Nature's Reserve
Word of the day:Bakgat
Pronunciation:BUCK-GHUT
Meaning:Cool or Awesome!
South Africa is bakgat!!!
John and I got up early to attend Mass at St. Boniface in Knysna. We took a cab from the hotel to the church. I noticed that the cab name was Bennie (?spelling) Cab. I wondered if this was a verb form of bene. Each morning Craig would say "Masambene baantu". Which roughly means let's go people. If my assumption was correct we took the Go Cab to church. It was Palm Sunday. Celebrating Mass 10,000 miles from home was pretty amazing. Where ever we go God is always there!! Mass was little bit longer than usual since it was Palm Sunday. We took the cab back to the hotel and arrived in time to meet our Adventure Group to go to the Featherbed Reserve.
"Masambene Baantu!"
The Featherbed Ferry Dock was a short walk from the hotel. We boarded the Ferry and headed to the Featherbed Reserve.
While on the way there we met some folks from Montreal, Canada. One of the guys in the group asked me "Je parle francais?" "Petit." A little was my answer. I had not used my high school/college French for years. (In another words my French is not so good!) He then switched to English. "Where are you from?" "United States." "Non comprende." So I switched back to French "Les Etas Unis." "Ah..."
Below is a picture of the inlet from the Knysna Bay to the Indian Ocean. Knysna is on the left and the Featherbed Reserve is on the Right. Knysna Bay Inlet is shallow and rocky. It is one of a few inlets in the world that Lloyds of London will not insure.
After getting off the Ferry we headed for the Unimog. The Unimog is a tractor trailer that took us up the side of the Featherbed Reserve. Thank goodness we did not have to walk up the top!!! Notice that the Disney Adventurers are in front of the Unimog!!! The Mouse thinks of everything!!!!
We got off of the Unimog and headed for a beautiful photo op. Here is a lovely picture of Keith, Becky, Ryan and Lizzie!!!
Beautiful sweeping views from the top of the Featherbed Reserve.
A few pictures of the Adventurers and Our Guides as we hiked down the Mountain.
At one point in the hike we got to go down and touch the Indian Ocean!!! Bakgat!!!!!
You are probably wondering if the klutz (myself) fell, tripped or slipped on the rocky path coming down the side of the reserve. Sorry to disappoint you but I made sure I was sure footed as we hiked down the reserve.
After we had hiked down the Featherbed Reserve we worked up an appetite.!! Lumbeleh!!! Below are pictures of the scrumptious buffet that we had at the Reserve.
As you can see by the South Africa blogs we ate "just a little bit" of food while on our trip. South Africa was/is a Foodie Heaven. Sigh of contentment.
After Lunch Brenda and I headed for the gift shop. Jokingly David and John tried to pull us out of the gift shop.
After Lunch we headed back to the Ferry for the ride back. Once back at the hotel we had a short time to freshen up and get ready to go the Knysna Elephant Park.
The day that Tina brought the brochures to us in the bus I was sure, so very sure that this was something that we must do. One the day of the elephant ride I got cold feet for just a little bit...
The Knysna Elephant Park was not one of the official activities on our trip. Disney does not have this as an official activity as they do not officially approve of humans riding elephants. (Disney cares about the well being of animals-go Disney). We paid extra for the van ride there and for the Elephant Ride. Since it was not an official Disney activity our guides could not go with us. The Adventurers grumbled a bit about this on the way there and on the way back. (We liked our guides. We wanted them there!)
We were all pretty excited when we reached the Knysna Elephant Park. Our first order of business was to pay for the elephant ride and we also purchased buckets of food for the elephants. Our second order of business was to sit through a briefing about the dos and don'ts around the elephants. 1) Do not go behind an elephant (or else the elephant may sit on you) 2) No sudden moves (or you may get trampled). 3) So on and so forth...
The rules were pretty self explanatory so we were out of there in no time. We boarded the tractor trailer and went out to the elephants. We were trying not to eat the elephant food while we were on our way but the fruit smelled so good!!
We pulled up to the site where we would load onto the elephants. We first went into a small building. Our guide told us that Weddings were usually held here. I thought it would make a great place to have a vow renewal. Hint John, hint!! After touring this place we walked towards the loading platform for the elephants. The first words out of my mouth when I saw all of the elephants standing next to the platform was "Holy Cow." Brenda and I had a nice laugh about this as we got closer to the platform. We all got a little bit skittish about riding the elephants at that point. Brenda offered to load first onto her elephant. Yep, you first Brenda!!!!! (Smile)
The elephant's handler was already on the elephant. Also another of the Knysna's Elephant Parks Employees had a hold of Brenda as she got onto the elephant (just in case the elephant moved away from the platform). See that was not so bad!!! So I decided to get on the elephant. I quickly got on so that I could not change my mind. Boy was I glad that I decided to go for it. The elephant ride was one of the coolest parts of the whole trip!!!
Our elephant's name was Toesha. She is from Namibia. John was sitting right over her pelvis (ouch!) so he needed another blanket for padding before we got going. Our guide/the elephant's trainer name is Emil. He is a certified elephant handler and trainer. He could tell that I was tensing my muscles when I first got on. He told me that If I relaxed, Toesha would relax. I thought what the helk I must as well relax and enjoy the ride. Sure enough when I relaxed I could feel Toesha relax as well. Toesha quickly figured out that my legs were bare. She liked to put her ears on my legs. Her trainer kept flicking her ears off of my legs (and his). When I told him that I liked the feel of her ears on my legs he let them be.
He told me a lot about the elephants as we rode. Per his report, elephants have six sets of incisors. Elephants can live to about sixty years old. They lose a set of incisors every few years. Elephants eventually lose all of their teeth. Without their teeth they essentially die a slow death of starvation. Poor elephants!!!
We rode for about an hour and arrived back at the platform. After everyone was off of the elephants we got to feed them. Elephants make lots of slobber. By the time we were done we were covered with it!!
After feeding the elephants we got back on the tractor trailer and headed out to a different set of elephants that were grazing in a field. We got off of the tractor trailer and spent some time with these elephants. We even got to touch and "pet" them.
After that we headed back to the main building. We purchased the CD and DVD package and headed back to Knysna.
When we got back to the hotel Tina and Craig were in the lobby to welcome us "Home." That night we were on our own for dinner. Craig made some suggestions and then made a reservation for us at the Dry Dock Food Company. We headed upstairs to clean up for dinner. Because of the dirt from the Featherbed Reserve hike and the slobber from the elephants our towels were black when we got done with showering!!
We then headed to dinner. Brenda, John and I all had the Chef's Line Fish Special. The line fishthat night was Salmon. I don't remember what David had that night for his main dish. John and I had the Malva pudding for dessert.
I remember how comfortable I felt that night. I felt like I was in Omaha going out to dinner with friends. It kind of surprised me that here I was 10,000 miles from home, yet I felt like I was home.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel. We went to bed early as we had to get up early the next morning. It was time for more Disney Dreams...
Next Up:(Yes this is it folks!) To Kapama Safari Lodge!!
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