As I’ve said many times before, I had high expectations for Cape Town and now I can firmly state that the reality of Cape Town far surpassed those expectations and has undoubtedly been my favorite port thus far. I think it is now important to define “favorite” since I’ve been using that word a lot of over the course of the past three months. It should be pretty apparent from this blog (I hope) that each port and country is unique and virtually impossible to compare. Therefore “favorite” for the purpose of this blog and Semester at Sea experience, will be defined as the place I had the most fun, would want to live or study abroad in, and would be most dying to revisit. Let’s be honest- Cape Town is where it’s at.
We docked in Cape Town early Wednesday morning and once we were cleared by immigration, made our way off the ship to meet our Safari guide Quinton. The ship was docked at the V&N Waterfront, a gorgeous waterfront that was at the base of Cape Town and had a view of the entire city with Table Mountain in the background. I’m sure I will repeat this fact numerous times throughout my Cape Town story but Quinton was the man and made not only our safari experience but overall Cape Town experience unforgettable.
Quinton grew up in a well-off white family in South Africa during apartheid and as he said “had every advantage that could be given.” He tried to impress on us the cruelty of apartheid and the extreme inhumanity that occurred. One thing I definitely learned in South Africa is that Americans are way too politically correct. In South Africa it is completely normal to refer to people as white, colored, or black. Colored refers to light skin blacks or half-black, half-white citizens. I asked Quinton what I would have been recognized as during apartheid and he told me I would have been a question-mark. My skin color would label me as Colored but because I have a White person’s hair I could be considered White as well. Bottom line, he told me South Africa would not have been overly friendly to me during its recent history. It further dawned on me how ridiculous apartheid was. How could any sane person let alone an entire population that controlled the government think it’s humane to act his way? I understand the obvious comment would be to look at Nazi Germany or racial oppression in the US or Islamist Fundamentalists in the modern day Middle East but even with the long list of examples I still have not reached any clarity. You can’t understand insanity.
Moving on from questioning the countless ethical issues in the global communities, it is time to discuss the best safari ever. We (me, Jenny, Rachel, Brooke, Jeff, Dominique, and Arin) left Cape Town as soon as we met Quinton at the waterfront and headed to the Ivendoorn Game Reserve about two and a half hours away from the city in the Karoo Region. Along the way we stopped to take pictures of the view overlooking Cape Town and the town of Paarl as well as numerous baboons along the road. We arrived at Ivendoorn where we had lunch and pool time before the afternoon/sunset game drive. The safari lodge was awesome and isolated from any noticeable forms of civilization. At full capacity the lodge can only house forty guests and which meant the atmosphere was very subdued and relaxing.
It is important to mention that a game reserve is basically a fenced in zoo minus the cages and spread out over hundreds of acres. We were not in random wilderness in hopes of finding animals- we were more or less guaranteed to see animals (though the guides always explained that nothing is a guarantee). The reserve was divided into three sections: the lion reserve, the herbivore reserve, and the cheetah reserve. We first visited the lions. The reserve had three lions, a fact that made us all a little nervous and question the reputability of the safari. The lions were canned lions or lions that were caged as cubs and who never learned how to live in the wild. The reserve was meant to attempt to teach the lions the ways of the wild but more to take the lions out of the inhumane or “inlione” conditions they grew up in. It is impossible for canned lions to ever return to the wild and the whole sight was pretty sad. We finally found the lions- one male and two female but unfortunately they were not very active and partially camouflaged in the grass. My lion pictures are basically “where’s Waldo” pictures, the best of which you may be able to see a raised leg. I’m not going to lie, at this point I think we were all a little disappointed with the way things were starting out. The lions were the low point, and after all they were lions so it wasn’t really a low point, but regardless everything was uphill after that.
We made our way to the main reserve with the majority of the animals: kudu, water buffalo, springbok, eland, wildebeest, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, mongoose, zebra, etc. Not only did we see all these animals but we got really close to the majority of them. Seeing these animals, animals that you grow up hearing about and seeing in movies like the Lion King was unbelievable. I don’t think I can express how cool the safari actually was. The entire time I kept expecting for our guide to say “ok it’s time to go back” but instead she kept saying “ok it’s time to find the rhinos” or “let’s find us some zebras.” After seeing a couple of these animals I basically forgot about the rest and got so excited every time our guide said we were going to see an animal I forgot about.
After thinking the afternoon could not get any better our guide surprised us and took us to where the cheetahs were about to be fed. As I’ve said we were not in the real wilderness but rather in a game reserve where the workers try to give the carnivores the best life they can since they can’t fend for themselves in the actual wild. Three cheetahs approached a truck where two men were ready to feed them. After taking lots of pictures the men finally fed the cheetahs. Feeding consisted of throwing dead chickens at the cheetahs and having the cheetahs duke out which would get the food first. Our safari guide then took us to the other side of the cheetah reserve to watch towers where we were met with refreshment and drinks. We were able to see the cheetahs race each other. The game reserved mimicked a food chase to ensure that the cheetahs got their proper exercise. This entailed a mechanically controlled rodent looking thing running away from the cheetahs. The fastest land animal did not fail to impress- they were fast, really fast. It was an awesome way to end the day.
That night consisted of a five course meal in the lodge restaurant where we had a further opportunity to talk with Quinton. We literally stayed at the table for hours and just listened to Quinton tell us about his life and discuss our past three months. During dinner Quinton took us outside to watch the full moon rise and after dinner he took us out to see the stars. We walked outside the lodge premises and were pretty much in the open plains of Africa. Call me Simba. I literally felt like Simba when he gazed up at the stars while talking to dead Mufasa. The vastness of the universe, the stars, being away from civilization, and more importantly being in a grass plain in Africa was once in a lifetime.
We retired for the night in our “chalets” where Jenny and I decided to watch an episode of Glee on her laptop and pretty much passed out before the opening credits. The morning drive left at 6:30 and was cooler than the afternoon drive. The moon was still out while the sun was rising and the combination of the two was remarkable. We saw the animals making their way out to the watering hole to drink and eat their breakfasts. Though we basically saw the same animals we saw the night before we did get the opportunity to see the hippos for the first time. I’m not exactly sure why but for some reason I became obsessed and most excited about seeing giraffes right before I got to South Africa. Let me tell you- they are awesome, gorgeous, and the supermodels of the animal kingdom. I had been asking the guide for a while if I could get out of the car and take a picture with the giraffes and the obvious, given answer was “no” because she was unsure where the water buffaloes and the rhinos were. It was about an hour later when we passed six or seven giraffes that Wilma (the guide) surprised us and said, ok you can all get out of the vehicle, stay within one hundred yards and don’t be loud. I WAS STANDING TEN FEET AWAY FROM GIRAFFES! For a girl from Los Angeles this was possibly the most amazing and surreal thing ever. I was now certain that my safari experience was beyond complete.
We headed back to the lodge for a “hearty English breakfast” as the itinerary stated, and were given one more surprise. All of the guests (about twenty-five total) were told that we would have to remain in our seats and be very quiet because the animal workers were going to bring out the baby four month old cheetahs! The baby cheetahs came out on leashes and were literally being walked around the pool/breakfast area. Quinton, being the man that he is, told us to pretend like we finished eating and quietly follow him. He took us to the back area of the building where the cheetahs left to and we were than able to play with the cats. The two babies named Velvet and Shady were gorgeous and regal. Standing next to giraffes was cool but sitting down and petting baby cheetahs was cooler.
We left the lodge/reserve and still had a full day ahead of us that consisted of going to a wine estate in Stellenbosch for wine and cheese tasting and seeing the prison Nelson Mandela was freed from. Since we had gotten really close with Quinton by this part in the Safari we also arranged to meet his wife Abby and Abby’s niece who was living with them, Mulenga, later for drinks back at the waterfront.
The wine and cheese tasting was awesome. I obviously knowing nothing about wine but not having any problem drinking it was content. In all honesty I probably had more fun tasting the cheeses. We were served eight wines that were matched with eight cheeses. We were definitely enjoying ourselves and the whole experience because the wine and cheese tasting took a lot longer than it usually did. We had the option of buying wine and cheese which some of us did. This also meant that the wine had to be consumed prior to getting back to the ship since we were not allowed to take alcohol onboard. We left the wine estate in considerably happier and more light hearted moods than we arrived in. We proceeded to where Nelson appeared as a free man and stopped for a photo op.
The best safari and two days ended back at the waterfront where we met Quinton’s family. Quinton married Abby who he met in Zambia and brought back to Cape Town. Their niece Mulenga is living with them and finishing up the equivalent of high school in South Africa before all three of them move to Zambia. Abby and Mulenga were two of the nicest people I had ever met. According to Quinton “our enthusiasm is infectious” and we had a great time with his family. Brooke, Rachel, and Jenny had the opportunity to meet up with Quinton and Co. a couple more times while we were in Cape Town which I think shows how genuine and amazing him and his family are. I wish them all the best in starting their own business in Zambia!
As you can see the beginning of our Cape Town trip was incredible. Safari, playing with animals, wine tasting, meeting Quinton’s family- it was all awesome. The next portion of my Cape Town adventure will be referred to as The Anti-Bucket List Cape Town and Amanda Sussman. Also I would like to take this opportunity to apologize about my word usage (complimentary vs. complementary) and spelling (sedar not seder) mistakes. The purpose of family: to comment and call you to tell you about your inadequate writing abilities and not about the actual experience. Thanks Sam and Mom. Cape Town Blog Part II up next.
We docked in Cape Town early Wednesday morning and once we were cleared by immigration, made our way off the ship to meet our Safari guide Quinton. The ship was docked at the V&N Waterfront, a gorgeous waterfront that was at the base of Cape Town and had a view of the entire city with Table Mountain in the background. I’m sure I will repeat this fact numerous times throughout my Cape Town story but Quinton was the man and made not only our safari experience but overall Cape Town experience unforgettable.
Quinton grew up in a well-off white family in South Africa during apartheid and as he said “had every advantage that could be given.” He tried to impress on us the cruelty of apartheid and the extreme inhumanity that occurred. One thing I definitely learned in South Africa is that Americans are way too politically correct. In South Africa it is completely normal to refer to people as white, colored, or black. Colored refers to light skin blacks or half-black, half-white citizens. I asked Quinton what I would have been recognized as during apartheid and he told me I would have been a question-mark. My skin color would label me as Colored but because I have a White person’s hair I could be considered White as well. Bottom line, he told me South Africa would not have been overly friendly to me during its recent history. It further dawned on me how ridiculous apartheid was. How could any sane person let alone an entire population that controlled the government think it’s humane to act his way? I understand the obvious comment would be to look at Nazi Germany or racial oppression in the US or Islamist Fundamentalists in the modern day Middle East but even with the long list of examples I still have not reached any clarity. You can’t understand insanity.
Moving on from questioning the countless ethical issues in the global communities, it is time to discuss the best safari ever. We (me, Jenny, Rachel, Brooke, Jeff, Dominique, and Arin) left Cape Town as soon as we met Quinton at the waterfront and headed to the Ivendoorn Game Reserve about two and a half hours away from the city in the Karoo Region. Along the way we stopped to take pictures of the view overlooking Cape Town and the town of Paarl as well as numerous baboons along the road. We arrived at Ivendoorn where we had lunch and pool time before the afternoon/sunset game drive. The safari lodge was awesome and isolated from any noticeable forms of civilization. At full capacity the lodge can only house forty guests and which meant the atmosphere was very subdued and relaxing.
It is important to mention that a game reserve is basically a fenced in zoo minus the cages and spread out over hundreds of acres. We were not in random wilderness in hopes of finding animals- we were more or less guaranteed to see animals (though the guides always explained that nothing is a guarantee). The reserve was divided into three sections: the lion reserve, the herbivore reserve, and the cheetah reserve. We first visited the lions. The reserve had three lions, a fact that made us all a little nervous and question the reputability of the safari. The lions were canned lions or lions that were caged as cubs and who never learned how to live in the wild. The reserve was meant to attempt to teach the lions the ways of the wild but more to take the lions out of the inhumane or “inlione” conditions they grew up in. It is impossible for canned lions to ever return to the wild and the whole sight was pretty sad. We finally found the lions- one male and two female but unfortunately they were not very active and partially camouflaged in the grass. My lion pictures are basically “where’s Waldo” pictures, the best of which you may be able to see a raised leg. I’m not going to lie, at this point I think we were all a little disappointed with the way things were starting out. The lions were the low point, and after all they were lions so it wasn’t really a low point, but regardless everything was uphill after that.
We made our way to the main reserve with the majority of the animals: kudu, water buffalo, springbok, eland, wildebeest, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, mongoose, zebra, etc. Not only did we see all these animals but we got really close to the majority of them. Seeing these animals, animals that you grow up hearing about and seeing in movies like the Lion King was unbelievable. I don’t think I can express how cool the safari actually was. The entire time I kept expecting for our guide to say “ok it’s time to go back” but instead she kept saying “ok it’s time to find the rhinos” or “let’s find us some zebras.” After seeing a couple of these animals I basically forgot about the rest and got so excited every time our guide said we were going to see an animal I forgot about.
After thinking the afternoon could not get any better our guide surprised us and took us to where the cheetahs were about to be fed. As I’ve said we were not in the real wilderness but rather in a game reserve where the workers try to give the carnivores the best life they can since they can’t fend for themselves in the actual wild. Three cheetahs approached a truck where two men were ready to feed them. After taking lots of pictures the men finally fed the cheetahs. Feeding consisted of throwing dead chickens at the cheetahs and having the cheetahs duke out which would get the food first. Our safari guide then took us to the other side of the cheetah reserve to watch towers where we were met with refreshment and drinks. We were able to see the cheetahs race each other. The game reserved mimicked a food chase to ensure that the cheetahs got their proper exercise. This entailed a mechanically controlled rodent looking thing running away from the cheetahs. The fastest land animal did not fail to impress- they were fast, really fast. It was an awesome way to end the day.
That night consisted of a five course meal in the lodge restaurant where we had a further opportunity to talk with Quinton. We literally stayed at the table for hours and just listened to Quinton tell us about his life and discuss our past three months. During dinner Quinton took us outside to watch the full moon rise and after dinner he took us out to see the stars. We walked outside the lodge premises and were pretty much in the open plains of Africa. Call me Simba. I literally felt like Simba when he gazed up at the stars while talking to dead Mufasa. The vastness of the universe, the stars, being away from civilization, and more importantly being in a grass plain in Africa was once in a lifetime.
We retired for the night in our “chalets” where Jenny and I decided to watch an episode of Glee on her laptop and pretty much passed out before the opening credits. The morning drive left at 6:30 and was cooler than the afternoon drive. The moon was still out while the sun was rising and the combination of the two was remarkable. We saw the animals making their way out to the watering hole to drink and eat their breakfasts. Though we basically saw the same animals we saw the night before we did get the opportunity to see the hippos for the first time. I’m not exactly sure why but for some reason I became obsessed and most excited about seeing giraffes right before I got to South Africa. Let me tell you- they are awesome, gorgeous, and the supermodels of the animal kingdom. I had been asking the guide for a while if I could get out of the car and take a picture with the giraffes and the obvious, given answer was “no” because she was unsure where the water buffaloes and the rhinos were. It was about an hour later when we passed six or seven giraffes that Wilma (the guide) surprised us and said, ok you can all get out of the vehicle, stay within one hundred yards and don’t be loud. I WAS STANDING TEN FEET AWAY FROM GIRAFFES! For a girl from Los Angeles this was possibly the most amazing and surreal thing ever. I was now certain that my safari experience was beyond complete.
We headed back to the lodge for a “hearty English breakfast” as the itinerary stated, and were given one more surprise. All of the guests (about twenty-five total) were told that we would have to remain in our seats and be very quiet because the animal workers were going to bring out the baby four month old cheetahs! The baby cheetahs came out on leashes and were literally being walked around the pool/breakfast area. Quinton, being the man that he is, told us to pretend like we finished eating and quietly follow him. He took us to the back area of the building where the cheetahs left to and we were than able to play with the cats. The two babies named Velvet and Shady were gorgeous and regal. Standing next to giraffes was cool but sitting down and petting baby cheetahs was cooler.
We left the lodge/reserve and still had a full day ahead of us that consisted of going to a wine estate in Stellenbosch for wine and cheese tasting and seeing the prison Nelson Mandela was freed from. Since we had gotten really close with Quinton by this part in the Safari we also arranged to meet his wife Abby and Abby’s niece who was living with them, Mulenga, later for drinks back at the waterfront.
The wine and cheese tasting was awesome. I obviously knowing nothing about wine but not having any problem drinking it was content. In all honesty I probably had more fun tasting the cheeses. We were served eight wines that were matched with eight cheeses. We were definitely enjoying ourselves and the whole experience because the wine and cheese tasting took a lot longer than it usually did. We had the option of buying wine and cheese which some of us did. This also meant that the wine had to be consumed prior to getting back to the ship since we were not allowed to take alcohol onboard. We left the wine estate in considerably happier and more light hearted moods than we arrived in. We proceeded to where Nelson appeared as a free man and stopped for a photo op.
The best safari and two days ended back at the waterfront where we met Quinton’s family. Quinton married Abby who he met in Zambia and brought back to Cape Town. Their niece Mulenga is living with them and finishing up the equivalent of high school in South Africa before all three of them move to Zambia. Abby and Mulenga were two of the nicest people I had ever met. According to Quinton “our enthusiasm is infectious” and we had a great time with his family. Brooke, Rachel, and Jenny had the opportunity to meet up with Quinton and Co. a couple more times while we were in Cape Town which I think shows how genuine and amazing him and his family are. I wish them all the best in starting their own business in Zambia!
As you can see the beginning of our Cape Town trip was incredible. Safari, playing with animals, wine tasting, meeting Quinton’s family- it was all awesome. The next portion of my Cape Town adventure will be referred to as The Anti-Bucket List Cape Town and Amanda Sussman. Also I would like to take this opportunity to apologize about my word usage (complimentary vs. complementary) and spelling (sedar not seder) mistakes. The purpose of family: to comment and call you to tell you about your inadequate writing abilities and not about the actual experience. Thanks Sam and Mom. Cape Town Blog Part II up next.
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