South Africa

Our first day in Cape Town Andrew and I woke up at 5:30 am along with half of the students to go up to the deck to see our ship arrive in port and watch the sun rise. It was beautiful watching the sun shine on Table Mountain above the buildings of the city that morning. At 10:00 we finally departed the ship and a few of us made our way into the city and after walking around a bit we decided to take a cab up to table mountain. Once we arrived we were told that the cable car was closed due to strong winds and since some in our group were wearing sandals we decided not to hike it.
Later that afternoon a group of 8 of us went on a township tour. We got in a van with our tour guide and drove about 20 minutes from downtown Cape Town into a local township. Our first stop we made was to a community center where they host workshops and different activities for groups in the township. About 4 blocks from the community center a group of around 10 children waved and chased us in the van and a girl asked if we could stop to play with the children. Once we stopped the van and got out, in a matter of less than a minute the group of children grew from 10 to almost 50. They came out from everywhere and jumped up on us, grabbing our hands and shirts. They were absolutely fascinated when we took pictures of them and then showed them the picture on our camera. After playing with the kids for about 15 minutes we got back in the van and went to a sheebaa, where local men gather to socialize and drink beer. We had to walk down a muddy ally to get there, skipping over puddles and passing men drinking and smoking on chairs around makeshift tables. We ducked into a small shack no bigger than our bedrooms at home and sat in benches in a semi circle. Our guide explained to us the history of sheebaas in the townships and about the beer that they brew in them. The only lady in the room proceeded to dip a metal bucket into a trash can filled with the home made brew and set it in the middle of the circle. The guide grabbed the bucket and drank the first sip out of it and then passed it to his left. After 3 of the old men had taken drinks, it was our turn to pass it around. The “beer” tasted like butter, pennies, and urine. After reluctantly finishing the bucket, we left the sheebaa and walked to an open butcher market where they roasted and sold sheep heads. The sight of stacks of bloody sheep heads effectively shocked and horrified some of the girls in our group. We then hopped back into the van and went to the local witch doctor. The witch doctor worked out of a garage filled with every voodoo nic nac you could imagine. He was fat and wore a rabbit skinned hat and talked in a half-retarded gibberish. It was so funny talking to him that I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing out loud a couple of times. When we left the witch doctor it was already dark, and we headed to Vicky’s Bed and Breakfast to eat dinner. Vicky ran a bed and breakfast out of her home with her five children, and served us lamb and an assortment of vegetables. After we ate, her youngest children entertained us for about 30 minutes by singing Alicia Keys songs and some tribal and hymn songs.
The next morning at 6:30 am we met with our Safari group and left to go to the airport for our 1 hour flight to Port Elisabeth, followed by an hour drive to Kariega Game Reserve. That morning the ship provided breakfast in a box, which consisted of some kind of meat and cheese sandwich, a chicken wing, a hard boiled egg, and Oreo’s. Who does that? Anyways once we got to the Safari, we were assigned our cabins which were very nice. Every person got their own bedroom and each cabin had a living room, full kitchen, and some had their own pools. However, Andrew and I noticed that the accommodations were not at the River Lodge, which was how the trip had been sold to us and the whole reason I brought my fly fishing rod. We voiced our complaints to the trip leader as well as the travel agency representative and the next day we all got a $350 refund. That afternoon we had a 3 hour game drive, during which of the Big Five we saw Elephants, and White Rhinos. The vehicles they took us around in were open air, and seated 9 people, but never had that many. The following day we had a morning game drive and an afternoon game drive. In the morning we saw Hippo’s, Buffalo, and White Rhino’s. Then that afternoon within 10 minutes of our game drive we came right upon a male Lion resting in the shade. As we watched him from no more than 50 feet away, another male Lion made his was over from far in front of us and came about 10 feet away from the vehicle. Andrew was sitting up in shotgun, and from where I was in the back it looked as if Andrew could just reach out and touch him. Once he passed us he walked over to the other male Lion, and then proceeded to take a 5 minute dump with a grimacing look on his face- I think the Giraffe bones were hard to digest. That next morning after another early game drive, we left and headed back for Cape Town that afternoon.
The next morning we woke up at 9:00 and a group of 12 of us went on a 2 hour bus ride to go diving for Great White Sharks. When we got there they briefed us and we went out to sea on a boat with the crew and 6 guys from the German Navy. It was a 15 minute ride to where the Great White’s were and once we arrived it wasn’t more than 2 minutes before we saw our first Great White’s swimming around the boat. I was one of four people in the second group to get in the cage. They gave us wet suits and water goggles and threw us in the freezing water. The way it worked was they would bait a hook on a rope with a piece of a dead fish on it, and when they shark came up to the bait they would quickly pull it in, until it was right in front of your cage. The shark would swim up less than foot away from us, grab the bait and thrash around. While I was in there the sharks tail fin hit and shook the cage right in front of me. I could have reached out and touched him if I wanted to, but I like my hands just the way they are. The waves that day were rough and five of the people on our boat got sea sick and threw up, including one of the German sailors.
When we arrived back in Cape Town that evening we rushed to take a shower and get ready to eat dinner. We got a taxi ride 30 minutes away to a restaurant called Moyo. Part of the restaurant was situated up in a tree house, and the atmosphere was really fun. There we ate some of the animals we had seen on the safari, Kudu, Springbuck, and Ostrich, and we enjoyed Cuban cigars.
The last day I woke up early to go grocery shopping for snacks to have on the ship and to walk around the market. In the grocery store the only brand I could recognize was lays, so all I bought a bunch of Pringles and beef jerky. A few of us didn’t feel like going on any big trips outside of Cape Town that day so we walked around and went to the aquarium and played mini golf before heading back to the ship by 7.