South Africa!

“Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations. For if you do, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.”

~Henry David Thoreau

I have always heard that Cape Town was breathtakingly beautiful. I promise you, not a single person was lying. We had a very interesting start to our trip. As we pulled in, the winds in Cape Town reached about 40 knots. The port officials would not let us dock, because it was too dangerous. So we waited, and waited, and waited and at midnight that night the winds still had not died down. Everyone just had to sit on the ship and look at Table Mountain in the distance, practically drooling with anticipation. We were finally able to pull in the next day around noon. We were all a little bit sad that we had lost an entire day, but also very excited to get out and explore. There were seals everywhere, and the view coming in on Table Mountain was incredible! It is such a gorgeous city! The port area was like Disney Land compared to our last few stops. There was a ferris wheel and a huge mall, and tourist stands everywhere offering you skydiving, bungee jumping, shark cage diving, and basically everything else you could imagine a major tourist destination to have. I had to remind myself that this was definitely not an accurate representation on South Africa and I tried not to get absorbed in the façade they had created. The first half-day was spent walking around Cape Town, shopping, eating, and most importantly…getting ready for U2!

The World Cup stadium where U2 played (the one where the semi-finals were played) was conveniently located right next to the port. I went with two friends, Austin and Drew, and we had a nice walk to the stadium. Just kidding, we were practically skipping there, we were so excited! The concert blew my mind. They opened with “Beautiful Day” and the entire crowd (I think the final count was around 78,000 people) went crazy. We had relatively good seats, definitely not on the field but pretty close to the front in the stands. Needless to say they sounded phenomenal, and Bono had some very inspiring words about how fantastic South Africa is and how we can all do our parts in fighting HIV/AIDS. I left the concert on cloud 9, just knowing that I had finally seen U2 live, and I still had 4 more days to play in beautiful South Africa. The Afrikaans accents sound very similar to Australian accents, only they role their r’s more…but don’t ever tell them that, they HATE Australia. Why? I was quickly informed that Australia is the rival of any and all South African sports teams.

The next morning we went to our new favorite restaurant (I must have eaten there 5 times before we left). It was a little coffee shop called Mugg and Bean….they had better food than any American restaurant I’ve ever been to, not to mention the best iced coffee I’ve ever tried. We then jumped in a cab and went to see Table Mountain. Just like in most of the other ports we’ve been to, the cab driver waited for us until we were ready to go, so convenient! We would have hiked the mountain, but we got a late start and it’s a very long hike. So we took a cable car to the very top. It was so gorgeous, and every now and then the wind would blow the cold clouds over us. The views were amazing…dry savannah and mountains on one side, and the beautiful ocean and Cape Town on the other. On our way back towards port we saw a restaurant called Rafiki’s. Since Drew and I were both obsessed with the Lion King, we decided we had to stop there. Once again, delicious food, delicious drinks, and a cute little bamboo balcony overlooking the city. After doing some more walking around and souvenir shopping, we went to the Two Oceans Aquarium. It was a beautiful aquarium, with a very strong focus on conservation. One of the exhibits that stood out was the shark exhibit. Next to it was a sign that said: “last year, 652 people were killed by chairs. 4 people by sharks. Last year, 791 people were killed by defective toasters. 4 people by sharks. Last year over 100 million sharks were killed by humans. Rethink the shark”

Those were some pretty amazing statistics…next to it there was a picture of a shark, which said: The ocean’s most dangerous predator. Then a picture of a lion, which said: Land’s most dangerous predator. Right in between the two was a mirror, and it said: Planet Earth’s most dangerous predator. Both of those exhibits really stuck with me. Its truly scary what we are doing to the oceans. It was a very relaxing and very fun day for sure!

The next day we got up early to catch our fight to Port Elizabeth. Here was the best part: apart from the ticket, everything was free on the plane. A free meal, free wine, free drinks, free bags, free everything. It made Americans look extremely cheap! So after an easy flight and a nice glass of wine, we arrived in Port Elizabeth and got on a bus to our safari. Kariega Game Reserve is a beautiful ‘little’ reserve. It is considered a small one, despite its 22,000 acres of reserve area. Before we even got off the highway we saw blesbuck and giraffes! All of us were expecting a small room with bunk beds and a bathroom…or something along those lines. Lucky for us, our ranger took us straight to our luxury chalets to freshen up before our first game drive. They were BEAUTIFUL! Amazing little cabins overlooking the reserve, with absolutely free range for the animals. We started on our first game drive that afternoon. I won’t lie I cried a little bit, just because I was so so so excited to see everything, and it was finally here! We immediately saw impala, blesbuck, wildebeest, and other beautiful grazers.    

Then, as we were driving down one of the paths, our ranger stopped suddenly and turned off the engine. A herd of elephants slowly made their way into our path. They came both on the road and through the trees so we were surrounded by wild elephants. Needless to say it was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. One of the elephants got so close that her ear brushed up against my face. I was frozen stiff, I had no idea what to do. I know very well that these weren’t zoo animals, and they could easily kill me, so I just tried to stay still. There were about 3 babies with them, and they held onto the mom’s tail with their trunks, just like in The Jungle Book! =) We waited until they were done eating and started on our way again. We passed by lots of zebras, blesbuck, wildebeest, impala, and lots of other grazers. Then we came up on a group of Rhinos, the second of the “Big Five” (elephants were the first). They call them the big five, for those who are wondering, because they are the hardest animals to hunt, and therefore the five biggest game animals. They are: Rhino, elephant, buffalo, lion, and leopard. We watched the Rhinos for quite a while…it was especially entertaining to see the baby boy running around trying to play with the adults (an only child on a big lonely reserve). Rhinos are one of the most poached animals currently. Poachers often come in with helicopters, tranquilize a rhino, come down, cut the horn off with a machete, and leave the Rhino to bleed to death. It is really a horrible situation, for such an incredibly stupid reason. People pay thousands of dollars for Rhino horn, because they believe it is an aphrodisiac. 10 days before we arrived, poachers had killed a Rhino at the Kariega Reserve. Unfortunately they did not give the Rhino enough sedative, and it woke up before it could bleed to death. The vet had to put it down. Even worse, this was a new mother, and the baby was doomed without its mother. Fortunately they were able to send the baby to another reserve, and they hope he will be able to return within a year. It is truly a horrible and wasteful process, especially since the horn will grow back if cut at the right spot. Instead, they hack the entire thing off and kill the animals in the process. Its scary, because they have no idea how the poachers manage to get on the reserve, much less find the rhino. Because of the recent poaching, every ranger and staff member had to take a lie detector test to determine if they had any involvement.

We moved on, all of us so satisfied with our drive so far. We thought we were incredibly lucky to have seen so many animals. So, you can imagine how surprised and completely, out-of-our-minds excited we were when we found the pride of lions. They had just finished a kill, you could see the spare legs and fur laying around, and they were all taking a nap. We were about 30ft away from the closest female, and she was staring straight at us. The big male was laying in between his females and the young male on the other side….it was time for the teenager to move out. They were so beautiful and so powerful, and so unbelievably breathtaking. I couldn’t even ask questions I was so in awe. They are used to seeing the jeeps, but we were told not to make any sudden movements, as they would without a doubt defend themselves. You can imagine after a comment like that we were all glued to our seats. So, in one day we were fortunate enough to see 3 of the big five, missing only the leopard and the buffalo. We returned for an amazing dinner…including some warthog (yes I did feel guilty eating Pumba, but he was delicious), blesbuck, and impala. It was all amazingly delicious. I couldn’t get enough! I tried to wake up for the sunrise, but it was too cloudy to see it….lucky for me I was distracted by the monkeys playing on our porch. At 5:30 we went on our morning game drive. We saw buffalo (number 4 of the big five), lots of giraffes, monkeys, and lots of grazers. We had an afternoon walk, where we learned about the smaller animals and plant life on the reserve. I was feeling adventurous and tried some termites. They actually tasted pretty good. Like mint and thyme. We had another very successful afternoon drive, where we saw the lions again, as well as the very rare black rhino (there are only 2 on the reserve)! On each drive we stopped for drinks and snack, and always in the most beautiful places with the best views. We were fortunate enough to have the head ranger, Dean, as our guide, so he always knew the best places to go. He was hilarious and we had so much fun! I am seriously considering going back to work at that reserve. I felt so at home and the rangers are fantastic. Not to mention…coolest job ever!! I absolutely did not want to leave, but after an early morning drive and some hot chocolate, we got back on the bus to return to the airport, and then to Cape Town. I wish I could accurately describe the feelings I had looking at wild lions, giraffes, zebras, elephants, and everything else. Unfortunately I realize that it would be impossible to explain. I hope the pictures do it at least some justice, but honestly I am still on a high from that experience, and I feel that I will be for the rest of my life.

We were able to see some of the townships on the way back, which was very interesting. I would have like to be able to visit them, but I guess I will have to do that next time. The safari was absolutely incredible, and Cape Town was so beautiful. There is so much more that I want to do there and I absolutely have to come back soon! To be honest I loved every second of it, but I felt much more connected to the people in Ghana. As we were leaving Cape Town I felt like I was leaving a vacation, and leaving Ghana I actually felt like I was leaving close friends. Overall, Africa was good to me. I loved every second of every minute of every day. SO many incredible experiences in such a small part of an incredible continent. I will return, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind about that. Besides, I HAVE to go back since I didn’t get to see the leopard. =) I’ll miss Africa a lot, but I am excited for my adventures in Asia! Love you all!

The Friends I Met on My Safari:

Cattle Egret

Great White Egret

Reed Cormorant

African Jacana

Blackshouldered Kite

Yellow Billed Kite

Ostrich

Secretary Bird

Cape Weaver

White Stork

Black Bellied Glossy Starling

Warthog

Bushpig

Cape Grysbok

Giraffe

Buffalo

Elephant

Oribi

Nyala

Impala

Black Backed Jackal

Vervet Monkey

Blesbuck

Common Reedbuck

Burchells Zebra

White Rhino

Black Rhino

Blue Wildebeest

Red Hartebeest

Bush Buck

Hippopotamus

Kudu

Water Buck

Lions

Slideshow is below! Works best with the Circle of Life playing behind it!

Safari and Cape Town =)