9 April (Day 24)

Today we didn’t have to do anything until 2pm. Most people went to the beach, but I spent the morning catching up on my writing. I’m not sure if you can tell, but the days have been pretty full, so I was getting really behind.

At 2 o’clock Pierre came to fetch us for another game drive, but this one was very different. We went to Botlierskop, which is a private reserve. They have luxury overnight accommodations and we started the ride at this nice restaurant-type building. We went out in one of their vehicles, a giant safari-style Jeep-type thing. First we were driven to a fenced-in area where they keep their three elephants. Then we drove to a separate fenced-in area where they keep their four lions. All of the lions were rescued from captivity situations, which makes them very different from the lions that we saw at Addo. They don’t really do anything but walk around. They’re not even capable of hunting. When they have to feed them, they tie dead animals to the backs of vehicles and drive them around.

After those two enclosures, we went to the more open portion of the reserve. We drove around and saw wildebeests, water buck, and impalas. I think of all the antelope-creatures, impalas are my favorite. They had black impalas, which are very rare. In the wild they’re an easy target, because predators see in black and white, so they stand out more from their surroundings. But since these are in captivity they’re safe, and they’re really beautiful.

After seeing what was on the flat land, we drove up the mountain. That was definitely the coolest part of the whole thing: driving in that vehicle up the sides of the mountain. At the top we saw one zebra and one giraffe, plus one more water buck. Back at the bottom of the mountain we saw rhinos, which were exciting in that they were the first of our trip, but they weren’t really doing anything. All-in-all, it was kind of a rip-off, but they did give us sherry and some mixed nuts afterward, I guess.

After Botlierskop we were invited to Pierre and Antoinette’s for dinner. Antoinette had made homemade stews and pumpkin for us. They live on a really nice farm and I got to see their dogs. Their daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter were there, too. Their granddaughter is so cute! It was cool to hang out with a family again after being away from our host families. Antoinette had pie and custard for dessert, and we watched a cricket game on TV. It was really chill, and a relaxing night after how busy we’ve been.