Garden Route-Plettenberg Bay and Knysna

     So, the second day was elephant and monkey day.  We had originally planned to just go to Knysna, but while we were at Jukani we were told that the one at Plettenberg Bay was better.  They were both really nice places, but I don't know if one was better than the other.  They are just very different.  We decided to ride the elephants at Plettenberg and feed them and stuff at Knysna.

     The first place we went was The Elephant Sanctuary in Plettenberg Bay.  We rode the Elephants there.  We only rode them for like 7 minutes or so which was fine because the spine is very pronounced and it was paining my butt because I was not centered completely on the elephant.  

     After we rode the elephants we went just down the road to Monkeyland.  We hadn't originally planned to go there, but once we found out it was so close we decided that it would be fun.

This lemur was imprinting on the stick.  They have scent glands on their hands and they scratch the stick and put their scent in it.

Our guy said this monkey was the trouble maker.

This is how lemurs get warm.

This monkey was super funny.  He kept trying to reach into the guides pocket because it thought he had food in his pocket.

     After the monkeys it was Knysna time.  We were able to touch and feed the elephants which was cool.

 

     I can't exactly remember where we ate or anything that day, but I am sure it was good.  We slept in this really nice cabin like thing.  Tyler's thoughts: "Riding the elephants was a neat experience. While I was riding my elephant it took a potty break. Whilst peeing it sounded like a fire hydrant had burst. Being able to touch, feeed and get so close to the elephants was awesome." 

Garden Route-Mossel Bay

     Ok, so I guess it's time to write about the Garden Route.  I don't want to do it all in one day because I don't want to, sorry Mom. =]  I will start with Mossel Bay.  We left early Friday morning for Mossel bay which is pretty good considering how much we have been sleeping in recently.  The drive was really nice.  It's absolutely beautiful!!  I originally thought that the Garden Route was going to be all around the coast, but it actually went through the mountains which was just fine with me.  These mountains are amazing.  

     The really cool thing about South Africa is that these mountains just appear seemingly out of nowhere and so do the beaches.  As we were winding down one of them mountains we saw Mossel Bsy and it was so pretty.  I don't have the best pictures of the view from the mountain, but I do have some pictures of the beach and such.

     Our hotel at Mossel Bay was actually a train that was redone to make rooms.  It's about as close to the beach as you could be without being on the beach.  The rooms were super small though!  The entire room is the bed and a side table.  It was about 6' by 6' meaning it wasn't quite big enough for Tyler, but as usual he didn't have any issues falling asleep.  We noticed railroad tracks about 5 feet away from the train hotel and we were told that they were still in use!  Luckily a train didn't come by that night.

     After we checked the beach out, we went to Jukani Predator Park.  This park was really nice because we got to watch the animals eat and stuff.  I will label each animal on the picture, but the female lions were on birth control so they are a little "cuddly".  We got to hear the lion roar and we sorta got to see the cheetah run, but not very fast.  

Honey Badger

Leopard

Black Leopard or Panther

Bengal Tiger

I forgot what this was called, but people in Namibia keep trying to keep them as house pets even though they are wild animals.  They were hissing at each other over food, so I would hate to see what they would do to a child when they won't give them the food they want.

Jackal

Lion-  We heard this guy roar.  It sounded like a motorcycle.

White lion-she is obviously on birth control

White Bengal Tigers

These birds are super mean and wouldn't stop making really annoying noises the whole time.

Cheetahs

Hyena

Hyena's are actually pretty large.  I thought they were going to be the size of a dog, but they are probably about the size of a small bear.

Female Siberian Tiger

Male Siberian Tiger-He was HUGE!

      We ate at this really awesome restaurant called Del Fino's.  The food was so good and it had an amazing view.  Unfortunately it was quite dark, so all the pictures I have don't really show anything except this one.

     Tyler's contribution: "The drive overall was about 5 hours but it did not seem like it took that long. We got to Jukani and it was cool seeing all of the big cats from so up close. We got to hear the lion roar but it wasn't as loud as I thought it was going to be. The animals were a lot bigger than I thought they would be."  I will post about Knysna tomorrow!  Hamba Kakuhle.

Slow food market

     I know I am posting early today, but we aren't doing anything else fun so I figured I might as well do it now.  We went to the Slow food market and it was awesome!  I am just going to post pictures and explain them.

This is the Slow food market!  It's pretty cool and relatively big.  There were a lot of these little tent things and also there were some places inside this building.

I didn't eat ostrich, but I thought it was cool that they sold it.

Tyler got Mexican food.

I got Chinese!  These were really good.

We also split a spinach and feta quiche.  The crust was almost like a biscuit.  So good.

Tyler got a Waffle for dessert.

Vanessa told me I had to try to the German food here because she said it tastes just like the stuff they have back home.  This was a cheesecake with mixed berries.  It didn't really tasted like what we consider a cheesecake, but it was really good.

Beautiful Stellenbosch.

This little bird was for sale...I thought it was cute.

This pesto is SO GOOD.  There was a guy making it and selling it there, so we got a jar.

     Tyler is grabbing movie and we are just going to spend the rest of the day just hanging out.  Hamba Kakuhle.