To continue the amazing long weekend here, today included the game farm! Yes, my most anticipated day for the entire trip. It commenced with us getting out of the vans to be greeted by the three elephants walking past less than 15 yards away! Following a short meeting, we started a full African safari on a game reserve with 3000 hectares! Whoa! We rode for two and a half hours, seeing a wide variety of animals including:
water buffalo, monkeys like Marcel from Friends, ostriches, water buck, zebras, impalas (an antelope type thing), giraffes, lions, rhinos, and so many more.
It was indescribable! While we did not get to physically interact with any of the animals apart from riding elephants later, we did have some cool encounters. I wish we could have gotten closer to the giraffes, but we did see them up among the trees, sticking out and eating a ton. We were also less than 10 yards away from rhinos, but that was okay because they have really poor eyesight... only able to see 2 meters or about 6 feet in front of themselves. Our viewing of the lions were a little more intense, as they are acclimated of working with humans as movie lions and are less fearful. Consequently they approached the safari truck with no hesitation, only to be scared away by the driver - with a stick!! Whoa.
After the safari, the real fun of riding the elephants came. We got a 30 minute ride with a partner, in which we learned about the elephant. Apparently riding them is the equivalent of us wearing a backpack. It was fun to see them break full branches to eat or approach the watering hole and pond to drink. Overall, it was a wonderful experience... relaxing and enjoyable :D
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