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So another excursion today - this time to a reptile park, monhololo animal rehab centre & the bottom of the blyde canon
At the reptile park there was crocodiles, snakes, spiders & other creepy crawlies (as well as monkeys & parrots). As well as seeing all the things that could hide in our sleeping bags we also learnt the spider I'd seen in the kitchen last wk is actually really poisonous & we should have alerted the staff! Oh heck!
It was then off for a picnic by a waterfall & for those that were crazy enough the opportunity to jump off a rock & plummet 5m into a pool below! I just had a paddle!
We then went for look at blyde dam & the views at the bottom of the canyon - which were just as amazing as the views from the top.
Our final stop was moholoholo animal rehab centre. This was brilliant, i couldnt believe we got so close to the animals, and as it was feeding times they were all v alert!
Highlights were
- stroking a warthog
- stroking a cheetah - and hearing it purr!
- coming face to face with a male lion (nearly getting sprayed by it!)
- sitting next to a leopard kitten & watching it bounce around
- watching serval kittens eat dinner
We also saw a honey badger who keeps trying to escape (seems they are really clever & inventive - the keeper was saying he had hidden all his food bowls in his burrow so he could stack them up as an escape ramp - he'd even tried to use his female badger companion as a ramp to climb the walls!!)
And othet animals staying in the centre inc Hyena, black eagle (2nd biggest after the child eating Marshall eagle) as well as other birds of prey, wild dogs & rhino
The centre helps rehabilitate sick, injured or abandoned animals for release back into the wild, but some if they need lots of looking after become too used to human behaviour & need to remain in captivity either at the centre or in other zoos but they wont put animals down if they can be saved.
this was much better than the average zoo as we could get really close. If I'd wanted to I could have stroked the lion - but prob only the once, no doubt it would have ripped my arm off if I'd tried to stoke it. Was face to face looking it in the eye with just the thin metal fence between us. Amazing!
So we were looking forward to more jello shots in hoedspruits finest railway restaurant but seems there was to be a change of plan - we were on night watch, and this time it wasn't just for a couple of hours, but all night - yes we were spending the night in the bush!
After just 5 mins to get our stuff together we were on our way back out. Our bed for the night was to be a sandy river basin (fortunately is no river in it as we're still in the dry season). The first job was to collect wood & build a fire, then to smooth out a bed while hearing about what to do if a lion/elephant/anything approaches us and then to toast marshmallows! As I write this I still have 4hours to kill til it its my turn for radioing the anti poaching teams....would go to bed but its a little scary out here.....it's going to be a long night!
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