July 29, 2013 P-Day at Schotia Safaris Private Game Reserve

AAAHHH…p-day.  This is the long awaited day we are scheduled to go to Schotia Safaris Private Game Reserve. All of the senior couples in the Eastern Cape attended…that is eight couples.  This included the Boyces (East London), Chases (Grahamstown), Van Sickles, Sherberts, Stokoes (all in Port Elizabeth), Gardners (George), Scotts (Knysna) and us (Port Alfred).  The vehicles are all open air, have three rows of seats, each row a little higher than the last one.  

It gave everyone a great view but it got a bit cold. We were provided with blankets and ponchos to use and we also brought our own coats and sweaters, but we still got cold. We have heard great things about this adventure and were hoping to see a lion kill.  We didn’t get too however; we did see three lions very up close.  As the pictures show the lions were right along our travel craft so close at times that you could reach out and touch them although it would have been a bad idea. 

 It was nice to have a guided tour as the guide was very knowledgeable telling us the names and interesting facts about each of the animals. 

 Rick got to ride on the seat they have on some of the vehicles that is right on the very front of the vehicle.  I was just hoping he wouldn’t bounce off as we all did a lot of bouncing.  

As you look at the picture of the rhino you will notice that the horns have been cut off. 

 About 3 months ago some poachers dropped in with a helicopter, shot them with a tranquilizer gun, cut of the horns and took off. These rhino’s where extremely lucky.
The poachers injected them with a huge dose of M99, the knock down drug used in wild animal capture. They were not given the antidote and therefore nearly had a total atrophy of the muscle system which usually is fatal. Even though they were administered way too much drug, were left with no antidote administered, lay in the bush for over two days unconscious, they were found and nursed back to health. Most of the time things don’t turn out so well. It was also good that the people who did this didn’t cut the horn back so far that it would kill the rhino. They told us the horns would go for about $1,000,000 each on the smugglers market. It’s a sad world.

We started the tour at 3pm. About 7pm they served us a great meal of local South African cuisine which was delicious.  

The meal included kudu stew, chicken, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans and rice with malva pudding for dessert. We ended out tour back at the office about 9pm.   All in all, it was a nice getaway and we enjoyed visiting with the other senior couples, which we don’t get to do nearly as often as we would like.