3 April 2009 (Day 18)

Today was PHENOMENAL. Sandy, Jessica, Emily, Sara and I decided to start the day with a horseback ride through Addo. We were in a section of the park that was away from the lions, so the horses would be safe. It was perfect, though. We did a beginner’s ride, so I had a really chill, sleepy horse named Girly. She was old, so she could be a bit stubborn when she wanted to eat, but other than that I was happy with her.

We went out from 8am to 10am, so it was before the sun was up in the sky and the weather was perfect. We saw red hardebeests, warthogs, zebras, and a ton of birds. We were so close to the zebras! It was awesome because they’re not afraid of the horses they way they are cars, so we could get a lot closer. There was one point when we were watching three adults and two babies and we got so close that the adults moved in to surround and protect the young zebras.

The horseback ride took about 2 hours, and when we got back to camp we met up with the rest of the group, who had decided to go on an early morning game drive with our guides, Pierre and Antoinette. They were super excited because while they were out they saw two male lions! They’re a rare sight at Addo, and they had actually gone out with the intention of seeing elephants. I was bummed that I didn’t get to see them, but I’m still glad I went horseback riding.

We struggled to eat lunch today. We were supposed to have sandwiches, but Pierre, Antoinette, and Sandy had gone down to the watering hole to look for animals. This was problematic in that all of the bread was locked in their cabin, as well as all of our dishes that we had brought over the night before. We ended up raiding the fridge (which was on the porch) and eating leftovers and lunchmeat with our hands and some random cutlery that happened to be left in other cottages. Cut down on the dishes we had to wash, though.

After lunch, most of the group went down to the pool. It was so, so hot today. 103 degrees Fahrenheit! The pool was nice and cool, and when I got out I tried to sit in the shade to avoid burning. The only problem was that everyone else in the group was laying out in the sun nowhere near me. I wanted to hang out with them, so I found two beach chairs and created a little towel fort to hide under.

As I was laying under my fort, Jake called my name. I looked up to see him pointing behind me. A giant tortoise had walked right up to me! He just kept walking toward me until he was close enough that I touched him. Way bigger than my old turtle, Earl, but just as cute.

Later in the afternoon, we went on another game drive. We saw more warthogs (I love them, so so cute), kudu, and elephants. The morning game drive group was really excited to see zebras because they hadn’t seen any yet. As we were driving we saw an area along the road where several cars had stopped, so we drove over to see what was there.

It was a lion! There was a male lion that was sleeping right next to the road. We pulled up next to him and watched him sleep for awhile before he got up and started to walk around. He walked RIGHT next to a car in front of us; they could have reached out of their window and touched them. When he got up we could see his face clearly. It was covered in scratches; he had obviously been in a fight earlier and was looking rough. I have some really good pictures of his cuts and stuff too. We watched him for a long time, but since he had been in a fight and it was very hot he wasn’t really doing much. Eventually we had to turn back in order to be out of the park by closing. On our way out we saw a bunch of elephants, including some adorable babies and a group of elephants walking in a line along the road. It was a very successful drive. I was so, so glad to see the lion. It made me feel a lot better about missing out on the two that they saw in the morning.

For dinner we ate at the restaurant in the park. Some of the girls were lucky enough to get into a night drive. The only way to go on a night drive is to go through the park, and they were sold out. Five of us had been interested in going, and at the last minute some people canceled and four spots opened up. Since I did horseback riding, I sat out the night drive. I was sort of bummed, but at least I got to ride in the morning.

The rest of us went back to our cabin to hang out afterwards. People were playing euchre. I do not play euchre. Instead, I hung out and talked with people who weren’t playing. I went to bed before the boys did this night, because the next day we were going to squeeze in one last game drive before leaving for Tsitsikamma National Park the next day.