Plett and beyond

We again met Pat in the hostel, and also another regular AnnMarie who was well past her 60's and from Germany. We spent many a minute chattering away in German which made me feel better for having lugged my German books here and only opened the dictionary once- to hide some surplus cash. It appeared that Pat had planned to go to the same elephant sanctuary as us but being one of the many who were committed to using the Bazbus she had to pay for transport from the hostel. Of course we gave her a lift and the merry band set off.
The elephant sanctuary promised elephant interaction and they didn't disappoint.
A selected few went to collect them from the field and led them into a woodland clearing by holding their trunks like in the jungle book- I couldn't get the marching music out of my head. (Now I've thought about it it's stuck there again- two three four). We were introduced to the young cows and shown some of the things they would do in the wild. Then we got up close and personal- very personal.
After the elephant stuff we sat drinking free orange juice with their keeper in the gardens and toyed with the idea of going to Monkeyworld next door.

In the end we had to, if only because we knew two German girls who worked there. When I say knew- we had shared several dorms with them over the preceding week (they had a few days off) but they had always been asleep no matter what the time of day or night.

Monkeyworld is an area of forest with netting around the outside and home to lots of monkeys- no surprises there.We walked around with them jumping freely around our heads and as they appeared the guide would tell us about them and where they come from etc. It was quite good though spoilt, as was the elephant experience now and then by little brats who wanted to screech over the guides talk and payed no attention to the animals until they did a wee, when they became enthralled. Pat bought us lunch.
Next stop on our busy day was the highest bungie jump in the world- dunno why but I didn't bother. Then onto Storms River which is where the river Storm enters the sea from a spectacular gorge. By now the air was a bit smoky from nearby forest fires but didn't effect us too much. Storms river was very scenic and Dan and I clambered upto a view point while Pat and Dana- didn't.
Although the three amigos planned to stay in a hostel near Storms river we could drive Pat back to Plett then, after a quick curry drove the same road for a forth time back to Storms river and our hostel the Tube 'n Axe. En route we watched the forest fires in the dark and felt relieved there was no wind as the hostel was deep in the woods. It was a very big day out and I was knackered. D 'n D had a tent on a platform in the garden which they more than deserved. This pic was actually taken at 4 pm on a sunny afternoon, you can see the effect of the smoke.