South Africa part 1: monkeys and birds

So, we left our crazy rock and sailed away into the blue,

and five days later we arrived in Cape Town in the winter, and it was wet. In fact Table Mountain looked like this:

Hmm. The next day we drove East along the Garden Route to an area called The Crags near Plettenberg Bay. The view from our woodland hideaway looked like this:

Yey! And inside it looked like this:

and the shower room looked like this:

and despite it being winter breakfast looked like this:

Hurrah!

Now, I have to confess, I am no animal lover. I am no animal hater either mind you, but I would rather they were over there and not over here, if you see what I mean. But this holiday was all about the animals. You can't take three Smalls on safari in the hopes of spotting something interesting (well you could but I chose not to for that way lies madness), so we went to animal sanctuaries and rescue places and saw animals that were not suitable for being released into the wild in the best kind of captivity there is. Every where we went the animals were clearly healthy, well stimulated and well cared for. They all had education programmes and some even offered free veterinary care to the local community.

First up: Monkeys...

Ok that's a lemur, not a monkey. But it is still a primate.

And that's an ape, not a monkey.

Another ape.

Then onto birds...

We liked the toucan!

Then then then... The Indian Ocean!!!

and just along the coast, a lagoon with clean, still, safe water, golden sand and winter sunshine so hot I caught the sun despite the sun cream.

The Smalls were in heaven!

And I quite enjoyed it too.

Tomorrow - elephants...

xx