Who knew that there is a safari in Australia? And especially in a around a quiet city like Adelaide? We drove in, and stayed a night in the safari resort so we can join the early dawn tour the next day. When we arrived in the afternoon, we went into the general admission area, which functioned rather like a zoo. The dawn tour though, now that was a different experience altogether.
Dawn is when the animals are at their most active, and we had no regrets about having to wake up so early for it. It did not disappoint. We saw zebras grazing in the field at dawn through the windows of the minibus, and a black rhinoceros stalked the perimeter far in the distance. It's just an hour away from the city, but entering the safari seemed like we stepped into another part of the world.
A hippopotamus lurked at the bottom of a waterhole and only surfaced its snout sporadically for a breath of air. I thought the tour operator was pulling our legs when she pointed at the waters and said there was a hippopotamus in there, until its snout broke the surface of the lake with a loud snort and expelled a gust of hot misted air.
There was a pair of cheetahs that was roaming around and caught the scent of kangaroos, which led to an all-out sprint to catch the kangeroos. Witnessing that scene alone was worth the price of our trip here.
Cheetahs are classified as Vulnerable to extinction. An estimated 6700 cheetahs remains in the wild, due to habitat loss and cheetah-killing by farmers protecting their livestock. One of the most successful conservation efforts include introduction of guarding dogs for livestock, which deters the confrontation-shy cheetahs from preying on the farm animals and eliminating the need for revenge-killing by farmers. And as an unexpected benefit: when children no longer need to work as their family's shepherd, they can go to school.
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| A disgruntled cheetah making its way back |
Herds of antelopes (both Eland and Nyala) roam the grounds, a magical sight in the early morning mist.
Scimitar-horned Oyrx, antelopes of North Africa that were once declared extinct in the wild, have been successfully rehabilitated by global efforts including Monarto Safari, and reintroduced into Chad.
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| A pair of Scimitar-horned Oyrx locking horns and play-fighting |
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| Close up of a Scimitar-horned Oryx |
From our vehicle, a Barbary Sheep stared at us on guard, while the rest of the flock stayed behind.
And the giraffes. I'd not appreciated how tall they were until they were standing right next to us.
We ended off the safari with servings of rusks - hearty biscuits originating from South Africa as a source of travel-ready food, and meant to be dunk in hot beverages to soften up before eating. The entire experience was simply wondrous, and the highlight of our Adelaide trip.
From our room, a rainbow stretched across the land in sunset. As we had cheese and wine at night for supper, I snapped some photos of the night sky from the balcony; and, was that the edge of an aurora?
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| A close-up of the previous image: the bird feeds itself blades of grass by grasping it with its claw and lifting the grass to its beak. |
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| Jason Momoa and Henry Cavill, 2016? |
The Murray River runs through the region, and we drove along part of the Murray River Scenic Cliffs Drive, where we saw the striking limestone cliffs. We watched a paddlewheel steamboat manoeuvre its way up the river and dock along the riverbanks. The interior actually looks like it’s a family boat, like the river-equivalent of a caravan.
At sunset, we reached a lookout point at the end of Crawford Cres in Mannum overlooking the Murray River. The river was so still, it reflected the sky back upon itself.
Despite being a small rural town, the food was pretty darn good. We had a terrific dinner at Pretoria Hotel, which included four normal dishes and one (1) Kangeroo dish for someone who wanted to try. It may surprise you, but I’d not eaten Kangeroo before despite having lived in Australia for five years. No time like the present. I guess.
Four out of five felt the best dish was the Camembert and Steak Pizza. One out of five said his favourite dish was the Kangeroo Steaks, which he had ordered after reading a good review of it. To be honest, the dish ain't half-bad. The meat was more tender than expected for something that spent its day jumping around. But it was pretty gamey. Also, it's weird to eat kangeroos. The four of us ate as much of the kangeroo as we liked, and then ate the rest of our shares, reluctantly.
