Leopards!

We were really lucky at Simbambili to see leopards more than once during our stay. Our first siting was a female who had treed an impala. When we first saw her, the poor deceased impala was in the tree and the leopard was lounging in the grass. Just chillin'.

We visited her again after dark and she was in the tree, chowing down. In the moment it seemed like the most natural thing in the world. Later when I looked at the pictures it just seemed gross.

This is another leopard. A male we followed for quite a ways.

More Photos

We Got Game

8 August

We landed at this tiny airstrip seemingly in the middle of nowhere and were met by 2 guys in a Land Rover who drove us to our first private game reserve, Simbambili. The driver, Lucky, was adorable and kept up a nervous and incomprehensible monologue - we think he was pointing out the sites, but can't be sure.

On the way we saw our first glimpses of "big game" in the wild - a herd of impala. Lucky told us that we'd definitely see the "big 5" (lion, leopard, water buffalo, rhino, and elephant) as well as others like giraffe and zebra.

We weren't exactly sure what to expect when we finally arrived at the lodge, but I can tell you we were not disappointed. Our ranger, Dean, and his gal Jill met us with cold vanilla-infused towels and homemade iced tea. They gave us the quick rundown of the place, including our schedule for the rest of the day, which thankfully started with free time (aka nap time).

The cabins at Simbambili

Lucky and his million-dollar smile

Our cabin is amazing, beautifully decorated with a private verandah overlooking a busy watering hole. There was a huge outdoor lounge bed and a plunge pool (too bad it was too cold to swim!).

The verandah

The schedule for the day includes a sunrise game drive (wake up time 5:00 am!) and an evening game drive that begins at 4:00pm. We found ourselves with a group of 8, including us, which is exactly half of the guests at the lodge. Dean and our tracker, Mamps, took us out in a tricked out Land Rover (open-air with ultra-reinforced undercarriage, a gun rack and a cocktail table) for a 3.5 hour trip around the bush.

Ranger Dean

Mamps the Tracker

Mamps sits on a special chair that is mounted to the hood of the Rover and keenly looks for animals, their tracks or dung, points out passable trails and obstacles and generally tells Dean where to go. Dean drives the Rover and keeps up a running commentary on the animals, including birds and bugs, as well as the surrounding plants and trees. We soon learn that Mamps doesn't say much, but he's like a Zen monk often giving just a small hand gesture to let Dean know that he's spotted something interesting.

Dean and Mamps mostly communicate with each other, and the other ranger/tracker teams over the radio, in Shangaan, also known as Tsonga, one of South Africa's 11 official languages. It makes the drive more mysterious, becuase you never really know what they are following we finally see it, or they decide that they want to tell us.

On this first drive, our first major siting was a herd of older male water buffalo (a bachelor herd) that have not managed to gain control over a breeding herd, and are now essentially on their own. They were hanging around the watering hole directly outside our lodge.

Water buffalo. They remind me of old time judges.

See?

We were driving crazily up and down rocky hills, running over small trees and lord knows how many small animals - when we were suddenly almost in the middle of about 12 elephants. It was incredible- there were 2 really huge females and 2-3 really adorable little ones.

I just can't get over these animals. I've been to zoos before, but this is unreal. How do they exist? My mind is officially blown.

Trio of Ellies

One of my favorite pictures so far.

At the watering hole with the Buffalo

Anne on the Rover

We were wlecomed back each night with hot towels and a glass of port.
Rough life.

Modern Girl's Guide to Travel (Part 1)

8 Aug 07

I'm definitely going to need a vacation from my vacation. With the exception of the lazy stretch of day in Franschhoek, our days are jam-packed and there is no end in site. I can't complain though, we're having an amazing time. The problem is that I don't get to write everything down until toward the end of the day and I feel like I've forgotten so much. Also, who knew my handwriting was so bad? The nuns would have a field day. I looked through my journal and thought I'd have to send it off to the Navajo people to decode it.

Big travel day today. The alarms shrieked us out of bed at 5-oh-oh. Weirdly, both Anne and I have our blackberry alarms set to "Antelope." Our driver was coming at 5:30 am to take us to the airport (12 Apostles, we hardly knew ye!) for our flight to Johannesburg. From Jo-Burg, we were catching another flight into the Kruger National Park area for our first safari game lodge.

A few words about the prep for this trip. I've never been one for prophylactic medicine, but when you are traveling to sub-saharan africa (or anywhere else in Africa, India, southeast asia, and parts of the Middle East) the CDC tends to want to get involved. So, about 6 weeks before the trip, I made an appointment with my PCP and had her fix me up with all the antibodies I could handle.

I was vaccinated for: hep A, typhoid, and polio. I was due for a tetanus shot so they gave me the old one-two punch of tetanus/diphtheria. Plus I left with prescriptions for Cipro and Diflucan and a lecture on the dangers of traveller's diarrhea . Last but not least, a course of mefloquine to combat malaria. I have to take it once a week starting the week before travel and take it weekly until 3 weeks after I return to civilization.

If I thought my medicine bag was full, get a load of Anne's:

Although I admit that I dipped into it more than once.
There's always room for Advil!

Loading up on Malarone and dramamine before the flight.

The flight from Capetown to Jo-Burg was uneventful (always a good thing). And check out our cool plane:

It was at Jo-Burg that we finally started to feel like we were really in Africa. We got hustled at the airport by two "porters" who insisted on helping us with our bags. We had to tip them to get rid of them. Luckily, they were satisfied with 5 Rand apiece (roughly 80 cents). Ah, the almighty dollar yet lives!

Our next flight was interesting. There were actually 2 planes on the tarmac waiting for us to carry a total of 18 passengers. Turned out that 16 of them were all together - one big happy family split between 2 tiny, tin can planes. Off to the bush to celebrate their Grandpa's (aka "the Colonel") 70th B-day.

Anne and I were in the slightly larger plane with the Colonel and the rest of his brood. The Colonel and I were stuck in the very back of the plane (I was in charge of the refreshments, not kidding). We were going to land at their camp first then take off again to get us to our camp.

Significantly smaller plane. You will notice a trend emerging here.

At least we can make sure the captain stays awake.

I missed my calling. Coffee, tea, or me?

The Colonel and I gabbed for most of the flight. He was full of theories about how the Muslims are systematically taking over the world. Meanwhile, up front, Anne played Flo Nightingale to a teenager with a nosebleed.

The flight was surprisingly smooth, except for the last 5 minutes when I think I may have re-discovered Jesus and almost let the Colonel re-baptize me with his orange Fanta.

This is not my beautiful life!

Capetown

Tuesday, 7 August

What a day. I'm totally exhausted. We had an early start because Christna was picking us up to take us into Capetown. My phone actually rang at 6:30 in the morning. I didn't recognize the number and I couldn't think who would be calling me at that hour. It's too early in Europe or UK and too late in NYC. No message. I actually obsessed over it for a little while, then finally shook it off. I regretted caving into the need for technology.

After photo-op-ing FCH, we headed out for the day. Our first stop was to see the penguins at Boulders National Park. They are so cute, and so out-of-place here.

The Welcoming Committee

They used to call these guys "jackass" penguins because their call sounds like a donkey. But I guess the penguins got offended, so now they just call them "African."

"Who you callin' a jackass?"

Anne at Boulders.

Our luck with the weather held out a little longer as we headed out toward Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. We took the funicular way up the mountains to get to the place where you hike to Cape Point. Once there, I was reminded not for the first time this trip how out of shape I am. We had to climb up a number of stairs to get to the lighthouse at Cape Point and I was sucking wind. Once I could breathe normally, I realized that it's kind of trippy to be at the tip of Africa.

Cape of Good Hope.
Total misnomer - loads of people died here on their way to the Cape.
They should have called it the Cape of Hope Against Hope.

Cape Point - most southwestern tip of Africa.

Pass the Dutchie.
These old Coke machines were in the funicular waiting area.

Yet another thing baboons and I have in common.

We grabbed a quick lunch and tried to make it to Table Mountain before the weather changed. But our luck ran out. Table Mountain is known for being covered with thick fog (nicknamed the "table cloth") which makes it impossible to see anything. We decided to go up anyway since we were there.

Yup. Can't see anything. And, it was cold!

Later on, as luck would have it, the fog started to clear.

We drove around a bit more and stopped for more scenic photo ops. I really wanted to buy a better camera so we headed off to the V&A Waterfront. Yes, a mall. Wonders never cease.

New camera purchased (contrary to my original belief that the strong dollar conversion would get me a great deal; I paid double what I would have paid in NYC. Bygones.) we headed to our hotel for the night, The Twelve Apostles.

It's a fabulous hotel in Camps Bay, which is actually not a very central location. We didn't care too much since we weren't planning on going out anyway, we had a really early flight out to Johannesburg in the morning.

The Twelve Apostles Hotel, from their website.

With the new camera

Sunset from the veranda