Day Four

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Geo: -23.8916, 29.4496

Today involved two activities.
Firstly, was a trip to the Cheetah Conservation Park near Polokwane.
This place is set up to preserving and protecting several endangered species, primarily the Cheetah, but also the Wild Dog, Black Rhinos, Lions, and Ground Hornbills.
It was a decent enough visit, including a guided tour and drive around their facilities. Theres something not quite the same about viewing animals in captivity.. considering how inspiring Kruger had been.
Even still it was good to see Cheetah up close, and we had an interesting encounter with the wild dogs indeed, them howling and laughing and making a hell of a lot of noise in our presence. Tragically, we didnt get to see the Ground Hornbills.. sniff.
From here, we drove onwards to Polokwane.
Here, overlooking the World Cup stadium was a small national park we explored. It took a while, but eventually we found a large pack of White Rhinos, we were able to get up close and personal with.
Onwards to dinner at another great quality lodge. The bar and dining area was actually inside the owners home, making it very homely and cozy indeed.
Then I retired to watch a horrible 0-0 draw between japan and paraguay, the latter eventually getting up in the tournaments first penalty shootout.

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Photos

Hoggy start to the Day
Nothing like getting up to find a whole pack of warthogs foraging outside ur cabin

Me and my new friend
An african grey parrot at the Cheetah conservation place. He was very cool. A little temperamental as he had a sore leg

Flat Tyre
As you can see, we didnt just get a flat on the way to Polokwane, the tyre actually exploded.. lol

Zita the Zebra
Resident Zebra at the Cheetah Conservation Project Park

African Wild Dog
Endagerd Species

Innocent? No
Out of all the african animals that can kill you, or eat you, or that are just dangerous - this one scares me the most believe it or not. This animal is really unpredictable. They make really creepy laughing/ screeching sounds.
Additionally i was told they are most likely to toy with you. They often eat parts of their prey while the prey is still alive.

Poor Lion
This lion was retrieved from a circus in France.
The circusmaster had him castrated with the intent of making him more docile. This meant the lion didnt have the hormones/ testosterone to grow his mane. A massive lion, some 15 years old, now resents humankind, and lives at the Cheetah conservation place

Lookout
Our bus broke down here for a while, and we were picked up by another bus within the hour

Comments

[Liat Biderovsky]

Awesome pics Kris!