Carnivores

 So we went to this place called carnivores as a very early birthday. omg. There was so much meat. But before we get to the fact that I ate half the animals I saw at the lion park here are some fun facts!

-I have one final left!
-Then we are going to Capetown for a few days. Getting transportation down there was a pain in the butt but we finally got some plane tickets. It will be nice to see another part of South Africa. A lot of people went during spring break and said it was really nice.
-It is getting hot here! The sun seems stronger here. But it is so nice to curl up in the sun outside. Yet, despite the time I spend doing this I am just as white as ever. Why do I not tan? Whyyyyyy
-I've gotten in the habit of walking around I-house sans shoes. Mainly because it's flip-flop season and I hate shoes.
-I calculated, I will be on a two planes for a total of 22 hours on the way back. and then airport time and getting to the airport and customs and layovers. SO MUCH TRAVELING. 


Vegetarians be warned. Although we dragged a vegetarian and a vegan along and they ate some. First off, they did not stop feeding you. Seriously. There was no wait time what so ever. It wasn't an order food place just a flat free but they served you. So this is what is was we sat down and pretty soon after the came over with (one at a time but like you'd get one and then before you finished then next would be getting put on your table)

• the most delicious bread.
• potato and leek soup, which was really really good. I've never though of myself as a soup person but I enjoyed this
• Salad (in salad form and then smaller of tomato, beans, corn, cucumber maybe more?)
• Pap and that sauce thing that goes with it.

Then the meat began to come. it was either skewered and they would push off a piece for you or a giant chunk on a skewer and they would shave off a piece for you. I'll start with the regular meats

• pork sausage -meh
• pork ribs -yum
• chicken- chicken like
• beef-I don't remember. There was so much meat.
• ham-at this point I was really excited to get a meat that tasted familiar.

Then the special meats.

• Kudu- it came in meatball form. It was okay, but not my fav. a little creamy and has a bit of spice to it.
• Impala-it was good
• crocodile-meh, it was okay. a little fishy which I am not a fan of.
• zebra-okay don't judge me here, but zebra was delicious.
• Gemsbok (antelope)- not a fan

Anyway, it was so much meat. I felt a little bad because I just couldn't eat eat it all but I wanted to try it all (except chicken livers) so a lot wasn't eaten. It was so cool though, I am glad I went. And there was a dessert buffet.

The Elephant Sanctuary

Okay, it was awesome. The elephants were very wrinkly and cool. We got to touch them so in case you were ever wondering what an elephant feels like, I will describe it now: The trunks felt rough, like you would expect an elephant to feel like. The inside of the trunk, well were it grabs stuff to put into its mouth, kind of slimey, it left brown goo on your hands, or cheek if one so chose to get "kissed" by the elephant. I choose not to. The back of the ears felt like leather. The body had these little hairs all over it so it was kind of hairy/furry feeling. The elbows and knees were hard and rough and calloused. The most interesting part (besides the leathery ear) was the tail, which was like plastic, the black "fur" that came out was like little plastic sticks. It was not what I was expecting. Also as you can see from the above photo, the have hold a ridiculous amount of pee in them. And the last thing on here will be a video of an elephant trumpeting, it also made a grumbling sound to talk but I didn't catch that. They were very well trained.

there was a slight eating mishap

       
                                                                          

about to be kissed by the elephant

we also got to hold the trunk and walk the elephant around

on the way home it stormed (with awesome lightening) and then we saw a rainbow!

The lion park

 On Saturday we went to the lion park! It was awesome. We got to go into this baby cub enclosure and pet the baby lion! Although shockingly they weren't all that cooperative and kept running around. They did however, stay put when chewing on someones sneakers and pulling the laces so they untied.

In that area they also had an enclosure of meerkats aka Timone from The Lion King.

trying to dig his way out of there

 Then we went on the safari part. We were in this giant van that had a gate all around it. The group of eight of us were pretty much the only people going at that time so we could each get a "window" seat. The first area we went to was the herbivore area. They let them all roam together so there were giraffes, zebras, ostriches, springboks, and more.

If you can see the red on his legs, it is because he is looking for a mate

for some reason, they all eat facing the same in direction

 Then we went into the carnivore section. First we passed by a family of lions.

The dad was yawning not roaring.

Then we went into a section of albino lions.

And then the coolest thing ever happened, these two male lions and some other male lion started having like, a conversation. They weren't roaring but they were going back in forth with like semi roar sounding noises. It was so cool.

All the work was clearly tiring to this guy.

Don't you just want to rub his belly?

And then we saw a cheetah. It was started to run and then stopped and just chilled for his photo op.

And that was our trip to the lion park!

The best part of this being spring semester

.
.
.
.
.
.

SPRING BREAK





I'M OFF TO MOZAMBIQUE.



see you in a week 

Sterkfontein Caves

So we went to the  Sterkfontein Caves this past Saturday which are like. caves. They hold some of the oldest known bones of the earliest forms of people found. It's a world heritage site which means that the site has cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humanity. Since they kind of show the start of humanity they made it onto the list.

Before we went there was a mini display/museum type thing.  It talked about like the history of mankind and the history of the caves and the bones they discovered there. What was really cool was that they showed skulls through various times as they've change and went up all the way to today. 

Eyebrows used to stick out like crazzzzzy

We went and got to go through one of the caves. It was so cool. like so so cool. We got to go crawling around through caves. I get how some people would not be the biggest fan since it was dark and every now and then you had to kind of crawl to get through. But I thought it was awesome. Anyway here are some photos. Naturally they don't really show how awesome it was. Also it was harder then I thought when we left the cave to figure out like, what the pictures were. So some could be ceiling or wall or upside down and I really have no clue.

We got there by using cabs for women. The cabs were....quite pink.

And here we go into the caves.

 The caves!

There was this one area they called the elephant area because one of the rock formations that came from the ceiling looked like an elephant. Do you see it?

This is where the lake in the cave is. You can't see it, but there is def water where everything looks black. It is apparently very deep. It also works as natural air conditioning :)

The crazy peeps I was exploring with.

A current site where they are excavating.

The view outside the caves. Just as beautiful.

                                               

Oh yeah. I was there too. See.