Then I went to a crocodile farm. Need I say more? I think the pictures do a better job. Plus, it means I have to write less.
So just three things:
1) Never smile at a crocodile...clearly I should have taken that into consideration.
2) You know how in car commercials it'll say "Do not attempt at home" when the actors are doing something really really stupid? Well... I think I need to preface these pictures with that. NEVER EVER ATTEMPT. I probs shouldn't have done this. Nobody else I was with did... They thought it was funny to feed the dumb American girl to the crocodiles? Well...ok whatever, I got lucky.
3) Random fact for you: crocodiles can lay up to like a hundred eggs at a time. Kinda scary!
 |
| What a pretty paradise the breeding crocodiles (90 pairs, 180 crocodiles) live in! |
 |
| Sunbathing Crocs |
 |
| Somebody needs braces :) |
 |
| And that hand could tear your face off. |
 |
| 4 and 5-year old crocodiles. They'll be slaughtered for meat, shoes and purses soon. :/ Would you climb in that enclosure with them? |
 |
| Because I did just climb in there with them... Not the safest choice I've ever made.... |
 |
| So there was a man waving that stick. He is a care-taker. And I doubt he'll live much longer...he likes to play with them. |
 |
| The farm was located in a beautiful forest area. |
On Sunday, we had caught some klipspringers and moved them to a different farm and gave them some basic treatment. After that, we were done. And Ben and I were just chilling, so he asked me to help him build a new coffee table for his living room. And being the cool guy that he is, this wasn't any ordinary coffee table. Instead of wood, we used old used chopper blades. Naturally. Anyway, it was really cool-looking and I wish I'd had my camera to take a picture because it was awesome and I was quite proud of it. I think he was really happy about it too. We carried it back to his house (oof had to get a serious workout in there) and we put it in his living room and it looked huge. But it was still cool.
While we were putting the finishing touches on that, Ben got a call that a lion had escaped from a reserve and was running loose on the road. Silly lions. So that was our afternoon - helicopter flying to find a renegade lion. Typical. After that, we just chilled for awhile.
At night, the rest of the Osmers family returned from their hunting trip and they brought some hunters from Europe with them. So Sunday night, we had a fancy braai again like the first night, late and outside on the firepit. The food was good and it was nicer this time because I was able to communicate with people and I knew them. So I had a good time. I also made extra certain to help out the cooks and say hi to them and thank them for everything. They were really nice about that. I wish I could have gotten to know them better. Ughhhhhhhh South Africa. Sometimes you make me mad!
Anyway, the hunters had caught a hippo and it was brought back to the farm. We drove down to the meat butchery on the farm to see the hippo. It was huge and gross and smelly. And weird. And very much dead. Lots of dead hippo. I was bored with the dead animal, so while they all took pictures with their trophy and watched it get hauled off the truck, I went and visited the orphaned baby zebras. And cuddled with them and fed them and one of them was nuzzling his little head under my arm for about an hour. It was the sweetest thing ever, like he needed a little TLC. Which I was very happy to provide!
I was sitting under the southern hemisphere stars cuddling an orphaned baby zebra while my host family hauled a hippo carcass off a truck...what a way to spend my last night in South Africa. Then, on the way back to the house before dinner, we had to stop and take a detour because the rhinos were chilling in the road. Refusing to move. So we had to turn around and take the long way back. Oh South Africa. Sometimes you are so uniquely weird and wonderful!
No comments:
Post a Comment