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Another gloomy day at Camp Figtree... but the weather lightened considerably as we drove to Port Elizabeth (PE). We stopped en route to the B&B in PE at the Seaview Game Reserve (as suggested by the people we had lunch with at the elephant back safari place).
Our first impressions of Seaview were not good. We drove along a dirt track and then all of a sudden we were in a field with buffalo, zebras, and a springbok. Rather surreal.
We parked and paid and then went to look at the lions and tigers. There were two tigers and a lot of lions. One of the groups of lions had just been fed and then were chomping on the pieces of some unidentified animal - maybe a crocodile. John took a lot of pictures and we watched the big cats for quite a while.
After some initial confusion about the lion cub handling (and some guilt over the exploitation of the young animals) we got to see three four-month-old cubs (from one litter) and a five-month-old cub (obviously from a different litter!). The cubs were quite sleepy, but we petted them and asked the keepers questions.
The cubs were less soft than I had imagined and my hands got really dirty petting them. It was amazing being so close to these incredible animals... their paws are huge!
After the younger cubs, we got to meet the 10-month boy cubs. They were much bigger (60-70 kgs) and were much more awake. It was a rather surreal experience being that near to such powerful creatures.
After we washed up we drove into PE and found the B&B. It was a block off a very nice beach, but it was far too windy to spend anytime on the sand. We walked down to an outdoor shopping complex (the Boardwalk) and wandered around. Port Elizabeth was very busy because of Easter weekend and the Splash Festival - there were so many people! After the quiet of Addo and the solitude of Camp Figtree, it was quite a change.
We found an outdoor market with lots of vendors and John bought a painting of a township with 3-D roofs made of aluminum cans. The kind of thing you'd only get in South Africa.
We wandered back down the beach and through a very odd park filled with statues of cartoon characters (everything from Asterix to the Little Mermaid) before having dinner at a place overlooking the ocean.
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