A day of travel, but one of the best days yet...

Day 8:

An early rise and we were back on the bus. But this time Mike took us to O R Tambo Airport. We don't think we left anyone or anything behind, but Lachie, Max and Brendan were asked on numerous  occasions to check their rooms. A bit of spare time at the airport meant that the boys could acquire some 'reasonably' priced presents for parents (Jane and Nigel, I can feel a few wood items coming your way).

A quick flight to Port Elizabeth with an even quicker kip by some of the touring party saw us arrive to some very windy conditions. We were greeted by our bus driver Mike (which we decided couldn't be a coincidence) and we travelled the 100km to Kwantu Elephant Sanctuary. The impressive thing about the tour has been while he have seen some amazing sights and done some fantastic things, some of us are continually surprised that the day's activity seems to surpass the previous one; today was definitely such a day. At first the boys thought, oh well, more lion cubs. But when our guide, Innocent said that we could pat them and let them gnaw away at our hands (Coach Toth stressed that it must be each person's non-bowling hand) the boys went ga-ga.

We then ventured into other parts of the reserve and saw a number of lions, cheetahs and amazingly, Bengal tigers. The reserve has four of them which they've bred and will return them back to India next year. Three immature highlights in this part - Coach Thomlinson trying to stare down a female lion through the electric fence after if roared at him - Brendan reaching through an electric fence tot try and get a better look at the tigers despite being pre-warned (don't worry, no ill effects resulted) - and a lion passing wind in front of us, or at least that's who our guide blamed.

And as if the day couldn't get any better, we went on an hour long game drive in two groups. Kwantu game park is privately owned and operated and is over 6000 hectares in size. They have amazing bungalows that you can stay in overnight and in the central part of the park, there is a five star lodge and restaurant. Both land cruisers saw an absolute plethora of wildlife but there were two things that the boys wanted to see. A hippo and an elephant outside of the sanctuary. The guide for the older boys, Cool Man, didn't disappoint. A hippo was spotted early on in the piece, and with the help of Lachie, he spotted an elephant in a dam from almost a kilometre away. As we drove with haste to try and get a closer look, I must admit, I didn't think we get to see him up close. How wrong I was...
We were no more than 40m from a very large bull elephant in the wild. While extremely cautious, you couldn't help but be amazed by yet aura of such a magnificent beast. On the way back to the admin building, we saw some blue wildebeest, cranes and gnu to add to the animals we saw in Pilanesburg.

Then it was on the bus to the sanctuary part of the game park. Below you will see some pictures of the four trained female elephants. However, there is no way on this earth that they do the experience that the boys had any justice. To look into the eyes of this gentle giant, made you think how anyone could hurt these animals and how well that Steve and his staff have done to train an animal so large and previously thought to be untrainable. The elephants could be fed in two different ways: by putting the food pellets on her trunk and she could feed herself, or you could say "trunk up" and place some pellets on her tongue and overcome your fear of losing your hand in the largest mammal walking the earth. Everyone partook in both methods without incident - thank goodness!

The time seemed to pass too quickly and we were back on the bus and on our way to Grahamstown. We checked into the boarding house and got an early night before having to play our strongest opposition in the tournament.

Both men doing their best impersonation of Zoolander.

The boys eagerly awaiting what's to come in Port Elizabeth.

Coach Thomlinson giving the 24 year old Majula a quick pat on the tongue.

Some of the boys were a bit anxious with their backs towards the big girls.

One of the groups in the new Land Cruisers at Kwantu Elephant Sanctuary.

The King of the African jungle. 

The Queen of the Asian jungle (in Africa). 

Some of the younger boys flirted with the warnings provided, but ultimately sanity prevailed.

This was definitely my highlight of the tour thus far. The chance to pat Amala the white lion cub and Survivor the brown lion cub was absolutely amazing.