This weekend was a lot of fun! We left on Friday morning at 6am for the mid-coastal area of South Africa. We drove seven hours and arrived at the Cango Caves just after lunch time. We did an adventure tour of the caves which was incredible. The tour took about two hours and it consisted of climbing through tiny passageways and tunnels in a large cave system. The picture with feet showing here is showing one of the holes that we had to climb up to get to another opening. It was tiny and my first impression was that there was no way that I could fit in it, let alone actually attempt to climb up it. But with a little pushing and pulling with my arms and legs, I made it up! In the other cave picture I am about to slide through a narrow opening to get out of a tunnel. The entire experience was a great adventure!

On Saturday morning we went to the Knysna Elephant Park. We went and fed elephants that were in the reserve. They are free-roaming elephants and it was really neat to be right there next to them while they were free to run anywhere (the food was definitely keeping them there!). I think they said that they were all orphans and they are obviously used to people visiting them everyday and that’s why they are so tame. I must admit that I was a little nervous when they would start to get excited and move quickly. I kept hoping that I wouldn’t get trampled. I felt really small next to them!

After the elephants, I went to Monkeyland. It is a forested area of 12 hectacres that has a fence around it to keep the monkeys in and safe from predators. There were 8 species of monkeys in there and we ended up seeing 7 of the species which was pretty neat. We also walked across the longest suspension bridge in the southern hemisphere (it is in the park apparently). The monkeys were fun to watch and definitely entertaining. Our guide warned us at the beginning to hide anything that could be snatched away (i.e. cameras) or hold onto it really tight. He also made me laugh when in a serious voice he announced that if we learn one thing, it should be that monkeys cannot be trusted.

After the monkeys we went to Birds of Eden. This was a similar set up with a forest that was literally netted in. It was really weird to see a huge green net that was draped between poles in a huge area of forest. The birds were beautiful and I even had a friend parrot who decided that my shoulder was a nice place to rest and my hair was tasty. Once we toured the bird sanctuary we headed to a snake farm. My favorite thing at this place was the bunny pen which was filled with many baby bunnies. My least favorite part of this place was realizing what those bunnies are for. I ended up holding a large python and at the beginning of the event it was fine. But then he decided that he wanted to do something weird with his head and I started to freak out that he was going to bite or kill me… a little extreme thinking.. but when you have a large python wrapped around your neck it’s hard to say what you imagine.

On Sunday we headed home and stopped by Cape Agulhas which is the Southern-most tip of the African Continent. It was pretty amazing to be there and think about that.

-Carrie-Ellen