Day 8

Can I just say again how awesome our hotel (Derwent House Boutique Hotel) is?  Today we had an early morning pickup (7am) for our whale watching trip and our hotel packed breakfasts to go for us!  We got granola bars, an apple, a pear, yogurt, and an orange juice box.  So very thoughtful!

It was a 2 hour drive to Gansbaai - where our boat launched.  Dave was able to stay up to enjoy the scenic drive but I dozed off for most of the drive.  When we arrived in Gansbaai, we checked into Dyer Island Cruises, were briefed about the trip, and got suited up.  Our boat, The Whale Whisperer was already in the water waiting for us (the tide was very low, so we had to get on the boat fast to launch safely).  The plan was to spend some time looking for whales, then head off to Dyer Island to see penguins and seals, and then check out some of the shark cage dives happening.

We sped off into the water and saw several flocks of Cape Cormorants.  One of the marine biologists on board said there were over 100,000 of them on Dyer Island.

It wasn't long before we came up to our first whale sighting - Southern Right Whale.  It was a mother and calf.

We also got pretty close to another whale and took these great shots of the tail and of it's "V" shaped blow.

At Dyer Island, we unfortunately did not see any penguins.  Our marine biologist told us that Dyer Island used to house an enormous colony of African Penguins.  In the late 1800's man settled the island to harvest the guano for agricultural purposes.  This unfortunately had an adverse affect on the penguin colony and drastically reduced their population.  Guano harvesting is no longer allowed and the island is now a nature reserve.

Just south of Dyer island is Geyser Rock.  On Geyser Rock we were able to see the large colony of Cape Fur Seals that live there.  It was amazing to see all of them on land as well as in the water.

We then made our way to a shark cage to see if we could see any sharks.  As luck would have it, there was one shark.  We tried to get a picture of it, but it's very hard to see it through the water (bottom right of the second picture below).

Dyer Island Cruise from Yvonne Chan on Vimeo.

Tomorrow we're off to Robben Island and Table Mountain!

Day 7

After waking up every morning at 5am for game drives at Kapama, we were finally able to sleep in till 8am this morning.  Waking up to the view from our room was a treat.

We decided that we would go down to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront today to explore and have lunch.  The walk took almost an hour but it was mostly downhill so it was pretty easy.  The harbour is beautiful and very picturesque.

We took a 30 minute harbour boat tour which gave us some great views of the harbour from the water (including seals!) as well as a bit of history of some of the buildings.

We had lunch at a Belgian restaurant: Mussels and Lobster Bisque - yum!

By the time we started walking back, we could see a cloud starting to roll over Table Mountain - the locals call it a table cloth.  When we got to our room (an hour up hill!), the top of the mountain was completely covered - pretty spectacular!

Tomorrow we go whale watching :)

Day 6

Our last game drive proved to be a very exciting one!  We started out looking for elephants and found them, but they were too far into the bush for us to get near them.

A little way up the road, we stopped for coffee and then received a radio call that the 4 lionesses that we were tracking the other night were spotted.  We quickly ended our coffee break and started off in the direction.  When we got to the spot, we saw 3 giraffe running across a field - we couldn't see because of the grass, but apparently a lion was chasing them!  Then suddenly we saw a warthog run past us into the bush at lightning speed and shortly after it, we saw a lion disappear into the bush!  We drove around bush area and found the lion with it's warthog kill.  It was pretty amazing to see.

Since this was our last game drive with our ranger, John, and tracker, Stanley at the River Lodge, we snapped a quick pic with them.

We flew out of Hoedspruit and into Joburg and then caught a connecting to Cape Town.  The descent into Cape Town was a beautiful sight.  We were able to see Table Mountain from above and could also see the coast.  Unfortunately our camera started acting up just after our game drive, so I wasn't able to get any pictures.  Maybe on the way out though...

We were picked up at the airport by our hotel, Derwent House Boutique Hotel.  It was pretty neat to see someone holding up a sign with out names on it :)

When we checked into the hotel, we were pleased to find that they upgraded us to a larger suite at no extra cost b/c we were on our honeymoon!  Yay!  I fiddled with the camera in our room and was able to get it working again.

Tomorrow we explore Cape Town!

Day 5

It was a spectacular morning as we were lucky to wake up to a herd of Nyala grazing just outside our balcony window.

During the game drive, our tracker spotted a Leopard in the distance.  He tried to position the jeep in a way so that we could all get a look at it but ended up getting the jeep stuck on a rock.

We eventually got loose and continued our drive (the Leopard ended up running away because we probably scared it off with all the noise we were making).  We came upon a baby rhino with it's mother.  Our ranger said the baby was about 8 - 9 months old.

We also found the two Lions we saw the other day with the half eaten warthog carcass.  You could see from the male lion's belly that they probably finished off that warthog :)

On our way back to the lodge, we came across some giraffe and snapped some pics.

Back at our room we found a warthog grazing outside our balcony!

Just after lunch, I had some time to go back to the spa to see if the Hippo was still there.  Lucky me it was!  I also took some pics of the spa.

On our evening game drive we saw a male leopard as well as the lions that we spotted earlier.

Tomorrow morning will be our last game drive then we're off to Cape Town!

Day 4

This morning began super early!  We got a wakeup call at 5:00 am for our 6:30 am morning game drive.  After last nights thrilling leopard chase, we weren't sure if today could top it.  Right away though, our tracker found a herd of elephants.  We pretty much drove through the herd - they were all around us.  REALLY CLOSE!  Dave and I sat in the front row of the vehicle yesterday and thought today we would try the very back row - so we were super close to these elephants.  It was pretty crazy!  There were a few baby elephants in the herd, so I wasn't sure if they would become aggressively protective of them or not.  Luckily, they were pretty calm and didn't mind us getting so close.

We also saw a Zebra and male waterbucks.  Apparently the running joke with the male waterbuck is that they sat on a toilet with wet paint :)

Further into the reserve, we came upon a large herd of water buffalo near a water hole.  There were so many of them!  We got pretty close to them so were were able to snap a few good shots of them.

We stopped at another watering hole that was empty and got out to stretch our legs.  Our tracker Colin, guided us around the watering hole and showed us how to identify different animal tracks.

We came across a few warthogs as well.  Thomas said it was very rare to catch them looking at you because most of the time by the time you take the picture - they are running away from you!  Luckily Dave was quick to take the pictures!

This would be our last game drive with Thomas and Colin so we quickly took a picture with them before leaving for our next camp - The River Lodge.

The River Lodge is a completely different experience.  It's definitely more luxurious and hotel-y.  The room is absolutely gorgeous and no bugs, frogs, lizards, or cobras in the room - YAY!  It does feel a little less cozy though.  Back at the Buffalo Camp, there were really only a few groups there so everyone hung out and chatted with each other.  Here at the River Lodge - everyone pretty much keeps to themselves.

Right after check-in, Dave and I made our way to the Wellness Centre where we had our couples massage.  It was amazing!  We had our massage in a room that had floor to ceiling windows with a view of a watering hole with a Hippo in it!  Too bad we didn't have our camera with us…


Our evening drive with our new ranger, John, gave us our first sighting of a White Rhino.  We got pretty close to it - it was huge!  We also drove around for quite some time tracking a pack of 4 lionesses - unfortunately, we could not find them.  Here's a pic of the Rhino though!

Tomorrow morning, we have another morning game drive ... so off to bed!