South Africa Trip - Day 4: Wildlife Adventure (6/7/10)

Street sign showing how to get to the ostrich safari. I found this sign to be pretty awesome/funny.

Beautiful view from the car. There was a lot of this so I like to include some of these pics to demonstrate how pretty it is down in South Africa. 

Got brunch at Dulce Vida, which came recommended by the cottage, and everything was delicious (especially a SA specialty – the Bobotie). After eating we headed first to the Cango Wildlife Ranch, which is a cheetah rehab place. 

The gang petting some adult cheetahs. If you arent a cat person, these cats would probably change that... 

And if they didnt these little ones would. After the adults, we got to go into the kiddie enclosure and play with/pet the cheetah pups. I decided to let this wee one taste human flesh so it knew what to expect as it got older. :) Its amazing the similarities between these cats and house cats in their behavior. Reminds you that genetics are a powerful tool.

We got a guided tour and then were able to pet cheetahs (adult and baby). The babies were like house kittens; energetic, active, curious, etc. while the adult ones were lazy. Was really cool to be so close to such majestic creatures. After the cheetah experience, we explore the rest of the grounds which let us see a myriad of other creatures; this place is essentially a zoo that also has large cat experiences available. They had wallabies, hippos, lemurs, groundhogs, and numerous other animals.

Got to walk through an enclosure with a bunch of hanging fruit bats. These things were huge. Wish we could hold and play with these bad boys. Maybe if you return at night?

Then we came upon some Wallabies. So of course I had to pet them. Tiny Kangaroos that you can pet? What about that says I would even consider saying no?

This guy was taking a picture elsewhere and the goat, who loves to climb things apparently, decided that he was low enough to be a climbing obstacle. It was pretty awesome as this just happened to Sean and we were all shocked. 

Goats dont just mount humans though. They are equal opportunity. 

We then headed over to Highgate, an ostrich farm. Here we took another guided tour where we were taught all about how ostrich farms operate and eventually get to sit on and ride an ostrich. Before we were able to ride, we had to go through orientation of the do's and don't's of ostrich riding. The guy giving the talk was hilarious; I really wish I had recorded the whole talk as we were cracking up the whole time. Riding the ostrich was interesting and fun, though somewhat challenging as one might imagine and iffy (the pin was full of ostrich dung so had to be careful where one landed). 

The gang holding some ostrich eggs. Apparently these things hold the same contents as like 10-15 chicken eggs. Unfortunately, we didnt get to try an ostrich omelette. 

My bro and I standing on some Ostrich eggs. These things apparently can withstand a great amount of pressure (I am not exactly a twig).

Feeding ostriches. It felt weird them pecking at your hand with their beaks. Like a weird tickling feeling. 

This guy was a BAMF!!! Our tour guide for the ostrich farm, he explained the history/importance of the ostrich and their feathers, eggs, etc. before taking us to the riding stables. Here we got one of the funniest instructional talks probably in the history of spoken word. Some of the key moments was when he was wrapping the neck around itself (flexible esophagus) and then  "do not walk in front of the ostrich - they have a sharp claw and kick forward... they will rape you" 

Me trying my hand at ostrich riding. Natural no?

After a quick lesson I challenged the resident jockey to a race. Look how I am beating him. No actually this was a demonstration of an actual ostrich race. They go fast! Was cool seeing people ride these beautiful birds that until this day, I thought were just Darwinian rejects waiting to go the way of the dodo. 

After the ostrich farm, we got some groceries for the trip and then went to dinner where we got to have some yummy ostrich steaks. Then we went back to the cottage, had some local wines, and played some cards and hung out a bit before bed.