Cape Town!!

Wow! What a way to end our trip!

I really was so sad to leave the bush and leave our game drives, but at the same time I was excited to see Cape Town with all the wonderful things I had heard about it! 

We traveled from Hoedspruit airport, which was the closet one to Kapama. As we were leaving Kapama we actually saw warthogs (totally forgot to mention those in my last post, but we LOVE them), giraffes and zebras... It was a pretty perfect send off. 

Anyways, it was a 2 1/2hr flight from Hoedspruit to Cape Town and flying into the city it was a beautiful, clear day and we were able to see Table Mountain perfectly! Our hotel is great and is close to the waterfront where there's shopping and restaurants galore!! We've taken full advantage of the free shuttle there on a daily basis!

Our first full day tour took us around the cape to Seal Island and Cape Good Hope - the most south westerly point in Africa. We had fun taking a small cable car up to the lighthouse of Cape Point and enjoyed seeing the ostriches along the way.  We were also able to learn a bit about the history of the area and even got to see the small African Penguins, which were a must see on my list!  We even visited Kirstenbosch gardens where we saw pincushion flowers and the Nelson Mandela flower variety of the Bird of Paradise! 

Our next day was a clear day and when it's a clear day in Cape Town, a trip up Table Mountain is a must see/do! It was beautiful but very windy! Mom kept pulling dad and I back from the edge where we were trying to get the best views! In trying to get a selfie, The wind almost knocked my iPod out of my hand!! So I had to do a two handed one!!! But the views were worth it! 

The following day was our full day wine tour! South Africa is known for its wonderful wine and we enjoyed traveling to 3 different areas to sample wines at 3 different wineries. It was a gloomy, cloudy, rainy day... Perfect for wineries!

We decided to take the hop on hop off bus the next day so we could see a bit more of Cape Town and visit a market for some shopping. We saw some beautiful scenery and enjoyed the shopping too!  Poor Dad was A good sport while we went in and out of many shops trying to find some unique things to take home :)

Now here we are waiting for our airport transfer to pick us up and I'm updating our last blog post from Africa! I'll write more of a reflection from home, but can't say enough how much we lived our adventure. The people we met from Africa were wonderful! They are welcoming, kind, helpful and so happy to have us here!! For many, we were the first Canadians they had ever met :) I honestly hope I'll be back one day to explore more parts of Africa!

All is good :)

Hello everyone!!

I've probably got a few of you worried since its been more than a few days since my last post! So sorry!

We are safely in Cape Town and loving it! But we were very sorry to leave the bush after an amazing 4 days at Kapama Private Game Reserve! It is located in the greater Kruger National Park area and you have the chance to see the Big 5!

Having now left the bush, it's giving me a chance to reflect on our time there. I have nothing but wonderful things to say and I can't wait to come back and do more safari-ing!! Our schedule was very busy! We had to get a wake up call at 5:30am, then we could go to a light breakfast at 6:00am and be ready at our safari vehicle for our morning game drive at 6:30am. This game drive lasted for about 3 hours. During that time we would get one morning tea/coffee break out in the bush. Once we returned, we would have a full breakfast.  Then we had a full lunch at 1:00. At 3:30 we could have snacks and tea/coffee and game drives started at 4:00 again! These ones lasted for 3 hours  also and when we returned we would have supper around the boma (fire) with our ranger, from 7:30 on. And everyday we did it again and again :)  It was full on and naps were needed in between for sure!

Each vehicle had a ranger and tracker with them. Our ranger was Edward and our tracker was Fanie. They were amazing!!! And while the leopard did elude us during the week, we saw tracks and they sure did their best to try and track them. We saw so many animals though and so many things! Almost everyday, we saw elephants, rhinos and lions!  We also consistently saw Cape Buffalo, impala, kudu, water bucks, so many birds, giraffes, zebras, hippos, wildebeest, nyala, vultures, and duikers. We also got to see crocodiles, steenboks (the smallest antelope in the area), the lesser bush baby, a white faced owl, jackals and even a python.  We even witnessed lions feeding on 2 different animals they had killed and came upon 1 animal they had just killed! I'm sure I've missed many animals we saw but there was just soooo much and everyday was a new adventure and I loved every single minute of it!!

This bull elephant was walking directly towards to me... Our vehicle was told not to move or make a sound as we were in the middle of the herd!

This elephant came up right beside Dad and our ranger, Edward.

Our first time seeing rhinos!!

Dad chatting with Edward around the boma.

You have to bundle up on the game drives.. Before the sun comes up and after the sun goes down... Brrrr!

Learning about the Marula tree.

Lion selfie!! This make lion was huge and beautiful!!! Our first lion sighting at Kapama!!

This male lion had just fed and could barely move he was so full!! We found the zebra later... But I won't post that post that pic as its a little graphic for the kids!!

So many lions! It was incredible!