Cape Town, South Africa Day #2
March 26, 2025
This day would mark our most anticipated tour and the halfway point in our cruise. Luckily, we woke to beautiful clear skies and great views of famous Table Mountain! We were destined to catch a bus at 9AM for a 2 ½ hour drive north to the Aquila Private Game Reserve. Because all the typical African animals have been hunted to near extinction in South Africa, it’s up to these private reserves to help educate people and hopefully reintroduce them. We knew going in that it wouldn’t be the adventure of the famous Kruger National Park, but that was a flight and several thousand dollars away, so we opted for something more accessible and admittedly a bit tamer.
Our drive began on one of the country’s beautiful motorways and it was at our halfway rest stop when the topography really started to change. The scenery was breathtaking as we wound our way through countless miles of steep verdant mountains with thousands of acres of vineyards. The grapes grown were about half for wine and the rest were table grapes, primarily of the “cotton candy” variety. (If you’ve never tried the cotton candy grape, they are delicious AND developed in Bakersfield, CA!)
It was easy to I see why all these farms and wineries might not want elephants, rhinos, springbok and wildebeest trampling around their vineyards. I guess these creatures are on reserves to stay. As for the rest of the surrounding scenery, as we got closer to the reserve I harkened back to the old Tarzan movies from the Saturday matinees at the Magnolia theater in the 60’s. It seemed that Tarzan was always going to, meeting someone at or avoiding “the escarpment”. As it turns out that was a very true to life depiction of South Africa because we must have passed dozens of massive escarpments on the way. The most famous being of course was Table Mountain.
We arrived at the busy private reserve and had a lovely lunch before being ushered onto our safari vehicles. Again, I’ll let the pictures tell the story, but the incredible memories will stay with us forever.
We reached the ship with not much time to spare before all aboard. We found South Africa absolutely breathtaking, but a somewhat confusing amalgam of cultures. It has certainly had its social challenges over the last 400 years and it didn’t appear to us that they will be solved anytime soon. We loved the time we spent in SA and would recommend the experience to anyone, but we won’t be in a hurry to return.
View of Table Mountain and Lions Head from the rear window of the bus
Mountains and vineyards for miles
Ostrich family
Male springbok that just got booted from the herd because he lost out to a bigger, tougher guy per the guide
White rhinos - Mom, 3 year old son and 3 month old baby. All wild rhinos are getting caught now, having their tusks cut off and re-released to save them from poaching
Mr. Tough Guy - not nearly as tough as he looks… We actually caught him as he’s about ready to yawn!
Two of the three Mrs. Lions. They are expecting cubs soon from one of them.
You can see the sharp contrast from our pals in Sri Lanka
Baboon. Apparently they wreak a lot of havoc for farmers
Another escarpment!
Back on the ship to sunset, Table Mountain and Lion’s Head. I don’t see the lion but I’ve determined I’m not very good at recognizing things I should supposedly see! ;)