Having had a lazy day yesterday, I am determined that we do something today, so burying Victoria in brochures, we leave her to make a decision. Eventually one arrives – Monkeyland and then a visit to a big cat sanctuary at Tenkiwa.
There’s no need to hurry as both are relatively close to Knysna at Plettenburg and very close to each other. We go to Monkeyland first. This is a large area of natural forest, surrounded by a high fence. The monkeys are left to roam around and form their own colonies just as they would in the wild. As the next tour isn’t due to start for half an hour, we buy Magnum ice creams and sit down outside to eat them. Mike puts them both on the table but before I manage to pick it up, an agile little squirrel monkey with a baby on her back jumps up on the table, swipes it and makes off with it. Although one of the wardens attempts to get it, she’s up and tree and looking down at us, no doubt laughing at us. I wouldn’t mind, but we had already been told of the dangers of putting anything down, but it was just so damn quick! Mike buys me another one and this time it goes straight into my hand!
We are told that although there are lots of monkeys to see, there are three species of which there are only one at the park, and almost immediately we come across the first one, Atlas, a white handed gibbon.
Just around the corner we find our next single example of another species, the spectacle monkey. This little beauty is just too cute for words. The white circles around its eyes make it look like it is wearing glasses, hence the name.
However, the white gibbon approaches this little cutie and suddenly all cuteness is abandoned and the spectacle monkey shows the gibbon who’s in charge of the forest. No fighting takes place but there’s a hell of a noise and a lot of chasing before he settles back down in a tree and continues to look cute once more.
We can hear the noise of the howler monkeys all around (they are the loudest land mammal to inhabit the earth and can be heard 6 kms away apparently), and the little squirrel monkeys keep us company almost all the way through the forest leaping and cavorting just yards away. I keep my handbag firmly clamped under my arm just in case.
Although the animals are left to forage for themselves, there are feeding tables everywhere covered in cut up pieces of fruit where they congregate, tortoises feeding on the pieces that find their way onto the floor.
In addition to monkeys and apes, there are lots of lemurs. The first ones we see are the ring tailed lemurs, and there are lots of them, proudly insisting on showing us their bottoms as they feed from the table. Charming.
Towards the end of our guided forest tour, we cross the longest (but definitely not the highest) suspension bridge in Africa – 120 metres of swaying footbridge, thankfully with net on either side so that you can’t fall over.
We pass a series of large cages which house some spider monkeys which are kept separate because they would breed with the resident squirrel monkeys thus making a sub species. As responsible breeders, this is something which the park will not allow to happen. Our guided forest walk lasts for an hour and is great fun. We are just leaving the compound and are between the two gates when a warden points to the roof of a hut. There, perched on the top, is the only black lemur, the third species of which they only have one. How lucky are we, the only people to see him.
We wander back to the car and take the five minute journey to Tenikwa for our big cat experience only to find that we have 20 minutes to wait until the next tour and therefore plenty of time to sit down and enjoy a huge piece of carrot cake. Thankfully there are no monkeys around to steal it although if the Marabou storks, Marvin and Mary, could get over the fence, I’m sure they would have a go. I have to say that these are some of the ugliest birds I have ever seen. Judge for yourself!
After the cake we take a look at the meerkats. Although they occasionally stand up on sentry duty, as they are in an enclosure with no natural predators, they mainly just flop around in the sun.
Then we start the wild cat tour with Grace, our guide. First stop is the enclosure with the African wild cats, a pretty tame start as the cats just look like large tabbies. At first sight we are disappointed to see the animals in enclosures, no matter how big those enclosures actually are (and they are big) but thinking about it, it’s obvious they would have to be, and it’s not like a zoo. We walk through the enclosure searching for the cats and find them like all cats on a sunny day, lazing around in the shade.
Our next stop is a leopard. At first he’s not visible to me but Grace spots him immediately and we walk around the outside of the compound. She warns everyone not to touch the fence, just inches away and it immediately becomes obvious why she says this. As we are walking towards the leopard, he comes screaming towards the fence, straight at a young child (he obviously likes his dinner tender) who leaps back in horror. So does everyone else. This is a very wild animal and I am suddenly very thankful for the wire fence.
Then we are on to the cheetahs. There are two in the next enclosure and they are absolutely beautiful.
Photos: The two cheetahs
Next are the caracals, very tame large wild cats, the size of stocky medium sized dogs with black, tufty, lynx-like ears but all the behaviour of normal cats, again, lying in the shade, rolling on their backs and waiting to be scratched. One wanders off then as I follow to photograph him, he suddenly turns round on me, approaches and rubs himself against my legs. How do they always know which person is allergic to cats?
The very pretty servils are next. Grace tells us that one of them is well behaved and one of them is naughty and therefore we should concentrate on the well behaved one. Easier said than done when they are both hiding in the long grass ready to leap out and attack – possibly! In the event, neither of them is interested in attacking although Grace cajoles the good one to play tag with a stick.
Then we get a real treat. We are led to another cheetah enclosure and presume that we will just be looking through the fence again. But no. In we go. These two, a brother and sister, are relatively tame but still wild. One wanders off uninterested for a few minutes, while the other one watches us in a disinterested manner from her perch on top of a hut.
Suddenly, something attracts the female’s attention and she gets up, growling slightly as she stares, then starts down the slope to where we are standing. We have been told to huddle together so that we form one big mass, but guess who’s on the end? She slinks past Mike and Victoria, missing them by inches but then rubs past me (probably smelling the bloody caracal on me!) before walking on by. It’s then that I realise that I’m holding my breath. She then spots a truck driving past on the other side of the fence and hedge and bounds after it just like a dog while we all sidle out sighing with relief that she is more interested in that than us!
These few minutes with the cheetahs are the highlight of the day, and worth the entrance fee by itself. We find out afterwards that you can go for a walk with the cheetahs down to their watering hold for a few Rand more – I wish we had known and done this.
Walking back at the end of the tour, we go past the birds, including the most amazing blue herons who actually look like statues.
We walk back past the still lazy meerkats and the tortoises who are now enjoying a post-coital cigarette and nap.
On the way back to Knysna, we stop to admire the view at Plettenberg Bay with its magnificent wide sweeping beach.
Victoria is desperate to at least get her feet wet in the Indian Ocean but the tide seems to be rushing in pretty quickly so she settles for sitting on the rocks and watching the sea, surfers and fishermen nearby. We go back to the car, having paid the ‘car watchers’ the usual fee, which seems to be whatever you give them – strange arrangement.
Back in Knysna, Ann serves up mousakka for dinner which she bought from the Farmers’ market in Sedgefield yesterday. I wait for Mike’s reaction – he always professes to hate Greek food – but none comes and he eats it all, along with the stuffed vine leaf. What a good boy!
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