Day 14 Travelling to Plett by Arushi

We left our lodge at 7.30 this morning in a tired rush for Buffelsdrift this morning for our meerkat safari!

Upon arrival, we were greeted with coffees and other guests, including a Dutch family and another Uk family who we chatted to for a bit. We were then all piling into the safari truck, layered up for the drive. Eyes peeled we rattled along the path, spotting a few antelope and birds, geared up with binos and cameras in anticipation for the cheeky meerkats.

We arrived in the morning sun to the meerkat’s ‘system’ as our guide called their home. We saw the sentry peeking out from their hole, nose poised and eyes alert. The curious creatures slowly came out one by one until there were 5 visible with 3 out of the system. Occasionally you would get one meerkat popping his head in and out of the hole, a grumpy looking male. There was the alpha female in the tunnels still as she was pregnant, and then three others darting about. The alpha female of the group mates with the alpha male (for life), but the female is head of the family and makes the orders.

We watched them soaking in the morning sun, necessary for the meerkats to return their body temperature to 38.3C degrees (as it goes down to 36.3C during the night). They also use this time to stay lookout, utilising their 180 degree rotating heads. Observing the mob of meerkats so close scurrying around was incredible, and highlighted the peculiar behaviours of these diurnal animals. They are highly adapted to their environment, with excellent long distance eyesight (up close is very poor and blurry - could probably do with some of mum and dads reading glasses!), heightened hearing, poison immunity, excellent digging abilities and speed, reaching up to 30km/h. They have dust adapted bodies, with flat ears and noses, and membrane covered eyes to protect themselves. They use their tail as balance when they’re propped up on lookout, and apparently their main defence against predators is playing dead. Round here, their number one enemy is the pale-chanting goshawks, so the meerkats spend most their time searching the skies. Main cause of death however is old age, since they’re excellent at spotting danger from afar.

It was also our first animal form ‘the Shy 5’, which includes meerkats, aardvarks, aardwolves, porcupine and the bat-eared fox. There’s also the ‘small 5’, ‘wet 5’ and even the ‘ugly 5’! Eventually the meerkats ran off to begin hunting for the day, and so we followed suit and we left the range to return to the car park, spotting our first Nyala on the way. We drove back to De Opstel lodge for some breakfast and hot drinks to warm up, and more eggs. Matilda again was so gushing, encouraging us to come to Stellenbosch university in South Africa and visit her other hotel! We said goodbye to smiley Michael, and farewell to enthusiastic Annalies to start the drive to Plettenburg Bay.

Our first stop was Wilderness beach to dip our toes in the Indian Ocean and attempt to take a group jumping picture (which did not work at all), and enjoy the warm sand on this brilliant day. Then, the boys had a wacky suggestion to try paragliding, an activity popular around Wilderness area. A google search showed a company 5 minutes away, however that one turned out to be a dead end. Whatsapping the second option, Dolphin paragliders in Sedgefield just to test the waters quickly turned into an ‘omg we’re really doing this’ moment when we pulled into the car park! Greeted by the resident border collie we walked to their station, us 3 kids very excited! Eashan and I were herded into the gearing up area and were very suddenly on the takeoff field preparing for flight. Both strapped in just as quickly, and then we were ready!

Eashan took off first, and just like that I watched my baby brother fly into the sky. I followed after him, the only instructions being to bend my knees in the sky and keep them straight on the ground. With that vaguely useful information, my instructor (or pilot) did some magic with the glider, a sort of run and then we were airborne! We gained speed quickly and were zooming above everything before long! The seat was surprisingly comfy, and the ride so smooth it was easy to forget we were really flying. We had a glorious 10 minutes in the air each, though it felt a lot longer, and Eashan and I were up at the same time, spying each other’s coloured gliders in the distance. He had a GoPro to record some footage with, which shows the immense view we had, high above fields, birds, roads and even the sea. It was so peaceful you really were just gliding through the air, like a cloud or a leaf. There was so much to spy, from rolling hills behind us, to teeny tiny people below and occasionally spotting the others in the landing field.

I truly had such a grand time I couldn’t stop grinning with glee high in the sky, amazed that it was a reality! We even got to do spins in the air to speedily lower the glider down, which felt like whizzing round a fairground ride except we were 400m above ground with the wind whipping around me. After milling around in the sky, we started to come down which again was a big trust, not even knowing when we were landing let alone any instructions! I braced my legs for landing and successfully landed on my feet only to be pulled along by two men and my instructor from behind so the glider didn’t land on some shrubs behind.

I was unclipped as fast as I was geared up and ran to mum dad and Millen to share my excitement and enjoyment, the border collie bounding over jumping with me. I was met with a surprise on the ground as mum was also suited up and had been convinced to have a go as well! Then just like that Eashan landed, and Mum was off, followed by Millen. Millen had also had a GoPro which captured his amazement at the experience, and clips of mum from afar. Dad remained safely on ground, not enthralled by the idea of being so high up in air, so was instead the designated cameraman. On ground, we grabbed the binos and camera and tried to catch glimpses of mum and Millen sailing by which was mostly unsuccessful.

When we were all back on ground and reunited we were full of adrenaline but sad to leave. We drove to a nearby restaurant for some lunch, and then were back on the road towards Plettenberg bay. We drove around the town briefly (which didn’t seem to take too long), the buildings illuminated by the fading sunlight and windows reflecting the pink hues appearing in the sky. The moon was almost full, contrasting with the tiny sliver we saw during the safari, indicating how long we’ve been away which felt symbolic.

We then checked into our hotel, and were given an upgrade due to the small amount of guests around since we’re the only ones tonight and then joined by four others tomorrow night. After a long adventurous day we enjoyed hot water showers and baths, and then playing games in the communal area with a supermarket dinner before bed.Read more