Wednesday 8 February 2012

Port Elizabeth - Safari Day

Sunday February 5th - Day 32

Port Elizabeth is one of the largest cities in SA and is 468 miles east of Cape Town. The city often shortened to PE is often nick-named the Friendly City or the Windy City - surely not as windy as Cape Town!!

This morning we set off for the Pumba Game Reserve which covers more than 14,000 acres and offers the experience of spotting the 'Big 5' in a natural environment. The animals we hoped to encounter are lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard, white rhino (the Big 5), giraffe, zebra, hippo, warthog and others.

After a one and a half hours coach ride to the reserve we set out for a three hour game viewing in an open 4x4 vehicle. As we set off it started to rain - how can you have a safari in the rain!! so we put on waterproof ponchos and blankets were at hand if required but as it turned out the cooler weather made the whole experience much more pleasing.
The first animals we spotted were warthogs, kudus and nyala but we were really on the lookout for the big 5. After spotting giraffe and blue wildebeest we came across a sole African elephant wandering through the bush which made for a great photo shoot.
Later we came across the rare white lions - mummy, daddy and baby sleeping off their late morning meal so the driver was able get us really close - make sure you see the photos.
Unfortunately we never saw the hippo and missed the white rhinos by minutes but luckily the guests in another 4x4 got really close and Joanie has given me some of her fabulous photos - the one I like the best is her photo of mummy rhino with baby rhino waddling down the road. Thanks Joanie for letting me use your photo on the blog.
After lunch and a few glasses of red wine at the reserve it was back on the coach for the return trip...I was soon nodding off and despite it being a great experience, a seven and a half hour trip was too much...and we missed our noon beer...!!
Sunset tonight was at 7:15pm and I got some super photos as we left PE.
Dinner outside on The Colonnade was Polynesian and then we went to see Kenny Smiles the Welsh comedian who had been on last year's cruise so we knew to expect a great show - thanks Kenny.

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