Posts Tagged 'animals'
9
Erin spent the day with us today, and I took the kids to the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve in the Cradle of Humankind. They loved it… although they were very disappointed when I decided that an extra R30 per person per enclosure was an exorbitant amount to pay to let them pet the lion cubs considering the amount we’d already spent to get in the reserve! Anyhoo… I’ll take them to pet the lion cubs another day.
Because we got there quite late, we headed for the creche first where we saw the lion cubs, rhinos, jaguars and tigers.
Apparently Barbie didn’t like the Rhinos…
Then we headed for the lion camps (on the way spotting some warthogs and ostriches and a “wild” rhino and actually a jackal crossed the road in front of us but it was too quick for me to stop the car and grab my camera)… where although we didn’t see the lions in the camp we were most thrilled to spot the wild dogs and the cheetahs… and a family of white lions!
Then before we left, we took a walk to the Hippo pools and saw more lion and tigers along the way.
And now I’m going to have an early night… have to be up sparrows to catch a flight for the first of this weekend’s weddings!! So my blog will be quiet for the next few days 
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3
Today’s stay-cation mission was to have fun at the Johannesburg Zoo. Nicole and Erin joined us, and we spent quite a few hours chasing the kids around the zoo.
The weather wasn’t exactly pleasant and alternated between fine drizzle and freezing winds… and then some sun to tease us before the mad weather cycle started all over again. But the kids didn’t seem to notice, and they ran and ran and ran… and then collapsed at around lunch which meant that Nicole had 4 year old Erin in a stroller with 25kg Connor (also 4 years old) perched on the back of it… and she managed to somehow push them up that HUMUNGOUS slope to see the hippos and rhinos!
LOL I had to laugh, because it reminded me of Exmi’s blog post yesterday about their trip to the Pretoria Zoo. Well, that, and the umpteen sets of parents that arrived all fresh looking with their kids riding those push along tricycles… only to be seen walking around the zoo half an hour later trying to carry the child in one arm, and the trike in the other!! Zoo trips are not for the faint-hearted!
Hehe Bradley was on tippy-toes trying to reach the opening… and then in the second shot he’s actually pretending to be a lion… although it looks like Connor is kicking him or something
One of my highlights was seeing the baby giraffe. Aww, it was so sweet!
It was a good day, and it was awesome that the boys shared the experience with Erin
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5
After we left Somerset West, we travelled on the coastal road to Hermanus. My word, what a stunning road!
We stopped at a viewpoint at Kogel Bay, before heading for Betty’s Bay to see the penguin colony
Then we got to the Penguin marine reserve at Betty’s Bay. Smelly… but good. Loved that you could get so close to the penguins without disturbing them.
Ja ja I know… this isn’t a penguin… but it was running across the rock in front of a penguin 
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10
Twins again I had a weekend of twins. This time, I was asked by an ex-colleague of mine to take photos at her friend’s kids 9th birthday party at the Lion Park, north of Johannesburg. Twins, Eloise and Chrissie, live in the UK and are in South Africa (with their parents of course) visiting family.
We had to do the cake thing quickly today (and they were the MOST magnificent cakes) because we had to go on a game drive around the Lion Park and then end off with petting the lion cubs.
What an awesome party for kids who don’t live in Africa… actually that’s a stupid statement… it’s awesome for any child. I actually thoroughly enjoyed the game drive too, because we’ve only ever driven around the Park in our own car, and it was fabulous listening to the guide (think we’ll do that the next time we take the kids to the Lion Park)
The game drive started off spectacularly when one of the resident giraffes decided that it wanted to poke it’s nose into the vehicle, causing loads of squeals of laughter.
After the excitement of the lions being so up close and personal to the truck… we went to the wild dog enclosure and the cheetah enclosure… where the animals were more sedate
Chrissie got completely excited though (more than with the lions) when she spotted the meerkats . Apparently her entire room is themed with meerkats, so this was such a treat for her. It was the first time she’d actually seen them IRL.
And then we reached the front of the long queue… and petted the lion cubs for a bit
LOL I just love this shot
It was definitely a party that they’ll always remember.
I’ve put more photos on my Facebook Page so go there, “Like” it and make some comments
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6
Luca’s 4th birthday party was held at Farmyard Frendz in Honeydew this morning. It was an action packed Spiderman party with a pass-the-parcel game, horse rides and tractor rides; and to top it off the kids fed the animals too!
