Day 3 - Monkeys, Cheetahs, and Antler's Lodge

We were all sad to leave the beautiful Buffalo Bay on the morning of Day 3. But after breakfast we were packed and on our way to Monkeyland. We saw several different species of monkeys and lemurs that live in the park. The land is fenced in, but the monkeys are free to come and go as they please. Aside from a few platforms with fruit on them, the workers don’t supply the animals with food because they’re capable of finding their own. The monkeys usually choose to stay in the fenced in area because it keeps them safe from baboons. The park ranger told us that if a baboon were to get inside the fence, they would have to shoot it immediately because he would kill every single monkey and lemur in there. They’re scary foragers.

After getting up close to many monkeys and taking lots of pictures we drove a few minutes down the road to a cat rehabilitation center. A park ranger showed us a leopard and a couple cheetahs from behind a fence, then let us go inside some areas of the park to get up close to a few other kinds of big cats, and at the end of our tour we got to go inside and pet two 14 month old cheetahs. They had been very playful for the first group in the morning, but when we visited they were just laying in the shade. It was still really cool to feel their soft fur and take pictures with them though. Because they’ve been in captivity since birth they do not fear humans, but our ranger told us that if we were to approach a cheetah in the wild it would probably run away from us.

After lunch at the cat place we got back in the vans and headed to Antler’s Lodge in Plettenberg Bay. We all thought nothing could compare to Buffalo Bay, but this place was pretty awesome too. It wasn’t near the water, but the accommodations were very nice, we had a pool, a big field to play on, a barn to eat in, and a fire pit outside to cook on. I stayed in a room with Casey and Adrienne, and it was great to have a full bathroom for just the three of us. After exploring the grounds I played soccer with a bunch of people on our field until dinner time. We had a braai, ate together in the barn, and Hestea went over all the logistics for the next day because it was the first time we were all splitting up to do separate activities. I spent the rest of the night hanging out in my room with friends and getting some sleep because we had a 5:45 wake up call in the morning.