Panoramic Route

After we left our safari outside of Kruger we took the scenic route to our airbnb in Graskop. We went north a bit so we could go through Abel Erasmuspas, which is a scenic pass through the mountains. It was really beautiful and once you got to the other side of the tunnel there were souvenir vendors and a beautiful view which included a small waterfall.

Then we went down by 3 Rondavels View Point and Lowveld View, which were all terrific spots to take in the gorgeous scenery. It was lots of mountains and valleys with rivers running through and unique rock formations.  It's definitely worth making the trip to see. Here are a couple of pictures:

3 Rondavels View point:

Lowveld View:

Then we went to an area known as Bourke's Luck Potholes. Wow, this was a pleasant surprise! We weren't really sure what it was but it was really cool. Over centuries the river activity has formed dramatic and unique patterns in the rock. You cross over a couple of bridges and look down over the waterfall and some of the unique formations, and then you are at the top where you can hop around on the rock in between the water and also sit down and put your feet in the water if you want. The whole area is lovely. We also saw some baboons running around near the entrance as well.

Then we went to check out some waterfalls: Berlin Falls and Lisbon Falls, which are less than 10 minutes apart. They are both pretty and worth stopping by if you're in the area. One funny thing happened- when we pulled into Lisbon Falls the guy at the entrance laughed and noted we were driving a BMW. We looked in the parking lot and there were 4 other BMWs! I'm not sure if everyone else was "upgraded" as well or if there's just an uncommon number of BMW drivers in the area, but got a laugh and parked right in line with the others to snap a picture. 

Berlin Falls:

Lisbon Falls:

Then we moved on to two areas known as "wonder view" and "God's window". It was a bit hazy so we weren't that impressed with "Wonder View", and similarly with "God's window" we thought it didn't live up to the hype. (With a name like "God's window" we felt it needed to be pretty special). Maybe we were just spoiled with the amazing views we'd seen all day, but we thought the ones earlier in the day were better. 

God's View:

Our last stop was not far from there either, called Pinnacle Rock. It lived up to its name; it had a huge tower-like rock formation standing alone in the middle of a gorge. Again, nice views but kind of hard to be super impressed at that point. 

10 minutes later we made it to our airbnb in Graskop, which turned out to be more of a small hotel. We checked in and got lots of advice from Ian on what we should do tomorrow. We dropped off our stuff and went to get dinner. Graskop is a quaint little town so we walked into the center of town to find something to eat. Unfortunately we apparently went out at a bad time, as lots of places were closing up and other more dinner-like places hadn't yet opened. We just barely got into a place called the Silver Spoon, which is a pancake place, and placed our order right before the kitchen closed. There are a couple of pancake establishments here and it seems to be a thing, so I decided to try some. They had both sweet and savory pancakes, but they turned out to be more like crepes. I ordered a simple sugar & cinnamon one and was surprised when it came out like a crepe, and that I didn't get syrup. It was decently good though and we were just excited to eat. We made it back to our place just as it was getting dark and settled in for the night.

This morning we grabbed some breakfast at the other pancake place in town and then we checked out and hit the road. We started at Mac Mac Falls which was a pretty impressive waterfall. You could also pay to go down to the pool at the bottom and even swim if you like but we opted to not do that. We also checked out Sabie Falls since it was on our way but it wasn't as impressive as Mac Mac. 

Mac Mac Falls:

Sabie Falls:

Then we really just hit the road towards Johannesburg and took the route through Long Tom Pass, which was a nice drive through the mountains and nature reserves. We stopped at Alzu Petrolport on the way for some gas which was a really interesting place to stop. Right outside the station they had a little game reserve where you could see all kinds of animals: zebras, rhinos, water buffalo, ostriches, emus, all sorts of different antelope. Matt said he could even see them from a window in the men's restroom! So that was kind of neat. There were also lots of fast food places there so we grabbed some lunch before heading off.

We checked into our airbnb right outside Jo'burg. It's in a super nice house with a very friendly couple and their two dogs- both yellow labs and one is a puppy! We chatted with them for a bit before starting a load of laundry. Then we went out and grabbed some dinner before turning in for the night.

It's worth noting that almost all of the scenic places we stopped at over the last two days charged a small fee to visit- usually between R10/car or R20/person, so never a lot (10 rand is less than $1). But it was a bit annoying and went through our cash pretty quickly.

Tomorrow we fly to Botswana for Safari #2! This one is 8 nights long! I have no idea if I'll have any sort of wifi so I may not post anything until after the safari. If that's the case, Happy Mother's Day to all of the incredible mothers in my life, and especially to my mom! Love you all!

South Africa Safari Part 3

Link to Part 2

Safari Day 3 continued

We started our afternoon safari by going back to the hippos, by my request. They generally stick to the same watering hole so it's pretty easy to find them. We still couldn't get a good look at them since they are mostly submerged, but they yawned to show us their teeth a couple of times so I was able to catch a photo. I also caught a video of them grunting.

Then we drove around looking for other animals and watched another gorgeous sunset. Everything was so beautiful especially during that time of day. Then we found something exciting- water buffaloes! That was our last check of "The Big 5" (lion, leopard, rhino, elephant, water buffalo). We had to drive right through a dried up river bed but we made it and found a large herd. They are so big! Our guide said they averaged about 800kgs each. They also have the huge curved horns as well. So that was exciting. Then we tried to go back the way way we came, through the river bed, but we got stuck and couldn't get up the steep incline. It took a good 7-8 tries and a driver-swap to finally get us out of there. Ezekiel, our spotter who usually sits at the very front corner of the vehicle and looks for animals as we drive, eventually got us out. That was entertaining. 

Then we stopped for our usual break halfway through the drive. We got out and all grabbed a drink and some snacks when all of a sudden we spotted a leopard walking near us!! It was near dark and difficult to see it but wow, it was still a shock. Our guide was just finishing telling us that she would never walk that near a leopard but since it was the one who walked near us and clearly aware of our presence it was okay, when all of a sudden he switched directions and appeared to be heading straight for us. She abruptly stopped what she was saying and started to usher us quietly back into the vehicle. As soon as we got back in it disappeared from sight and must've turned back around, but what a thrill! We got back out and were excitedly talking about what had just happened when Ezekiel wandered back as he had been over in the bush and hadn't even seen the leopard! Some spotter! (I'm just kidding, he was actually a great spotter. But it was funny that he missed the leopard right under our noses!) He didn't even believe us until he saw the terrible photo I had taken, and then he heard the leopard making his weird grunting sound not far off. Then he was all excited, "Let's go find it again!". So we took off and it only took us about a minute to find it. We watched if for a bit and he was having a grand time with the branch of a tree. He was batting it with his paw, rubbing his face on it, and hugging it close to him. It was adorable- he looked like a (really big) playful kitten. Eventually he wandered off where we couldn't really follow and that was the end of that.

That was about it on that drive. We found another chameleon sleeping in a tree so I snapped a picture of that but it's difficult to make out. Then we went back to the lodge for dinner. Choice between curry lamb or pork chops, neither one are my favorites. The strawberry cheesecake dessert was delicious though. The whole evening was a bit more relaxed and even more casual than before since there were far fewer guests. We got to bed early so we could get up early for our last safari drive.

Safari Day 4

We woke up this morning before our alarm due to a loud roar (well actually, the roar woke Matt up but Matt's sneeze woke me up, which is basically the same thing). Apparently there was a lion not too far away from our camp and we heard it roar off and on for 40 minutes until our alarm went off. When we did get on our safari they mentioned that they also heard a lion nearby so we tried to find it but never did. 

We were 2 of only 4 guests on our drive this morning and it was pretty relaxed. We caught another beautiful sunrise and saw quite a few impalas, like usual. We also spotted a warthog, which we haven't seen very frequently and I still hadn't managed to grab a picture. They're funny little animals to watch since they run with their tails straight up in the air. Anja says this is to make it easy for other warthogs and piglets to follow each other when they're moving. We also saw some vultures high in the trees which wasn't unusual but I finally got some decent pictures of those guys as well.

Then we got a call on the radio and headed off, so we knew it was something exciting. We found the pride of lions again! We first spotted an adult male and female and they were pretty close so we got great pictures of them. Then we moved forward a bit and found a couple of other females and several cubs, we never did get a full count. There was also another adult male laying down just observing from a distance. We watched the little cubs play and try to climb the trees but we didn't have a great vantage point so we didn't stick around too long. But we were excited to see them again, and on our last drive. 

Then came the fun part. We hadn't driven more than a minute away from the lions when we realized that our all-terrain, indestructible vehicle had a flat tire. (Do you remember when I said there was an entire pride of lions less than a minute away?!) Uh oh. We all jumped out (again, lions!) and inspected the damage. Luckily we had a full spare and Ezekiel jumped right in switching it out. We only had a tiny jack which was tough to lift that huge vehicle but eventually he got it done. We all jumped back in and went on our way; no one got eaten by lions. Ezekiel= MVP for the day.

Then we got another radio call (wohoo!) and found the right spot and were greeted with not one, but two leopards. That made leopard sighting #6 and #7 for us, in only 6 drives, which is crazy!! We only had one drive where we didn't see one and two drives were we saw two. Unbelievable. Anyway, these adult males were being super lazy and just taking cat-naps in a shady area, so it wasn't crazy exciting. But I was able to get some good pictures. 

We finished out the drive by swinging by the hippos again and we could kind of glimpse a baby laying on top of it's mom in the water. It was so far away though it's hard to see in the picture. But then we got back to the camp and saw 2 monkeys jump out of the other guide's vehicle. Looked like they got into something! There were also a couple of elephants hanging around by the lodge and the watering hole. Clearly they came to say goodbye to us! We had a quick breakfasts and then said farewell to the other guests. Anja and Ezekiel drove us back to the other camp where our BMW was and we were able to check out and say our goodbyes to them. On the way we spotted a leopard tortoise on the road, which was our first sighting of one of those. Then Matt and I bounced off in our BMW! We didn't take the most direct route out of the camp but we didn't get lost either, so that was a win. We also spotted some impalas and warthogs on our way out of the reserve. 

So that was the end of our (first!) safari adventure. What a success it was! We couldn't have dreamed of it going any better. We got to see all of the Big 5, 7 leopard sightings, we saw multiple lions on 3 different occasions, rhinos, and lots of elephants and giraffes. The people were also awesome and the food was great. Our tent was cozy and always made up each time we got back from a drive. It's definitely been one of the highlights of our trip so far and we would definitely recommend Honeyguide camp to anyone looking to go on a safari in that area. 

Pictures are in the album!

South Africa Safari Part 2

link to Part 1

Safari Day 2 continued

Yesterday after our nap we got up and went to lunch at 2pm, which was chicken. Then at 4pm we set off for our evening safari. It started off slow; we saw some of the usual suspects (impalas and wildebeests) and then we went quite awhile without seeing much at all. We saw a Zazu bird, which I can't remember what it's actually called, and then we were treated to a gorgeous African sunset. That was quite nice to watch for awhile. As the sun was setting we found an elephant and then realized we were in the middle of a herd of elephants; there were between 20-30 on all sides of us just grazing. That was pretty cool as they just casually ate and wandered around us. We learned from our guide that the male elephants go into "musth" (pronounced "must") when it's time for them to mate and release a distinct scent. The older males actually go into musth more frequently and longer than the younger ones, since by living longer they've proven to be of good mating genes.

Then we got a call and headed off to another area where we found two more spotted leopards! They figured these were siblings since it's very rare for leopards to travel together, and these still looked pretty young as they weren't as large as the one we saw the night before. We watched them for awhile before heading off again. 

We stopped for a quick bathroom and beverage break. It was quite dark by this time and a little nerve-wracking to walk away from the group and squat behind a bush to pee without knowing what's hiding in the bush. But I survived. 

Shortly after that we received another call and went off. This time we had to wait awhile on the road since they don't allow more than 3 vehicles in an area at a time so we had to wait our turn. Our patience was rewarded! When we were given the go-ahead we pulled in and found 3 adult lions, 3 males and 1 female, chowing down on a wildebeest they had clearly just taken down. Wow!! It was quite something to see. We were literally about 10 feet away from these lions just ripping that thing apart. I have a ton of pictures and videos but beware, they are quite graphic. We watched them rip the skin off and pull the intestines out. I don't think I'll ever forget the smell. It was an unpleasant smell but not like we were gagging; Matt said it smelled the same as gutting a deer. The whole thing was crazy- I never thought we'd see something like that. 

We saw a couple of small creatures as well on this drive but difficult to get pictures. We spotted a chameleon in a tree, and then we also saw what's called a bush baby (also called Galago). We spotted it from the glow of it's large eyes and then it hopped from a tree across the road. It's a small creature and it was amazing how high it could hop. They are part of the primate family but they don't really look like monkeys. They are pretty cute though if you want to do a quick google image search for them.

The lions were our big sighting of the night and then we went back to camp for dinner (although I wasn't too hungry after watching that). We had the choice between kingklip fish with rice or beef and cheesy potatoes. We got one of each and shared a bit. Dessert was a banana cake with cream frosting. All very good. After dinner we sat around the fire for a bit with some of our new friends, then we headed off to bed. I slept like a rock the first half of the night until I had to get up and go to the bathroom but after that strange animal noises kept waking me up. Our friends from Tiajuana said they had monkeys making a mess all around their cabin all night. They kept hearing them and saw the mess in the morning. We had been warned to not leave anything out around our tents or the monkeys will get to it. They will eat anything that looks consumable and generally just make a mess, but we haven't had a problem ourselves so far. 

Safari Day 3

We woke up at 5:30am again this morning to the sound of beating drums; our wake-up call for the morning game drive. After a quick cup of tea and some biscuits we hit the "road".

We watched the beautiful sunrise again as we looked for animals. We'd seen pretty much everything we could've hoped to see at this point except for zebras, which our guide said was pretty unusual since they are usually everywhere. But we drove around for awhile and then we found some! There was a herd of 6 of them grazing in a field. We learned there are several theories for their stripes: camouflage, it's difficult for predators to tell where one zebra ends and another one begins and therefore harder to take one down, perhaps a heating/cooling strategy since the black takes in heat and the white reflects, and/or perhaps a fly repellant since flies seem to prefer a solid dark coat to land on. We also learned they are not very nice; if a new male takes over a herd he will kill any babies still dependent on the mother so that the female will go into heat sooner and he can have his own babies. Pretty brutal. They aren't the only animal species that does that, though.

We also found some more giraffes; one blocked our way in the road for a bit- a safari road block. He wandered off after a bit and we continued on. Then we were just driving along when out of nowhere there was a leopard practically right on top of us! He was a large spotted-leopard and he was just walking down the road towards us. He looked up at us slowly but otherwise didn't pay us any mind and kept going. We quickly reversed off the side of the road to let him pass and then we turned around to follow him. We radioed our location so the other vehicles could come and check him out if they wanted and we followed him until another vehicle came. He just kept walking down the road as if it had been put there for him and he would stop occasionally and sniff/taste areas of the road. She told us he was analyzing the pheromones left there. Then we would let out a loud noise not like a growl or a roar, but more like a grunting noise. I have a video of him doing it so it's pretty interesting to check out. Anyway, we were pretty excited to find a big cat on our own for once!

We left him and found some more giraffes, one with a baby. Our guide told us they have a super long tongue (like 32 cm) and have evolved to have a rubbery mouth so that they can eat leaves off trees with thorns without hurting themselves. She went on to tell us that the plants then evolved to release a chemical when they are being eaten which makes their leaves taste more bitter so the giraffe won't eat it anymore. And that additionally the tree will release a chemical in the air to warn other similar trees nearby as well so they can do the same. So if a giraffe is smart they will eat and walk into the wind so those trees won't have gone bitter yet. It all seemed pretty crazy to me, and too similar to the horror movie The Happening but it was very interesting.

We stopped on a landing strip for a break after awhile; apparently you can actually fly and land there on the grass. Then we kept going and found more girafffes and elephants. At one point we were driving and an elephant popped out right behind us and she seemed a bit agitated that we were there and walking towards us rather quickly. So instead of stopping we kept rolling away from her slowly, and then the reason for her behavior came apparent. Suddenly a baby elephant popped out right in front of us. As soon as he saw us he made a quick panicked sound of alarm and turned around and ran the other way. Clearly we had accidentally driven right in between baby and mom. We quickly drove off the road and let mama pass to rejoin her baby and then all was well. But we didn't hang out there too long.

We made it back to camp for breakfast which was similar to yesterday. The monkeys apparently made a huge mess in the bathroom of our friends' tent while we were gone but no problems with ours. Then we said goodbye to most of our group, since they are headed off to another camp for a few days. We exchanged numbers with the couple from Tiajuana and they invited us out to see them when we are in California this summer, so that would be pretty cool!

We came back to our tent for a nap and now I'm writing this. When I'm done I think we'll go check out the pool since it's pretty hot today- 88 degrees and sunny. Then need to shower and be ready for lunch at 2pm! Life on safari is rough... ;)

Update post-lunch: We went to take a dip in the pool and on the way we went to check out the watering hole. We didn't see much at the time but saw a glimpse of a huge warthog wandering around the campsite. We also saw several small mongooses roaming around across the paths as well. Then we relaxed poolside a bit. We were about to head back to our tent for a shower when Matt spotted an elephant by the watering hole. We went back over there and found a whole herd gathered around the watering hole! We climbed to the top of the viewing deck and watched them a bit. There were between 20-30 with several small babies and they were just grazing and drinking water. It was pretty cool to see all of that also within view of our tent. After a bit something startled one of the younger ones and it made a very loud alarm call and then they all started trumpeting and making a racket. They all kind of stormed off and seemed to be mad at one of the bigger ones so we weren't sure what that was about. It was interesting to watch though and I have a video of them making a ton of noise, so check that out with your volume on.

We showered (hot shower! Apparently the afternoon is the time to shower!) and went to lunch, which was fish and chips and then a type of candied pear with ice cream for dessert. Yum. There are several new people here now since most of the group left this morning, but it's a small enough group now that we all fit on one table. We all chatted for quite awhile over lunch. There's still the couple from Italy who have been here with us the entire time, and now there's a mother/daughter duo from Germany, a father/daughter from the Philippines, a couple from France, and a woman from the UK. So it was quite an interesting conversation with lots of different accents. :)

Again, please check out pictures in the album. The wifi connection is too weak for me to add them here right now.

Link to Part 3

South Africa Safari Part 1

This post is going to be written in multiple parts and over the course of several days while we're on safari. 

Journey to the Safari

We checked out of our airbnb and flew out of Port Elizabeth through Johannesburg and on to Hoedspruit, which is one of the airports nearest to Kruger National Park. Our second leg was in a propeller plane which I had never been in before. Another first was when we landed there were warthogs 10 yards from the landing strip! Welcome to safari! Kind of forces you to wonder what happens if they are ever actually on the landing strip when a plane tries to land...

We were the first two off the plane as we were in seats 1A and1B. We started walking in a direction with a couple of other guys before we realized we actually had no idea where to go. There really wasn't a visible airport or even building in sight. One of the grounds-crew guys eventually looked up and saw us wandering around and pointed us in a direction. Once we got on the path we could see what appeared to be a house; there were even people just sitting on a porch. Apparently that was the airport!

We kind of just waited around outside for awhile in the "baggage claim" area. eventually our bags found their way to us (whew!) and we got our rental car. Most people had their safari pick them up but when we were booking and debating what to do the guy told us it would be cheaper and more enjoyable for us to drive ourselves to our safari. More about that in a bit. When we got our rental car we were surprised to find that we had been "upgraded"! They gave us a little BMW sedan... Talk about an impractical car for a safari! Whatever. We were just glad to be on our way because we wanted to get to our camp before the 4pm safari. 

So we took off and all was well at first. On the drive we saw several different animals, including more warthogs, baboons, goats, and long-horn cows. At first the road was super smooth and nice, but then we turned on to a different high way which was still paved but there would be deep pot-holes frequently that we had to watch out for. Then google directed us on a different road which was all dirt and pretty rough. So then we were bumping around slowly down these dirt roads. Occasionally we would pass through little towns which looked to be pretty poverty-stricken. We felt a little conspicuous being the white strangers rolling around in a silly Beamer... 

We made it to our reserve, Manyleti, without an issue. It's right outside of the Kruger National Park but it's private so you have to pay to enter. We paid the fee and asked for directions to our camp, Honeyguide ("Just go left and straight. There's no way you can get lost."), then went on our way. Then we got so lost. The location link that had been sent to us was just wrong we found out, and the directions we received weren't very helpful. We would get to forks in the road where it wasn't clear which way was "straight". Not to mention the roads were terrible with huge divets which were not ideal for our low-riding BMW. Our 4pm deadline came and went, but luckily we actually saw lots of game just while we were lost and driving around. We saw several types of antelope, which we later learned were called impalas and kudus. We actually saw two male impalas fighting with their horns locked together; I have a video of that. We also saw a herd of wildebeest right by the road. Then we turned a corner and there were two elephants, right there! I got some great pictures of them.  How crazy is that?!  We drove a little further and then we spotted some rhinos in the distance! There were a ways away so I didn't get very good pictures of them. 

We were enjoying our own private little safari but we were also getting anxious. We were worried about what kind of damage we were doing to our rental BMW driving on those crazy roads and we were starting to worry about finding our campsite before it got dark. Luckily we found a guy driving around in his vehicle and asked for directions. He pointed us in a direction and we continued on. We eventually got to a fork in the road where we weren't sure what to do again, but then he pulled up behind us again and pointed us in the right direction. Eventually we started to see signs for our camp and we eventually made it there. 

Safari Day 1

There were people there waiting for us and worried that we had gotten lost since apparently a lot of people have because of the misplaced google location. They quickly took our belongings and asked if we wanted to meet up with our safari guide. "Of course!" And off we went. They radioed to find the location of our guide and drove us right there, where we switched into the big 10-person safari vehicle. 

It was the 4-7pm safari so we got to catch most of the last 2 hours of it. We got to see lots of stuff; some of it we'd already seen on our own! It was everyone else's first time out as well so when we came up to the elephants everyone ooh-ed and ah-ed, while Matt and I smiled at each other since we already had great pictures of them. We saw more antelope as well and learned more about them as our guide would stop and tell us about each animal we came across. The little impalas make a really funny noise when they feel threatened, almost like a donkey noise. The bigger kudus have long-spiral horns similar to the elands we saw a few days ago. Apparently the elands and the kudus are the largest antelope. 

We also got a closer look at some rhinos. We even saw a baby rhino! The ones we saw are white rhinos. There are also black rhinos, but it's not really certain why they are named that since they are all gray. There are a couple of distinctions though: size, back curvature, and how they guide their babies. The white rhinos push their babies along in front of them while the black ones have the babies follow behind. 

We also saw a couple of giraffes and a baby giraffe as well! We were taught how to tell the difference between the males and females: the horns of the female are thinner and more full of hair- similar to a paint brush. Male horns are thicker with less hair since they fight with them. 

As it was starting to get dark we pulled over for a break and some drinks. They had a whole selection of alcoholic beverages that we could choose from. Shortly after the break we got a radio call from one of the other guides to head over to a different location to see something exciting. We went to one of the watering holes and found it: a spotted leopard. It was so cool! It was clearly big and powerful and absolutely no barrier between it and us at all. We actually watched and followed the leopard for about half an hour; it seemed really unconcerned with us. It walked around and drank some water. Then it laid right in the road and rolled on its back just like a big kitty cat. The whole thing was pretty incredible. 

That was the last main thing we saw for the night other than the giraffes we passed by on the way back to camp. We were shown to our cabin but we couldn't really see it that well at night so more about that later. Then we went to dinner which was really good. Started with tomato-herb soup. The main course was either beef or duck, each with a starch and vegetables. Dessert was similar to a cheesecake and covered with chocolate. It was all really good and dinner was organized in a family-style way. Everyone sat at a large table with their safari groups. We chatted with everyone and learned where everyone is from. There are 4 other couples in our group. One couple from Tiajuana Mexico and they are friends with a couple from France. We chatted with them the most. There are also two guys who don't speak much English; I think they are German. Then there is another couple who joined late that we haven't talked to much so far. Our guide's name is Anja (pronounced "Anya") and she's originally from Sweden, so we chatted with her about that for awhile since we will be there in less than two months. 

After dinner and a couple of drinks (we discovered they are very reasonably priced at about $2 for a beer) we went back to our tent for bed. Our camp isn't actually enclosed so after dark we can't walk around at night on our own so we were escorted with a guide back to our tent. We quickly and clumsily got ready for bed in the mostly-dark, since there are only a couple of dim lamps in the tent. We got into bed and sat there for awhile listening to all of the strange noises. Several times we heard the silly call of the impalas which sounded like they were right outside our tent. We also heard other things we couldn't discern. Eventually I drifted off to sleep and slept really well until our 5:30 wake up call of drums. 

Safari Day 2

We woke up early and quickly got dressed in warm clothes as it cooled off a lot during the night. It was just starting to get barely light out when we rushed to the main building for tea/coffee  and biscuits before the 6am safari. Then we were off again!

The first thing we saw was another rhino. This one seemed to be a bit more skittish about us and kept it's distance a bit. then we saw several elephants who passed right in front of us on the road as we sat and watched. We also watched 3 of them walk one right after the other similar to how they do in the Jungle Book so that was interesting. We also glimpsed what looked like either an orangutan or a large monkey in the trees but didn't get a good enough look at it, and our guide never mentioned it so she might've not seen it at all.

Then we went to a watering hole where we saw more elephants across the way. But then, even more exciting, there were hippos in the center of the water! You could barely see their eyes and noses above the surface of the water. Every now and then one would raise up a bit and you could get an idea of how big they were, but I never was able to get a great picture. That was pretty cool though. We were reminded that hippos are the most dangerous African creature and kill more humans per year than all other animals combined. We were told this happens because lots of people accidentally get in between the water and the hippo when it's on land, and when it feels threatened it wants to get in the water so it tramples the human trying to get in the water. So don't stand between hippos and water!

We also saw more antelope and more giraffes as we drove along. There were also several skulls of water buffalo, which made me wonder how long it takes for them to get in that condition. I'm guessing not very long. At one point our guide got out and picked up a milipede to show us. Gross. 

Then, drumroll... We found lions!! We found an entire pride of lions lounging around under some trees. Our guide counted 1 male, 2 females, and 10 babies of varying ages!! It was so cool! I never really did get a good look at the male which was kind of a bummer, but you could see the babies playing around, nursing, and cuddling with mom. We were actually really close to them but the trees and tall grass blocked quite a bit of the view, but I did get lots of reasonable pictures. So that was super exciting!

After that we found a spot to take a break and they served more tea, coffee, and hot chocolate. We stopped right next to a watering hole where apparently other in the group saw a huge crocodile disappear into right when we pulled up, but I missed it. So the whole time we were studying the water hoping to get a glimpse of it.

We set off again and found another rhino, but then we got another radio call and took off quickly. They never tell us what was spotted, I think to keep our expectations low in case we don't find it. But again, we got lucky and spotted two hyenas! They are apparently pretty difficult to find. These were spotted-hyenas. We watched them for awhile walk about and just do hyena things. I couldn't stop thinking about the hyenas from the Lion King, a movie which has come up a lot on this safari. 

Shortly after 9am we came back to camp for a proper breakfast. We had fruit with yogurt and granola and also some muffins and toast. They also served us bacon with an egg and baked beans. Everything was good. After breakfast we don't really have anything to do until lunch at 2pm, so we went back to our tent and actually got to see it in proper light for the first time.

It's a permanent tent built on an elevated wooded platform. On the patio is a coach, lamp,  and a desk with chair which I'm sitting on now. During the day it's completely open and you can see impalas walk by often. At night they lower screens on each side and zip it closed. then there's the bed, which is a real elevated king-sized bed. It's a really comfortable bed with soft pillows and a thick comforter which was appreciated during the chilly night. It also has it's own mosquito net around it which is closed at night but open during the day. Then there's the bathroom, which is enclosed with walls but the back part of the ceiling is completely open. There's two shower heads and a huge tub, along with the sink and a separate toilet room. The whole thing is really nice. It's how I imagine "glamping" to be. There is electricity so we can plug in our devices (thank goodness, since that's the only camera I have!). And there's lamps and a fan and running water. 

So once we got back I decided to take a shower. I tested and made sure there was hot water before getting in, but the hot water ran out very quickly. I was left to hurriedly finish my shower with the freezing water, so that was an adventure. The whole time Matt was narrating the journey of a lizard throughout our tent, so that added another element of excitement to the shower. 

Then I sat down to write in this blog post, with the wind drying my hair. I've watched a couple of lizards and several impalas walk by so that's always interesting. It's a beautiful day now; 83 and sunny. I actually just got a little wifi so I'm going to try to post this as is, then I'm going to try to take a nap before lunch and afternoon safari! Pictures are too difficult to add right now, so I'll just upload them to the album when I can.

link to Part 2

Garden Route

We drove the Garden Route today from George to Port Elizabeth. we envisioned this to being very similar to the Great Ocean road in Australia but it wasn't actually like that very much. It was less coastal driving, but there were lots of pretty views along the way and many cool places to stop.

We checked out of our airbnb and hit the road. Our first stop was only 20 minutes away in a town called Wilderness. We went to a scenic spot called "Map of Africa". It was a bit difficult to find though. On the N2 highway from George to Knysna, once we got to Wilderness we took our first left by a gas station. Then we took that to a roundabout where we took another left. That took us up a hill and we traveled for about 3kms until we saw a sign that directed us left again towards "Map of Africa". That was a dirt road we traveled for a couple of kilometers and then you're there. It was really pretty; the idea is that where the river has cut through the rock it looks like you are looking at a map of Africa from the southern viewpoint. Here's a picture:

On our way back through town we stopped at a place called "Green shed coffee roasters" since our airbnb host told us they had great cakes there. I had a piece of cake which was delicious while Matt had a shake and we discussed our game plan for the rest of the day. It was a neat place if you get a chance to check it out.

From there we continued along the road into Knysna where we stopped at a viewpoint called "The heads'. It's where the Knysna River meets the sea and it's absolutely beautiful. Here are a few pictures:

Then we traveled on to Plattenberg Bay where we stopped at the Lookout Beach. It was a very wide beach and only a couple of other people on it enjoying the perfectly sunny day. We explored for a bit and dipped our toes into the Indian Ocean for the very first time (it was freezing). We also found several huge beached jellyfish which were cool to look at. One of them had lots of little conch-like things scurrying around and they appeared to be using the jellyfish as a sort of rock or anchor to keep them from getting swept away in the periodic waves. I'd never seen anything like that before.

The moment we first touched the Indian Ocean:

Weird looking jellyfish:

We relaxed in the sun on the beach for awhile until e got hungry and then we went to the restaurant directly on the beach, called The Lookout, which was delicious and beautiful setting. Matt had the fish fry and I had tomato herb soup with a toasted sandwich and everything was delicious. We even briefly saw some dolphins or something playing in the water as we were eating.

Our next stop was the Garden Route National Park in Tsitsikamma. We had to pay almost $15 for the two of us to enter the park and we didn't realize that beforehand so that was a surprise. But otherwise it was a very nice park. There was lots of great camping sites and little cabins to rent along the water.We went to the end of the road where we got out and did The Mouth Trail, which takes you to where the mouth of the Storm river. It was a pretty hike and about 1-hr round trip. It ends at a suspension bridge where you can cross over the mouth of the river which was pretty and there were lots of little dassies around. There were people also kayaking along the river which looked fun. There was also a place advertising scuba diving for only $45/dive which sounded awesome, but I don't know anything else about that.

That was our last main stop but we did stop at Jeffreys Bay briefly on the way to watch the surfers, as our airbnb host told us that was the best surfing in Southern Africa. Then we finished the drive to Port Elizabeth and checked into our airbnb, which is a super-cute cabin separate from the main house. They also have dogs so I got to play with them for a little bit; it feels like it's been so long since I've been able to play with a dog!

Tomorrow we fly to Kruger National Park (in the north eastern part of South Africa) and begin our first safari!! It will be 4 days/3 nights. I doubt I have wifi at all so I'm thinking I probably won't be able to blog for a few days. But I will definitely tell you all about it when I can. Hopefully we see the Big 5!

George

Hey all! I didn't forget about you but there's not much to report from the last few days. Yesterday was cold and rainy so we mostly stayed in and planned for Greece and Dubai. And we bought some flights for my mom to come visit us when we're in Norway!! Yay! Today we checked out of our wonderful Cape Town airbnb and drove south west towards George, where we're staying the night. It was about a four and a half hour drive but nothing eventful to report. We were planning to do some horse riding at a place near here called Adventure Horse Safari, but they cancelled last minute because of the impending rain threat.

So instead we went and got some food and then went to check out Victoria Bay beach, where we watched some surfers attempt to catch some waves.  Here's a picture of the beach:

We checked into our airbnb for the night which is a room in a really beautiful house. Our hosts are very friendly and we chatted with them for a bit about our trip thus far. Tomorrow we start the Garden Route drive along the coast to Port Elizabeth. 

I've heard from a few people that they are struggling to find the photo album with all of the pictures so I thought I'd explain that quickly and hopefully clear that up. 

• If you're viewing the blog from a computer (and not a tablet or mobile device), then it should just be at the top of the right tool bar. I'm currently adding daily photos to the one titled "Southern Africa". 
• If you're viewing the blog from a tablet or mobile device then it's a bit more difficult to find. First you'll need to scroll all the way down and find the link that says "View web version", which should be right above the "about me" section. Once it switches to the web version then you should be able to find it via the instructions in the previous bullet.

Cage Diving with Great White Sharks

Well today was a big day! We woke up super early (we had to leave before 6am!) and drove down to Gansbaai. It was about a 2 hour drive down and were greeted with a nice breakfast spread. After a brief safety demonstration we were herded to the boat. We went out to sea about 10 minutes while sea gulls flew right along beside us. It was kind of wacky how they flew at the exact same speed as we were going. Then one of the crew held out part of his sandwich and they flew right down and shared some. Then we anchored down and waited.

And waited. This area is famous for being one of the top most reliable places in the world to see Great White Sharks, but we had been warned for the past few days that it might be cancelled due to poor conditions. It seems the water temperature had dropped suddenly and the sharks don't like that, and also there had been several orcas spotted in the area which are the only predator of the sharks. So overall not great conditions but they had seen some sharks out yesterday so the decision was made last-minute to try today.

Luckily it was a gorgeous clear warm day (over 90 degrees!) so we were able to enjoy the nice weather on the boat. There were also lots of other people on the boat and we spent a good bit of time talking with a girl from Alabama. But we waited over 3 hours with no action at all, other than a few splashes which elicited a lot of excitement but turned out to be a seal.

They tried to bait the sharks by throwing out chum, which was a tuna mixture and was very oily so it stayed on the surface of the water to supposedly draw the shark to us. They also had a floating device which looked like the silhouette of a seal from below in order to intrigue the shark as well as a fish head for bait. 

Eventually the captain got a call from another boat that said they had a shark and we could come and "share" it with them. So we pulled anchor and moved over there. That's when we got our first glimpse of the shark. It was huge! It was probably the biggest we ended up seeing today, but I was unprepared so I didn't get any pictures. 

But that's when all the activity really started. They quickly shuffled 8 divers into their wetsuits and lowered them into the cage. They were in there probably about 10 minutes until they had a couple of good passes of the shark before they rotated to a new group of divers. They again were only in about 15 minutes until they got a couple of good views so they rotated again. We were in the third group.

Oh my gosh the water was frigid. It physically hurt to get in even though we were wearing really thick wetsuits. At first I bobbed up and down energetically trying to get used to it and warm up (I was on swim team- I know the drill) and I would be looking all around for sharks while everyone else huddled up high as possible out of the water. 

We waited. And waited some more. After a while a seal swam right by and I jumped down to look at him. He hovered right on the other side of the cage looking directly at me while I was looking at him for a good few seconds. I feel like we had a moment. But then I had to go up for air (we didn't have any snorkel or scuba gear) and that was the end of it. So that was a bit exciting.

And then we waited some more. After awhile they told us to get out of the cage and sit on top of it so we didn't have to sit in the freezing water forever. Honestly this was even more uncomfortable though because my body had finally gotten numb from the cold so then I had to thaw out again. Eventually we got another call from a different boat with a similar message; that there was a shark over there and we could go join them. So we hopped out and drove over there, then hopped back in (so cold!!).

Then we finally got to see a shark!! We had a couple of decent passes at it but then we got a really good one. The bait was floating right in front of the cage and he swam up out of nowhere right to the bait and hovered there for a second, letting us get a good look at him. Then he swam around it and doubled back so we could get a good look at his teeth. It was so exciting! I so wish I had a (working) underwater camera so I could share this with you all.

We were in the water for probably almost an hour at that point, but after that they quickly shuffled us out so that the final group could have a chance. They waited for maybe 5 minutes before they saw their shark and then we packed up and headed out. We were out on the sea for about 6 hours total. It sounds like they are normally out for about 3-4 hours and usually everyone gets multiple chances in the water. But I suppose we were just lucky to see any sharks today after they had seen no sharks most of the week.

So that was our day! We drove back to our airbnb and grabbed some pizza for dinner. We're pretty tired after an early morning and lots of time in the sun. I do have a couple of pictures of the sharks from the boat that I'll share. Our new friend from Alabama took a video of our shark that we saw while we were in the cage.  Here it is, you can kind of see the cage at the bottom of the frame which Matt and I are in:

We went with "Great White Shark Tours" for our trip and we were pretty happy with them. There are 8 different companies that do and offer pretty much the exact same thing so we just ended up picking one based on price and who offered me a discount. I did find a "sharkbookings.com" website that seems to work with all 8 and will just put you on one of them. Then if for some reason your boat ends up not going out then they can re-book you on a different one. That seemed intriguing but I didn't like not know who exactly we'd be going with so I just picked one of them myself.

Penguins and Capes

Unfortunately, no. The penguins weren't wearing capes...

Our first stop this morning was to pick up our rental car, and we walked through Bo-Kaap on the way to see the colorful houses. The sun was just rising on the houses so it was beautiful to see them in that sort of sunlight.

Now that we finally have our own wheels again, we were anxious to get on the road. We drove to Simon's Town where we went to see the penguins. We took the scenic route right along the ocean and it was gorgeous. Similar to the Great Ocean Road in Australia, we were just hugging the cliff side driving right along the ocean. It was a beautiful drive. 

Simon's Town seemed to be a cute little town but we rushed through in a hurry to see the penguins. We entered through the visitor's center where you had to pay 70 rand per person to enter. You can instead skip the visitor center and go right towards Boulder Beach which you don't initially have to pay and you can see some penguins along the walkway. Eventually though if you want to get on the beach going that direction you will need to pay the same price. But if you pay it once at the visitor center you can just show your ticket, so you only have to pay the R70 once.

Anyway, the visitor center was worthwhile as we were able to get much closer to the main colony of penguins and see a whole bunch of them. We even got to see lots of babies and and also some eggs hiding under some of the penguins. They were also separated by a fence though so you weren't able to interact with them.

Then we walked to the right of the visitor center and walked along the boardwalk where you could see some more penguins in the brush. Then we got to the beach, which was the coolest part in my opinion. You could see more penguins from the main part of the beach but they were again separated by a fence. But you could sneak away from the main beach by climbing under and over the huge rocks back the other way (towards the visitor center). This area was more secluded so less people. And also, penguins roaming free! There were swimming in the water and sunning themselves on rocks. They'd also just randomly waddle by. It was awesome. I got in the water and they just swam around me. Here's a video (there are more videos and pictures on the album on the right):

Even without the penguins though it was a beautiful beach. Soft sand and I loved that it had all of the huge boulders which made it seem more mysterious and secluded. The water was absolutely frigid though. Matt and I found a secluded little area between some rocks and that's where we set up our stuff and ate our lunch. As I was exploring around in the water I also found a starfish! I've never found one in the wild before. Then a guy told me he had seen several larger ones earlier but I never did find those. We also spotted a couple of dassies, the animal we saw yesterday on the mountain. They are curious little creatures.

After we left there we drove down to Table Mountain National Park to see Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope. We made it first to Cape Point and climbed up to the light house. There were gorgeous views from up there.

Then we went to Cape of Good Hope, which is the most "south-western" point of the African continent. It's also commonly perceived to be the meeting point of the Atlantic and Indian oceans, although that's not geographically true. But we climbed up to the top to check out the views which were also amazing.

The whole park was really cool as well to just drive around. There are lots of wild animals. We saw lots of little lizards, and I also saw a huge lizard bigger than my forearm on a rock as we drove by (I wasn't quick enough to get a picture). We also saw lots of elands, which are the second-largest type of antelope. Some of them were really big and had huge spiral horns.

We also saw some wild ostriches! I really didn't expect that. We saw 3 different ones.

We kept seeing signs for wild baboons and it sounds like it's pretty common to see them but we never did. I was a bit bummed when we were leaving the park that we hadn't, but turns out for nothing. We saw them on our drive home! There were several of them running down the road. One had a little baby on it's back! They were really big, bigger than most dogs. I was surprised. They also were really close to our car. I was able to grab a couple of pictures:

I better get to bed- another big day planned tomorrow!

Table Mountain

Happy Freedom day!

We made it to the top of Table Mountain today!! We actually took the cable car instead of hiking since the hike was incredibly steep. I think that was a a good decision because there was still lots of hiking up at the top and I think that would've been difficult to do if we had just hiked all the way up. Plus the cable cars were cool; they were really big and had huge 360 degree windows. The floor also spun around so where you stood didn't matter as it spun you all the way around anyway so you could see all of the views.

The top of the mountain was incredible. Any way you looked had breath-taking views. It's no wonder that it was named one of the "7 Wonders of Nature" as of 2011. It's highest point is at Maclear's Beacon and reaches 1,086 meters (3,563 feet) above sea level. And we climbed up to the very top of that! Here's a picture:

We spent a few hours hiking around up there and also ate a packed lunch with the most gorgeous view. They have some very even trails right around the cable station where you can get to both sides of the plateau and get most of the views. But to get to Maclear's Beacon it's about a 45 minute hike and it's pretty uneven terrain A few times we were straight-up climbing. It's definitely well-worth the views though. I took a thousand pictures. Here's a couple, as always you can see more in my album linked on the right (they are in part 2).

They have a ton of hiking paths up there and you could spend all day hiking if you wanted to. We also saw several little mammals roaming about which turned out to be called dassies. They kind of look like a cross between a rodent and a rabbit, but according to Wikipedia they are more closely related to elephants and manatees, which seems bizarre to me.

Anyway, we really enjoyed our Table Mountain day and the weather was perfect for it. It was pretty crowded around the cable car areas but once you hiked out a bit the crowd quickly thinned out. It was just such a perfect day for it with the great weather and being a holiday.

After we rode the cable car back down we walked back to our airbnb. Along the way we stopped for food and found a diner called "Stacked". It was so good! We got the best burgers of our trip so far, along with some fries and milkshakes. Yum! We haven't yet tried any adventurous African cuisine but there's still lots of time for that.

After we made it back to our airbnb we decided to spend the last hour of daylight checking out the surrounding area a bit. We walked through "The Company's Garden" which is literally right across the street. There were some really big trees and pretty plants. We also saw an albino squirrel! It was kind of creepy looking with bright red eyes. 

We also walked along the perimeter and saw the big old buildings which were really pretty, and also the parliament buildings. We made our way down to the Cape Hope Castle and grabbed a picture but we weren't able to go inside.

Cape Hope Castle:

Oh, I finally finished my Singapore page! Check it out and let me know what you think!