Quad bike game drive at Areena Resort

One of the activities I looked forward to the most on the Mini vs Maxi adventure was to go on a quad bike game drive at Areena Riverside Resort  outside East London.  Other than going round and round on a little mosquito driven quad bike at the church fate with my son or daughter in front of me, I've never been on a proper quad bike before this.

Areena has three quad bike options with a short 20 minute ride, an one hour rise to the top of the ridge, which we did, or a longer two hour ride taking in the whole property.  After kitting up we went through a quick operational and safety briefing before we went off into the reserve.

The ride itself is not a race and the guide, which in our case was owner Ed Rathbone, leads the way with a steady yet comfortable pace.  The trails aren't too difficult and seeing that I was still learning the quad biking ropes I took it easy up and down the steeper sections.

The game viewing itself ranged from spotting zebra and a couple of antelope species...

... to seeing giraffe.  But to be honost, for me it was more about the quad biking experience than seeing the game.  The problem with this kind of thing is that once you have done it you want to know when you can do it again. Adventure, doesn't matter if its soft, mild or extreme adventures, is addictive. 

Cheetah Spots

Its not like you can just walk up to a wild animal and ask them to sit still for a little while you try to get a closeup of them.  Our cheetah interaction experience at Inkwenkwezi Game Reserve outside East London did give me the opportunity to get such a shot of one of their cheetahs.  A cheetah's spots are unique like finger prints and no two cheetahs are exactly the same.

The black "tear marks" running from the corner of its eyes down the sides of the nose to its mouth is to keep sunlight out of its eyes and aid in hunting and seeing long distances.  How? Don't ask me.  That's what Wikipedia said.  Another interesting fact that I discovered after mentioning them purring yesterday was that unlike lions, tigers and leopards, the cheetah can purr as it inhales, but cannot roar. By contrast, the big cats can roar but cannot purr, except while exhaling.

Inkwenkwezi cheetah interaction

When it comes to big cats in Africa people usually think of the lion and the leopard as they both fall in the Big 5, which means that the cheetah are often neglected a bit.  But a big cat stays a big cat and during the Mini vs Maxi trip through the Eastern Cape we just couldn't let the opportunity go by to have a cheetah interaction session at Inkwenkwezi Game Reserve outside East London.

Approaching the enclosure you hear a low growling coming from inside.  The ranger quickly assured us that its not them growling but in fact purring.  After a quick briefing we headed inside and once you start to interact with what at 120km/hour is the fastest land mammal in the world, you suddenly realise that they are nothing more than overgrown pussycats.

A hansom pair we make

Steve Biko's grave

In a small cemetery outside King Williams Town in the Eastern Cape you will find the humble grave of one of South Africa's best known anti-apartheid leaders from the 1960s and 1970s, Banto Stephen (Steve) Biko.  Steve Biko was born on 18 December 1946 and founded the Black Consciousness Movement.  On 18 August 1977 Biko was arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967 and interrogated by officers of the Port Elizabeth security police.  His interrogation included torture and beatings resulting in a coma and major head injury.  On 11 September, police loaded him in the back of a Land Rover, naked and restrained in manacles, and began the 1100 km drive to Pretoria to take him to a prison with hospital facilities.  He died shortly after arrival at the Pretoria prison, on 12 September 1977.

We stopped at the cemetery during the Mini vs Maxi trip on our way from East London and one of my travel companions, Sisa, explained to us why there are a number of stones that were put by people on the grave.  These stones were put there by visitors as a sign of respect to the person buried there, in this case Biko, honoring the deceased person’s memory and sending their soul on the the hereafter.. 

Yesterday was the anniversary of Biko's death which I only realised last night, so I decided to jump ahead on the posts about the Mini vs Maxi trip and do this post today.  Over the years there have been many references to Biko in movies, plays and songs.  There was even a Star Trek star ship called USS Biko.  The following link will take you to one of those songs, Peter Gabriel's song called Biko.

The last picture was taken through the cemetery's gate looking in. 

"Barefoot on the Beach" at Cintsa

On Friday morning Max and I made drove from Port Elizabeth to Cintsa near East London for the Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency's launch of Tourism Month.  We both had to go and make short presentations at the function about our participation in the Mini vs Maxi Adventure across the Eastern Cape which I am currently posting about. 

The theme for the function was "Barefoot on the beach" and it was hosted on the beach at the beautiful seaside town of Cintsa just east of East London.  Cintsa has a beautiful stretch of white sandy beach with a big tidal lagoon which I imagine is very popular during the summer.

The entertainment for the day included a fire dancer as well as traditional music provided by the team of African Drumbeat.

I found the fusion style used by African Drumbeat very interesting.  They were asked to give their entertainment a tropical beach / Caribbean feel mixed with African sounds and rhythms and I think they more than succeeded in what they did.

The formalities of the function took place in a big marquee tent on the beach, but after lunch our table decided to get some fresh air and decided to move, table and all, outside.  This did turn a couple of heads as I'm sure other people were sorry for not thinking of it as well.  The theme was barefoot on the beach after all.  Shortly after Max and I had to head back as the 350km trip back didn't allow us to mingle too late.  Wish we could have stayed longer though.

Looking up

My favorite photo from my walk with elephants at Inkwenkwezi Game Reserve.  It would have been magnificent if he had looked at me and flapped his ears, but just being down on the ground looking up at him made for a great photo opportunity.

Ele closeups

Elephants may have eye lashes that some women may do anything to have...

... but I'm sure they would rather die than have an elephant's rough and wrinkled skin.

Both of these pics were taken on my walk with elephants at Inkwenkwezi Game Reserve during the Mini vs Maxi trip.