Two good game drives

We had a great dinner last night and I beat Willie on the mini-me sized pool table. It was close though. Then we were treated to a traditional Zulu drum dance. It was awesome! We turned in around 930am and found a surprise guest on the wall in our bathroom! See the picture below. This little lizard wanted to stay with us. His name is Charles. We don't know where he is now but I am sure he will pop up again and scare the living hell out of one of us. As long as it is not a spider...

We woke up this morning to gale force winds and impending thunderstorms. Since that didn't stop them yesterday, we grabbed an early breakfast and went to the meeting spot for the 8am drive. Unfortunately our game driver said the weather was only going to deteriorate further so everything was postponed until later.

We took the opportunity to get some napping and reading done as well as explore the grounds a little before it started raining harder. The crocodiles were out sunning in the lagoon that is about 50 feet from our front door. There was a lot more of them in there than we expected - we counted 7 just on our side alone. We also walked over to the outer area where the tented rooms are. There was a herd of Nyala and zebras just walking around! After a few pictures and both of our hats blowing off we retired in the room until the storm passed.

At noon we went out for the first of two drives today. We got to see the cheetah and her two cubs napping under a tree! The ranger let us get out of the truck and walk right up to about 20 feet from them. The cubs are still all fuzzy. They all laid down together for a nap as we left - it was adorable. After we saw the cheetahs we rounded the corner to a tower of giraffes (as we learned they are called). They were absolutely stunning.

After the giraffes we drove around for about an hour looking for the elephants. The game range we are on is small but they 3 elephants as well as rhinos, giraffes, tons of Nyala and zebras, water bucks and a handful of other large animals. We weren't successful in finding dumbo but we did find some dung beetles! I am surprisingly entertained by these bugs. We saw one ball of dung that was being rolled by the male while the female just hung on and went for a ride. Then we saw another dung ball that two males were fighting over. They were both trying to push the poo-ball in opposite directions which just resulted in hilarity.

After lunch, we went back out and found the elephants! They were deep in the range and it was kind of sketchy getting there. At one point we got stuck with only two wheels on the ground and we all had to move to one side so we didn't tip over. They were very beautiful and really humongous. They are kind of aggressive though so we didn't spend too much time there. We made our way back out and came across two baby giraffes, a bunch of zebras, more dung beetles, a herd of water buck, a wildebeest, and a bunch of birds that the guide pointed out.

We are now back at the resort for dinner and off to bed early. We are leaving at 530am to head to Sodwana Bay for scuba diving tomorrow. We have two dives scheduled. I hope we see some whale sharks! And that I am not too terrified to swim with them!

Animal count for today:
Giraffes
Cheetahs
Nyala
Zebras
Water bucks
Wildebeest
Dung beetles
Crocodiles
Elephants
Lots of birds

The rainy season

As I sit here enjoying my African Sunset cocktail, it continues to rain buckets outside. The good news is that the ten year drought has ended! The bad news is that it ended this week. It hasn't dampened (no pun intended) our adventure though! We slept in this morning, grabbed breakfast and left Durban around 10am and headed north to Richards Bay. We didn't have any actual destination there, we just needed to kill time before arriving at the resort in Hluhluwe. We drove around Richards Bay but didn't see anything too interesting except a McDonalds. Which was delicious. I don't feel bad. We lasted 8 days with only local food and that cheeseburger was like heaven.

We got to the Zulu Nyala resort around 230 after navigating a long dirt road to access it. It is a beautiful location and very natural. We went on our first game drive at 330pm. They have those trucks with the seats in the back that you see in tv. Unfortunately it stormed like crazy - serious thunder and lighting. Think the scene in Jurassic Park just without a velociraptor and Newman trying to steal dinosaur DNA. The guide cut it short because of the imminent threat of lighting strikes, mudslides and cheetah attacks. We still got to see a giraffe, 3 warthogs and a herd of Nyala though!

Hopefully the rain will let up in a day or so. We are going on another drive at 8am tomorrow then heading to the cheetah rehabilitation center in the afternoon. If I get to hold a cheetah I may die of happiness. I don't think I will be allowed do make it a cat hat like I do with Kevin though.

So, I promised some funny observations - here they are...

-KFC is huge here. There are stores everywhere. One of the ad signs on the side of the road seemed to get the old saying wrong though. It read, 'Do you feel like lickin' your fingers today'. Emmm...not when you say it like that.

-There are these white vans with color ribbon decals that seem to be some type of cab or van sharing service. There are literally thousands of them. People wait on the side of the road seemingly wherever they please and the vans slow down and pick them up. In Port Elizabeth though, the vans slow down next to you while laying on the horn and some guy slides open the side door and yells at you to get in the van. They don't even come to a complete stop - they just pull you on. It is terrifying. We call these the scary vans.

-We have been listening to a lot of radio during or drives. They talk about America a LOT. After playing the latest Mumford and Sons song, the DJ got on and said that he felt like he was in the Wild West. Apparently they think that band sounds like American country and western, despite the fact that they are English. To further complicate the cultural reference, the DJ then went on to say that the song makes him want to, 'Cut holes in a white sheet and chase people around with a gun'. As he said this he played the sound of fire and people yelling. I don't even know if it counts as being politically incorrect it was so bizarre!

-One of the restaurants we went to had a regular burger and a 'ladies burger' on the menu that was smaller.

-Wide loads on the road are called 'abnormal loads'.

Anyways, I am sure there is more but that is what I can remember right now.

Ok- animal count for today:
Cows
Bulls
Horses
Sheep
Momma chicken with a bunch of baby chickens
Goats
Pigs
Monkey sitting in the grass eating a piece of fruit
Giraffe
3 warthogs
Herd of Nyala

Off to dinner now and a few more African sunsets...

I've seen the rains in Africa

We are back in the land of technology just north of Durban in Umhlanga. We have had quite the adventure over the last two days! We left Port Elizabeth yesterday morning at 6am and did not end up having any problems on the road. We took a smaller highway that paralleled the major one so we avoided the giant sinkhole altogether. The place we were heading to is on the wild coast and very remote to say the least. The highway took us to Kei Mouth which is a tiny town on an inlet from the sea. From there we took a ferry across to the other side and followed a series of dirt roads for about a half hour until we arrived at Trennerys resort.

The Eastern Cape is much more rural than the Western Cape was, at least what we have seen. There is livestock everywhere - both on and off the roads. Check out the pictures below. You will see that most of the animals are looking at the camera. That is because I made sure to make the appropriate animal noises to them out of the car window, much to Willie's chagrin. I felt confident I could step on it in time to avoid any confrontations. The dirt roads were insane. Thank god we had our GPS and Fawkes leading the way. (Fawkes is what we named the bird icon that represents our car on the GPS. HP rulz! Hahaha)

Let's talk about this ferry for a second. You'll see in the picture below that it wasn't quite coast guard approved. Apparently batteries work here regardless of if they are submerged in river water. The engine was on a 270 degree mount so the captain spun the outboard around and reversed us out to the middle of the river, spun it back around and drove us in forward up the bank of the other side. We were the only car on it when we went but there were 4 on it for the trip back. Totally safe? Possibly not. Really awesome? Definitely!

I haven't mentioned yet that it started raining around 10am yesterday morning and still hasn't stopped. So now take the ferry, dirt roads and animals everywhere and combine it with the rain and you have an idea of what we have been doing. Anyways, we got to the resort around 1230pm yesterday and it was a cluster of little chalets set among dense foliage just next to the ocean. When we checked in we asked about any trails or paths on the beach. The women told us there was a shipwreck about 4km down that was very cool. Then she mentioned offhand to watch out for the tide, handed us our room key and sent us on our merry way. Even though it was raining, I really wanted to walk to the beach because it is mostly deserted for miles. We started walking to the shipwreck only to find that you cross several inlets. Ones that clearly fill up during high tide and would definitely strand you for HOURS if you weren't careful. Luckily we had checked and high tide was only 2 hours away so we knew to turn around. It seems like the lady might have given a sterner warning but they seem to let natural selection work its process down here more than they do elsewhere. Nevertheless, the beach was stunning!

The rain just didn't let up though so we headed back to our room and took a nap since there was no tv or Internet. We had a nice dinner there, I beat Willie at darts and we enjoyed another sleep with the ocean in the background.

Today was the longest drive of all of them. We left around 830 from Trennerys, back down 30 minutes of dirt roads to the highway and then spent about 8 hours making our way to Durban. The whole way is rural with no cities or '1st world' settlements. Tons of shacks and livestock and farms. The highway runs right through a bunch of little towns all of which have people selling goods on the side of the road and general chaos. A few nervous moments here and there but mostly just very interesting to see. Willie wanted to buy a chicken but we decided against it.

Tonight is our last night of traveling. We have an easy 3 hour drive to our final hotel - Zulu Nyala - where we will stay for the next 6 nights. We are a little road weary and are looking forward to staying in one place for a while. At this point we have driven about 1300 miles around the coast. It has been incredible! We are greatly looking forward to seeing the safari animals now though! The landscape has gotten less foresty and considerably warmer as we head north. Hopefully the rain will stop tomorrow.

I have a list of hilarious observations that I am going to include in an entry tomorrow. For now I am going to enjoy a hot water shower, some dinner and sleeping in tomorrow morning!

Animal count for the last two days:
Cows
Bulls
Sheep
Donkeys
Monkeys
Pigs
Horses
Dogs (one was standing on a roof)
2 cats
Chickens and roosters
Goats
Ostriches

A relaxing drive

Today was a nice and calm day. We slept in a bit and enjoyed the beautiful view from our little cottage. We left Oudtshoorn around 8am and stopped about two hours later in Knysna for a late breakfast with our friends Chris and Lucia, their son and his friend. We went to a beautiful place that overlooked an inlet where the ocean fed into a river. Their puppy also made an appearance! It was great to spend some time with people we knew.

Today's drive took us back to the shore and out of the western cape and into the eastern cape. The landscape was surprisingly foresty with tons of pine trees. After we left Knynsa we made an impromptu stop at the worlds tallest bungy jump. For once, it was an activity that we both agreed we didn't want to try. They jump off of a huge single span arch bridge and fall 600 feet. No thanks! It was a beautiful outlook though and there were some fun shops.

Our drive took us into Port Elizabeth which reminds me a lot of Long Beach, CA. We are staying next to the board walk and a casino. Not really our scene though. We had a nice dinner and are going to watch a movie and call it a night. We have a very early start tomorrow - the recent rains caused a sink hole in the route we are taking so we may hit some delays. Our next stop is on the wild coast about an hour past East London. It is supposed to be a beautiful and very natural place - we are excited to see it!

Not a huge day for animals but we were successful in some more monkey sightings!!

Animal count for today:
Cows
Bulls
Ostriches
Baboons
A little monkey jumping from the side of the road who was really cute
Sheep
One really cute puppy
Horses

Ostriches and caves

We had another incredibly fun day here today. We took off from Gansbaai around 6am after getting some amazing farewell breaching from our whale friends while we were eating breakfast. Looked like it was straight out of a nature film and was so loud we could hear it through the windows. No pictures though - we tried but it was too tough to get a good shot. Our drive took us inland through miles (kilometers) of rolling farmlands with the mountains as a backdrop. After 2 hours or so we reached the mountains and went through some spectacular passes. We finally saw the elusive baboons! They were running along the side of the road on one of the curves and one was climbing the mountain side. He looked at me. We locked eyes.

After recovering from nearly crashing the car while yelling, 'Baboons! Baboons! Look! Baboons!', we left the mountains and made it to the valley where Oudtshoorn is. We made good time so we stopped for an ostrich tour first. It. Was. Awesome. They let us hold baby ostriches and feed some of the big ones. And yes - I fulfilled my dream of riding an fully grown ostrich. I also fulfilled Willie's dream by falling off of it much to the amusement of the rest of our tour group. Those big birds are freaking fast. And extremely simple minded. After the 1 other person ridiculous enough to ride one them got their turn, Willie got an Ostrich 'neck massage' which basically consisted of holding a bucket of food while multiple birds attacked it over your shoulders.
Seriously - who knew ostriches could be that hilarious?

We finally stopped laughing long enough to finish the tour and headed 25 minutes up the road to the Cango Caves. This was an unbelievable experience. We opted for the 'adventure tour' which takes you on a 90 minute walk/shimmy/crawl through the cave system. The formations were breathtaking and the adventure part of it probably wouldn't fly in America without some significant waivers, proof of insurance, promise of first born child, etc. Here though - nothing but the purchase of the ticket. Check out of the pictures below. There were spaces that you actually had to army crawl through. Not for the claustrophobic or faint of heart. By the time you finish you are filthy from crawling around and from the 85% humidity. It was so fun though.

It was a big day for animals today!

Animal count:
Cows
Sheep
Goats
Ostriches
Baboons
Rabbits (on a rabbit farm)
2 zebras (as a teaser near the entrance of an animal park)
Deer
Some weird turkey birds that run across the roads while I am driving
3 camels (part of a tourist attraction)
2 Emu

We are staying on a farm outside of town tonight and have our own little cottage. Too bad it is cloudy tonight - I can't even imagine how amazing the stars must look on a clear night. Tomorrow is a nice down day. We have a 6 hour drive into Port Elizabeth and are staying in a hotel on the beach. Nothing planned beside for some lounging by the pool!

PS Ostrich is delicious - I had it for lunch and dinner. It tastes just like steak!

SHARKS SHARKS WHALES

Today was incredible from start to finish. We took off from Cape Town at 530am to head down through Hermanus to Gansbaai about 2 hours away. The road took us up and down through huge mountains and the vinyards. It was a little culture shock going through all the shanty towns on the outskirts of Cape Town though. Everyone was lining the sides of the roads hitch hiking their way into town for work. I can't imagine how many people get hit on the roads over here.

We arrived at the shark place around 8am and spent an hour eating lunch and getting briefed on the boat and safety information. The whole organization was very professional and they definitely had their stuff together. They launch all of the boats with a tractor every time they use them; there are no docks where you take off from. The ride out was about a half hour and it was clear as can be, a little cold with building winds.

We anchored just outside the reef; it was interesting how they did it. Since the wind builds every day, they actually anchor and run lines from both the bow and the stern so the boat sits beam to the wind and waves. They can then affix the cage to the leeward side of the boat. I'd like to take a moment to thank Carrier for 5 years of vomit comet training. I would guess that 30% of the people out there lost their free breakfast. Once we settled they started chumming the water with a sardine mixture and some giant fish heads. Cue more puking.

After about 20 minutes the first shark came by and then another 4 within 10 minutes. They put us in the cage 8 at a time and I went with the second group. Willie opted to stay onboard. Feel free to tease him on our return. Not going to lie - it was freezing cold and super choppy so when I first got in, it was spooky. Not to mention that while I was still trying to find the bar to hold onto, the attack of the day came and the damn shark chased the bait right up onto the cage! Too bad I wasn't ready with the camera for that one but you can see from below we managed some great shots.

They kept us out there until half the boat was prone on the deck in agony and all the sandwiches were free for the picking for the few of us still standing. We hit the launch around 1230pm and they drove the boat right onto the trailer and out of the water. Totally worth every penny and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Once we got our stuff together we went to the guest house we are staying at tonight. There were whale watching signs along the road but we didn't really know what they meant until we turned onto the road to our hotel and saw whales right out of our car window. Right there off the shore. A whole bunch of southern right whales just flipping around and slapping their fins on the water and making blow hole sounds. Unreal. We finally finished driving the block to the house to find one of the most beautiful places ever. Wrap around windows looking right at the sea. As in, we checked in while we were looking at whales. Our room is on the sea side and we can hear the whales flopping about and breathing right from bed!

Animal count for today:
Cows
Sharks
Southern right whales
4 dogs; one taking himself for a walk
1 white rabbit (no pocket watch; on time)

Tomorrow we head inland to Oudtshoorn for some spelunking and ostrich riding. That may be the only time that I will ever be able to say that sentence!

Another beautiful day...

After an interesting night with some gulls/pterodactyls who were having a serious disagreement outside our window, we had another stunningly pretty day today down here and investigated the Victoria Wharf. It was kind of like the Navy Pier of Cape Town but since it is made for tourists, we enjoyed it thoroughly. After successfully navigating 4 roundabouts and an underground parking structure we went through the mall. We should have known as we passed the Maserati on the way in that it was out of our league. After Willie picked out a painting that was 120,000 Rand we decided it was best to go outside where we couldn't knock anything over.

The whole wharf area has a ton of fishing boats and charter catamarans and other types of vessels. We found the place that advertised the whale watching that we had decided to do today but there wasn't enough people to run the tour. The tour guy tried extremely hard to persuade us to go on the hour and a half sail on the mini schooner replica with orange sails but we turned him down. His argument that we would love the authentic sailing experience on a real ship didn't go so well.

We opted instead for a ride on a motor catamaran that took us outside the harbor and south down the coast a little. The view of the city with the mountains was worth it. We also it got see Robbens Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 19 years. On the way in the local pirate ship chased us in. One of us was very excited to get his picture taken with it!

After we got back to shore we visited the Two Oceans Aquarium just in time for the afternoon feeding of some extremely large fish and ragged-tooth sharks. I also got to stick my head inside a HUGE tank full of Nemos! Not actually in the water - the tank was cylindrical on the bottom and if you crawled under it you could pop up inside. Pretty sure it was for kids. Willie wouldn't do it. He is more adverse to pushing little kids out of the way than I am.

It was so nice out that we opted to have dinner down there and went with the local fish platter. Pretty delicious. Couldn't beat the ambiance either - there were street performers everyone. There is a picture below. Not exactly the kind of drumming you hear outside Wrigley Field.

Tomorrow is SHARK DAY! We leave early in the morning and head 2 hours down the coast to Gansbaai. We will spend the morning on the shark boat where I will get in the water and be awesome and Willie will take pictures from the safety of the top deck.

Animal count for today:

4 seals in the harbor
A cat walking around the roof of the building next door
100+ gulls/pterodactyls
Tons of fish swimming in tanks
3 penguins swimming in the sea

On to the sharks!!

An accidentally successful day!

Willie and I are safe and sound in Cape Town. The flights were extremely long but high five to KLM - nice TVs in the backs of all the seats with a ton of movies and tv to choose from. Had to do some smooth maneuvering to get seats together on the second flight but luckily I am good at standing next to a row of empty seats looking busy until everyone else has gone to their assigned seats. Whole row to ourselves! We landed around 10pm and were through customs and in our rental car by 11ish. After a few wrong turns we made it to our hotel and straight to bed.

We opted to sleep in a little this morning; we purposely planned very little for our two days in Cape Town just in case the trip here was tougher than expected. We headed over to Camps Beach and had a ridiculously good lunch at one of the restaurants on the beach. We then went up to ride the cable car that runs up Table Mountain. Would you believe that it is closed today and tomorrow due to gale forced winds?! It was pretty much the main thing on our list to do here.
We decided to drive down the peninsula instead and visit the Cape of Good Hope (also on our list). IT WAS AWESOME! The view from the road was insane - cliffs almost the whole way and crazy windy (both pronunciations). We even saw some antelope on the side of the road right by the cape point. We hiked up to the lighthouse and it was a stunning view. Probably blowing a steady 40 knots though! Unfortunately, despite signs everywhere warning you to watch out for baboons, we didn't see any. I think I smelled some though.

On the way back from the cape we stopped and saw the African penguins. This was the other thing on our Cape Town list and we ended up driving right past it! They were really cute. One had wandered onto the street and was hiding under a curb.

We ended the night with a good dinner on the beach and watched the sunset. Needless to say, a very good first day!

Animal count for today:
Horses
Giant black roosters
Eland (antelopes)
Some birds that looked like ptarmigan
Penguins
A lizard with a broken tail
A dead fuzzy caterpillar
African pigeons that look just like American pigeons

Hoping to get out in a boat tomorrow to so some seafaring and visit the cape fur seals.

Here we go!

We have successfully made it to the gate in the airport. After a full morning of trying to get all the last minute stuff done, I am sure we will remember what we forgot when we board. We have an 8 hour flight to Amsterdam, a three hour layover and then an 11.5 hour flight into Cape Town. Competition is fierce in terminal 5 right now for wall outlets. I am going to head out on the hunt for power. Hopefully I am successful. Otherwise Willie and I are going to be playing a lot of games of rock-paper-scissors. He always picks rock. It's not that fun.

2 more days...

I can't believe it is only 2 more days until we leave for our trip.  I have been busy printing up all of the hotel, flight and excursion confirmations as well as maps to everything from every possible location we might end up.  Since we are renting a car, I feel it is not a good idea to wait until we are lost to try and get a map.  I also printed all of our vaccinations.  And made copies of our passports. And our credit cards.  And printed all of the recommendations to follow when visiting South Africa as published by the Bureau of Consular Affairs.  Apparently putting it all in a binder with a picture of a lion on it and naming it 'Willie and Lynn's Excellent African Adventure' was over the top.  I'll agree that typed section dividers were a little much but I have a feeling we won't be thinking that when baboons use their human like hands to open the car door and steal our GPS.  No monkey is going to outsmart me.

I feel like Danny Tanner from Full House when he made the clipboard of fun for their trip to Hawaii and everyone made fun of him.

Welcome

I thought long and hard about how to make everyone jealous of my imminent awesome adventure and figured that writing about it and posting pictures would be the most efficient way.  And since I can't concentrate on ANYTHING else I thought I would get started.

For those of you who weren't there or received a phone call that night, Willie and I attended the annual Columbia Yacht Club Junior Program auction in May of 2011.  The event was amazing, particularly the food and delicious beverages.  As the auction was nearing the bid deadline, we decided to browse the tables one last time to see if there was anything we really wanted to bid on.   Our bidding process went something like this...

Me:  Wow honey, look at this!  It's for 6 nights in some place called Zulu Nyala in South Africa!!  Can you even imagine going to Africa?!

Willie:  Not really.  No one else has either - look, no one has bidded on it.

Me (half kidding):  We should bid on it.

Willie:  I don't know, you think so? 

Me (recognizing an open door when I see one):  Oh my gosh - YES we should DEFINITELY bid on it.

Willie:  I don't know.  I mean, maybe.

Me (getting excited):  Wait, what do you mean?  No or maybe or yes?  The auction closes in 2 minutes.

Willie:  I don't know, I mean it might be fun.  It is kind of expensive.

Me (now very excited):  Yeah but it is such a good deal AND it helps the junior program!!!  We should do it!!!  

Willie:  I don't know.  You think?

Me (blinded with excitement):  Yes!!! Let's do it!!  We only have 15 seconds left to put our name down!!!!!

What I THINK Willie says:  Ok, let's do it.

What Willie ACTUALLY says:  I don't know.  I mean, maybe. 

Well, it was too late at that point.  I had already furiously scribbled our auction number and an amount for $10 over the minimum bid.  The auction closed and we were going to South Africa!  Well, more specifically, after some marital discussions and a few big glasses of water the next morning, we really were going to South Africa!

So, here we are now 17 months later and getting ready to leave next Sunday for 16 days of travelling and visiting the coast of South Africa.  It has been a daunting challenge to plan the trip - there was a lot that I didn't know about Africa.  Like anything, to be more specific.  Did you know that there are huge ostrich farms outside of Cape Town?  Or that they are located in a town named Oudtshoorn?  Or that Oudtshoorn is pronounced 'oats-horn'?

After a lot of internet browsing, trip advisor reviews and some hard decisions on what thing we were going to cut out, we are pretty set with our itinerary.

Here it is!