Day 1 – Hout Bay, Cape Town – December 23
Our flight from Namibia landed 20 minutes early and it was smooth sailing through immigration, getting our luggage, and picking up the rental car. The drivers here seem even crazier than in Namibia, but it could just be because there were so many more cars on the road. Cape Town is beautiful. It’s located out on a little peninsula and surrounded by gorgeous mountains.
We found our Airbnb and our host’s mother, an 86-year-old woman, who showed us around. She is from this area and said her family owned one of the original 5 farms before Cape Town exploded into what we see today. She made a few vaguely racist and extremely conservative comments, happy to know we were good Christian folk, then was on her way. Welcome to South Africa! The house is very cute with a full kitchen and just about anything Ryan could dream of using. We next headed to the grocery store hoping to beat the crowds on Christmas Eve. We settled on another Spar, the same brand we’d used throughout Namibia, and the neighboring liquor store Tops. There are so many great South African wines available for cheap.
Back at the house we popped a few bottles and sat on the back porch enjoying gorgeous views of the mountains. The weather is pretty nice, maybe in the low 80s, so we drank and lounged. For dinner Ryan made us chicken and potatoes in a Thai chili sauce. We baked some Christmas cookies, nothing fancy like we’d do if we were home, but you can’t have Christmas without cookies!
Day 2 – Hout Bay, Cape Town – December 24
Christmas Eve in the Southern Hemisphere. We decided to indulge in our locale completely by beginning with a walk to the beach, only about 7 minutes from our house. Since we are surrounded by mountains rising up out of the sea, the clouds are incredible. You’ll be able to see one peak, but the peak next to it will be shrouded in clouds. Half the beach was in sun and half the beach was in shade, and all the sky activity was constantly changing and fast.
There were huge piles of sea weed on the beach as well. We’d never seen seaweed like this before, they were long thick tube-like pieces. More like seabushes. We noticed dogs are allowed on this beach and you could see them running all around as happy as can be with a huge seaweed tube in their mouth.
At the edge of the beach we found the surfer hangout. We watched for a while deciding they weren’t actually surfing but were doing some weird amalgamation of boogie boarding. Their boards were long and thick with lots of handholds along the side. Everyone was wearing wet suits so it must be pretty cold out there.
We walked through town stopping in a few shops and finally up to the catholic church. Again, they didn’t have a website or indication of their service times but we found a piece of paper taped to the outside gate. Our final errand was returning to the supermarket to pick up more wine, we’d dipped a little further into our stash the night before than we intended. It was an absolute madhouse with everyone getting their last-minute Christmas items – thank God we did the bulk of our shopping yesterday.
We lounged about at the house all afternoon until we walked to our Christmas Eve dinner reservations at 6:30. In true Ryan and Elizabeth fashion we ate at The Indian Oven. Our waiter was very friendly and reminded us of American waitstaff, what a refreshing change of pace. We got prawn samosas to start and Elizabeth got a lemonade and passionfruit vodka cocktail and Ryan enjoyed some South African beer called Castle. For the main course we shared malai kofta in a korma sauce, lamb tikka masala and a paneer dish from Ryan’s Indian cookbook. Because it’s a celebration we got both naan and paratha, you can never have too much bread. Everything tasted delicious and we stuffed ourselves. We enjoyed chai tea and rice pudding for dessert after shifting in our chairs and making room.
Day 3 – Hout Bay, Cape Town – December 25
Poor Ryan woke up with stomach cramps Christmas morning. He braved it to the 10:30 church service, about a 10 to 15-minute walk from the house. The service was in a small house-like church with just 10 pews on either side; we were jammed in like sardines. The choir was rambunctious and overall it was a quintessential African service. We enjoyed it. As we walked back towards the house we had to jog and hide under trees between the intermittent downpours.
It rained most of the day so we lounged and read our books. Around 4, poor Ryan, still feeling sickly, began cooking our Christmas dinner of beef wellington. Elizabeth must have diced 30 mushrooms. We (Elizabeth) drank lots of wine and listened to Christmas music while chef Ryan constructed the meat and pastry roll. Our sides included mashed potatoes and a red wine gravy. Everything tasted incredible.
Day 4 – Simon’s Town, Cape Town – December 26
We woke up lazily and slowly cleaned up the kitchen nightmare from the night before while snacking on egg dish casserole. Our checkout time was 11 and we intended to spend every minute we could in the Airbnb before we had to leave. After packing up all our stuff, we had basically exploded our backpacks across the house so it wasn’t a small task, we got in the car and took a scenic drive through Chapman’s Peak on our way to our next stop in Simon’s Town. We were stunned by the beautiful views as we followed a roadcut along sheer sandstone cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
We were making a stop along the way at the Scone Shack to meet our rock-climbing guide, and to enjoy some homemade scones and tea! We were so excited to climb with Tony, as he literally wrote the books on rock climbing in South Africa. He was older, probably in his late 50s and had the hippy climber aura about him. His wife joined us and we chatted about our trip and what to expect the next day. The Shack was an adorable little plot of land in the middle of nowhere with all manner of little shacks and lawn knick-knacks straight out of Chip and Joanna Gaines’ catalog. We got our tea and scones and had to fight the baby chicks off as they climbed all over us and tried to eat our food. We learned we are going to do trad climbing, which involves setting your own equipment as you climb up the rock face which we’d both never done before. We bade them farewell and left to check in at our next lodging. Where they’ll have porcupines! Our host is a lovely local family who rents out their stylishly furnished guesthouse. We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging around, reading our books. When Elizabeth got stir crazy, we popped over to Boulder Beach to see the penguins for free from the scenic walk.
Day 5 – Simon’s Town, Cape Town – December 27
We woke up bright and early planning on rock climbing, but got a text from our guide at 5:44 (right as we were pulling out of the drive way) saying he didn’t think conditions were safe, especially not for two newcomers to trad climbing. So, disappointed, we turned around and put ourselves back in bed. Sleep didn’t come to us as we browsed the internet and read our books for a couple of hours, waiting for the local restaurants to open for breakfast. Eventually they did and we strolled into town, enjoying the coastal views and brisk, morning winds. After having a fantastic breakfast, we walked to an ice cream parlor down the road and each got a cone. Elizabeth mint chocolate chip and Ryan plain chocolate. It’s summer here, don’t judge. We gobbled down our ice cream, while sitting on the quay watching the waves crash into the beach enjoying the salty breeze and the warm sun. Simon’s Town is a really cute, quaint beach town sitting on the eastern side of the Western Cape peninsula.
We made our way back to the Airbnb to lay down after such a feast, telling ourselves we would go for a run very soon. After a couple of hours lazing in the guesthouse Elizabeth actually did go for a run while Ryan worked on the blog and continued to read his book. He just restarted his favorite book series and it was like pulling teeth getting him to focus on something else. We settled down for bed around 8:30 waiting for our nightly porcupine visitation. This time the big daddy came by, and he is huge with his mane of quills. It was absolutely adorable to see him hunker down on his elbows and scarf food down. Each night the owners put out leftover vegetables and corn kernels to attract the wild animals.
Day 6 – Cape Town – December 28
We woke up with the bright African sun at 6:45 and packed up to leave by 9 for our next Airbnb in Cape Town. Our friends Mike and Susie from Houston were coming to visit us for a couple of weeks. We are so excited to have some more visitors. We decided to drive on the eastern side of Table Mountain this morning to save a little time and rand. Definitely not as scenic as the western side, but still pretty. Upon arrival, we got the Airbnb walkthrough from our host’s roommate and he was so friendly. We think everyone in Cape Town is. He let us know the light in the kitchen that doesn’t work, the lights in the downstairs hallway don’t work, and the lights in the upstairs hallway don’t work, but we have a great kitchen, patio, a bunch of bedrooms and all sorts of artwork. After he left, we noticed that we couldn’t find any laundry detergent or dishwashing soap or a kitchen knife, so we asked them where they were and they went out and bought them for us.
We intended on exploring the town a bit and walking to the beach, but somehow, we ended up staying in, drinking champagne, and eating leftovers in front of a Friends marathon all day. We did some laundry too, so it wasn’t a total waste of a day. Mike and Susie landed around 9 pm so after picking them up we drank a bottle of wine and caught up on each other’s lives. They were extremely jet-lagged and acted like total troopers hanging out with us for a few hours. They had been traveling for over 33 hours, on little more than 5 hours of sleep, but managed to put coherent sentences together. Before midnight we called it and hit the hay.
Day 7 – Cape Town – December 29
Everyone woke up surprisingly early, so we ate breakfast at a neat little restaurant down the road, Bootlegger Coffee, a little before 9 am. It would have fit in perfectly in the Houston Heights; great for Ryan and Elizabeth, but not exactly the exotic vacation we think Mike and Susie were looking for. After finishing up breakfast we went back to the Airbnb and cleaned up. We had decided to follow our host’s advice to walk down the promenade along the beaches of Cape Town to Camp’s Bay. It’s a 7 km stretch of waterfront property full of condos, restaurants, beaches, and bars. We took to our feet and enjoyed the magnificent ocean breeze and mountain views as we walked up the coast. After learning a bit about the geology through a South African Geological Society plaque, and the collective use of our geology degrees, we decided it was time for our first bar stop of the day at a place called Stepbrothers that we found through our good friend Google. We were told by our host that we would pass by a series of bars and restaurants, but what we didn’t know was that they are all a couple blocks off of our promenade path. So, we wandered far longer than we anticipated looking for our first stop. After arriving at a fancy-looking bar with a great patio, we ordered a bottle of prosecco and some orange juice for mimosas. The staff looked at us like we had two heads when we ordered the mimosas, and the juice they brought out was half green with weird, frothy pulp. Regardless, we were excited to be reunited and raised a glass to our friends.
After finishing our drinks, we sauntered onto the famous row of beaches suggested to us, so we could find a nice, sandy spot to relax. They were named Clifton Beach 1, 2, 3, and 4. According to our inside information, each beach had a different vibe with the final location being the muscle beach. We of course headed straight for that one. To be honest, the beachgoers all looked pretty similar to us, and the beaches did too. They were all spectacular strips of soft, white sand separated by dark outcrops of rock with gorgeous clear blue water.
The boys swam in the icy water and eventually we headed towards the restaurants to grab a late lunch. We settled on a place called Tiger’s Milk that had alleged Tex-Mex. We drank beers and enjoyed nachos then burgers and fish tacos. We couldn’t stay out too late since our shark dive company was picking us up at 3 am the next morning. We piled in an Uber back, which took a while with all the beach traffic. Back at home we bought some snacks and alcohol at the Spar then spent the evening hammering out our NYE plans.
Day 8 – Cape Town – December 30
Our chauffeur arrived dark and early at 3:10 am sharp. We were sharing a bus with 5 other groggy passengers in what looked like a classic South African mini-bus. Basically, just a 12-passenger van. We rode in silence and attempted to sleep, with varying degrees of success. Around 6 am we rolled up to Gansbaai and met a painfully chipper receptionist at the Great White Shark Dive company who made us sign our lives away in return for a couple hundred dollars and a continental breakfast. We ate toast, drank coffee and took some Dramamine. We were ready for the sharks.
After an introductory video and some safety instructions (which included them assuring us the cage would float and not to panic when the locked it behind us), we were herded onto a 35-foot boat and drove out into the ocean. It was fairly calm seas as we rode out. We managed to grab seats on the upper deck of the boat and enjoyed great views, cloudy skies, and the flocks of seagulls following us. Before we knew it, we were dropping anchor and the staff was giving us a brief rundown of what to expect. The guide didn’t finish his first sentence before we saw a few bronze whalers swimming around the boat. It looked like we weren’t going home empty handed! They started chumming the water with dead salmon, while instructing us to don our wetsuits.
The four of us were in the second group to jump into the cage. They let us know that under no circumstances were we to stick any hands, feet, or cameras out of the cage for any reason. If we were to, and if they think we did it on purpose, they would yank us out of the cage for the day, because these are wild and dangerous animals. Not sure why some people need that reminder. After climbing into the cage, they lined us up and started chumming the water some more, but they didn’t need to. We were surrounded by sharks. At least 20 sharks were swimming in circles around us, getting within inches of our faces. Before we knew it, they were calling us out and putting the third group in. It was spectacular. Luckily for us the sharks were extremely active and we actually got to enter the cage a second time. We took some great videos and dozens of photos. A seal even swam by at one point, but had the good sense not to get too close to the sharks.
Unfortunately, we never caught a glimpse of a great white. It turns out that the global demand (see China’s demand) for shark fin soup was having an effect on the local shark populations. The large whalers and whites aren’t being hunted by law, but a number of the smaller species are harvested to supply the hungry appetites certain populations, and those smaller ones are the primary diet of the great white shark. After returning to dock, they fed us lasagna and salad then showed us a video they took of us that day. We then loaded into the van at 9:45 am to head back to Cape Town. By half past noon we were back in the apartment getting cleaned up for our afternoon plans. We were going to shop at the Pan-African Market and head to a local winery or two.
We drove downtown and checked out the shops, sadly the Pan-African Market had actually closed, but there were other shops that sold local hand-made goods and art. Susie bought a beautiful salad bowl and a hippo ashtray. She says she’s going to use to hold her cooking spoons. Mike bought a couple of hand-carved meerkat statues while we left empty-handed. This just isn’t our trip for souvenirs. Next, we drove to High Constantia, a gorgeous series of vineyards and estates in the foothills of Table Mountain. We stopped by High Constantia and Constantia Glen to have a couple of tastings and dinner. We decided by vote that Constantia Glen was by and far better. Rating wineries would become a theme for the weekend. The wine was really good and the food was delicious. We even got a room to ourselves with leather armchairs. We drove home and called it an early night.
Day 9 – Cape Town – December 31
The girls were up early, Elizabeth jogged around the promenade and Susie got coffee. Michael made us breakfast from all our leftover potatoes, egg, and sausage from Christmas. The house didn’t have any seasoning besides our salted butter and some mustard. He did his best. After filling up we left the house and drove the hour back down to Simon’s Town so they could see the penguins. They aren’t as stingy as we are, so Elizabeth also paid the $10 to walk down close to the birds and Ryan went to the public beach.
It was a super windy day and the sand was whipped in our face and actually burned our skin a little. We could go to two areas, the first a cove with penguins on the rocks and the second you stay on the boardwalk and overlook the huge flocks. Some of the penguins were molting so that was cute to see. The African penguin is on the verge of extinction and can be found along the coast of South Africa and Namibia. The penguin’s population fell due to all the overfishing in False Bay removing their food source, similar to the great white shark.
Next, we piled back in the car and took the long scenic route home along the coast through Chapman’s point. These are the same overlooks we saw when leaving Hout Bay, but today it was sunny and beautiful. We stopped a few times at the various pull outs to snap a few pictures and miraculously stayed a few steps ahead of the huge crowd of cars behind us.
For lunch we stopped in Hout Bay at a famous fish and chips restaurant called Fish on the Rocks. You order at the counter then sit at one of the picnic tables outside. Ryan got the yellowtail and Elizabeth the calamari; for not being in the UK, it was pretty good.
After lunch we stopped at a brewery just down the road to have our first NYE drink. We sat outside in the sun and wind and headed back to the house around 4 pm. At the house, we all got ready for our EDM concert night. Electronic Dance Music is very popular in Cape Town and they have a bunch of festivals on NYE. We settled on one called Secrets of Summer on a golf course right in town. We arrived and got our VIP wrist bands and following the thump thump thump of the distant music.
Our bracelets were preloaded with 250 rand or roughly 37 dollars and the drinks were quite reasonably priced. Our bracelets would get us about 10 beers each. We found our VIP tent and grabbed our first round of beers and vodka red bulls. There were three different stages to choose from. We wandered through the grounds and it didn’t take long for the alcohol to help us find the beat. It was so windy but before the sun set it wasn’t too cold. We danced and danced and danced and drank from 5:30 to 10:30. We decided to leave before midnight since it was chilly and we had emptied our wrist bracelets. None of us were huge EDM fans, but it was a great time nonetheless.
We stopped by the Airbnb to change quickly then headed to the V&A Waterfront area to grab some champagne and wait for the firework show. The place was packed. We wandered for a long time past full restaurants and bars. Eventually we found a fancy outdoor food court and got a couple of bottles of champagne, some lamb wraps, and pastries to enjoy on the picnic tables outside. We watched the fireworks go off then we went home. We attempted to play games back at the house but drunk Ryan and Susie wouldn’t stop arguing about rules. Elizabeth went to bed, followed by Susie then Mike and Ryan stayed up till 3:30 reminiscing about field camp and general shenanigans at Texas A&M. We’d say we successfully bid adieu to 2019 and welcomed 2020.
Day 10 – Cape Town – January 1
Morning came entirely too early for the group. We had grand plans to grab an early breakfast and hike Table Mountain by 8 am. The revelry from the night before took its toll though and instead we struggled to breakfast 9 at a nearby diner, which was perfectly stylized in American 50s chic. We all appreciated the greasy spoon cuisine and almost felt alive again. We decided that we needed a little more time to recuperate before going hiking, so we rested at the Airbnb for a few hours. Ryan napped heavily, while the girls went for a walk.
Around 3 pm we decided we had the strength the get in the car and go see Table Mountain, but we were going to take the cable car up instead. We arrived and had to park about halfway down the mountain. It’s all street parking along the single road leading to the top. When we arrived, the lines looked daunting. Luckily, the waiting area was shaded, so we ate ice cream bars and people watched to pass the time. It took about an hour and a half to get through the line and onto the cable car. The ride was beautiful and the car had a rotating platform so you spun around the windows as you went up, it was less than a 5-minute journey to the peak.
At the top it was much chillier, luckily, we brought jackets. We had decided a couple people would hold a place in line for the ride down and then the others could peel off to enjoy the views. So, we walked and walked and walked and finally found the end of the line. It looked longer than the line to get up. We decided we would hike down instead, even though most of us didn’t have proper footwear.
The views from the top were incredible. It was like something out of a fairytale with thick, rolling clouds pouring over the tops of grassy mountain ranges and steep cliffs, all towering above the clear waters of the South Atlantic. Around the other side of the peak there was an expansive view of Cape Town and its beautiful bay.
Finding the path back down was tricky. It was pretty foggy up top, and of course there wasn’t a lot of signage. Luckily the other people around us were also looking and shouted when they found the obscure trail. There were a ton a people hiking both up and down, it was pretty much 2 long miles of switchback rock stairs.
We were passed by African men wearing loafers and flip flops. The scenes down the mountain were also beautiful. Eventually, our knees and ankle joints began to ache from all the down hiking on hard rock. People told us it would take us an hour to get down. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize we parked about as far away from the trailhead as we could, so it took us nearly two hours and we had to walk almost 3 miles. We went back under the cable cars and got spit out right at the ticket office. We were all exhausted and really hungry as we’d only eaten ice cream and greasy breakfast hours ago.
We piled back in the car and headed towards the Airbnb in search of food, unsure what would be open on New Year’s Day. We found an Indian tapas place called Sundoo and gorged ourselves on curry, biryani and samosas. We headed home and packed up for our 8 am departure the next morning into wine country. We’ve loved our time in Cape Town.
Day 11 – Franschhoek – January 2
We got up at 7 to finish packing and clean up the Airbnb. Our host swung by at 8 to collect the keys and we were off to wine country. It was about an hour drive from Cape Town to Franschhoek. We dropped our car off at the Airbnb, which is located within the vineyards in an adorable cottage, then walked the 10 minutes into town and grabbed some pastries and coffee before finding our wine tram.
Michael had booked us tickets on a tram/bus/train system that would take us from winery to winery. We weren’t quite sure how it worked, but assumed someone could explain the complex time tables to us at some point. We arrived right at 11 and by the time we got our tickets we’d missed the first tram and got to take a private tram to the first winery Haute Cabriere.
Haute Cabriere had a fantastic view of the distant mountains. We sat out onside on a couch and sipped a tasting of champagne, white and red wines. The wine wasn’t delicious but the views were spectacular. The tasting was also super cheap, less than $10 per person for 5 full pours of wine.
We caught the next tram back to the station to board the wine train. We figured out the schedule and they tend to run about every 30 minutes. The train was adorable and we got a glass of wine as we enjoyed the top row and open windows as we cruised through the mountains and vineyards.
Our next stop was a winery called Rickety Bridge. We got off the train and loaded onto these trailers pulled behind tractors, and were pulled through the vineyards up towards the estate. Since we had made a reservation, we found our table set out on the porch under a huge tree overlooking the fields. We even saw helicopters flying around and dropping people off. We’ll do that wine tour when we have more money. The wine was delicious and we got a meat and cheese board to try to stay sober.
From Rickety Bridge we got back on the tram and headed to our next stop, Paserene. This winery was very modern looking and the building was shaped like a wine bottle. We started sitting outside by the pond, but the sun was up and hot so we moved inside. We got another flight and ordered some salmon, bread and beef jerky, or as they say, biltong. It was at this point that Elizabeth realized her phone was missing, and we figured it must have fallen out of her pocket at Rickety Bridge. We thought it was lost but when we called, they reported a tractor driver had found it at the edge of the wine field. What luck!
Our next stop was a winery called Leopard’s Leap. We were feeling pretty good from all the wine and we stood up at the counter to do our last tasting. This wine was absolutely delicious. The scenery, quality of wine, friendliness of staff and décor were quickly making this our favorite winery so far. South Africa has a signature type of grape called Pinotage unique to this region, and Leopard’s Leap makes a good bottle of it, so we all bought a few. Susie plans to fill a suitcase up and bring it back to Houston. To top it all off, apparently, there are even leopards that live up in the mountains behind the winery. Unfortunately, we didn’t catch a glimpse of any. Looks like we’ll have to wait and hope we see some in Kruger.
On the way back we stopped at Rickety Cricket to pick up Elizabeth’s lucky phone then took the wine tram back to the station. It really was an amazing spot by the wine staff; we spoke to the driver that found it and he said he managed to spot it in the dirt during one of his loops around the property. We ran home to change and drop off our purchases before heading to our last winery and dinner at Grande Provenance. The grounds at this winery were spectacular and packed full of art and sculptures. We arrived well before our reservation so we bought a bottle of wine and walked around the grounds enjoying all the views.
For dinner we got another bottle and enjoyed a delicious, if a bit slow, four-course meal each ranging from ostrich to oysters culminating in a cheese plate for dessert. We were stuffed to the rafters and ready for bed. We headed back to our farm homestead and slept soundly.
Day 12 – Stellenbosch – January 3
Everyone woke up at their leisure, struggling to varying degrees with the excessive amount of wine we drank the night before. Some people, namely Ryan, slept for as long as humanly possible, whereas some people, Mike, woke up to go for a jog. Elizabeth and Susie lounged and after groggily cleaning up and showering we prepared for our second day of wine country. We had a more relaxed schedule for the day, planning on visiting only a couple wineries. First things first, we drove from Franschhoek to Stellenbosch and dropped our car off at a new Airbnb before taking an Uber to Stark-Conde, our first winery of the day.
The Stark-Conde estate was gorgeous. Our tasting wasn’t scheduled until 11:15, so we decided to have breakfast at the onsite Postcard Café. The food was excellent and we ate full meals to prepare our bellies for more wine. Ryan ordered two dishes, one being a berry cobbler which he absolutely loved.
At 11:15 we headed down to do our tasting on the over-the-water gazebo. The wine tasting building was in the middle of a large pond complete with a wooden boardwalk wrapping the perimeter and surrounding hills where people were strolling and enjoying the day. We ordered two flights, one was their premium wine and the second were the high-altitude wines they grow higher up the mountains. The wines were outstanding, definitely the best we’d had so far.
We noticed in the distance some women lying on their stomachs looking in the shallows of the pond’s edge. They were talking with the staff who had brought them a pole and obviously looking for something. Eventually one of the women jumped in and started splashing around – the boys felt compelled to investigate. While they were gone other staff came over and we debated about what the lost item could be. When the boys came back to report, the whole staff wandered over to our table to hear the update.
Apparently, the teenage daughter had dropped the mom’s phone in the lake while walking along the boardwalk. It turned out to be her work phone and she was very upset to have lost it, when the daughter would complain about it being gross and get out of the water, her mother would yell at her to get back in and use her hands to search for it. It was entertaining enough to watch, so we ended up getting another bottle to share. The owner ended up coming down to check it out and told a few hilarious stories about other people dropping things in and her dad getting in his speedo to search for them. After their investigation, Mike and Ryan determined that the seaweed was so high and the sediment so thick, that there was no hope for the woman. She and her daughter took a while to give up though.
After a few hours at Stark Conde, we decided it was time to try another winery. We took an Uber over to Tokara Wine Estate. Tokara had beautiful views of the vineyard perched high up the side of a mountain. We again ordered a flight then realized how hungry we were. Unfortunately, the winery wasn’t serving any food, so we had to drink on empty stomachs.
We took another Uber back into downtown Stellenbosch and ended up having dinner at an Italian placed called Decameron Restaurant and Beer Garden. We’d had enough wine for the day and were happy to wash down our various pastas and sea food with a cold brew. After dinner we retreated to our Airbnb where we were sharing a large room with 4 twin beds. We fell asleep pretty early and were awoken at 2 am by drunken swimmers in the pool next to our room. They were loud and kept making the motion light outside our door light up, even after telling them we were trying to sleep their drunken “whispers” carried into our room.
Day 13 – Stellenbosch – January 4
The next morning, we went back downtown to breakfast at De Warenmarkt. Michael was beginning to feel uneasy, barely touching his breakfast, while Elizabeth and Susie devoured their waffles stuffed with meat, and covered in cheese. We returned home to drop the car off and Uber to our wine tasting at Waterford, while Michael decided he needed to stay home and rest his stomach.
The three of us headed to the beautiful Waterford Estate and sat out in the garden for our tasting. Michael had scheduled us the wine and chocolate pairing and we were very excited. We drank two white wines and one red wine first, then paired three chocolates with two more red wines and a dessert wine. The chocolate was delicious, but melted fast in the heat.
The previous day, when we were downtown, we tried to have dinner at a great looking place called the Fat Butcher. Unfortunately, they were fully booked, so we made reservations for lunch at 1 o’clock. We timed our drinking at the winery so we could Uber straight to lunch, Michael still not up to joining us. Lunch was delicious and we again sat out on the patio. Susie and Ryan shared the bone marrow appetizer, which looked disgusting to Elizabeth, but they said was good. Again, we sipped some beer and enjoyed risotto, a burger, and a steak.
After lunch we returned to the Airbnb to bring Michael some light food and make sure he was still alive. The TV in our room was playing a marathon of the Hobbit movies. We decided to all lie in bed and watched awhile, until the three of us again headed out for our evening wine tasting at Lanzerac Wine Estate. We enjoyed a premium flight out on their patio with sparkling, red, and white wines. We walked around the ground until our evening dinner reservation in their hotel kitchen.
Dinner was quite fancy and superbly delicious. We began with tuna tartare and scallops followed by main courses of seared seabass, poached salmon and roasted lamb. We couldn’t resist the crème brûlée for dessert, which came with edible flowers. All this was washed down with a delectable bottle of home-grown shiraz. When we got home, Michael looked a little better and we hoped a good night sleep would cure him.
Day 15 – Johannesburg – January 5
Everyone wished Elizabeth a happy 30th birthday in the morning. We headed back into downtown Stellenbosch one last time for breakfast downtown. The food was again delicious, not at all what we expected to be eating in Africa. A lot of these restaurants are pretty Westernized with delicious healthy omelet and yogurt options. After packing up the Airbnb we got in the car and drove the 40 minutes back to the Cape Town airport. We flew to Johannesburg for one night and the next day would be picked up for our safari in Kruger National Park.
After checking our bags and having a moment of panic when the airline couldn’t pull up Michael’s ticket and told him they didn’t have any more available for sale. Luckily, there were some seats still online open for purchase – one to be exact. Again, thanks to the Amex, we found a nice airport lounge with a delicious spread of food and drink for lunch. We didn’t realize the Sunday after New Year’s would be such a busy travel day and the airport and flight were packed. The flight lasted about 2 hours and was relatively smooth.
We had to wait 30 minutes for our bags to arrive on the belt. Susie had filled a small suitcase with 10 bottles of wine and we hoped they would survive unbroken (spoiler alert: on her flight back to Houston all but one made it home safe). Michael was finally feeling a little better and we grabbed an Uber to our AirBnB in the central business district of Johannesburg. Johannesburg is such a diverse city with a staggering wealth gap. There are groups of homeless people and shanty towns just blocks from prestigious, affluent neighborhoods. At times it felt a little sketchy driving through, but we agree it was good to be reminded of how good our lives are.
We dropped the luggage and took another Uber to a steakhouse for dinner. The restaurant was called The Butcher Shop & Grill and located in a posh area that looked identical to the suburbs of Houston, in particular The Woodlands. We got a bottle of wine and dinned on lamb and sausage before our main courses of grilled steak, ostrich and chicken. For birthday dessert we got a glass of South African port. The best part was when Ryan gave Elizabeth her birthday poem, a tradition since we first got together. We had an early morning the next day, getting picked up at the airport at 7:15 to begin the 5-hour drive to Kruger so we repacked our bags and went to bed. Thirty years old came and went and Elizabeth survived. There is no photo evidence that this day even occurred, so Elizabeth is most likely still 29.
Day 15 – Kruger National Park – January 6
Sleepy, we arrived at the Terminal A information desk promptly at 7:15 to find our guide. Susie did extensive research on safari options and in the end, we went with a company called Wild Wings Safari for a 5-day trek through Kruger National Park. Our guide was easy to spot in his drab green and gray safari clothes and sandals. His name was Simon and he led us out through the parking lot to a large mini-van with an attached trailer for luggage. In the van already was a sweet British couple, Sally and Paul, on vacation from Manchester. We stopped by another hotel on the way out of the city, the hotel looked exactly like Caesars Palace in Vegas, and picked up the final three passengers. Allie, Ellie, and Carrie are three friends from Pittsburg who were attending a friend’s wedding in Stellenbosch over New Year’s Eve.
We began the long drive north-east to Kruger. We chatted along the way, Sally and Paul own a catering business and the girls work as a meteorologist, physician’s assistant and in HR. We stopped after two hours at a rest area for morning snacks and coffee. This rest area had a big watering hole that attracted ostriches, zebras, several antelope, and rhinos. It was funny to watch Michael and Susie get so excited about ostrich and zebra; we’d seen so many in Namibia we were immune to it.
After a few more hours of driving we stopped at a large grocery store/outlet mall to get some more snacks before the final leg of the journey. Elizabeth got mozzarella balls and they tasted disgusting. The South Africans love cheese but have not quite figured out mozzarella. Finally, we made it to the park and stopped outside the grounds at a hotel to change cars. We piled into an open-air safari vehicle, basically a truck with three rows of seats in the bed and the cab roof cut open, then drove towards the gates.
On the bridge into the park, Simon stopped to give us the talk. Every safari is different, he can’t guarantee animals, nothing can be recreated, hopefully we’ll be lucky. And lucky we were. Right off the bat we saw herds of zebra, giraffes, impala, and kudu all along the side of the road. We learned that animals aren’t afraid of vehicles, they are used to them driving through, and the car acts like a type of camouflage, so the animals don’t realize there are humans inside. The second you step outside of the vehicle however; the animals can distinguish your smell from the diesel exhaust and your silhouette from the frame. And they scatter.
We drove on, the roads, a little bumpy from time to time, but relatively smooth. The sun was getting hot and a lot of the animals were lounging under trees, not really doing much. We saw our first hippo lounging in a small pond and were amazed at how large the animals are in real life. We are at the beginning of the wet season so there are plenty of ponds and pools of water around. Simon said the hippos don’t fight too much until the dry season, when everyone is forced into the river and they fight over territory.
Shortly after that we saw our first elephant. We saw lots of elephants in Namibia, but they hadn’t lost their novelty. They are just so huge, and close up we could see their long eyelashes and all the wrinkles on their skin. A lot of the elephants had holes in their ears and Simon called it “wear and tear” from constant flapping. We also learned that elephants can nap by leaning their heads against trees and using their tusks for balance.
We saw baboons, more antelope and more hippos; then, as we drove back towards camp, we came upon a huge group of cars stopped on the road. Sitting in the road watching a distant pack of impalas was a cheetah. It was beautiful and Ryan was bursting with excitement. Apparently, cheetahs are one of the hardest animals to find in Kruger and we’d only been there a couple of hours. We watched the cheetah on the road oblivious, until another car pointed it out, another cheetah passing into the grass next to our car.
Apparently, these cheetahs are brothers. Our guide, who is also a photographer with two huge cameras, got very excited and whipped a camera out. Next thing we knew, we were watching a hunt. It felt like being in the Discovery channel. The first cheetah stalked through the grass, with the impala oblivious to his presence, then struck like lightning, grabbing one by the neck, while the second attacked from the rear. It took less than 5 minutes for the cheetahs to bring the animal down, all in the grass less than 50 meters from our car. The kill was surprisingly clean and we didn’t much blood.
We couldn’t believe our luck! We hung around and watched as the cheetahs rested on top of their kill, exhausted and wary of other predators trying to steal the carcass. Cheetahs are the lowest on the totem pole of large cats, bullied by leopards and lions.
Finally, we drove off and not 10 minutes later saw three male lions. One even crossed the road in front of our car to join the other two under a tree. The lion looked very fierce and reminded us of Scar from the Lion King, you wouldn’t believe the number of Lion King references made over the course of the safari. I didn’t realize how unique lions look and how varied their manes can be. They looked like giant kittens rolling on their back with their paws in the air.
It was getting late and we needed to start heading back to camp at Skukuza. On the drive over we saw Cape buffalo and rhinos in the distance and more zebra, giraffes, elephants, warthogs and antelopes. We arrived at the camp, surrounded by tall electric fencing in the nick of time at 6:30. Simon dropped us off at the shop so we could browse and buy alcohol for dinner. The girls got a bottle of wine called the Big Five Reserve, in hopes it would bring us luck in seeing a leopard tomorrow – the only animal we were missing today. The Big Five are lion, hippo, elephant, leopard, and Cape buffalo. We were given our room keys and checked into surprisingly nice huts considering they were described as economical rooms, but they were complete with kitchens, bathrooms, and air conditioning. Quite the step up from our camping in Namibia.
At 7:30 we met at Simon’s personal camp for dinner. Since our group was so large, he hired out a private chef to cook us breakfast and dinner every day. When the groups are small, Simon cooks himself, but the meals aren’t nearly as elaborate (or as good we’d imagine). A long table with lanterns and a tablecloth was set up in the yard. Our chef John was a bubbly and enthusiastic cook with a kind personality. His food was incredible the entire trip, but Elizabeth thinks his first meal was his best. He made traditional South African bobotie which is primarily onions and garlic mixed with spiced ground beef covered with an egg/cream mixture then baked. It really was delicious. We had amazing sides and drank our wine getting to know our safari partners better. For dessert he made malva pudding which tasted like sugary heaven. He made sure we knew that if we only had one serving a piece, his food wouldn’t exceed a 2,000 calorie a day diet – fat chance of that happening. We stayed up until around 10:30 drinking and chatting but we tried to behave since we knew we were meeting at 4:30 the next morning for coffee then taking a morning drive. Since it’s summer here and the afternoons are unbearably hot with limited animal activity, our daily itineraries will consist of an early morning drive, resting at camp in the middle of the day, then a late afternoon to evening drive before dinner.
Day 16 – Kruger National Park – January 7
As planned, everyone arrived at 4:30 sharp for coffee and biscuits, then we were on safari by 5. If you’re staying in the park, the gates open at 4:30, but if you’re just a day visitor, you have to wait until 5:30 to get in. Simon hoped this would give us a chance to get out before the crowds. At this point we were a pretty chummy group with great comradery and teasing for the many false animal sightings that ensued. Giraffes look just like trees and rhinos remarkably like boulders. We made it back to the three male lions from the day before. They’d moved further in the distance but you could still see them, paws in the air. Ryan is getting quite practiced at taking photos on his phone through the binocular lens.
We saw the typical giraffes, zebras and antelopes – it’s incredible how quickly these animals become unexciting. Then while watching hippos in a watering hole, we saw our first spotted hyena (also spelled hyaena). He looked mean and fierce and now we completely understand why Disney chose him as Simba’s enemy. He walked along the bank, past the car, then into the forest.
We went to a second watering hole where we saw more hippos plus wildebeest and waterbuck antelope as we were pulling up. We were all focused on the hippo when suddenly Simon got really excited and pointed out a magnificent leopard on the far bank. The waterbucks held their ground, but kept their eyes on the leopard as he passed into a shady ravine nearby. Simon is a crafty driver and managed get us right outside the ravine when the leopard continued walking towards us and onto the road next to our car. The leopard walked along the road and we followed right behind him. Finally, he trotted across another ravine to lay below the trees. We thought that was the end of it and considered ourselves quite lucky.
There were over a dozen cars crowding the road when the leopard was walking along it, but they all left shortly after he returned to the trees. Simon suggested we wait a while. We were one of two cars left when two additional leopards, a female and an older cub, came out of the forest to interact with the male. There was some paw batting as the male let them know he wanted the younger cub off his territory but ultimately, they just laid down together. It’s rare to see a single leopard and we got to see three interacting together!
We went back to the lake to spend some more time looking at the animals around the water, since the leopard distracted us. We saw a pod of hippos in the water and the giant male was resting his head on top of the back of another hippo. A baby hippo was lounging off to the side and kept lifting his head up and yawning. It was adorable.
Simon took us to a lookout point where we could exit the vehicle and stretch our lets. We were on a giant chunk of granite and got a group photo of everyone but Sally and Paul, they had elected to do a bushwalk that morning, hopefully they won’t be too upset about missing the leopard action.
On our drive back towards camp for breakfast we spotted some plated lizards basking in the sun and dwarf mongoose which looked like little teddy bears. These mongooses live in termite mounds and they primarily feed on insects. Interesting tidbit, termite mounds have a chimney at the top that the termites open and close to regulate the temperature inside the mound.
When we arrived back at camp, John had breakfast waiting for us. We started with fruit, yogurt and muesli then transitioned to his hot breakfast of bacon, spicy beans and scrambled eggs. Before each meal, John explains what he made, how he made it, and why he thought the group would like it. We’re getting used to this sort of treatment. Around 11, when we were done with breakfast, we headed to our huts for a little nap. Our next game drive begins at 3 in the afternoon, so the intervening hours were spent lounging, napping, and enjoying the camp.
3 pm was still really hot, but we piled in the truck and headed into the park anyway. The first few hours were pretty unremarkable. We needed to see a rhino and a cape buffalo to complete our Big Five sighting for the day and Simon finally spotted a rhino and a calf out in the distance. Poaching is a huge problem in Kruger we learned; park officials estimate one rhino dies every day. As a result, we passed a lot of anti-poaching crews with dogs and guns, as well as several drones and helicopters flying overhead. This week is a full moon, which they call a poacher’s moon. He said one kilogram of ivory (specifically rhino ivory) sells for over 90k USD on the black market, primarily going to China for eastern medicinal uses. The guides often share all animal sightings around the park, except for rhino; sadly not all employees of Kruger are anti-poaching.
Our drive had been pretty uneventful until we came across our first parade (or reign) of elephants while crossing a dry riverbed. There were 15-20 elephants all coming down the bank into the riverbed and we could see them digging through the sand with their trunks to get to the water below. The best part was the baby elephants. Little calves were running around beneath the legs of their parents and rolling in the dirt. We got to watch them for about 15 minutes when suddenly all the elephants got up and began moving. Simon said they use low frequency vocals to communicate, and the alpha female must have given the command to get moving.
At the start of the safari, Simon gave us a little Kruger booklet that has 210 animals in it so we can identify and check off the animals you see. One hundred and fifty of those animals are birds. Simon is a big-time birder and he was happy to see us getting into bird identification, especially when we were having trouble finding big animals. A number of the birds in Kruger are iridescent and we quickly learned to identify the various species kingfisher, starling, dove, hornbill, sparrow, etc. One of our favorite birds was the woodlands kingfisher that has a beautiful blue color and a very distinct whistle.
On our drive back we finally saw a distant cape buffalo, closing out our Big Five for the day. We also saw a hippo out of the water grazing on grass as the sun set. That night for dinner John prepared a braai, or barbeque, very similar to what’s popular in Namibia. He says hosting a braai is like hosting an American barbeque and something parents teach their children. We ate a variety of grilled meats with pap, or cornmeal. Dessert was a delicious custard over sweet bread crackers. Since we’d had such good luck with or Big Five wine, Susie and Elizabeth finished half a bottle of wild dog wine hoping it’d bring them out the next day.
Day 17 – Kruger National Park – January 8
The next morning, we again met at 4:30 for coffee and tea then piled in the truck to beat the crowds into the park. Today would should have been called giraffe day. We saw them everywhere straight out of the park gates. We also saw another iridescent bird called the comb duck; the males have a large comb shaped beak.
We drove over to a watering hole where we finally saw a Nile crocodile up close. We were parked on a bridge with flowing water washing over it from the upper side of the dam to the river below. We watched the crocodile then were delighted to find a hippo right at eye level on the higher dam side.
The mornings could get a little chilly with the wind whipping around us, but luckily, Simon had a bag of blankets and we could cover ourselves up. We saw another majestic rhino in the distance laying down in a river bed. There are two types of rhinos in Kruger, white and black, but they are both a gray color. The white rhino’s original name referred to its wide mouth, but people misunderstood and called it the white rhino. When they found the other species, they naturally called it black. You can tell them apart by the shape of their mouth.
In the same riverbed we also saw our first giraffe fight. The males will fight over women and territory, swinging their long necks in wide arcs to hit each other. When they make contact, it looks intense but when they miss, it’s hilarious because they look like they are doing an interpretive dance. Apparently, they can hit each other so hard they can kill themselves or knock one another out. We hoped to see a double KO but weren’t that lucky.
As we headed back to camp, we spotted an adorable little klipspringer standing on the rock. These antelope walk on the tips of their hoofs so it looks like they are balancing on nothing. They jump from rock to rock and land perfectly on their toes. We arrived at camp and made our usual pre-dinner preparations. For breakfast, John made us meatballs and hard-boiled eggs along with our usual yoghurt and muesli. After finishing up our meal, we said good-bye to the three American girls; the second half of their safari was on a private game reserve. It was sad that they were leaving, but we now have so much more space in the car and everyone gets a window seat. Simon took them to the park entrance gate while we lounged along the river at the camp. The private game reserves are a lot more expensive to stay in than the national park. Therefore, we assumed they would have the best guides, but Simon shared with us that they actually pay their staff the least and that’s where a lot of guides who are just starting out go to train before they can transfer to the main park.
Since we are driving to a new camp, we couldn’t sleep through the hottest part of the day. We started our afternoon drive around 1 pm, heading up north towards a camp called Sakara. Simon received a report of a wild dog sighting, and we rushed over see if we could catch a glimpse. There were tons of cars parked along the side of the road in the tall grass, and we looked and looked until finally caught sight of an ear! A few cars mentioned they saw a whole pack down the road, so we rushed over hoping to get a glimpse, but didn’t make in time. Susie and Elizabeth blamed themselves for not finishing the whole bottle of wild dog wine and figured that’s why we only saw the ears.
The drive wasn’t too eventful in the first half. We’d begun to think we’d used up our luck on all the amazing sightings in our first couple days. Simon pulled us up to a large watering hole and there were no other cars around. Our luck hadn’t run out yet though; as we sat there more than 30 elephants came rushing out of the forest into the water. It was like a constant trickle of elephants, we kept seeing another five or so in the distance and could watch them run in.
We got to watch them spray and frolic, with the baby elephants rolling around under their mothers. We were paying so much attention to the elephants in front of us we didn’t even realize a large bull was grazing right behind our car. He couldn’t have been more than an arm’s reach away at times. We got to watch them alone for about 15 minutes before they all got up and headed back into the cover of the forest.
There were giraffes hanging out on the edge of the forest watching as the elephants splashed and played, and Susie was desperate to see one bend down and take a drink. Giraffes are most vulnerable when they’re drinking, so it takes a while for them to work up the courage to bend over. During the rain they can get water from the leaves, but when it’s drier they have to go to a watering hole like everyone else.
After a few false alarms, we finally got our wish and watched him spread his front legs wide and bed over. It was hilarious and totally worth the wait. After finishing his gulp he whipped his head back up and we caught the spray on the camera.
We were feeling pretty hungry and hot, so we stopped midafternoon to grab a bite at a rest area. On our way, we drove through herd after herd, or dazzle, of zebras and watched at least 20 cross the road in front of our car. The rest area, unlike the camps, didn’t have any fences and there was a group of elephants grazing right next to the woman’s restroom. We ate another jaffle, the same sandwich we’d had in Namibia, this time filled with bobotie, while Ryan ordered a pie with buffalo meat. We saw more starlings up close and caught a bunch of small antelope grazing about.
Feeling rested, we took off and found a few cars parked along the side of the road. They’d spotted a leopard lounging in a tree. We all pulled out our binoculars and watched as he moved from an awkward, almost human-like, seated position on a branch to a more regal perch further down the branch. We watched for a while, then were delighted to see him scamper down the tree and slink off into the tall grass.
Next, Simon took us to see the largest Baobab tree in the southern portion of the park, which stretches from the north, where they are more prevalent. These trees are enormous and can live for thousands of years. He said they can regrow their bark and elephants love to munch on them and use the trunks to scratch their bodies.
We next drove over to an open field with high grass where the white lion was allegedly last spotted. It took us awhile to find any lions at all and eventually Simon spotted them laying under a tree in the high grass. Since they had fed recently, they weren’t really moving, they were mostly shifting around and napping, only getting up to follow the shade as the sun moved across the sky. Simon suggested we should wait and they would walk to a new shady spot soon. He was right and after about 30 minutes one by one the three lions moved and snuggled under a new tree. The white lion wasn’t present today, but Simon’s hopeful we’ll see him tomorrow.
It was getting late, so we headed back to camp. Along the road a hyena walked right along our car. He looked much more like a cute puppy than a scavenger and we wanted to take him home. We also finally saw a large herd of Cape buffalo, also known as an obstinacy of buffalo. We’d only seen older males either alone or in pairs, but as we drove north up to the plains, we began seeing larger herds of all the animals, with the Cape buffalo being no exception.
After watching the buffalo, and waiting for them to get out of the road, we finished the journey to our new campsite. We checked into our rooms at Satara, mixing up our sleeping arrangements into a boys’ room and a girls’ room. The girls found a baby squirrel in the corner of their room that Ryan had to scoop up with a towel (we don’t know what kind of diseases these critters might have). These rooms all have thatched roofs and we think all sorts of critters and birds live up there. For dinner, John made us butter chicken curry and for dessert bananas Foster. We drank the rest of our wild dog wine, hoping for better luck, and a bottle called Rhino Tears; the proceeds of which go to preventing rhino poaching. We thought maybe this bottle would also help us see one up close.
Day 18 – Kruger National Park – January 9
Simon had learned the day before when we returned to camp that a pride of lions had killed a large Cape buffalo that afternoon. He wanted to get to the carcass first thing in the morning, so we left at 4:30 am to get a good seat. Prides will feed on the carcass for days until it’s done. They eat so much they can barely breathe, then lay down and rest, then eat some more. Simon let us know that since it was a fairly fresh kill, the dead animal probably wouldn’t be too smelly yet, but the lions can and will eat rotten meat.
When we arrived at the kill, it was everything we wanted and more. We were especially excited to see this pride had 8 lion cubs gamboling around. We learned that lions are born with spots that typically fade when they’re older. The cubs were too cute, either working hard to eat or plopped on the ground, resting their little puffed out bellies.
There were a couple larger male lions hanging out on the outskirts, they’d already eaten their fill and were resting. Simon says when a kill first happens the animals are really aggressive with each other trying to get at the meat. At this stage everyone is pretty calm and takes turns munching on the carcass. We learned from other guides the buffalo had been pregnant and they cut her open and ate the calf yesterday.
We watched these lions for a couple hours along with at least 20 other cars. We couldn’t believe our luck that the lions made a kill in the middle of a wide road allowing cars to get close and surround them. They could care less about the cars being there and laid down under tires and in front of vehicles.
Finally, we pulled ourselves away and headed back to our spot yesterday to search for the white lion. We learned the locals have named him Casper. He is one of 3 white lions currently living known to have been born in the wild. Simon has been watching him since he was a cub. We got lucky with our timing and spotted a group of lions as they were preparing to move to another shady area. For whatever reason they were feeling very photogenic today.
We waited about 30 minutes to watch them all get up and move. Poor Casper was covered in scars and it’s evident he’s a bit of a punching bag for the larger lions. We also learned about other rare animal colorings including the king cheetah, where the spots turn to stripes, and strawberry leopards that are more reddish brown in color.
We began our drive back to camp for breakfast and saw more of our savannah animals. First, we watched as two male giraffes fought in the distance, then we saw some baby zebra in a huge dazzle and were able to really see all sorts of unique and interesting stripe patterns. We saw a bull elephant spray his back off with water, trying to beat the morning heat. We also came across a saddle-billed stork hanging out in a watering hole with wildebeest, zebra, and a warthog.
We made it back to camp exhausted and starving. For breakfast, John made us an egg bake with more bobotie meat. We had another drive scheduled for 3 pm, so we took naps and explored the camp. The boys found a giant monitor lizard on their porch.
Our first stop on our drive was a watering hole where a lot of Cape buffalo had gathered to drink. We didn’t see what this marabou stork did to antagonize him, but one buffalo spent about 20 minutes chasing the stork around. It was hilarious to watch.
Keeping in line with our stork sighting, we continued bird watching and came across our three favorites. The woodlands kingfisher, the glossy starling, and the lavender breasted roller. We still can’t believe Simon’s great eye and ability to identify animals in a split second. We are all bird people now.
The rest of the afternoon passed quietly. A large bull elephant appeared on the road behind us and for a quick second it was uncertain if he was in mating mode and would be aggressive and unpredictable, or if he was just curious. Simon has had a run in before and was in the driver seat ready to roll. Luckily, he passed us by without a second glance, so close we could see all his wrinkles and long eyelashes.
Our final exciting sighting was a couple of hyenas next to the road in a culvert. Evening was on its way, so a few hyenas were splitting off to scavenge, but a couple remained. We listened and could hear pups yipping in the culvert, unfortunately we never caught a glimpse.
Finally, we headed back for dinner, where John prepared meat and potatoes on rice; for dessert we had an apple tart with finger cookies. Tonight is our night drive, where we are scheduled to go with a park ranger on a two hour nocturnal hunt. We arrived at reception around 8 pm and loaded up with 10-15 other passengers in what was like a school bus on apocalyptic steroids. A few people were assigned spot lights to shine, looking for the reflection of animal eyes, while the bus driver/ranger drove until someone shouted out a sighting.
We saw a jackal, rabbit, and elephant all on the way to the lion kill we’d visited that morning. At the kill site the lions were all still actively eating the carcass, and we watched as a large male lion dragged it from the cubs and into the bushes. The most exciting thing happened when one of the male lions let out a loud roar and was answered by the other males and females. It was so loud and went on for a couple minutes – very cool to hear. As we finished our route, we also saw hippo, two more cheetahs, hyaena, and a genet (a type of small feline). The only downside it was hard to get good photos in the dark on a moving bus.
Day 19 – Kruger National Park – January 10
Sine we were out so late the previous night on our dark game drive, we were allowed to sleep in and met at 5:30. It was pouring rain when we woke up and there had been a large thunderstorm in the middle of the night. We loaded up all our bags in the trailer of the truck then donned ponchos and hopped in the open-air truck. There are rainflies we could lower to help with the downpour, but the window screens aren’t very transparent and pretty scratched up, so we opted to tough it out. Even with our rain gear, we were still soaking wet; the ponchos weren’t very waterproof and everyone ended up sitting in a small pond on their seat. The frogs came alive in the storm and we heard their loud croaking almost constantly. We came across our typical animals: zebras, giraffes, elephants, and antelopes; they were all wet and covered in mud. Our favorite were the soaked baboons.
Our animal sightings weren’t too high that morning and Elizabeth, for one, was over it. We cruised around for a couple hours seeing more turtles and African snails, and finally a tawny eagle. Because we didn’t stop much to look at any critters, we arrived at the rest camp about an hour before John was due to make us our final breakfast, but we all appreciated the time to try to dry off. Our last meal consisted of eggs and sausage simmered in a tomato sauce. We said good-bye to John and thanked him for all his delicious meals.
As we loaded back in the open truck one final time, we headed for the main gate. Along the way we came across a huge traffic jam; there was a leopard in the bush. We waited our turn and slowly creeped forward. The other drivers were being ridiculous and cutting across the two-lane road trying to cut ahead and made traffic even worse. It probably took us 20 minutes to go 20 feet. It was a nice farewell from Kruger to see a leopard right as we were pulling out.
We exited the park around noon, and headed back to the hotel to transfer into our minivan for the 5-hour journey back to Johannesburg. The drive home was quiet as we all napped and tried to dry off. Eventually, we arrived at the airport and we said good-bye to Susie and Mike. They had two long flights ahead of them and we were so grateful they made the journey to visit us. Next, we piled into an Uber and headed for our Airbnb in Johannesburg. That night we did nothing but eat popcorn and watch Netflix.
Day 20 – Johannesburg – January 11
We slept in as long as we could, but were still up by 7. It was strange being alone again; we lounged around the whole morning working on future trip planning and catching up on our neglected blog. Finally, around noon we walked over to the Checkers grocery store to get some food for lunch and dinner; it seems like we gained some serious weight, and we definitely spent some serious money, while on safari. The afternoon was spent catching up with family and watching television, until Ryan made lamb and roasted potatoes for dinner. It was so nice to have a day to relax after two weeks of constant activity, Michael and Susie probably need a vacation from their vacation.
Day 21 – Johannesburg – January 12
After a lazy mourning we took an Uber over to Rosebank Catholic Church for their 10:30 service. It’s so nice to have mass in English and the church was beautiful. After we walked up the street to a restaurant called Marble for a delicious brunch. The restaurant was on the third floor and had great views. Ryan got an old fashioned while Elizabeth had a glass of wine, and we enjoyed steak and cauliflower, respectively.
That night we continued our tradition of being lazy. We now officially have people coming to visit us in Thailand in February and Bali in March, so we relaxed but also looked at accommodation and activity options in those areas. It’s not easy constantly being on vacation.
Day 22 – Johannesburg – January 13
That morning, we ate the rest of our cornflakes; Ryan loves when he can eat cereal and milk while watching TV on the couch. We are leaving for Tanzania tomorrow and need to have a flight out of the country to enter the country, so we finally bought our flights from Zanzibar to Dubai. It’s kind of thrilling traveling like this and going wherever and whenever you can get the cheapest plane ticket.
That afternoon we took an Uber across town to go to Johannesburg CityRock, the largest and tallest indoor rock gym in Africa. We’d been suspicious we’d gotten fat and out of shape and this proved it. Normally we can spend hours at the gym doing 20-30 routes, today we struggled with the most basic routes and neither of us got to 10. It was an awesome gym though and the most American feeling one we’d been too. They took safety very seriously, which is a nice change of pace from most of Europe. Ryan managed to bust out a final challenging route and by the end our hands were hurting and we were so sweaty. We split a burger from the restaurant next door called the Fussy Vegan. It was an Impossible Burger, supposed to taste like meat, and wasn’t too bad. That night we tried to eat all the remaining food in the house and packed for our early morning departure to Zanzibar.
Day 23 – Johannesburg – January 14
The Uber arrived at 4:30 am and we’d both had a fitful night of sleep due to the mosquito attacks. The airport was a breeze to get through though, and we were in the lounge eating a delicious breakfast by 5:15. Our flight left at 7, and after a quick 3.5-hour flight, we’d land in our last African country. We’ve loved our time in South Africa. It’s crazy to think of all the activities we did and things we saw. Elizabeth couldn’t imagine turning thirty doing something less exciting. From seeing giant sharks up close, hiking, drinking copious amounts of wine, to seeing the Big Five at Kruger several days in a row, we definitely lived it up.
Things we’ve learned in South Africa:
- Homeowners insurance costs are lower if you put an electric fence or barbed wire along the top of the wall around your property. The effect for outsiders though, is never truly feeling like you’re in a welcoming place.
- South African airport lounges are a strong competitor in the global field of fancy lounges. The food was delicious and had a ton of variety.
- There is such a thing as too much wine.
Ryan and Elizabeth Goss 