South Africa: Cape Town and the Safari of a Lifetime

---

The country that I have been most surprised by thus far has definitely got to be South Africa. S. Africa was one of the countries that was added when they changed our itinerary after the Somali pirates incident. I must say, when I first found out about this change, I was kind of disappointed. I had never had a strong urge to visit Africa and I was going to miss the Egyptian pyramids because of this change. So I signed up for a four day safari and just hoped for the best.
We finally arrive in South Africa and we pull into the first really nice port since Spain. There were shops, tourist companies, and food courts. It felt a lot like being at like Disney World for a while. But as you went farther into the city, you began to see the differences, primarily the ridiculous driving of the locals. I only had one day in Cape Town so I figured I had to get to the top of Table Mountain. So I headed out with a group of friends to the lift that would take us to the top. When we got to the lift, the ticket lady informed us that there was no view at the top because of cloud cover. We decided to head up anyway since it was probably our only opportunity. After a five minute ride up the lift, we reached the top. Even though we could not see anything, it was a lot of fun to walk around in the clouds. The weirdest part of this was the little animal we found at the top. As we came to the main visitor (and food) center, I saw a big rat-like animal. I just found it pretty crazy that this little muskrat (it turned out to be a rock-dassie) was living up at the top of this mountain. After this little incident with the dassie, we headed inside the visitor center for some food. While we were eating, the horn blew over at the main lift area. The horn was to let us know that the winds were picking up and that they would only send down one more lift. Not wanting to make the three hour long trek down the mountain, we ran to the lift station and got there just in time to get on the lift. After deciding it was time to head back to the ship, we got in a taxi, and survived the roller-coaster like ride back to port. Since we all had an early day the next morning for our safaris, we headed back to our respective rooms to prepare for the next phase of the South African adventure.
I woke up at 4:30 the next day, packed my stuff, and headed to the buses. We headed to the airport, boarded our plane, and headed to Johannesburg. After a short layover their, I got on a prop plane and headed to small airport a little farther north. After a van ride of about one hour, we reached our destination: Manyelleti Game Reserve. When we reached the main camp, we had a quick orientation (one of the rules was to stay very still if an elephant came and drank from the pool while you were in it) and headed to our tents. Each tent was equipped with a functioning bathroom and two beds, so we were not exactly roughing it. After quickly unloading my stuff, I headed back to the main area and got on a land rover for our first game drive. And what a drive it was. In this one drive, we knocked out three of the Big Five: rhino, water buffalo, and elephant. We also saw a group comprised of giraffes, zebras, impalas, and a few hippos. After about two hours, we stopped for a quick drink break at the Manyelleti airstrip, which was no longer in use. We all got out and talked about the awesome sightings and how awesome it was that this was just our first drive. After the break, we got back in the rover. By this time it was pitch black, and the tracker on the front of the rover was waving a flashlight back and forth. We did not see anything too exciting on the way back to camp. When we reached the camp, we joined back with the full group and talked about all the great sightings of the day over dinner. After dinner I headed to my tent, exhausted from the long day, and quickly fell asleep to the sounds of the African bush.
The next morning, I was awakened by the sound of drums in the main camp, and then quickly went back to sleep. Soon after I hear a voice asking “Are you guys planning on going on the drive?” My roommate and I answered with a resounding “Oh, crap! Yes!” and quickly put our clothes on and ran to the main camp. We had slept through our alarm clock of drums and were late to our first morning drive. Dries, one of the game rangers, had come out to give us a second chance to wake up. Colin (my roommate for the trip) and I ran out to the land rover, ashamed for making everyone late, and jumped in the remaining seats in the front. After hearing all the commentary about “If we miss a lion” and such, we headed out for the morning drive, determined to spot something good to make up for our mistake. After thirty minutes of nothing, we see a gray streak run across the street. It was baboon moving faster than most animals I had seen run. As everyone in the car was watching the baboon run off into the brush, we noticed that our tracker, who we just called “E”, was looking off to the right. E told Dries to head follow the road to the right and as we moved forward, E pointed. Dries turned around said “He spotted lions.” Tense with excitement, we moved farther scanning the area where E was pointing. Then we saw them, two female lions in the brush about 30 yards from us. All you could make out was the heads looking straight at us, I am guessing trying to decide what kind of weirdly shaped animal we were. Dries radioed the other vehicles to let them know what we had spotted, and we stayed and watched for a good thirty minutes. After the other groups showed up we drove off to let them have a better viewing position. Dries explained how lucky of a spot that was and that the baboon gave the position of the lions away. I turned to Prof. Cohen, our trip leader, smiled, and joked “Good thing we were late, huh?” After the lion spotting, we decided to take a quick break. We talked amongst ourselves and learned about the giant spiders that Dries was feeding swatted down dragonflies to. After a few more hours, it was time to head back to camp. On our way back, we noticed a BIG snake in the road. Dries slammed the brakes, and then did something quite unexpected… leapt out of the rover! He quickly asked Colin for his sunglasses and went towards the snake. The snake turned looked at Dries and the rover, and slithered into the bush. Dries gave chase but the snake had got away. Dries walked back to the rover, with the look of a child that was told he could not get candy at the store, and got back in. After getting back to the camp, Dries brought me the snake book and showed me the type of spitting-cobra that he did not get to catch. And that is when I decided on the rover I would be riding in for the rest of the safari.
After lunch and a pretty long break, we headed back to the rovers. I got back in the front bench of Dries’ rover and Colin got in the exact spot he was in earlier. We had decided that this strategic positioning had brought us good luck and we were determined to keep this lucky streak going. We rode around and saw many of the animals that were starting to become normal to us: giraffe, impala (they are like the white-tailed deer of Africa), zebra, and even water buffalo. We had a much closer encounter with an elephant on this trip also, which was pretty cool. About an hour into the drive Dries points at the sky and says “Its gonna rain,” which looking back is quite the understatement. About fifteen minutes later, it is pouring. We are flying across the dirt roads, rain getting in our eyes, but we refuse the offer to go back to camp. The entire even was exhilarating. We saw a bunch of impala and zebra huddled under a tree in a circle. Dries later told me they do this because the sound of the rain muffles the noise predators would make and the circular formation allows them to protect their back and look in all directions. After the best water ride I had ever been on was over, we took a drink break. We all got out, ecstatic about the amazing experience we had just had. We hit the drinks and started conversing loudly for fifteen minutes as the sun set. After a ton of group pictures, we were still talking when I look past Dries and see one of the coolest and scariest sights of my life. In the waning light, I see a spotter-hyena, only twenty feet away, looking straight at us! Shocked I point and say “Oh! My! God!” The group quickly turns and sees the predator. Dries quickly hushes us and tells us not to move. The hyena looks at us some more, walks into the bush on our left side. Our eyes follow the animal as it comes out behind us, takes a last look at the group of us, and walks on down the road. Relieved and excited, we all climb back in the car and start talking about how awesome the hyena was. After a few minutes of driving, we get a radio call about the group of lions from the morning. They had moved closer to the road and we were all excited to see them again. We start driving in the dark back towards the area. All of the sudden, we see a large gray form right beside the road. An elephant had appeared from nothing! Dries hits the brakes and backs up a little to try and not anger the elephant. The elephant soon wanders off to most likely eat some more. It was truly amazing how fast an animal of that size can appear at night. After a few more minutes of heading to the lions, we see another body in the road, this time a much more feline looking body. After a quick misidentification of leopard, we look closer and see that it is a cheetah. Dries was probably the most excited person in the car. He informed us that finding a cheetah at night was extremely rare since they are diurnal, or primarily active during the day. We decided to skip the lions to watch the cheetah a little more. We followed it for a while and eventually lost it in the brush. After an amazing drive, we packed it in and headed back to camp. Since I had a little more energy that night, I stayed out to get to know the people on my trip and the game rangers a little better. We stayed out, sharing stories and looking at the stars, for about four hours. It was a lot of fun to really interact with Dries and Craig (one of the other rangers) and hear the wild stories that they had. I finally went to bed to prepare for the next full day.
Well I know this post is starting to get a bit long so I will just tell you the main story of the next day: the hunt for the last of the Big Five, the leopard, and my personal favorite African animal. In the morning we headed out. D and E (Dries and our tracker) quickly found fresh leopard tracks. We followed those to some poop, which Dries informed the group was leopard poop. We kept following the tracks with excitement, hoping that we would find it around the next corner, only to be disappointed time and time again. We would stop and look at other wildlife but the goal always remained the same. The morning drive ended with just leopard tracks and poop but Dries said that we would pick up the trail later in the evening drive. Dries was right and we tracked the predator into a small forest/ bushy area. Everyone was looking in the trees, hoping to catch the animal in one of its favorite resting places. After thirty minutes, I was almost positive that we were not going to find this elusive cat. As I looked down from a tree, disappointed, I looked to my left. In a small circular alcove, stood a female leopard. E had been checking the trees and missed the cat, so I leaned over to Dries and said “Leopard!” He slammed the brakes, pulled a 180 degree turn in his chair and looked, slowly backing up the road. Everyone in the car looked and the rover fell silent. After a few seconds that felt like minutes, we saw another very rare sight: two leopard cubs. They poked their heads out of the bush and surveyed us. When the mother determined that we were not a threat, she disappeared into the bush. The young ones wanted to have a little fun with us first, as they took turns walking to the grass feet from the car to get a better look at us. Even though they were only cubs, my hand shook with excitement and probably a little fear, as I snapped picture after picture (which is why the pictures of them are so blurry). After a few minutes, we heard a raspy cough-like sound, which was the mother calling the cubs, and they ran off into the bushes but not rolling around with each other a little bit. And then they were gone. At our drink break D and E congratulated me for the good spot, but they did the real work. The day of tracking had been more successful than I could have ever imagined.
The last day at Manyelleti was relatively uneventful. After breakfast it was time for us to head to the airport. We took some last group pictures and then said our goodbyes to the trackers and rangers. Dries expects me back as a ranger in a few years, so we will see how that works out. Overall, this was one of the most exciting trips of my entire life and I met some people that made it really difficult to leave South Africa. But we eventually got back and boarded the boat and set out for the island paradise of Mauritius, but I definitely plan on returning to South Africa, in particular the Manyelleti Game Reserve, to see some old friends and have some new experiences at a later point

---

Photos

Table Mountain and the Girls
This is right off the boat

MV Explorer from the Bottom of Table Mountain
I was surprised we could still see it

The Weird Rat
It looks like a beaver or something

Giraffe
This was when the giraffe was still a rare sighting

Elephant
My favorite elephant picture

White Rhino
We actually only saw rhino this one time

Sunset in the Bush
It was very pretty

Some Birds in the Way
They just run in front of the rover for minutes... not the most intelligent bird species

Lion
I was really bad at pictures on this trip. Was too excited during every big find.

The Downpour
Like I said, it was raining hard

Dries
This was before our only bush walk

Fresh Leopard Poop
Learned a fun trick to pull on people from Dries during this find

Leopard Cub
I was shaking pretty bad

Leopard Cub Part 2
This is with no zoom. It was pretty awesome

Comments

[Thedah]

Sweetness!
Wow, you lucky sod! ;) That is what I hope to experience as well. Going on a round trip in the souther parts of Africa in about a months time, and I'm reading everything I can get my eyes on! How amazing that you managed to see all those animals and leopard cubs as well!! I can only hope we eill be half as lucky! =)

[Nicole]

Sounds way better than any zoo ! :)