Tourism

From before my trip to the game-reserve:

It is well known that enterprising South African farmers fence off huge areas of land inappropriate for wild animals that they've bought cheaply and dump "The Big 5" (Buffalo, lion, elephant, rhinoceros and leopard) in to the enclosure. They then put other animals in there to feed The Big 5. The experience is inauthentic because the "rangers" employed by the farmers are simply yuppies placed in land-rovers who are trained to say a few things about each of the animals which sound good to the uneducated tourist. They engineer the 'surprise' encounters with the animals, because they almost always know where the animals are. They are schisters and they'll take you out on a game tour at 2pm. All the sensible animals at this time are finding cool spots to rest from the 40 degree heat. In a 3 day experience at some of these private game parks it is known that you often won't see wild animals behaving like wild animals should. They'll behave more like zoo animals. They can't hunt. They don't chase. They are fed at regular times. The structure of the animal pride or whatever is totally non-existent in the new environment they find themselves in. You won't see a leopard ripping apart an impala, it'll just be sitting there, panting. None of the animals will act surprised around you, because they see tourists like you at the exact same time every single day. Tourists might gaze in wonder at them if they've never seen them before. But I HAVE seen them before and I'll see the experience as a fraud if that's what it is, as I've heard other traveller say. Then they’ll take you on a “cultural experience tour” where you’ll pay heaps to see some alcoholic bums from Cape Town dance around in some traditional clothing. They’re former prisoners, not the proud Africans who once lived in these areas before their cultures were crushed. They’ve got more problems than the old guys had, and you can see them just trying to grab your money, because they don’t care. It’s just a show. I hope my mum, the travel agent, and South African, will not allow us to be ripped off like this.