A Big 7 Adventure from Port Elizabeth

Well, it was an early start today here in Port Elizabeth. We were picked up by our guide, Graeme, and headed off for our Big 7 adventure.

The weather was supposed to be cloudy and cooler today, but in fact it was sunny and warm, which was a real bonus as we started our day on the water from 8am until midday.

We had a great time seeing dolphins, whales, penguins, seals and lots of birds. No sharks though! The commentary throughout was great, and with only nine guests on the boat, along with our guide and three members of staff, there was plenty of room to move about.

I stayed in the crow's nest for the whole journey, chatting to the crew and getting the best views. No one else wanted to go up! It wasn't an easy climb, and getting back down was a bit of a struggle. It is an upright ladder which you have to climb over the railings to get to, but it was definitely worth it for the views.

We had great sightings of dolphins in three different places. The two whales you can see most clearly in the pictures were mating, which was quite a sight to see.

We also visited the penguin colony on St Croix Island, which now has only around 2,000 penguins left from more than a million. We were told this was partly because the government decided to collect their poo for use as fertiliser. Penguins nest in their own poo, and removing it meant they stopped breeding successfully, resulting in very few eggs being laid.

Without the protection of the poo, the penguins have to lay their eggs in exposed areas where they can be washed away, affected by the sun or eaten by gulls.

We were also told that penguins only live in their home area, so there is no point simply bringing penguins in from somewhere else because they will only try to find their way back home. Seals are the same, only living in the place where they were born. As seals were hunted and killed by humans, there are now no seals on the island, and apparently there never will be again because they only breed on their home turf.

After our water safari, our guide took us for a quick lunch before we headed into Addo Elephant Park for another five hours, this time trying to spot the Big Five.

We managed to see four of them, with the leopard being the one we missed.

The lions were also quite a distance away, but they had just killed a warthog and eaten it, so they were all sleeping in the sun with two cubs playing nearby. We could see them through binoculars and make them out with the naked eye, but unfortunately they didn't come out very well on the phone at all.

So we saw elephants, buffalo, rhino and lions from a distance. We also saw lots of zebra, warthog, kudu and different types of antelope.

It was a really fun day. We met some nice people and saw some great animals in their natural habitat, making it a day we won't forget.

Our guide dropped us back at around 7pm, and we headed to the pub a few minutes' walk away for dinner and a lovely bottle of wine.