Lions and Tigers and..... Not So Much Bears.

The weekend started with my favorite day of the week, Friday. I laid by the pool all morning and took breaks from the sun in my room to read my book. I basically wasted the day away by the pool just soaking up the sun. I walked to spar, the grocery store, down the street to get some little things with Maria and Hannah and once we got back I made a nice dinner of fish and veggies. We were going to go out to this festival on campus that night, but a bigger group left before us and found out that it was at the Second Ave Campus instead of South, which is an extremely far walk and wasn’t about to happen during the night in the dark. It isn’t even safe to walk with one of two guys, you have to walk in a large group otherwise you are such an easy target, for who I don’t know? But I don’t ever want to find out. So we just stayed in and I continued to read and relax. Saturday I woke up early so that Becca and I could go on our long run of 6 miles. We were planning on heading towards the cape off of the nature reserve that our campus is built on because they have penguins there. We ran and when we arrived at the road the beach is on we noticed there were quite a few people walking in an organized fashion and when we got closer we realized it was some kind of like 5k walk or something? We turned to head towards the cape and saw a man running almost at a sprint with a police car following him with the lights on. We then realized we were running straight into the lead runner in the Algoa Marathon! He was basically sprinting with about 15K or so left. As we continue to run we cross a water stop for the runners, but didn’t take any because we obviously weren’t in the race. Our run towards the cape was beautiful and we got to see the golf course right by our campus and more of the nature reserve. As we got closer to the cape we had to pass through a gate which restricted cars because there was sort of a high class campground. They let us pass because we were running I guess? We saw a lighthouse in the distance and ran towards that and on the way there was a building with a penguin sanctuary. We didn’t go in because they weren’t open, but it is only 20 rand to get in so we will hopefully go back one day! We ran back along the beach, which I am not a fan of at all, but it was too beautiful to pass up. It was so much undisturbed land and the waves were huge with a rustic looking lighthouse in the distance. Unfortunately we didn’t come across any penguins, but the scenery made up for the disappointment. On our way back, I was positive that if we turned left we could head into campus through the back entrance, but it being Saturday it was all locked up. We kept going in hopes that the road might turn towards town, but it wasn’t looking good after awhile. We asked a truck on the side of the road who was watching the runners pass by from the marathon where exactly the road lead. He told us that it followed the coast and that we would have to turn back and go the way we came. It was starting to get really hot, but we had no choice but to turnaround. We then decided since with the heat and no water on us that we should walk ten minutes and then run ten and continue to alternate until we got back. All in all I would say we ran about 8 miles and walked 2. Not to bad for a Saturday morning, but when we got back I was so exhausted I just took a nap straight away. The sun takes so much energy out of me here, it is like it is ten times stronger here than at home. I continued to read some more and was lazy the rest of the day by the pool and what not. Instead of going out we all decided to stay in because it was an Austrian guys birthday. We celebrated with a cake and a braai. The night was so fun and so many people came over from a bunch of other places to hang out for the night. I got to sleep around 1am and had to wake up pretty early the next morning. Today we went to the Seaview Lion Park. It is about 25 minutes outside of P.E. so we rented a mini bus for the day to take us out and back. There were about 20 of us in our group and we left around 9am. Once we got there we had to drive through dirt roads to get to the lions and along the way were antelopes, impalas, water buffalos and giraffes all just walking freely (well within the larger fenced in area) as we drove by. Everyone was obviously freaking out because this is the first time we had a chance to see the African wildlife up close. When we finally got to the lions we walked through their refuge area. There were two fences with an electrical fence to keep them in. They were split up males and females to prevent unmonitored breeding because the sanctuary's goal was to produce the white lion which has gone extinct in the wild due to poaching. The lions that they keep are bred in captivity and most of the adults either have a recessive gene for the white lion that if bred with a white lion could produce another white lion. I had asked whether they would release the white lions into the wild and the answer was no because the poachers would still kill them. The fed the lions at noon which wasn’t as cool as I thought it would be because they only fed them dead meat, not a live animal. At first I thought this was detrimental to the lion because they had no chance to hunt their food, but I later learned that a lion, although has instincts, also has to be taught the right way to hunt in the wild. So if they were given a live antelope, they would most likely end up eating it alive causing the antelope to suffer, whereas in the wild they kill the animal first then begin to feed. Therefore South Africa made it illegal to serve up any live animals to lions or any of big cat. They also had two grown tigers that were given to them by the Joberg zoo because they could no longer care for them. I was told that the tigers had bred on their own and had 6 or so cubs which is great because the siberian tiger is on the verge of extinction. After the feedings we walked to the restrauant and sanctuary for the younger lions. It was only 100 rand to pet the baby lions and the adolescents and all the proceeds go towards their vet bills. The 3 baby cubs were sleeping when I went in, but it was still amazing to pet such a magnificent animal. Afterwards I went into the “teenager” lion cage and learned a lot about what the refuge was all about. The male had only a mohawk for a mane and was only 10 months old, yet still huge! They were also napping, but we were able to pet and take pictures with them as well. We ate at the restrauant and hung around until they fed the baby cubs which was adorable. They fed them a mixture of porridge and milk that they gulped down. We then walked back to where we were suppose to meet our bus driver at 3. He was only an hour and a half late (again South African time). While we were waiting we got a chance to be only about 40 or 50 feet from an adult and baby giraffe, it was pretty cool to be that close to such a huge animal, without a fence between us. Across the field there were also some antelope and water buffalo that were just lounging in the sun. When our bus driver finally picked us up I was so exhausted that I pass out in the van on the way home. The rest of the night I will be skyping with my family and checking on some emails then I am determined to finish my book! I can’t believe it is almost the end of February! Until next time!