Day 2 at Shamwari

Not to worry, don't think we'll be bloggin every day of our time here, but today was pretty cool.  We set out at 5:45 this morning (it was freezing) to meet up with the Shamwari vets.  They had to move a couple of female Cape Buffalo out of the existing herd and move them to meet a new bull, trying to set up a new breeding herd.  Interesting factoid:  a large, disease-free Cape Buffalo bull can cost more than $2M.  Anyway, we located the herd and hung out until the vets arrived.  Their first order of business was to tranquilize the 2 females they selected with their dart gun

Nice shot!

Next step was for the vet (with the help of an able assistant) to check that the cow was not pregnant:

(yes, he does have his whole arm up in there)

Then into the trucks for the ride to meet their new boyfriend:

This afternoon was a bit less glamorous - out with machetes cutting down prickly pear cactuses (cactii?).  They're an invasive plant originally imported by farmers as a supplemental food for their herds during times of drought.  They're spreading too far, and its an uphill battle to keep them under control, but we did what we could.  Nothing picture-worthy - I'm sure you're all disappointed.....
 
 

 

 
 

Shamwari, No. 2 and No. 5

Arrived at the Shamwari Game Reserve yesterday afternoon.  We are in a group of 13 volunteers from the UK, Denmark, Switzerland, Australia and the US.  We awoke this morning to a large African rain spider on the wall of our bedroom.  Nice start!

Our first activity of the day was helping in a study of the feeding habits of brown hyenas and African wild cats.  This involved analyzing the contents of the brown hyena scat (No. 2) and the stomachs of the wild cats.  Just another day at the office.....

Melanie rinsing hyena scat:

African wild cat stomach:

After lunch, we headed out for rhino monitoring.  We drove around in search of rhino on the reserve, and then had to record our sitings of specific animals based on notches in their ears.  In addition to the rhinos, we saw lots of other cool stuff:

Pumba:

Zazu:

And not from the Lion King, the Cape Cobra (the deadliest snake in South Africa):

And best of all, No. 5 of the "Big 5", the elusive leopard:

Tomorrow morning we head out at 5:45 a.m. for a very full day of work.  Stay tuned.....
 
 

 
 
 

Smile you sonofabitch!

Leaving the Aquila Game Reserve, we drove down to the Garden Route, a series of very picturesque towns along the coast between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.  First stop was Mossel Bay, where we got to check off one of our "bucket list" activities - cage diving with the great white sharks.  Melanie was the only woman on the boat with the cojones to get in the cage.  Melanie's face is less than 12 inches from Jaws:

Next, it was on to the Knysna elephant park.  The ellies were tame in comparison:

Today, we spent the day in Plettenberg Bay - the playground of South Africa's wealthy.  The beach is gorgeous, and the surfing is great (though neither of us are surfers).  Tonight, I ate Springbok for the first time, though it didn't seem quite so foreign since Melanie bought a Springbok pocketbook in Cape Town.  Tomorrow, we head to Port Elizabeth in search of the elusive "laundromat".  Having been on the road for 15 days, most of our clothes are ready to walk by themselves.  One night in PE, then on to Shamwari on Monday, where we'll be spending the next 8 weeks.

Overheard a conversation a couple of nights ago between an American tourist and a South African:  the tourist said she was planning on going home to the States.  The South African told her she couldn't go, "didn't you hear, America is closed".

Funny vignette for the week:  we were at dinner tonight, and a party of German tourists next to us kept looking over at our table.  Melanie asked them why they kept looking at us.  They said they had seen a mouse under our table.  Melanie was more scared of the mouse than she was of being in the water with a great white shark.  Go figure!
 
 

 

Aquila Private Game Reserve

After leaving Cape Town yesterday, we drove 2 1/2 hours through wine country to the Aquila Private Game Reserve.  Originally a sheep farm, Aquila now is home to a wide variety of wildlife, including the Big 5 (elephants, rhino, lion, leopard and Cape Buffalo), on a 15,000 acre property.  Due to their proximity to Cape Town, they are a prime tourist destination.  We went out on 2 game drives in a Land Rover, as well as one trip out on horseback.  Melanie took a large number of amazing pictures.  Here are just a few examples:

 

 

4 out of 5 of "the Big 5", so far...... 
 
 
 

Last Day in Cape Town

Tuesday was our last day in Cape Town and we had 2 more important sites to visit  - Table Mountain and Robben Island.

The hike up the iconic Table Mountain was tough (tougher for me than Melanie), but the views of the city made it worth it.

 

 

 Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent most of his 27 years of imprisonment, was a very moving experience, and reinforced what an incredible man he was - to emerge from prison able to make peace with those who imprisoned him, rather than to seek revenge.

Mandela's cell - 2x3 meters

A great way to end our time in Cape Town.  A fantastic city that we most definitely will come back to again.
 
 

Another Glass of Pinotage?

Having been in Napa and Tuscany within the last 2 weeks, we couldn't pass up the chance to visit yet another premier wine neighborhood for some tastings  on Monday of this week.  The landscape in Stellenbosch wine country outside of Cape Town is very different from Tuscany, but just as beautiful.  And the wine tastes just as good, even if I can only discern the difference between a red wine and a white wine if my eyes are open!

 

And for you golf fans, a shot at Ernie Els' Winery

 
 

Hitting the Road

This morning we head off on what undoubtedly will be our biggest adventure - renting a car and driving on the wrong side of the road!  Melanie is definitely more nervous about this than the prospect of getting gored by a rhinoceros or bitten by a snake!

The last few days in Cape Town have been spectacular.  A huge shout out to our son, Ben, for all of his recommendations and connections.  It definitely would not have been such a great visit if we had tried to do this totally on our own.

So, to catch everybody up, here's what our last few days have been like:

Saturday:

We spent the morning at the Old Biscuit Mill, a huge craft and gourmet food market in Cape Town that is a hugely popular destination for both locals and tourists on Saturday mornings.  It puts Fanueil Hall and any other place we've been to shame, and we escaped with only 1 purchase (a Springbok pocketbook for Melanie), so I considered the visit a great success!

Next it was off for an afternoon at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.  Though the weather could have been nicer, the plantings and vistas were beautiful, and we certainly are more educated than we were about some of the native flora and fauna.

 

 Sunday was a very cool day - though one of the hardest to capture in pictures.  We went with Ben's old UCT roommate Moses, his friend Charles, and 7 of their closest Danish and Norwegian female friends to a place called Mzoli's out in one of the townships.  Its an open air restaurant with great music and a very cool vibe.  You go in, order a huge platter of grilled meats and then sit around eating and drinking for the entire day.  While the restaurant is in an incredibly poverty-stricken shanty town, the people couldn't be happier or friendlier.

We topped off the day with a luxury snack that was new to us:

We'll try to remember to bring some  bottles of monkey gland sauce home for your gourmet chefs to use in your favorite family recipes!