The Rainbow Nation

South Africa

Port #11: Cape Town. March 31-April 4

                I woke up just after sunrise to get breakfast as we were pulling into port.  What a beautiful view of Table Mountain; only a few miles away it towered over our ship.  Tons of seals were swimming in the harbor, while others lied on docks sunbathing.  It was a great first impression of Cape Town. 

                Before getting off the ship that morning I went to the Union to listen to Linda Biehl speak about her daughter Amy.   Linda was visiting her foundation in South Africa and we managed to catch her on her last day here.  She told us why her daughter chose to study in South Africa many years ago and the reason for Amy’s death in 1993 which was because of the violence during the apartheid.  I was too young when this occurred to remember so it was interesting for me to learn about.  I am sure most of you know what happened, but Amy offered to drive a friend home to their township and when she got to the township she was stoned and stabbed to death by four men. They were caught and convicted.  Amy’s parents pardoned their release in 1998 and set up the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust, asking two of her daughter’s murders to work at the foundation.  The parents not only forgave the men, but took them into their home and had them to work for them every day at the foundation.  Now they are helping to empower youth and discourage violence instead of creating violence of their own in the streets of South Africa.

                We were cleared to leave the ship but I stuck around the next hour to pack for my trip.  At 11 I left for my 3-day safari trip with Semester at Sea’ers to Kariega Game Reserve.   We took an hour flight to Port Elizabeth, which is east of Cape Town.  The plane we flew on was very small.  Semester at Sea took up almost every seat, but there was also a family of four from South Africa.  I fell in love with the two little boys and was trying to play with them on the way to the plane.  I started talking to their mom, explaining what Semester at Sea is and a little about myself.  After our plane flight she came up to me and gave me her business card.  She said that I could contact her anytime if I had questions, even though she was going on vacation that week for the holidays.  She was really nice.  Made me feel good. It was a nice first impression of the people in South Africa.  (I ended up emailing Ingrid, asking her for help with my global studies sustainability project. She seemed happy to hear from me.)   So then we drove 2 hours inland.  The reserve was beautiful.  Semester at Sea always “hooks us up” with the best hotels, best restaurants, etc. on the trips.  This place was really nice.  We stayed in chalets instead of a hotel.  Each chalet had three bathrooms and 3-4 bedrooms with either two twin beds or a king size bed in each room.  There was also a kitchen with a dining room and a living room with comfortable couches and a TV with cable! It was a house to vacation in.  Our chalet had a pool and a hammock outback with a porch that overlooked the basin of the reserve. It was beautiful.  I felt weird living there for three days with four college students.  It seemed like a nice vacation place I would stay at with my family.  One day… So all thirty-five of us Semester at Sea’ers took up most of the chalets. But the chalets were spread so far apart for privacy that it was difficult to visit my friends.  It was a mile between my chalet 1 and my good friend’s chalet 15.  And at night they advised us not to walk from chalet to chalet because the rhinos were free to wonder around that area as well.  That would be a lovely surprise in the darkness in the middle of nowhere, to run into a rhino… haha.  On a clear night the stars were magnificent.  The stars were brighter and bigger than anywhere I have ever seen before.  One of my favorite moments during the safari was coming back from a drive we took at sunset.  It was pitch black except for our jeep’s headlights, and all of us were staring up at the stars while belting out singing “In the Jungle” and Lion King.  It was awesome.  I was on a high of happiness all three days, even at 5:30am each morning as we got into the jeeps after only a few hours of sleep.  I almost fell out of the jeep once and even then I think I would have the biggest smile on my face, I was so happy the entire time during this trip. 

                The evening we got there we signed a liability paper and then immediately jumped into the jeeps for a game drive during sunset. It was just a quick ride but we saw zebras and rhinos, and then a giraffe at night.  We came back in the dark and went to dinner.  Best meal I had had in a long time!  Smorgasbord of different kinds of meats, vegetables, fruits, breads, other side dishes and desserts. That night I went back to my chalet and went to sleep right away. I was exhausted and we had to wake up at 5 the next morning. 

                The jeep came by at 6am to pick us up for another game drive.  It was very cold and sprinkling most of the ride.  Since the jeep was topless they gave us ponchos to wear. The sight of the animals made you forget about being cold and wet.  After a few hours of driving around we came back for breakfast, which again was delicious! I left each meal in pain from eating too much.  It’s funny, whenever we get a good meal, especially at buffets, we feel like we must take full advantage of it because we never know when we will get another good meal.  Never on ship, that’s for sure. 

                Later we went on a hike.  We got to see the smaller creatures that live on the reserve and footprints of the large animals.  Not too many animals came near us because they are scared of us.  They are comfortable with the trucks, but when we are walking around, they get scared of the shape of our bodies. So unfortunately we didn’t get to pet any lions on the hike. Haha.  Later that night we had another drive around and this time we got to see every kind of animal. It was really exciting!!! We saw eight hippos in the river. I was able to film one opening its huge mouth, showing all of its teeth! Also, our jeep came within feet of lions.  We weren’t supposed to get that close, but the lions are rare to see so our ranger seized the opportunity and drove our jeep right up to them.  Two males, two females, and four baby cubs five feet away.  It was awesome.  Other animals we saw were impalas, springbuck, elephant, wildebeest, water buffalo, zebras, rhinos, warthogs, and giraffes.  Only other important animal which we couldn’t see were leopards. Those are rare to find on this game reserve. The giraffes were probably my favorite.  They were casually walking next to, in front of, or following behind the jeep as we were driving.  At one point we saw four of them frolicking near us.  I swear it looked like they were playing tag.  Whatever they were doing, they sure look funny when they run!  Awkward is probably a good word to describe their frolicking.  Their long legs make them look as if they are running in slow motion; I love it! 

                The next morning we woke up early once again but this time to go on a river boat through the reserve.  It was really nice and relaxing; however, there wasn’t much to see because both banks were covered with trees.  So pretty much it was an hour long bird watching session which after ten minutes I have enough of.  But I really enjoyed floating down the river.  It was peaceful and beautiful scenery and weather.  We left Kariega later that day and took our plane flight back to Cape Town. 

                That night I went out with a group of friends to Long Street which is a popular strip of restaurants, shops, and bars.  We found a great Mexican restaurant! My first bite of Mexican since the beginning of January.  Wasn’t the same as southern California Mexican but it tasted amazing none the less!

                The next day I went with Lauren, Danielle, Nicole, Victoria, Alex and Chris to go wine tasting through the wine lands.  South Africa is known for their wine so we figured we’d have to try some.  The first winery we went to was called Spier.  It was big.  It had two restaurants, shops, attractions and the winery and wine lands. We had lunch there which was cool because there was live performance and a lady came to our table to put white face paint on our foreheads.  (So when you see pictures of me, that is what the white lines on my forehead are…) From there we went to see what I am calling “the attractions” because I didn’t want to give the surprise away.  They had an area where you could [pay to] interact with eagles and leopards.  So of course I hung out with the leopards!  Alex and I were escorted into one of the cages while Danielle, Lauren and Nicole went in another cage.  Our leopard was named Pedro. We knelt down behind him and petted him, but he got antsy and sat up, which meant we had to jump up right away and back off.  I was amazed at how long their bodies are.  So long and slender! So they allowed us to crouch down again behind Pedro and pet his back.  But then Pedro stood up, so we had to leave.  I got some really good pictures of Pedro and I which I am very excited about!!

                So now we come to my last day in South Africa.  A day which I would like to forget, and here is why… It was my last day in South Africa and I had decided to make reservations long before this port to go shark diving with great whites. Something I was extremely looking forward to; however I was sad because of my safari and wine tasting trips, I still hadn’t gotten to tour Cape Town. But none the less I was ecstatic to go shark diving because c’mon, how many times are you in South Africa with best friends willing to ‘swim with sharks’? Not like I can do that with my parents the next time we go to South Africa. Or maybe…? ;) So… I went to bed at 4am, and had to be ON the bus at 5am that morning. Mistake #1. Then we drove 2 hours to God knows where to go shark diving.  We get there and go up to a room and they have us sign the release forms incase the sharks got hungry while we were playing with them. Then we went down to the beach and got ready to get onto the boats and our instructor said those awful words, “I’m sorry to tell you this but we can’t go out today”. Um, excuse me? So, there I sat with confused Sally, pissed Becca, and Lauren almost in tears. I thought it was a joke, as if South Africa partook in April fool’s day.  But unfortunately, he wasn’t kidding. So… we got back into our small closter phobic bus and drove 3 hours back to Cape Town. What did I learn from this experience? Not to get my hopes up, because your dreams can be snatched away from you in 2 seconds.  At least I was able to get some seriously shopping in once I got back.  I had just enough time before ‘on ship time’ that I could get my brother and my matching soccer jerseys for the world cup J

                The winds ended up being so bad that they closed down the port right before we were supposed to leave.  So we were stuck in Cape Town for an extra 24 hours BUT were not allowed to get off the ship.  We acted like it was a day at sea and had classes. What a tease. At least it was a pretty view from our classroom windows. We finally left and were able to make it to Ghana in time, despite the delay. After all, we are on the fastest….passenger ship? I don’t know, Steven you can tell them.

                I loved South Africa!  This is difficult to say but probably my favorite port so far.  I really really really am sad I didn’t have more time there.  Im sure I didn’t even get to see ¼ of what is offered. I wish I could come back for the World Cup, but that is too soon of a trip back.  I will need to save up my money first.  Hopefully I can go back with my family sometime.  I want them to see how much South Africa has to offer.