More Animals

Well, I do not foresee either of my girls having careers as veterinarians. Today we visited two local venues featuring animal interactions.  The first one, Butterfly World, had butterflies, birds, fish, iguanas, lizards, snakes, etc.  Both girls were rather startled by the volume of the birds although they did like the parrot that said hello to them.  Butterfly World was also home to this beautiful iguana but Thandokuhle was very clear that she was scared of it.

The second establishment was called “Giraffe House” and they focused on African animals.  They had a variety of small animals such as duikers, foxes, tortoises, monkeys, as well as giraffes, zebra, eland, crocodiles, ostrich, and a wart hog. I had never seen several of the smaller animals as they are indigenous to Africa and not in US zoos. They also had farm animals and each child was given a bucket of feed for the animals.  Of course, both of the girls were too scared to feed any of the animals.  The one pen had an ostrich and a goat and Dad and I enjoyed feeding the ostrich.  It could easily reach over the fence and it ate right out of our hands.  Where else do you get to hand feed an ostrich?

Miranda liked seeing the animals as long as she was not too close to them.  Thandokuhle was more overwhelmed by the animals.  I am assuming that she has had very limited interactions with animals and probably many of the ones we saw today were new to her.  She seemed especially concerned about the butterflies and birds that could fly past her.  She liked the ones that were in pens and could not get close to her and she was most excited about the fish.

We drove through the famous winery areas outside of Cape Town to visit the farms.  The scenery was gorgeous.  We stopped at a winery with a bistro for lunch and enjoyed our meal in front of the fireplace. Then we took a stroll leisurely through the grounds.   It was quite relaxing.