Nick's Semester @ Sea: South Africa

Hello all,

Well ... South Africa was the best!

I saw so much and yet, still have this big craving for more. I would have to rank this my #1 favorite port.

First off the V&A Waterfront was the best docking situation we've seen BY FAR! We docked in the middle of this beautiful array of restaurants, boutique stores and a HUGE shopping mall. Which probably doesn't appeal to everyone out there(right Grandpa) but none the less was pretty impressive.

Then there was the "boat". By this I mean the yacht moored next to us called the "Rising Sun”. It is the 6^th largest private yacht in the world, with a length of almost 138 meters (453 ft). 82 rooms on five stories with a total living area said to be in excess of 8,000 square meters. It reportedly cost over US$290 million to build and is owned Larry Ellison the CEO of Oracle Corporation, and no he wasn’t there. Quite a few SAS people tried “buddying up” with the crew at the local bars to get a sneak peak, but no one succeeded.

The first day we were in Cape Town; Jenny, Ethan, Casey, Linzi, and I hired a taxi for the day and we drove up the coast to Cape Point.We stopped at many sights along the way with our first being Boulders Beach. This is a National Park with Penguins hanging all over the beach. It was really cool, but more of a tourist attraction and we couldn’t actually interact with them on the beach. Was more of a viewing zoo, but really quite a sight! From there we went to the Cape National Park, were we hiked. Yes I said hiked. We hiked up to Cape Point to see the famous lighthouse. There was a tram and bus that both went to the top of this mountain, but we decide to be adventurous (and save a lil money) and hike it. It was well worth it! The sights were beautiful and we had an great view of the peninsula behind us, with the good old Atlantic Ocean on our right and the Indian Ocean on our left. After that we went to the Cape of Good Hope…the Southern and Western most point on the African Continent.

From there we went to a Winery (Groot Constantia, est. 1685) were we partook in some wine tasting. Although I have not developed a taste for wine as of yet, I did look for some White Zinfandel for my Grandma Elia, but they didn’t have any.

We then headed back to the ship, dropped of our stuff, cleaned up and headed out for the night. We had a wonderful dinner at Karibu - some fine South African dining right on the waterfront. I had a wonderful filet dipped in brandy sauce and side salad, great meal. Then we headed out to Long Street were there is always a great abundance of nightlife.

We came back to the ship at 2:30am, showered and headed to the Union. Kyle, Jenny and I had Safari Adventures that departed at 5:00am. So we decided to meet at 3:30 to get a nap, while we waited to be called to disembark the ship. Well Jenny and I showed, but Kyle did not. We just brushed it off and said if he wasn’t here by 5:00 then we would go get him. Well I couldn’t sleep so I shot off some emails and when 3:55 came around I headed back to the Union and saw that Kyle was still not there. Jenny hadn’t seen him either, so I went to his room and pounded on the door, but no one answered, so I went back up to the union and he still wasn’t there. So I took a lap around the ship and nothing, no Kyle anywhere. At this point they are calling everyone’s names who hadn’t checked in yet, and if you hadn't they sent someone to your room to check. So I told my mom (the field office manager) that I would go to his room……well this time I pounded on his door so loud that his neighbor came into the hallway to see what was up. (haha) I then went back up there and got Jenny and we took one more lap around the ship. Still nothing. by now it is 4:30am and we are getting extremely worried. These safaris are big ticket items and it would suck to miss one. At this point we knew he was on the ship, but that was all we knew. There was nothing more to do but grab our bags because they were calling our group when I happened to see these long freckly legs poking out from the front corner of the room. I went over and there he was passed out cold, sound asleep and completely in dreamland. (hahaha) I woke him up and while laughing at him, got him to shake the cobwebs out and checked in. Everything worked out but I can't imagine how pissed off he would have been if he slept through his group leaving!

Well, we got on the bus with our group leader Mr. Richard Robbins, my Anthropology of Foods professor and headed for the Cape Town airport. We boarded a regularly scheduled flight for Johannesburg. Once there we got on a chartered plane that took all 150+ of us to an airfield in the middle of nowhere. There were Cheetahs running all around the airport property, it was hot as Hades out.

Out of the bush arrives five green open air Land Cruisers and half a dozen Sprinter Van wannabes. The Land Cruisers ended up being the better ride and guess who got them….that’s right, the Kapama group! The other group had to drive in their vans for 2hrs. just to get to their safari. We drove across the street to this big green gate and dove right in. The spot we entered the Private Game Reserve reminded me of Jurassic Park . I have no idea how the drivers did it, but with no street signs anywhere, they found their way to the River Lodge. They did it every time we were out roaming around, go everywhere and always knew were they were. Anyway the lodge was AMAZING! Being only 4 years old the compound is in just beautiful condition. A sick lounge and bar area, infinity pool and large open areas with animals roaming all around. Our rooms were nice as well, they put us in the spa suites that had a huge balcony overlooking the reserve and a huge bathroom with a tub looking out into the woods as well. Quite opulent if I say so myself.

After we settled in, we went swimming and then to lunch. Ahhhhh the lunch was great! All the food we had at Kapama was just phenomenal!

Our drivers name was John and our spotter was Stanley…..they were by far the best team on the reserve! We went on our evening game run….saw a ton of animals in the wild. Two species out of what they considered the Big Five. We saw some Elephants, actually we almost got trampled by them, John had to take evasive action and speed away. Saw plenty of Water Buffalo, Giraffes, and a Cheetah. The last hour and a half was really cool because it was completely dark out, the blackness just swallowed us up. All we had was our spotter Stanley up front with a spotlight. That man had amazing eyes, he'd stop our driver and dive into a bush and pulled out a tiny little chameleon. We were like how the heck did you see that thing while driving by. Stanley claimed it was a different color than the bus so it stood out.(haha). We did have a “rest" stop for a half hour. John our driver proceeded to crank out a table complete with snacks and wine on it. Then on our way back to camp we got surrounded by a herd of Water Buffalo. That was a bit scary….they were all around us, we survived but it was just like WOW!

We were exhausted and everyone went to bed early. Not to mention we had a 5:00am wake up call the next morning looming large. I made a few phone calls then sat out on my balcony for about a half hour, just listening to the sounds of the animals….it was so cool….but made me feel a bit inconsequential in the big picture. My roommate Kevin and I left the glass door open and fell asleep to those amazing sounds of Africa……

The Schedule for the days at Kapama River Lodge go as follows:

5am – wake up call

5:30am- tea and biscuits

6am- morning game drive

9am- Breakfast

12-2:30 – lunch

3:30 – afternoon snacks

4pm – Evening Game drive

8pm – dinner

So as you can see there is a lot of down time for R&R at the Lodge. So the next day after the morning game drive, a bunch of us made use of the fabulous spa facilities that they offer. I personally got an African hot stone massage, They use a traditional African stick technique along with plenty of hot stones, which seemed a bit unorthodox but surely got the job done. Other than that we spent our slack time either laying around, playing cards or just looking out onto the beautiful grounds, were there were Hippos, Water Buffalo and Antelopes just grazing all around us.

On our second game drive we saw Lions and Tigers and Bears…oh my! (hahaha) Not, but we did see a lot of Kudu, which is a large Antelope. (For dinner we had Kudu kabobs) We saw Rhinos, Zebras, Monkeys, Lions, Lion Cubs, and the “King” lion. Not to mention some Hippos mating, which was quite the sight. We then went off road through the crazy brush to follow a pride of Lions and we just missed them hunt down a Wildebeest. Later that day on our night game drive, we saw no's 4 & 5 of the Big 5 by 7:30pm. We were heading in and I was a little concerned because I was planning on doing an elephant safari the next day with the majority of the group…but that meant skipping the last game drive and not seeing the last of the big 5….the Leopard. As we were heading in John got a call on the radio….and immediately slammed on the breaks…..we were like what is going on. All he said was, “Leopard sighting”….and he whipped a Uie and floored it to the other side of the reserve….. he turned off the lights and stopped…..and then turned the spot light back on and started driving very slowly….we saw another cruiser up ahead and John said to be dead silent….. we creeped up next to them and then WHAM! We see this Leopard fly across the front of our cruiser and run into the bush…..John took off after it as we went off roading again….and in the pitch black…with everyone ducking behind the seat in front of them to avoid the thorn bushes flying by us…. we stopped and there she was, laying down in the trees in front of us…..she was beautiful…..and we did it! We saw the BIG 5! We headed back to a great dinner….and then went to the lounge and played cards, had a few beers (other people had wine, but as you know I'm not a wine guy) and smoked some good Cuban’s. If that wasn't enough to relax by, all of a sudden it stated pouring with thunder and lightning, the whole enchilada…it was pretty incredible….. the night air cooled a bit and believe me falling asleep to the sound of the rain coming down in Africa was … priceless!

The next morning at 5:30am we headed to the Elephant's Back Safari, which was really cool. I was paired with my sister Allison. The Pachyderm that we were to ride on supposedly starred in a few movies. Her name is Sebawke and she enjoyed a certain amount of celebrity amongst her peers. We were told that some visiting couples actually got married on her. It was a really cool experience and we saw some more Zebras and Giraffes as we walked around. We were lead by Ivan the Elephant keeper who had a pretty big gun with him, because you never know what danger you are going to run into in the Jungle.

Unfortunately the fun was almost over and we had to head back to the lodge for breakfast. After which we freshened up and loaded the cruisers for the ride back to the airfield. After all the racing around it turned out our chartered flight was running 45minutes late. Since we were right across the field from "Jurassic Park" we got in an extra half hour of safari time. While heading back to the plane after our "extra session" John our driver told us that this was the longest runway in the Southern Hemisphere and was an emergency runway for NASA to land its Space Shuttle.

Our flight from Jo-burg to Cape Town had a 4.5 hour layover. So we went to a sports bar and ordered lunch while watching a football match between Manchester and Chelsea. I went to the FIFA(soccer) store and pretty much bought the place out. All gifts for the Cuzn’s you know. Well I run into Dr. Robbins and he said that we got bumped up to an earlier flight which leaves in an hour. Oh boy! we needed to round everyone up and go... NOW. I ran back to the bar and got all my friends up and headed out. Turns out everyone JUST made it and we all got back to the ship safe and sound. Our Bus driver was the best, he passed all the other SAS buses so that we could get back and be first in line. Everyone has to go through ship security and there were 150+ people, so it took forever. We got on around 7:00pm, freshened up, went out to dinner and Long Street again.

We found out due to poor weather conditions and high swells there would be no cage diving in the morning. So we woke up and tried to go to Table Mountain, but that too was closed due to the high winds. We ended up walking around the city….Kyle, Sara, Jenny and I. We had a wonderful Easter lunch on Camps Bay at restaurant called Blues. After that we went to the Victoria Mall by the ship and found a Craft Market to buy some stuff. Then we went to Ferryman’s Bar on the waterfront which was famous because it was in the movie Invictus, we had a beer there and then got on the ship around 5pm.

It was an amazing port and everyone was sad that we were leaving! It turned out we couldn’t leave the harbor until 5pm the next day due to those high winds. But we where done in South Africa and couldn't do anything else that day as well. It was a heart breaker to wake up, still be docked and not being able to get off. We even had class that day to top it all off! As we were pulling out we saw why we couldn’t leave. The Ship had maybe 20 feet on both sides as we passed through a very narrow passage on the way out!

Well that was my Favorite port ..., Cape Town, South Africa. If anyone is ever looking into a Safari while visiting Cape Town, let me know because I'm in! Seriously, we can do it in two weeks, 10 days in Africa, then maybe 4 days in Mauritius….. ;)

After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
~ Nelson Mandela

Links:

Larry Ellison - Rising Sun Yacht
South Africa Winery - Groot Constantia
Karibu Restaurant - http://www.dining-out.co.za/member_details-MemberID-3254.html
Cape Town night life - Long Street

NASA Runway - Upington Airport