We had contacted a few accommodations hoping to be able to see and photograph meerkats. When we planned our meerkat adventure, we planned for one opportunity with wild meerkats, which turned out to be Bagatelle. Since we know from experience that seeing wild animals is never a guarantee, we also opted to go to the Simmenau Farmstay. Here they have domesticated meerkats that run and play around in the vicinity, so the chances to see at least one of those would be like 99.9%.
We did not expect the Bagatelle trip to be this successful. After breakfast there we went to the Simmenau Farmstay. The trip was not noteworthy. Gigi did a great job again, and so did we. When we arrived at Simmenau, we were immediately greeted by the woman with the best name in the world, Barista (apart from Anneke of course). With her came a whole family of animals.
The Simmenau Farmstay is a family run farm with a guest house, which had become our favorite type of lodging. Just like our other guest farm experiences, this was another wonderful (extended) family. The family had always taken in orphaned animals, provided that they would be able to care for them. This meant that there were two baby warthogs (Betsy and Bennie), two meerkats (Minki and Jerry), a banded mongoose (Zoey) and an elderly, blind baboon (Cindy). There were dogs and cats as well, but with all these exotic and friendly orphans running around, they get a lot less attention than cats and dogs usually get.
We spent two nights here and it was an absolute treat. Having the little troublemakers run and play around, messing up the grass looking for insects and coming for some attention from time to time, was wonderful. We spent our time relaxing and cuddling with them and at sunrise and sunset we tried to take some photographs, but Zoey was a bit bitey. She bit Jeroen 3 times and went for a 4th. Fortunately, all the animals are vaccinated and Jeroen has recently had a tetanus shot, so there was no risk involved. Just keeping it clean was enough. A tiny scar would make for a nice memory, but only time will tell.
After two days of fun and relaxing with the animals, it was time to work again.
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