Farewell Cape Town! The morning started out pretty quick paced. We woke up early for the flight out today. We grabbed a quick breakfast downstairs, this morning’s flavor adventure was just labeled “chicken.” It was a soft chicken cooked with bell peppers and a marinade similar to Chinese chicken. We quickly ran out to the cab whose driver was waiting impatiently. The city is implementing a “MiCity” bus system which is a significant improvement over the current taxi situation which is where people pile into a mini-van with other people going the same way (similar to a bus) with people almost sitting on top of you and no air conditioning. Unfortunately, the taxi drivers do not like the new busses which are trying to modernize the transportation system… so they torched them. That headline increased security in the area and put our taxi driver on edge so we left early and sped to the airport. We arrived safely where we quickly went through security and found ourselves with time to kill. We did some light shopping around the airport, and grabbed a quick snack of chocolates. Brad chose a Cadbury Mint chocolate bar, I chose a Beacon Turkish Delight Flavor. Brad’s tasted delicious, like an Andes mint. Mine tasted like a chocolate covered rose petal. The chocolate is stunningly smooth, although the Turkish delight is very chewy. I intend to bring some back to the states with me. Mmmm tasty! Our flight was finally called, and we went through the departure gate, onto a bus, where we were driven past all the new jet planes, then the old jet planes, then the private jet planes… and there was ours…. A prop plane, with two large props perched on top of the wings. The plane held about 72 people, so it wasn’t too small but you could feel every patch of air we went through. Our flight was quick. I guess anything is when you’ve just passed a 23 hour flight only a few days earlier. We landed in Port Elizabeth where we were met by our driver, a woman with a very unique accent. On our hour and a half drive I discovered a few things. First, accents vary in this country based on where you’re from; very similar to that of the US. In Invictis, I had thought all of the accents here would sound as off all the vowels were cut short when being spoken. Instead I noticed that out in Cape Town the accent was very similar to Australian or English, whereas here, the woman’s vowels were longer than our drive out there. When she said the word “season” I thought I would have had to take the afternoon off for her to finish the sentence. We learned she was a botanist, and discussed with us history of the plants as we passed them along the route. We started our journey in the suburban atmosphere near the airport then took the highway through the city, and through farm land out to the park. We arrived, and were quickly checked in after filling out some forms. Our park ranger met us, and loaded our bags into a buggey where we were taken to our “chalet” (cabin).
I.WAS.STUNNED. Our view is a 160 degree view of the mountains, the park below, and oh yeah…. A GIRAFFE OUTSIDE OUR WINDOW! I threw my bags down, and tried to take my camera out before it was scared off. He was about as tall as the roof of the cabin, and we’re 10′ off the ground. He was maybe 15 feet away from us, grazing on the tree outside. Brad opened the door to the balcony but was unable to grab a picture before he ran off. Already I’m loving this place. The balcony has a mini pool, which is pretty cold due to it being early spring. Also we have a sitting room, and get this… no T.V. We grabbed our bags and headed towards the main lodge for our first game drive. Our Ranger’s name was Imogene (I probably misspelled that), and we were greeted with two other couples Tony and his wife, and a German couple who was either a mother/ son or a very inappropriate age couple. We later learned that They were a mother/ son couple. Our first game drive was the evening drive, and the animals were already pretty active. We hop into a Toyota Land Cruiser which was a modified truck with no roof, holds 9 passengers in the back with 3 roll cages/ hand rails. This vehicle was amazing, not only was it holding several tons in the back (from the passengers), but it could go up and down hill quickly and safely. The roads we were driving on were two indents from the tires when it was wet. Brad and I were the newest adventurers in town so we got the high seats with the warning that it’s very bumpy up there…. They were correct. For anyone who has ridden the Indiana Jones ride at Adventure land in Disneyland, they would experience something similar to what we were feeling. With every bump I went airborne and depending on how I was holding on, I would sometimes veer left, or right, landing at an angle. In every sense of the word, it was fun. We went down steep hills and valleys which were so steep it felt as if we were going vertical. We cleared rocks 6-12″ tall, as if it were just a speed bump, and went around tight corners where we had to hold on for support. We went through an electrified gate, where we were told this protects us from the animals on the other side… and vice versa. We get down to the valley floor after a 20 minute mountain drive and we start to see some Nyala (look like deer) and continue on to find Black Rhino, Nyala, antelope, zebra, giraffe, and a few others gazing on the grassland. We found them so quickly I almost thought it was a set up. The drive continued on, into the mountains where we saw many more antelope, zebra, and giraffe. I have since considered it the day of the giraffe! 🙂 Very awesome! After our drive, we headed back to the lodge where we were greeted with a fire, hot towels, and some sherry. It was my first time trying that, and it tasted of a thick red wine. Not too bad…. We were given about 30 minutes to clean up before we had our “boma” which is a South African custom similar to a BBQ in the USA. We met everyone later, to find a table set up outside with food on the barbecue wine available, and good people. We all sat around talking, laughing, and swapping stories. Finally we’re invited into the lodge for after dinner drinks and a relaxing sit by the fire, which turned into more laughing, drinking, talking, and swapping stories. When we ran out of wine, we all headed back to the cabin to lie down before the adventures of the next morning. While we were out, the staff had come and turned down the beds with mint on each pillow. I could get used to this!
Great Travelog Jen…. I enjoyed it thoroughly…Professor Wagstaff