Sea Day – Safari Review & Random Thoughts - April 5

Sea Day – Safari Review & Random Thoughts - April 5  

Cape Town was an embarkation port for around 150 new people replacing about the same number of people that got off there. We have traveled 11,603 Nautical Miles from Sydney to Cape Town.

It was too cool and windy for me to walk this morning, plus we had so much to do with unpacking from the safari and trying to get photos together and then prepare for our next 2 ports.

We played Bingo, but neither of us won. We went to the Pub Lunch since there was no special buffet listed upstairs and the dining room didn’t have anything that we had to have. Then we went upstairs to get dessert and saw it was an Oriental Buffet. We would have preferred that. ARGH!

Tonight, was a formal night which we skipped and ate at the Bistro upstairs. We did go to the Production show called Nations. It was one of my favorites so far.

Safari Thoughts:

First, I want to thank Tina for her recommendation. The Safari company was excellent. They were helpful and responsive. The Lodge was fabulous. It was in my top 3 choices and Tina’s recommendation swayed my decision. We were not disappointed in the lodge or the staff.

Second, Harriet and Charley are a super couple and sharing the experience with them just made the experience so much better.

I have to admit that I was very disappointed in the number of animals. Our first day was cloudy and gloomy and we would drive for quite a while without seeing something. Our ranger did say that you can’t compare a South African safari with an East African safari, since SA isn’t in the Great Migration route and doesn’t have the massive grasslands. I hope my disappointment didn’t taint Harriet and Charley’s experience. Greg and I said we couldn’t believe how devoid of animals the area was. In talking with Cathy who had done one in Kenya agreed that there was no comparison. (Tom & Cathy did one in Phinda near Durban with a group) She also said it was a fabulous experience and everyone loved it. We both agreed that if you want to see things in vast numbers do a safari in East Africa. To me it felt more like a “tick the box experience”. You could see the animals, just not very many of them. Everyone we talked to was very pleased with their experiences including the people that did the day safari through Princess. (that took them to kind of a “Lion Country Safari” experience)

Once I adjusted my attitude, I enjoyed it more. I realized that we would only see a few animals instead of the herds and herds of animals we saw in Tanzania. In my opinion, South Africa would be a great “first experience”.

The second day was better with more animal sightings, but still small numbers despite seeing a herd of Elephants and quite a few Rhino.

To be fair, we did see “the Big Five” in our short safari there so it was hard to complain. The Rhino gave us our final animal for “the Big Five” so we were very happy to have such great sightings. We of course saw the other 4 there as well. Plus, the food, service and accommodations were first rate. It was more of a safari lodge experience where in Tanzania it was more about the animals. (not that we didn’t have first rate food, service and lodging in Tanzania & Rwanda)

It was nice to have open vehicles (except when it was cool and raining) and the ability to go off road to get closer to the animals. (though in East Africa the animals were all around us and often blocking our road and we would have to wait until they moved to proceed.)

Also, to be fair, in Tanzania we booked a driver/guide that was just for the 2 of us. He also drove us between lodges as we followed the Migration route towards the Mara River. So, no one was blocking our view and we could set our hours for the game drives. We could stay as long as we wanted watching the animals’ behavior or watching birds, where in a group they have to try and please the whole group. We spent a lot of time searching for lions since 6 people had not seen any yet. One couple left the day before we found them. I was glad that the other couple and Charley & Harriet got to see the lions. We of course enjoyed them as well. It was the icing on the cake.

Our guide in Tanzania had worked for Nat Geo at one time and was older (he was also Masai) and Calton was very knowledgeable, but young and more of a jokester. Just different styles.

We enjoyed the small lodge experience which I think only had 10 Villas. With people staying varying length of nights there was an ebb and flow of new faces.

It was a different, but awesome experience and I’m glad we did it. There are still quite a few things we would like to see and do in Africa and we hope to take another trip in the future.

Tomorrow, we visit Luderitz, Namibia.