Finally, an update on South Africa!

I’m going to have to do this one in two parts – South Africa was incredible and I have so much to write about. I’m sorry I haven’t updated in a long time – Internet hasn’t been very reliable lately, but I promise I’m going to keep up with my blogs as well as I can.

CAPE TOWN

Q. How do you get 750 college students up at 5:30 in the morning?
A. Take them to South Africa.

The entire ship was up and taking pictures of a very beautiful sunrise the morning we pulled in to Cape Town. We were off the ship by 8 and I trekked up the famous Table Mountain with a group of girlfriends. Unfortunately, due to high winds, we weren’t able to take the cable car to the top, but we got about halfway and I got some incredible pictures, so I wasn’t too bummed out. With my zoom lens, I could see the MV Explorer in the distance (like I said earlier, I’ll post more pictures when I have better internet).
So, defeated, we drove back into the main town and walked around the waterfront. The Cape Town waterfront is very posh – lots of designer stores that were fun to look at but way too expensive to buy anything from.

After the mall, we freshened up on the ship and went out to dinner for two of our friends, Kevin and Mallorie, who both had a birthday the day we docked. We had the most incredible dinner – I had a spicy chicken curry that really hit the spot after eating bland ship food for 10 days. After an appetizer, dinner, and several bottles of wine (split among us), my bill was R135, about $18 USD. Then we went out to a club and danced with some of the locals - it was so much fun and we met a lot of South Africans.

The next day I went out with my friends Jeff and Eric to the winelands, a part of Cape Town called Stellenboch. The vineyard we visited was called Spier, and they had really great wine. I got a little pocket wine-tasting guide that gave me an idea of look for in a wine, in terms of color, texture, and taste. My favorite wine was one called a Chenin Blanc, which I had never heard of before – it’s a very light white wine, and the one at our vineyard was really nice. I wish I could have taken a few bottles but I’m not allowed to bring them on the ship, and it would have cost over $300 to ship some back to the States.

Right next to the vineyard was a cheetah preservation project, and for 80 rand (about $10 USD) we could go in and pet the cheetahs. (See picture below.) It was so neat – I was a little nervous but our cheetah, Joseph, was very relaxed the whole time. The guide said the cheetahs’ instinct is to conserve energy until it’s time to hunt, so they sleep all day until they decide they’re hungry. Thankfully, Joseph didn’t seem too hungry when we went in to pet him.
We rode the train back in to Cape Town, which was cool because we could see the whole countryside. We shared our compartment with a bunch of hotel staffers who had just gotten off work. It was a relaxing, uneventful ride.

That night a small group of us went to a little restaurant on the waterfront and ordered a few appetizers and had some drinks while the sun set. There’s a group of seals that hangs out near the waterfront, so we watched them for awhile and I got some cute pictures. I didn’t realize there were seals in South Africa, but they’re really cute and like to swim around the MV Explorer.

SAFARI

The next morning I woke up at 6 a.m. and got ready for my safari. We took a bus to the airport and flew out to Jo-burg. The flight was a little shaky, which made me nervous, but we landed just fine and took a 2 ½ hour bus ride to Pilansberg.

We were all completely exhausted after the bus ride, which was really hot (no air conditioning), but when we pulled up to the lodge, all the safari guides were standing outside with glasses of cold guava juice for us. We were served an incredible lunch and then set out on our first drive.

Here, there is so much to write about that I’m not even sure where to begin. Our safari guide, Leon, was incredibly knowledgeable, and broke everything down for us. He was able to answer every one of our questions (and we asked a lot), and he joked around and really showed us a good time.
Did you know the collective word for a group of wildebeest is “implausibility”? As in, “Look at that implausibility of wildebeest.”
Other collective words:
A dazzle of zebra
A murder of crows
A parliament of owls
A kaleidoscope/stretch/ladder/corpse of giraffe

Just a few of Leon’s little tidbits.

On the first day, we saw 3/5 of the Big Five. First we ran into a couple of rhinos sleeping under a tree, then we came upon an entire parade of elephants (yes, parade is the collective word for a pack of elephants). There was a tiny baby elephant among them (see picture below) that Leon said was only 2 weeks old. That night we ran into a pride of lions and the male walked right past the car on my side. I was so amazed and scared that I couldn’t move. They’re really incredible animals.

The next morning we had a drive at 5:30 a.m. We ran into the same group of elephants who were eating on a mountainside. We stopped and watched them for probably two hours – they’re really the most fascinating animals. I was entranced by them the entire time. They seemed to understand we were watching them, and a few of them came really close to the vehicle. The most amazing thing I saw on the entire safari was the mother elephant gently pushing her baby up a hill with her trunk.

Other animals I saw on the safari: hippos, zebras, giraffes, impalas, owls, water bucks, bush bucks (apparently very rare), a kingfisher (also apparently very rare), wild dogs, crocodiles, baboons, warthogs, more rhinos, elephants, and lions. On one occasion, we saw a lion that had just finished eating a water buck; its mane was covered in blood. I’ll post the picture as soon as I can – it’s amazing.

It was hard to leave the lodge. We got Leon’s e-mail address and convinced him to create a Facebook profile. I decided that some day I would really love to come back to South Africa – it’s a beautiful country, despite its problems. I was sad to say goodbye.

OTHER NEWS:
We’re back on the ship, and it’s been pretty boring. I’ve been occupying myself by watching movies with friends and playing intense games of Gin Rummy. Tensions have been starting to erupt within groups and little dramas are starting to happen everywhere. Fortunately, I’ve managed to avoid most of them, but some of my friends are starting to divide up, which puts me in an interesting position.
I’ve started to realize that other countries’ perceptions of the U.S. are not entirely unfounded. I’ve stopped hanging out with some people because they were only concerned with getting drunk, and then getting belligerent and rude. It definitely sends the world a bad message about Americans, and I don’t want to be associated with that message.
We’re almost halfway through, though. Mauritius is up next. I’ll update as soon as I can.

I miss home very much.
Xoxoxo,
E