And the lion shall lie down with the lamb (but not yet in Schotia!)

Tuesday 10 August and Wednesday 11 August.

With great and almost universal anticipation (one of our group members, Donovan, doesn't like animals of any kind or than stuffed!) we went to the Addo Elephant Park and Schotia Game Reserve.  Over a 20 hour period the park rangers would take us on five excursions to see the animals, provide us with lunch, afternoon tea, a very  nice barbecue, rooms with electric blankets and breakfast.  What an experience!  It was also quite cold!  A cold front had come through the area on Sunday morning and remained through Wednesday noon.  So, the temperatures that had been in the 70's and 80's during our first week in South Africa were in the 40's and 50's at the beginning of our second week!

We began our safari in Addo.  We saw elephants galore feeding in the bush.  We also saw a buffalo (so, we could notch 2 of the big 5 off our list!).  We also saw many other animals in Addo over the 2 hours of our time there.  After lunch we entered Schotia for the remainder of our "safari experience".  There we saw heard of wildebeests, springbok, wild boars, zebras, giraffes and other prey that the pride of 7 lions, the stars of the Reserve, love to eat.  We also saw a couple of rhinos grazing in the lawn next to where we were staying.

Quite an experience, complete with being greeted with the glorious morning sun gleeming off the coating of frost.  We ended up seeing 4 of the big 5 while we were there.  We were also "treated" to the lions' "kill" of a wildebeest.  The four youngest lions of the pride had just captured the wildebeest and were voraciously getting as much as they could before their father and older brother arrived.  We were able to get within 25 yards of them.  Amazing!  (Now I'm a person that normally looks away during such scenes when watching a nature program on TV, but this was sickeningly fascinating nonetheless.  So, I watched.)  Eventually, the father did come and chased all of the others away, including the eldest son who got none of the feast.  The father was still hovered over the remains of the wildebeest the next morning when we drove by.

On a more peacefully majestic line we were happy to turn our attention to the giraffe grazing on the hillside above the killing field.  And, to cap things off, next to the pavilion where we were to eat our breakfast lay two crocodiles sunning themselves on the edge of a small pond.

Back to the ongoing reality of our trip, when breakfast was done we hopped into the conveys (vans) again and headed to the Moravian mission post in the village of Enon.  More later!

Blessings,

Rick Cowles