The South Africa Adventure - Day 4

Tuesday, July 31st, 2018

After an early morning start, we get to this lookout in Knysna for the sunrise.

Knysna Estuary

Knysna Heads - ravaged by a fire in 2017, believed to have been arson

The next stop is Plettenberg Bay

And then, we get to the long awaited, very exciting destination: The Elephant Sanctuary

for a close up and personal encounter with those beautiful animals.

Claudine and I and another lady get to walk an elephant each with the animal putting the trunk into our hand - since we don't have a tail. Each pair is accompanied by a handler with a bag full of pellets, while the guide busies himself running back and forth with our cameras.

My elephant is Jabu. We get to walk them into the forest.

Only female elephants are well behaved enough to walk with humans.

We arrive in a little clearing where we stop to hear all about the African Elephants
and have an opportunity to really cuddle those big babies.

We check out the teeth and learn that elephants can't poke their tongue out.

Each elephant deserves to be greeted and fed by each one of us.

They are really very patient animals.

Time to walk out of the forest again.

Back where we started, the three elephants are lined up behind a log so we can feed them all some cut up pumpkin.

One of them grabs my hand in the process and I have a hard time extracting it from the tight grip. Cheeky!
Because there are no bones in the trunk, it actually doesn't even hurt like when a man crushes my hand.

After the elephant experience, I go for a walk through the big Birds of Eden free flight bird aviary which covers an impressive 2.1761 hectares and houses roughly 3'500 birds of over 200 species.

Lesser Jardine Parrot - Poicephalus gulielmi

Timneh Grey Parrot - Psittacus erithacus timneh

Golden Pheasant

Could be a Grey Lourie perhaps

That's quite a line-up. They mix well.

Western Grey Plantain Eater - Crinifer piscator

Rock/Speckled Pigeon - Columba guinea

Goffin's / Tanimbar Cockatoo (Corella) - Cacatua goffini

Australian Wood Ducks  or Maned Goose - Chenonetta jubata

Blue and Gold Macaw - Ara ararauna and
Green-winged Macaw - Ara chloroptera

Nicobar Pigeon - Caloenas nicobarica

Eclectus Parot - Ecletus roratus

Eclectus male - very rare species where the female is prettier

Dusky Lory - Pseudeos fuscata

Purple CrestedTuraco -Tauraco porphyreolophus

Dusky Lory - Pseudeos fuscata

Green Turaco - Tauraco persa

Indian Ringneck Parakeet - Psittacula krameri manillensis

Barbary Dove - Streptopelia indica

Hartlaub's Turaco - Tauraco hartlaubi

Fulvous Whistling Duck - Dendrocygna bicolour

Not sculptures. They are breathing.

Greater Flamingo - Phoenicopterus roseus

African Spoonbill - Scarlet Ibis - Cattle Egret

African Spoonbill - Platalea Alba

Carribean Flamingo - Phoenicopterus ruber

Some Hadeda Ibis here too

Chinese Geese - Anser Cygnoides

And that's called photo bombing.

Blue Crane -Anthrophoides paradiseus
Somewhere behind the bushes are two Crowned Cranes too shy to have their picture taken.

 

Common Moorhen - Gallinula chloropus

Common Shell Duck - Tadorna tadorna

Mute Swan - Cygnus olor
I didn't even know they were mute

Black Swan - Cygnus atratus

And then there is this cheeky thing who goes out of its way to come and attack my toes.
Red-masked Conure - Aratinga erythrogenys

The good book mentions Psychotic behaviour in relation to this particular character.

You can say that again.

Bloukrans Bridge is our next destination because our 3 mates are going Bungy jumping.
Claudine and I sit in the cafe and watch them on the TV screen. 

This is Praveen getting tied up for the jump.

All three come back with the adrenaline still pumping.

We are moving on to Jeffrey's Bay for our night's accommodation.

The private rooms are pretty posh.

When I go to reception to ask about the gate to the beach so I could go for a walk and some sunset photos, I get told I'm not allowed to go by myself as I would get robbed.

I have to ask one of my Indian mates to come with me.

Well, here is goodnight from Jeffrey's Bay.