The Final Frontier..Africa!

We finally saw the zebras and wildebeast as well as a giraffe.  I am pretty sure that Matt knew that they were there and would be easy to find so left them for thursday night. 

Sundowners that night were pretty special.  We parked on a hill looking over the river and Matt pulled out a table and table cloth and tiffen full of treats then opened the champage.  Meryl would have approved.  After that we went out a found the African Wild Cat.  Which pretty much looked like a house cat, but apparently was very rare.  Just after we left they say a "kill"..which apparently consisted or a cat killing a mouse.  To celebrate the rhinos we had seen in the AM, we rewarded Matt with beer and more beer.  Of course we had to drink along to be polite.  Moira was especially sociable that night.  We were talking to Matt about what was the hardest thing and his response was "the discovery channel was his nemesis".  He then talked about the Youtube video of the cape buffalo being eaten by the lions and then the crock and then the buffalo huting down the lions.  It takes place in Kruger...google it, it is really something.  Anyway after that the night digressed into Youtubes culminating with Rebecca Black Parody and of course...Double Dream Hands.  We have evidence of Sharon and Moria double dream handing away!

The next morning we got up and had a drive before we left.  This was pretty special, we started out by seeing 3 teenage hyeneas in their den.  The mom was not around.  They were quite curious and came right up to the truck.  Matt knew they were there so took us to them specially.  Their den was at the most southern part of the reserve so it was a bit of a hike.  This is where Cynthia's master tracker status kicked in.  She was spotting animals right, left and center.  It started with the hyeneas and then she spotted 5 giraffes, then a kudu and then a worthog.  The worthog was just the thing that Sharon wanted to see so that capped it off for her perfectly..then the radio started going like crazy.

We saw the remains of a kill!!!  And the amimal that did it was the elusive cheetah so we ended up with 200 points for the cheetah and another 200 for the kill.  She had killed a small impala and was chomping down on it.  Apparently she only has about 30 mintues to finish it before the other vultres and heyenas start to push her away from it.  She started by eating the best parts (the hind quarter) and then the innards.  She would eat for about 5 minutes then sit up and look around to see if anyone else was coming to take the kill from her.  We had to leave before she finished but it was pretty freaky to watch.  I can hardly wait to see Sharon's pictures, she had the zoom lens so I am sure they are amazing.

We then got back to the camp and packed up to go to the airplane to go back to Joburg.  Of course there was a giraffe waiting on the runway for us.  It was funny after the first two days of seeing elephants everywhere, we never saw them again until we got up in the air over Mala Mala.  Goes to show  you need to enjoy with animals when you see them because you might not see them again.

When we landed in Joburg, we got picked up and took a tour of the downtown...a bit like Detroit.  It was very depressed with a lot of abandoned buildings.  After that we took a tour of Soweto.  It was much less depressing than I thought it would be.  There were shacks for sure but there were also some nice well kept brick homes with lovely gardens.  We also saw Bishop Desmond Tutu's house and Nelson Mandela's house.  There is a street dedicated to both nobel prize winners.

From there we went to the Arptetide Museum.  This was very interesting and moving and took you through the progression from the 1920's to the elections in the mid 1990s.  There was also a Nelson Mandela exhibit where they had the jersey from the rugby world cup depicted in Invictus.  It was signed by the team captain and Mandela.  Very cool.

We are now in Schipol airport in Amsterdam.  Moira has gone to visit her aunt and we are charging up devices for the last leg of the trip home. 

It has been the trip of a lifetime and would not have been the same without my travelling companions.  I know I got grumpy sometimes, but they humoured me, so thanks for that.

When I get home I will post a bunch of pictures.

Thanks for following!

Lorr

4th time is a charm

So Moira has gone on three previous safaris but has never seen the elusive rink...well her streak is over...last night we saw rinos!!! She could not have been happier. We first say 3 then another two and then as we were heading back to camp we saw six on the landing strip..to call it an airport would be an exaggeration. We dubbed them the runway rinos. We then saw another three on this mornings drive.

Last night we also saw 3 lions ( two males a and a female). We followed one of the males down the road for quite a while in the pitch black. It was really moving and a bit scary when he stared right at you. He was less than 3 feet away when he wales by. We could have reached out and touched him.

This morning we went out and ended up finding the lion again. We lead us directly to where there were the remains of a impala that was likely killed the night before. The only part left was his spine, brain and horns. We watched him gnaw on that for a while and then we followed him to the rest of the family which consisted of a lioness and her 4 cubs. The cubs were about three months old. We ended up watching them play for almost 30 minutes. It was so much fun. They were so cute. It was like a scene from Born Free. On the trip back to camp we also saw a cape buffalo. He was quite intimidating . We tracked some hyenas today but did. Not find them. We have discovered if we bribe our guide Matt with beer he seems to find what we want to see. I already owe him one for the giraffe he found me this morning. if he can find the zebra and wildebeest tonight he will have a very fun night!

Tomorrow we start our trek home. I will try to post our last day at some point in the journey.

Until then

Safari day 2

This morning the wake up call came at 5:30 for a 6am drive. We started out and immediately I spotted 4 hippos in the water. Did you know they are the most dangerous animal..don't get between them and water. We then saw some elephants very close up which was a little scary but also quite amazing. We then caught a lioness having her morning snooze. She was quite old In her pride and looked very peaceful. From there we heard that there was a male leopard around so we went in search of him. Matt tried tracking him for ages but we eventually gave up. We then saw a female leopard and went to follow her but lost her in about 10 seconds. We tried to find her again with some serious off roaring but no luck. On the way back to camp we saw lots of birds, mongoose and tiny squirrels the size of chipmunks.

After breakfast we went for a walk in the bush and got a bit caught in the middle of a bunch of elephants. We managed to get around them in the trucks and finished our walk.

We have another drive planned for later this afternoon. I really want to see a zebra and Moira wants to see a rhino. Keep your fingers crossed!

Love is in the air...

We arrived at the MALA MALA game reserve where we were met at the airfield by our ranger Matt. We got our rooms at the resort which are amazing. Sharon and I have an outdoor shower. Almost immediately we went on our first game drive. First we saw elephants including babies and also a cape buffalo. We then saw some impala and then the the highlight of the evening...leopards mating. It was amazing. We watched them for several "times". Sharon got some amazing pictures. At one point they were less than 2 feet from our truck. It was almost too close for pictures. We then went on and saw a mother lion and three cubs. They are not allowed to shine a light on the babies. From there we saw more lions mating. Love was in the air. We had our sundowners while watching lions do it. We were also able to see the very rare blue cooler...Sharon throughout it was an animal...we had to explain it was a cooler with ice to keep our drinks cold.

I wanted to keep this blog g rated, if you are over 18 and want the specifics of the mating email me for the alternate blog!!!

How is this our life?????

Yesterday we went to Plettenburg Bay and dipped our toes in the Indian Ocean!!! We collected shells on the beach and then walked around the town. After town we went to this little restaurant on the beach where dolphins were frolicking...again!!! (thanks Lisa!)

When we got back to our country house Moira had a reflexology session and I had a pedicure by the pool. Are you kidding me? We then went back to the room for sundowners and then onto dinner. Dinner started with drinks by the fire and the menu was personalized with are names..how is this my life? We then ordered our dinner at the bomba and when our dinner was ready we went into the dining room and shut up it was a private room with 28 candles...is this my life? Dinner was wonderful and included something they called pre dessert...that is another tradition I will be bringing back along with sundowners.

This morning we headed off to the George airport where we tool a flight to Joburg The flight was on a new CRJ with SAA. Ironically the funding for this plane was arranged by Moira's husband Steve when he worked with EDC...thanks Steve! After landing we were transferred to a small charter terminal for our flight to MALA MALA. Now, who do we run into at the terminal but John Madigans brother Rob. This is a very small world indeed!!!!

My life is pretty great! Hopefully will be ble to post from safari.

Meryl Would Approve...

When we originally conceived of this trip it was loosely based on Meryl Streep in "Out of Africa"...."I had a farm in Africa..."  I know it is silly but we had visions of tea in a garden surrounded by buildings with thatched roofs.  That is not the new South Africa...then we came to Hunters Country House.  OMG.  Meryl would approve!  When we arrived Roxy the manager said and I quote.."You must be tired from your long journey...would you like a cup of tea?"  We had just driven 4 hours in a air conditioned car not traveled days by ox cart!  We then proceeded to have tea in the garden surrounded by thatched cottages.  Then she took us to our rooms.  Yes we are in a thatched cottage with a fire place, private garden and any other decadent indulgence you can imagine.  Moira was having back problems so after a few glasses of Pinotage to take the edge off, a massage therapist came to work out the kinks in her back while Cynthia, Sharon and I had our "sundowners" in the bomba.  Now a bomba is an outdoor fenced area in the bush, or in our case, a tented area with a fire pit, fire place, camp chairs, couches with ostrich stuffed pillows and Frank Sinatra playing in the background.  We had champers while we waited for her.  She came back feeling much better, not 100% but better.  We then headed down the candle lit path to the property next door for dinner which was lovely.  On the way back the other 3 stopped for after dinner tea in the bomba, I headed to bed.  We are heading into Plettenburg bay today for a half day and then are planning to come back to just hang out before we head to safari tomorrow.

Not sure how much I will be able to post while on safari but if not, I will do a full update when I get back to the airport.

All I can say about the past 24 hours is....Meryl would approve!!!!!

Did you know?

Today's blog is brought to you courtesy of Rustenburg sauvignon blanc 2010...did you know...

South African toilet paper has a puppy imprinted on it
A sundowners is a drink with nibbles at about 4 in the afternoon
A smiley is a cooked sheep's head
A walkie talkie is the feet and neck of a chicken
A whale breaching is when the whale comes out of the water backwards ( btw we saw whales today)
Cape of good hope is not where the oceans meet, that is about 200km away
Pinotage is a hybrid of the pinot and hermitage grape
And I have forgotten the rest...they were much funnier at about 4 when we were having our sundowners.

We are now at a beautiful guest house on the ocean at Hermannus. Tomorrow we continue up the garden route towards Plettenburg bay.

More tomorrow.