Last day at Kwantu

This Friday we managed to completely avoid work altogether, for the most part, and to really concentrate on interacting with our favorite animals. We went to the elephant sanctuary again, spending the morning gathering wild grass for the four rescues' beds. We would go and rake up this thick, wild bushy material into giant piles for tractors to later come pick up and take to the elephant barn. While we were out in the field, we took a fair amount of pictures with our hilly background.


After gathering enough wild hay for a few days' worth, we headed back to the barns to get their beds ready (with the hay remaining) and make their evening meals. We mixed these pellets, made mostly of grass, with this other dirt-like substance, made up of molasses and sugars, and also water to get their food. All of this took only twenty or so minutes, so then we sat down to have our lunch before going to find the elephants on the reserve.


After lunch and a nap on the barn floor, we walked back out onto the reserve to find the elephants. As usual, they were skirting the edge of the prickly pear forest, eating away. We took a bunch more pictures (I was glad to have my own camera, this time!) and fed them for awhile.



Afterward, we hurried back to Kwantu so that we could see off a few of our friends who were leaving that afternoon. Some people, like the Scottish guy Bruce, were off to other exotic locales and weren't bothering to stick around for a weekend in Port Elizabeth. So once we got back to Kwantu, we said our goodbyes, and then spent our evening playing with the cubs and lounging around the lodge. Once the sun went down, I packed my bags for the weekend in Port Elizabeth and my impending departure from South Africa.