3 in 1....

Last weekend Dylan and I joined some other trainees for a fun filled day of sightseeing.  We did alot of driving but it was worth it.  We have been spending more time with the other trainees and starting to gain pretty good friendships.  They are a good group of people and we are enjoying our time with them.

Monarto Zoological Park

This was our first stop.  Monarto Zoo is a 1,500 hectare open-range sanctuary  undertaking a major role nationally and internationally in breeding programs for rare and endangered species.  You pay as you drive in and head up to the main building.  There you can book a tour, either a Grasslands Tour or an Africa Tour which is included as the entry fee.  There is a guide on the bus  that tells you about the animals and a little bit more about the park.  They also have a separate bus called the 'Zu-loop Bus'.  It takes you around to the different enclosures where you can walk out on a viewing platform. It is a very interesting place.  Here are some pictures of our experience.  We could not include all of the animals that we saw but these ones were particularly interesting.  If you would like to find out more information about these animals, here is a link to the Monarto website.

Addax 

Scimitar-Horned Oryx

Giraffe

Baby Giraffe

Eland

Black Rhino

White Rhino

Cheetah

Cheetah

African Painted Dogs

African Painted Dogs

Lions

Lion

Lion

Zebra

This was one of the many miscellaneous pens. 

Whispering Wall

This was our next stop.  The Whispering Wall is basically just a dam.  It measures 36 meters high and approximately 500 meters across.  If someone is standing on one side and another on the other, you can whisper to each other and you can actually hear them.  It is pretty crazy.  You would think that there would be speakers hidden somewhere.  We found it very interesting.

Looking from one side not quite reaching the other.

Just a pretty picture!

That far down.

Dylan doing the whispering 

copying the guy below!

Melba's Chocolate Factory

This was our last stop.  We thought that is was going to be more of a demonstration but was actually more of just a big confectionary shop.  They did have a few samples which was pretty sweet!!  Te he, I just had to!!  We could see the machines but they were not really in use at the time.  We basically just wandered around tasting the samples!  Here are a few pictures from inside.