A Safari Story . . .

My safari story is full of woulda, coulda, shouldas, but that’s the adventure of travel and I don’t regret a thing that happened.

As I wrote in an earlier entry, four of us decided to book a two day safari since we weren’t going to Kenya. Well, the safari snowballed until we had 40 people on the morning we departed. About half of them were friends that we had told to get in on the safari. However, there was also a solid group of SASers that the travel agent had just tacked on to our trip. Now, I’m usually a very social, “the more the merrier” type person, but I just knew right off the bat that this would just be too many people. I think that it’s because I felt somewhat responsible for everyone having a good time since we were the ones who put it together. And trust me, there were bumps in the road . . .

The drama began immediately. We had been told the night before that the travel agent had continued to sell spots in the safari even though there weren’t enough rooms at the lodge. So, only about half the people who had signed up could stay at the nice five star lodge and the rest had to stay at a hotel nearby. So, one of the guys who had initially set up the safari with me, took over the list and chose the people who we knew to go in the lodge. So, come the morning when the safari was leaving and people started finding out that they weren’t staying in the five star lodge, there was trouble . . . Enough said on that topic. You get the point. Basically the one guy just made an announcement and said “Listen, we booked this safari. We invited our friends. We’re happy that you’re with us. But, I was asked to choose who stayed in the lodge, and obviously, I chose the people who I know. If you have a problem with the situation, talk to the travel agent when you get back.”

It was supposed to be a three and a half hour drive to the lodge and we were supposed to stop in some historic town for a nice lunch. Well, apparently, we had to hurry up and get to the lodge for our game drive, so we didn’t have time to stop for lunch. So, instead, we stopped at two separate hole in the wall stops and our tour guide grabbed a million random snacks and drinks to tide us over. I tried Billock sticks. They were some type of jerky. I haven’t been able to figure out what kind of meat it was yet though. I’m thinking like some sort of deer. Anyways, our three and a half hour drive became a five hour drive. I occupied myself at the back of the bus playing rummy with the cool kids (sarcasm). Anyways, I actually had a really rowdy, fun time on the bus ride. A lot of people slept. That probably would have been a good idea for me, but I’m like a little kid with naps. I fight them. I never want to miss anything.

Anyways, we finally arrived at the lodge around 1 p.m. It was absolutely gorgeous. It was set in the middle of a game park full of African Safari animals. The lodge itself was one of those rustic looking on the outside, completely beautiful and romantic places on the inside. Definitely somewhere you would dream about having a honeymoon. There was a main lodge area that had reception and a large sitting room filled with big leather couches, heavy wooden tables, large pictures of safari animals, a fireplace, and a bar.

You walked out the French doors onto the large patio that led to a deck behind the main lodge as well as a walk way to the rooms. In the backyard, there was a beautifully landscaped pool/Jacuzzi/sauna area, a round rustic looking building which served as a dining room, and a beautiful view of the hillside spotted with little cabanas. I had a room in the main lodge. The rooms varied a little, but were pretty close to the same. They were all huge and incredible. Mine had a king sized bed with gorgeous linens, a mosquito net which was set up to look like a canopy, a zebra skin rug, gorgeous art, and a huge bathroom with a big tub.

After checking out the lodge, we had a small lunch of assorted sandwiches. Then at two o’clock we loaded safari jeeps and took off on our first safari. Now, let me point out, the place we were was a game park. What that means is that the reserve was privately held and the animals were likely bought and placed on it. The property itself was fenced in. However, it was so large that you didn’t really see the fences unless you were driving on the property line. In addition, the park was only a couple years old, so it wasn’t really filled with as many animals as a fully developed park would have been. I actually had no idea that this was how the “safari” was going to be, so I was a little disappointed at first. However, the guide did some really cool interactions to demonstrate how the animals would react in certain situations. And, we saw all the big five animals (lions, cheetahs, elephants, rhinos, and zebras) along with a plethora of other animals during our two game drives. On that drive we saw: two elephants, two rhinos, one bontebok, three lions, eleven wildebeest, two giraffe, and nine zebras.

After the safari, we returned to the lodge to a roaring fire and a glass of local sherry. Then the party began. People started buying bottles of wine and getting toasty around the fire. Before dinner, we witnessed an amazingly beautiful African sunset. It set right over the hill that had the little round bungalows (which was my favorite view). Then, there was dinner . . . . and, was it ever an event . . . The dining room was in a small round building separate from the main lodge building. Inside it was dimly lit with torches and candles. The tables were arranged in a circle around the perimeter of the room. The tables themselves were giant picnic type tables. Some had bench swings instead of picnic table benches on one side. In the center of the room were two different buffet areas. One had the main food and one was more of a salad and dessert bar. The dinner consisted of lots of wonderful dishes: some usual (potatos and roast beef) some more exotic (such as ostrich). Everything was terrific (the salads, the entrees, the side dishes, the rolls, and the desserts)! I mean REALLY terrific! And, guess what, not only did I try alligator in Cape Town, but I tried ostrich that night. People raved that it tasted a lot like really good steak. I thought it tasted like a flavorless, gamey steak. It wasn’t awful, but I definitely didn’t have seconds.

Anyways, the rest of the night was spent socializing among bottles of wine, shots of tequila, and the amazing African night. The stars were almost as good as in the Orinoco Delta (fondly nicknamed the Noc), but not quite. I did try out the luke warm Jacuzzi and the sauna, but, did I mention, it was winter in South Africa, so the night air was a little chilly. The bar closed down at midnight, and shortly after, people started drifting off to bed. I had the best sleep that I’d had in weeks and took a luxurious bath in the morning. It was truly a little piece of African heaven.

The next morning, we had to check out first thing. Then, we were treated to a luxurious breakfast in the dining building. At nine we embarked on our second, and last, safari. I think that this morning’s safari was even better than the one the night before. We saw two elephants, two giraffes, four bontebok, three buffalo, and four lions. Then we were taken into the cheetah habitat for a walk. We saw two of the three cheetahs. Coincidentally, they fed the cheetahs as we came in so that they were pretty busy gnawing on their hens. It was still pretty cool to walk so close to them though. They are definitely far from domesticated animals. After the cheetah walk, we checked out a reptile farm on the land. We saw a ton of big African snakes and had the opportunity to hold one. I didn’t hold it, but I touched it.

After our last safari adventure, it was time for our ride back to Cape Town. It was a complete adventure. We were supposed to stop for lunch. The restaurant we were going to was supposed to have a nice lunch all ready for us. Well, when we got there, they didn’t. Since there were forty of us and we only had one hour until we had to get back on the road, it was somehow decided that it would make more sense to go to the fast food place in the gas station across the street from the restaurant. Boy, was that a disaster and a half. Fast food in South Africa is not like fast food in America. We did end up getting back on the road in about an hour and a half, but I don’t think that many people actually got their full order. It was a mess.

So, we settled in for the remaining four hours of the journey back to the ship. Now, remember, our ship is leaving this very evening, and three of us have to be back on the ship two hours early because we have dock time. After about twenty minutes on the road, the bus driver stops, gets out of the bus and then gets back on without saying anything. A couple minutes later, they announce that we have a flat tire and we have to go to a station to have it changed. Well, it’s Sunday, so this “quick” process took around an hour and a half. By the time we got back on the road, it was around three o’clock and we supposedly had a four hour drive ahead of us. I personally had to be on the ship by seven. It was cutting it close, but I just rolled with the punches and laughed internally at the situation. Whatever. How could I be unhappy.

As we approached the harbor, the sun was just setting over the mountains. It was a gorgeous scene. It reminded me so much of when we had pulled into port a week earlier. It was almost the same exact scene except the complete opposite (looking from the other direction, with the sun going in the opposite direction). I thought it was the perfect ending to my stay in South Africa.

And, that was indeed the ending. We got back to the ship just in time for me to rush on and make my dock time. I met up with some of the people who I had been with when I’d gotten dock time and had some dinner. However, I didn’t end up getting to see the ship pull out of Cape Town because I ended up having to help “baby sit” an intoxicated friend. But, that was ok, because I felt like the sunset was my goodbye to Africa.