We packed up, had breakfast and bid goodbye to Blue on Blue. Our schedule over the next two days would take us to a few of the townships, the shanty towns to which the blacks and coloreds were forced when they were removed from Cape Town proper during Apartheid. We would also explore the rest of Cape Town and visit the wine country.
Our first stop was Langa, the first township to which blacks were relocated. It was a bit sobering to see the houses, some only makeshift shacks, and to hear the stories about how people lived and how the community grew. We heard stories from our guide about residents of the townships that hold excellent jobs yet continue to live there despite the means to leave since that is now their family and community. We also saw the new government housing that is springing up around the area, almost seeming like it's too little, too late.
Despite our concerns about visiting the townships just to gawk at the unfortunate conditions of this community, the visit to the community center was special. They take in local youths and teach them crafts like pottery, jewelry making, and beadwork. This gives them a way to earn a living by making crafts for tourists.
As a stark contrast to the townships, our next stop was the wine country outside of Cape Town. It was a nice relaxing afternoon after several very full days. We visited three vineyards and enjoyed some nice wines. Our guide dropped us off at our hotel in Cape Town in the evening and we explored the area around our hotel. Still under the spell of our safari adventure, we selected Arnold's for dinner which specializes in game meats. We had the sampler which included gemsbok, warthog, ostrich, and crocodile.
We spent the next day touring around Cape Town. We utilized to hop-on, hop-off bus to hit as much as we could. We made stops at the green market, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Hout Bay, and finally the Victoria & Albert Waterfront. It made for a long day and we tried to get to bed as early as we could since we had an early flight in the morning to head off to Zambia.
Aftrica Day 8,9: Townships, Wine Country, Cape Town
Africa Day 7: Cape Point
In the afternoon on Day 7, after our shark dive, our guide Chris picked us up at the dock and we set off toward the South to explore the Cape Point Nature Reserve. Our first stop was Boulders Beach, home to thousands of African penguins. To access the beach, we needed to walk through a residential area and then pay an entry fee as the beach is part of Table Mountain National Park.
Once inside, we followed the boardwalk that had been built on the beach. Before long something caught Lisa's eye and we noticed a penguin walking along in a narrow alley between the boardwalk and the beach. We saw the first of hundreds of makeshift "igloos" that rangers at the park had half buried in the sand as shelters for the birds. Apparently a pair of penguins just showed up about 30 years ago, and each year they would return and the population would grow.
We hung around only for a short while, but were treated to many penguins a body surfing penguin, a couple of playful sea otters, and a penguin that appeared to be playing "keep away" from two younger penguins with something in its mouth. We walked back to the car and were amazed by the sheer number of penguins, hiding out in the thick bushes that ran along the boardwalk back to the car.
We spent a bit of time up high above the water and sheer cliffs of Cape Point and took in the views of the Cape of Good Hope. We were treated to a bonus of a southern right whale that had moved into the inlet between Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope and stayed there for a while, just enjoying the blue water and beautiful day and showing off for us.
Africa Day 7: Simons Town
We had a long day on Day 6, but it was all travel. Three hour drive to Durban, two hour flight to Cape Town, and a half hour drive to St. James where we checked in to Blue on Blue, a nice B&B tucked up on the hillside above False Bay. We had beautiful views from our room and were within walking distance of the beach and the restaurants that lined it. Even though it was winter, there was quite a bit of car and foot traffic along the main drag that paralleled the coastline.
Day 7 was to be a long day and, to continue the theme, an exciting one geared toward viewing large animals. This time though, they were aquatic animals and apex predators...yes, we were going to try to see great white sharks. Unfortunately this meant we'd have to wake up before dawn yet again. We were met by our driver a the B&B at 6am. With a sunrise at 7am, our boat launched--shark cage lashed down on the back of the boat--at 6:40 so we could hit the waters around Seal Island right at sunrise, the prime feeding time for great whites. There were 16 of us on the boat including the captain and three crew members.
It was a very active day for feeding, according to our captain. Hopefully this would translate to significant activity for our late morning activity which was jumping into the shark cage to see the sharks face to face. We witnessed, in all roughly 20 predations, some more visible and frantic than others. It was difficult to capture good images or video since, as previously mentioned, the first hit on the seal was typically the most aggressive and occasionally resulted in the shark breaching the surface. But we saw some amazing athletic feats by the sharks and got at least one rather impressive series of images and good video during one particularly lengthy bout between shark and seal.
After the natural predations, the captain had the crew lower a decoy "seal" into the water and he towed the decoy around the island for about 15-20 minutes. We then returned to make another pass, but before they could let the decoy more than 30 feet from the boat, a great white leap out of the water and came splashing back down. Dave was one of the few on the boat lucky enough to witness this, but no one had their cameras or video ready since we hadn't really starting towing the decoy yet.
Shortly thereafter, the crew lashed the shark cage to the side of the boat and they began chumming in the water and dropped two "bait" lines into the water, one at the surface and one about 10 feet down. The first pair of divers readied themselves, climbing into their wetsuits. It took a little while, but we eventually saw a shadow passing the stern of the boat. The crew hustled the divers into the cage. This process continued and every once in a while, one of the sharks would attack the surface bait and we'd get a show. 
Then it was our turn to get in the cage. We suited up, lowered ourselves into the cages, and grabbed the regulators from the crew. It didn't take long until the first shark passed in front of the cage. Not too close, but certainly close enough to give us a great view. Then a few minutes later, another pass from the other direction. And finally, our closest encounter came when a much larger shark took the bait that hung below the surface and passed under the cage within a few feet of our feet. Awesome.
Africa Day 5: Zulu Nyala, Walking Safari Part 2
After a very eventful morning, we had a sole purpose for our afternoon walking safari: find elephants. William had a general idea where the three that we had seen previously had been in the morning, but elephants can cover over 20 miles per day, so there was no telling where they were now. But William was undeterred and crazy vigilant in working to pick up the trail of the elephants. We learned quite a bit about tracking elephants on the day.
William again asked us to be quiet, although it was a bit unnecessary at this point as our excitement hushed us as we prepared to close in on the animals. William also said to try to avoid stepping on any branches...and then promptly broke a twig with his next step. High comedy and we all, including William, fought to muffle our laughs. Before too long we had make our way to a clearing and we could see the head of one of the elephants as it reached its trunk up to feed on branches high up a tree. Then the elephants stopping eating and moving. We were made!
This was more than enough for William as he chambered a round on the rifle, told us to stay put, and then approached the animal yelling in a mix of English and Zulu until the elephant finally yielded and retreated. William then told us to get a move on and retreat along our escape route as the elephants would continue to follow us. We quickly headed back through the trees and came to a watering hole with an embankment on the far side. We quickly headed for the far side. After a few minutes, the determined elephants emerged from the same trees that we had come through. At William's urging, we quickly scampered behind the embankment and from our bellies watched as the animals scanned the scene to the best of their poor eyesight's ability, and then headed along the far side of the watering hole, lessening any immediate danger to us and we were able to stand on the embankment again and take some photos of the three across the pond.
We made our way back to our truck, which conveniently enough, after all of our circling was not far off. As we jumped in and began to recap our afternoon before heading back, another safari vehicle pulled up with a small group that had been out driving. We exchanged a few words with them and then, to our surprise, the three elephants paraded out from behind a thicket of trees, glanced at our truck, reached out their trunks to sniff the other truck, and then found a nearby bush to continue their feeding. We headed back to the lodge and said our goodbyes to William since we were headed off to continue our adventures in Cape Town the next day. We then enjoyed another great sunset and had a group dinner with our new friends from Atlanta.
Africa Day 5: Zulu Nyala, Walking Safari Part 1
After four days of riding in safari vehicles, today we were to set out on foot. We got to sleep in a bit and didn't have to meet William until 8am to head out. Jim and Jenny joined us so it would be five of us going on the walking safaris, the first of which would last for 3.5 hours this morning. We think that given the fact that we had a small group, William was more willing to push the boundaries of what he would normally do taking folks out on foot.
As a teaser to this post, we both agreed that this day was the highlight of our trip. We didn't see anything new of note and we didn't get anywhere near as close to the animals as we had on our game drives--with one notable exception. However, encountering the animals on foot was a completely different experience and we also learned far more about their behavior by being able to see things on the ground that we hadn't seen from the truck. You could tell by the serious tone that William adopted as he gave us the 10-minute instructional talk covering what we should do in various scenarios. Oh yeah, he also carried a rifle that could take down an elephant. He told us about the dangers of hippos and buffalos again, but particularly warned us about elephants. He described the difference between a mock charge and a real charge, pointing out that if we saw a real charge, he would have to shoot. He also told us not to run from a mock charge because that would lead to a real charge and that he would be better off shooting us.
We took off and first passed the hippos watering hole. We were hoping to see some of the hippos out of the water, but they had all already settled in to their spots. William then began showing us many things that we hadn't seen on the game drives. He showed us the trail that the hippos used to leave the water to feed and he explained how they mark their territory by spraying bushes with their dung. After we left the hippos, we immediately became aware that the animals react quite differently with us on foot. Oddly, outside of the vehicles, we immediately became a threat. The first indication was from a small herd of impala. They were bounding among the trees in the distance, but once they were aware that we were there, all of their heads turned to assess the situation.
Before long we came across a few buffalo grazing. We gave these animals the most distance with William hesitant to go closer than about 100 yards. One of the buffalo eventually spotted us and lifted its head up from grazing. Lisa asked if it would alert the rest of the herd and William's response was that it would if it perceived a threat. As if on queue, the buffalo trotted over to the rest of the herd and before long there were five buffalos staring in our direction. Time to move on for us.
We next came upon the same mother and child rhino that we had seen on our first day at the Zulu Nyala. The mother immediately was aware of our presence and kept a keen eye on us. At a distance of less than 50 yards, we were well aware that the rhino could close that distance rather quickly, but while she was watchful over us, she didn't seem overly concerned by us and they eventually strolled off.
After the rhinos, we quickly came upon several giraffes. Similar to the impalas, the giraffes immediately all turned as we approached. William, for obvious reasons, was less concerned about the giraffes, so he led us closer to see how close we could get to them. But each time we advanced, the would gallop away and then keep an eye on us. They would lose interest rather quickly until we started to advance on them again and the process would start over. Upon leaving the giraffes we saw several different animals off in the distance: zebra, wildebeest, and impala.
We then hiked for quite a while in the heat of the morning to try to find where the cheetahs were hiding out from the late morning sun. After hiking for a while we came upon an area where a cheetah had been spotted. We spent a fair amount of time moving through the brush. It wasn't that dense because there had been a controlled burn in the area in the not too distant past, but there was still a maze of small trees, some with pretty sizable thorns. Then, through the branches, we spotted the young male cheetah, relaxing in the shade. We were a bit concerned when William laid the rifle against a tree, out of reach, as we moved closer to the cheetah.
We then began our long hike back to our game vehicle so that we could head back for lunch. On the way, William took a few moments to get into a conversation with some birds, tschagras. He whistled their call and then after a few seconds one of them mimicked it. After another short pause, another call from another bird in a different tree in another direction, then a third, and so on. Very amusing. William also stopped to show us a nest in a tree. He approached and shook it, sending thousands of cocktail ants scurrying over the nest and his arms. He encouraged us to grab the nest as well to get ants on our own arms, but his reactions to the bites on his own arms discouraged all of us.
Shortly after that, we found ourselves again approaching the hippo's pond. In the distance we could see that a few of the hippos were on the bank. William quickly and quietly ushered us into the brush in the hopes of getting closer for photos without alerting the beasts. However, before we could get asightline, we heard loud splashes telling us that they had returned to their afternoon napping place. We emerged onto the bank to view them in the water, when we heard a sound close to the shore, far to close for William. He chambered a round in the rifle (not the last time he would do that this day) and hustled us along for about 50 yards until we were clear and certain that no hippos were after us. Clearly William had a great deal of respect for the danger posed by these animals. After a short stroll, we arrived back at our game vehicle and returned to the lodge. We figured that we probably covered eight or so miles during our morning walking safari. William told us to meet in mid-afternoon for walking safari, part two.
Africa Day 4: Zulu Nyala, Hluhluwe National Park, Emdoneni
Waking up on Day 4 was particularly painful. Although we'd only been at Zulu Nyala for three full days, it seemed like it had been weeks with all that we had seen. The other reason it seemed so long is that we'd been meeting William for game drives at 6:15am. Well today would be different. We had to meet William at 5:15am. We were heading to the oldest national park in Africa, Hluhluwe-Imfolozi National Park. The drive to Hluhluwe was about 40 minutes and we did it in the open air Land Cruiser safari vehicle. We had the luxury of canvas sides that William was kind enough to put up, but it was ridiculously cold.
There would be several differences in our experience today. Hluhluwe is huge, lots more animals, but it covers a much larger area. In addition, being public land, we didn't have the luxury of heading off the network of roads, which could make animals harder to track and spot. We were warned by William that we might not get many good sightings today. Well, the luck that had been accompanying us all trip was with us at Hluhluwe as well. We were at the gates to the park just before the 6am opening time. We had driven less than two miles or so into the park when we were forced to stop in our tracks. We hadn't even left the paved portion of the main road that leads into the park. Ahead of us on the road were a large male and female lion. We could tell immediately that the male had an injury to his front paw. This, however, didn't seem to prevent him from pacing along the side of our vehicle. Lisa was in the "death seat", nearest to the cat as it glanced menacingly in our direction. William warned us to remain silent. Lisa had been taking a video and she remained so still she refused to stop the video, so we now have 12 minutes of the lion pacing and glaring directly up at us, barely 10 feet away.
After some time, he lost interest in us and regained interest in his mate. Yes, we could tell very soon that these two cats were in the midst of mating when we had come upon them. And before to long, they ignored us and got back to it. "Lion porn" was the joke of the day, but what a thing to experience. William told us that it was quite likely that the paw of the male could have been injured by the female as the mating process is painful for the female. Apparently, they will try this many times over the course of a few days while the female is in heat. We decided to give them some privacy and move on.
The expansiveness of Hluhluwe was apparent as the road curled around and over hills, presenting us with some amazing views of the morning mist breaking up the canopy of trees in the distance. We had a few "routine" game sightings including a standoff with two buffalo on the road, monkeys picking food morsels out of elephant dung along the side of the road, two vultures perched high atop a tree waiting to scavenge. We then stopped for a short picnic breakfast and an opportunity to do some jumping jacks as the morning chill was still in the air and several in our group still had blankets wrapped around them in addition to hats and gloves and jackets. At the rest area where we had lunch, William was told by the security guard there that there was a buffalo carcass nearby in the river that ran adjacent to where we were. William said we would give it a little while and then return later in the morning to potentially capture crocs feeding on the carcass. We ran out of luck here and although we saw some crocs, there was no feeding to witness.
Our morning was capped off with an elephant "hunt". William was at it again, checking dung to see how fresh it was, checking the ground for elephant tracks, but it was fruitless. Since we couldn't go off road, running into elephants at this point would have to be left up to luck. We saw none that day. We did, however, have a great glimpse of a herd of impala and a few zebras dotting the hillside, a true African landscape. We also got a glimpse of some varied bird life and also several white rhino bedded down for their late morning nap. 
After lunch, we headed off for Emdoneni Park which is a cheetah rehab center. Our guide there took us through the feeding of various cats from the African wild cat to the caracal to the serval and finally the cheetahs. Most all of the cats here were either orphaned in the wild and brought here or they were victims of misguided folks that tried to raise them as domesticated pets. The goal of the rehab center is to take the cats they have, breed them and then release the young back to game reserves to be raised by cats in a more natural setting. The African wild cats looked just like house cats except several pounds heavier. The caracals were amazing. The keeper would throw a piece of chicken over a 7-foot fence to the cats, but they would not wait for the meat to hit the ground, leaping high in the air to catch it just as it cleared the fence. Amazing hops. We were able to view these cats close up while they were eating and even pet the servals as they ate. There were also young serval kittens that we were able to pick up by the scruff of their necks and pet as we held them.
But this was our first experience to get up close and personal with cheetahs outside of our game vehicle. We were warned by the guide before we entered their enclosure to leave our backpacks outside approach the cheetahs from behind and not leave anything on the ground if we wanted to see it again. These were tame cats used to people, but they loved to play and humans typically get the worst of it playing with cheetahs. He got one of the cats to lie down and then we took turns petting the animals. This was to be the first encounter of several with big cats in a controlled environment.After dinner this evening, we set out on a night game drive, leaving at around 8pm. We had been told by someone at the lodge that it was William's birthday, so we surprised him with a chorus of "Happy Birthday" as he climbed into the truck. He was embarrassed and thanked us, but then it was back to business as he was hopeful that we would find the leopard as they are more active in the evenings. However, we would have no luck this evening. Basically, William drove us around with a spotlight in one hand, scanning the surrounding area for glowing eyes. It was a bit cold and the animal activity was low. We did get to glimpse a large porcupine crossing the path in front of us and also saw a spotted genet, which is somewhat akin to a lemur. We didn't get a good view of it, but after the game drive we were having a cocktail and as luck would have it another genet crossed our path as we were walking back to our room.
Africa Day 3: Zulu Nyala, Nompondo Village
We planned for a full day on Day 3 and it ended up getting even more jam-packed. We took off on our morning game drive and again tried to find the cheetahs to see if they were on the hunt. We found the male cheetah, but after a while of watching him relax in the morning sun, despite a few poses that seemed to indicate he was on alert to hunt, we realized that he just wasn't ready yet. So as our final task before we headed back for breakfast, we tracked the elephants we had seen the night before.
To find the elephants, William tested the limits of our Land Cruiser and before long we were so far off road on a hillside, that not a one of us thought we would be able to get back on the path. Still no elephants though. It's amazing how something so big can hide so well. But William was not deterred and he stood up in the vehicle and told us to be quiet. "Did you hear that?" he asked. No one heard anything. But sure enough, a few more moments passed and all of us could hear the rustling of branches and before long the three elephants came into view. This time they approached the truck and seemed to display a bit of disdain that we had invaded their morning foraging territory. The largest of the three approached our vehicle and seemed to sniff the front grill. In the truck, we were assured by William, they posed no danger. It didn't make it any less exhilarating.
They then passed on by, however, continuing their path of destruction until for some reason they pulled an about face and headed back in our direction. The three were all females and they always seemed to move about in the same order with the smallest of the three in the middle. As they passed us for a second time, the smallest, who seemed to have the most attitude, turned her head toward us, raised her trunk in our direction, gave a short trumpet, and, in Lisa's words, "flipped us off".
After the game drive, William told us to be ready early for the afternoon game drive as the plan was to follow the cheetah, who would almost certainly be hunting. However, before that we had a short late morning trip planned to Nompondo, a local Zulu village. We had mixed feelings about the trip. On one hand, we were curious to see how the locals lived, but on the other, we felt uneasy about the hypocrisy of going into depressed areas. Some of our concerns were warranted as we first were escorted to a small local grocery amidst a moderately populated area with ramshackle structures made of a mixture of traditional building materials like sticks, thatch, and clay and more recent materials like bricks, tin roofs, etc. The grocery mainly was an opportunity to buy some local crafts, but it was tough to shake the feeling that we were a mixed blessing to the local folks. We won't get into my personal feelings too much about this excursion and two other similar visits we'd make to local communities (the shanty townships of Cape Town and the Mukuni Village in Zambia) and instead focus on the positives. The school visit in Nompondo was rewarding as it was great to see that even in an area where unemployment is 65%, they make a concerted effort to provide a strong education for the youth (perhaps the unemployment rate is a good incentive to prioritize education). The kids were amazing and sang a wonderful folk song to us, "Sho sho loza", which tells the tale of when people in the village used to ride on the train for days to go work in the coal mines and used to sing the song to encourage the train to get them home faster. Unfortunately the most meaningful song that our group could come up with to sing back to the students was "Old MacDonald". Moving on.
We got back to the lodge, had lunch and then met up with William. We spent a while driving around but William was unsuccessful in picking up any sign of the cheetahs and no word had come in from any of the lookout points, so we moved on. Probably the highlight of the afternoon's drive was a close encounter with two male kudu. There was not as much brush this time, so we had clear sight lines and one trotted ahead of us on our path. These are truly magnificent. A second highlight of the drive was a showdown between two male nyala. We had no idea why they were sparring, but the entertainment value for us was rather high. We also had the fortune of seeing a malachite kingfisher which is apparently somewhat rare and elusive. Dave snapped a few images from a distance and caught the bird in flight which excited William. Other afternoon sightings included a herd of wildebeest and our first time seeing a giraffe drink. Giraffe's necks are not flexible enough to reach the ground so they have to crouch down in a very uncomfortable looking position to reach the water. Making it all the more humorous is the process they go through to drink. Once they are in their crouch, they are prone to attack. This is the only time that a lion will attack a giraffe. So their head is on a swivel, looking right then left then right. Then they will start to crouch and something will spook them, so it's right back up again to begin the process. After several minutes of this, they finally get into their crouch and begin to drink. Upon finishing, they then whip their head back up and spit out any remaining water, apparently because their nasal passages are flat and they might choke on the water.
We watched for what seemed like forever, but probably was around 20 minutes or so, as the cheetah pulled the hide off the animal and ate, first from the hind quarters (the tender part) and then from the neck and breast area. We could hear bones snapping and our silence seemed to increase the sounds of the feast. Not for the faint of heart. Dave kept moving from one side of the truck around to the other to photograph it from different angles in William's spotlight. At one point, as Dave came around the vehicle, the cheetah took notice, stopped eating, cast an ominous glance in Dave's direction and hissed. Now Dave's been hissed at plenty by our cats, particularly Nigel, but none of those incidents had quite the bladder loosening effect of a large male cheetah hissing at him. After a while, the cat left the meal and just trotted off. William was surprised as this behavior was strange for cheetah's who will usually stay with the meal until finished. Despite the incredible experience, Lisa told William that it was great, but asked when we would see an actual hunt and kill. Dave later joked that, judging by the look on William's face at that point, they almost did.
One more stop before we got back to the lodge and we arrived at the base of a cliff wall. William shone the spotlight up on the wall and we could see baboons sleeping on the face of the cliff. Apparently it's a rather safe place to avoid being eaten by nocturnal predators. We put an exciting Day 3 in the books after a pre-dinner wine gathering with Jim and Jenny, and the three other couples in our group from Atlanta (Bill & Flo, Randy & Gloria, Al & Jane).
