If you are just joining the adventure, we are exploring the wonders of South Africa with Adventures by Disney and we invite you to catch up on all you have missed here.
With Day 4 upon us, we started with an early morning trip to the airport to start the next leg of our adventure.
Goodbye Cape Town, Hello George
Flying over South Africa in the morning gave a chance to see more of the beautiful country before arriving in George and starting our two-hour drive, seeing even more of the beauty along the way.
Visit the Birds of Eden Sanctuary
Birds of Eden is one of the most unique aviaries I have ever had the chance to visit. With over 3500 birds, this free flight sanctuary was truly breathtaking. Spanning over a gorge of indigenous forest and under a two hectare dome (the world’s largest), the chance to walk among so many beautiful birds really felt like more like we were visitors in their world.
With over 220 different species living together almost everywhere I looked, I would find another beautiful creature that wasn’t afraid of me because they knew I wasn’t going to touch them. All of the inhabitants of Birds of Eden go through a process of rehabilitation before their final release into the main aviary, in fact, the birds were so in harmony with us walking through their world often time we would have to step around them because they knew we were in their world.
If I ever return to South Africa, this will be a MUST VISIT location!
Lunch at Bramon Wine Estate
If I come away with just one thing from this adventure, it will be that AbD knows how to feed their guests. As most of our meals have been family style or buffet, the food pictures have fallen well behind the drive to devour everything for energy for the next stop. With that being said, the Bramon Wine Estate Restaurant was set in the original home of the Thorpe family with some of the most amazing views of the vine that make their special Sauvignon Blanc wine.
Post lunch, we had a special chance to actually visit the cellar and hear about how this South African special wine is made.
As this is unique, as of now, to only South Africa, I won’t go into the details of the hows and whys, but please visit the Bramon Wines site to learn more about this amazing winery.
Monkeyland Primate Sanctuary
It seems this Adventures By Disney thing knows how to plan a day. After lunch, we headed back down the road to the next door neighbor of Birds of Eden, Monkeyland! The world’s first free-roaming multi-species primate sanctuary is where everyone will want to go after the first visit. With more than 700 primates, ranging from the Gibbons of Asia to the Lemurs of Madagascar, you will not want to leave.
Yesterday, when our guides Craig and Kari were talking about everything we were going to do today, I could not have imagined how much fun it would be. Monkeyland I feel could be the closest most of us will ever get to walking through a real forest with all these amazing creatures jump around us. And because the primates are all healthy, happy, and always fed, there was never a fear of them coming after any of us. Often times when I would be taking pictures, I wasn’t sure if we were looking at them or they were looking at us. I do have to say that, as much as I loved getting a chance to see so many primates up close, my favorite part was crossing the largest suspension bridge in this hemisphere. At 128m, I felt right out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and, while we didn’t have anyone chasing us, we did have many of our furry friends jumping around and trying to keep us active.
After our exciting day with birds and primates, it was time to check in to the Pezula Hotel, our home for the next two nights, but I will give you tour of that tomorrow along with some of the largest land animals on the planet!