Blogs from South Africa, Africa - page 4

The journey from Reunion to Durban, South Africa is a three day sail. The sea day routine reestablishes itself. Lectures, art classes, meals and evening entertainment. Perhaps the best evening (and it is a close call) is provided by The Four Harps, a group of four Irish male singers (although one seems to come from England for all his ginger beard and green jacket, he even describes himself as a “plastic paddy”). They have the audience joining in several rousing singalongs, Wild Rover etc. But it is not all endless pleasure, oh no. We experience real hardship as comes inevitably to all seafarers. I am sitting in the lounge reserved for World Cruise travellers when a woman comes in and looks upset. “There’s no ice cream in the machines”, she wails. It appears the ship has ... read more

Turtles have a tough start in life. First, they must break-out of their soft egg and then start digging - turtle eggs are buried deep in soft sand, as much as a metre down. Once the baby turtle makes it to the surface, it must use its flippers to move down the beach and into the sea, up to 100 metres away and only the moonlight reflecting on the waves to guide it. And, on the way, waiting predatory crabs must be avoided, baby turtles are their favourite snack. We're on Sodwana beach and the first of the baby turtles have already made it into the sea, leaving tiny flipper tracks across the sand. Dotted about on the sand are the less sucessful ones, exhausted or disorientated or both and about to become crab fodder. Not ... read more

I discovered too late as I am writing this, I should have been recording our knowledgeable guide, Ben. As I look back on our trip I struggle to remember all the names and places, but here goes. We started the day by stopping at one of several "picture frames" in Cape Town that provide a scenic view inside. This one frames Table Mountain, our first planned stop of the day. From there we traveled with hundreds of others to the cable car station to ride to the top of Table Mountain. The wind that prevailed the past two days, stopped the cable cars and now everyone was making up for lost time. Fortunately for us, Ben was able to secure tickets quickly and gain quick access to the cable car. I am not sure how he ... read more

After breakfast at the hotel, we made sure our suitcases were securely packed and walked from the hotel to our gate for our flight to Cape Town. Security at Johannesburg was quick with fewer requirements than ours in the U.S. We made the approximately 2 hour flight with no hitches and Ben, our guide, was waiting for us at the airport. Having lost the morning for seeing the city, we started on our adventure straight from the airport. Our first stop was the oldest building in Cape Town, the Castle of Good Hope. This fortress was built in the 17th Century by the Dutch East India Company to replenish supplies of the Dutch ships. It is built in the shape of a 5 pointed star similar to forts in the U.S. When built the castle was ... read more

Today will be our last full day at Hippo Lakes. We have two game drives scheduled and dinner around the campfire. Again our first drive began at 7 am. The one Big 5 animal that resides locally is the African Buffalo and thus far it has been elusive. We are on the hunt for it this morning. I have also been on a mission to photograph a very noisy and "annoying to me" bird called a Red-chested Cuckoo. This bird begins it's song at 4 am and continues endlessly throughout the day. I have seen it several times but it has not posed for a photo. This morning it was sitting proudly in a tree top and I finally got my photo thanks to Shaun, our guide, spotting it. We also found a crocodile sunning itself ... read more