Hey everyone!
I was thinking of writing a general update about traveling in South Africa etc, but as I have already experienced so much during my time here in Addo I'm gonna put that on hold!

So my last blog left the story in Port Elizabeth, waiting for my host to pick me up and drive to Addo. While I'm waiting, this huge guy comes in, the shape of a bear, shaven head and earrings, and introduces himself as John, my host. Ha, that was not what I expected haha. But John and his wife Cherryl turn out to be super kind and friendly people, and have gone out of their way to make me and the other volunteers feel at home from the first second on. Their children Joshua and Caitlin are very eager to show and drive us around, and treat us as real members of the family. And truth be told, as I said it was nice having a mum again when in Cape Town, it's as nice to be part of a family again here in Addo.
The backpackers (hostel is apparently the word for boarding school in South-Africans English, so our 'hostel' is called a 'backpackers') is built as part of their normal family house, and around the building are multiple smaller buildings with extra dorms. Across the backpackers, on the same terrain, is a pub and restaurant and usually also the place where we have our bonfire.
Together with a German volunteer we were assigned our own dorm room for the first week. After having unpacked our stuff, we were very eager to start helping out around the house and with the backpackers. But that is not how things go in South Africa/the backpackers. You sit, you chat, you drink, you laugh, you eat, you play music or listen to it, but mostly you enjoy and you chill. And that is what we did for the entire weekend! On Saturday night Joshua, the son of the owners, had his 24th birthday party to which we all were invited. Drank a shot called Springbok, which wasn't as bad as expected. And as for the rest of the evening I am going to leave it at that ;-)

Our 'volunteering' work is as follows: you get up whenever you want, which is usually around 08.30-09.00 o'clock, and you have some breakfast. After breakfast you are either asked to do certain tasks, or you pick up with what you were working on before. You decide when you have a break or when you call it a day, and than we all gather around the living room/terrace. In the evening John prepares our dinner, which is absolutely amazing every time and I'm not even hiding anymore that I'm going for seconds.. We sometimes watch a movie together or we sit at the bonfire with the guests. Very nice and chill days, and I'm enjoying the fact that I have nowhere to go for these 2 weeks other than the cool stuff around here.
In the first week I spent most of my 'working' time gardening with Lexie, a girl who was here to design a Permaculture garden for John and Cherryll. As I've never spent a minute gardening in my life before, I found it very relaxing and enjoyed it much haha.

On Tuesday last week, the guy working here was going on a safari tour into the Addo National Park with 3 German guests, and I was asked to join in. This was my first National Park, and not exactly what I expected. I guess I had imagined the whole National Geographic Channel scenery, with little bushes and red sandy long leaps of land. Well no. Everything is very green actually! And the flora looks like bushes, but they are sometimes high enough to hide elephants and make it exciting to watch closely to spot animals right next to the road. And the amount of wild animals living in these parks is amazing! On that first day in the park I already got to see so many, and the highlights were an elephant right next to the car and the lion walking directly at us. At first you are excited to see these animals and you only think of the best photo moment, until you realize the animal is actually quite big, is walking towards you and you have your window open. There was a little bit of panic in the car when the lion did this, and I can't say I was completely zen either, cause damn these lions are for a reason the king of the jungle! They walk surprisingly fast and look very strong, and we all had no intention to see that in action. But, the lion simply walked around the car and continued his path, as we were apparently in his way. And than gone he was. As for the windows, they stayed closed after that time haha!

On Thursday I went into the park again, but this time with Joshua and all volunteers, so me, the German volunteer, and a Danish volunteer. I expected a similar experience like Tuesday, but this is nature and wild life! As we were riding down the road and turned a corner, all of a sudden there was a huge (HUGE) elephant in front of us on the road, heading the same direction. But this male elephant was in musk (e.g. sexually frustrated, alone, and peeing on himself constantly), and that equals an angry elephant. And there is no way to pass an angry huge elephant, as he can lift the car into the woods with simply wiggling his toe. These animals are big and immense! So we stayed on a safe distance for all the time it was in front of us, but this still irritated him. You should see how fast you can put the car in reverse when the elephant turns its head, moves its ears irritated while staring you down.. Eventually the elephant decided to get off the road and into the bushes, and we were finally freed. After this we had a buffalo on the side of the road twice, and I always wondered why there were part of the Big Five. But seeing them up close like this makes you realize what immense animals they are, and there is no doubt they should be in that list.

On Sunday I went to the Reptile Center to help out with cleaning the cages, feeding the animals and entertaining the monkeys. I held a mini crocodile, and still thought they were far from being cute and close to being scary. The group of tourist visitors were very eager to hold the snakes, so kind as I was I did not take up anyone's time by holding snakes myself (...). I was asked to throw the dead rabbit in the cage with the caracals (family of the lynx), and during the day they look like very nice cuddly cats. But when you come walking up with their food, they turn into very mean, nasty, ready-to-kill creatures, and I got very nervous all of a sudden trying to close the gate.. After the 'working' we let out Benji and Charlie, two vervet monkeys who like to abuse you as gymnastics furniture. Much fun!

On Monday night 5 of us decided to drive up to the fences of the National Park, where we used a youtube video of a roaring lion to attract the lions in the park and make them come close to the fences (obviously this is not really something you're ought to do..). Though you know that the fence is equipped with such an amount of volt that it keeps the elephants in, at night the fence seems rather thin and easy to overtake.. Especially by the king of the jungle. By the time we shone the LED-lights from our phones, a female lion had silently approached until the fence and was sitting right across us, a simple 10 meters. Holy ****! In the background the male lions were still roaring, and even from that far you could feel the immensity of it. Again a spectacular experience.

On Tuesday Joshua took the volunteers to the Cheetah Center, where we cuddled for a while with Ola, the tame cheetah. She was purring so loud that she rather looked like a big happy cat, looking for attention. There were also 2 lion cubs of about 5 months old, but it was already no longer to 'play' with them as they got too strong. And as a highlight the 2 leopards, which brings my score of the Big Seven to 6: Elephant, Lion, Buffalo, Leopard + Shark and Whale. The only one missing out is the Rhino at this moment :)

This week me and the German volunteer moved into our own little house, with each our own bedroom, a shared living room and bathroom. It's so unbelievably comfy and we both very much enjoy it.
Upcoming Saturday I will say goodbye again to this family and place, and will make my way to Coffee Bay, which promises to be a very nice town. After 2 nights in Coffee Bay I will move further up to Durban, where I have another couchsurf location for 3 nights.

So, I'm enjoying my time and haven't been bothered with homesick at all. As I speak to my sister and friends almost every day via whatsapp on my phone, there isn't much to be homesick to :) Though my heart aches to see my niece and nephew, I am doing very good! Plus my dear tiny friend Nouki has booked her tickets for beginning of October to go see Chobe National Park, Victoria Falls and Kruger Park for 2.5 weeks, so exciting times coming up again!

Cheers,
Diandra