Starting a 21 day tour from Cape Town to Victoria Falls, both Jeff and I Stefanie made sure our clients were well prepared for this journey and making it clear to them that the motto is actually fact: it’s not a holiday, it’s an adventure! But neither of us could have foreseen just how much this was about to come true on this tour.
The first day was for us to explore the Cape Peninsula and its beauty. Starting off with a scenic drive that passes Hout Bay, Chapman’s Peak Drive and then down the peninsula, we were lucky to come across a few different groups of Eland after entering the Cape of Good Hope National Park gate. Not always is one lucky to see one of these massive beasts but our clients would come across them multiple times in a very short time span! Other tour vehicles passed us without even seeing them … A must stop is at the famous sign of Cape of Good Hope but from far already we could see that the line to take a picture was surprisingly short compared to the amount of cars and busses that were parked. Not really knowing why, we were soon to find out when I opened the door to let the clients out and was almost blown away into the Atlantic Ocean by the force of the wind. It was unbelievable just how strong the wind was!! At times even making us loose our footing … This fact forced us to skip the walk from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Point as it goes on top of the cliffs and with this wind I was not risking to lose any clients on the first day to wind!! The weather apart from the strong wind was beautiful but even the African Penguins that we visited at Boulders Beach were not too happy about the conditions. Most of them would lie flat on their tummies with eyes closed in order to avoid sand corns from injuring their eyes. Some Penguins did go for a swim and it was quite amazing to see just how hard it was for them to come out of the water with the waves being so strong.
Our second day in the Cederberg proved to be another adventure with a hike up to the waterfall as the planned activity for the afternoon. From Algeria camp there was no waterfall visible so we were a bit worried that there might not be one and the hike can be quite challenging. But the lady at the reception promised there to be a little bit of a stream “just enough for beautiful pictures”, so off we went on a hike that would take up all our energy! Not only was the heat relentless on us but the walk gets steeper and steeper the more tired you get. The few breaks one takes in between to catch their breath in a bit of shade would become a test of whether or not to continue or give up. But Jeff and I knew what could potentially be waiting for us up there so we kept on encouraging everyone to keep walking if they still could. And everyone did! Once we did reach the waterfall, all the pain and sweat was forgotten and it was pure bliss as there was a wonderful cold natural pool waiting for us with fresh water coming down the waterfall, just as the lady said. Shoes, hats and shirts were off and we dipped in to cool down and filled our water bottles with the most amazing tasting fresh water. And a personal highlight was to find a Red Disa, the biggest of endemic orchids to South Africa and one of the rarest to find blooming in the stream of the waterfall!
So this tour continued with many unusual sightings such as green Namibia. Due to the amount of water that Namibia has received in the past few weeks, many areas were green and covered with grass. Flowers were giving the scenery beautiful colourful dots and some riverbeds were still wet from flowing a few days and weeks beforehand. Never have we seen the fairy circles around Brandberg in a setting as stunning as this time as they were surrounded by green and that much more visible because of the grass.
Seeing how green Namibia was, it was important to brief our clients about Etosha and what to expect or as Jeff would say, have “high hopes but low expectations”. Already we were informed about road closures and we prepared the people that game viewing might be very challenging. As with every game drive it is about luck and being at the right time at the right place. For me personally it is also about appreciating the small things in order to see the big things.
We left Brandberg and headed for Etosha, Okaukuejo camp where we would spend two nights in the park. The further north we drove, the greener the landscape became. After the gate formalities were done, we drove into the park and to the first waterhole only to discover just how muddy the road was, the gravel road passing the waterhole effectively closed and not a single animal apart from birds in sight. Huh … what a way to start. Off we drove towards camp so we could prepare lunch and on the way we came across two giraffes! And giraffes are always a lovely sight. Some Springbok and Oryx but mostly green, lush bush completed that drive to camp where we set up our tents and had lunch before going out on an afternoon game drive.
As many roads were closed one didn’t have a plethora of choices to do game drives but it seemed that luck was on our side when we chose to drive to Gemsbokvlakte, a waterhole that was great for afternoon drives. Apart from more Springbok and Oryx we also came across Ostrich and thanks to Jeff’s great eyesight, we saw two Black Rhinos in the distance! But then there was talks of a lion at Gemsbokvlakte and we tried our luck.
We were showed where to look and told that apparently one could only see the tail. Which we did like every three minutes or so. Not exactly a great sighting and after twenty minutes of waiting, all of us were ready to go look for other things. Jeff turned the truck around and everyone was still looking in the direction of the tail while slowly driving off when on the other side of the road two beasts appeared out of the bush! Big hairy cats, females … and another one, even bigger and hairier, a male!!! This was to become very interesting very quickly and we were parked in the best spot for this scene to unfold. These three lions obviously belonged to the tail and one of them did walk that direction. Not the second female as she was busy stalking a Springbok. Fast forward two minutes and the tail became a gorgeous male lion and with it were soon three cubs. Uhm what? Where did they hide?? Not only did we have lions now on every side of our truck but there was something different happening on each side, too!!! One female stalking, one female joining her three cubs, one male basking in the sun and the other male just looking pretty while approaching us.
The cars and tourist vehicles now were going crazy, trying to find the perfect spot for them to cross the road but again, luck was on our side and Jeff seemed to have a golden hand in picking the right spot for us. On top of the amazing unfolding scene was the sun setting creating beautiful light on these cats, absolutely perfect for pictures. The hunt didn’t go through but all the lions eventually did go to the waterhole for a drink and allowed everyone for some amazing, close photographs.
What an end to a fantastic game drive! Needless to say everyone was beyond happy to have seen as much as we did in such a short time.