African ArtSafari Adventure: Enero 2014

My desire for painting turned into a passion and it all started when my amazing South African partner gave me an easel, a canvas and some acrylics and brushes to work with, a few months after we met. I wasn't only surprised, I also instantly recalled a scene from my favorite romantic movie "The Notebook" when Noah led Allie to a porch where he had prepared a complete painting set for her.

I never thought it could happen to me in real life :) Not only that - Rob, the Noah of my life, told me he will introduce me to his parents. I of course got flattered, excited, nervous and my list could go on but I knew I had to give something to them that would represent Philippines or Asia as a whole.

I was going to give a "Madonna and Child" painting I had reproduced but I realized that they do not have the same religious beliefs as I do. I couldn't remember exactly how, but I thought of painting a tiger. I guess it is because I have been looking forward to our safari trip. I got even more excited to start the painting when Rob pointed out that tigers actually come from Asia. Now isn't that just perfect?!

By the way, I ended up giving the Madonna and Child painting to my sister. She had it framed and is now beautifully hanging in her home in Bohol. My mom told me that my sister had the painting "blessed" too. Meanwhile, for those who thought all along that tigers originated in Africa, you are partially correct but here's something that might interest you.

Below is the tiger painting that we took to Capetown, South Africa. We gave it as a gift to Rob's parents for Christmas in 2012 and is now hanging in their lounge next to the fireplace.

Needless to say, I had a super incredible holiday in South Africa! Everyone including Rob's parents were extra-friendly and very well-mannered. I enjoyed the breath-taking sceneries so much! If only I could post all of the pictures we've taken here. Some of the places we went to were Boulders Beach, St. James, Kalk Bay, Cheetah Outreach Center, Butterfly Farm, Cape of Good Hope, Table Mountain National Park, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, Chapman's Peak, Hout Bay, The Wine Estates, Chart Rose Farm, Cape Point, and we drove for 5 hours and stopped by a beautiful town called Knysna.

Here's a painting I made inspired by our brief visit to Boulder's Beach. Boulder's Beach is a popular tourist stop because of a colony of African Penguins which settled there in 1982. Boulders Beach forms part of the Table Mountain National Park.

Another painting I made upon return to the Philippines is of the playful African elephants. We saw hundreds of them in Addo Elephant National Park- a key tourism destination linked to the famous Garden Route. The park is sanctuary to a multitude of game species and abundant birdlife, including over 500 elephants, lions, black rhinos, buffaloes, leopards, zebras, spotted hyenas, a variety of antelope species, as well as the unique dung beetle. The great white shark and seasonal southern right whale in the park's marine section, although we didn't go that far, complete the "Big 7".

We camped for 2 nights and 3 days in the wild (December 1-3, 2012). How fun is that! I had mixed feelings the first time I spotted an elephant in the park. I knew it was prohibited and I could have gotten in trouble, but I stuck my head out of the car anyway, just to have a clearer view of the elephant thinking that I might not see it again. I stood on the car seat and half of my body was hanging out while trying to take pictures of the elephant but then I started seeing more of them coming out of the bushes. It was such an indescribable emotion! Take a peek of the park here and you'll see what I mean!

I felt quite sad that we haven't spotted leopards during our entire safari adventure. This is because leopards are generally solitary animals and are primarily nocturnal (active at night), although where they are not persecuted, they may occasionally be seen during the day. And believe it or not, we almost missed seeing the lions too! I honestly thought I wouldn't see any lion at all until our last day in Addo, where we saw 2 sleeping lions under the shade.

The funny part is that we only saw 2 of them on our way out of the park just a few meters away from the exit. We were on our way to another game park then. It would have been a big miss on my part! Well, lions are mainly nocturnal like the leopards so they hunt during late afternoons, at night and early mornings which explains why we haven't seen them much. They spend most of their time sleeping, like 20 hours a day or even 24 hours after having a massive meal. My partner named my painting "King of the Night". You see, I ask for his help sometimes and he is quite good at it.

So we headed off to Mountain Zebra National Park after our Addo adventure. Oh, I remember the loneliness I felt just after a few minutes of not seeing the elephants! They were adorable! I could watch them bathing in the river for hours! I took lots of videos using my phone ;-)

Mountain Zebra National Park was totally different from Addo although it had a better camp site and we were far from other campers so we had a bit more privacy. They had a nice kitchen too! But I was terrified when we started gaming the next day because the landscape and vegetation of the park was different. You have to drive to the top of the mountain to see the wildlife and it felt like the car could fall from the cliffs anytime. Thanks to my very skilled driver/boyfriend who returned me home in one piece. But still, it was scary!

Some of the wild animals we spotted at the park were different antelope species (Kudu, Red Hartebees, ,Blesbok, Eland, Springbok), monkeys ( Vervet Monkey, Chacma Baboon), black wildesbeests, ground squirrels, blue cranes, ostriches, and of course zebras (Burchell's Zebra, Cape Mountain Zebra) We haven't spotted the following animals but they are also in the park: cheetah, bat-eared fox, black rhinos, aardworlf, cape buffalo, scrub hare, brown hyena, blackbacked jackal, rock monitor lizard and some other antelope species. Below is my Mountain Zebra-inspired painting. I call it "Zeduction".

I wanted to do the shark cage-diving as well but I was told that the water would be too cold for me. My officemate also gave me a copy of the movie Dark Tide starred by Halle Berry and also filmed in South Africa. I watched it before the trip and it wasn't exactly motivating. I don't think I'd ever free dive with white sharks to begin with and the chances of me surviving a shark attack are very slim, I can't even swim for crying out loud! But I got a scuba certification :D :D :D

We have been considering going back to South Africa this year. Below are some pictures from our trip.

We were given the chance to touch a sleeping cheetah at Cheetah Outreach Center.