DAY 22 WEDNESDAY APRIL 15 - PORT ELIZABETH AND KWANTU

The ship was docked by 6am and we had another lovely outlook on the harbour of Port Elizabeth. 

Our booking for today was our most expensive shore excursion (US220 each) for AMAKHALA GAME RESERVE, which was a centre for rehabilitation of former farmlands.  A few days ago we were informed that this Reserve had scheduled an auction of excess wildlife for today, which seemed to indicate that the native animals were thriving there. As a result they had to reduce the number of visitors and we were transferred to KWANTU GAME RESERVE,  which had never been offered previously.  It turned out to be an excellent day, well worth the original money we paid.

We had a quick breakfast at the buffet and disembarked easily at 8am, as we did not need to have our passports checked.  Our coach guide was a local man called Mark Hick, whose speech suggested a British background.  He told us the history of Port Elizabeth (population now 1.3 million).  True to form the British Government in the early 19th century invited farmers to come there with a free land grant.  The migrants did not realise that they would find strong opposition from the native peoples and that the land is not well suited to agriculture; we saw mainly cattle outside the city.  Our driver Laurence was from Capetown and took the opportunity when Mark was not on the bus at the reserve to deplore the crime levels in his country, saying that the top politicians were corrupt and therefore it was not improving.  He supported the ANC but they never receive a majority. We had seen a huge number of new cars on the wharf next to our ship and Mark told us there were nine car building factories here, including GM, Ford, VW and a Chinese truck maker. Here are the ones wrapped ready for export.  Are they VW Caddies?

We were greeted by singers/dancers on the wharf.

Most of the black people live in towns outside the city as they were not allowed to live in the centre under apartheid.  We passed one settlement which contained 450,000 blacks.  Our highway actually took us past the Amakhala reserve and from the bus we saw antelopes, zebras and Giraffes over the fence.

The Kwantu reserve was 10 km inland from the road, so quite isolated and situated in a  natural environment.  It was owned by a third generation muslim Indian family who had a policy of no alcohol on the premises.  When we arrived we were greeted with big smiles and welcomes from the native rangers.  They gave us morning tea of cakes and biscuits and sparkling apple or grape drinks which seemed identical to the Appletiser and Grapetiser drinks that Australia imports from South Africa. At 10am we climbed up into the open top Landcruisers for a three hour safari.  We two were assigned to different cars, so saw some different animals.

Malcolm's guide was named Innocent, but he proved to be very adventurous.

 When he could not find an elephant for us he stopped and hopped out and walked 100 meters to look across the valley.  He found one in the distance so told us all to alight and walk over to see a mother and baby in the distance.  This after giving us a lecture about all the dangers from buffalo, elephants and lions in the park!

Lyn saw jackals, ostriches and a small group of elephants.  Malcolm saw a yellow mongoose and many native birds.  We both saw up close buffalo, giraffes, wildebeest, zebras (Innocent pointed out some with five legs), and many different antelopes. The safari finished with a tour of their breeding enclosures, where we see white lions, yellow lions, Bengal tigers and cheetahs.

At 1pm we were treated to a dance session by the Xhosa group and a feast for lunch.

 We were happy to climb back on the coach at 3pm, because we were 500 meters above sea level and a strong southerly wind was blowing all day.  We had not come prepared for the freezing conditions and Malcolm was shivering.

Back in the cabin at 5pm we posted yesterday's blog and went down to dinner with Geoff and Joan, where we talked about cars.  They had a Mercedes each plus a Porsche Cayenne, but when we told them about our electric iMiev Geoff was fascinated and went away to write it in his diary.  We watched the ship push off from the car loading wharf and turn itself around in a small harbour without any help from tugs.  An amazing feat to watch.

The concert tonight was a singing and dancing spectacular with four singers and 12 dancers going nonstop for 50 minutes and making at least six costume changes.  It must have been chaos in the backstage rooms.