Rick took his good camera and capture some really amazing images. He has been using Lightroom to clean them up. Here is a sampling of his best pictures.
We said good bye to Patty, Tim, Kay, and Mike after breakfast. They were spending the morning in town and then Rodney was taking them to the airport to catch a flight to Jo’berg and then home. We were flying from Cape Town to Amsterdam and then home. Our flight didn’t leave until 11 that night so we had the whole day.
That morning we went to the airport to pick up a car. We planned to go to Darling which was supposed to have beautiful wild flowers. Rodney had given us a route and told us to stay out of the townships. Unfortunately we missed a turn and ended up in a township but luckily we didn’t have any problems. We arrived in Darling and were underwhelmed by the flowers. Here are some pictures.
We decided to head back into town for lunch. Fortified by Indian food for lunch we headed south to a Cheetah reserve. Cheetahs are often killed by farmers because they are killing the farmer’s herd. The reserve’s main purpose is to train dogs to protect herds. Certain types of dogs will come to view the herd as their family and will fight any predators to the death to protect their family. Cheetahs are non confrontational so the dog will scare them off. To date they have placed over 200 dogs. The reserve keeps cheetahs as ambassadors for the reserve cause. At the reserve they also had caracal, mongoose, bat eared foxes and serval.
After getting a tour we were ready for our encounter with cheetah cubs. The center has three 5 1/2 month cheetah cubs, one female and two males. Eventually the female will go back to the breeding center and the two males will go to a zoo in Australia. The cubs were taken from their mother when they were three weeks old. Since then they have get getting use to human contact. They were playing and jumping on each other while we were waiting for the encounter. Three staff members were required, one for each cub just in case something went wrong. We had to disinfect our hands and shoes before going in. Once in there one of the cubs was laying down so we knelt down and pet him. He didn’t seem to mind at all.
In total we probably spent five minutes in cage with them and it was great. Afterwards they were feed, eating rare meat from the hands of their handlers.
All in all a wonderful experience.
Because it was too early to go to the airport we drove down the coast. Here are some pictures.
After sunset we headed to the airport to turn in the car. We had a long 24 hour trip home with very little sleep but that’s ok because we had a great vacation. Now we are home trying to sort through our pictures and get ready for the next adventure, Egypt and Jordan, in November.
Happy Birthday to my brother, Jeff!
We started the day by going to Robben Island, the prison that housed Mandala as well as many other political and criminal prisoners. We took a ferry over to the island. There we were met by our guide, a man who was in the prison from 1977 until 1982. He was in high school when he was arrest for attending a Christian school meeting that the government believed was plotting against them. He was spoke very elegantly.
He told us about the system of privileges including education that the prison imposed in an effort to manage the prisoners behavior. One of the privileges was how much you were allowed to communicate with family. Of course that communication was censored. Our guide spoke a lot about the prisoners mixed feelings about accepting the privileges.
He showed us the prison cells including Mandala’s cell. It was a tiny room with a mat for sleeping and a bucket. We also saw group cells that were horrible overcrowded back when our guide was there.
Our guide told us about how he felt coming back to be a guide. It was very difficult initially but he also thought it helped him heal. He really was inspirational.
After our tour we got on a bus for a short tour of the island. We saw the quarry where the prisoners were forced to do hard labor as well as the place that Robert Sobukwe was kept. On 21 March 1960, Sobukwe led a nationwide protest against the hated Pass Law which required black people to carry a pass book at all times. Sobukwe led a march to the local police station at Orlando, Soweto, in order to openly defy the laws. In a similar protest on the same day in Sharpeville, police opened fire on a crowd, killing 69 in the Sharpeville Massacre. His ideas were consisted so dangerous that he was isolated from the rest of the prisoners and died before he could a South Africa free from apartheid.
I found the visit to Robben Island very emotional, troubling, and inspirational in the way some are able to forgive their captors.
We took the ferry back and stopped at a grocery store on the way back to the van in order to pick up some sandwiches. That afternoon we were scheduled to do a tour of Stellenbosch. In Stellenbosch we passed acre after acre of grape plants. We went to two wineries. At the first winery we tasted pinotage which no one liked. The second one was better but we were not tempted to buy any wine.
We drove through the town of Stellenbosch which has a very large university and some quaint Dutch homes. We ended with a stop at a chocolate shop for Belgian chocolate after which Rodney took us back to the hotel. Rick and I said good bye to Rodney. He is a great guide who share a lot of knowledge and his view on many aspects of South African and its history.
That evening we went out to a steak place for dinner.
Today we had a peninsula tour with Rodney. We down the coast which was beautiful. Here are some pictures.
We arrived the Cape of Good Hope before the tour buses and took pictures there.
Then we drove to Cape Point and walked around there. The views from Cape Point were gorgeous.
Rick spotted a caracal, a rare cat whose back legs are longer than its front legs which allows it to jump and catch birds in the air. Rodney said he had never seen one there. Unfortunately we didn’t get a picture.
From there we went to see the penguin colony in Simon’s town, home to a colony of African penguins. They are the only penguin that breed in Africa. We saw several with babies. Here are some pictures.
We drove on to Kalk where we got fish at Lucky’s fish and chips. I had a salad. Then we visit Muizenberg’s beaches.
We ended our day with a visit to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. These gardens were established by John Cecil Rhodes. It poured as we walked through the gardens but eventually the sun came out. Patty was very excited to see all the proteas, an unusual type of flower. Here are some pictures.
After the Gardens we headed back to town and were dropped off at the hotel. We went out for pizza and pasta that night. Dinner was followed by Mexican train.
Today we had a half day city tour which originally was scheduled for the morning but we switched it to the afternoon because the weather was supposed to be a little better. We decided to go to the waterfront for the morning. Kay, Mike, Rick and I walked the 3 miles there while Patty and Tim took an Uber. It was overcast but didn’t rain. We walked through the Company Gardens and several shopping districts. The gardens were created in the 1650s by the region’s first European settlers and provided fertile ground to grow fresh produce to replenish ships rounding the Cape. Today it is a city park which contains several museums. Here are some pictures from our walk.
Once we reached the waterfront, we went to the watershed, a building with lots of shops with handmade crafts. There are mountains including Table Mountain surrounding Cape Town which makes it a really beautiful setting for a city. Here are pictures of the waterfront, you can see some of the mountains.
We had lunch and wandered around until 1:30 when we met Rodney for our city tour. He suggested we start with Table Mountain. Table Mountain is a flat-topped mountain, forming a prominent landmark, overlooking the city. It is often covered by clouds so we had been told to go to the mountain if there was a break in the clouds. We rode the cable car up and Rodney showed us around. Here are some pictures.
After table mountain we went to the South African Museum. Mostly it was animals preserved by taxidermy. It was nice to see the animals up close after seeing them in the wild. Then we walked through the Company Gardens again and Rodney presented some of the history. He also drove us around pointing out landmarks. Here are a few pictures.
He dropped us off at the waterfront where we had dinner and then ubered back to the hotel.
We are leaving Zimbabwe today. Innocent picked us up at 9:00 for our 11:45 flight. Navigating through the airport was easy and the flight was on time. There was not much to see from the plane. Generally it just looked like completely undeveloped land. Three hours later we arrived in Cape Town. The weather doesn’t look good for the next three days, cold temperatures and rain.
Our Cape Town guide, Rodney, picked us up and delivered us to the hotel. Based on our drive from the airport to the hotel, Cape Town seems like a very modern city however while we were on the highway we passed several former townships, Apartheid segregated areas for nonwhites. They went on for miles and miles and looked desperately poor.
The official unemployment rate is 27% but Rodney says it’s more like 33%. It was very sad and makes me wonder how long it will take to undue the damage done by Apartheid.
The hotel is in a very nice area however all the houses in the area have electric wires on top of the fences to keep people out. The ADT security signs says “Armed Response”. Also we were told not to walk around after dark. Apparently people living in a nearby park tend to mug people. Generally there is a lot of crime because people are so poor and hopeless. Very sad!
Here are pictures of our room.
Cape Town is in a drought and has significant water restrictions. The reservoir levels got as low as 18% and the last 10% is unusable. Citizens of the Cape Town area are only supposed to use 50L per day per person. This means limiting the flushing of toilets, using hand sanitizer instead of washing your hands, and a 90 second shower with a bucket to collect the water while the shower is warming up. We tried to comply but I found the 90 second shower impossible. As a result of these effort the reservoir levels are up to 66% and they must have rose during our visit because we had a lot of rain.
It was raining that evening when we walked to dinner. Unfortunately we got a little lost and I was nervous about wandering around after dark. We were accosted by a young man who had no shoes or rain coat, just a blanket wrapped around him. Eventually he left us alone and we found the restaurant, The Stack. Dinner was very good and we ubered back to the hotel. It was just a couple of blocks and the Uber cost just $2.
That evening we played a game of Mexican train before going to bed.
We were scheduled to leave today and head to Mashatu Camp in Botswana but we were able to squeeze in a drive before we left. On this drive we saw 3-week old lion cubs. There were three of them, we saw two of them, one pretty clearly. They were just outside their den. Look in the middle of the picture for the cub.
Here are some of the other animals we saw on our short drive.
We left the camp at 9:45 for our 10:00 flight. The camp has an airstrip 5 minutes away. We flew on a small chartered plane with seating for 11 people but we only had 8.
We stopped in South Africa to emigrate out of the country. Then we took off again to Limpopo in Botswana where we were picked up by our guide, Richard, and taken to an immigration office where we got our passports stamped. Here is a picture of Richard and Patty.
Then we drove to the camp. It was really, really hot. One of the other Land Cruisers wouldn’t start so we had an extra three passengers in our truck. We arrived at the camp around 2:45. It had been a long trip from MalaMala to Mashatu. Richard showed us our tents. Did I mention it was very hot and we were all concerned about how we were going to sleep in this heat. Also we were a bit spoiled by MalaMala.
That afternoon we had high tea, followed by a game drive. There is less eating at this camp. They wake us up at 5:30 and serve cereal and fruit before our morning drive. Then we have brunch at 10:30 when we return from our morning drive. We have high tea at 3:15, just before our afternoon drive. Finally we have dinner at 8, shortly after returning from our evening drive. Richard joined us for all our meals. Additionally we stop for tea, coffee, and snacks during our morning drive and cocktails and snacks after during our afternoon drive. Here’s a picture of the common area where we had breakfast and brunch (we had dinner in the boma).
Here are pictures from our afternoon drive.
The highlight of this drive was a cheetah mom and her three 1-year old cubs. They were just relaxing. They sleep in an open area where they can see predators coming. The lions will kill leopard and cheetah cubs because they are competing for the same food. Also they will often steal food from each other. Some lions and hyenas will steal food from leopards. Leopards and hyenas will steal food from cheetahs. Another interesting fact is that hyenas have the most powerful bite of any animal.
Sleeping was rough last night. We woke up about 3am to the sounds of baboons and couldn’t get back to sleep. Here are pictures from today.
We saw a herd of 50 elephants and Gareth drove to a point several hundred feet ahead of where we were. They just mozzied on by. One adolescent males stood in front of the Jeep and tried to intimidate us but we weren’t falling for that old ploy. We also found a pride of lions lying in a dried river bed.
Here are a few more pictures of our camp
That night while we were eating dinner we watched an elephant roam into our camp. When we were escorted back to our bungalow we passed him and he was about 120 ft from our unit. About an hour later Rick was out on our deck and the elephant was right outside eating the leaves from the tree and the bushes. We all came out an watched him. Eventually he wandered to in front of our bungalow and we tried to come out to watch him some more. We were promptly told to get back inside by a guard. Our ranger was out there trying to scare him by clapping and throwing stones. Apparently he didn’t care and stayed in camp for awhile doing more damage. He knocked over several very large planters and broke up several bushes. The next morning we learned that he was in musk. Elephants in musk can be very dangerous but he seemed gentle to us.
Rather than bore you with a description of each day I will post some of best pictures from each day.
Here are today’s pictures.
While out we saw a 3 year female leopard. Her mother was killing by another animal when she was 12 months old. She and her brother had to fend for themselves. Unfortunately her brother didn’t make it. She was eating a leftovers of a lion kill. There were lions nearby and she was clearly monitoring them while she was eating.
We also saw an 8 month male leopard. His mother was alive but once they are that age mom starts to leave them alone. There was a hyena nearby so he climbed a tree to protect himself.
At the end of the day we stopped for appetizers and drinks. How sophisticated!
That evening on the way back to the camp we saw three wild dogs which is very unusual sighting. Unfortunately it was too dark for a picture.
We left the hotel for the airport at 8:30. We flew on a small plane to Skukuza which is the gateway to Kruger National Park. We were collected and drove 45 minutes to MalaMala which is a private game reserve. One of the major advantages of MalaMala over Kruger National Park is that you can drive off road. Also at MalaMala, a ranger must guide all drives. At Kruger no guide is needed and sometimes people traumatize the animals so they are very afraid of people. Not so at MalaMala.
We were met at the lodge by Gareth, our ranger for the next 3 days. He showed us around the facility and to our rooms which are amazing. Here are some pictures.
The camp is open to animals so there were male and female nyalas grazing in the grassy areas between the bungalows.
After getting settled we had lunch which was fabulous. Lunch was served on a deck overlooking a small river. While we were eating elephants wandered by and were eating.
At 3:15 we met Gareth for coffee and sweets after which we went on our first game drive. Here is a picture of our vehicle. Yes that is a gun on the front of the truck.
We saw lots of birds which I can’t keep straight and are very hard to photograph so I won’t bore you with details about them. Shortly we came a upon two female lions laying by the side of the road. We spotted a male lion nearby laying in the grass. We watched them for a while. One of the females tried to catch an impala and then tried to herd them back towards the other female but they were unsuccessful. The whole time Gareth was telling us about lions and answering our questions. He was extremely knowledgeable and holds a masters in relevant fields. Here are pictures of them.
Gareth was on the radio with the other rangers sharing sightings. MalaMala has strict rules on how many vehicles can be around an animal. They do not intervene in anyway unless the animal has been injured by a human. So they just let nature take its course. Eventually we moved on and found some baboons, adults and babies, that we watched for awhile.
Then we found some zebras.
While we were out, it got dark. As we were driving back Gareth was waving a light across landscape looking for animal eyes which are red in the light. We didn’t see any animals on the way back to camp.
That evening we had dinner in the boma. Here’s a daytime picture of the boma and the main reception area.
The wait staff and cooks call us to dinner by parading through the lodge and singing local songs. Dinner was another excellent meal. All of the staff are very friendly, courteous, and helpful. Overall we are really impressed with this camp.
