We just left south africa yesterday! It was my favorite port!!! I squeezed in the major things i wanted to do but I DEFINITELY want to go back!!! I traveled the entire trip with my friends Eric and Thomas and then other friends came with us off and on to different things. Traveling with the boys was a blast - we had so much fun!!
The next morning we woke up early for breakfast and explored the waterfront area right near where our ship was docked. We met up with five other SASers at 10 a.m. and found our van that was meeting us to take us to the Aquila Private Game Reserve for our SAFARI!!!! It took about 2.5 hours to get there. It was a beautiful ride all through the wineries so it didn’t seem to long.
Once we got there I was shocked at how nice it was. The girl who organized this trip had basically told us the sleeping accommodations would be like military barracks. This was by far NOT the case!! We walked in to this beautiful little paradise with rooms that they called “chalets”. Now when a room is called a “chalet” it has to be nice right? These rooms were two person huts with thatch roofs and beautiful wood walls and bed frames. The bathroom even had these outrageous outdoor showers that you got to from inside and were huge, stone and all around fantastic.
While at the game reserve we got four fantastic buffet meals. It was incredible to finally eat delicious food continuously instead of only here and there like we normally do in port. When we first got there we were greeted with complementary sparkling wine and then shown to our chalets. After lunch we had free time until our first game drive at 5 p.m. which Thomas and I spent lounging by the gorgeous brand new pool they had built for the upcoming World Cup. The game drive was amazing!! We almost got charged by an elephant at one point. We drove up to close to it and it wanted to show us who was boss so it started running at us and picking up speed and we had to reverse away. Apparently we didn’t back far enough away because it started running at us again and we had to once again reverse. On that drive we also saw rhinos, a giraffe, spring box, a lion from afar and so many other things. We were all so excited!
After the game drive we had dinner and then hung out in the lounge / bar for the rest of the night. It was perfect – it had a huge flat screen TV and the most comfortable leather couches I’ve sat on in a long time. Until that moment, I did not realize how much I had missed sitting on couches – they don’t have many on the ship, only two hard ones.
The next morning each of our rooms received a personal wake up call at 5:30 a.m. for our 6:15 a.m. game drive. Unfortunately, Thomas and I must not have heard ours because our friends woke us up 3 minutes before we were supposed to leave. We basically threw gum in our mouth and clothes on, grabbed our cameras and ran into the safari car. The morning game drive was great! Since it wasn’t yet light out, it also was cool so the animals were just waking up and out and about. We went to the lions first and literally came within two feet of the main lioness. She stalked straight to the car and then made a square around it, coming closest to the back end of the car where I was sitting. If I had reached my arm out and then just leaned a little bit I would have been able to touch her! It was really cool but also kind of scary!!!
After the lions we went over to see what other animals we could find and found the water buffalo, rhinos, and zebras all laying near each other just waking up. I didn’t think the different animals would sleep so close together and thought that maybe it was just because they lived in the game reserve. When I asked our guide though he said that that actually happens in the wild as well! The animals do that to use the rhinos as protection. Since we had arrived right as they were waking up, we got to see their morning rituals as well. We watched the rhinos do their morning business which was quite funny. Apparently they like to use the exact same spot, day after day, so they kind of make their own toilet. Their toilet happened to be right near the zebras so the rhinos approached them until they moved. I swear each rhino peed a small river it was crazy. Also we found out an interesting fact that after the daughter rhino goes to the bathroom, the mother will go smell her feces and urine to see if she is ready to mate. At first we were all cracking up when we saw it but once we learned that it was actually a pretty neat thing.
The rest of the game drive was really neat. Afterwards we had the most delicious breakfast with real cantaloupe – the ship cantaloupe is nowhere near as juicy or fresh. Then we spent our free time lounging again by the pool until lunch. After lunch we went on our third and final safari. This one was unique because we got to go on horseback! I hadn’t been nervous at all until the other group of four of us who had already gone told me stories about how their horse misbehaved and one tried to roll over with her on its back. So as I walked over to the horses I have to say I got pretty nervous. When I was given my horse I was asking all kinds of questions about the horses and the guy laughed and asked if I was nervous. When I told him he was he told me don’t be because horses can sense it and when they sense you’re scared is when they act up. As soon as I heard that I left my worries behind and was determined to keep my horse in control. My horse ended up being the one who didn’t like to listen and wanted to always go its own path which was kind of funny. Thomas’ went super slow and always chose its own path and Brookes’ kept trying to bite my horse and at one point even kept trying to bite MY leg. That was really scary!
The horseback ride was so much fun! We got to get so much closer to the animals, especially the zebra and the hippos which was really something else. Afterwards our stay was over so we quickly showered and hopped back in our van to head to the ship. That night we went to a great seafood restaurant in Hout Bay with a large group of people and then headed back over to Long Street. This time we went to the Purple Turtle which was having a special deal for SAS students who were allowed free entry. This place was awesome. They sold us this great drink for 55 rand (less than $8) for a huge pitcher, which was a mixture of gin, vodka and I think lemonade. They were delicious! We spent the whole night there dancing, chatting and having a great time. I even met some local South Africans who I talked to for a good hour and a half that invited us to come to a BBQ while we were there. I would have loved to take them up on it but we just didn’t have the time – maybe next time I go there!
We didn’t end up getting back to the ship until about 4 a.m. that night and we all woke up extremely early to go wine tasting the next day. It probably wasn’t the best timeline to do this in but after awhile we all woke up and started feeling better and had a blast. We went to two different wineries, one that had wine and chocolate and another that had wine and cheese and even stopped at a place that let you pet cheetahs if you paid (I didn’t do that, but I watched my friends do it). We had a blast all day long and our taxi driver – Ursela – was really funny. I discovered during our wine tasting that I really don’t like expensive wine very much, just the cheap stuff, which I guess works out good for me right?
That night we headed to a casino and the boys actually won quite a bit of money playing blackjack. The next morning we went to Desmond Tutu’s church for the Easter Service. He wasn’t there, but it is neat to say that we were there!! After church Ursela (our taxi driver) picked us up to take us to Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope. On the way there we made a few stops to see a trained seal who kisses people, to see penguins, and even stopped to have a fantastic fish and chip lunch. After lunch we hiked Cape Point up to the lighthouse, which had incredible views. Finally, our last stop was to Cape of Good Hope. This was really neat because it is where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet! All in all it was a fantastic day and a great way to end South Africa. It was by far my favorite port and I cannot wait to come back here!
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