Early Morning Game Drive

This morning was an early start as we had a 5am dawn game drive. The idea of going on drives at different times of day is that different animals are likely to be more active in the morning and at night than just at midday. It was not too much of a struggle to get up as it is nothing like waking up back in England; by 5 it is already light and the number of different animals you hear at that time, it is like waking up in a dream. There were 7 volunteers plus 2 proper hotel guests on the drive this morning and we were so lucky! We first saw a herd of elephants charging along in the distance whilst we were watching the sunrise and even though we were so far away from them, we could see the cloud of dust they were creating. After the sunrise, we set off to the other side of the reserve to try and see the elephants more closely but whilst we were on the way we saw a lion so obviously we had to follow her for a bit; she was magnificent and not bothered by the truck at all, apparently, she was introduced to the pride only a few years ago and was rejected by the pack so she now hunts smaller animals such as springbok alone. We eventually managed to track

the elephants down and I could not believe the size of them, African elephants are definitely bigger than the ones I have seen; there was a little baby who was a couple of years old called Christmas who kept trying to hide around his mum’s legs. We also managed to get up close to a giraffe, zebra, jekyll, antelope, black wildebeest and last, but certainly not least, rhinos. We were on our way to the exit when we came across them; there are only 2 in the reserve – 1 male and 1 female – whom were grazing near the exit. They couldn’t have been more than 3m from the truck, you could hear their every breath and the tear as they ripped the grass from the floor. We had to drive the long way round though to the exit as you could tell that they were a bit agitated by us being so close and were actually gearing up to charge.

We had breakfast and quickly finished packing our stuff ready to meet the minibus at 9.30 for our trip to Plettenburg Bay. We were told the drive would take 2 hours so I thought great, I can just sleep that length of time however it turned out that somehow, we all got passed the wrong information and it would actually take 4 hours to get there! So, it meant not only could I could catch up on my sleep, but also get a very numb bum at the same time. It was quite cool driving through Africa, you saw loads of people trying to hitch-hike as well as baboons crossing the freeway. We are going to be spending the two nights in a B&B called Plett Beachfront, it is

actually really nice. I have opted for a smaller room with 2 others simply as the rest of the group are planning on going out clubbing and I am not feeling that. So, I am sharing my room with a girl from Australia called Katherine and the lady, Jo, from Arizona; being the youngest out of the 3 I have been delegated the top bunk which I don't mind as saves my clumsy self from banging my head. When we all got settled in, we headed straight for lunch at a fisherman's club along the beach front; the food was so cheap! I had a cheese and bacon burger with chips and a lemonade, and it came to less than £6 which if you saw the size of this thing you would see why I am saying it was such a good price. We all then headed onto the beach; the sand was so soft, and the water was really warm, although I never went properly in the sea as I never got the memo saying we were going straight to the beach so wasn't wearing my swimwear. I still managed to soak my shorts and underwear though as the tide came in so quickly. There were a few market stalls so me and a couple of the others went to look at them; I found some nice loose-fitting trousers with elephants on but when I tried to get them my card declined so I was not able to get them - turns out though I had forgotten to activate my card via the app so that is now sorted so I will have to go back on Sunday to get them.

We have just got back from dinner which was super tasty and cheap! I had a seafood tagliatelle with a red wine which only cost me about £7 all in and honestly it was so lovely; the

town I am staying at is fairly famous within Africa for its seafood. Within the seafood tagliatelle there was calamari, baby octopus, mussels, and shrimp. Anyway, I better call it a night as I have got a jam-packed day of activities for tomorrow and despite this, the majority of the people are only just going out and planning on staying out to watch the sunrise on the beach! Honestly, I swear I must have skipped my 20's as despite being so young I just don't have anywhere near the amount of energy that all these guys do.