Cape Winelands... (12/2)

Napa Valley, move out of the way.... The Cape Winelands blow you to pieces!!!! Today we had our winelands tour (obviously). First let me just say that the Winelands here are so picturesque it is hard to explain without pictures. I don't think other vineyards could compare after seeing the views from where we were today. The wines themselves were good, too. Of course we enjoyed the types we normally would, while not caring as much for the ones we normally would not care for.... So not really any surprises there. They do offer plenty of new and different types of wines here though that we had never before tasted. The prices for purchase at the vineyards were actually cheaper than in the stores which is not really the case in Napa- that was a pleasant surprise.  Our tour took us through the three larger areas for wine west of Cape Town- Paarl, Franschhoek, and Stellenbosch. All of the towns were so darn cute!!!! We started the day off with a cellar tour followed by a cheese and wine tasting at Anura Vineyards. Anura is positioned on the foothills on the Simonsberg Mountains, between Paarl and Stellenbosch.  

At Anura:

We ended the day in Stellenbosch at Asara Vineyards for a wine tasting, followed by a stop at Spier Vineyards where they have the Cheetah Outreach. Here we were able to pet Cheetah's- very cool but they were overly strict. It was a full day affair, so not much else happened.

View at Asara:

Cheetah Outreach:

We are moving to Cape Town!!!!

Well, not really, but we are considering it. Every day we are here we fall more in love with this city... It is not that what we are doing is cooler than the other places we have been, but we just could fit in here so well (and it is even more gorgeous than the rest of Africa we have seen, which says a lot because it has all been amazing)!!!!

That being said, today was actually just a slow, relaxing day. We slept in for the first time, and even other days we have had the opportunity we still find ourselves waking up at 7 out of habit. Today, we slept until 9 o'clock... And at breakfast everyone was talking about the huge storm that passed through this morning. I am the lightest sleeper ever and I never heard anything so that is crazy; I must have been VERY tired (It was supposedly really loud). The sky was bright blue again when we woke up so we would never have known! This day was kind of an open day, as we had reserved backup days for the shark dive in case our original day had to be rescheduled. Kyle wanted to go to the World of Birds which also had a monkey jungle in it where you can play with the monkeys and let them crawl and hang on you. Honestly... I am not a bird person. They do not fascinate me at all, so I was not excited about it but was willing to go if that is what he wanted to do. We were there way too long, and I was so bored (it smelled really bad too!). The monkeys were cool, but that was only about 1/10 of our time there, haha. I think we spent 30 minutes just trying to find where they kept the honey badger so that Kyle could see it and think of Tyrann Mathieu of LSU (they call him the honey badger)... Go figure!

After we left the birds we went to Camps Bay to hang out. This is the Cape Town beach to see and be seen. I wanted to eat at Cafe Capri which was supposed to be delish, and also a celeb spotting point, haha. No celebs that I know of, but definitely a stylish trend spot which is also very laid back, looking onto the beach!! I had the BEST mixed drink I have ever had in my entire life there. It was so good that it was dangerous... I could drink them all day like water. It was called a Pink Passion- my mouth is watering just thinking about it!!! Our food was also delicious. It was hanging out here that made us start contemplating a way to move to Cape Town. Then we decided that when we have enough money we will just buy a condo there, and by then hopefully there is a direct flight from Houston. Our dogs would love it here too! Everyone brings their dogs along with them and there are parks lining the beaches to play with them at.... Ahhhh, the life!!!!!!!

Great White Shark Dive (11/30)

What a great ending to the month of November!! Great White Shark Diving.... One of the coolest things ever- it definitely shares the top spot of the trip for both of us (it's too hard to chose 1 event that has been the best!). We were picked up at 6:30 am for the trip to Gansbaai, which is the most famous place for Great White diving. The drive there is long... I didn't realize it would take that long just to get there, but I am definitely thankful they offer rides from Cape Town! I think we got to the dive shop around 10, ate and then got the briefing before heading to the boat. This part was VERY discouraging. They pretty much said that the visibility would be horrible, that no sharks had been spotted yet and it was unsure if we would see any- likely because there has been a drop in water temperature and this can cause the sharks to stay low until they are used to it. The day before they had started very slow in shark spotting so I think they were worried that could be the case again. Kyle and I were thinking uhhm, and why are we here today? Well, thank God that did not end up being the case!!!!

We were originally going to try the visibility at a different spot from the usual area the operators do the dives at, however once we arrived there they had gotten calls that there had indeed been spottings at the other location so we headed back out there. They asked for the first 8 volunteers and of course Kyle and I were the first in to get suited up! They worked on the chum and had sharks around before we even had time to get in our wet suits. Brian is the owner who is famous for being on every dive himself, and also famous for the best chum in the industry drawing more sharks than anyone else- he knows his stuff! So we jump in our areas of the cage, and all I was thinking was "holy shit the water is FREEZING" (as there are sharks all around)!!! It was 13 degrees Celsius, or 55 degrees Fahrenheit... That is VERY cold water! On a side note, we learned that the water around the cape is actually colder in the summer months than in the winter... This is due to the melting of ice in the Antarctic and that water moving in. So Brian would start saying "Get down, get down, coming from the right/left"... We would all dunk under and watch as the shark attacked the bait in front of our cage... It was pretty rad! And it just kept getting better as the day went on. The water visibility was terrible, that was certainly true. You could not see the sharks unless they were within 3-4 feet from you (max). The good side of this was when Brian originally threw out the bait and asked us to go under to see if we could spot it and we all said no he moved it in MUCH closer to us.... On a day with good visibility it would be kept much further from the cage. This is what made the experience though... The sharks were running into & rattling the cage, and coming right at you on the surface, mouths open. Female sharks are bigger than males, and we had a couple very aggressive females come around which game some good shows!!! Unfortunately with the visibility being so bad the underwater camera pictures are not so great, but the best shows were on the water surface anyways, and we have video and pictures of many good moments. We were able to go back in the water a few times as well which was cool. Those creatures are actually very intriguing- just not sure after I saw their aggression that I would want to be hanging out with them without metal bars between us. Do you hear jaws music when you look at the below pictures (1st one take on the boat, 2nd one from inside the cage)???

We made friends with people on the ride, one lives in Manhattan and is in the film industry- she is now a producer but used to be a film editor and has asked for both the video taken by the guy on the boat who you buy it from in it's original format, and we plan to send her our video as well... She is going to compile a cool video also using my pictures and make something much better than the crap they tried to sell. Also on board was an 80 year old lady from New Jersey, haha, I think they told her she was the 2nd oldest to have done it. When we were back in Cape Town getting dropped off one nice guy from Israel who had seen some of the pictures I took kindly asked if I would mind sending them to him because all he could think about on the way home were the pictures I took, haha. Maybe I should copyright them, and then maybe I could land a job photographing sharks for a living, haha. I would love to go back in the winter when the sharks do the breaching, I could be on a boat all day watching and photographing that, it is amazing stuff!!

Anyways.... When we got back the rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. We went to eat at a delicious Portuguese Italian restaurant, and then hit the sack... It had been a long day in the sun!

Seals, Penguins, Cape Point & The Cape of Good Hope (11/29)

Tuesday we had booked a full day tour of Cape Point. Along the drive to the most south-western point of Africa were a few other stops as well. The first- Hout Bay where we could take a cruise to Duiker Island, aka Seal Island. About a 45 min round trip ride to see thousands of seals. Definitely worth the stop, it's neat to see that many seals in one place. An interesting fact we learned is that a very large percent of the seals just sitting around sunbathing on the island are males- male seals are extremely lazy and do most of the laying around where the female seals like to be more active & on the go. Another not so fun fact we learned is that seals kill penguin just to eat their stomachs which are full of fish.... Not cool! When we returned from the cruise around the island we loaded up and got back on the road.

The next short stop was just a brief picture op stop at Chapmans Bay. In case I have not mentioned how beautiful Cape Town and the surrounding beaches are, WOW! They are the prettiest we have ever seen, it can be breathtaking. So we are driving up the side of the cliffs and every turn is just spectacular views, it's ridiculous. Anyways, Chapmans Bay was one of the more popular ones. So after a few snaps, we are back on route to Simon's Town.

Simons Town is the city that boasts the famous Boulder's Beach where you can literally hang out with African Penguin colony's- which are there 365 days a year. They are so little and cute- the 2nd smallest breed of penguin in the world (the smallest reside in Australia). There are so many of them, too! It was very neat to watch them interact with each other, although most of them just stand there still. Did you know that when penguins chose a mate they stay with that one single mate for their life?? So special! People say they smell bad; maybe it was just the beach winds, but I did not think so.

We continued south down to the Cape of Good Hope. I guess I had always thought before that Cape Point is the Cape of Good Hope, but that is not the case. There really is not much at the Cape of Good Hope minus the sign which is a must do picture op, but that is about it. So we hopped out to take pictures with the sign, and then completed the final very short drive to cape point (which included several ostrich spottings). You can either take a hike up to the top of Cape Point or you can take a trolly ride up & down. There is the famous red & white lighthouse at the top, but what not everyone realizes is that there is actually another lighthouse which is the real one used further down on the cliffside- not visible from the point where most people go. I had asked our guide about it and she had kinda brushed it off and said not to take the hike to it because it was too long and we were on a time limit there. Kyle and I had opted to do the trolly up, and hike down.... Ended up working perfect! On the way down we saw the hidden turnoff for the second lighthouse and decided to be rebels and do it! So glad we did- it was pretty cool, there were maybe 2 others there, and took us much less time than our guide had claimed. She actually didn't believe us when we said we had done it, and I am sure the others in our group were jealous we were able to see it and they did not take the chance.

When we left here the plan was to head back up to Cape Town for a tour of Kirstenbosch Gardens, the 7th best rated gardens in the world. We stopped for a few more coastal pictures on the way back, but that was really it. We spent around an hour at the Gardens, and they are just beautiful. What I would give to have a place like that in the states to just enjoy a picnic. Everything was so green, and they had beautiful flowers. It doesn't hurt that the backdrop for the gardens is already picturesque. I decided to buy seeds of some of my favorite flowers to try at home... Probably use my moms green thumb to help me out with that!

Instead of having our guide drop us off at our B&B when the tour was over we had her take us to the V&A Waterfront so that we could catch the bus which takes you to the top of Signal Hill, the famous spot for African sunsets, Cape Town fashion. We picked up a bottle of wine and Subway for our picnic and took the bus to wait for the spectacular views.  Africa, I heart you!

Cape Town... Why are we just now meeting??? (11/28)

Our first full day in Cape Town, and our first day out to see the town. The weather... Absolutely PERFECT!!!! Like a gorgeous spring day in Houston, but better! Table Mountain is known for the tablecloth of clouds which hovers over it, but today... Nothing but blue sky. It worked perfect that it happened to be the day planned on the itinerary for table mountain. That was the start to our day, and we spent much longer up there than I had expected. So much to explore, and the views.... So beautiful!! We got too many good pictures. So after exploring the top of Table Mountain we took the red bus around town too see and explore more of Cape Town. We were in love! Had a late lunch at San Marco at the V&A Waterfront- delicious!!!!! Did a little shopping there, then took the bus to Green Market square. We found that when we got there everyone was packing up their tables so there was not much time to look around. We stopped for Gelato at the place known for the best in town, yummy. When we went to catch the bus home we realized we missed the last bus, so we navigated our way around town back to our B&B, exploring some things on the way. We decided to call it a night, the next 2 days will be long ones....

Leaving one Paradise for another.... (11/27)

Not a whoe lot of excitement Sunday... We woke up and packed for our departure, and left for the airport around 10. We had to stop through Joburg where we planned to pick up our missing bag which they never had sent to us in Vic Falls as promised. We did find it in the airport, and it was obvious that the bag must have gotten stuck in a conveyor belt or something in London... The handle was ripped off (which also had once had the sticker bag tag which was gone and why it never made it further). It looked torn up in a couple other places as well. It is a shame all of those school supplies were left behind, our plans now are to find someone who can find a good place around cape town for them. The Joburg airport originally tried to give us hell about the weight of the bags and wanted us to pay more and I almost lost it on them. It's a long story, but we really do not like that airport.... Thank God this was the last time we had to go through there. The flight to Cape Town went well, and by the way, South African Airways is the best. Everything about their flight experience is better than Continental. The food, the service, the leg room, free alcohol, on time, etc., etc. Wish we would have flown the entire way with them! We arrived in Cape Town as the sun was going down- we just headed to the hotel and got checked in. Met a nice girl from Australia that lives in Joburg... That was about the extent of the day...

The Zambezi River & Devils Pool (11/26)

We woke up very early on the 26th, pickup was at 6:30 am for our white water rafting trip down the Zambezi (signed our life away the 3rd time here...). The Zambezi river is one of the top 5 white water rafting rivers in the world (pretty sure it rates #3), although the guides all claim it is THE BEST (and of course they know, right?!). It is definitely not a boring river to raft, that is for sure. It is so amazingly beautiful too, although you don't really get the chance to absorb the scenery when half of the rapids are class 5 (the highest rating allowed to be ratted commercially). The rest minus maybe 2 are 4's.... Anyone who rafts knows that means a major thrill ride. There were actually a couple level 6's which we were required to walk around.... And just FYI, 6 is the highest grade, which includes everything over 5- even Victoria falls herself, haha. The level 6 ones we saw on foot were absolute beasts. Again, we got the video and pictures we can post later. Kyle was thrown out of the boat on one of the level 5 rapids, along with everyone else on one rapid or another...... Minus me!!!! Yeah, I am not sure how, but I was the only one who did not get thrown out- unless you count the time another raft came up along side of us and that guide chose me to pick up and throw out of our boat for fun. That being said, I think I had the most wounds of anyone from the trip, not sure how that worked. I have a huge bruise on my arm, and Kyle gave me a blow to the head above my eye with his oar, haha. Okay, so all in all the actual rafting part was amazing. Now, to the bad part.... When the ride is over in order to get back up the cliff and get to the food and ride home you have to climb a very steep 300 meters. I thought I was going to pass out and go falling along the rocks back into the river. I may not be in the best shape, but that walk was hell- I could not believe they require everyone to do it. Apparently they are working on a cable that pulls you out, but unfortunately that was not complete soon enough!!!!!!!! The other bad part was that I forgot to put sunscreen on my legs and when they say the African sun is harsh they do not lie. I didn't notice until later that the tops of my legs were totally fried. Not much you can do at that point, learned my lesson!

 

After white water rafting we again were rushed to get back, and we were immediately picked up to head to Zambia for a trip to Devil's Pool. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Devils Pool, it is a natural pool formed off of livingstone island on one of the edges of Victoria Falls. It basically is one of the reasons this trip needed to be planned when it was.... People are only allowed into Devils Pool during a couple months of the year, the other months the flow is far too heavy over the edge for it to be safe. We chose to have high tea on the island (or maybe that was my decision since I am the British wannabe). They picked us up in a tiny motor boat from the Royal Livingstone sun deck, of course we signed our life away AGAIN, and then we headed off to Livingstone Island (an island in the middle of the falls which is only showing during summer when the water is low, the other months it is covered in water pouring over it). We went to the edge of the island looking down at the pouring water around us then made our way over to Devils Pool. This was one of our favorite parts of the trip. They tell you to make a jump into the water and one of the guys takes your jump picture. Most people are very nervous and just kind of jump- I was pissed they wouldn't let me do a back flip off the rock but I still had what the others said was the best jump of our group... And if that is the case Kyle's definitely was 2nd because we were the only brave ones. They got a great picture of Kyle's, but they were late taking mine. I'll post them later along with the pictures of us literally hanging over the edge of the falls. Yes, the guide holds your feet and sends you over the edge of the largest waterfall in the world. SO, SO awesome!!!!! I could have stayed in Devils Pool all night with a glass of wine... We were so bummed when they made us get out for another group, haha. After we got out we went for snacks (which were more like meals), high tea, and some alcoholic bevs on the island. It was such a great experience.... We met a nice couple from Australia and enjoyed talking with them for a long time about all sorts of things!!! I absolutely love the people you meet while traveling... It's one of the best parts! So Devil's Pool was the ending of our day, and it was a really great ending!!!!!

The beginning of the "Signing our life away" part of the trip (11/25)

Our primary school visit was planned for noon, and we were supposed to be seeing their kindergarden graduation while we were there. This gave us plenty of time for an activity in the mean time..... Or so we thought. We decided to head to the famous Victoria Falls Bridge which is over the Zambezi River and sign our life away for the first time of this trip.... Kyle wanted to do both the bungee jump and the bungee swing, I did not care to do both, but wanted to do the swing over the bungee. For those who are not familiar with a bungee swing as I was not either previously, it is basically the exact same thing but you actually drop further- at the bottom instead of being upside down when it catches and you bob up and down it catches you and you go swinging straight towards the cliff rocks. This particular bungee spot is the 3rd highest in the world with an 111 meter or 365 ft drop.... And it's argued to be the best in the world. Okay, I cannot display the feeling of being on the edge of a platform that high and having to jump off. For some reason jumping out of a plane is easy, but when you can see where you are headed straight to below you it is much scarier. I decided that Kyle and I should do it tandem (thought it would make it easier to have someone else taking the step with me). Well, we did it and we are alive to share the story so that is good. It was scary as hell though and I still cannot believe I paid $190 to jump off of a bridge. The drop was definitely long though, and the thrill of the line catching you at the end was the biggest relief. Kyle talks about doing it again, but honestly, I just couldn't believe the activities we did which lasted all day vs 10 seconds were less expensive than the bungee stuff... Kinda silly. Anyways, so although they promised us it was going to take no time to do both Kyle's jump and our tandem jump it ended up taking a while.... And I was panicking as time neared noon and we were supposed to be ready for school pickup at 11:45.

We raced back to the hotel..... A long really fast walk which made us sweaty and tired!! We madeit back late and were told Anne left and said to call when we got back so we did that. She came back to get us and all of our school supplies and we headed over to Chinotimba. We missed the graduation ceremony which was a huge bummer... We heard it was adorable and all of the gowns were too big on the kids which made it even cuter. Walking into the school grounds was like we were celebrities walking into a school in the US. The kids all smile, point, stare, shout and laugh at things in Ndebele, their local language. English is spoken at school though and all of their 2nd language. We met with the head master/principal, introduced ourselves and she came out to organize a little giving ceremony with the kids. We told them we were from the US and had brought things for them... I think everyone was shocked at how much we actually brought and we kept getting asked how we got it all there. They didn't even know that about 70 spiral notebooks and 30 boxes of crayons were missing in our lost baggage (which was supposed to have arrived, but didn't- here we go again!). The kids were so thrilled though for any little thing... Most of the things like colored erasers, sparkly stickers, sports erasers, and individual colored pencil sharpeners are things they have never even seen before. It was very neat to see their faces as they checked out the goodies. We took some pictures with them and they were all so eager to hold as many supplies as they could fit in their little hands! After wards their teachers told them to put the things back and they got in lines and took the supplies where they were told. So obedient and willing to help, Kyle was most amazed by this. We walked around the school and took part in the conversations between the principal and the Rotary rep as to what was in the agenda to help out the school in the future. Their playground was a trash dump, so it sounded like the next thing to be done is to be able to maybe add a small playground with a swing and slide and maybe a soccer goal or something. The crazy thing is that although this school is possibly the worst in the area, once you get in the more rural areas of Zimbabwe they have even less.... Pretty much nothing. Classes are held under trees. Our future children better be good and never take school for granted or we have the perfect place to set them straight!!

We had to get back to the lodge for our afternoon lion walk where we would be signing our life away for the 2nd time. Our day was one big rush. We were picked up not long after we returned and set off to walk with lions. What a cool experience the lions were!!!! When they brought out the lions we were thrilled to see 2 lions which were not small at all! They told us their names, but they were not easy ones, and Simba and Nala was much easier for Kyle and I to call them. The male lion really liked Kyle... When it was his turn to go pet and sit by him for pictures the lion rolled over on it's back wanting Kyle to pet his belly.... It was like our dogs! After we all took still pictures we began walking around the reserve area with them. We learned that just 2 days prior during the lion walk the female lion had spotted an injured water buffalo (very large creatures!) and decided to take off after it. Of course the male followed while everyone else just watched along. They 2 youngsters ended up taking the buffalo down which was amazing for the trainers to see since they are not to an age level ready for release into the wild yet by any means. It was a long battle, but we saw the remains of the buffalo on our walk... Not much more than bones left, we got pictures of that as well.... Just wish we were there to see that fight!!!!!! We got the video and the pictures of the lion walk we can share..... Cool stuff!!!


We once again were in a huge rush after the lion walk... We had reservations for the Boma Dinner, which is a dinner comparable to a luau in Hawaii, but with traditional African dancing & singing (which we actually found more entertaining and fun than the luau's in Hawaii). When you arrive they put what Kyle called an "African Toga" on everyone and painted our faces with tiny traditional tribal face paint. There was very interesting game meat for the main course at dinner- not much of which I enjoyed- but that doesn't say much because I am an extremely picky eater!! The dancing was so fun though and so was the music. We each got our own African drum to learn to play and we did games on it. Afterwards everyone was dancing in a circle and calling out people to dance in the middle similar to a wedding in the US or something. All in all, a great experience!!!!

Goodbye Johannesburg, Hello Victoria Falls!! (Thanksgiving, 11/24)

We woke up On Thanksgiving thankful for a new start to a new day. We arrived at the airport extra early in order to get the lost bag situation figured out face to face since the phone obviously was not getting us close to finding the bag. Kyle ran in to talk to them while I stayed with our rental car. I started to get nervous when it was less than 2 hours until our international flight to Zimbabwe, we still had to return the car and Kyle was still inside. He made it out though and we actually had a lead on the bag.... It was found in London, the baggage sticker had come off apparently. It was supposed to come to Johannesburg the next morning and they would have it sent to our hotel in Victoria Falls from there. At least it was something. So we returned our car and headed for takeoff to beautiful Vic Falls!

Arriving in Vic Falls was discouraging at first because it seemed as though the rain had followed us. It turned out to just be a very short small storm which was good. When we arrived at our hotel we called Anne who is the lady I have been planning our primary school visit with and she wanted to come meet us at the hotel that evening just as a meet and greet. We had plenty of time to check out the falls in the mean time. I cannot even begin to explain Vic Falls, or Mosi-Oa-Tunya as they call it which means "The smoke that thunders". The best way I can show it is via pictures from the sky taken from the flight of angels, a helicopter ride over the falls. Can't wait to share those. Seeing it face to face on the Zimbabwe side was the best, but you just cannot show in pictures it's size or intensity that way. We met several people both from Canada and other places all over the world and everyone had the same answer that Vic Falls beats Niagra Falls hands down. Makes sense being is how it is the largest waterfall in the world and one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. Certainly a beauty which is indescribable!

We wrapped up the day with a short meeting with Anne, who is fabulous, and some dinner! Busy day coming up.....

Graskop, the Panoramic Route & road to Johannesburg (11/23)

We woke up on the 23rd to no rain, but still very thick cloud cover. We headed out for the panoramic route despite the clouds and hoped for the best. We were able to see the falls along the route, but the 2 things we were most excited to see we could not: God's Window and the 3 Rondawels. We tried to make the best of it though and found our own spots to stop and make pictures. We also found some good photo ops of baboons and pigs.

So after seeing what we could we headed out for the long 6 hr journey to Johannesburg. No one tells you how beautiful the entire country of South Africa is... We got to see much of the country on the drive and I am thankful for that. The weather also was beautiful blue skies outside of Graskop.

Okay, so we are not thankful for the drive experience in Johannesburg. As we are getting close to Johannesburg it starts pouring.... Bad. The traffic was horrible, too. It was dark at the point we were there and we were just trying to drive in the rain and traffic without disaster. We had directions from google maps printed to our hotel there where we would just stay until our flight the next morning to Vic Falls. So after getting lost and turning around about 4 times we finally get to the supposed google maps directions to our hotel. Ummm, not at all the right place. We have no working cell phone, in the biggest city in the world in a foreign country where it is dark and pouring. We ended up being lost for 3 hours. It was so awful.... And the worst part??? We had no gas left and they do not have a feeder or access road along their highways so when you spot a gas station you cannot find a way to it. I literally just started crying after driving about what seemed like an hour on empty when our empty light started blinking. We were freaking out. Our last option was to make our way to the airport after searching for so long for a gas station on our own with no luck (assuming we could even make it there without getting lost 100 times). Thank God we were not lost 100 times on the way there and that they were able to help us. Also, thank God that our car actually made it there... I still cannot believe it made it. Anyways, I think we arrived at our hotel at 10:30 when we were supposed to be there around 7. We were starving and spent so we ordered room service. It arrived- the order was wrong though. Then we noticed that they gave us no silverware or ketchup so I called that in and they delivered ketchup but no silverware. 3rd time was the charm I guess but at that point we were just ready for a new day!!!!!!

Arathusa: Final morning (11/22)

We woke up on the 22nd at 4:30 a.m., the normal wake up call time for morning drives, to pouring rain.... Not good! We opted to stay in along with the rest of our group and wait to see if it cleared up. In the mean time we hung out with Stephane and Kelvin, our new friends that live in DC. It did clear up, so we set out with not high hopes of seeing much since most animals are hiding from the rain/wet conditions. We did not see much minus a ton of water bucks hanging out by e watering hole (which we did get some great photos of) and of course impalas and kudu. We were very bummed we never saw a lion but after only getting 3 drive opportunities instead of 4 because of Our missing bag mess & being late to the lodge- we saw just as much Asa everyone else who had been there for 4 drives before us. Lions had moved south and had just not been around for a week or so. We also knew we would have the opportunity to walk with them face to face in Zimbabwe so it wasn't too disappointing. So, we returned to the lodge, packed and headed out for Graskop.

The weather was yucky all the way to Graskop which was a bummer, but of course we would rather it have been then and clear up for the next day when plans were to do the panoramic route. We had dinner at a yummy Portuguese restaurant and then went to bed.

Arathusa Safari: Evening Drive (11/21)

Our evening safari drive proved to be even better than the morning drive, and was the best drive of our stay at the lodge. It started out slow but our tracker Debeers spotted something in the brush back in the distance so we went to check it out. Turned out to be 3 male elephants. It is crazy how good the rangers are at knowing everything that is going on in the wild. Our ranger Ryan and Debeers were talking about how they looked to be on their way somewhere and that others must be close. Sure enough after driving towards the path they were headed we ran into a huge playful mud bath of around 30 elephants of all sizes. It was one of the coolest things to experience... Kyle's favorite part of our safari stay. The female elephants are very protective of their young and Ryan had warned us of this after he has been charged at by a few females in the past. Sure enough one in particular Did NOT like us watching them from so close and she flared her ears and came towards us. Before she could get up too close Ryan just started backing up our vehicle- the rest of the time we tried following them that same one would turn around towards us to let us know she did not like us there so eventually we let them proceed. I have so many amazing pictures from these experiences and I am so sad that my iPad does not cooperate posting them- damn Macs! Guess they can wait until later.

Anyways, so after the elephants we saw a beautiful giraffe, water buffalos, and Mafufunyane, an older male leopard who has been around Arathusa for a while- he gave me the best photos of our safari. Beautiful animals! So all of those we saw before sundown.

Giraffe:

Water Buffalo:

Mafufunyane:



When we were on our way back to the lodge we spotted Karula, a female leopard with her daughter cub, Xivindzi. We followed right next to them for a long time. Again, it is crazy the behavior patterns the rangers know- Karula at one point stopped and let out a strange noise. Ryan explained that it was a call noise and that her son cub was probably supposed to meet up with them. After about 10 min of following them Karula stopped again and Ryan said to wait for the son... And sure enough out walks Xivambalana, her son from the brush. Cool stuff- seeing their meeting was so cool... The mother made sure it was him first them they started rubbing up on one another and Karula was licking her son as if to clean him up. It was one of the cutest things ever!!!! It was too bad it was so dark out because it made it very difficult to take pictures... Especially because they were moving and so were we. Kyle got good video of it though. After we followed them a while we headed back for dinner time!

Arathusa Safari: 1st Morning Drive (11/21)

Howdy! Well, it is a rainy day in South Africa today (the 22nd), which was okay because we were spending the most of our day driving to Gaskrop. Kyles bag is still missing and that has been a huge pain in the butt. It will be a scene when we go back through Johannesburg to head to Victoria Falls- bags don't just disappear people!!!

It was sad to leave Arathusa Safari Lodge though- we had a hell of a time there... met some awesome people, and had some crazy cool drives!!! They bring you up SO close to the animals (as in just a few feet!), it is surreal. When you see the pictures you will understand.... Yes, I took them, no edits, and many look straight off a nat geo magazine. Here is a summary of the things we saw the first morning, that is all I have time for right now (pictures from the drive to go along with most of them):

** Giraffes

** Zebras

** Rhino (the biggest one both our ranger & tracker said they have ever seen- although it was not the first time they had seen this one).

** Cheetahs (the most rare of the things people like to see- we got lucky!)

** Leopard (prettiest animals ever!)

** Wart hogs (not pretty enough to waste my time uploading its own picture, lol- see it further away in the pic below)

** Impalas & Kudu (Impalas are everywhere and the Kudu are nothing uncommon either). Picture of Impalas from across the watering hole of our lodge- also you can see a wart hog in it too)
** Wildebeest

** Water Buffalo (I'll post a pic of this one under a later drive)