Day 7 - Knysna

We're still not exactly sure why Mr. Schneider decided to stay in Knysna for two nights, because there's actually nothing here. Yes, there's a shopping area at the Waterfront, but that's about it. You can take various boat tours here...but me and boats...no thanks. The other two weren't particularly excited about it either. So, what to do? Nearby, there are three wildlife parks - 'Monkeyland', 'Birds of Eden', and 'Yukani', a park with wildcats. We also had the opportunity to take a guided tour of the townships. We debated about that as well. It was going to cost us over €100 for the three of us, and somehow we weren't really keen on looking at the misery in the townships and taking pictures of it. Not in the sense of 'what you can't see, doesn't exist'. But do we really have to go on a people-safari? Can't we imagine how they live? Do we have to gawk at their misery, even though we would like to learn more about these people? No! No, we don't want that. We can already see the townships on both sides of the road, see the garbage lying around everywhere, and women washing laundry in tubs. That's enough for us, really.

So let's watch animals instead. We immediately bought a combo ticket for all three parks and visited them one by one. First, we went to see the monkeys. The entire park is a forest where all the animals roam freely in their natural environment. To avoid serious rivalries among the monkeys, there is always enough food provided. You couldn't walk through the park alone, but always in a small group with a guide. She told us a lot and pointed out special features of the animals. In the end, we actually saw 9 out of the 11 species living there. It was wonderful.

The 'Birds of Eden' park was under a huge dome and designed as a circular path. Here, all sorts of birds can be observed. Parrots, flamingos, pheasants, lovebirds, and other birds whose names I naturally don't know all. The birds still live there in a truly wild and original way, and here, too, you have to look and search, not everything is served on a silver platter. We liked it. A little searching and listening can be fun.

The last park was the Jukani Park. We even had a private tour because no one else was there. Super. The wildcats were all behind wire fences, but you can't get as close to the animals anywhere else. Not even in our zoo. And because the animals have plenty of space here and are actually in their natural environment, they are not as disturbed and behaviorally abnormal as they are with us. And the lions were even bigger, I felt. There were even tigers, because this enclosure also accepts animals from private collections, and there are actually crazy people who keep tigers, lions, etc. Shooting wild animals is also a big sport here. So the animals are bred, grow up, and are then put in a relatively small cage just so someone can shoot them, who has paid a lot of money for it. Well, and such animals end up there. And we also learned something. The lion, the tiger, the leopard, and the jaguar. They are all big cats that can roar, but only leopards and jaguars can be black due to a genetic mutation, the panthers we know. So panther is not a species, but a coloration, if you will. Cheetahs and cougars belong to the Felidae (big cats) because they can't roar, they can only meow. Okay, enough information. We were even there when they were being fed, and some of the animals really went crazy. Especially the tiger, who's really possessive of his food. Let me tell you, when you're standing two meters in front of a tiger who's defending his food, growling deeply, making faces, ready to pounce, and there's only wire between you and him, you'll quickly start feeling very different!

See you tonight. I can't do anything here except write. :-D