Just a reminder … we leave Cape Town this morning and head up to Botswana for six nights in three different camps. I don’t expect to have any internet connectivity for at least the next four days, so this blog will go silent until then. By that time, I should have a couple of thousand more pictures to go through 😉.

Later …

Today, our last day in Cape Town, started with a beautiful sunrise reflected in the clouds and the marina outside our hotel room.

Sunrise at Harborside, August

Our plan for the day was a was a drive down south from the city along the Cape Peninsula, which is largely covered by the Table Mountain National Park. There are a number of upscale suburban communities just south of Cape Town, with expensive high-rise apartments lining the Atlantic Coast. It reminded me of the south Florida shoreline.

There are a number of other communities scattered along the peninsula, ranging from off-the-grid towns to slums to former fishing villages.

The Cape of Good Hope is not the southern most point in Africa (as many believe), nor is it the point at which the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet (as many others believe). The former is a fixed point about 100 miles southeast of Good Hope, while the latter drifts with the currents and gets as far west at Cape Point, just half a mile around the bend from Good Hope. But Good Hope is the most southwestern point of Africa.

Cape of Good Hope from the lighthouse (Sally in purple jacket), August 2017

Nonetheless, the Cape of Good Hope is a well known landmark and quite impressive. There is a lighthouse on the hill above both Good Hope and Cape Point, which is cute but actually no longer used.

Unused light at Cape Point, August 2017

We took the cable-driven funicular from the parking lot and I walked the remaining way to the lighthouse itself.

Penguins in Simon’s Town, August 2017

On the way back north, we made three stops. The first was a penguin colony at Boulders Beach in Simon’s Town. They are cute. The most interesting fact about this colony is that it’s only existed here for 30 years, and no one seems to know why they came or where they came from.

We had lunch nearby, and then stopped at the Kirstenbosch Gardens, a large arboretum in the CapeTown suburbs. While the Gardens were nice, it’s still winter here and nothing will be in bloom for a month or more.

Now we’re packing for our trip to Botswana tomorrow. First stop: Jack’s Camp.

Today was our “city tour” of Cape Town, which was either a half day or full day tour depending on which document you believed. The truth was we got picked up at 9:30, deposited for lunch at 1:00, and our guide hung around until we finished around 2:45 to take us back to the hotel.

Table Mountain and Victoria & Alfred Harbourside, August 2017

In between we saw the sights of the city. Not terribly exciting, but interesting. And you learn a bit every day. For instance, we learned that South Africa has two capitals, Pretoria (the administrative seat) and Cape Town (the legislative seat). The President’s residence, a White House, is located here.

Muslim section, August 2017

We learned that there is a colorful Muslim section that has been intact for a couple of hundred years. The Muslim community, people whose ancestry was Indonesia and Malaysia, were brought to South Africa starting in the mid-17th century as slaves by the Dutch settlers. Slavery was ultimately abolished in the first half of the 19th century, before our Civil War. This group is known as “colored”, a term used to describe people who are neither white (of European decent) or black (of African decent). Under apartheid, colored people had a higher standing than blacks, but were still subject to oppressive rule.

The cannoneir and his cannon, August 2017

We learned that a canon has been fired every day at noon for hundreds of years as a navigation aid to sailors off the Cape, and heard it fired. It is loud. In fact, I never got the picture I was trying to take of the actual shot – smoke and recoil etc. – because the noise knocked my finger off the shutter button.

The Cape Wheel and Ferrymans Tavern at night, August 2017

We learned that, contrary to common wisdom in our country and what we had been told, there are areas in South Africa and specifically in and around Cape Town where it’s perfectly safe to walk around by yourself. Sally and I had long conversations about this before we left, mostly around how much, if any, jewelry she should wear, and whether I should wear a good watch or a Timex. We compromised on good watches, wedding bands and nothing else. But the Victoria & Alfred Harborside area is full of shops, shoppers, restaurants, a big Ferris wheel, and lots of people walking around. In fact, there is a huge shopping mall which has jewelry stores, proving the point that people here wear jewelry.

Security is maintained by private security guards employed by businesses who are both visible everywhere, and in plain clothes as well. I walked over for dinner tonight, and it was perfectly fine. Sally and I had already walked over there from the hotel two nights ago, and we walked back from the mall this afternoon.

Tomorrow will be our last day here, and our guide, Nic, is picking us up to drive down the coast towards the Cape of Good Hope. I don’t think we’ll actually go that far, but we shall see.

Ed. Note:  this was supposed to be posted yesterday, but I forgot.  

Well, not really sideways. But a very relaxing day and completely different from the last four – the biggest animal we saw was a duck. We woke up late (7:00am), showered and had breakfast in the dining room in our hotel, the Cape Grace here by the waterfront in Cape Town. Our guide Nic picked us up at 9:00am and we headed north to Cape Town’s wine country.

We spent the entire day – excepting 20 minutes or so getting out of, and into, town – in beautiful scenery. Vineyards surrounded by majestic mountains. What could be better?

Tourist stuff we didn’t buy, August 2017

We stopped a bit in a small and pretty town just to walk a bit. Nice shops, and some tourist shops, but also a fair amount of street art.

Art gallery, August 2017

After that, it was winery, winery, winery, fancy lunch, winery.

Sally ready to taste wine, August 2017

Landscaped garden at a winery, August 2017

Vineyard with mountains, August 2017

Lines, August 2017

View from our lunch stop, August 2017

After the action packed and adventure filled safari days, this was quite a change. And while there was no shortage of opportunities for wine or other beverages at Singita, four wine tastings – each with a selection of wines, and with nice portions – certainly led to a different outlook.

Dinner tonight at the restaurant in the hotel. I expect it to be nice.

This was our last day at Singita, and so our morning drive needed to be shorter than usual so we could leave to catch our 11:30 FedAir flight. While we flew right into Singita’s own airstrip a few yards from the lodge, it was undergoing repaving when we left and so we had to drive about 40 minutes to another airstrip to catch the flight to Nelspruit Kruger Airport, and then a scheduled South African Airways flight to Cape Town. So Mark arranged to be back by 9:00 to give us time to eat and finish packing.

Hippos relaxing in the Sand River, August, 2017

We really only had one animal sighting on the drive, but it was a doozy. The large lion pride was spotted along the river, and one group was watching them from the close side. Mark and Masa (our tracker) decided to cross to the river (we did see the hippos in the river while crossing) and watch from the other side. This was on a short drive from the lodge, especially as Mark rushed the Land Rover at top speed – maybe 20 mph – on the dirt tracks.

We crossed the river and we’re pulling down a track to a lookout point when some young adult lions ran across right in front of us, bringing us to a stop.

Pretty soon most of the pride had walked up to the track we were on, and were laying about, playing in a tree, or down on the dry river bed ahead of us.

We didn’t expect to see you here, August 2017

We sat for an hour and a half amidst the lions, with them walking around the vehicle close enough to touch, nuzzling and grooming each other and themselves, play fighting, and just sunning themselves.

Cats up a tree, August 2017

One highlight – which Sally and I had never experienced – was hearing the pride start roaring as a group, letting everyone and everything for miles around know they were there and they were strong. I managed to get video clips of this spectacle, which I haven’t been able to review yet.

I am lion, hear me roar, August 2017

Peering thru the leaves, August 2017

Brothers in the Sand, August 2017

Isn’t that what brothers do?, August 2017

Finally it was time to leave. We dashed back across the river to the lodge, where we packed up and ate breakfast in our room. Then a different guide and tracker drove us to our flight. Our luck held during this drive; we saw a leopard by the side of a pond. Unbelievable!

Masa, The Bassman, Sally and Mark

Breakfast in the room, then a 30 minute drive to an airstrip for a 30 minute, 1-stop flight to catch a scheduled flight to Cape Town.

FedAir, August 2017

Today was our second full day of game drives. Unlike yesterday, which was chilly and rainy at times, today started just overcast and much warmer. By mid-morning the Sun started to break through the clouds, although we still did not really see a sunrise.

We saw a lot of our old friends again today. At this point, after a couple of days of following the same animals around, you start to get a sense of their life and daily activities. We started by heading back to the first kill site we had seen early yesterday. On our way, we passed the pride of lions heading away from the site. That meant they had gorged themselves, and there was likely just bones and scraps left.

Lioness & Lion, August 2017

When we got there, the hyenas and vultures were scrapping over the bones, each taking a turn. The vultures sat in trees, then swooped down to pick at the remains. The hyenas were very cautious, as they knew the lions had just been there. Sixteen lions against nine hyenas is not a fair fight; the hyenas would be decimated. So they kept sniffing and looking to where the lions had gone, and finally started to chase off the vultures.

Vultures working the site, August 2017

Cautious hyenas, August 2017

After leaving that site, we went looking for the leopard (again). Along the way, we passed the elephant herd and Mark guessed they were headed for a water hole where Singita had an observation blind. So we went there and were rewarded by more than a dozen elephants stopping to drink and play a bit.

Drinking and playing, August 2017

The family that drinks together, August 2017

Somewhere along the way, we saw this large bull elephant. Not sure when.

No bull, August 2017

We also passed any number of other animals along the road during our drive. Here are three water buffalo resting in the grass.

The Three Amigos, August 2017

We did finally find the female leopard and her cub resting along the Sand River.

Mother leopard and cub, August 2017

We heard over the radio that the male leopard was walking further up the river, so we headed over there to see if we could catch a glimpse. When we got there, another truck was already there, and that guide told us that the leopard was deep in the brush and not visible. We parked and waited, and he came up from the river banks and posed for us. Then he tried to attack one of the baby elephants – our favorite herd had moved up here – which resulted in a lot of bellowing and stamping as the elephants gathered all the babies inside a defensive circle that the adults made. The leopard wisely gave up; while he might have injured one of the elephants, they probably would have killed him.

Leopard pose, August 2017

Trying to find an opening, August 2017

Much later, after seeing more elephants, hippos, rhinos, lions, endless impala, and who can remember what else, we ended the day with a traditional sundowner – drinks and snacks in the bush served by our guide and tracker.

We get up at 5:30 am again tomorrow for our last abbreviated game drive here in Singita. We need to leave the lodge to drive to a small runway about 40 minutes away, where we will catch a FedAir Unscheduled Charter to Mpumalanga, and then we’ll board a South African Airways flight to Cape Town.