Author: Jack

Today was a slow start to the morning but paired with a beautiful sunrise. The landscape was stunning with the clouds painted with pinks and oranges and the arid savannah coming to life with golden light. We came across two male ostrich right off, hanging about and giving us the stink eye. Moving on, we came across a yellow banded mongoose in the road with a kit! It was adorable and for some strange reason they weren’t running from us! The mom was about the size of a small cat and the kit was the size of a chipmunk. The kit kept playing with mom and just running around in spastic circles while mom put up with it patiently.

After that we searched for awhile till we found a pack of lions. This pack had a whole bunch of little ones, a few adolescents, as well as a few aunties of course. They were mostly just hanging out under some bushes, doing what Lions do best, sleeping. After watching that for a bit we headed back to the lodge for lunch deciding to come back in the afternoon when they might be more active.

Fabulous lunch, way too much good food at this place. During our afternoon break we got to see a giraffe and Oryx hang out at the lodge’s waterhole, both incredibly suspicious of them humans watching them! Then out on safari again!

This time on safari we got the pleasure(?) of a rare fall rain storm. Luckily it only rained a bit along the way to the lions and we were provided ponchos. Once at the lions we watched the young ones perk up and start to play with eachother until the rain returned with a vengeance! We waited for a bit, but then when the lions started to hide our Guide Richard drove us, as best can be described, into a small tree. The tree provided a little shelter but we had ponchos and our tracker Fez had proper rain gear. Richard was not so lucky, he got drenched in cold rain and we only later found out it was his 39th birthday. Ouch.

Once the rain cleared the lions came out and started getting to work cleaning the rain off their coats. Once accomplished, the little ones were ready for some play! They started hunting and springing onto eachother, slowly stalking the others around the bushes. They were having a grand ol time and pretty soon got the adults joining in. Mom was getting pounced on by three cubs at a time and her nephews’ we’re stalking eachother. Magical, just like house cat kittens.

We watched them for quite awhile and then went to look for another lioness from this pack that had just taken down a kill for her four cubs. We raced across the savanna, trying to get to them before we lost the light. Around us a glorious sunset was playing across the sky and mountains. Incandescent oranges and pale blue clouds followed as until we finally found them, all hiding in a shrub, the cubs gorging themselves on Pumba, oops, I meant warthog. Sadly they were rather hidden so off to the airport 30 meters away for G&Ts amongst the chattering weavers. When leaving we got a surprise, momma was out sleeping in the road right in front of the gate to the airport and the gore covered cubs were playing in the grass. Our Guide had to put a spotlight on the lioness’s eyes so our tracker could unlock the game gate to get us out of the airport. It was a tense couple minutes, all of us holding our breaths that should would be night blinded enough for long enough. An exciting end to a lion of a day! Ha

5/6/21

Today I was determined to have a fabulous hike and boy did Cape Town deliver! After a quick drive to the table mountain, we decided to climb one of it’s off shoots called The Lion’s Head. This rocky tower sits watch over Cape Town and Camps Bay, jutting high into the air right on the Atlantic. The hike began normally enough with a trail slowly spiraling up the head. Along the way a giant grove of Silver Trees (Leucodendron argentum) surrounded us, shimmering in the early sunlight. The hike got progressively harder and more rocky, soon we were walking purely along rock shelves, the soil left behind. Then the fun began, ladders! After a few of these and some mighty narrow rock faces, taking many breaks along the way, we started a hybrid hike/climb for the rest of the way. It was a work out! And then to Matt’s chagrin, we came to a pure climbing section on metal handholds bolted into the rock face. It was so much fun!!! Then after a little more hike/climb we reach the top, and wow, it was glorious! The views were 360° up in the clouds, with table mountain looming behind us and peeks of Cape Town in the fog below. Just breathtaking. It felt like you were at the edge of the world, overwhelmed by the enormity.

 

 

The hike down we dreaded but it ended up not being bad at all, the rock hopping and climbing definitely easier on the way down. The fog had crept up to join us so the temperature was delightfully cool and about 3/4 of the way down we spotted a falcon, just hanging out in a rock above us. After many a photo we headed back to our car and out for a late lunch.

For lunch we headed to the Victoria Waterfront, a giant shopping area along the harbor near our hotel with lots of restaurants. We picked at random and ended up with just a great meal, scallops with pineapple and grains (trust me it worked), calamari with avocado and anchovy tartar sauce (again, trust), and finally some Mozambique Prawns in a spicy curry sauce that I could eat by the gallon!

Back to the hotel to drop off our car, we had an impromptu gin tasting and a bit of a relax before our reservations at the fanciest restaurant in Cape Town, The Test Kitchen.

Matt had been wanting to go to this restaurant ever since he saw it in Somebody feed Phil and because of Covid, we were able to get a res on very short notice, usually the wait being at least 6 months. We grabbed an Uber to get over there, having a very in depth conversation with our driver about 80’s American soft rock, and he dropped us off in the middle of what looked like an industrial district. After wandering for a few minutes we finally found the restaurant hidden away in an old biscuit factory and were ushered into pure culinary delight!

We got a full 7 course tasting menu of delectable treats too numerous to count. Our favorites were a broth extraction made out of celeriac and dashi with the most umami mushrooms you have ever tasted, a coconut laksa that was spicy and savory, and a beef tairtare with yorkshire pudding that was fabulous! Along with these we got to try many wonderful South African wines and just had a splendid time! After a very filling meal back to the hotel, tomorrow early we’re off to Tswalu Kalahari!!  

5/4/21

5/3/21

Wow was today a plant day! I was in heaven!!!! We started off the day visiting one my favorite spots on Earth, the incomparable Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. This garden was established in the early 1900’s and specialized in the Fynbos plants, the local ecology around Cape Town and the Southern Cape made up of what the Dutch derogatorily called “little bushes”. These are my absolute favorite, at least half my garden is made up of these plants and I’m sure many of you have many plants from here as well. Geraniums, Heathers, Proteas, Gladiolas, Pincushions, Bird of Paradise, Freesias, all come from this area. It truly is a plant mecca.

 

On week days they offer free tours of the garden and we were lucky enough to be the only ones there, so we got a private tour! Our tour guide was a lovely lady named Dot that had been volunteering there for over 35 years. She knew all the history of the garden going back to when it was originally a farm to supply trade ships going between Europe and Asia. Her plant knowledge was astounding so we just had a ball! After a three hour tour we went for lunch and then got back into the gardens by ourselves. The backdrop of the gardens is the awe inspiring Table Mountain, making the whole place feel like you’re in Jurassic Park. The whole area is a buzz with sunbirds, the South African equivalent of a hummingbird, honking Ibis, nannering Guinea Fowl, and Egyptian geese, completely unphased by anything. After exploring all the wonderful plants, Silver Trees, ancient Cycads, and rare Aloes, we called it a day and headed back to hotel. We ended up spending 7 hours hiking around that truly special place.

5/3/21

What an awesome day, great views, great animals, great food, and best of all great company!

Today we’re started with a drive along Chapman’s Peak Drive, think Devil’s Slide pre-tunnel, on the wrong side of the road, and curvier, and cliffier! Luckily driving on the other side of the road was easier this time so it wasn’t nearly as daunting. We stopped at Chapman’s Peak trail and hiked up it for awhile. Talk about straight up, it was a grueling trail, hopping from boulder to boulder, going up the mountain, it was too much! We made it half way and called it quits. Still got some gorgeous views, beautiful flora, and our workout for the day.

We then drive to Hout Bay for lunch at a famed fish and chips place. Gorgeous bay with old cannons and a fun atmosphere, we grabbed our food and took it to a brewery a block away to eat. Got some great hoppy lager at Urban Brewery and had a lovely lunch of calamari, fish, peri peri shrimp, and chips. Peri peri is a red creamy sauce with a kick!

 

After a most filling lunch, we continue our drive along Chapman’s Peak road with it’s terrifying curves and its sheer cliffs, to Simon’s Town. It’s about an hour out of Cape Town and is one of two places you can see African penguins on the mainland. On the aptly name Boulders Beach, numerous penguins are just hanging out, doing their penguin things. They have such quirky personalities, they really make you giggle. Occasionally looking at your like you’re a really big worm and trying to figure out how to eat you, to cleaning their wings in what feels an almost superstitious way, to finally braying like donkeys at each other for imagined infractions. They are great fun! We decide to walk around the beach a bit and along the way saw some Rock Hyraxes sunbathing on the boardwalk. They’re a cute animal the looks like an enormous hamster and is the closest living relative to an elephant. Then along the boardwalk a few meters later, I was walking down some stairs and something attacks my feet! Let me tell you, I jumped! I turned around and two penguins were cuddling under the stairs and I had rudely disturbed them! So grateful I was for wearing shoes that day, those pecks would have hurt!!!!

That evening we had the delight of meeting our travel agent for dinner in Camps Bay at a delicious seafood place.  Bianca has planned trips for us for many many years and has been a life saver so many times.  She made this current trip happen in two weeks which is unheard of for African safaris.  She was such a delight, we stayed late (for our jet-lagged selves) chatting about our lives, travel, politics and you name it, it was fabulous! Over the years we’ve gotten snippets of each other’s lives through email so it was truly wonderful to finally meet this friend in person!

5/2/21