This morning would be our final game drive of our excellent visit. Yesterday, we took the time to pack our bag, so we did not have to do it in the dark last night. We needed to keep the bag at 44 pounds for the flight today. With that job done, we were free to go this morning at 6am.
Our new safari mates, Nancy and Mike were already waiting at the lodge for their second drive. We think they had one more night here, before moving on to another camp. We all wondered if those 11 lions made a kill last night. Tinyko seemed to think they may have, but no reports had come in yet. He seemed to think that he could hear some lions roaring, but it was too far away to be sure.
We did hear the helmeted guinea fowl, as they are the first to wake up. They are much like chickens in their behavior. They are good with eating those small and large ants that run around the ground everywhere. They share the termites with the magpie shrikes, who were picking the insects off from the big mounds. These insects can be very active early in the morning before the heat hits.
Giraffes were walking up the road towards us. Our vehicle never seems to deter their path. At times, they will block the road, and we had to drive around them.
Off in the denser brush, a troupe of baboons were frolicking. Hard to get good photos, as there seemed to be a family of them with females, babies, and a couple of mean-looking males. There is not an over-abundance of them, but they may migrate out of here when their source of food is gone. That may be the berries and marula fruit that is a favorite of many animals.
Reports came in about a sighting of a cheetah with hyenas at the airport strip on the border. So off we dashed to find it. We passed a bus full of workers on their way to a large safari camp in Sabi Sands. They entered through the Shaw’s Gate, where they are searched. This occurs again when they leave the gate at night. We remember from past visits here that the workers are inspected to make sure there are no smugglers of illegal animal parts. It has been one way for the smugglers to get most valuable things out of the park. Sad, but these things still happen.
Anyway, once we hit the runway, we saw the hyena that had been tracking the cheetah. This was a young male cat, who was really skiddish. We followed him slowly, as he put some distance between him and the hyena. Once off the runway, he wandered over to a tree, and marked it with a strong spray of urine. Typical cat behavior, he saved some to spray another tree trunk. After that, he found a good spot to lay down. The entire time he watched 360 degrees for that hyena to appear, which it never did while we were here.
Our time was running out, so we headed back to Shaw’s Gate, passing some more animals and birds along the way. Our coffee stop was around 8am, and this is where we met with the other camp vehicle for an early ride back to camp with the family of four. All of us were leaving this morning.
Back at the lodge by 8:30am, Dale was waiting for us with his dogs. They were Rhodesian ridgebacks….all four of them. And all very friendly. We had to laugh when we saw the big male go right into the fountain and walk around like it was his private swimming pool for dogs. Why not? He was smart.
We finished the last of the packing, and headed off for our final breakfast. We ordered omelettes with bacon and toast, since we did not know what we would have to eat the rest of the day. Heaven knows, we would not die if we missed a meal, so we enjoyed this one.
Saying goodbye was hard, but we plan to come back in two years, God-willing. That is when the ship will do Africa once again in 2020. Although we had handed out the tips with thank you notes, Dale, the manager, was not present when we got into our jeep for the transfer to the Skukuza Airport. We had left camp and gone a few miles when we all heard a buzzing noise coming up the road behind us. Surprised, it was Dale who rushed out on his motorbike to say a proper goodbye. Shaking hands, we promised to be back, as we had another wonderful time here. He promised to pencil us in when we send him the dates we will be there.
This time we had a much shorter ride to the airport, but all on dirt roads. We were cutting across the game reserves to get there. Our flight to Cape Town was scheduled for 11:20am, and getting there by 10:15am was good enough. Actually, that was just right since it was a domestic flight, all in South Africa.
This airport has to be the smallest we have ever seen. It was basically three large huts….one for arrivals and one for departures, and a common check-in area with one small souvenir shop. At the counter, there was one desk and one scale. Of course our bag was right on at 43.50 pounds, and we were asked about our carryons. Instead of asking to weigh them, they simply looked at them, and said they were OK. These could have weighed 18 pounds, give or take a few ounces. As long as they fit in the overhead bin or under the front seat, they were acceptable. Once again, there was no charge for the bags.
The last step was going through the one xray check with our hand carrys. Our shoes could stay on our feet, but the jacket had to come off. Then we went to the waiting area, which was an open-air patio with picnic-like tables and stools. A very small cubbyhole cafe had refrigerated food and drinks for sale. Our tickets said lunch was served on the flight, so we figured that would be sufficient.
While we were waiting, four gals we knew from the ship arrived. They had been gone since the Seychelles, and had visited Victoria Falls, Chobe, and Kruger for the last 10 days. They had such a fabulous time, they were not looking forward to joining the ship again. Guess being younger, they feel that the community on the ship has been too elderly for them. Can’t say we blame them, because sometimes it does feel like a rest home. This has to be true for any long voyage on most other lines as well. Younger folks cannot miss that much time away from work.
This flight was in a commuter jet that seated 36 people. The actual air time was only a bit over two hours, which suited us fine. Time enough for a lunch of a chicken or vegetarian salad and a beverage, however. We love these South African Air flights that give you good food. Even had a dessert of chocolate candy. Flying over the area surrounding Cape Town was shocking. Looking down, all we saw was scorched-looking fields and rolling hills. Obviously suffering from lack of rain, we saw first-hand the stress from this drought. We have been hearing reports of this for a long time now, but seeing it really drove it home. California has had problems in recent years as well, but we don’t think it ever looked this bad. Several people at the camp had told us about their hotel stay in Cape Town. Nancy and Mike had said that the hotel asked them to take only 90 second showers, and only use the bathrooms facilities carefully. Sinks had very little water, as they were using restrictors on the valves. Public restrooms were either closed or had no water in the sinks. Hand sanitizer replaced soap and water. Good thing we were staying on the Amsterdam, where we can make our own water through the desalination process.
The landing was smooth as silk at about 1:30pm. Deplaning was right down to the tarmac, then into a waiting bus to the terminal. Within a few minutes, the luggage was spinning around the belt, and we were off and running. Since we had arranged and paid for a private car, we found our name on a driver’s ipad. In fact, a rep from the agency that we booked the trip was also present, asking us how everything went. We did have some communication issues prior to the trip, but that may have originated with our travel agent. We will sort that out later, and although it did not affect our actual travels, we are certain it won’t occur again in the future.
The limo had us back to the ship by 3pm, where we were greeted by many officers and staff members. They had lined up to welcome some visiting guests, and we happened to be right at the beginning of that receiving line. Hey, it worked for us. Also the new passengers were joining the cruise today, somewhere in the neighborhood of 37 newbies. About the same number of guests had left the ship.
Sure was good to be back “home”, but oh so sweet to come back with such fantastic memories of our recent safari. The two of us will be talking about the adventure with our best buddies and those who are really interested for the rest of the trip for sure. And of course, we will learn about all of the ship’s activities we missed while we were off in the savannah.
Today was the second full day the ship was docked in Cape Town, but we were exhausted, and never left the ship. We would have the better part of tomorrow to go exploring. So we took advantage of the rest of the afternoon unpacking, and sorting through the pile of mail for the last four days. We had been gifted with a bottle of wine - Haute Cabriere Chardonnay Pinot Noir 2016 from Franschhoek, South Africa. It was compliments of Orlando Ashford for missing the Mariner activities while we were gone overland. Specifically, we had missed the South African Springbok Festival. The bottle came bundled with colorful pieces of plastic tubing with an orchid in water among them. We would discover later what the tubing was all about.
In addition, we had two sets of Seattle’s Best candy bars for Easter gifts. And the nicest gifts were two crystal Waterford candy bowls, engraved with the HAL logo on them. Very nice keepsakes.
By the time we filled two laundry bags, and stashed our stuff away, the time had begun for the special award being given to Archbishop Tutu. We did peek into the lounge for a few minutes, but realized that this was way too crowded, and Tutu would not talk anyway. He had someone speaking for him. And we remembered this would be televised later on the TV, and that was a much better way to listen.
That’s when we found the use of the plastic tubes in several colors. They had been used as decoration, resembling fencing, on deck five. Each set of colors had matching strip lighting under them. Very colorful and inventive. Sitting in our favorite chairs across from the Ocean Bar, our best buddies joined us. They were quite happy to share ship info.
The dining room was not full, because when we are overnight in a port, people tend to go out to dinner. At 9:30pm, there was a local group performing in the Queen’s Lounge. We did duck n to watch part of the show, which was energetic and entertaining.
Even though we have thousands of photos to sort through, tomorrow would be another day. It will probably take us the better part of a week to catch up.
Bill & Mary Ann
Baby monkey looking for breakfast food
A bee-eater is most colorful
Female kudu
Cheetah was putting distance between him and the hyena
Where did all of this come from
Seems content
