H and I just got back from our second trip to South Africa and here is my obligatory AW thread! This is REALLY long! You've been warned!
Our flight was on Thursday morning, and we were so excited!
It was 15 hours from NYC to Johannesburg then a 4 hour layover and then a 2 hour flight from there to Cape Town. We were tried when we finally landed but it was worth it! We checked in at our hotel which was right by Long Street which is known for the shops, bars, and restaurants (perfect!).
It was chilly and rainy the whole time we were in Cape Town but we made the best of it! This is the view of Lion's Head from our first room's balcony (we had an issue with the shower and our room got changed the next day while we were out).
We headed to the V&A Waterfront for dinner (I wore one of my new StitchFix tops!) which was just ok. We ate at a place we went to on our HM and the food wasn't as good as we remembered. We had some drinks after dinner and then went to bed.
On Saturday, we took a cab to Woodstock which is a neighborhood in Cape Town. There were tons of shops and little stands set up. I got myself a gorgeous leather bag and a necklace that looks like it's just a silver bar but the top is cut out into the shape of Table Mountain. After shopping, we had lunch reservations at The Test Kitchen which was most recently ranked at # 28 on the list of the best restaurants in the world. It. Was. Amazing.
For the two courses where you chose between two options, H got one and I got the other so we could taste everything. In one of the dishes, there was goat's tongue which I can proudly say is delicious and tastes like bacon.
We headed back to town, passing by Table Mountain along the way:
We had drinks at a local pub and then a delicious meal at the hotel restaurant and went to bed early.
Sunday morning, we got picked up at 4:15am for our shark diving excursion. It was 2 hours to Gansbaai then about 20 minutes out on the boat. We saw 2 Great Whites from the boat. At this point, I was feeling a TINY bit queasy but figured I'd be fine once I got in the water so I suited up.
And hopped in. And within 15 minutes, I puked in the water then watched the fish eat it. Gross, I know. I felt ok at that point but H decided he'd had enough. We saw 0 sharks in the water and I followed him back onto the boat shortly after. I proceeded to be sick for the next 2 hours while we were out there. I have never felt so awful in my whole life and it wasn't even worth it! We finally got back to shore and headed back to Cape Town where we showered and then didn't leave our hotel room for the rest of the day/night.
On Monday, we did the Hop On/Hop Off Bus Tour. We did a different route than the one we did on our HM and we saw some great sights around Cape Town! We also visited the aquarium where I tried to sneak this guy into my bag to bring home for
@GoldenPenguin:
We went to lunch then headed to the spa at our hotel where we had a couples massage, I had a hot stone pedicure and H had an hour of reflexology. It was glorious (and so freaking cheap)! Once we were fully relaxed, we got cleaned up and then had dinner at our hotel and went out for drinks on Long Street.
On Tuesday, we had an early flight from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth and then had a transfer to the private game reserve. We checked in, were driven to our camp about 25 minutes deep in the bush, were shown to our room, and then had lunch in the lodge. After lunch, it was time for our first game drive. It was COLD and rainy but no fucks were given.
Typical day on a safari looks like this:
6am - Wake up
6:30am - Tea/Coffee, very light breakfast
7am - Morning game drive (3.5 hours)
11am - Brunch
-- shower, nap --
2:30pm - Lunch
4pm - Evening game drive (3 hours + sun-downers)
7:30pm - Dinner, drinks
9-10 - Bed
Things about our camp:
- It is IN the bush. Half of the camp is "protected' by a fence because they have children that can stay there but our room wasn't on that side and our ranger had to walk us to our door every night after dinner.
- One morning, my actual wake-up call was a lion roaring just outside of our camp. I sat straight up out of a sound sleep and it took me a minute to realize what I was hearing but it was amazing!
- The food is delicious and there is always SO much. We ate ostrich, kudu, springbok, and warthog among other (more normal) things. Everything was included and I thoroughly enjoyed wine with lunch and wine with dinner and wine with dessert. And wine basically all the time because it was so good.
- Each night, after returning from our drive, they had warm drinks waiting for us. My personal favorite was hot chocolate and Amarula and I brought home a giant bottle of Amarula.
Things that happened on game drives:
- We found the cheetah with a kill (impala)
- We got to see/listen to a male lion roaring in front of our eyes
- We watched a female lion trying to hunt zebras
- Because of all of the rain, our truck got stuck in the mud and then our rescuer also got stuck and we were stranded in the middle of the bush in the dark. It was scary.
- We saw a Serval which H referred (accidentally) to as a CERVIX. And I laughed so hard, I cried.
Attaching tons of pics from the game drives because it's faster and easier!
ETA: The Serval/cervix story I forgot and spelling is hard, yo.