On our hangover hike, we first met really friendly and cute animals: zebras! And there was even a baby zebra! We tried to approach them, yes we even threw apples at them, but it wouldn’t help. They were scared (which was really exceptional, because yesterday it was usually us who were scared) and ran away at some point.
As our hike went on, it got darker because some huge clouds were approaching us. But they did not stop our adventure mood and we came across some dead animal. Only the Skeleton was left and the bones were scattered in the grass. We finally found the head with horns, so it must have been a wildebeest. We tried to cut the teeth out of the mouth, but we couldn’t make it. So we picked up the horn, which can now be used as enrichment for the big cats.
Our goal was climbing on Lionsrock and so we were heading towards it. We found two long sticks which we could use to smash on the ground to avoid any encounter with snakes. The grass got taller and the ground underneath it was now covered with rocks. Jazz was suddenly not running in front of us anymore, he preferred staying behind us. We startled a big bird, and we almost pissed our pants when it took off in front of us. It could have been some crazy wild animal. But ok. It was just a bird. Lucky us!
We went on and as it got darker, it got steeper. It wasn’t a long way to go now. I smashed my stick on the ground and then I heard a hissing sound. I screamed and turned around, hearing Natasha screaming „Oh Jesus!“ and we ran back. We had walked straight into two Puff Adders! Huh our hearts were going crazy. We went back to take some pictures and we noticed how big the snakes were. A fully grown Puff Adder has enough venum to kill 4-6 people. They are not aggressive, but they will attack you if you come too close or if you step on them. We were scared as hell, but lucky us!
We did not know whether we should go on..it got steeper and steeper, the grass was really tall and there were soo many rocks. And now we were really scared of meeting other snakes. It also got darker and we thought the thunder storm was not that far away anymore. We had to calm down, so we decided to have a pick nick. We ate some crackers and cheese and then we decided not to go on anymore. We climbed down the mountain, scared of every movement we saw. But finally, we met our friends- three really friendly lions. We had some good cat talk and finally walked home, laughing about what we had experienced on our hike – probably the best and most exciting hike I’ve ever had 😀
Today was a somewhat more relaxing day. With Islam and Elke, we drove to Clarens to go shopping. We ended up in the Clarens Brewery, where we tasted beer and had some lunch.
And guess what we are doing now – yessss, BBQ again! 🙂
Enjoy the evening people! Hugs and kisses from South Africa – it’s wonderful here!