Monkey Magic

As much as we've loved our accommodation so far, it was nice last night to check into a 'proper' hotel.
We are on the waterfront in Knysna; our room overlooks the harbour and there's a fab little shopping complex right next door, with some really good restaurants.

We got up early today to be able to fit in 3 sanctuaries. They are all operated by the same group and 2 of the 3 places are predominantly rescued animals.

First up was Jukani; this is a big cat sanctuary and we were delighted to be able to see pretty much all the animals there. Our tour was a guided walk through the park, where we saw lions, tigers (white, Siberian and Bengal), a black leopard, cheetah, puma and jaguar. Plus jackals, wild dogs, caracals and oddly, raccoons!
The black leopard was a surprise to everyone; even Elvis, he said they are rarely seen during the day. There's a nice story to go with this particular leopard too, he said to look on YouTube for the story of the leopard and how his name changed from Diablo to Spirit.
They also had a snake house, which was worth a look before we left, especially to see the famed black mamba!
What was nice about this place is that they limit contact with humans as much as possible (even though some were previously kept as pets) and their enclosures are huge spaces where they can roam freely. Much less restrictive than a zoo. Our guide was called Elvis and he was excellent. He explained the differences between species and also about the individual animals.

Next up was Monkeyland. Similarly, this was a guided, walking tour and the monkeys were all free to roam. We were warned beforehand to leave all loose items (especially glasses) in the car. As we were sitting waiting for our tour to begin, we saw a few monkeys lurking around. One of them came under the table to my feet and tried taking off my sandal!
The walk through the forest was fantastic; to be able to see these creatures in a natural habitat and at such close range was something special.
Many monkeys were indigenous and have successfully bred in the sanctuary one pair even gave us a demonstration!

We saw capuchins, spider monkeys and gibbons (to name but a few) and also lemurs, which were hilarious to watch.
They were all used to humans but not tame enough to be petted or fed by us; instead they had little feeding platforms dotted around. Our guide was brilliant and gave us loads of time to take photos before moving on.
Someone obviously didn't heed the advice as we saw one monkey running through the forest with a pair of spectacles! He sat up in a tree for a while licking the lenses.
What was surprising was how all the different species got on together; they all mingled at the feeding platforms without any aggro.

Neither of us wanted to leave there, it was such a fab place and made me love monkeys even more which is good news for my monkey, Mr A

Last up was Birds of Eden. This was a huge enclosure full of every bird of colour; again free to fly, perch and roam. The only birds to give us any grief were a couple of geese (Helena, I thought of you!), but I shushed them and they waddled off.

We only just had enough time to see all 3 places, which is why we did them in order of preference.

Today's blip is a jaguar at Jukani, a bird at Eden and monkeys and lemurs at feeding time at Monkeyland.