American kids. Turns out that it is quite similar to baseball and kind of easy to catch on to. Usually cricket matches last 5 days, but we went to a short one. The home team put up a good fight but ended up losing near the very end of the game. We were lucky enough to get flags that were handed out at the gates to support the home team which were very fun to wave in your neighbor's face. We even got the chance to be on their version of a "jumbo-tron." Overall, it was a fun time getting to learn a new and South African experience.

On Friday, we had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend time in Addo Elephant Park and Schotia Safaris. On the way to the park we were given a tour and descriptions of the towns and areas we were passing through. The most interesting thing that I learned was that some businesses have started to make brick made out of human feces. It is quite interesting and we passed by a few places that were in the process of burning the bricks. South Africa is the leading country in the world in this business. It really makes you think that nothing, absolutely nothing goes to waste in this country.

In Addo, we were given a bus tour led by Bradley, the same man who gave us the city tour. He knows everything about everything. The first elephant we saw was within a few yards of the bus and kind of popped up out of nowhere. I remember being quite upset that I couldn’t see his face, but I did not have to stay upset for too long. We stopped at a few waterholes that had loads of elephants around them! We saw male elephants, females, and babies! We saw close to 200 elephants that day. It was amazing. They are such huge creatures, yet they seem so gentle. In addition to elephants we saw buffalo, elands, warthogs, and kudo in Addo. Bradley made us a delicious lunch and we were able to eat in a picnic area where only birds and South African chipmunks were able to get close to us. I would go back to see any and all of those elephants in a heartbeat!

 As if seeing elephants wasn’t cool enough in the morning, we were able to take an afternoon and night safari at Schotia Safaris! 10 of us climbed into an open landrover and took off to the park with our guide, Carl. The information sheet we were given beforehand told us that if our Landy were to run out of gas, we had to sacrifice our guide to the lions. We made sure that Carl was on the same page. The first animals that we got to see were zebras that were within petting distance of the Landy. Carl got out of the car and told us that they were African Killer Zebras, very rare. This was when we knew we liked Carl and realized we had the best guide in our group! In Schotia, we saw bushbuck, crocodiles, elands, rhinos, giraffes, hares, hartebeestes, hippos, impalas, kudu, lions, monkeys, mongoose, springbuck, warthogs, zebras, and more! As cool as the rhinos, hippos, lions, and giraffes were, my favorite part of the day was probably the crocodiles. Carl got out of the Landy and proceeded to throw handfuls of dirt in the pond that had both crocs in it. He continuously threw dirt at them until they came out of the water to investigate what was making such a noise. Carl was within a couple of feet of them and we were all nervous and told him to hurry up and get back in the Landy. Another awesome experience was having one of the rhinos rub against out Landy while we were in it. Rhinos are huge! It was quite exciting to see one in person. Toward the end of our afternoon safari, I was given a chance to ride on the front seat on the bonnet (hood) of the Landy. It was really exhilarating! We eventually made our way back to camp and had a delicious meal consisting of some heavenly dessert, mashed potatoes, chicken, rice, and ostrich. It was probably the best meal I have had thus far on the trip! After dinner, we got back in our Landys and went out for a night safari to see how active the animals are after dark. The lions were up and moving around a lot more, the hippos actually came out of the water, and all of the other animals were moving about quite a bit. It was really cool that we were given that opportunity.  One last amazing thing that put the cherry on top of the perfect day was seeing the night sky in a place with very little light pollution. I have never seen so many stars! I have heard that the southern hemisphere has better stars than the northern, and I am so happy that I got the chance to experience something that magical!

Today, Saturday, we went to the Activity Fair held on campus. It was really cool to see what the campus has to offer for students on campus. I put my name down on a few interest lists including Crew, table tennis, dance, and tourism society which has students come together and do fun things in the PE community such as beach parties or volunteering at the Iron Man. We will see how much time I actually have for all of this, but it might be fun to dabble in a few different things. I was already given an invite to row with the Crew team tomorrow, so I will definitely have some new stories after tomorrow! I can’t wait! The rest of my afternoon I spent watching a few classmates playing in an outdoor basketball tournament. Since I was not expecting to be outside, I did not put on sunscreen that morning and did not bring any with and now have an extremely bad sunburn. I learned my lesson, that is for sure. And of course I have a nice farmer’s tan going on. Good excuse to go to the beach tomorrow to even out the tan? I would say yes.